Does your word mean anything to
you? Are your beliefs important to you? Have you thought about what your
beliefs are? Your values? Do you consider yourself to be a moral person? Is
morality important to you? Do you expect others to be truthful or to lie? Is
how you act important? Do you care about others or only yourself?
I don’t write to try and change
people’s minds. That just doesn’t happen too often in real life. I do believe
that records are important. I write to keep my own perspective. If you’re a
person that finds some kind of value in that then good on ya.
Rant
This is
going to be a rant. If you read this it’s going to take a while. Seriously,
it’s at 23 minutes of your life that you’re never going to get back. Yes you
read that right. TWENTY THREE minutes. The average person reads 200-250 words per
minute (WPM). That isn’t even correct words per minute (CWPM) but that’s a
whole other ball game.
If you’re a
Trump supporter save yourself and stop now before you get yourself all worked
up. You don’t need the aggravation.
Cult
Presidents often have cult-like
followings. I’m just not that into following any human being like that. Jesus,
yes. Presidents—No. My identity isn’t tied to a President. Neither is my faith.
I don’t have to defend a President in order to defend myself. A President being
bad, or good for that matter, isn’t a reflection of me or my beliefs. If one
turns out to be corrupt or of low character that’s on them—not me.
If I voted for or supported a
President that was a racist unbeknownst to me and he was then discovered to be
one, I would acknowledge that and proceed accordingly. However, my continued
support for any person that I believed to be bad or evil would also be on me. I
won’t knowingly support a racist. I’m not talking here about someone just
making a bad decision or two. We all make
bad decisions at one time or another. I’m talking about a dyed-in-the-wool,
full-on racist.
A person simply has to decide how
relevant and/or important whatever issues are to them and make a personal
decision about how to proceed. However, there are some moral grounds where
compromise is impossible.
Some
Background
I worked for and retired from the
Boeing Company. During some of those years I was a union activist as well as
dissident. (Thomas v. IAM) I remember one contract that was accepted that I had
said we shouldn’t accept. It was really bad. The rank and file at the
insistence of our union leadership voted to accept the contract. After going
back to work I received a call at work station from a guy telling me how
incredibly stupid I was and how good the contract was. A few weeks later he was
gone along with a few thousand other people because the contract was indeed a
bad one.
The reason I mention this as an
example is if you were just talking with people then it was hard to find anyone
who admitted to voting to accept the contract. Including people that had told
me at the time how ridiculous it was for me to think that it was a bad
contract.
People also hooted at me when I wrote
in an underground publication that Boeing was going to sell their facility in
Wichita, Kansas where the company began. For those that might not know there is
no Boeing Wichita now. They did sell the facility. Not everyone believes this.
There are those that to this day maintain that Boeing still secretly owns the
Wichita plants. That’s the way it is. People often believe what they want to
believe.
Doesn’t sound like much of a rant yet
does it? Sometimes it takes me awhile to warm up. I went for 16 pages once. I
was younger then.
When I joined the Army I swore an
oath. That was to the country. Not any man. God comes before country or a man
or woman. Has to if you’re serious about your religious belief.
Barry Goldwater is the first
Presidential candidate that I was really passionate about. (I was very young.) Over
the years I have voted for Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and even for a
green party candidate once. I voted for President Obama the first time he ran
but not the second. He said that he would accomplish some things and then he
didn’t. He also had a horrible history with regard to immigration.
As just another example I really
Liked President Jimmy Carter. He just wasn’t a good President. He’s probably
the most moral man that we’ve ever had as President. He has been an outstanding
ex-President and human being. He and his wife truly have servant’s hearts. They
are exceptional people.
Okay. Here
we go.
U.S. Code
§ 3331. Oath of office
“An
individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or
profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following
oath: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this
obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and
that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I’m
about to enter. So help me God.” This section does not affect other oaths
required by law.”
This is from the United Civil Code
NOT the Constitution. The original Constitution does not have the words “So
help me God.”
People don’t have to say the “So help
me God” sentence because that would qualify as a religious test. Blame the
Quakers. (Not really.) I’m with the Quakers on this one. Well, most of them
anyway. President Nixon was a Quaker and he swore to God.
