After January 20, there is only one way

[MineralMan]

to remove Donald Trump from office: Impeachment and conviction by Congress.

I see many people calling for some sort of nullification of the recent election. That is impossible, frankly, and is just a pipe dream. Only impeachment and conviction can get him out of office.

Is that possible? It is, but is also highly unlikely to occur, since Republicans control both houses of Congress and since conviction in the Senate would require a 2/3 majority vote.

Sadly, that is the consequence of what happened on November 8. Our Constitution has no provisions for any other way of removing a President, once he or she takes office. We missed our chance in November, and missed it by only a tiny fraction of the vote in three states.

Every election has consequences. The time to think about that is before the election, not afterwards. Truly, the only hope we have is to look forward to the elections in 2018. And we should be doing that constantly, trying to remove Republicans from control of at least one house of Congress.

Doing or hoping for anything else is a waste of time at this point.

Sorry for the reality...

[marybourg]

1. Yep. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

2. So many just do not get it.

[MineralMan]

6. Even not, many do not get it.

I'm not sure why we're still arguing about it. It bodes ill for the future, frankly.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. So true.

So many folks have said,let someone else worry about it,it does not affect me. Yah,right! Clueless minions.

[bowens43]

3. I agree completely. The mid-term elections are our only hope

[Blue Shoes]

4. The Republicans have already shown their true colors.

They don't care about the USA. They only care for their corporate benefactors. If Donald Trump tows that line, they'll never impeach him.

[MineralMan]

5. They've been showing those colors for years.

Some of us weren't paying attention, it seems. We failed to act to prevent this. So, either we finally learn the lesson or we do not.

Will we win in 2018? I don't know, frankly.

[RKP5637]

7. And then we have Pence, not sure that's an improvement ... n/t

[MineralMan]

10. That would NOT be an improvement.

You're right. More consequences of our disunity. The lesson is that we must be unified if we are going to win. It's very simple.

Each of us must become an advocate for Democrats in our own communities, districts and states. We must become the campaign. We must become avid GOTV activists, wherever we live.

So, you're right. Even if Trump were to be removed from office, we'd have Pence as President. He's worse than Trump in some ways, because he's an arch-conservative.

We lost, and now can do nothing about it until the next election. At the federal level, that's in 2018. For other offices, there will also be an election in 2017. That's where we should be looking and working. And it should start now. No amount of bickering over the outcome in 2016 will have any effect at all.

[RKP5637]

12. Extremely well said!!! n/t

[truebluegreen]

27. The problem is not the voters.

The problem is not a lack of advocacy or a lack of unity. The problem is a lack of principles that inspire hope and promote action.

"Donald Trump is a terrible person" is true but is not inspirational. There was no way, in this election, to vote against Wall Street. There was no way to vote against more war. There was no way to vote against more fracking. There was no way to vote against more trade agreements that hurt us while helping corporations. And quite frankly that would be true even if Obama was permitted to run again.

Unfortunately some people thought there was a way, and enough of those people voted for Trump.

The problem is policy, specifically policies that do little or nothing to improve the lives of Americans. Fix that and enthusiasm, advocacy and unity will not be far behind.

[MineralMan]

29. I take it from your screen name that you are a Green Party

advocate. OK, but I'm not listening to you. There was a Green Party candidate on the ballot. She got enough votes to have switched the election in three states that would have changed the result. Ralph Nader screwed the country in another election. Screw the Green Party. Screw Jill Stein and all who voted for her. Sorry, but your message rings hollow. Green Party voters helped elect Donald Trump.

I hope they enjoy the result. Really I do. I'm sure Trump will end fracking and fulfill all Green Party goals.

Oh, yeah. Thanks for your reply.

[truebluegreen]

30. Nope. I'm an environmentalist

But am not now nor have ever been a member of the Green Party, nor did I vote for or advocate a vote for Jill Stein.

In fact, I've never been anything but a registered Democrat in my 60+ years (that would be the "true blue" part).

But thank you for your reply. You make my case very well.

Good luck winning in 2018.

[MineralMan]

31. And you think Donald Trump will support environmental causes?

WTF?

We lost a very, very important election, and the repercussions of that may last for decades. Hillary may not have been the ideal progressive candidate, but she was by far the better choice on the 2016 ballot. Now, we have Donald Trump. I rest my freaking case. I don't know how you voted, but I know how enough people voted to give Trump the presidency. You know who was the Green Party candidate? Enough people voted for her to swing the election to Trump.

