Eyeball_Kid
Eyeball_Kid's JournalDimes to Donuts: the field general who pulled off...
... the Biden tsunami is Pelosi.
She had to have coordinated the endorsements. She had the strategy and the resources. And she has the gravitas.
Do you want a president who consistently lies to you about anything and everything?
Of course you don't.
But this is what faces us in November. And asking this question is what the Dems MUST do to focus attention on Trump's big vulnerability. No one ever knows what is a lie and what isn't whenever he speaks. He has no credibility. Most of us know this, but...
The Dems so far have failed in pressing this message onto the voters. They aren't making gross dishonesty part of the discussion. And I don't know why. (Bloomberg's "Lie" TV ad is the exception. And he's gaining ground in the primary races.)
ANY Dem candidate can begin asking this question. Do we want a dishonest president? Do we want a president who lies all the time? Do we want a president who doesn't account for his conduct?
ANY Dem candidate can promise honesty and integrity in office. Any candidate can point to a record of honesty and truthfulness, and contrast that with 16,000 lies. The sooner we hear this kind of talk from Dem candidates, the sooner that Trump's approval numbers will start to tumble. Honesty counts. People value honesty and integrity. Run on honesty and truthfulness.
The Forbidden Logic. No one wants to speak the unspeakable on the eve of the Trial.
What will be lost, legally and logically, by a Senate Acquittal?
What precedents will be set? What are the destructive actions that will be set in motion?
1. Separation of Powers, a Constitutional fundamental, will be dissolved. There will no longer be co-equal branches of government. The Senate will have approved of actions by Trump that express a "unitary executive", devoid of checks and balances. This will be a permanent precedent that the Senate will establish.
2. Congressional oversight, an Article 1 governmental underpinning, will be dissolved. The executive branch will no longer be accountable to Congress. It can ignore subpoenas, requests for records and documents, and requests for executive branch officials to appear before Congress.
3. The Article 1 clause regarding impeachment itself will be dissolved if the Senate votes to acquit. It is the Senate majority argument that the most egregious of violations of a president's oath of office (as stated in the Founders' arguments for impeachment) can be dismissed as not serious enough for removal from office. Thus, there will be NO threshold to cross that activates removal from office.
4. With all of the barriers to impeachment and removal dissolved, the president can feel unencumbered by Constitutional limitations on power. Just as Trump is currently in the hunt for foreign propaganda to influence the coming election, he'll continue to do so all the way to November, knowing that there is no institution or government entity that can stop him from cheating in any way he can to win the next election. That's because he'll know that he can NEVER be removed from office, and he can manipulate the campaign-- and the election data, in any way he sees fit.
5. With a nullified and powerless Constitution being shredded daily, the power vacuum will be filled by Trump, who will then have the option to turn this democratic republic into a dictatorship. All of the elements for a dictatorship will be in place AFTER THE ACQUITTAL.
6. Remember the Patriot Act? We'd BETTER remember the Patriot Act, because it gives Trump the power to manufacture a national security emergency in order to cancel the election. It will be within his power to do so. If you're thinking that the "manufacturing" part will make it invalid, think again. By the time Congress gets the news, it will already be too late. A dictator doesn't have to wait for approval. Besides, this Acquittal will already have rendered Congressional oversight to be impotent.
Are we following the Bouncing Ball yet?
For those who minimize the logical consequences of an Acquittal, I have a comment: the Trump Party is well aware of these logical consequences. They all support the unitary executive assertions that AG Barr loves. They all support a "permanent Republican majority" goal, set in motion by Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay in the 1980s, which includes gerrymandering, manipulating voting machines, changing voting data in servers, and radio/TV markets saturated with right wing propaganda. And now, Trump will be given explicit permission to pull in propaganda efforts by FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS, unhindered by Congress or any other entity.
Why is this NOT part of the general discussion regarding impeachment and removal? Where are the legal scholars/celebrities who are on every news program, warning the viewers and anyone else of the logical and legal consequences of an acquittal? The most consequential decision in US History is about to be made, and the entire Fourth Estate, AND the Democratic Party, are tragically silent.
For those who are reluctant to call out the real and historic crisis that is unfolding RIGHT NOW, fearing that it might panic the population: IT IS TIME TO PANIC. It will be too late after the Acquittal.
When the Senate acquits, the Constitution dies.
-- As a DU member, I have posted similar theses many times over the past several weeks, but I've generally used DU to post comments in reaction to a thread. Now, it's time for more readers to take a look.
We're coming to the end of the effectiveness of the US Constitution.
While the House has locked in an impeachment vote that will be final within this month, the Senate will assure that Checks and Balances and separation of powers is dead. These two principles are the backbone of Constitutional governance. McConnell, the entire GOP, and Trumpy are hammering the final nails in the Constitutional coffin. McConnell will NOT permit a fair trial, as he publicly announced that he will coordinate everything in the trial with Trumpy.
We know that McConnell, the GOP leadership, and the Trumpy Administration are now taking orders from Putin, and are setting up Trumpy as Dictator (and NOT King). After the acquittal, Trumpy will be free to cheat on the 2020 election in any way he wishes, with no resistance from the Legislative Branch, and no objections from a notoriously slow and Trumpy-partial Judicial Branch.
