No Right Turn: Impeached!

Written By: - Date published: 6:03 pm, December 19th, 2019 - 17 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, us politics - Tags: ,

No Right Turn writes

The US House of representatives has just voted to impeach Donald Trump, making him only the third US president to earn that dubiou distinction. But before anyone gets their hopes up, this isn’t any return to constitutional normalcy. Once the House votes for impeachment, the Senate is supposed to conduct a trial. And the Republicans who dominate that body have shown no indication that they will do that properly, let alone vote to convict by the required two-thirds majority. So, the constitutional checks and balances fail because they ultimately rely on some measure of honesty and good faith from politicians. And where the US is concerned, that simply cannot be relied upon.

Meanwhile, its worth noting: Nixon – the man who provides the benchmark for a criminal US president – had enough decency and shame to resign before he got to this stage. Trump doesn’t. Which is horrifying in a way.

17 comments on “No Right Turn: Impeached! ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Andre 1
    19 December 2019 at 9:40 pm

    NRT is giving Nixon a bit too much credit.

    Nixon had a major Supreme Court decision go against him, forcing him to cough up the tapes. He also had a delegation of Republican senators turn up to tell him he was gonna lose in the Senate trial. After that, he resigned.

    The mandarin manutang has yet to suffer any setbacks comparable to those.

  2. roblogic 2
    19 December 2019 at 9:51 pm

    OK impeach the corrupt douche, but remember a bit of perspective from Ron Paul. Trump is the only prez in decades who hasn't embroiled the USA any further in immoral & pointless wars

    https://twitter.com/roblogic_/status/1207575988961308672?s=20

    • Macro 2.1
      19 December 2019 at 10:26 pm

      🙄

      As if that forgives a man who has no idea of the role he chose for himself:

      Here is what George Conway – Kelly-Anne Conway's (Trump's Counsellor) husband had to say on the matter just today.

      Unfit for Office

      George Conway: Trump is unfit for office

      In essence, Trump thinks everything should be about him, for him, for his benefit and glorification—and he can’t comprehend, and doesn’t care about, anything that isn’t. The American diplomat David Holmes testified that Ambassador Gordon Sondland explained to him that “the president only cares about ‘big stuff’”—clarifying, according to Holmes, that this meant “big stuff that benefits the president.”

      And that’s why Trump can’t comply with his duties to the nation, and why he now stands as the third president ever to have been impeached. His own stated view of his constitutional authority can only be described as narcissistic: “I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president.” But as the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment report rightly explains, “Impeachment is aimed at Presidents who believe they are above the law, and who believe their own interests transcend those of the country and Constitution.” Or, as then-Representative Mike Pence put it in 2008: “This business of high crimes and misdemeanors goes to the question of whether the person serving as President of the United States put their own interests, their personal interests, ahead of public service.” It was inevitable that, given his boundlessly self-centered bent, this president would do precisely that.

      Which he did when he repeatedly and criminally obstructed the Mueller investigation, because he feared it would undercut his electoral triumph. He could have been, and should have been, impeached for that alone. And which he did once more when he put his own interests first—again subordinating the nation’s security—by trying to shake down Ukraine to obtain an electoral advantage over a political rival. That, too, violated his oath of office—an oath the Framers of the Constitution viewed as sacrosanct—and thus constituted, as the House rightly found, an impeachable offense.

      And ever the narcissist, Trump can admit no wrong. Not only that; the man who clumsily Sharpied a weather map to cover up a mistake in a tweet continues to insist that he acted perfectly in all respects. Trump’s desperate, unhinged letter yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demonstrates that he doesn’t understand what his constitutional duties require, and should cement the case for his removal: “You know that I had a totally innocent conversation with the President of Ukraine.” The “transcript” of that conversation shows “that the paragraph in question”—the “do us a favor, though” paragraph—“was perfect.” “I have been deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process.” “You view democracy as your enemy!” With virtually every word of that letter, Trump showed that he has no idea how he violated his oath of office—and will never be made to comprehend it. Trump would surely do it all again, and violate his oath again, if given the chance.

    • joe90 2.2
      20 December 2019 at 2:00 pm

      a bit of perspective from Ron Paul.

      Civilian casualties have soared under tRump, under tRump's revised rules of engagement more indiscriminate munitions have been deployed and his mythical draw-down of troops is just that, a fucking myth.

      But hey, keep on supping that Luap Nor Kool-Aid.

      /

      https://theintercept.com/2019/10/02/trump-impeachment-civilian-casualties-war/

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/23/us-air-wars-trump

      https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2019/oct/22/brett-mcgurk/mcgurk-right-trump-has-sent-14000-troops-middle-ea/

  3. Stuart Munro 3
    20 December 2019 at 4:38 pm

    It's a small step on America's road to recovery. They may never get there, but

    the journey of a thousand li begins with a single step ~ Lao Tzu

  4. mosa 4
    20 December 2019 at 6:24 pm

    I would have thought that Nixon and his esteemed helpers criminal behaviour was far worse than anything Trump has been accused of…….so far.

    I made the comments some months ago that any articles of impeachment against Trump has too be ruled on in the senate which has a republican majority.

    In all likelihood Trump will contest the 2020 election on a platform as a martyr of the establishment.

    Perfect for him and his campaign of " cleaning up the swamp "

    • Andre 4.1
      20 December 2019 at 6:43 pm

      Let's do a comparison of Watergate and the Ukraine extortion scheme:

      Nixon did not know about the Watergate burglary before it was done, he attempted to cover up his team's actions after the fact. Twittertwat initiated the entire Ukraine extortion scheme and pushed reluctant underlings to carry it out.

      Watergate was an entirely domestic issue with zero foreign policy or national security ramifications. The Ukraine extortion has major foreign policy repercussions and may negatively affect US national security.

      The Watergate burglary was done using primarily campaign resources and just a few senior officials in Nixon's Cabinet involved. The Ukraine extortion misused hundreds of millions of congress appropriated taxpayer funds for the extortion, quite a few diplomatic service officials, on top of Dolt45's Cabinet officials.

      Those are just the highlights, a full compare and contrast would take pages…

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.