Donald Trump is refusing to produce documents demanded–subpoenaed–by Congress, and has instructed members of his administration not to comply with orders to testify to Congressional committees.
If this isn’t a constitutional crisis, the term has no meaning.
As several sources have reminded us, Article 3 of the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon asserted that the President
… has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. The subpoenaed papers and things were deemed necessary by the Committee in order to resolve by direct evidence fundamental, factual questions relating to Presidential direction, knowledge or approval of actions demonstrated by other evidence to be substantial grounds for impeachment of the President. In refusing to produce these papers and things Richard M. Nixon, substituting his judgment as to what materials were necessary for the inquiry, interposed the powers of the Presidency against the the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.
As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo reports,
The White House isn’t doing the standard tussling with Congress about oversight: some stonewalling, some negotiation, taking some questions of privilege to court. It’s more accurately characterized as massive resistance. The Congress has a constitutionally mandated responsibility to oversee the executive branch. They are flatly refusing to comply with ordinary document production and testimonial requests across the board. It’s not a difference of degree but of kind. In itself it is an impeachment worthy refusal to follow the constitutionally mandated framework of American government. It’s up to Democrats to make this clear.
Here’s the very simple bottom line: If a President can refuse to comply with the demands of a Congressional oversight committee–part of a co-equal branch of government– America no longer has checks and balances or the rule of law.
Checks and balances and the rule of law are the very foundation of the American constitution. Governmental legitimacy is defined as adherence to that government’s legal framework–in our case, the constitution. Trump’s defiance is thus evidence of his administration’s lack of legitimacy.
If the Senate, under the control of Mitch McConnell (aka the most evil man in America), fails to stand up for the prerogatives of the Congress, history–assuming we survive to have a history–will brand them traitors. Their first duty is to protect the Constitution and the Separation of Powers; the crisis Trump is precipitating requires them to stop cowering in fear of Trump’s ignorant, rabid base and discharge their obligation to protect America.
(Speaking of ignorance, Trump has said he’ll fight any effort to impeach him by taking the matter to his buddies on the Supreme Court–once again demonstrating his utter cluelessness about constitutional processes and American governance.)
It’s hard to argue with Josh Marshall’s analysis of the current impasse.
But as much as anything else this is a political conflict: how to bring to heel a lawless President. The big error I see so far is that these joustings are being treated as legitimate legal processes which must be allowed to work their way through conventional processes and the courts. That’s not right and it gives the President free rein to try to run out the clock on any sort of oversight. Democrats need to find a language for the political debate that makes clear these are not tedious legal processes which will run their course. They are active cover-ups and law breaking, ones that confirm the President’s bad acting status and add to his and his top advisors legal vulnerability.
There is no hope for Trump; the man is aggressively stupid, proudly ignorant and quite obviously mentally ill (and those are his better qualities!) He is a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The only question that still remains open is: how many Republican Senators are genuine patriots and how many are self-serving cowards? We’re about to find out.
For those who go to sleep and wake thinking, we live in a Democracy and NOT ruled by Oligarchs from the TOP DOWN:
“Here’s the very simple bottom line: If a President can refuse to comply with the demands of a Congressional oversight committee–part of a co-equal branch of government– America no longer has checks and balances or the rule of law.”
Trump’s first act as president was one of hatred and denial of freedom of religion by denying entry into this country for those whose approval and arrangements for homes and jobs were to be denied upon arrival. His ignorance of democracy and refusal to accept this country’s Rule of Law and repeatedly breaking his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America immediately became his campaign foundation for the 2020 presidential election. The situation in this country has deteriorated from his first act to what we now face daily.
We have been living a Major Crisis since January 20, 2017; the time to act is long past. Will the old adage “Better late than never.” hold true or is it already too late to rid our government of Trump, Pence, Barr, McConnell, Bannon and their terminal cancer which continues to eat away at our government, moving us closer to becoming one of those “shit hole” countries Trump referred to?
Can there be a recovery from our national shame?
“..aggressively stupid, proudly ignorant and quite obviously mentally ill ..”
Sadly, That describes the current Republican legislators as well as the president
This could end badly
It’s more than clear he’s needed a counsel on what he can or can’t do. It might hide some. Aspects of Dunning Kruger described that he exemplifies as well as direct him on how to better fund certain parts of the government as needed.
Impeachment has always been seen as a political tool to render one unable to continue in their office forcing them to resign or change the direction of leadership. Clinton’s impeachment hurt the Republicans and that’s what Trump is banking on.
