impeachment – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Trump: the worst president in the history of the United States

David Posnett — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 23:42:13 +0000

Author Karl Grossman

By Karl Grossman

About the Author Karl Grossman is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury who has specialized in investigative reporting for 45 years. He is the host of the TV program “Enviro Close-Up,” the writer and presenter of numerous TV documentaries and the author of six books.

The impeachment of Donald Trump — the first president of the United States to be impeached twice — is fitting for the worst president in the history of the U.S.

The attack by his supporters on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. — lawless, an attack on democracy, a U.S. counterpart of the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.

It was a horror representative of his tenure.

As stated in the resolution titled “Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors,” he “incited violence” against the government of the United States.” It noted that at a rally of Trump supporters before the insurrection, “he reiterated false claims that ‘we won this election, and we won it in a landslide,’” and “encouraged …lawless action at the Capitol.” And this “followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the 2020 Presidential election. Those prior efforts included a phone call…during which…Trump urged the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffenberger, to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn the Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffenberger if he failed to do so.”

“In all this,” the resolution continued, Trump “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power…”

Trump, “by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, among the most respected publications in the U.S., wrote immediately after the election of 2016 in a piece entitled “An American Tragedy” — “The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism.”

Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times wrote a front-page piece last month about how the “final days of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common in history or literature than a modern White House. ….At times, Mr. Trump’s railing-against-his-fate outbursts seem like a story straight out of William Shakespeare, part tragedy, part farce, full of sound and fury.” And he quoted a Shakespearian scholar at Harvard University, Jeffrey R. Wilson, author of the book Shakespeare and Trump, saying: “We’re approaching the end of the play here and that’s where catastrophe always comes.”

It came on January 6 in the assault on the Capitol.

“If inciting an insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, what is?” asked Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas before the House vote for impeachment.

Trump had tweeted is followers on December 20^th— “Big protest in DC on January 6^th. Be there, will be wild!”

It was wild, and deadly.

In a speech in front of the White House on January 6^th, addressing his backers who had arrived, he declared: “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue…and we’re going to the Capitol.” He added: “You have to be strong.”

Trump’s call was preceded by his lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani proclaiming “let’s have trial by combat.”

Giuliani took an oath to be an attorney to adhere to rule of law and represented Trump in many court challenges to Trump’s election defeat with claims that judges found totally untrue. But Giuliani opted instead, in violation of that oath, for “trial by combat.” The New York State Bar Association this week announced it was launching an inquiry into whether to remove Giuliani from its ranks for his comments at the Trump rally.

Trump tapped into a vein of racism and other poisons in the United States.

As a Jew with all members of the families of both my paternal and maternal grandparents who did not get out of Hungary and Poland in time murdered in the Holocaust, my heart stopped seeing one of the Trump supporters rioting at the Capitol sporting a shirt saying “Camp Auschwitz” and below that arbeit macht frei.

I’ve been amazed that some Jews in the United States and Israel have been big supporters of Trump. His throwing the Kurds under the proverbial bus — his conferring with Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s Israel-hating president, which was followed promptly by the attack on the Kurds by the Turkish military —demonstrated for Israel that Trump cannot be trusted.

Trump will turn on a dime.

I grew up in Queens in New York City, not far from Jamaica where Trump was raised. There are lots of Jews in Queens, of course. And Trump learned to “play” with them.

But should any Jew — indeed could anybody — trust him? Ask that of his former longtime personal attorney whom he abandoned, Michael Cohen, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who has been full of disclosures since. Trump, he has emphasized, is a bigot. And says Cohen of the “Trump I know in a nutshell…he projects his own sins and crimes onto others, partly to distract and confuse but mostly because he thinks everyone is as corrupt and shameless and ruthless as he is; a poisonous mindset I know all too well.”

Good for the Jews, good for anybody for any length of time? No.

Carl Bernstein, the U.S. journalist of Watergate fame, says Trump “will be in our history books as a dark, dark stain unlike any president of the United States.” And Bernstein investigated U.S. President Richard Nixon, forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal.

My rabbi, Dan Geffen, wrote to congregants after the Trump-incited attack on the Capitol about the Rabbinic sage Aytalyon saying: “Sages, be careful with your words! So as not to warrant the punishment of exile and be exiled to a land of ‘evil waters’ and the disciples who follow you drink and die, and thus the name of heaven becomes profaned.”

