It's Only Day 3 ...

Sheesh. We’re only in Day 3 of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Formal Impeachment Inquiry” and I’m already bored.

Will this help Warren or Biden, our sharpest journalists who seldom care about substance are asking. Or perhaps that is the “real” substance of this story.

Rachel Maddow is continuing to recite her long drawn out bedtime stories, such as about Spiro Agnew, whose request to be impeached was denied.

Many of the same people who pitched tents on cable news to repeatedly assure us that the brilliant Robert Mueller would have Trump dead to rights are now telling us that Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s Zelensky is the only smoking gun necessary to impeach and that many Republican Senators may well have their “come to Jesus” moments when required to vote in the Senate.

And John Dean, yes, that John Dean, together with Carl Bernstein, are serenading us on CNN with flashbacks to Watergate and comparisons between then and now.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Don’t misunderstand me. Trump deserves to be impeached and convicted. But, above all, I want a Democrat in the White House in 2021.

It is Time for House Democrats to Initiate Impeachment Proceedings Against Trump

WASHINGTON AND THE NATION, HEADS UP. I've changed my position. It is now time for House Democrats to begin well-organized impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. These proceedings will begin as investigations but let there be no question they are directed at considering the adoption of Articles of Impeachment. And the grounds for impeachment must go far beyond Trump's obstruction of justice as documented in the Mueller Report, and Trump and his team's involvement with Russia and Russian meddling during and in the 2016 election. It must include Trump's stonewalling Congress, his corruption, his misuse of campaign funds vis-a-vis Stormy Daniels, and more. BUT, House Democrats must organize for this undertaking, which they have failed miserably to do thus far. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi must change her stance and lead the charge.

 

Trump will not be convicted by the Senate even if Articles of Impeachment are brought. Sadly, Senators like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio will likely make sure of that. But the nation will learn of Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors nonetheless as the 2020 elections approach.

 

Democrats also, however, must balance their impeachment proceedings with a full focus during the 2020 election season on substantive policy issues that deeply concern the American people if Democrats are to hold the House, win the Presidency and perhaps take the Senate in 2020. These include providing for universal healthcare; gun regulation; infrastructure; student debt restructuring; an assault on the opioid epidemic; support for NATO; restoring a more balanced foreign policy that defends against and pushes back against China trade violations, Iran destabilizing activities, Russian meddling in elections and aggressions in Europe, but doesn't coddle dictators and autocrats; support for trade unionism and a decent minimum wage; support for and not ridiculing of urban centers, answers to homelessness, and the like; renewed protection of the environment; a humane immigration policy that doesn't separate children from their families, supports DACA young people, equitably addresses the status of long term undocumented immigrants in this country, but doesn't result in open borders; eliminating Trump executive orders that have undermined American values and its national interest.

 

Jake Sherman of POLITICO put things in perspective in this morning's (Sept 20, 2019) POLITICO Playbook as follows:

 

"GET THINKING ... HAS WASHINGTON ever been so frozen and so handcuffed by a president and his whims?

 

-- REPUBLICANS say they want to tighten gun laws, but they won't dare to utter a word about what kind of gun-control legislation they would support until Trump makes clear what he would support. And he's been almost completely silent. Burgess Everett: "The Senate surrenders legislating on guns to Trump": Sen. Johnny Isakson: "First time ever in history when the president sets the agenda every day when he tweets at 4 in the morning."

 

-- DEMOCRATS are having trouble conducting oversight because the White House has succeeded in dictating the terms under which they can do it -- without repercussion. The White House has blocked material witnesses. And the witnesses they can't block come to Capitol Hill and don't talk.

 

-- DEMOCRATS decline to impeach the president because, in part, they're worried about a sliver of members of Congress who have slivers of their constituencies who might or might not be offended by impeachment proceedings.

 

-- WHEN REPORTERS ask White House aides for information about policy, they are often hamstrung because a) they either have no idea what the president is thinking, or b) they are waiting for him to make his view public on Twitter."

 

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/09/20/how-trump-has-handcuffed-washington-479490?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000015a-dc5e-ddd0-adde-dd7eedc10000&nlid=630318

 

Democrats Must Walk and Chew Gum At the Same Time

I believe it is imperative that the Democrats walk and chew gum at the same time at this crucial moment in our democracy. The media will focus on political wrangling and not on substantive political issues. That tends to be the way they work, particularly during political campaigns. So Democrats must keep the public’s attention on their substantive programs, whether involving healthcare, climate change, education reform, civil rights, criminal justice, gun regulation, immigration, income and wealth disparities, voter suppression, or others. But Democrats must try to prioritize so that their substantive messages aren’t lost in the din and diluted. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi must play a leading role in this effort as the many Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential nomination are fighting to distinguish themselves from the pack by picking different policy issues to embrace.

At the same time that they constantly discuss policy issues, Democrats must also focus on keeping Trump and his Administration accountable, particularly through Congressional oversight and other legitimate means. Democratic candidates for the nomination must make clear their positions on issues but at the same time that Trump himself — his lying, his violation of norms, his disparagement of the press — is also a central issue in this next election.