He’s trying to embolden his base. He’s forcing the hand of the Democrat Congress.
He’s been described as being autistic from his childhood they his business dealing to how he reacts to things in his presidency.. he’s the one child in the classroom trying to direct attention to himself.
If you don’t have checks and balances and oversight capabilities that can be enforced, then we have no Constitution; we have a dictatorship, and it is time to quit pretending otherwise because we are fearful of being seen as invading the prerogatives of the executive branch. It is time to put up or shut up for our Constitution and the Separation of Powers clause therein contained or meekly submit as “Good Germans” to the avarice of a lunatic and the loss of our democracy.
What to do? Jail those who do not show up as subpoenaed. Initiate impeachment proceedings. Refuse to fund Trump’s initiatives designed to “deconstruct our administrative state.” Call out Senate Republicans as “Good Germans” who are standing mute in apparent agreement with Herr Trump’s dictatorial designs. In short, call the lunatic’s bluff, and if this be constitutional war to save our democracy, so be it. If this is D-Day in protecting our democracy, then let the war begin, since nothing is more important than its continuation – and expansion.
I have been in favor of Pelosi’s view that we stall impeachment proceedings while securing more post-Mueller evidence to support such proceedings, but in consideration of Trump’s openly unconstitutional grab of power in telling subpoenaed witnesses not to appear in plain contravention of the Constitution, I hereby recant and think we should not shrink from our duty to immediately file such articles, jail those who do not show etc. We can (and have) passed several bills in the House which McConnell will not allow to come to a vote in the Senate, so the argument that we cannot maintain impeachment proceedings and take care of ordinary legislative business can be seen as a cover for inaction, which history will not forgive.
I understand Pelosi’s political calculus, but with these new developments I think that we do not have the luxury of delay since the lunatic is coming full bore for destruction of our democracy, which must be defended at all costs. If Trump is successful in his dictatorial designs and becomes the dictator, then it won’t matter what the evidence shows. As for the McConnell-led Senate vote, let them decide whether to be “Good Germans” or defenders of our hard won and blood soaked democracy. Marv was right and I was wrong; it’s time to quit talking about how we are going to resist – and resist in real time. Now.
I said what I needed to say about this in my comment of April 25th. Now I’ll say what I want to say. Since the Constitution so narrowly defines treason, these actions cannot be considered treason. However, that does not mean that this is not an attempt to overthrow our government by the Republican party. This is a dangerous time and Democrats have to be like Sam Ervin in the 70s. Start the process to get a court order and send the marshals to arrest everyone they have subpoenaed.
BTW, I don’t think the Republicans can count of their Scotus majority on these issues, because it seems that John Roberts is very concerned about his legacy. To join his pals in the House and Senate would cement it as traitorous.
“If you don’t have checks and balances and oversight capabilities that can be enforced, then we have no Constitution; we have a dictatorship, and it is time to quit pretending otherwise because we are fearful of being seen as invading the prerogatives of the executive branch.”
Gerald’s statement above is a reminder that “those checks and balances and oversight capabilities” are in the hands of our elected officials in the House of Representatives and the Senate whose responsibility is to control the action of the Executive Division. I keep up with local and national news, especially political news during these dire days; I learned yesterday via an E-mail from a local candidate that Indiana has a primary election in about TEN DAYS. I have seen nothing on the news, on Facebook, no yard signs and received no political flyers in my mail. I checked with my son and daughter-in-law who also begin and end their days with local and national news and the political situation; they have seen and received nothing so were surprised to learn of the primary election on May 7th.
My granddaughter and her husband visited yesterday from Carmel, IN, which gave me the opportunity to ask them the same question. Granted; Indianapolis is a far cry from Carmel but there is much public political activity going on there; in their newspapers, local news, yard signs and receiving flyers in their mail.
How can we maintain a strong hold on “those checks and balances and oversight capabilities” if we don’t even know there is a primary election or who is running? No wonder we are dealing with a major crisis which should have been declared a Constitutional emergency two years ago.
This is highly note worthy:
Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano kept up his relentless criticism of President Trump this week — calling the president’s behavior as described in the Mueller Report “immoral,” “criminal,” “defenseless” and “condemnable.”
“If he (Trump) had ordered his aides to violate federal law to save a human life or to preserve human freedom, he would at least have a moral defense to his behavior,” he added. “But ordering them to break federal law to save him from the consequences of his own behavior, that is immoral, that is criminal, that is defenseless, that is condemnable.”