Said Rabbi Geffen: “There are numerous times in our tradition when the rabbis instruct us to guard our words carefully. Just as Creation begins with words, so too can destruction. Just as words of Torah are like mayim chayim (life-giving waters); words of hatred, selfishness and division are like a poisoned well. What we witnessed yesterday in Washington was a sad and painful reminder of the prescience of Avtalyon’s warning and the danger that is posed to all when words are perverted and weaponized. So let us not waste our breath on equivocations and calming platitudes. What happened yesterday was a disgrace — a stain on this country and its most fundamental principles, values and ethics. Every single one of us must feel the pain and shame of this moment, because it is now a part of our shared history.”

“The future of our country and our community will be defined by how we choose to respond to the stoked barbarism on display in the Capitol yesterday. And in this simple fact, I am filled not with despair, but with hope….These are indeed fraught times. Times filled with anger, pain, grief and a loss of hope. And it would be irresponsible to suggest that the problems and challenges we face as a country are easily addressed. Nevertheless, just as words of division can be used to poison the proverbial well; words of unity, hope and purpose can help clear and purify the miasma. There is much to be done to repair the fabric of our society, and we all have an important role to play in its repair. So let each of us do everything in our power to use the ignoble events of January 6, 2021 as motivation to inspire us to work together to return our beloved country to a land truly flowing with the life-giving waters of liberty, justice and equity for all!”

Trump has been a nightmare for the United States of America.

Thank heaven and a lot of hard political work that he will soon be gone, his final days concluding with a despicable, awful, violent attack on democracy.

Letter to Zeldin about Impeaching Trump

David Posnett — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 22:15:38 +0000

This is a letter sent to Lee Zeldin on Jan 12th urging him to vote for impeachment of Trump. (I was having trouble posting until now). Although I knew it would have no effect in persuading him, I thought it important to say these things anyhow.

Rep Zeldin, it is not too late. You have one last chance for redemption. That chance is joining your principled Republican colleagues to impeach President Trump.

You have been instrumental in creating the environment that led up to an armed insurrectionist mob storming the Capitol and threatening our democracy. Shortly after you were elected to your first term you addressed a meeting of Oath Keepers. Oath Keepers is one of the far right armed militia groups that went all in on storming the Capitol on Jan 6. They’ve been lusting for armed uprising and civil war for years. More recently, during Trump’s first impeachment, you were one of the Congressmen who participated in the storming of the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities) inside the Capitol during a hearing involving classified information. This, in spite of the fact that you already had secured access to the SCIF. The room was entered by force and security protocols were breached. Afterwards you spoke at a press conference praising this illegal action, thus abusing your position as a Congressman to set a terrible example of the lawless exercise of force to enter a secured area in the heart of the Capitol.

The worst of all was your vote to object to the certification of President-elect Biden’s wins in Arizona and Pennsylvania, AFTER the House chamber itself had been invaded by an angry mob baying for blood. There was no more ambiguity at that point about what the “stop the steal” rhetoric, led by President Trump and echoed by you, would lead to. It’s no use hiding behind sophistic and pettifogging language about “legal” votes and “investigations”. It was plain as day that you were aiding and abetting resistance to the peaceful transfer of power, and encouraging the delusion that the 2020 election was not free and fair, and that Trump should be declared the winner.

If ever a President fit the description of what the nation’s founders had in mind when they wrote the power to impeach the President into the Constitution, it is President Trump. Even before the election he refused to commit to the peaceful transfer of power should he lose. He in fact refused to concede the possibility that he could lose. That is the behavior of a dictator. Then, after he lost, he convinced millions of Americans that the election was rigged, broadcasting the “stop the steal” lie through Twitter and other media. On Jan 3^rd he called the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, and cajoled and threatened him to “find” the votes necessary to make him the winner in Georgia, even going so far as to name the exact number of votes Raffensberger needed to “find”. This followed multiple calls and meetings with state officials overseeing elections pressuring them to overturn the election result in their state. During all this you gave your backing, even though you are a Congressman sworn to defend the Constitution, to this effort to cast into doubt and perhaps nullify the verdict of millions of voters in various states, all based on what you must have known, as a lawyer and educated person, was a lie.

Then on Jan. 6^th Trump addressed a mob which he himself had summoned to Washington using inflammatory rhetoric, demanding that Vice President Pence act in clear violation of the Constitution and simply arbitrarily declare Trump the winner. The mob, as we all know, then marched to the Capitol, overpowered the Capitol police who for reasons yet to be explained fully were unaided by any other federal agency, and smashed their way into the Capitol building itself, chanting, amongst other things “Hang Mike Pence!”. A Capitol police officer was fatally injured and other Capitol police officers were also injured. The legal and Constitutional process underway of counting the electoral votes was interrupted. The Vice President, Senators and Representatives were forced to flee for their lives to a secure location. Only after several hours, when reinforcements from the Washington D.C. police arrived was the Capitol cleared of the angry and bloodthirsty mob, after an orgy of pillage and looting had occurred, including the theft of electronics possibly containing classified information. It was only through both the bravery and quick thinking of certain outnumbered Capitol police officers that much worse did not occur, including the injury or murder of the Vice President, Senators, or Representatives.