When it comes to impeachment, I have been leaning toward the positions espoused by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. I believe it was the Senate hearings led by Senator Sam Ervin that played a central role in shaping the public‘s growing opposition to Richard Nixon‘s excesses in office and made possible effective impeachment hearings in the House and Nixon‘s subsequent resignation. Since today’s Democrats do not control the Senate, I have felt that House oversight investigations short of impeachment might play a similar function in educating and arousing the public. But, if Trump and his Administration continue to stonewall at every turn, whether in refusing to provide his tax returns or in refusing to comply with House oversight requests for documents and witnesses, then I think impeachment proceedings should commence and that the stonewalling should be an additional possible basis for articles of impeachment.

But, polls continue to show that many Americans are skeptical about impeachment and Nancy Pelosi’s concern that impeachment proceedings would be very divisive and might even play into Trump’s hand is very legitimate. It appears that most Americans remain focused more on their daily challenges and substantive policy issues relating to their everyday lives in sorting out their views on politics and politicians than on impeachment and the Mueller Report. Therefore, Democrats must continue to put their positions on substantive issues in front of the public in every way possible, even if impeachment proceedings begin, knowing that the media will not be their friend in that effort.

Democrats may not be able to avoid initiating impeachment proceedings. Some, like Elizabeth Warren, have called for the House to initiate impeachment proceedings. Others feel that it is the right thing to do in light of Mueller’s factual findings showing Trump’s obstruction of justice. Still others feel that it would give Democrats a stronger legal basis to demand that Trump and his Administration comply with subpoenas as Congress is expressly given the power of impeachment in the Constitution. If Democrats proceed with impeachment they must do so aggressively but fairly. They must push back against the likes of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who continues to play a very destructive role in undermining our democracy, Trump himself, and other apologists for this President. And Democrats must continue to address the everyday concerns of the American people and not let those issues become submerged in an impeachment fight. Again, the media will be of no help to the Democrats in that regard.☐

Vote DEMOCRATIC on Nov 6 2018

Trump has:
•cut taxes for super-rich & corporations
•threatened coverage of pre-existing conditions
•inspired violence
•deepened the “swamp”
•demonized a free press
•denigrated immigrants
•ripped children from parents
•denied climate change
•lied & lied 

VOTE DEMOCRATIC

On Trump and Birthright Citizenship

President Trump has recently proclaimed that he has the power and authority to eliminate birthright citizenship through an Executive Order.

Trump is not simply misinformed on the birthright citizenship issue. He is a devious, manipulative, serial liar who, unfortunately, is adept at marketing himself and controlling the news cycle. Fearful of losing House control in the upcoming midterm elections, Trump has returned to the theme that sadly worked so well for him during the 2016 campaign: immigration. First he sought to mobilize his base through lies about a so-called “caravan” of peoples trying to make their way through Mexico to the United States. Now he has turned his attention to so-called anchor babies by raising the birthright citizenship issue. He will say or do anything to try to stir up his base of true believers and often low information voters. Hopefully his efforts will fail and Democrats will capture the House.

On birthright citizenship, SCOTUS ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, in 1898, that the pertinent 14th Amendment language grants U.S. citizenship to all those born in this country with two notable exceptions based on English common law — the first exception is for children of foreign diplomats born here; the second exception is for children of enemy aliens who are in control of a part of this country where the child is born. This second exception does not apply to children of aliens unlawfully here. Those unlawful aliens are not enemies who have taken physical control of a part of this country (and hence are not at that point under U.S. jurisdiction). Pursuant to this SCOTUS decision, birthright citizenship applies to children born here of unlawful immigrants. SCOTUS would have to overturn existing precedent, to be sure not something the current conservative majority is resistant to doing based on recent outcomes, and, in my view, only then could Congress legislate under its power to implement the 14th Amendment. This is not within the purview of an executive order. Of course, the Constitution could be amended. I hope it is not.

A few lawyers and law professors seek to distinguish the holding in Wong Kim Ark on its facts. I believe they are mistaken in seeking to do so and that a reading of the entire SCOTUS majority opinion will make clear that the exact alien status of the parents in Wong Kim Arkwas not consequential to the Court’s holding.

Another Shooting at a House of Worship - A Synagogue

I went to bed early this morning after celebrating the Dodgers victory in the longest World Series game ever in the bottom of the 18th inning. But I awoke after only four hours sleep to learn of the tragic killings at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

What a world. I can accept hate although not everyone can or necessarily should. In my view, for good or bad, it is one of our human emotions. But when it translates into killing other human beings, whether on an individual level, by the actions of a mob, or through war, let alone genocide, it is so very sickening and abhorrent.

On David Brooks & The Democratic Response to Trump & Trumpism

Below is my response to The New York Times columnist David Brooks’ Opinion dated October 22, 2018 – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/opinion/midterms-democrats-health-care.html

The Materialist Party

The Democrats fail to take on Trumpism.

