The following quote is the text of a letter I sent by email
to the Washington DC offices of Representative Pete Sessions, and Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
Quote:
Donald Trump has been committing treason of the “aid and
comfort” type, in full view of the
public, in two related ways. One is damaging our NATO alliance to the
point our allies no longer believe we will come to their aid, if they are attacked. The other is promoting a “peace” solution for
the Ukraine-Russia war that gives Ukrainian territory occupied by Putin’s
Russia, to Russia as a condition for
ceasing hostilities, which is a “win”
for Putin by his own definition! We can
argue about the Supreme Court’s decision giving Trump immunity from federal prosecution
for his “official acts”, but there is no
implied immunity concerning impeachment for his acts of treason, as witnessed by millions on live television.
Trump has been extorting various universities, media companies, and law firms to do what he wants, by withholding their funding, and in Harvard’s case, by threatening their tax status because they
would not submit. Extortion is a very
serious crime in all 50 states!
Again, we can argue about any prosecution
immunity per the Supreme Court, but this
really is a crystal-clear case of his abuse of the powers of his office! Abusing the power of his office is an
impeachable offense, and has been, since the very founding of the Republic.
Trump through his minions has deported thousands of illegal
immigrants (and a few bona fide legal US residents) to foreign prisons without
any due process, and has a demonstrated
history of defying court orders about this process. This is in utter defiance of the Constitution
that he swore to uphold at his inauguration!
He has said in public that he thinks his “policies” pre-empt
Constitutional due process protections.
This is a horrifying violation of his oath of office, and of his duties as President! It may not be prosecutable, but it is most definitely impeachable!
I am calling upon you to put a stop to these gross offenses! Grow a spine and oppose this would-be
dictator, while there is still time! Do the job you swore to do, when you took your oath of office! Or else you are demonstrably complicit in all
of these crimes and offenses!
End quote.
The extortion and deportations, with demonstrated contempt for due process of
law, are possible because Trump’s
appointees are not generally qualified or even competent, but instead utterly loyal to him: they are willing to commit any atrocity or
illegality that he wants. That has
effectively weaponized many agencies for retribution against Trump’s enemies, and together with massive indiscriminate
layoffs, rendered many others
dysfunctional with internal chaos. Those
are the hallmarks of conversion to dictatorship seen before in history, with many previous “fearless leader” cults.
To this I would only add Trump’s egregious lying to the
public, about almost everything. Nearly every time anybody has fact-checked
his claims, it’s been “pants on fire” or
very nearly so! There is absolutely no
logical reason to believe anything he says,
about the economy, about
immigration, or about the effects of any
of his policies upon you!
You might not want to hear that, but so say the facts! You are entitled to your own opinions about
any of these things, but you are NOT entitled
to your own “facts”! There really is
such a thing as objective fact and objective truth. And for the broadcast news media, many of you seem to have forgotten some years
ago, that reporting the objective facts
and truth out-prioritizes any equal time given to political opinions. The recent extortion is making that failure worse
yet.
As to Presidential impeachment, Andrew Johnson was impeached but narrowly
acquitted, essentially for abuse of his
powers of office just after the Civil War.
Richard Nixon was about to be impeached, but resigned before it could happen, over the same basic abuse of powers
offense, regarding Watergate. Bill Clinton was impeached, but acquitted, over lying to the public about a sex act in
the Oval Office with an intern. Donald
Trump was impeached twice during his first term as President, and narrowly acquitted along party lines by
the Senate both times, for essentially the
same abuse of powers offense as Johnson and Nixon, plus inciting the Capitol riot (an
insurrection against the government).
This time around, Trump
has (1) two counts of treason, (2) multiple
counts of abuse of powers, many leading
toward establishment of a dictatorship,
and (3) thousands of counts of egregiously lying to the public, as the grounds for impeachment yet again.
I’d much rather see this done within the laws and
institutions that we have (but soon, before
Trump can completely destroy them).
Revolution in the streets is a lot messier and harder to clean up afterward. But it has to be done, one way or the other, and soon,
before the conversion to a dictatorship is complete (which is what the
Trump “fearless leader” cult is really all about)!
What I
recommend you do: contact your federal
representation often, and encourage them
to do something about these crimes and that threat to our democracy! Myself,
I have done so around half a dozen times in only the last couple of
months, and I will continue!
I also think that Trump will sooner or later become aware of
me, and try to take his retribution by
abusing my Social Security or my Medicare,
or by using the IRS against me,
or by even trying to deport me (a 5+ generation native-born American
citizen) without due process. He could
do that to any of you!
But, I consider this
opposition to him my civic duty! My oath
of office upon entering the Navy more than half a century ago demands it, and it had no expiration date!
If a
majority of public input runs against Trump in their feedback from
constituents, some few of these
Republican representatives who are not part-and-parcel of the Trump “fearless
leader” cult, might actually try to do
something about him. Faint, but a hope!
For all of them, their
oath of office demands it, yet so many
fail to abide by their oath, which
should tell you all you need to know, come election time, if we ever actually have any more real elections! It takes only a simple majority in the House
to impeach, but a 2/3 majority in the
Senate to convict.
Thurgood Marshall was right! Make your voices heard! Or else fight it out hand-to-hand in the streets! THAT is where we currently are!
Update 5-23-2025: I have sent email letters to my 3 federal reps every week since posting this, beyond those mentioned in the posting as having been sent before this was posted. I really am practicing what I preach! I just sent anther today. And I will continue sending them! I urge all of you to do the same! Unless they hear otherwise, they will continue to believe Trump and his miscreants have majority support, and will act accordingly.
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Democrats need to abandon their Weimar Republic philosophy of simply criticizing Trump. They also need to show a rational and exciting alternative to Trump that will capture the voter's imagination. And they may have to be as bold as Kennedy was when he committed Americans to land on the Moon. Democrats need a bold economic program that prioritizes and dramatically improves the quality of life for working people (the most valuable voting demographic in the US).
ReplyDeletePractically every study I've read suggest that the 32 hour work week will increase economic growth while substantially improving the quality of life for working people.
To compensate for a 20% reduction in income, Democrats should commit to introducing legislation for up to 6 weeks of paid vacation (1 week for every year you've worked for a particular company), a reduction of income taxes for individuals who make less than $100,000 a year to just 1%. And a 50% cut in Federal payroll taxes for individuals who make less than $100,000 a year paid for by a 50% increase in payroll taxes paid by employers.
I also think that every individual who pays income taxes should get a standard $1000 rebate check from the Federal government. And every person who works part part time or full time (2 to 4 days a week) should receive an additional $1000 rebate check after they pay their income taxes.
I am no Democrat. Nor am I a Republican. I'm a lot less worried about the politics of the next election, and much more worried about whether there will even be another real election. We are at very serious risk of entirely losing our democracy. -- GW
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