Impeach Trump

Impeachment Light?

cjones12132019

President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 after the House voted on eleven articles of impeachment. While the main charge was “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and mostly revolved around the Tenure of Office Act (firing and replacing cabinet without the consent of Congress), other articles focused on “unlawful intent to control the disbursements of the moneys appropriated for the military service and for the Department of War,” making speeches with the intent to “attempt to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach, the Congress of the United States,” and “bringing disgrace and ridicule to the presidency by his aforementioned words and actions.” Do those last three sound familiar?

Ultimately, the Senate failed to throw Johnson out, Congress removed the law they claimed he violated two decades later, and in 1926, the Supreme Court ruled he had the authority to remove and replace cabinet members and the Tenure of Office Act was invalid. But, President Andrew Johnson was still impeached.

President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1999 (initiated in ’98) after Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr couldn’t find any wrongdoing in a land deal, so he got him for lying to a grand jury about a consensual sex act. No, Republicans didn’t impeach him for having sex with Hillary. The impeachment was deemed totally partisan, and Republicans had to go through three House Speakers before they could land on one who wasn’t guilty of having an extramarital affair before they could finally conduct the proceedings (the third one they landed on later turned out to be a pedophile). Many of the Republicans arguing in favor of impeachment in the House are still around today arguing against their former positions. Ultimately, the Senate failed to convict Bill Clinton. But, President Bill Clinton was still impeached.

Yesterday, at another hate rally, Donald Trump said, “Our poll numbers have gone through the roof because of her (Nancy Pelosi) stupid impeachment.” Uh, no. Donald, your poll numbers suck. He also said, “This is impeachment light. This is the lightest impeachment in the history of our country by far.”

Donald, there have only been two other impeachments and only three times articles were presented. Impeachment is so bad, it’s only happened to two out of 44 previous presidents. You suck so much, you’re about to be the third out of 45.

Trump is lucky there are only two articles of impeachment against him. The first is on abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to assist him in his re-election campaign by damaging Democratic rivals. The second is on obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry.

At his hate rally, Trump wondered aloud why they didn’t get him for other crimes like bribery. He’s right. He did commit other crimes such as bribery and there should have been articles introduced on that.

Soon after, Trump started lying about the FBI spying on his campaign and calling members of the agency “scum.” Earlier, on the same day articles of impeachment were introduced because of his trying to get a foreign nation to meddle in an American election, he was hosting Russia’s foreign minister in the Oval Office. Talk about being totally obtuse.

Lightest impeachment ever or not, Donald Trump is going to be impeached. It’ll be on his Wikipedia page. It’ll be in every future article about his presidency. It’ll be in the history books. It will probably be in every first paragraph in every story about his horrible presidency. It should be on his tombstone.

Here are the facts: In the future, when people discuss or write about Trump’s presidency, what will be included is impeachment, didn’t win the popular vote, and Russian meddling. Neither Johnson, Nixon, or Clinton, has that. Only Trump.

Donald Trump will be impeached and go down as the worst, most sordid and corrupt president in American history. There’s nothing light about that.

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Our Racist President

cjones08192017

Even though it’s been a while since we’ve had “normal,” yesterday was still a day when you were in disbelief at what you were seeing.

What we saw was the president of the United States display rampant racism and threw shade and cover for White Supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, and Neo-Nazis.

Saturday, the president blamed both sides for the violence in Charlottesville. After heated criticism, he returned two days later on Monday to condemn the racists, so we could all make believe our president wasn’t a racist. It didn’t sit well with him. It seemed forced under pressure. On Tuesday, the president proved that to be true and revealed his true feelings on the matter of race.

It’s often been said that when people show you who they are, believe them. Donald Trump showed us who he truly is and it’s not pretty. Before making comments on Monday criticizing racists, Trump attacked a black CEO for leaving his manufacturing council. After condemning racists, Trump retweeted tweets from a racist conspiracy theorist and floated the idea of pardoning the most racist sheriff in the nation, Joe Arpaio of Arizona who was convicted for incarcerating brown people on the suspicion they may be in the nation illegally. Apparently, none of that was good enough for Trump to reaffirm his racist base that he had their back.

Trump was in the lobby of his golden tower in New York City and was supposed to make comments on infrastructure when he took questions from the press, which was a surprise to everyone, including his staff.

First, he said he didn’t condemn Nazis on Saturday because he needed all the facts. The man who waged the birther campaign, claimed he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrate 9/11, claims millions voted illegally, that he had the largest electoral victory and inauguration crowd ever, and that Barack Obama wiretapped him, needed all the facts.

