MPaulamrams writers blog: Congenial-speak #23

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Congenial-speak #23

Dare to Impeach

James Comey never had a chance. His abrupt termination was yesterday's news the next day. As the POTUS seem to be doing all he can to make America bad, treasonous, untrustworthy, civilly disobedient, and generally seen as a crazy evil superpower, core Republicans try to play house. I hear they a losing their patience with Don.

Evidently Trump, as a businessman, trod a thin line between his world and the one of litigation. He skirted it as a combination con-man and modern day Al Capone. Mob bosses don't aspire to the highest political office in America though. There are some similarities, some common threads private citizens pull. Capone went down for tax evasion. Trump has paid the least amount of taxes legally permissible. He refuses to release his returns, so no one can know exactly how much he's dodged. Now he has put himself in a position to reap millions from foreign investors in America. He is conducting business, buying, selling, trading, subletting, real estate, wile he is president. No middle man. He is the house. No lucky men in the casino.

Not divesting business holdings
Violation of emoluments clause by accepting money from foreign governments
Obstruction of justice
Treason

If I follow correctly, these are the items on which impeachment will be based. It always seems to be Senator John McCain who is the first domino to fall in the Republican line. It is shy of four month but seems like a year that the circus has been in the White House. It must be drawn to scale—like global warming—to accurately judge the Republican meltdown, the surfacing of their sense of morality, submarined by a man they ultimately see as an idiot who is useful to the party base.

From the beginning, that day in January when massive crowds flooded Pennsylvania Avenue to glimpse the new Don, personal wealth and business were not cleanly and completely put aside. He vowed to not take the salary of the office of president. He said he'd put his business ties in a “blind trust.” He said his sons will run the business. It is customary to do so, to divest, but not legally required. So, as he has for decades in civilian life, he found a loophole as POTUS. In theory the trust is blind, but Trump is far from blind to his assets or holdings.

Trump has towers. He is building towers “in IstanbUl I have a tower. It is two, not the usual one.” Forget the Freudian hallway this echoes, it is riddled with conflicts of interest. Internationally people are staying at his hotels. Heads of countries come here to jimmy intelligence out of Trump and stay at his hotels. The president of India comes to the US. He stays at a Trump hotel to curry favor with him. Emoluments breeches are committed each time this happens.

Obstruction of justice speaks for itself. What if he is doing showy, poorly thought-out stunts, like striking not 60, but 59 missals at Syria in part to divert focus on the Russia investigation, thinking if Putin retaliates it will be lost in the shuffle? Firing Yates was a nail in obstruction's coffin. Shades of The Apprentice. Not playing the game correctly—you're fired. And Comey, the noble FBI director who was the opposite of a G. Liddy, desperately searched for the truth in an insane asylum. Firing your investigator—its impediment to justice is redundant.

Sharing classified secrets with the Russians, the ones who send spies here to get intelligence, is likely the most treasonous thing an American can do. With the era of Reagan, Gorby, Glasnost and the tearing down of walls still not ancient history, Trump brags, bolsters what little of history—theirs and ours—and becomes the WH snitch. He puts the country he pledged, with his stupid red hats, to make great again at mortal risk. News travels much, much faster today than it did when Nixon and Kissinger were trading secrets for a war on the other side of the world. America will not be trusted with intelligence that can thwart another 9/11 situation.

I think the jig is up, we saw the last straws in recent days. Democrats, for the most part, were there long ago. Republicans see now that he is too dangerous and, if left to himself, could do irreparable damage to America. In short, there would be no political base. There would not be a government to politicize, and investigations and the arc of the money's trajectory, the long arms of corruption would be permanently disabled. No Republican wants that. So, when you see McConnell's blow-fish facade stuck with a pin, impeachment proceedings are in the cards. Let us pray.

No comments:

Post a Comment

To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a fair Democracy- review

I thoroughly enjoyed To the Front of the Bus, a must read for the politically curious and anyone who is paying attention to our current state of the country......who we as a nation, and how we got here. As someone who is not well versed in U.S. history, I found Amram's book refreshingly easy to read, the sort of book that can be fodder for discussion for the political novice or political savvy----there is something for everyone on these pages. The "Author's Note" and "Afterword" bookend the social movements which are humanely detailed in the book, and provide moving context for the how the political is always personal. In his latest book, Amram has expanded on his previous Ten Years and Change: a Liberal Boyhood in Minnesota (another excellent read), describing the struggle for equality which has consumed our nation since it's inception. What is most interesting is how Amram seamlessly weaves historical and current events, tying the two together in an effortless read that belies the painful sacrifice and struggle for human rights that continue to this day. There is an incredible amount of research contained here. I often find historical/political non-fiction interesting, but too dry for me personally to get through. To the Front of the Bus is the opposite reading experience, as this book is a compulsively readable page-turner, balancing well documented fact with personal and societal ramifications. I wish I could order a copy for every high school and college classroom in the country, as the truth telling of the "movement toward a fair democracy" is important. Thanks to Michael Amram for his words, which are an inspiring call to action for each one of us to use our voting power wisely and not squander our political and social power. Highly recommend.

Premise of Bus

There is a bus, careening through history, through decades of people moving, being transferred toward a fair Democracy. Like attaining Democracy, seeing it work, reaping its sporadic benefits, a bus stops and continues on, each time furthering a majority, growing stronger. But it also wanes as people are let out, and an interminable cycle of an unfulfilled Democracy (bus) ensues. In To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a Fair Democracy bus is a metaphor as a method of movement, of protest (freedom rides). It speaks of the forced and willful movements of people throughout history, from the slave trade to the Native Americans' “trail of tears,” to the “great migration,” to the current deportation of immigrants. Bus is used in the literal sense of black Americans' ascension to the front, or anywhere they choose, on buses.

To the Front of the Bus: Movement toward a Fair Democracy follows the transports of three major groups who were denied basic rights as Americans. Their evolutions, their respective revolutions' order was left to be written in history as having been subconsciously prioritized. It was pre-destined, each having made a fluent transition, a natural selection, a humanely appropriate ascension, to the next. First came the removal of chains, the freeing of feet and minds, to fighting a Civil War and decades to win civil rights. Then came the women in their defined movements through decades for suffrage and equal rights. Time had come to pass. The abrogations of blacks and women's injustices readied the minds and streets for the disabled. Both cleared the way (as people on buses often do), expanded human consciousness enough, removed guilt of oppressing the prior groups enough, for the disabled to come out of the institutions and almshouses, to be accepted in society, to speak out for certain rights, and to be able to sit to the front of the bus.

To the front of the Bus: Movement Toward a Fair Democracy

“To the front of the Bus: movement toward a fair democracy follows the transports
of three major groups who were denied basic rights as Americans.
Their evolution, their respective revolutions' order was left to be
written in history as having been subconsciously prioritized. It was
pre-destined, each having made a fluent transition, a natural
selection, a humanely appropriate ascension, to the next. First came
the removal of chains, the freeing of feet and minds, to fighting a
Civil War and decades to win civil rights. Then came the women in
their defined movements through decades for suffrage and equal
rights. Time had come to pass. The abrogation of blacks and women's
injustices readied the minds and streets for the disabled. Both
cleared the way (as people on buses often do), expanded human
consciousness enough, removed guilt of oppressing the prior groups
enough, for the disabled to come out of the institutions and
almshouses, to be accepted in society, to speak out for certain
rights, and to be able to sit to the front of the bus.”

website

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Congenial-speak #23

No comments:

Post a Comment

A bed-ridden hacker is bound to cough

READING

To the front of the Bus: Movement Toward a Fair Democracy

Search This Blog