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

---

I think Brooks succinctly identifies three themes characterizing the “populists'” onslaught. First, Trump and others preach that “the good, decent people of the heartland are being threatened by immigrants, foreigners, and other outsiders while corrupt elites do nothing.” Second, they “have overturned the traditional moral standards” and Trump has “challenged basic norms of honesty, decency, compassion and moral conduct.” And, third, they have changed the debate from big versus small government to “basic openness, diversity and pluralism” to “closed ethnic nationalism”.

And Brooks criticizes Democrats for an almost singular focus on healthcare in the midterm elections, a criticism I share. David Leonhardt’s Opinion column this morning (October 23, 2018) calls out Democrats for not responding to Trump’s Caravan fixation and I thoroughly agree with him. See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/opinion/democrats-caravan-immigration-midterms-trump.html.

Brooks argues that Democrats are failing to respond appropriately. They are offering “no counter-narrative to Trump, little moral case to his behavior, no unifying argument against his ethnic nationalism”.

BUT, the problem with Brooks’ argument is that the Democrats have tried doing what he has suggested and thus far failed. Recall, Democrats tried to make Trump’s rejection of cultural norms a KEY issue in the 2016 elections, and what happened? What happened when Trump disparaged John McCain? What happened when Trump mocked a disabled journalist? What happened when the Access Hollywood video burst on the scene? What happened when women came forward and accused Trump of sexual assault? NOTHING. The herd that loved his disparagement of unlawful immigrants cheered on his misogyny, cried Lock Her Up!, didn’t give a hoot about John McCain, and a majority of white women voted for Trump despite that he likes grabbing women by the p*ssy.

This notion that Brooks and others advance that Democrats are playing identity politics or tribalism but not Trump is pure rubbish. Trump is playing the ultimate identity politics and the identity is WHITE. Oh, it’s not exclusive and 36% of Hispanic voters seem to lean Republican, although many of them might well be categorized as “white” had this country not taken to categorizing “non-Hispanic whites” separate from Hispanics and lumped together all Hispanics, including Cubans, Mexicans, Indians, and other Hispanics, under the same category. No wonder pollsters predict inaccurately.

Yes, I believe Democrats should be making a pitch beyond healthcare and I condemn Chuck Schumer for not providing leadership to his Party. He should move on. He’s a cautious, ineffectual soul. At least Pelosi has spine although I think she too should fade away, not that I see new leadership of quality on the horizon. Democrats should try to speak to the immigration issue but it obviously is not their forte as they want to retain Hispanic support but also need to speak out against open borders and in favor of a fair immigration policy protecting DACA students but that nonetheless does not sanction illegal immigration. They have quite rightly spoken against Trump’s enormous tax cut for the rich and corporations and spoken of its unfairness but the booming economy has made that issue secondary, not primary, and I understand that.

Brooks seems to want Democrats to embrace a position similar to Hillary’s “It Takes A Village”, an imagery I personally always found appealing. But, that’s not where white voters are at (to use the vernacular) for the moment. And white voters continue to rule the roost. Brooks sounds like another pollyannaish Tom Friedman on Mohammad bin Salman (MbS). Brooks condemns ethnic nationalism and suggests Democrats should take a more inclusive approach. What does he think Democrats have been doing? But white nationalism is very powerful and Trump has a penchant for knowing how to manipulate it.

I think the appeal of Texas’ Beto O’Rourke, even though he will likely lose to Ted Cruz, is that he is willing to speak to those broader issues that Brooks champions. But, as noted, Beto will likely lose. And that is the Democrats’ conundrum.

As for Brooks” conclusion that Democrats are better when it comes to materialism but Republicans dominate in the cultural realm, I think there is some truth to that but in large measure because the changing American demographic has frightened so many Americans who still have the power and Republicans are able to play to their fears, their cultural affinities, and the like. Perhaps, but perhaps not, as the demographic changes reflect themselves more and more among likely voters the Republican brand of cultural issues may weaken. I sure hope so. But look at yesterday’s news. As I recall, one of the few “progressive” comments Trump made during his campaign was a pitch for LGBT rights. And now? His “team” is thinking of changing the rules to base gender on biology alone?

I think the thing about Trump that infuriates me most is his serial, pathological LYING. That he can constantly stand in front of people, crowds, rallies, media and tell baldfaced lies and retain his loyal following, and even creep up in the polls as Republicans gravitate back to their Party for the midterm elections, sickens me to the core. It causes me to lose faith in other human beings and, more specifically, my fellow Americans. I realize that sometimes we hold our noses and support someone we don’t like because we consider the alternative worse. But here people are applauding Trump, cheering him on, going wild over him, when he lies through his teeth. They may be low information voters, but I am sure most of them know he is full of it. Call it their disgust with the “elites”, but their willingness to blindly follow their Pied Piper is scary.

God help us.