This is a man who reacted swiftly to the Pulse nightclub shooting to use it as an argument for a ban on Muslim refugees, despite the fact the shooter was born in the United States. Trump has tweeted after terrorist attacks in the past way before he had “facts.”

What information did he need on Saturday before he could condemn the KKK and Nazis? Did he need a briefing that Nazis are bad?

Trump defended the racist protesters in that they were fighting against Confederate statues being removed. First, these protests aren’t really about the statues. They are an excuse for racists to march. He said, “Not all of those people were Neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.” First, if anyone ever tells you “believe me, that check won’t bounce” while giving you a check, that check’s going bouncing.

He claimed there were good people among the White Supremacists. You can have the viewpoint that those statues should remain in place, but if you’re marching with people screaming “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us,” you’re NOT a good person. You’re an asshole. What the hell does the statues have to do with Jews anyway?

I saw a political cartoon from a racist conservative arguing for the statues and it stated, “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” Hey, good point. On that note, the racist cartoonist should learn some history about those statues and the fact most of them were erected during the Jim Crow era in the early 1900s and during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 60s. The KKK is marching so it seems we are doomed to repeat history. The Nazis have also returned and if we’re to repeat history there, they lose.

Trump went on to criticize both sides for the violence in Charlottesville, and blamed the “alt-left.” I haven’t heard anything that stupid since yesterday when a stupid conservative friend of mine on Facebook posted a Ben Shapiro column referring to some protesters as “black nationalists.” If being stupid is painful, that would explain why these guys are so angry.

You’re going to hear the term “alt-left” much more in the future, much like you’re hearing the term “snowflakes” now. It’s a term Sean Hannity loves, which is where Trump most likely got it from.

A note on this “alt-left” horseshit: The Alt-Right coined the term “alt-right.” They also created “alt-left.” Liberals are not calling themselves that because it doesn’t mean anything. To me, “alt-left” describes liberals who love Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It doesn’t exist, like “fake news.”

Trump claimed the “alt-left” was “very violent.” Trump accused people he called the “alt-left” of “swinging clubs” as they “came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right.” He said some of the right-wing members of the crowd in the Virginia park were “bad.” But he added that the other side came “charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent.” Trump must have missed the video where the racists were trying to kill African-Americans in a parking garage, or the fact that a Nazi drove a car into a crowd and killed a young woman, Heather Heyer.

Trump went on to ask “what’s next” regarding to removing statues. He asked if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson statues will be removed since they were slave owners. The man doesn’t understand history or why the Confederate statues are offensive.

Washington and Jefferson did not commit treason and fight against the United States. The Confederacy did and fought to preserve slavery. Again, most of those statues were erected to intimidate African-Americans and to let them know who was still in charge. They were placed to defy Civil Rights.

A documentary from HBO’s Vice News Tonight titled “Charlottesville: Race and Terror,” follows Christopher Cantwell, an unabashed white supremacist who spews racist invective while traveling around with a band of neo-Nazis. In the footage, Cantwell says there will be more rallies and protests and states, “We’re not non-violent, we’ll fucking kill these people if we have to.” About Heather Heyer’s death, he said “I’d say it was worth it. The fact that nobody on our side died, I’d go ahead and call that points for us.” He also says he expects more people to die in the future.

Why do Cantwell and his fellow racists feel so confident? Why do they feel so good about it? Because of Donald Trump. David Duke thanked Trump for his support on Tuesday. They got the message and they’re interpreting it as “make America great again.”

That’s what they’re doing to because they brought it to Charlottesville. A beautiful and wonderful place, Charlottesville is not home to this mess. Charlottesville should be known for UVA, The Center for Politics, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and The Dave Matthews Band. It’s not home to Nazis.

A lot of people accuse Republicans of being racist. George W. Bush and Mitt Romney were hit with that accusation. They may not have cared that much about minorities, but they were not racists. Most Republicans are not either. But, a lot of Republicans don’t find racism a deal breaker as they voted for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is a racist, and those who continue to support him, or deflect and throw cover for Nazis (“but Obama and statues”) are too. Republicans like Jeff Flake and Marco Rubio lambasted him yesterday. More Republicans need to realize this is not a partisan issue. You can be a Republican and find the thought of lying with Nazis disgusting. Donald Trump does not.

Donald Trump showed us who he is and we need to believe him. It’s time for you to show us who you are. When your friends, family, and neighbors defend Trump they’re showing you who they are.

You better believe them.

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