Members of Congress as well as any
employee of the Federal Government are also required to take an oath by either
swearing or affirming.
From the
Constitution:
“The
Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State
Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United
States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to
support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
The President of the United States
takes the following oath.
From the
Constitution:
“Before he
enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or
Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully
execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of
my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States.”
There you have it. Oath takers are
supposed to defend the Constitution. This used to be a kind of a big deal for
some Republicans and Conservatives especially when it came to President Clinton
when they were impeaching him for lying about getting a blow job and then
obstructing justice for lying about getting a bj (I’m going to use the initials
‘bj’ to refer to it from here on in this. Presidents can be an embarrassment to
the country.)
It’s interesting to me that there
were some biblical scholars that provided technical support to President
Clinton’s claim that he did “not have sex with that woman” because he didn’t
actually do the act. He only got a bj. I’m not going to get any more graphic
than that.
I told my elected Representative in
the House at that time that the Senate simply would not convict a President for
lying about getting a bj. It was just too tawdry. It still is. He responded
with a lengthy letter about the Rule of Law.
I did not and do not Like President
Clinton. He was a draft avoider and sexual predator. But he did actually work
at the job of being President. As a nation we were probably fortunate in that
regard. I really could have done without NAFTA but that’s a story for another
time.
The Republican Conservatives that I
know (I used to be a Republican) wanted to impeach and talked about impeaching
President Obama for the majority of time that he was in office. They said that
he was shredding the Constitution. They said that a LOT. They talked about it a
LOT.
Well, President Obama upheld his oath
of office and Republicans never tried to impeach him. Well, I take that back.
They did bring up the emoluments clause when they tried to stop him from
accepting the Nobel Peace prize. Three Republican Representatives maintained in
a letter to Obama that he didn’t obtain the permission of Congress to accept
the prize first and had thereby violated the emoluments clause.
Well crap. Now I’m going to provide
the wording of the emoluments clause. I say crap because this stuff is boring
and interrupts my stylistic flow. But it’s kind of necessary for people to
actually know what’s being talked about.
From the
Constitution:
"No
Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding
any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the
Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind
whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Anyway, no charges were filed.
President Obama donated the prize money and got to keep the Medal. There are
lengthy legal articles about this that you can read if you want. In a nutshell
the Nobel Prize Committee is ultimately considered a private foundation and
there has been enough precedent established by previous Presidents and statutes
to show that there was no violation of the clause. Since Republicans in
Congress didn’t actually do anything impeachment-wise it’s safe to say that
they didn’t really believe that he had committed any impeachable offense either
and I think that this is important so I’m going to make it a separate paragraph
all its own.
Republicans controlled both houses of
Congress during the last two years that Obama was in office.
So if Obama had been guilty of
ANYTHING, any impeachable offense, any trumped up charge, they would have been
able to impeach him in the House. They might have even been able to obtain a
conviction in the Senate. President Obama did NOT even come close to violating
the Constitution or the Republican controlled Congress would have gotten rid of
him.
Now I also believe that this really
is an important point. When the Senate voted not to convict President Clinton,
5 Republicans joined with the Democrats and voted not guilty on perjury. The
vote on obstruction charges the vote was 50/50. On this vote 10 Republicans
voted not guilty. So President Clinton was acquitted. A two thirds vote is
necessary for a conviction in the Senate. That would be 67 votes. There were
only 45 Democrats in the Senate at that time.
There are
only 45 Democrats in the Senate now. What that means is that 22 Republicans
would have to vote guilty in order for there to be a conviction. That just
isn’t going to happen. Twenty-two Republicans are NOT going to break ranks.
From what I’ve seen in their comments thus far is that there aren’t that many
that take their oath of office seriously. I’m certain that they will claim
otherwise. It’s just politics.
It isn’t.
Charge it.
The impeachment charges against
President Nixon were Contempt of Congress, Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Power.
In each case a few Republicans broke ranks and voted with the committee. Nixon
resigned before the House voted on the charges. He had been counseled by
Senators that he was going to lose in BOTH houses of Congress. Now keep in mind
that as crooked and criminal as his actions were there were still Republicans
that were not going to vote against him.
VP Gerald Ford did not support
impeachment and ended up pardoning Nixon. Keep in mind that Nixon authorized
criminal acts, payments of hush money and they had him on tape! We didn’t find
out until years later that he had also committed treason.