Bad cess to them. They are "the voters," too. You said not to blame the voters. Screw that noise.

[truebluegreen]

32. Idiot. Where did I ever say that?

Manufacturing outrage out of thin air does our cause no good.

But taking a good look at our candidate and the Democratic Party might help a lot. Even the Republicans had the courage to look in the mirror after 2012, although they totally ignored their own findings. What are we not seeing because we won't even look? (It was Bernie! It was voter suppression! It was the Russians! It was Comey! It was Jill Stein! It was Nader!...oh,wait)

I have an idea: why don't we all grow the fuck up and take some responsibility? And by the way, what makes you think that any of Jill Stein's voters would have gone for Hillary, as opposed to not voting? Do you think they "belonged" to her, and Stein just stole them? What about Gary Johnson's votes? There were a lot more of them; did he "steal" votes from her too?

The thing about votes is they have to be earned and our candidate didn't get it done, not where it counted. Try to figure out why, instead of blaming everyone else. It won't be as self-righteously satisfying, but it might help.

[fescuerescue]

20. The play should be to impeach Trump and Pence Simultaneously.

That would elevate #3 in line Nancy Pelosi.

[liberaltrucker]

21. Paul Ryan is #3.

nt

[MineralMan]

24. Uh, no. That would be Paul Ryan.

[RKP5637]

28. Actually, doesn't that put Paul Ryan into the WH? n/t

[redstatebluegirl]

8. We need to mobilize and prepare now for 2018 midterms.

We need a house cleaning. We need to start now to identify people who can run against any Republican plus and Democrat who supports Trump. We need STRONG candidates, we need to get out the vote, make sure they vote, that they don't say "we are going to win no need for me to show up".

It has to start NOW! We need to keep the pressure on our representatives, call them email them, write them make it impossible to ignore us.

This is the only option we have. If we turn the House and the Senate in 2018 we will only have 2 years of orange turd.

[Tatiana]

9. He has to be impeached. But we need to win these midterms.

Which will be difficult. No Republicans would vote to impeach the moron at this point, except for Graham and McCain (maybe). Even Ryan is on board with the promise of being able to privatize the most important government programs.

I don't know how... but we need a Midterm Miracle. We not only need to defend our seats, but pick some up in the House and Senate. This is unlikely, but I don't underestimate "buyer's remorse" once all those Trump voters in the military realize their VA benefit are going bye bye and the Seniors realize Medicare is being privatized and they will be forced to spend entire chunks of their fixed income to stay alive. Not to mention all the Democrats and Independents who stayed home in 2016, which led to the current disastrous outcome of Trump winning the Presidency.

We have to paint 2018 as a referendum on Trump. If we come close to winning back a branch of Congress, we may be able to persuade the very few actual conservatives in the Republican party to get rid of Trump.

There are a number of things he could be impeached for, including treason for giving aid and comfort to our nation's enemies.

[think]

11. True. But the Interstate Cross Check needs to be investigated for the NEXT elections

It's still in place and there is no transparency as to how and who is removed from voter rolls.

The 2016 elections are history. But the potential for American voters to be disenfranchised in 2018 is as real as ever.

This Is the Man Spearheading the Newest Voter Suppression Effort

Kris Kobach has quite a track record.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
AUG 31, 2016

One of the primary moles in our democracy does his business amid the amber waves of grain wafting over the fruited plains of Kansas. His name is Kris Kobach, and he is the Secretary of State out there in Brownbackistan. So far, in his career, Kobach has been the guy that John Ashcroft tasked with weeding out foreign travelers in the wake of 9/11—and Kobach's program was so deeply involved in racial profiling that it was shut down. He also was the author of Arizona's notorious "Papers, Please" law.

Is it at all necessary to point out that Donald Trump thinks Kris Kobach is the bee's knees? I didn't think so.

Now, in Rolling Stone, Greg Palast explains the most recent way that Kobach has been gnawing at the fundamental infrastructure of democracy. It's called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, and it is yet another way to suppress the franchise of the people that Kris Kobach would rather not have voting. Allegedly, this latest scam is supposed to stop people from voting in more than one state, which is another non-problem that Kobach thinks needs a really draconian solution.

As you can imagine, Crosscheck doesn't address the non-existent problem, but it does precisely what it's supposed to be doing....

