Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
Back in September I thought President Trump should be impeached for his refusal to commit to peaceful transition of power if was is not re-elected. Now that his refusal and associated events has lead to a terrorist attack on our Capitol is it time to impeach yet?
The Senate has voted not to remove President Trump from office. It’s not that he wasn’t guilty of the charges in the impeachment trial.
The case was proved by overwhelming evidence. Perhaps Senator Alexander said it best: Continue reading “President Trump learns a lesson”
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”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told us he is not an impartial juror and he will work with with the White House. Does Leader Mitch McConnell plan on a sham trial which will exonerate the President no matter what evidence is presented?
Will any evidence be allowed?
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski finds Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s positions on the impeachment trial disturbing. We all should find McConnell’s positions on the impeachment trial disturbing.
We heard from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham back in early November that he has no plans to listen or evidence or be impartial.
Where are the other Republican Senators? Are they OK with a sham trial or would they like a real trial?
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.
My first thought was that it was amazing that Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump by Neal Katyal with Sam Koppelman was so current. I’d expect a book of this type to be at least a few months out of date but it seems there was a heroic effort by the authors and research assistants to incorporate very recent events.
I like the book very much and agreed with much of it. Where I disagreed I was usually persuaded by the clear arguments presented in the book.
Continue reading “Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump”
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?
I was reading “Donald Trump, Meet Your Precursor”, a nice opinion piece that will be in the Sunday NY Times but was available online yesterday. The article discusses several parallels between President Johnson and President Trump, especially as related to impeachment.
It reminded me the several years back I had read and reviewed a biography of Andrew Johnson. I think it gave me a better appreciation of the article.
Is it time to re-examine the Mueller report ?
Now that a impeachment inquiry is under way and early results strongly suggest that President Trump was using his office for political gain, is it not reasonable that we consider that he may have done something similar in 2016?. After all Mueller did document multiple contacts between the campaign and Russia. And our intelligence agencies agree that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election. If this possible collusion is to be investigated as part of the inquiry, should the unredacted Mueller report be released to the relevant committees?
Continue reading “Mueller time”
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”
First, they objected to the impeachment hearings being closed. Then when the resolution to make them open was passed they voted against that and then complained about open hearings.
President Trump said he would not cooperate with the impeachment hearings because the full House had not voted on it. Then when the House voted, he again objected and refused to cooperate.
What do republicans want?
I’ve been on a few juries. You are supposed to pay attention to the evidence. Another important thing is using that evidence to reach a fair and impartial decision. Senator Lindsey Graham has indicated he will not listen to the evidence. He has made many statements indicating he is certainly not impartial.
If the House votes to impeach, the Senate holds a trial to decide if the person impeached is guilty. The Senators are the jury. The Chief Justice will preside.
Can Senator Graham ask to be excused since he does not seem up to the task?