The Senate cover-up begins...
So, folks.
If you live in a red state - one with Republican senators - please call your senator - the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.
Tell them anything.
The President abused his powers, in trying to start investigations into two innocent men.
The President tried to get a second foreign power to influence his election.
You don't expect your senator to fulfill their duties, but you do expect them to admit the President committed a terrible crime, and tried to cover it up.
Frankly, I like the last one - it makes the accusation cleanly, while sticking in the shiv quite neatly.
Face it, the Very Serious People have convinced the news media that impeachment isn't just a *political* struggle (which it is) and has instead decided that it's a *partisan* political struggle, as if the 4th Amendment, bribery, extortion, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice were partisan issues.
I know, no one's mentioned the Fourth Amendment yet. No one's pointed out that the chief over all law enforcement in the nation tried to get a pair of innocent people in trouble with a foreign government, falsely claiming that *terrible* things were done. I don't get that. I mean, I know the GOP *CONGRESS* has pulled investigations "to dig up dirt" on political opponents, and the Press has all dutifully pretended they were started, and continued, in good faith (at least, I hope they were pretending - are they really *that* stupid? *Probably* not.). But Congressional investigations leave Congress control of the investigation and scope.
This? This was being handed to another nation, where there would be no control, and, where the other government might just decide they know what the US President really wants - announcement of an indictment, or even of investigation into "serious concerns". And, of course, this assumes the absolute best: that Donald Trump wasn't planning to have Bill Barr open a "parallel investigation, to help the Ukraine investigation." We know he was, right? But we'll all pretend there's no reason to believe that, because when Bill Barr was asked if the President asked for an investigation into a US person, he hemmed and hawed, which proves... uh... heh. See, this is why I couldn't be a right-wing "personality". I keep accidentally slipping, and telling the truth.
The point is, the President of the United States is hopelessly corrupt. To cover for him is also hopelessly corrupt. To cover for him knowingly (as 51 GOP senators have pledged) is aiding and abetting.
Yes, I know, there's a lot of fake propaganda claiming that it's "partisan" to have found he shook down the Zelensky, to have found that Trump withheld military aid to a military ally involved in a war, to have found that lots of people knew about it, and lots of people understood there was a clear price to obtain that aid (which Trump was legally and Constitutionally obligated to send), aka a "quid pro quo". We could believe that propaganda, or we *could* believe the testimony given, under oath, including those who had sudden *remarkable* recovery of memory, that said quite the opposite.
But this country wasn't founded on lies, and no nation can survive based on lies. Every American, even those who gleefully benefit from the corruption of the GOP, need to ask themselves, "if clear corruption, and clear violations of the law, with clear harm to a military ally, and harm to innocent US citizens; if all that isn't enough, what *IS*?"
If you live in a red state - one with Republican senators - please call your senator - the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.
Tell them anything.
The President abused his powers, in trying to start investigations into two innocent men.
The President tried to get a second foreign power to influence his election.
You don't expect your senator to fulfill their duties, but you do expect them to admit the President committed a terrible crime, and tried to cover it up.
Frankly, I like the last one - it makes the accusation cleanly, while sticking in the shiv quite neatly.
Face it, the Very Serious People have convinced the news media that impeachment isn't just a *political* struggle (which it is) and has instead decided that it's a *partisan* political struggle, as if the 4th Amendment, bribery, extortion, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice were partisan issues.
I know, no one's mentioned the Fourth Amendment yet. No one's pointed out that the chief over all law enforcement in the nation tried to get a pair of innocent people in trouble with a foreign government, falsely claiming that *terrible* things were done. I don't get that. I mean, I know the GOP *CONGRESS* has pulled investigations "to dig up dirt" on political opponents, and the Press has all dutifully pretended they were started, and continued, in good faith (at least, I hope they were pretending - are they really *that* stupid? *Probably* not.). But Congressional investigations leave Congress control of the investigation and scope.
This? This was being handed to another nation, where there would be no control, and, where the other government might just decide they know what the US President really wants - announcement of an indictment, or even of investigation into "serious concerns". And, of course, this assumes the absolute best: that Donald Trump wasn't planning to have Bill Barr open a "parallel investigation, to help the Ukraine investigation." We know he was, right? But we'll all pretend there's no reason to believe that, because when Bill Barr was asked if the President asked for an investigation into a US person, he hemmed and hawed, which proves... uh... heh. See, this is why I couldn't be a right-wing "personality". I keep accidentally slipping, and telling the truth.
The point is, the President of the United States is hopelessly corrupt. To cover for him is also hopelessly corrupt. To cover for him knowingly (as 51 GOP senators have pledged) is aiding and abetting.
Yes, I know, there's a lot of fake propaganda claiming that it's "partisan" to have found he shook down the Zelensky, to have found that Trump withheld military aid to a military ally involved in a war, to have found that lots of people knew about it, and lots of people understood there was a clear price to obtain that aid (which Trump was legally and Constitutionally obligated to send), aka a "quid pro quo". We could believe that propaganda, or we *could* believe the testimony given, under oath, including those who had sudden *remarkable* recovery of memory, that said quite the opposite.
But this country wasn't founded on lies, and no nation can survive based on lies. Every American, even those who gleefully benefit from the corruption of the GOP, need to ask themselves, "if clear corruption, and clear violations of the law, with clear harm to a military ally, and harm to innocent US citizens; if all that isn't enough, what *IS*?"