It's Only A Crisis Because Pelosi Is Afraid To Impeach

     Donald J. Trump, America's current President, wants to be impeached just as Nancy Pelosi says, and he will stone-wall his way into making it happen if he must. Pelosi wants to win even if it means not doing her job, as if Trump will impeach himself for her. 

     So the war is underway. Impeach him and run the risk of helping him get re-elected, or try to beat him at the ballot box while fighting back the morality cops, like Elizabeth Warren, who see this as a clear matter of integrity.

     
 I agree with Warren and I believe Pelosi and the Democrats are joining Republicans in a really dangerous game of wanting to win the politics of the day so badly, they are running from the spirit of justice in a nation much too passionate about honoring that spirit.

     Wantonness is not a great emotion to plan around, but it is the driving force for everything Democrats talk about these days. They want Trump gone so badly, but they are afraid to listen to the Mueller report and just "Do Their Jobs" because of the potential political backlash.

     Instead of simply reading the report- which, I am starting to question if many in Congress have- Democrats want to chase down Bob Mueller and former White House attorney, Don McGhan, who might be forced to testify, but will never be able to say anything that isn't already contained in the report. No matter how much Democrats want their way on this, they will look silly having McGhan turn to pages in the report to read it out loud on television for them. In essence, they want Mueller and McGhan  and Trump to do their jobs for them.

     In fact, Pelosi said as much when she recently resorted to stuttering her way into a weird explanation of Trump trying to "self impeach", a term nobody in the world understands but Pelosi. Even her attempts to clarify herself only amounted to saying that "Trump is building the case for his own impeachment".

     Translation: Pelosi wants Trump to do her job within Congress of whipping up support for impeachment by convincing individuals who are too lazy to do their jobs, to do their jobs and finally read the report. Pelosi herself is more willing to claim that we are in the midst of a Constitutional crisis rather than do her job and accept the answer the Constitution has given for this crisis moment.

     Because of the Providential perfection of our amendable Constitution, you can never have a Constitutional crisis until you run into a problem that the Constitution has no answer for. The problem right now is that the politics are historically horrible on impeachment, which has nothing to do with a crisis at all. This is about Pelosi wanting to have her cake and eat it too. But, everyone wants to have and eat their cake right now, and it's not a good look for any of them.

     Progressive Democrats say they want a woman to be the next President of the United States, but can't find one the masses seem willing to support yet. In addition to their Medicare-for-all plans, these progressives really want America to finally get serious about climate change vis a vis their Green New Deal, which is currently just a cool name and not quite a deal or a plan yet.

     Many of the new progressives in the party came to Washington D.C. on a commitment to impeach this President, but they have been quieted by Pelosi even though the Mueller report gives them more ammunition to impeach than they had when they arrived.

     Republicans have their own wants, but they are limited because they got that tax cut that turned out to be 4-5% bigger than anyone ever wanted or asked for. As it stands, way too many Republicans simply want Democrats to move on from Mueller's findings and turn a blind eye to the outlined obstructions and impeachment instructions messaged in the report. If you read between the lines on Pelosi's "self impeachment" comment, she seems willing to comply.

     Unfortunately for the GOP, moving on from Mueller means moving on to a huge spending bill that Trump negotiated directly with Chuck and Nancy (Schumer and Pelosi) realizing Congress is hardly the right place to make agreements anymore. This odd trio have agreed to a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that will probably get jammed by the politics of deficits, special interest add-ons, or a combination of both

     But I am mostly upset with Pelosi who is convinced the impeachment process will "die at the Senate's edge" and has fended her party away from the process, even though she seems more and more willing to discuss the option herself after the controversial AG Barr Senate testimony recently.  If Democrat voters start to feel this President deserves more than he is getting, they will stop pressuring this President and start pressuring his enablers instead- Democrats included.

     Pelosi is correct in her view on the dead end road impeachment faces in the Senate, but she is dead wrong in her overall analysis of the benefit to detriment because justice can never be about politics. Whether every Senator in America chooses to align themselves on the right side of history or not doesn't diminish the importance of making them have to. 

