12/13/19: Exhaustion sets in; the House Judiciary Committee advances two articles of impeachment. On both, 23 Democrats vote “yes,” and 17 Republicans vote “no.” There is plenty of hypocrisy in such a party-line result. And Republicans and Democrats can cite examples of colleagues taking diametrically different positions in 1998, when Bill Clinton was impeached.
Look, I’m a flaming liberal. I’m not blind. Or deaf. Or dumb. And I don’t hate America, either, despite what President Trump and his supporters seem to believe. Trump deserves to be impeached. He needs to be impeached, even if the Senate won’t remove him. His campaign in 2016 had dozens of contacts with Russian agents offering help against Hillary Clinton. It doesn’t matter if Clinton had glaring flaws. It doesn’t matter what her missing emails were about. The Trump campaign happily pursued Russian assistance in a U.S. election.
This past June, Trump said in an interview that he would take dirt on an opponent if a foreign country offered again. He said he would.
He didn’t stutter.
Rep. Adam Schiff didn’t kick him in the groin and make him say he’d welcome help. Trump said it.
He would take help.
 |
Chairman Schiff, right, take issue with a point made by the Republicans. |
There’s only one American he wants to keep safe: himself.
He said he’d take it from “Norway,” which sounds more benign. Later he said China should investigate Joe Biden. Communist China. The country that perfected internet censorship. The country that has jailed more journalists this year than any other nation. The country where those who speak out against corrupt leadership end up spending happy time in “re-education” camps.
Then, this past summer, Trump put the squeeze on Ukraine to force the Ukrainians to give him help in the coming election.
Trump
took help from Russia, a hostile power, in 2016. He said he’d take help again
from “Norway” in 2020. What he really meant was: I will put the Ukrainians in a
box. If they want military aid, they’re going to have to cough up. I don’t care
if Ukrainian security is put at risk. I want them to promise to find dirt on
Joe and Hunter Biden. I don’t care if – in damaging an ally – I put U.S.
security at risk.
That’s the story in a nutshell. Put all the posturing and pontificating by politicians aside. Trump wanted foreign help again.
Norway or North Korea, it wouldn’t matter.
Trump wouldn’t care.
He
only cares about winning. In the end, there’s only one American he wants to
keep safe: himself.
*
A $400 MILLION CONTRACT to build 31 miles of border wall – that money coming from U.S. taxpayers, not the government of Mexico – is under investigation. Oddly enough, the contract was awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel, a North Dakota company, which has never built anything but highways before.
What Fisher Sand & Gravel might lack in wall-building expertise is more than made up for by the enthusiasm company chief executive Tommy Fisher has displayed while appearing on Fox News. There he likes to talk about how important a wall on the border with Mexico really is.
If we figure 31 miles will cost taxpayers $400 million. Then 310 miles will be $4 billion; and since we have more than six times that many miles to wall off, figure the total cost will surpass $25 billion.
(Mexico replies:
“The check is in the mail.”)
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