On the White House lawn the President says openly that his strong recommendation is that China investigates the business dealings of Joe Biden. He is inviting a foreign nation to interfere with a forthcoming election. There really no grey area here – he is doing exactly what his opponents suspect, in plain view.
It’s almost as if he wants to be impeached on this issue. The more cynical among us may wonder if this is to distract attention from more serious/shadowy wrongdoings and just get it a,,over with, He said he could shoot someone on the street and people will still love him. Here he is, shooting himself in the foot. What is he thinking?
He’s thinking that pretty much no matter what he does, he will get away with it and maybe he’s right.
The procedure in the US has three stages.
Firstly, Congress must investigate the charges.
Next the House of Representatives must pass Articles of Impeachment by a simple majority.
Finally the Senate tries the accused and a two-thirds supermajority is required for conviction.
A successful conviction automatically means removal from office.
It’s quite possible that in a Republican-majority Senate, whatever the evidence, the required two-thirds majority of senators will not be reached and that the impeachment will fail.
He simply thinks that anything a president does is legal by definition. Unfortunately for him, the one man who can save him – his lawyer – agrees.
It just needs twenty Republican senators to vote against him. Those retiring or in so-called purple seats may be inclined to do so. It all depends on public opinion. The polls are showing growing support for impeachment. As time goes by, the public seem to becoming more aware that his behaviour is actually illegal. Otherwise, it seems to be Trump being Trump. It looks like a slam dunk case with Pompeo, Guiliani and Pence up to their necks as well but, as Mueller painstakingly pointed out, it all comes down to politics.
In a few years time, we can all enjoy the delicious irony of the Trump offspring being investigated for corruption, much as he is currently screaming for Hunter’s head at the moment.
Incidentally, picking Biden as their candidate will be a Democrat mistake. They need someone with fewer skeletons in the cupboard. If I was Trump, I’d want Biden as my opponent. If he’s not careful and he survives impeachment, he could end up with a more difficult contest.
I agree that Biden would be a mistake. And although I think he’s great – Bernie Sanders doesn’t come across as someone the middle will vote for en masse. From what I have seen of Elizabeth Warren, I think she might have the best chance by appealing to the majority of voters that I think will want a complete change.
The reaction of the liberal media in America to Trump’s presidency fascinates me. They despise him and his blatant in-plain-sight-from-day-one criminality and seem open-mouthed at the inefficiency of any process to kick his arse out before now. Because, as said, politics.
Go to YouTube and search for Rachel Maddow or Morning Joe for endless discombobulations broadcast since January 2017.
Yes, this should be it for Trump. It won’t be though. There’s never been anyone else as magnificently criminally stupid as him in any high office. He stupefies and confounds all those on any intellectual plain. He halts all progress they make as they gather their jaws from the floor while he yells nonsense from his 53 word vocabulary. Any sane or marginally honourable person would have resigned in humiliation weeks ago. Not him. And he won’t.
If those 20 Republican Senators don’t turn the world is stuck with the colossal prick.
So we’re stuck. As with Mueller and next year’s election, this just offers false hope. Will he even leave office in 2025? Even that might be too much to hope for.
Fucked, fucked, fucked.
Yern. My one forlorn hope is that one day one of the Marines that is obliged to salute him as he boards the presidential helicopter thwaps him on the back of his ridiculous nut as he goes past.
And now he’s shafted 40 million Kurds, while throwing out ignorant historical irrelevancies by Twitter. The man is an utter cunt.
Apparently, he didn’t regard the Kurds as true allies because they didn’t help in Normandy. The fact they fought against nazi sympathising Iran during WWII and alongside allies liberating Greece and Italy doesn’t seem to have come to his notice.
Russia and Assad will see this as an opportunity to reclaim land. Neither they nor Turkey think Europe will do anything.
I was struck, not to say thunderstruck, by this quote from Hannah Arendt that popped up on Twitter. (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951.)
Yes, without those 20 senators, we’re fucked. Oh, and US troops in Syria just been fired on by Turkish troops.