     In fact, this is not the time to run from the process and suggest the ideal of a Constitutional crisis. This is the time to use the process and make every person in Congress have to place their marker in the history books for our grandchildren to study. This is a time to shame those who haven't read the report, and this is also the time to better explain what the word impeachment means.....because, in the minds of many, the word means removal, and Americans don't like removing people WE voted for unless we have no other choice. The first Democrat to own the process of explaining impeachment to US all will help drive the process to its proper conclusion, and they might even win the White House for their efforts.

     An impeachment is a trial.  Period. It is a fact finding process intended to investigate cabinet officials who could be immune to such an inquiry if not for impeachment. Anyone geeky enough to be reading this already understood that. Many Americans do not. The only crisis currently is that Congress is at a stand still in getting documents from the White House for every current congressional investigation, including Russian election interference, and Congress can't begin their duty of oversight without compliance from the Trump administration.

     Insert AG Barr, who runs the Justice Department and is the key lineman blocking out front for all of Trump's obstruction efforts. Ultimately, someone in the Department of Justice will have to decide to indict their boss if Democrats attempt to hold Barr in contempt for not testifying before the House as requested recently. Lying to Senators about the letter he had received from Mueller is also perjury, which is an impeachable offense. As with Nixon, obstruction of a congressional investigation is also an impeachment worthy offense. 

     At the very least, Trump and his administration have promised to obstruct and are presently living up to the promise. The reasons to shut up and do something about this administration are recent, ongoing, and exist outside of the Mueller report, a report which also begs for something to be done.

     Impeachments alone have never resulted in the removal of a President because they were not necessarily intended for that. Before the Senate ever gets a chance to vote to remove a President via impeachment, a majority vote has to happen in the House first. The Founding Fathers intentionally designed an impeachment to be just as difficult as it should be. 

     Despite popular perception, the politics of impeachment are much more damaging to the party of the President, but that is beside the point. The impeachment process is the point and it is a provision designed for scenarios that demand it. It is part of the oath of the office that Congress promises to fulfill when the President and his cabinet fails to fulfill their own oaths.  History has painted impeachments as toxic, but politics themselves are naturally toxic and occasionally corrupt. By reinforcing the toxicity of an impeachment, Pelosi and Democrats are blaming the remedy.

     A concerted push for a better understanding of the process would offer better clarity to the word itself and to the necessity for invoking it when the Constitution demands. The Democrats anxiously screaming for impeachment need to acknowledge the confusion about the process and clarify it enough to tilt public perception and force Pelosi's hand. 

     The reason impeachments have never removed a President is because our hope-filled dream of Democracy in this fractured Republic typically intervenes. In reality, the standard for removal has always been higher than"... high crimes and misdemeanors", even while the standard for impeachment is not. Until Nancy Pelosi gets that and gets the courage to do what is right and not what is politically expedient, she is failing her country, her party and herself.

     I hate to beat a dead horse, but this horse deserves a beating. Pelosi asking for hearings with Mueller is the equivalent of asking him to slap her and the rest of the Democrats over the head with the obvious before they do what the report begs of them. All of this because everyone in D.C. wants a political victory even if America loses along the way.

     Until political wantonness changes, beating Trump at the ballot box is the only trick the Democrat pony can pull off, and Joe Biden is the best option to do it. Yet, beating Trump in 2020 is what Nancy needs. It has nothing to do with integrity, justice or addressing the reason Trump won in the first place. Trump happened for a reason and his approval ratings have never been low enough for me to think that mysterious reason has changed.

     Yeah, Russia is the easy answer, however, I tend to believe that Russia tipped a scale that was waiting to fall over from eight years of the racial uneasiness from a black president that millions refused to call their own. Now, we have millions on the other end of the political spectrum unwilling to do the same with Trump although the underlying issues from both sides are bigger than either men.

   It might be time for each of US to take ownership of our own part of this problem. We all want the America WE dream of but can't see how we become our own worst enemies screaming to the winds for the America we want instead of pursuing a nation that fulfills the wants of many, Trumpians included. The Trumpian army isn't confused about what's wrong even if they have a fully distorted view of who to blame or how to fix it. 