And now we come to President Trump.
If you bothered to read the Mueller report, it’s clear that Democrats should have
filed for an impeachment inquiry then. It would have required a lot of reading.
People don’t seem to be up for that. I have read the report. It’s just sad.
Really. People pled guilty because they were guilty. But Democrats didn’t hold
an impeachment inquiry then. So here we are now.
With this latest White House debacle
of President Trump trying to blackmail the President of the Ukraine. the
country really is in a Constitutional bind. The reason? The Vice President is
in on it. Has been from the beginning. Now
what? People aren’t even talking about this.
Now this is where people start saying
that in this country people are innocent until proven guilty. That’s the
politically correct thing to say for sure. It’s like with Nixon though. He knew
that he was guilty. The Republican Party knew that he was guilty and the
majority of the country knew that he was guilty because the testimony was out
in the open. That’s why he resigned before anyone could vote and find him
guilty. He resigned before the full House voted on the articles of impeachment.
So they were going to impeach Nixon
because he was a criminal. They impeached Clinton for lying about getting a bj
and the Senate acquitted him.
The
impeachment of President Trump
Yet another reason that we can say
that President Trump is guilty of committing impeachable offenses is that he
has been so incredibly BLATANT about doing it. I mean it’s kind of incredible
really. For one thing he doesn’t really seem to even grasp the rudiments about
the impeachment process. I’m by no means an expert but I have a better grasp of
what’s going on than the President.
President Trump just makes
ridiculous statements about what he thinks that he’s ENTITLED to or should be
entitled to as President. He’s led a life of entitlement. The trial is NOT in
the House. It’s in the Senate. The impeachment process is provided by the Constitution.
This is a good time to mention that
Republicans have been involved in the impeachment process every step of the way
up to and including the cover-up. President Trump was represented in the House.
They were on every committee. The Democrats followed the rules set up by
REPUBLICANS in the House when they were in control in 2015. Republicans are
complaining even though the rules that they made have been followed.
When I was a Republican I associated
with people that I considered honorable at the time; men and women of integrity,
or so I thought, that were in charge. I campaigned hard for the current
Secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, when he first ran for Congress. I can’t count
how many hundreds of miles we must have covered and the number of miles walked
at rallies. I spent time in their campaign motor home with him.
It’s hard for me to watch Pompeo now.
It just makes me incredibly sad to witness his actions. I would not have said
that it was possible for him to flip on his previous stated values and support
the actions of what is taking place around him. Now Republicans are acting like
it’s no big deal to blackmail a foreign government to investigate a political
opponent.
Should we be happy or sad that
President Trump didn’t get caught lying about receiving a bj? Republicans take
bjs very seriously, especially if the guy lies about getting one. So far he’s
only lied about paying off a porn star. Oh yeah I forgot that there is a court
case about that one. Then there is the 25 million dollar judgement for
defrauding people with his Trump University scam. Then there is the 2 million
dollar judgement against his misuse of his charity. The immediate Trump family
was all in on that one.
And Republicans have the gall to
accuse others of treason and being Communists for impeaching President Trump.
Yes, the party whose leader not only asked the Russian Communists to help him
during the election, met and worked with them to receive help and then did
receive help from the Communists is now accusing others of treason. Then as
President, Trump demanded that the Ukraine government, a country that the
Communists are trying to take over, investigate a political rival for dirt or
they won’t receive military aid to defend themselves against the Communists.
Then right afterwards he asked the
Chinese Communists for help in investigating his political opponent. Well, not
really. He wants his opponent’s family investigated. The Chinese Communists have
already helped his daughter financially by fast tracking her trademark
applications. BLATANT.
Somewhere in this rant I should
mention that President Trump has professed his bro love for the North Korean
Communist Kim Jong Un. These are the kind of leaders that he appreciates.
BLATANT. BTW he or his administration have yet to deliver anything of substance
with the North Koreans other than legitimizing his brutal regime on the world
stage. That would be the stage where President Trump was laughed at during his
United Nations talk.
And then people say that there
shouldn’t be chants of “Lock him up” out of respect for the office of the
Presidency because the world is watching. Heads up. The world is watching. The world
already knows.
