The Question of Impeachment, Ratcliffe and Keeping Eyes on the Ball ... with a nod to "My Fair Lady"

Appointing a New Director of Intelligence

Ratcliffe

The President’s nomination of John Ratcliffe as Director of Intelligence is another of his efforts to value loyalty and subservience to his judgement over qualifications for the job.   During the Mueller hearings, Congressman Ratcliffe, in his role on the Judiciary Committee, tried to make it appear that the Special Counsel was on a political mission instead of merely trying to document Russia’s attack on our election process, and that the Counsel’s investigation of the President’s efforts to obstruct that work should not even have been made part of its agenda.  Ratcliffe also referred to the Democratic Party as “democrat – socialist.”  Clearly, he showed that “he was Trump’s boy.” His knowledge of the nation's intelligence operations, of course, is non-existent.

The man is unfit for the job, no more than he is fit to serve in Congress either, but he was legally elected! Blame his presence in government on those gullible enough to vote for him.  That is the problem in the United States today. Trump and people like John Ratcliffe are merely its result.  We may be witnessing the failure of our democratic system.  

Jack Lippman

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Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Cummings

All of the time and effort being spent on answering the President's racial attacks on Congressman Cummings as well as on the four Congresswomen comprising the "Squad" play right into Trump's hands.  He does this to get headlines, squeezing out news unfavorable to him and his Administration.  And there is a lot of it!

His racial attacks are intended to divert attention from the documented crimes of the President and those about him in his Administration which the Mueller Report detailed. 

(That they firm up his gullible base's blind loyalty is a secondary aim.)

Their prime purpose is to get Democrats to take their eye off of the ball and digress from talking about his crimes as outlined by Robert Mueller, his kow-towing to despots, his making money from his presidency, his crippling of environmental and financial regulations, his Administration's weakening health care and economic "safety nets" and his alienating our traditional allies with his disjointed attempts at foreign policy and trade policy.  And on and on ....

Time and energy spent answering his racism means less time and energy spent on these serious problems as well as less time spent describing Democratic programs which will benefit all Americans and not just Trump's wealthy supporters in the top tax brackets.  

Just call him a racist and let it go at that.  Don't debate him about it, guys.  That's what he wants you to do.
JL


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Register to Vote Online

Know any Floridians one who are NOT registered voters?   Refer them to a web site where they can complete the registration process online!    Every vote counts.  https://registertovoteflorida.gov/en/Registration/Index   

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"Impeachment" Won't Go Away 

Okay!  It’s the end of July … the Mueller Report has been available for the public to read, at least in redacted form.  Congress has heard Robert Mueller confirm what the Report contains, which is far more damning of the Republican’s 2016 campaign and the President himself than the President’s lawyer, sorry, I mean the Attorney General, would have you believe.

The Democrats know this and know that the House can certainly pass Articles of Impeachment.  They also know that regardless of the depth of evidence impeachment hearings would reveal, the Republican Senate will not convict the President.  That is because they are afraid that Trump loyalists will challenge them in primaries and cost them their seats.  Most Republican Senators are gutless to the point of being in violation of their oaths of office.

Many Democrats feel that an impeachment process would force witnesses to appear and to answer questions and produce evidence which thus far, House Committee investigations and even the Mueller Report, have failed to document in a solid, nailed-down manner.

Others feel that it would not even create a dent in the President’s and the Administration’s stonewalling.   An interesting and thorough article on this appeared on the “Lawfare” blog in May and may be read  BY CLICKING RIGHT HERE.    It is not easy reading, but this is an historic moment in American history, so give it a try.  

As I see it, the way things stand right now is that without further solid evidence, the Democrats will not move to impeach the President, despite the possible hope, and it is just a hope, that impeachment hearings will bring more facts to the Congress and to the voting public.  

McGahn

BUT, if in some manner Don McGahn can be quickly brought before the House Judiciary Committee to testify and he pins down the President's crimes right then and there as he did in 30 hours of testimony to Mueller's team, the impeachment process will then be ready to be set in motion! 

I believe McGahn’s testimony is the evidence which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is waiting to obtain, whether it be gotten quickly in a regular hearing or eventually in a protracted impeachment hearing.  If she feels that impeachment would be more likely to produce it than the present dependence on regular Committee hearings, she will reluctantly support impeachment.  She cannot wait forever, though.  She is conscious of the way the Republican 2020 campaign will use the likely Senatorial action, not convicting the President, and is willing to risk that only if McGahn’s testimony would be such that it will convict the President of high crimes and misdemeanors in the voters’ eyes, regardless of the Senate’s action. That’s a tough call.

"Just You Wait, Henry Higgins, Just You Wait "
(as sung by Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady")
inspirational to Nancy Pelosi

I suspect that she has a deadline in mind, after which she will make the decision.   That decision will be governed by ideas such as those mentioned in the “Lawfare” blog article cited above. Go back and read it!  

Would a failed impeachment be worth it?  Would it change anything?   I think that a decision will be made in mid-September.  There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes in our government and in the Democratic Party which can affect Speaker Pelosi’s decision.  I will wait until mid-September to see what happens.  

JL

                                   
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