“Depending on how you look at them, there might be enough to prosecute, but the attorney general has decided it’s not enough to prosecute,” Napolitano said. “But it did show a venal, amoral, deceptive Donald Trump, instructing his aides to lie and willing to help them do so. That’s not good in the president of the United States.”
https://www.thewrap.com/fox-news-andrew-napolitano-calls-trump-behavior-immoral-criminal-defenseless-and-condemnable/
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Last month, Napolitano penned an oped claiming that Mueller concluded that Trump had obstructed justice. The Judge wrote:
Obstruction is a rare crime that is rarely completed. Stated differently, that obstructor need not succeed to be charged with obstruction. That’s because the statute itself prohibits attempting to impede or interfere with any government proceeding for a corrupt or self serving purpose.”
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The House needs to carry out what legal remedies they have to produce the subpoenaed documents and compel members of his administration to testify – ASAP.
Impeachment is going no where since the Senate is still in Republican hands. Do not expect them the Republican Senators to do what is right for the Country.
I think that Democrats are very fortunate to have Nancy Pelosi on board, a steady experienced hand in navigating both political and legislative waters. She demonstrates the opposite of one of Trumps large and obvious faults, lack of experience in any aspect of government.
I trust her to act strategically, not emotionally for she is also the opposite of Mitch McConnell, the most evil man in America.
2018 was the election year when we found that we could move from tactical panic to rational strategies. Democrats demonstrated enough power and sufficient support of the electorate to run the carpetbaggers out of town.
Of course we had the sufficient support of the electorate in 2016 too if we had been more alert to the Trump/Putin partnership.
Marvelous exposure of our bare ass King.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/28/politics/white-house-correspondents-dinner-ron-chernow-speech/index.html
If there are no checks and balances none of us is safe from a tyrannical government. I too am convinced that Congress, with the full and open support of good citizens, now begin impeachment proceedings. The obstacle to this rests with a population that talks tough but quickly reverts to its sports watching, booze drinking, marijuana smoking, indifference to all things requiring critical thinking.
Totally agree: “Here’s the very simple bottom line: If a President can refuse to comply with the demands of a Congressional oversight committee–part of a co-equal branch of government– America no longer has checks and balances or the rule of law.” Definitely is an impeachable action, but will Congress be brave enough to do the right thing? McConnell won’t and will obstruct all efforts to do so.
And thanks JoAnn Green for mentioning the primary election here in Indiana on May 7th, as I didn’t realize it. Have seen nothing about a primary election coming up. But then, most State news we get in southern Indiana in from Louisville, KY, and there are rarely Democrats on the ballot for local general elections here, let alone competition in the primary.
How many divisions does the House of Representatives have?
Trump brags that if anybody gives him any lip, he’ll send “his” military, “his” police, and “his” biker gangs to destroy them. “Very fine people”, as he calls them. He brags that he’s going to “lock up” his political opponents. He tells his supporters to be “very rough” with anyone who disagrees with them. He publicly accuses anyone who fails to applaud his speeches loudly enough of “treason”. Likewise for anyone who asks any question about his personal financial or legal embarrassments, attempts to enforce any limit on the dictatorial powers he asserts, or questions his cozy ties to hostile dictators who fund his private businesses and whose interests he defends over those of the United States. He’s told his supporters that a free press is the “enemy of the people”. He has stated that he will accept the results of elections only if he wins. He and his cronies in the Senate have twisted and bent every rule in the book to pack the judiciary, from top to bottom, with hyperpartisan lickspittles who will rule whichever way The Party wants them to rule on any given case, regardless of law, precedent, or fact.
Does this sound like a Constitutionally limited President who intends to yield power peacefully to election results, term limits, or a legal impeachment process?
If orders start to come down for “his police, his military, his biker gangs” to impose his will through violence, by disrupting or nullifying an election, by arresting the political opposition or clearing the streets of protestors, by silencing “enemies of the people”, by doxxing and attacking identifiable individual critics and opponents, with the President publicly announcing that they will be pardoned for crimes committed in his service, and a judiciary packed with yes-men supporting his every move, will they follow those orders? And if they do, who will oppose them?
Gerald,
“Marv was right and I was wrong; it’s time to quit talking about how we are going to resist – and resist in real time. Now.”
You weren’t wrong. But, we do have to organize RIGHT NOW into an EFFECTIVE COUNTERVAILING FORCE.
Ultimately, if there is to be an answer it will found through partisan politics, but not now. The Democratic Party is no match. It couldn’t be any clearer.
