The Case for Impeachment

Issue #1 is the attempt to have a monopoly on truth by using the powers of his office to delegitimize all rival sources of truth (the media, the courts, science).

Issue #2 is the increasing evidence that Trump's campaign had improper contact with certain Russians while they were helping to elect him president and will soon cross the line - if he hasn't crossed it already - of obstructing justice.

If there is an Issue #3, I suspect it will be his mental balance (or lack thereof) as the pressure increases on his.

Issue #4 is his violation of the emoluments clause - that is low-hanging fruit JUST WAITING for the Republicans to have had enough and pull the trigger on it.


Issue #2

"On 14 February, the New York Times reported that advisers and associates of Donald Trump may have been in direct and continuous contact with officers of the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, during a tumultuous election campaign in which the American democracy itself was hacked. A major party – now in opposition – was the victim of an unprecedented cyber-attack.

"According to the Times, intercepted telephone calls and phone records indicated to American counter-intelligence officers direct contact with the Russians."

*   *   *
"Now, thanks to CNN, we learned on Thursday that Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had reportedly contacted the deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, and requested that the bureau publicly characterize the Times story as not being serious – in McCabe’s reported words, “total BS”.

"When this was rebuffed by McCabe, Priebus reportedly went to the FBI director, James Comey, who allegedly also refused to comment publicly. Priebus then allegedly asked both if he could quote them anonymously as “top intelligence officials”, saying the story was totally wrong. According to CNN, McCabe and Comey agreed to let him do that, despite the fact that the FBI and the White House are prohibited from communicating about open investigations.

"The White House then turned to other intelligence officials and to members of Congress. According to the Washington Post, House and Senate intelligence committee chairs Devin Nunes and Richard Burr were asked to push back against Russian stories that did not favor the administration. They told the Post they did so."

The story of the week is Trump, Russia and the FBI. The rest is a distraction

The Illegitimate Presidency (1 of ?)

"So what is it about Trump's lies ...THAT (ALMOST) UNIQUELY DELEGITIMATIZES HIM AS PRESIDENT?

Other presidents, when caught out, own up to it and admit the lie and apologize for it (big exception being Nixon).

Trump NOT ONLY doubles down on the obvious false claims, he DELEGITIMIZES any fact-checking authority whether journalists, scientists, the police, the courts, etc.

He has declared a free and independent press "an enemy of the American people."

Like the shrewd businessman he is, he is attempting to monopolize the truth with the Trump brand and drive all competing sources of truth to the wall.

Nixon / Agnew carried on a similar campaign against the press. Both resigned their offices in disgrace.

The press was right and they were liars.

This will end the same way and sooner.

It took Nixon three years to begin digging his own political grave.

Trump's there already.

That's JUST ONE reason why Trump is an illegitimate occupant of the White House - possibly the strongest argument.

But there are others I can make.

The "I" Word

Trump must go: the sooner the better.

Having said that, and believing that the best way to that end is to block Trump on EVERYTHING not essential to national security (should he ever make such a sound decision), I nonetheless feel that the Democratic leadership in Congress is calling it right.

Trump's primary - but not sole - illegitimacy comes from his disconnect from reality, on the one hand, and his attempt to gain a monopoly on truth while driving all competing realities (science, the press, the courts, etc.) to the wall.

Someday he may be driven from office on those grounds, either by impeachment or a declaration of incompetency.

But Republicans are not there yet so it seems reasonable to look for the impeachable in what he DOES rather than what he SAYS.

So far, by THAT standard, even I would not vote to convict at this time.

When he violates a court order - a line that even Nixon did not cross - it will be difficult for Republicans to gainsay CONSIDERED ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE. 

Democrats seek to quell Trump impeachment talk (Politico)

Resident Trump: Delusionist in Chief

Donald Trump went back on the campaign trail yesterday. Three weeks of being battered by reality is too much for him so he seeks renewal amidst an adoring crowd where security will remove any dissenting voice.

He is a frightened child in a thunderstorm, sucking his thumb and clutching his teddy bear. With nukes. And this chaotic, ignorant, inexperienced, unprincipled, and increasingly delusional person - this person who allegedly “tells it like it is” when almost every assertion out of his mouth is demonstrably false - is inexplicably considered the American ideal of leadership by an uncomfortably large number of devoted, fact-resistant, Americans apparently denied the benefits of an adequate primary and secondary education in civics..

I am done arguing with them.

Because arguments must be based on knowledge. And because knowledge is justified, true, belief. And because for an assertion of knowledge to be held justified it must be deduced from broadly accepted “self-evident” truths or inductively evidenced from the replicable testing of scientific hypotheses by peer-reviewed communities of experts in the relevant fields of inquiry.

That still leaves plenty of wiggle room for argument among reasonable people of all political leanings. Any particular claim can be challenged on any number of the grounds above.

But the point is, unless adversaries in argument are simultaneously allies in getting to the truth of the matter with a broadly shared understanding regarding the rules of getting to “justified, true, belief” argument is impossible.

And our current crisis actually transcends THAT dire situation and questions WHETHER SUCH THINGS AS PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE “FACTS” AND “TRUTH” ACTUALLY EXIST.

And, since Richard M. Nixon famously led his party off the reality rails by claiming the support of a “silent majority” - the first case, in my recollection, where the LACK of any evidence of an entity was taken as PROOF THAT THE ENTITY EXISTS - political cynics such as Lee Atwater and Karl Rove have exploited an American tendency towards anti-intellectualism (at its worse) and pragmatism (at its best) to use “truth” and “facts” as commodities to be traded away in exchange for political power.

And that transaction, repeatedly used for political advantage for close to fifty years, has brought as to Donald Trump, fabulously wealthy champion of the working class and protector of American values.

And with the very CONCEPTS of publically accessible facts and truth alien to his supporters, we’ve reached the point where ARGUMENT is no longer possible.

And when argument is possible, the only recourse is to power.

And if the constitutional, peaceful, application of power by our two Americas is hijacked by extremists and people of violence on both sides, there will be no argument that can rein it back in.

Silent Majority (Wikipedia)

Pretender to the Throne

RESIDENT TRUMP IS AN ILLEGITIMATE OCCUPANT OF THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT.

Respect for respect. As Trump refuses to recognize the legitimacy of judges (two, by my count), the legitimacy of the office of president (through his promotion of racist birtherism), and legitimacy of HIS OWN ELECTION (by claiming, falsely and ridiculously, that 3 - 4 million illegal votes were cast), so too can Americans refuse to recognize the current occupant of the White House.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”
-Resident Trump

Trump lashes out at the ‘so-called judge’ who rebuked his travel ban (Politico)