We have to come to terms with all of this. We are seeing the US government, with some resistance from Democrats and independents (but not enough), convert to a system in which the President decides everything. That's the veritable definition of Dictator. We see (with the southern border cruelty to refugee victims) that it's Trumpy who decides who will suffer and die, and who will not. We see that there is no longer a Rule of Law for the leadership.
There is such a narrow path out of this that it's barely worth mentioning. A 2020 election is optional to a dictator who has all the means available to cheat on the election, with NO consequences. We know that Putin is telling the GOP what to do and how to do it. We must conclude that Russia has invaded the US government, and the US government has effectively surrendered.
If we have doubts about these trend lines and facts, we're certainly welcome to them. But we have to watch the coming events, and we'll see all of the above occurences unfold before our eyes. We'll all be in a state of disbelief. But it's coming, folks.
Believe me. I hope I'm wrong. But we're skating on ice that's getting impossibly thin.
Sometimes it takes awhile for the words to come together...
but there's a word or a concept that fairly accurately describes the present state of the Union.
We are on the verge of collapse.
We are teetering on the edge.
We shouldn't be thinking in terms of a mere Constitutional Crisis. There's a good chance that we are already beyond the "turning point."
We only have a Democratic majority in the House that is between the United States and governmental collapse. If and/or when that happens, societal collapse will follow.
If we observe the entirety of Trumpy's behavior patterns since his campaign, we can easily conclude that Trumpy has always wanted to abolish the separation of powers and become an autocratic dictator. No, not "King." Dictator. Please note that Putin is reputed to be worth between 600 and 800 Billion dollars. That's what Trumpy wants. He knows how Putin got it, and he adores Putin's business plan.
BTW, I strongly dislike depictions from some in the general resistance camp who describe Trumpy as a wannabe KING. They're being too kind for an unknown reason. "King" implies that there might be something beneficial about being royalty, even if a king "can do no wrong." There is no redeeming value if Trumpy were to fully realize autocratic rule. Trumpy has no capacity to bestow kindness on anyone. The more power he obtains the more brutal he'll become. We've only seen the beginning.
Unless we rescue ourselves with effort and sacrifice, we'll see collapse. Soon.
When Trumpy's presidency ends, (damn. It Will end.)
the stories of his madness will explode everywhere. There will seemingly be no end to tales of fraud, abuse, fakery, deceit-- dozens and dozens will have their stories to tell. There will also be tales of human weakness and cowardice, of courage and strength. But mostly weakness and cowardice.
The heavyweight writers should already be drawing up themes and structures. More than a few will land contracts for books, and the race will be on. When he's gone, a massive industry will replace him. He's so crazy that the commentariat will scratch their collective heads and ask themselves, "How could all of this happen?" They will have selective amnesia.
Does the public know what "nationalism", white nationalism, and "white supremacy" actually mean?
Our vaunted media seems to take a lot for granted. They use these words and phrases, but most often, they fly over the heads of the public, clueless about the deep offenses that people of color feel.
How about a clear, concise definition of White Supremacy? What does it mean, how is it used, and why is it not only offensive to a huge slice of the nation, but why is it anti-American, anti-Constitutional, immoral, and wholly despicable?
The press seems unwilling to venture into this territory. Why is that? No, it's not so elementary that White Supremacy needs no further explanation. That's taking a lot for granted, and we can take NOTHING for granted.
White Supremacy means that people of Caucasian ancestry are SUPERIOR to people from African, Asian, or other general genetic origins. The logical extension of the notions of White Supremacy has already been practiced in the 1930s and 1940s in Europe. We know how that worked. Those who were not pure Aryans were viewed as Subhuman.
Oh. I nearly forgot. Those of Hispanic heritage are mostly a hybrid mix of genetic origins, so they don't qualify, in white supremacists' eyes, as White. They are deemed as INFERIOR to whites and necessarily must be treated as subhumans.
Explanations like these should be told and re-told until it becomes clear that White Supremacy is a blight on humanity. But the manner in which it's being presently treated conveys an implication that it's just another way of looking at people, on equal footing with religion, economics, and social discussions.
Inertia: Dems will not find a lot of backing in corporate America
Just as Hitler was backed by German, English, Italian, and American industrialists, most of Corporate America is siding with Trumpy. Why? It's because the structure and indeed, the charters for corporations demand that they seek the most profits for their shareholders.
Trumpy is giving away the store so that corporations can get the most profit with the least regulations-regulations designed to protect the US citizens from abject exploitation and the environment from certain ruin.
It's the way, the nature of fascism, and Trumpy won't tell you this, but that's exactly what he has in mind. He mimics Hitler by filling the airwaves with societal division and conflict, while he curries favor with industrialists.
Corporations love it. Corporations are not US citizens and have no loyalty to the Constitution. They only have loyalty to those who invest in their operations. A great way to maximize profit is to eliminate protections for the people, i.e. REGULATIONS. That's exactly what Trumpy is doing, and he has a lot of friends in the corporate world because of it. In general, corporations are comfortable with fascism, no matter what their PR divisions say.
Dems will not only have to overcome resistance from the GOP, and from Trumpy's white nationalist/Nazis, but they'll have to resist much of Corporate America.
Chairman Nadler: a law is only mandatory...
when it is enforced.
Paper Tigers don’t get respect because they don’t deserve it.
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