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48232/kris-kobach-voter-suppression/

[MineralMan]

13. I agree, but, who is going to do that?

Elections are still state matters. There is some federal oversight, but changing that would require congressional action, and Congress is firmly controlled by Republicans, who have no reason to want to get rid of the Crosscheck program.

That's the dilemma. We can overcome it, though, through massive turnout of Democrats who don't normally vote. Making that happen should be our primary goal, really.

Hoping for things that won't happen isn't going to make those things happen. We must do what we can with what we have, and then change things when we regain legislative control.

We are now faced with a hostile administration and Congress. We're going to have to go to the grassroots to regain control.

[think]

19. #DirtyDonald #DirtyKobach #TheResistance #InterstateCrosscheck

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=interstatecrosscheck

Obviously this is just one example of methods that can be used to inform others about issues like Cross Check.

The Democrats should be coordinating at all levels to speak out and inform the voters. Grass Roots.

Chuck Schumer wants the Senate Democrats to get on Social Media and interact directly with the American people. He is gearing up the video department with this focus in mind.

We live in the information age. It's time to utilize it to inform the American voters to get active and GOTV as well.

Obviously it would be best if the CORPORATE TV NEWS MEDIA actually covered such things but they don't give a fuck or probably are even complicit in supporting the voter suppression efforts.

So yes, it is much harder now than when the program was started and when the early warnings were given but now is better than never.

The more people understand how they are being manipulated and that the Democrats are fighting for them the more people will get involved.




PLUS The DOJ SHOULD do something.

Representatives Alcee Hastings & Keith Ellison, along with civil rights leaders sent a letter to Loretta Lynch and helped get 50,000 signatures to her to ask that Cross Check be investigated. Other state level Democrats have done so also.

A PETITION TO RELEASE THE NAMES OF VOTERS ON THE “INTERSTATE CROSSCHECK” PURGE LIST

To: Office of the Attorney General, Loretta E. Lynch
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

In his Rolling Stone investigation Greg Palast revealed that a program to prevent alleged voter fraud, “Interstate Crosscheck,” has wrongly tagged voters listing them as registering in two states or voting in two states, a felony crime. The suspect list of potential criminals contains an astonishing SEVEN MILLION NAMES—naming ONE IN SEVEN voters of color in the Crosscheck states.
While partisan officials have kept the list confidential, Rolling Stone investigative reporter Greg Palast obtained over one million of the accused.

The ONLY evidence that you have voted or registered in two states is that you share a first name and last name with another voter. A typical example: Maria ISABEL Hernandez of Virginia is supposedly the same voter as Maria CRISTINA Hernandez of Louisiana.

As many as one million may have lost their right to vote in the election.

Experts have stated the Crosscheck system, directed for 30 states by the highly partisan Secretary of State of Kansas, is “dangerously biased against minorities.” As the great civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery said of Crosscheck, “This is Jim Crow all over again.”

From:
We, the undersigned. The American public demand an investigation of Crosscheck’s racially-biased purge operation — and the release of the entire list of the seven million Americans suspected of voting or registering in two states..
Upon reaching 50,000 co-signers our team at the Palast Investigative Fund will hand deliver the names to your office – and demand that your Civil Rights division do a full investigation into the Interstate Crosscheck program.
Signed,

Congressman Alcee Hastings, Congressional Black Caucus
Hon. Keith Ellison, US Congressman
Martin Luther King III
Santiago Juarez, AMPARO Legal Services
Dr. Wilmer Leon, Sirius FM
Bill Gallegos, Climate Justice, Communities for a Better Environment
Taz Ahmed, 18 Million Rising
Mimi Kennedy, People Demanding Action
Medea Benjamin, Code Pink


http://thebestdemocracymoneycanbuy.com/petition/

I hope to be working with a few candidates in Southern Florida next go around. Ironically though even Rick Scott's Florida has quit using Interstate Cross Check already as it was considered too controversial:

Florida quits controversial voter ‘purge’ program

04/15/14 10:35 AM—UPDATED 04/15/14 06:21 PM
By Zachary Roth

Florida has ditched a controversial GOP-backed program aimed at catching voters who are registered in multiple states, which some voting-rights advocates say can make it easier for eligible voters to be wrongly purged from the rolls.

It’s the same program whose data were used for an eye-catching recent report suggesting that more than 35,000 people may have voted in North Carolina and another state in 2012—a conclusion that was quickly debunked by numerous experts.

Florida’s decision to leave the Interstate Crosscheck system, created by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, was first reported Friday by the Miami Herald.