Meanwhile, as all this was occurring President Trump was in the White House watching television. He refused numerous pleas coming from both those besieged in the Capitol and from officials of his own Administration to do something and summon help to clear the Capitol of the angry mob. In fact, reports are that he appeared to be enjoying himself and was pleased by the events that were occurring at the Capitol. During the critical hours the Capitol building was occupied by an insurrectionist mob, there was, in effect, no President of the United States. Donald Trump had abdicated his responsibility to preserve and protect the Constitution.

It is impossible for me to believe that you seriously think the behavior of President Trump is not impeachable. If his behavior is not impeachable what is the meaning of the impeachment clause in the Constitution? What would a President need to do to be impeached? Commit murder? Defect to Russia? Clearly that’s not what the founders had in mind by the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

This is your last chance to change your course and act in defense of our democracy instead of in defense of one autocratic and delusional man. Think about how you will be judged by history. Think about your daughters and what kind of country they will live in. Please, please think about the good of the country instead of pandering to the worst part of your “base”. This is your last chance to redeem yourself and act as something other than a political robot.

Zeldin is Trying to Invalidate Millions of Votes

David Posnett — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 22:20:47 +0000

By David Friedman in Smithtown News 1/7/21

Zeldin, your name is Shame

David Posnett — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:27:56 +0000

Mr. Zeldin, your name is shame.

You are either with our constitutional system of government, or you are not. And then you are for mob rule. Which is it?

Are you a leader? – def. “a leader is someone who rallies people to move toward a better vision.”

Are you continuing to promote sedition? – def. “conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of the state.”

Are you a Conspiracy Theorist? – def. “promoting a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators.”

Our American Constitution is a better vision. Why are you inciting rebellion against it? Why are you continuing to lie to us about the circumstances of the 2020 election? Why are you confusing people about the election and spreading lies? Did you not take an oath to uphold the Constitution?

We Americans want our American Democracy to work. Impeach Trump Now and get to work for a better vision for us all, or Resign.

Signed,

A daughter of America, daughter of a family who has served to form and preserve our country from the Revolution through the Civil War, WWI, WWII and Viet Nam.

Zeldin Still Thinks President Did Nothing Wrong

David Posnett — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 14:14:29 +0000

Letter to the Editor, The East Hampton Star

Let’s Show Them
East Hampton
February 10, 2020

To the Editor:

The impeachment trial showed beyond a doubt that the president tried to extort a foreign leader to interfere in an upcoming election on not just one occasion, but several, that many people in the administration were aware of and complicit in that effort, and that Senate Republicans had zero interest in getting to the truth, instead holding a trial that called no witnesses, including those with firsthand knowledge.

It is now clear that we are on a runaway train heading straight toward authoritarian rule. At least Schiff and Co. tried to pull the emergency brake. But since that didn’t work, it really is up to us.

Let’s show them that most Americans respect this country and its most fundamental principles of democracy, that most Americans believe a president should not run his administration like a mob boss, that most Americans expect a president to lead by example, not one who leads by bullying and lying, punishing anyone who dares to disagree.

And in November, let’s remember that our representative, Lee Zeldin, still insists that the president did absolutely nothing wrong.

Sincerely,

CAROL DEISTLER

Bolton and Zeldin: it is comical!

David Posnett — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 19:23:35 +0000

Back in March of 2018 Lee Zeldin sang the praise of John Bolton: “ridiculously knowledgeable”, “chemistry and work will be ramped up”, “very underrated, amazing American”, “extraordinarily talented”, etc.

And now he is a bad guy and should not testify? Go figure.

If you just repeat talking points from the White House, you lose all credibility and you look like a fool, as in the following video which has gone viral:

https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1222373357372497925

This has been picked up by the Gershon, Goroff, and Fleming campaigns, as it should.

We have previously blogged about John Bolton when he was nominated to the National Security Advisor position:

https://resistancesuffolk.blog/2018/05/14/bolton-wars/

https://resistancesuffolk.blog/2019/05/26/drumbeat-of-war/

Queens Man Impeached

David Posnett — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 20:46:41 +0000

“The entire Queens House delegation voted in favor of impeachment!”