President Trump has alienated and
worked against every ally that our nation has and supported Communist regimes
whenever possible. He handed over the Kurds to the Communists and now they’re
being slaughtered. Our allies. The very same Kurds that provided the crucial
intel that helped us track down the head of ISIS. And the Communists are still
helping the Republican Party. There’s a reason the Senator Mitch McConnell is
being called “Moscow Mitch”. He earned the sobriquet. Republican leadership
along with Trump supporters and Fox Pravda are passing along Russian
propaganda. They did it in the last election and they’re doing it now.
There is video clip after video clip
of the positions that Pompeo, Graham and a host of other elected Republican
representatives had before in regard to impeachment, the Constitution,
subpoenas and the jobs that Oath Takers are supposed to do in order to defend
their country and the Constitution. Now they have taken the opposite position
in regard to President Trump, who actually is violating the Constitution. And as
I mentioned before Trump’s blatant about it.
While I’m at it I’ll bring up Hillary
Clinton’s emails since that’s usually a “what about…” that is brought up. The
State Department quietly found her not chargeable. President Trump’s State
Department. The very same President that said he would have her investigated
and thrown in jail. She’s been cleared and this was even after the State
Department retroactively classified some of the emails. That’s the same
conclusion that Comey reached only he was harsher about it.
Over 20
years of Republican investigations into the Clintons and they came up with
squat. Ken Starr spent just shy of $40 million in his investigation. All the
investigations total just shy of $80 million dollars and that isn’t counting
the eight different Republican Committees that tried to convict her of anything
regarding Benghazi and came up with nothing. ZERO.
Oops! I have
to backtrack on the above statement. Over the several decades Republicans did
manage to produce a truly inspiring amount of conspiracy theories. I had a
friend tell me that in the last election that she voted against Hillary Clinton
because of the information presented in one of those online attack memes. I
mentioned to her that there wasn’t anything that was mentioned in the meme that
was true. She countered with yeah but it could be. That was the narrative that
she had been conditioned to accept by her comrades.
“It could be true.”
In addition to being blatant about
what he’s doing President Trump on a daily basis complains about how he’s being
treated. This from a man that as a private citizen regularly complained about
the job President Obama was doing. The man whines every day. He’s at least a
WHINECON TWO status every day with occasional spikes to WHINECON THREE.
I tell you one thing for sure, he’s
the whiniest President we’ve ever had. I thought that Presidents Nixon and
Johnson complained a lot but they aren’t even in the same league as President
Trump. He has taken whining to an entirely new level. Go through his twitter
feed. He has whined thousands of times. He whines more than he lies. To watch
his videos is to know that he lies. And whines.
He lies when the truth would serve
him better. Seriously, he lied about where his grandfather was born. Who does
that? It really doesn’t matter. His supporters cheer him anyway.
- They cheered when he talked about building a border wall in Colorado. Yes, really. I watched it.
- They cheered when he talked about how easy it would be to get Mexico to pay for the wall. That was a lie.
- They cheer when he talks about locking up his adversaries.
- They cheered when he talked about getting rid of Obamacare and replacing it with something better. Trump never had any healthcare plan and his Justice Department is now trying to reduce what coverage is being provided by the Affordable Care Act.
- He lied about producing his tax returns.
- He lied about giving a pay increase to the military.
- He said that he would appoint the best people. He has had the highest turnover of staff in history. Not only that, but his appointees seem chosen for the specific purpose of destroying the department they head.
- He lies about having the greatest economy. It is good but it isn’t the greatest we’ve had.
- He lied about not having enough time to play golf.
- Trump says that he’s a billionaire yet taxpayers are picking up the tab for his golfing. ($180 million so far.)
- And his supporters cheer.
- They cheered when he stood up for the Nazis.
- They cheer when he stabs our allies in the back.
- Separate families!
- Cheers!
- Stop Muslims!
- Cheers!
- He insults people!
- Cheers!
- Says that whoever it was that reported him out should be treated as spies used to be treated. (Killed)
- Laughter!
- He’s vulgar!
- Cheers!
- This is the man that Evangelical Party claims was chosen by God.
- Cheers!
- He is their Caesar!
- Cheers!
