the complaints about Trump
2019-Oct-11, Friday 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerBoth social media and news media try to portray complaints about Trump in a Team-A-versus-Team-B frame of mind. That's wrong. Very wrong. Here is a concrete list of complaints, crimes, violations, and offenses to appropriately identify with this 45th president of the USA, and they objectively have nothing to do with team politics.
Keep in mind that these lists are incomplete; there are just too many offenses to properly enumerate. The list will grow, of course, as Trump remains in office while Republicans continue to shield him from impeachment and legal prosecution.
You'll know impeachment is really happening when they start holding debates to draft the written Articles Of Impeachment, or they give the minority party equal power of subpoena, or they finally start using their power of inherent contempt to fine dodgers for failing to comply with the inquiries. For now, Democrats are just investigating potential wrongdoing to determine if they are impeachable offenses (which don't have to be crimes, as such). Article 1 of the US constitution officially declares this process is part of the House duties.
Nancy Pelosi is holding the reins of that process as the Speaker, exactly as the Republican majority did before her. Remember how Speaker Paul Ryan never performed impeachment inquiries, even though many Democrats in the minority wanted them from early in Trump's presidency (see lists above)? That's how it works, unfortunately. Pelosi, however, uses a much more strict definition of impeachable offense than Republicans used decades ago. Pelosi prohibited any impeachment inquiries into Bush crimes. Similarly, Pelosi has shielded Trump from inquiries up until the Ukraine issue. Currently, she seems to apply the restriction that any current investigation under her leadership must include activities that pose a danger to national security.
I am frustrated by Pelosi's caution. There is so much more criminality and impropriety to charge against this Republican administration. These lists above are currently all about Trump alone. Removing Trump from office is an urgent need, but so is preventing Pence from pardoning Trump's offenses from punishment. And Pence has plenty of impeachable violations of his own to answer from 2017 and today. The sheer number of people who knew and are complicit in prosecutable crimes is very long indeed.
Your homework assignment:
Examine Trump transcripts for masterful evasion via locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary speech.
(Hint: "It was a perfect call.")
Keep in mind that these lists are incomplete; there are just too many offenses to properly enumerate. The list will grow, of course, as Trump remains in office while Republicans continue to shield him from impeachment and legal prosecution.
- 12,019 lies (66 lies just last week and just in regard to Ukraine)
- 2,310 conflicts of interest
- 25 rape accusations
- 14 crimes (and some legal codes to identify a few of them)
- 12 failures to pay bills for political rallies, although apparently it's a common (mal)practice
- 1 more legal violation last night for using the song Purple Rain without permission during the Minneapolis political rally, even after explicitly promising they wouldn't use the song
You'll know impeachment is really happening when they start holding debates to draft the written Articles Of Impeachment, or they give the minority party equal power of subpoena, or they finally start using their power of inherent contempt to fine dodgers for failing to comply with the inquiries. For now, Democrats are just investigating potential wrongdoing to determine if they are impeachable offenses (which don't have to be crimes, as such). Article 1 of the US constitution officially declares this process is part of the House duties.
Nancy Pelosi is holding the reins of that process as the Speaker, exactly as the Republican majority did before her. Remember how Speaker Paul Ryan never performed impeachment inquiries, even though many Democrats in the minority wanted them from early in Trump's presidency (see lists above)? That's how it works, unfortunately. Pelosi, however, uses a much more strict definition of impeachable offense than Republicans used decades ago. Pelosi prohibited any impeachment inquiries into Bush crimes. Similarly, Pelosi has shielded Trump from inquiries up until the Ukraine issue. Currently, she seems to apply the restriction that any current investigation under her leadership must include activities that pose a danger to national security.
I am frustrated by Pelosi's caution. There is so much more criminality and impropriety to charge against this Republican administration. These lists above are currently all about Trump alone. Removing Trump from office is an urgent need, but so is preventing Pence from pardoning Trump's offenses from punishment. And Pence has plenty of impeachable violations of his own to answer from 2017 and today. The sheer number of people who knew and are complicit in prosecutable crimes is very long indeed.
Your homework assignment:
Examine Trump transcripts for masterful evasion via locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary speech.
(Hint: "It was a perfect call.")