The analysis and brave words from Stephen Collinson of CNN on December 21, 2018 read “Trump unleashed: Mattis exit paves way for global chaos”. He wrote that (James Mattis) the US defense secretary’s decision to quit Thursday was a warning that will ring through history about an impulsive President who spurns advice, disdains America’s friends and proudly repudiates the codes of US leadership that have endured since World War II.
Trump has thus far caused chaos on every issue whether with allies or on climate, trade, tariffs, financials, politics, economics, commodities and international agreements. No US president has done such damage to the nation as has Trump.
I’ve been writing about Trump from the time when he started his campaign for the presidency. What is about Trump is that he is a downright racist who got support from far (alt) right America and his Republican friends who, maybe out of fear, have continued to support him. He has lied about making America “first” and “great”. He tore all the works of previous presidents (democrats and republicans) out of hate. Trump and his supporters wanted an America removed far away from the ideals upon which this great nation was founded, whose Constitution is sacred and has always been a beacon of hope for those who were oppressed and suffered injustice.
America offered a dream for every immigrant whether they came from Mexico, were Muslims or just wanted to succeed by working hard. I was one of them and I succeeded after studying in America. If not for me as a Canadian, then certainly for many other Americans, Trump has been taking America on a path of global chaos. Now these alt-rightists can certainly dream of an America that Trump has paved the way for its descent from an empire back into a nation. Trump has mocked America and its allies with his twitters and many believed him. As they say “when the ship starts to sink, the rats flee”. Mattis is now certainly one of the many who’ve quit in frustration or been fired in 2 years with probably more to join the list.
Trump has been behaving as if he is the US constitution and can rewrite laws, the White House is his personal abode, his staff and every other leader of any country are all idiots and that America is his personal business. That is sheer arrogance. His erratic behaviours are now becoming concerns for many Americans including leading supporters from his party on Capitol Hill.
However, it remains to be seen if the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and his team of investigators can save America and the world from the warning shot fired by Collinson. Will the Congress and Senate impeach Trump? Will Trump’s Republican friends support his impeachment if he is charged? That will be an agenda for 2019 as Mueller unravels the complex puzzle by following the rules of law.
There has been a general lack of understanding about Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump (POTUS) under the US Constitution and laws. Out of interest I’d taken several elective courses in university relating to US history and its laws and constitution.
Under the US Constitution, Articles of Impeachment –Article III, section 2 states as is the following:
The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.
A person in any high office (including POTUS) can be impeached if a high misdemeanor, a felony, or treason (under Article III, section 3 in imposing war against the US, adhering or giving aid to enemies) has been committed.
A misdemeanor is considered a crime of low seriousness, and a felony one of high seriousness and treason the highest seriousness. All three are considered crimes and their punishments are different. In the case of a high misdemeanor, a president can be simply removed from his position with the seat vacating to the VP. A very interesting article was published in the NYT if POTUS can be indicted.
Robert Mueller is investigating Trump for several misdemeanors (collusion with Russia, lying to FBI, gaining business favors contrary to a law such as directing Michael Cohen to pay hush money on his behalf to porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougall).
Cohen has been indicted on 8 felony charges by Mueller. He has been sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Others like Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos have also been indicted and charged by Mueller for various offences.
Michael Flynn has been charged with “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to the FBI under US Code 18, section 1001” punishable by max 5 years jail.
All 5 have been cooperating with Mueller’s team into Trump Russia investigation but details are still being withheld for legal reasons.
Nixon was impeached for misdemeanors (acts of lies and cover ups) but he decided to resign. Will Trump who has been a bigger liar than Nixon?
Reposts are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.
The Russian collusion allegation which was the reason for Mueller’s appointment was a canard from Day (1), based as it was on the charge that the Russians, or Wikileaks ‘as a ‘non-state agent of the Russians’ ‘, hacked the DNC emails which revealed Hillary’s and the DNC leadership’s perfidy, including their highjacking of the nomination. This is nonsense, former top technical directors of the NSA ran forensic tests of the metadata of Guccifer 2.0, the so-called Russian agent that the DNC and Mueller allege was the hacker that passed on the DNC emails to Wikileaks. The forensics conclusively proved that Guccifer 2.0’s material COULD NOT have been hacked- the transfer speeds were too high by a multiple, but they did correspond to a leak to a thumb drive- in other words an inside job- e.g, by Seth Rich.
The author also fails to acknowledge the felonies committed by FBI and DOJ officials to commit a fraud upon the FISA Court in order to initiate improper surveillance and investigations of the Trump campaign team.
He also fails to recognize the consequences of framing the Russians and using those false allegations to create a Russophobic response in Congress leading to military escalation and provocations. Does he not realize that an escalated state of war between two nuclear powers could lead to tragic mistakes- namely, the potential incineration of the planet?
This is not the misdeeds committed by Trump before he was elected (or the misdeeds of his predecessors of which there are many), nor about his draconian policies today, including Trump’s heinous policies against refugees.- though his decision to remove troops in an effort to wind down the war in Syria is a plus for peace and should be so acknowledged rather than bashed- it is about attempted sabotage of the Constitutional electoral process and the Executive power. If the author wants to impeach the President then rely on the right reasons for doing so, rather that through a subversion of our Constitution.