I have to
mention here that those last two items seem to
be a tad contradictory but here we are. He operates with the morality of a
Caesar.
What I have learned from all of this
is that none of this really matters to the leadership of the Republican Party.
They are only oath takers. They just say the words. Thought they may cry some
crocodile tears in public at some of his more egregious behavior, still they
support his agenda by marching in lockstep. They are not oath believers like
the men and women of honor and integrity who have stepped forward at great
personal risk. The risk comes from a President that wants them punished or dead
for doing their patriotic duty as citizens.
Republican Senators and Congressmen
denigrate these patriots like the veterans and others that have served this
country honorably. Within hours of coming forward during the impeachment
hearings the conspiracy machine that has become the Republican Party was
pumping out disinformation. They didn’t answer simple questions asked by the
press. Like is it okay for any President to ask a foreign nation to investigate
political opponents. Instead they responded with the Party line. Poor President
Trump is the victim. Poor President Trump is being denied due process. (Hint,
he wasn’t.)
The reality is that poor President
Trump doesn’t know what the process is other than some words that he has heard mentioned.
He simply responds with what he has learned from Fox Pravda.
We have never had a President that
spends this much time watching television, tweeting, insulting individuals and
incessantly complaining. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. He
has been whining, complaining and lying non-stop for 3 years now. He is the
Energizer Bunny of complaining Presidents. Trust no one but him. One day he’ll
say that the stock market crashed because of the ‘Dems’ and the next day brag about
how good the stock market is doing because of him. BUT media is lying. If it
isn’t about praising him it’s a lie!
Conservatives don’t seem to believe
in our form of government. For the first 2 years of Trump’s reign they were in
complete charge of it. The message is Keep America Great and everything is
horrible. The FBI is rotten. Media is untrustworthy. Our intelligence services
are untrustworthy. The Deep State is running things. The Communists are our
friends. And somehow not believing in our fundamental principles all makes them
the true patriots.
Where are we?
We are in the chaos that is the
administration of President Trump. I will hear and read where Conservatives say
that the media isn’t reporting their accomplishments and the truth. The truth
is that the stories are being reported. I’ll usually have already read what
they maintain isn’t being reported. The problem is that the chaos that is Trump
usually is a better story to report. Like turning our collective back on the
Kurds and putting our own troops still in theater at risk. That story takes
center stage over the other things that are taking place like making the lives
of working people and the poor incrementally worse.
The thing that I keep in mind is that
one of the very people that he appointed is the one that approved the initial
investigation. Yes. He appointed the Inspector General in 2017. Now they’re
validating that the White House covered up the President blackmailing an ally.
That shows consciousness of guilt. So in addition to violating the emoluments
clause and abuse of power we now have obstruction of justice. The hits just
keep on coming.
The Democrats
ran out of options with regard to impeachment. It was obvious that they
believed that the President was violating the Constitution. In the political
arena impeaching President Trump may or may not end up costing them. But when
the chips were down they ended up acting upon their beliefs, did their job and
put the country first.
Now what?
Well, as it
turns out President Trump decided that it was a good time to try and start a
war with Iran. < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KV_nIgg008 > He has no exit
strategy. He doesn’t do exit strategies < https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/450280-trump-on-possible-war-with-iran-i-dont-need-exit-strategies
> The guy that avoided serving the country because of bone spurs is on the
brink of starting a war. BTW war isn’t going to happen. Technically. Congress
hasn’t had the guts to declare a war in decades.
Sending
If Nancy
Pelosi sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate there will be a trial. Republican Senators will dither and talk about how
bad it all is but achieving the 67 votes required to get rid of their Ducé is
probably unattainable. They just repeated the words of their oath. So yes, I
think that President Trump will be found not guilty if the Senate has a trial
and Republicans will use every excuse that they can think of to justify their
political pusillanimity.
The
President is either above the law or he isn’t. And I think that the Democrats
of the House did their duty and impeached the President of the United States
because he isn’t above the law. He’s guilty of the charges mentioned so far and
if you’ve bothered reading the Mueller report he’s guilty of doing far worse.
He has done more damage to this country than the Communists friends of his
could have dreamed possible.
Yes, I think he will get reelected.
That’s a whole other story.
