The Senate will see no evil and hear no evil concerning our President. The full saying is “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” but 2 out of 3 is not bad for majority in the US Senate.

So ends the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. The trial without witnesses or evidence. Continue reading “See no evil and hear no evil”

I have reviewed a book explaining the case for impeaching President Trump. The author considers himself a centrist – extreme centrist is the term he uses. The case is explained well.

If you are a Republican, you should not excuse a behavior in a fellow Republican that you would condemn in a Democrat. And if you are a Democrat, you should not excuse a behavior in a fellow Democrat that you would condemn in a Republican. Unfortunately we have seen little of that in the past few months of Impeachment hearings.

Another perspective from a conservative point of view is offered in today’s NY Times. The Conservative Case for Impeachment — and Removal by Bret Stephens is well worth reading.

This July call by President Trump to the President of Ukraine seems to be the center of the Impeachment Inquiry so far. However all we have to go on is the a rough transcript released by the White House. The actual full transcript is on a very highly classified computer system.

Is it possible for someone from the Intelligence committees to read it? Could someone read or testify to the contents of other calls on that same system?

Why is President Trump trying to stop people from his administration from testifying in the impeachment inquiry? There is plenty of evidence presented of his guilty behavior in Ukraine call and related events. It seemed to be extortion or bribery depending on how you look at it but he insists the call was “perfect”. So far his Republican allies are standing by him.

He has ordered several potential witnesses from the White House not to testify. If he thinks he is innocent, why do this? On the other hand, it may be obstruction or just a sign of guilt.

Is this the behavior of an innocent President?

So far in the Impeachment Inquiry, it seems as if the Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee are more interested in obtaining facts while the Republican members are more interested in fiction which misleads the public and defends President Trump.

We have heard from several witnesses and the picture that emerges keeps getting worse for the President. And Republicans keep try to defend him with misleading claims and constantly changing stories.
Continue reading “Fact or Fiction in the Impeachment Inquiry”

President Trump’s defenders like to spin the facts to mislead the public and maybe even fool themselves. This seems to be their way to defend the President’s behavior that has led to the impeachment inquiry.

Here is a fact check on some of the misleading claims –

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/11/scalise-spins-facts-on-security-aid/

Republicans hypocrisy again. We previously heard Republican complaints about the closed hearings and now open hearings in the impeachment inquiry. So far in the open hearings we have heard from several witnesses from the State Department about the effect on diplomacy and specifically their job as a result of President Trump’s actions.

As far as I can tell they have been very clear about what they know as a result of first hand information and what they believe based on what they have heard from others in the State Department.
Continue reading “Republican hypocrisy on first hand witnesses”