Meantime, we can only hope that the millions of Americans who support Trump open their eyes to see what is right in front of them, open their minds to the facts about what an awful person Donald Trump is and open their hearts to the victims of mass murder after mass murder done by people who embrace Donald Trump’s white supremacist, racist vision for America.
Democrats are taking the first step in this process. They have launched an impeachment inquiry to investigate what, if any, “high crimes and misdemeanors” Trump may have committed. If the investigation concludes that he has, the committee will draw up articles of impeachment and the Judiciary Committee and then the full House vote on it. This is happening at the start of Congress’s August Recess (which is going to stretch until Sept. 9). So between now and then, any action will happen only in the courts. Once Congress is back, they can hold hearings highlighting the Mueller report, but their key witness and key documents could still be tied up in a legal battle. If they get to the step of voting on articles of impeachment, we don’t know how that would fare. There are 30 Democrats who represent districts Trump won in 2016; only one of those backs an impeachment inquiry. More than 100 Democrats don’t even publicly support an impeachment inquiry; many of them represent swing or Republican-leaning districts. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted informal impeachment proceedings because she fears it could cost Democrats the House next year.
Still, getting to this early stage in the process is the last thing Trump wanted. Not that he is in any real risk of getting kicked out of office. For that to happen, the Senate would have to hold a trial and two-thirds of the 100 members would have to vote to convict him. The Senate is controlled by Republicans largely loyal to Trump. But when Democrats took back the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, his team feared getting tied up in time-consuming investigations launched by House Democrats; investigations that have the potential to air some of Trump’s dirty laundry. Impeachment proceedings are the most intense, and dramatic, kind of congressional investigation. Consider: Democrats are already investigating issues including whether Trump obstructed justice in the special counsel investigation, whether he had a role in illegal hush-money payments during the campaign, whether his business had money laundering ties to Russia, and much more. Trump has resisted handing over information in 20 investigations, leading to legal battles.
Most recently, House Democrats are suing Trump’s administration to try to get his tax returns and suing to get Trump’s former White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to testify about key moments in the Mueller report. (That’s the lawsuit they filed Wednesday where they said McGahn’s testimony is key for considering impeachment.) All that is in addition going to court to get the unredacted Mueller report. Many of these investigations could get wrapped up into an impeachment investigation. And because that investigation carries the weighty “i” word, it guarantees news coverage and eyeballs on all future hearings Democrats have in this committee. A catalyst for embracing the impeachment term seems to have been former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s III testimony in July to two House committees, where he laid out what his report found: that Trump’s campaign welcomed Russia’s help and Trump may have obstructed justice.
“We all looked up after Robert S. Mueller III’s testimony and realized that we are in an impeachment inquiry,” Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. “In every meaningful way, our investigation is an impeachment inquiry,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, wrote in an op-ed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, right as a majority of House Democrats said they supported taking the first step toward impeachment. Arguing in under-the-radar court filings that the committee is beginning an impeachment inquiry is one thing. It could be a legal strategy that doesn’t carry much political weight. The “i” word strengthens Democrats’ case to get grand jury information underlying the Mueller report, or to force McGahn to testify, since Congress can argue it, too, is a judiciary body conducting a court proceeding, and it needs evidence to do that. But having the chairman of the committee key to impeachment openly, and clearly, stating that an impeachment inquiry has started escalates things. The impeachment inquiry that Trump has feared is here.
Mueller Findings
This was a series that detailed the important findings from the Mueller Report: lawfareblog.com/report-
It’s actually a shame Mueller was unable or unwilling to communicate with Congress that based on an OLC opinion within the Justice Dept, his team really didn’t do much to pursue the collusion angle between the Trump campaign & Russia, due to the (mistaken) belief a sitting president cannot be indicted (which would basically place presidents above the law). Had certain committees in the House known that in advance, they could have zeroed in more on documents & witnesses to follow the international money trail that may have revealed evidence of conspiracy.
As it was, the probes dragged on for two years without investigators focused on this critical aspect to the Russian scandal, so it seems like such wasted lost time. But before this year, the majority GOP controlled the committee chairs, so they would have just squashed that line of investigation like they did with everything else. So 2018 is really the first chance for a Dem House to pursue important avenues like financial records which may be best able to unveil the critical facts. So although it seems like these inquiries have already dragged on a long time, in some ways they’re just getting started.
The Epstein Case
They conducted a raid on pedophile island, from which many of those perverted secrets from that island will be coming out:
Our liar-in-chief routinely uses crazy conspiracy theories he pulls from the depths of the fever swamp, swimming in a toxic soup from the echo always propagated without evidence. In our Part 3 from Sunday, we posted several links to articles about Trump’s latest outlandish conspiracy blaming the Clintons for Epstein’s death, & on that note here are a few more articles:
More on Trump’s Absurd Conspiracies
Trump has a long history of spreading the manure:
Media organizations are not “taking sides” when they exclude false information, information that can be dangerous to boot. This is the trap of false balance. There is no balance required when it comes to “Did the Clintons kill Epstein?” or “Did Trump actually help propagate conspiracy theories?” There are factual answers (no and yes, respectively), and a responsible media organization does not allow an apologist to suggest that we really don’t know about those Clintons. A legitimate news organization does not provide a forum for hacks to lie that the president “just wants everything to be investigated.” In short, the story here is threefold. The president is irresponsibly fanning incendiary conspiracy theories and white nationalist tropes; his aides won’t acknowledge that, so they lie about what he’s saying; and Republicans are too cowardly to denounce him or question his mental fitness. With Trump, his media mouthpieces and social media armies spreading so much misinformation that feeds the atmosphere, the mainstream media has an outsized obligation to provide a true accounting of events. If not, they become complicit.
Trump & His Party Giving Domestic Terrorism a Pass, Plus Ratchets Up Hatred for Immigrants
Much like President Trump is abdicating his duties by not devoting time, attention & resources to fighting Russian interference in our elections, he is also not lifting a finger to fight domestic terrorism that has become a scourge on our land: theatlantic.com/
The people can see how the prez emboldens the hatred & violence: businessinsider.
Powerful ad: huffpost.com/
Short Bits
Even prior to the radical right-wing media & tea party mentality began to spread like malignant cancer, the bombastic rabble-rousing was orchestrated in Congress by Newt. It formed the foundation to this era when entrenched partisan warfare became the norm over working together to create consensus on bipartisan agreements. So instead of constructive legislation to actually solve problems, we’re stuck with angry tribal grievances which ensure obstruction & gridlock. See here what Newt begat:
thedailybeast.com/the-inside-
Here is a bold plan if Congress had the courage to negate the devastating impact of gerrymandering, where larger & less extreme House districts would elect multi-members, & that just might help restore bipartisanship: salon.com/2019/08/11/americas-
Here on the shores of the Great Lakes, the prospect of these intruders entering our waters is extremely worrisome. These carp could become to the Great Lakes like pythons are to the Everglades, destroying the ecosystem & we’re not doing nearly enough to stop them: apnews.com/
Trump can’t handle the truth about himself since it ain’t a pretty picture. So he resorts to constantly lying in order to change the narrative, which has allowed him to reach an extraordinary milestone in the number of lies he’s told us while in office (more details on hitting that 12K mark will appear this week in Part 2): washingtonpost.com/opinions/
Trump lied today about a plastic chemicals plant under construction in western Pa. to rile the crowd, which that plant was actually announced 7 years ago when Obama was president: msn.com/en-us/news/politics/
The character of the man: theguardian.com/culture/2019/
Foreign Dangers & Hotbeds
The book is now available about the rise & impact of the echo: http://www.brianrosenwald.com/
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