Now, It will have to be a PRO-DEMOCRACY “THIRD FORCE.” That’s what the Tea Party was and still is.
There is no other way for us to regain any semblance of CONSTITUTIONAL EQUILIBRIUM.
No doubt, it will take a miracle, at this point in time.
To a total outsider (me) this seems to be a continuation of obstruction by this kremlin annex and shows their utter contempt for the rule of laws for themselves.
If Dems in Congress fail to impeach the orange ass, there is no hope for this Nation to survive. Once Nixon was allowed to escape, wingnuts have ramped up the law breaking in every administration since.
This is the kind of stuff one gets for disagreeing with the right-wing extremists. They already think they have power over the lives of those who disagree with them . Their ignorance, fear and hate are profound. The writer is a retired FBI agent who has gone off the deep end for fascism.
On Apr 27, 2019, at 5:38 PM, Holtslag wrote:
“VT,
You are the gift that keeps on giving. I know that I’m in good shape when you denigrate me and my friends who are actually patriots and have done things for our country.
You don’t even deserve citizenship, much less do something other than run your mouth. If I was czar, you would be stripped of it and thrown in the gulag. Your are a very poor member of our country. I’m turning over your name to our leader. You know him as the ‘orange hairball’. That should be punishable by death. I will speak in your defense and try to get you a life sentence instead. After all we both don’t have many more years, me with my war injuries, and you with your ”know it all mouth”.
Why don’t you go to N. Korea, take a warm shower with Un and ‘suck up’ to him. He’ll probably ignore your advances and throw your sorry ass out and you can present him with one of your ‘snowflakes’ cards I made for you. Then you can try Sweden, Finland, Cuba, Argentina and other places like them that you want us to be. I told you it ain’t gonna happen here, ….so you might as well crawl back under your Rocky Mountain Rock and hide until the orange hairball is out of office in another five years. Then you can start all over spewing you socialist/commie bullshit. Maybe the new bunch of millenniums will take over then. Perish the thought and I hope I won’t live to see it!
According to AOC, I’ll be soon be dead anyway………….AOC DONE NOTHING”
I’d said more, but you get the idea.
Gerald,
Why don’t you join me at the ETHICAL FORUM NETWORK? You’ll be my candidate for President.
There’s little time left.
If somehow we are able to unseat Trump, how can we be sure that we do not at the same time elevate Pence to POTUS?
Is the election of 2020 the only certain way to be rid of both of them?
Have you noticed Pence is hanging low while Trump keeps on embarrassing us ?
Marv – Thanks for the invite to join the Ethical Forum Network. I’m interested. Thanks also for choosing me to be president, but as someone once said, “I’d rather be right than president.” I fear also that, like Trump, I would be inclined to represent my base and ignore his, when I know that a president should represent all the people (as I struggled to be neutral when sitting as special or pro tem judge), so (in addition to age) I’m one of the few Democrats who is not running for president in 2020. I presume that you are a Democrat and are thus running, right? (Or should I say left?)
2020. I admit to certain biases but deny that such prejudices
I am in mea culpa mode once again, so strike the last sentence in my response to Marv, beginning with 2020, which belongs in another piece. GES
By the way, the Ethical Forum Network is not a blog, but an unbeatable, “Third Force” opponent to Donald Trump and his “Third Force” Republican supporters.
We have two armies now, Democrat and Republican. As Republicans are that for emotional rather than informed and rational reasons they will remain where they are despite any evidence and argument the contrary.
So formation of a third army would be at the expense of Democrats, our only hope for recovery.
For Demented Donald, the notion of stepping down peacefully following an ignominious loss is inconceivable. If he were to lose, he would explain it as the result of dirty tricks – all of them illegal – by his enemies (not his opponents). Foreseeing this eventuality, I think he is most likely to precipitate a war with Iran and then suspend the 2020 elections, with nearly full support from the Senate, while the invasion morphs into a never-ending slog a la Afghanistan. I would love to be wrong on this point because I have three grandsons that Trump would sacrifice without compunction to further his own ambition and power. However, nothing I have observed or heard from Sheila and her blog commentators since late 2016 indicates that such a scenario is unlikely. Once you have repudiated the rule of law and denied its applicability to you personally, all things are possible by way of a putsch, a coup, or a conniption fit supported by the Secretary of Defense. Would Trump show more respect for election laws than for the rule of law? That seems unlikely to me.