Read more:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/florida-quits-crosscheck

[lapislzi]

15. Please allow me to add

We should be working like crazy down to the most local levels. School boards. Town planning boards. This has to be fought in the trenches from the ground up (pardon mixed metaphors). Fight like hell against the crazy gerrymandering of districts. Work side by side with our neighbors to change hearts and minds by being the party, the people, of action.

I've seen it work, and it's difficult retail politicking. I've gone door to door canvassing for local candidates.

Door #1: homeowner complains about an abandoned car on a vacant lot. "Let me call the board for you, sir, and I'll have it removed."
Door #2: homeowner wants to know why the garbage pickup is done by a private contractor and not the town. I explain how that part of the budget works--and if they don't like that, they should vote for Candidate X, who would like to change it.
Door #3: homeowner wants to know what Congressional candidate is doing for veterans. I explain that he's a junior member of the committee on Veterans' Affairs. He could chair it one day, but the Democrats will need to control Congress for that to happen.
Door #4: Route X is getting widened in (next town over), but not here. We have the same traffic problems they do. Why aren't we getting road improvements? Because we have no regional planning structure. Candidate X would like to implement some. Here's the plan. Would you like to read it?

Stray dogs. I call animal control. Litter. I call the town, or pick it up myself. Noise violations. I call the local constabulary.

I do it at neighborhood functions. At softball games. At garage sales. I show up at meetings, even the boring ones (they're all boring), because somebody has to. Otherwise people will just keep doing what they've always done. You have to walk the walk and show them the better way.

We have to model active citizenship.

If the republicans can do it, so can we. They didn't seize three branches of government, 31 state houses, and every office in between overnight. Suit up, kiddos.

[MineralMan]

16. Exactly. It's all that grunt work that makes the difference.

I've helped people, too, and I'm just a lowly precinct chair. They tell me about a problem, and I make a call. I don't push my position, but people know me.

I know who to call and they know me. So, that dangerous corner gets a four-way stop sign. That broken electrical vault for the street lights? I call and someone shows up and replaces it. I'm hardly an influential guy, but I am part of the system. I've met people who can get things done.

Most people don't know who to call and don't know how to find out. So, they know me, because I've knocked on their door and talked about the election. I hand out cards with my contact information. So, they call me, and I call the right person for them. I encourage them to vote for people who will have their best interests at heart. They do that. So, when I call, someone fixes the problem, if it's a problem that should be fixed.

[lapislzi]

22. Right on, MM

Time to get some more palm cards made up. ~Sigh~

I sure would rather folks called me than the local loud-mouth right winger who's constantly trumpeting (SWIDT?) his own accomplishments, to the benefit of exactly no one except his developer friends.

[ismnotwasm]

17. Yeah I know

I think otherwise reasonably intelligent people are simply overwhelmed with disgust, and look for a easy way out. There is no easy way out. I don't mind impeachment noises--anything to discredit him--but he will be president. Pence is, quite frankly worse---an evil man who thinks he's righteous. Trump quite deliberately embraced the worst of the Ugly American. They showed up for him in droves. They will again. The best we can do is attempt to mitigate the damage he's about to cause and hopefully make him a one term president.

[MineralMan]

18. Yup. Pence thinks God's on his side.

That makes him very dangerous, indeed.

[TeamPooka]

36. and if Trump were to resign/be convicted/die of a heart attack etc Pence would totally

see that as God choosing him to be President and rule that way
scary as Trump
Lose/lose

[bigtree]

23. that's not the way politics works

...you reach for as much as you can, fully expecting politicians to cut you short of your goal. You don't go a political fight reaching just far enough to grab low-hanging fruit.

Once a legal case against Trump or Pence is established and pursued by career prosecutors, the political firewalls crumble.

But overturning the election is obviously out of reach.

[Yavin4]

25. He can resign as well.

I think that's a distinct possibility after a few months on the job.

[TeamPooka]

35. I was going to say that. Technically there are other ways that are antithetical

to our morals and values.

[Gothmog]

33. I do not see getting 67 senators to vote for impeachment

[roamer65]

37. You mean removal.

The House impeaches, the Senate removes them from office.

[doggie breath]

34. There is an old saying

that tactics win battles but logistics win wars.

In this case, the logistics are to prep for the mid-terms and try to regain the House and Senate.
Calling out racist backwards Trumpettes will only keep them in the fight, so let them have their 2 years without our cooperation and let them see what they have done to themselves.