     Because the "Lord Is My Shepherd" I loathe the word want and wantonness, and I run from the use of the word as often as I can. It is a selfish emotion.  It defies my spiritual upbringing and denotes a desperation that defies the constant provisions of God. It screams desperation, yet, some needs are desperate, and I too want this rightfully elected dude gone just as passionately as the rest of you.

     What I don't want is to use want as a strategy to get him out. I don't want an elected president to lose his job without the full benefit of a due process too politically risky to touch. I would like for Trump to get everything he deserves, even if the process results in a real exoneration and not a fake news variety.

     What I also don't want, is for Democrats to pursue a political gain and
short circuit the process and the pursuit of democracy intended by the Founding Fathers who created the impeachment to properly adjudicate the misdeeds of a President gone array. If the misdeeds are unfounded, only the process can fully investigate and set the record straight, either way.

     No matter how Trump fights it, history will be forced to sniff out the truth. No matter how Pelosi fights it, the impeachment process was meant to deal with certain presidential matters and everyone in Congress currently playing politics instead of doing their job to clarify the historical record will be held accountable by history as well.

     No, this isn't a Constitutional crisis because there is an answer for this moment and it lives in the Constitution. One day in the future, Republicans and Democrats will regret not reading the report soon enough, and they'll regret trying to take this moment to use it as an opportunity for their own political gain.  Every American who lets them get away with it will feel the same regret.

Does Capitalism Force Americans To Sell Democracy(Too), But Stand For Oligarchy?

It's not just Bernie Sanders trying to warn us all that we are being ruled by the oligarchs. Even the oligarchs agree.  Let that really smart billionaire Donald Trump tell you his real idea for immigration and he'll describe some crazy plan to gobble up 11 million people, send them back to Mexico (or wherever they came from), and then find a way to expedite their return because president Trump will be creating a whole lot of jobs that those 11 millions Mexicans will be needed for. This won't endear him to his conservative colleagues during the upcoming debate but he'll be the man in the big chair, not them.

Teflon Don-ald

BTW Trump is not very conservative!

Trump has defied all political punditry and risen regardless of his so-called gaffs. The more substantive gaffs are soon to come. For example, Trump keeps warning us that republicans won't like the fact that Donald Trump believes in helping people that are poor in more ways than GOP tough love.  This probably means he'll be repealing ObamaCare  and reinstating it under  TrumpCare if you press him on the question.  Soon he'll be pressed on a whole lot of questions which could be the moment in which potential republican supporters determine that "The Donald" does not actually lean to the right at all and was a registered independent before trying to assert his voice within the republican arena back when Fox news first became entertainment thirsty enough to seriously recognize his commentary. Sanders is hardly a democrat either, which makes his running as a democrat as peculiar as Trumps misplaced republican approach to the White House.

The truth is that third party options are still mostly laughable simply because not enough Americans actually vote.  Voting apathy not only allows for voter suppression, it ensures a system that is rigged for the money and the support to be driven behind predetermined talking heads representing an invitation only, party of two where the party plan and the keynote speakers are dictated by Super PAC's, a new methodology of America's oligarchs.  If a PAC don't back you, then you really aren't a candidate at all, which is why Vice president Joe Biden could struggle as a candidate, unless of course president Obama is preparing to publicly back him since the Obama's are a Super PAC, especially Michelle, and their influence could mean that Biden won't need another PAC.

Donald's early threat to be a third party alternative made me think he didn't get into this thing to actually be the president of America since third party candidates can't win yet. Now, even Trump is trumpeting this refrain by telling republicans recently that their best chance is with him as a republican.  The best chance for The Donald to actually win the presidency is as a republican, but does that also mean that the best chance for the republicans is The Donald?  General election polling says no way, and soon both Trump and Sanders will have to determine if their displaced, long-shot campaigns have the legs for the long hall. Bernie's populism message and Trump's fear mongering will have a voice in this race, though each of them are long odds to carry it beyond the primary season.  That duty will likely be left for the more electable candidates to accomplish

It's Not Too Late For A Cross Party Debate.