Gerald,
The Ethical Forum Network is about communicating POLITICAL TRUTH NOW. It’s not about running for office. But, it is all about PREVISION and WARNING INTELLIGENCE, which has been impossible to communicate until now, “just before the floor is about to collapse.”
As you know, I’ve been warning about Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the past four years that I’ve been a contributor to this blog. Dees is backed by the Anti-Defamation League, which in turn is backed by the Likud Party in Israel.
No doubt, the American Jews are in a “double bind.” But valuable intelligence is being compromised because of all of this. This “potential perfidy” must stop now.
I’m not now and never have been in a “double bind.” For the record, I have represented the interest of American Jews, The State of Israel, as well as, Palestinians and other minorities as a practicing attorney.
I haven’t given up on democracy, not yet at least. I know you haven’t either.
Thank you Sheila, as always,
Most unfortunately, I think we’re already in a very serious and destructive crisis. I think Todd is also on to something in his description of the current state of our representative government. We have elected officials that have, more or less, abandoned any notions of working for the benefit of their constituents on a regular basis and also have lost sight of what their roles are as legislators at the national level. While it’s very easy to see that this is happened on the Republican side of the equation it also is becoming more and more obvious on the Democratic side as well.
Boiling it down to brass tacks we have people in elected positions that see everything that they are supposed to do or need to do through only the lens of being reelected and keeping their deep pocket donors happy and working for those big donors that are stiffing the American people on a daily basis as big Pharma is. The damage this is doing doesn’t really seem to matter to matter. They all end up, perhaps with the exception of a very few on the Democratic side, cozying up to the financial elite class and what they have in mind for us and helping to keep their stockholders happy so they can get their big yearly bonuses and stock options.
As much as I hate to say it, or key it, we no longer have a government that is responsive to the needs of the people that elected it nor do those that staff it seem to have any real, tangible, inclination to do what all of us know, in variations, what needs to be done to make our form of governance once again effective. The do nothing of any substance to finally come to grips with the glaring inequities that have been present for generation that all revolve around wealth and largess. We have people that talk very good games about it but all it ends up being is talk.
Add to that the fact that we’re all in loggerheads in trying to find a pathway that would make sense and also hold true to the traditional values that this country was built upon. That situation has also been affected seriously by external actors, i.e., the GRU and FSB, that add to the growing incoherence at play where we meander from roadblock to roadblock seemingly making progress and then having it canceled out by actions that are contrary to what our Founding Fathers had in mind in terms of the form of democracy and just plain old good sense. We know what this country is supposed to be, we know about our core documents to at least some degree and hopefully also remember what we recite over and over when we say our pledge of allegiance while we also realize that so much of what is laid out in that pledge has yet to materialize.
Thanks to the goofball that we have in the White House and all his lackeys in the Congress and the Senate, as well as the glaring incoherence of the main opposition party in regard to what it wants to do in achieving these goals, we are now at grave risk of losing sight of not only all those traditional goals and aspirations but any semblance of control of where the heck is country is headed. We are so split politically and ideologically with a level of disagreement akin to that of a Civil War skirmish line where we only fire volley after volley at each other and lose sight of the fact that we are, first of all, all Americans and that we all share a stake in running this country. Collaboration and compromise, words that seem to be obscene words in many circles right now, are really the only way out of this mess as it always has been when this country has reinvented itself time and time again. We are still that same country and we ALL share responsibility in keeping this country safe and on the right track for all Americans regardless of who we are, our socioeconomic status and where we all came from.
In essence we need to adhere to the things and words that have always been a hallmark of this country that countless Americans have fought and died for to preserve, and not lose sight of the fact that we are the ones that will ultimately be responsible for fixing this utter mess that we’re in. No one can do it but us. The sad reality show that the Presidency has become under its current occupant has to be ended and this reckless abandonment of all our Constitutional and governmental norms has to also be ended. The safeguards that were written into the Constitution have to be adhered to and add anything or anyone works against at needs to be excised from the process. We just can’t look upon this mess and grouse about this and that along with the latest horror stories we see multiple times a day and do nothing. We have to stand up for our own country and do so for ourselves, our families, and the generations to come.
I have three great nephews that are both under the age of two years old. I want them to have an America that is a viable entity that is making progress on every front every day to make our lives better and to also help those around the world that are aspiring to the same goals. This is been our legacy, at least our stated legacy, since at least the end of the Second World War. We cannot allow this country to slide any further downhill than it already has over the preceding two years. I don’t want to be overly dramatic but we are on the very precipice of disaster right now, not tomorrow or next week or next month or next year but right now.
