Qutzupalotl
Qutzupalotl's JournalHis win was the result of a coordinated foreign attack
from an adversary who considers itself at war with the United States and acts accordingly. Influencing our elections and our discourse to our detriment is their goal.
Putin’s FSB is creating instability worldwide wherever it can, with weaponized psychographic techniques such as those pioneered by Cambridge Analytica. Brexit is one such victory. Trump’s election was another. We have a willing subject of the Kremlin in the White House, unconcerned about the damage he causes to our national security, public wellbeing, and treasury. Anyone who is not suspicious of Trump is either misled by propaganda or being deliberately disingenuous.
Since the day he took office, Trump has violated the Constitution by refusing to divest from his business interests. He is unfit for office, and his subsequent behavior bears this out. Those who opposed him since day one are correct. If saying so annoys those who worship him, that is to be expected.
My hope beyond hope
I won’t sugar-coat this; these are dark times. Our republic hangs in the balance. We have a malignant tumor but the surgeon lacks the will to operate.
In 2015, Russia hacked RNC email servers but is still holding the contents. Republicans’ actions suggest they are under threat of blackmail and not simply fearful of a Trump nickname or a primary opponent.
Many Senators must secretly grumble about having to kowtow to Trump, but cannot oppose him publicly for whatever reason. But there is one thing they can do: boycott the Senate trial. Participating in a sham process only lends it legitimacy, right?
The Constitution specifies that “no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present." Not the whole Senate, just those present.
If a handful Republicans view the trial as such a travesty that they protest with their absence, fewer votes will be needed to make two-thirds. They could do so while still publicly praising Trump and criticizing the proceedings, immunizing themselves from the tweetstorm.
Thoughts like this give me hope. We may see some combination of defectors and protestors that lower the magic number to less than 67.
The fate of our country is at stake, and I will not despair.
I don't care who gets the credit or blame.
We have to get the traitor OUT by any means, then we can restore democracy.
There will be plenty of time for finger-pointing later. ALL of that is of secondary importance. Besides, the traitors are already easy to spot with their public statements.
If your house is on fire, you don't care if the firefighters have muddy boots. You just don't.
We can't leave it to voters if the President is soliciting interference
in our elections. He is a clear and present danger.
If we wanted to, we could make this the biggest, longest impeachment case in history, and people would be talking about it, saying it’s the biggest in history. And it would also be the largest and one of the greatest, if not THE greatest in history, many, many people are saying.
God knows Trump commits so many abuses of power in plain sight, we could never finish counting.
But it only takes one article.
I never said it would be easy.
I said we likely won’t get 20 Republican Senators, but that shouldn’t matter to the House.
Take off your D hat for a moment and just look at the situation as an American. It is intolerable that a traitor was installed by a foreign mobster. Every day Trump attacks the Constitution and dares us to do something about it.
I’m in a very red corner of a blue state, so I understand not wanting to make the gun owners mad. But dammit, we are right. They are wrong. Republicans don’t get to flout the law and still call all the shots. We are on the strongest possible legal grounds, the Constitution itself. We have a clear duty before us. And we must not fear to do the right thing.
If we stand up and fight for what we believe in we might win a few converts. But if we even appear to be afraid or unsure, we signal to the red hats that we don’t really believe what we are saying and are not to be trusted.
The impeachment process will lay out the facts of each count of misconduct for the American people clearly. It will be news every night for weeks, and that will help the people understand the extent of Trump’s disdain for the law. Senators will have to explain their vote for or against each count, and then have to go home and explain it to their constituents. That is how the system should work.
This is not 1998 and Trump is not Clinton. Gingrich imploded because he led an actual witch hunt. Trump repeats “witch hunt” but then goes out and commits high crimes!
We have solid evidence, corroboration and even two public confessions, for Christ’s sake.
So have no fear. The corruption show is just getting started, and it will open the public’s eyes.
It is naive to expect the next election will be fair
if this president is left unchecked.
We don’t know what will happen. We might as well do the right thing and defend the country from a dire existential threat — a traitor elected President.
To dither about political calculations at this point is to ignore the oath of office each member takes.
Let your neighbors watch witness after witness recount Trump’s abuse of office. That “spectacle” will convince ordinary citizens their country is on the line. It is.
Without the integrity of our elections we cease to be a republic.
Roberts will lead the Senate trial. Mitch gets one vote.
The country will already know the charges and will hear the evidence at trial. Republican Senators, some facing reelection, will be forced to say publicly that high crimes are not impeachable, that clear violations of the Constitution are just fine, and to vote against what they said they stood for: the rule of law.
Granted, most elected Republicans are rank hypocrites and comfortable with duplicity. We may peel away a few brave ones, probably not 20, but that is not for Congress to second guess. The House has its own duty to defend the Constitution from this outrageous daily assault, damn the consequences.
Agreed. It is not the House's job to second-guess the Senate.
The House’s duty is to determine whether the president’s conduct is impeachable, using the tools at their disposal. Mueller has given them strong indications that it is, as much as he is allowed to say.
The Senate’s actions are largely irrelevant to the House’s decision. Yes, they will certainly acquit. Yes, Trump will claim vindication — but he already has, even though the report and testimony are damning, so we might as well do the right thing for history.
If at the end Trump only gets an asterisk, then he gets an asterisk; but the House will have spoken, to him and future generations, that this conduct is unacceptable.
And more can come out in an open-ended inquiry. Mueller was constrained to Russia; the House can look at anything Trump did. Depending on what we find, we might even peel off a few Republicans in the Senate, who might not want to defend Trump’s lawlessness anymore.
So basically a pie in the face.
I’m not a fan. There are better ways to make your point than destroying someone’s suit.
Not much different from keying someone’s car or tagging their house.
I’ll grant that the target is ripe. What an asshat.
I think fear and hatred of the "other" are at the heart of racism.
That often manifests in abuses of any power or superior position that is available, but I see the power component as an effect rather than a defining characteristic.
I attended one of the schools that was closed for years after the Brown decision. I was a white kid in a school that was about 80% black. For a few hours a day, I experienced what it was like to be a minority — though with a reprieve at the end of the day that I realize my classmates never got.
My classmates were children of parents who were not able to complete their education, and they often struggled. I was put in a situation where I faced a lot of lingering resentment and even malice for things I did not do, simply for who I was. There was always a sense that you could not stick up for yourself due to the overwhelming numbers opposed, so you learned to get along and let racial taunts slide, and avoid people and situations that physically threatened you.
One could argue that this was a special case where numbers gave social power to people who did not have it in society at large, and so the racism-as-power definition would hold. But to say I never experienced racism because whites have power in the larger society is to deny what I went through every day. Any advantage, even height and strength, can be leveraged by any person, regardless of color. That is why I say everyone is capable of racially motivated actions regardless of whether they have power in larger society, and everyone should examine themselves in this regard.
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Member since: 2002Number of posts: 14,296