Sanders and Trump could collaborate on a debate and force a conversation that Fox News, or whichever network that has the next debate, can't control.  Bernie needs to elevate his populist ideology by arguing it against a contrasting conservative anyway, which no longer applies to Bill and Hillary's rhetoric. Trump, on the other hand, needs to remain entertainingly toxic without trying to prescribe policy points from off the cuff, like deporting all of the Mexicans and then expediting their return somehow; probably after he assigns them a president Trump card (I couldn't resist).  A cross party debate would be just the thing for both candidates to break away from the oligarch's (PAC's and network television) control over the political process.

Since Trump is soon to be uncovered as the real RINO (republican in name only), more right leaning republicans who aren't happy with fighting for a chance just to flank the poll leading Trump on the Fox debate stage, will soon be chomping at the bit to bite at Donald.  Trump won't take kindly to being bitten and the whole scene promises to be something that I will eagerly watch, but only so that I can say that I witnessed one of the lowest representations of America's democracy during my lifetime. Hopefully this is our lowest point.

Is any American politician free from the negative impression
that most Americans have of the process? Do WE believe in
any politician or are they all just who WE get to choose from? 

Unlike dirty laundry, ours is the democracy that we boldly reveal before the world and then hold it against Cuba for not following in our footsteps.  A democracy that sends open letters to the Ayatollah of Iran in the middle of nuclear negotiations. A democracy that allows an extremist video to ignite yet another attack against Roe .v. Wade, but also blocks all productive legislation in Congress in the fear of giving the sitting president too many legacy points.  A democracy that reaches out to deal with the challenge of a middle eastern nuclear arms race and Cuban normalcy with a political war at home that promises a swift end to diplomacy in both Iran and Cuba if the wrong party wins that war.

Can You Call Yourself A Democracy Officially With only 36.4% Voter Participation?

This is a democracy that doesn't really vote in mass because voting, as it stands, doesn't help to avoid "do nothing" elected officials.  In our democracy, WE still have 600,000 citizens of Washington D.C., the nations capital no less, who pay taxes but live without real representation because they can't vote and neither can their lone representative in congress who has limited voting powers. Instead of national ballot initiatives that give every American the right, privilege and duty (maybe legal if necessary) of a real democracy and not a broken representative one, our democracy insures that gerrymandering and guns remain a right while education and voting are privileges with embedded hurdles that really old people and ex-cons are finding harder and harder to surmount.

Our democracy sucks you up and spits you into a category of its choosing.  You can fight and claw your way out of economic slotting, but you had better dig in deep to pull yourself  to the top of the the social casting system which demands Oprah like wealth or Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reilly influence to counterbalance the weight of casting.  Regular Joe's (or Barack's) often make their social climb using political power plays, but find themselves handcuffed by the oligarchs or caving to lobbyists who are enlisted by the oligarchs. These are aspects of our version of democracy, but for some reason WE often hope no one mentions those ugly parts while insisting that others be more like US for the sake of business considerations.

Reports Say Castro's Struggling To Swiftly Embrace Change

If Cuba is resisting normalized relations and hesitant to implement change, it might be the kind of democracy that has Donald Trump on every news channel that's driving their fear.    If you remain on the channel past the five minutes of  Trump, and take a deep dive into poll numbers of our current president and every candidate for our next president, it becomes clear that even WE don't really care for any of these candidates even though we know one of them has to be the next lead representative of American democracy.  What Cuba and all nations adverse to U.S. democracy must realize is that capitalism is bigger than all of us. Americans- even Donald Trump- do business in China because we have to not because we really want to.  China and countries worse than China have done business in Cuba throughout our 50 years of Cuban sanctions and will continue to make their way to Cuba to do business in the event that hard line republicans in congress force the U.S. to remain not as welcomed in Cuba simply from continued toxic rhetoric.  Can you imagine what happens if Marco Rubio somehow actually wins the presidency?

 No, rambunctious Rubio and tenacious Trump are not the only reason that Cuba and many people around the world examine the American pride in for our version of democracy and snicker just a bit.  On balance, this great nation has accomplished too much to deserve such an indictment against our politicians or our version of democracy. But WE can't keep ignoring the sound of laughter.  Can WE?