We depend on democracy for freedom. Only when a majority of us can hire who governs when we are satisfied and fire them when we aren’t can we be said to be in charge of our fate.
What we are going through now is a pseudo democracy wherein political forces here and abroad have usurped the ability of the majority to hire and fire who governs.
Perhaps we’ve caught the problem in time to fire the causes of this threat.
Tom,
Ditto.
Terry,
“For Demented Donald, the notion of stepping down peacefully following an ignominious loss is inconceivable. If he were to lose, he would explain it as the result of dirty tricks – all of them illegal – by his enemies (not his opponents). Foreseeing this eventuality, I think he is most likely to precipitate a war with Iran and then suspend the 2020 elections, with nearly full support from the Senate, while the invasion morphs into a never-ending slog a la Afghanistan.”
The fear you have, so well, set out is similar to that expressed by many Americans, during the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, the white-supremacist from Tennessee, in the event that he would lose.
Democracy can only survive if the people want it.
All one has to do to observe the dangerous climate in our country is to glance over comments to various news stories. A Yahoo news feed described a situation at a bookstore in Washington D.C. where white nationalists shouted, “This land is our land,” interrupting a scheduled talk by Jonathan Metzl, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University who released his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland” this spring.
I shake in my shoes just reading the various and reactions and responses. Sometimes I just want to crawl in a hole and hope this all goes away soon. But it won’t until the wretched behavior of this administration is called out by any republicans who have a backbone.
I am sadly reminded of the movie “Strictly Ballroom”, where near the end of the movie the father yells to his son to continue to be a rebel shouting “We lived our lives in fear”.
The movie had a happy ending, but will we?
Everyone is so cowed by the bullies. The “mainstream media” dutifully reports “both sides”, as if a Trump/Giuliani/Sanders lie should have equal weight to the truth. It took a long time for even “liberal” news commentators to use the word “liar”. People kept pretending (hoping) that Trump would change after the election without any reason to believe he would.
For all that I admire Nancy Pelosi as a shrewd and seasoned leader, the Democrats in general are living in fear of myths and shadows. Clinton was impeached for lying about having sex in the White House, as if that had never happened — and as if the Republicans were chaste individuals. This President makes Nixon look good, but Democrats are still afraid to act.
Ordinarily, I would side with the “go slow” argument, but with the total defiance demonstrated by this President, it now becomes both a matter of principle and precedent. If Trump can get away with this, some future President may do worse. We are no longer outraged by the outrageous. At some point, the House must say “Enough” — even if the craven Republican Senators won’t act.
I lived in Illinois for a number of years. The route from Springfield to Terra Haute was well traveled by former Governors. Sadly, I also suspect that no charges will be leveled against Trump, his family, or his administration (assuming a 2020 regime change) for fear of looking partisan.
All in all, Democrats can and should move forward on three fronts simultaneously: begin impeachment hearings (and the idea of jailing obstructors sounds good), continue to enact new legislation that would help the American people, and find the best candidates to beat Trump or Pence and to sweep Congress.
This congress is in an obstruction movement against our entire agenda! We the people(majority) will
Never allow an impeachment to be carried out!
Theresa — “The obstacle to this rests with a population that talks tough but quickly reverts to its sports watching, CONCERT GOING, MUSIC LISTENING, booze drinking, marijuana smoking, indifference to all things requiring critical thinking.” — Capitalized emphasis is my addition, and necessary to make this statement more complete and wholly truthful.
Oh please spare yourself and others from the blathering pros thought of as insightfull. The progressives and established powers within DC are terrified of the populous. Let you in on a secret that is in plain sight of our founding documents, that being our form of government was not intended for a ruling class to govern the reat of us. Do your term, get out and live by the same laws that are impacted upon the masses.
Pete — “We have two armies now, Democrat and Republican.”
No, Pete; according to Jeremy Scahill’s book BLACKWATER, in the US we have over 300 armies…and they are for hire. To date, all are employed by republican/conservative institutions and pledge their allegiance to alt-right causes. They total over 400 thousand professional soldiers, have navy, air force and intelligence gathering capabilities, and they are organized with armories, training facilities and an established chain of command. They have an additional one million trained soldiers in reserve and on their on-call list.
The coup — and the cleansing — is well on its way. We progressives are facing a holocaust…and yet, we will not fight. I suppose we will eventually turn to drawing straws to determine who among us executes the rest and then himself or herself, just as Middle-East pre-20th century Jews did.