Local journalism at its best:

https://queenseagle.com/all/2019/12/19/queens-man-impeached

Queens native Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. AP Photo/Paul Sancya.

By Victoria Merlino

Former Jamaica Estates resident Donald Trump was impeached Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the third president to be impeached in United States history — and the first from Queens.

Trump is accused of pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate political rival and Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden, and of withholding military aid until the Ukrainians conducted the investigation. He is also accused of obstructing the Congressional investigation.

Trump fired off a series of tweets on Thursday over the impeachment process, calling it “presidential harassment” and directing ire at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up! The Do Nothings are so bad for our Country!” he wrote.

The charges will be sent to the Republican-controlled Senate, initiating a trial that could have lasting ramifications in the 2020 presidential election.

The entire Queens House delegation voted in favor of impeachment.

“Today, I voted to impeach President Donald Trump … I did so with a heavy heart for our country, but a clear conscience. I did so, because, above all, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” U.S. Rep. Grace Meng wrote in a statement on Twitter.

“No normal person would be able to get away with attempting to extort a foreign power to compromise our country,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “But all too often, the most corrupt and powerful people grow so accustomed to life with impunity that standard accountability feels to them like unjust persecution.”

Trump’s old Jamaica Estates home, where he lived as an infant until he was four years old, went back on the market after it was sold to a Chinese investor and rented on Airbnb for $725 a night, according to Curbed.

Trump’s parents’ graves are located at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village. The cemetery was slapped with a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier this year for allegedly misappropriating funds.

#NotAboveTheLaw – Rallies across America

David Posnett — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 04:33:10 +0000

On the eve preceding the historic vote of congress to impeach President Trump, there were rallies across America: more than 500 rallies in 50 states involving perhaps 0.5 Mio protestors.

I attended the rally in Patchogue NY, in front of the offices of Lee Zeldin, Trump apologist extraordinaire. The story is already on News 12. And here it is in Newsday.

It was truly electrifying. In pouring and freezing rain, some 500 protestors showed up!

A note from one of the organizers: Last night’s ‘impeach and remove’ event in Patchogue was a huge success! Despite the freezing rain, more than 500 people turned out to uphold the constitution, defend our democracy, and stand for the rule of law. (Read about the event in Newsday and News12LI.)

The patriotism, commitment, and indomitable spirit of those who attended was inspiring!

Whatever happens in the Senate, rest assured that we are on the right side of history.

Thanks! Amy

Here are some videos and photos:

Nadler quotes Alexander Hamilton (who accurately describes a man like Trump)

David Posnett — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 01:37:12 +0000

Read House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler’s opening statement

Excerpt from POLITICO STAFF, 12/04/2019 10:19 AM EST

Nadler:

“In short, the Founders warned us that we should expect our foreign adversaries to target our elections and that we will find ourselves in grave danger if the president willingly opens the door to their influence.

“What kind of president would do that? How will we know if the president has betrayed his country in this manner for petty, personal gain?

“Hamilton had a response for that as well. He wrote:

‘When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents . . . known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion . . . [i]t may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’

“Ladies and gentlemen, the storm in which we find ourselves today was set in motion by President Trump. I do not wish this moment on the country. But we have each taken an oath to protect the Constitution, and the facts before us are clear.

“President Trump did not merely seek to benefit from foreign interference in our elections.

“He directly and explicitly invited foreign interference in our elections. He used the powers of his office to try to make it happen. He sent his agents to make clear that this what he wanted. He was willing to compromise our security and his office for personal, political gain.”

This is truly quite remarkable. Kudos to Hamilton and to Jerry Nadler.

And thanks to Bob Wick for bringing this to our attention!

PATTERNS OF DECEPTION: Obstruction, Corruption & Abuse of Power

David Posnett — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 17:48:04 +0000

Patterns of Deception

A ‘Must Read’ from Common Cause

Acknowledgments: Karen Hobert Flynn and Paul Seamus Ryan co-authored this report.

The authors thank the 1.2 million Common Cause supporters whose small-dollar donations fund more than 70% of our annual budget for our nonpartisan work strengthening the people’s voice in our democracy. Thank you to the Common Cause National Governing Board for its leadership and support. We also thank Susannah Goodman, Aaron Scherb, Jay Riestenberg and William Steiner for assistance with the content; Melissa Brown Levine for copy editing, Kerstin Vogdes Diehn for design, and Scott Blaine Swenson for strategic communications support. This report is complete as of November 20, 2019.