GUILTY! You're Free To Go!

Guilty! You're Free To Go!

Retiring Republican Senator Lamar Alexander released a statement stating the Democrat House Managers proved the Donald Trump froze aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, but he would vote no on hearing from witnesses because Trump's actions were improper and did not merit removal from office. In effect Alexander said to Trump, you're guilty and free to go. 

 

How a President getting caught withholding Congressionally approved defense assistance funds to a foreign ally to strong-arm them into announcing a false investigation into a political rival who was beating him in election polls is not impeachable is beyond me. What would Trump have to do to get impeached and removed from office by a Republican controlled Senate, give Alaska to Russia? The real problem with what Republicans are doing with Trump is that he is getting treatment the average citizen, including rabid Trump supporters, would never get in court, which is no consequence after being deemed guilty. Let that sink in, Trump won't get probation community service or have to pay restitution after being deemed guilty. Tell that to those rotting in prison for minor drug possession and other offenses far less than coercing a foreign power to interfere in United States elections.

 

 Living In The Age Of White Reparations

The complete statement from Senator Lamar Alexander is below:

 

Alexander Statement on Impeachment Witness Vote

Posted on January 30, 2020

“I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense. …The Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate. 

“The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday. …Our founding documents provide for duly elected presidents who serve with ‘the consent of the governed,’ not at the pleasure of the United States Congress. Let the people decide.” – Senator Lamar Alexander

  

Washington, D.C., January 30, 2020 -- United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on his vote regarding additional evidence in the impeachment proceedings:

“I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution’s high bar for an impeachable offense.
“There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine. There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.’ There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers.

“It was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation. When elected officials inappropriately interfere with such investigations, it undermines the principle of equal justice under the law. But the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate.

“The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday.

“The Senate has spent nine long days considering this ‘mountain’ of evidence, the arguments of the House managers and the president’s lawyers, their answers to senators’ questions and the House record. Even if the House charges were true, they do not meet the Constitution’s ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors’ standard for an impeachable offense.

“The framers believed that there should never, ever be a partisan impeachment. That is why the Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate for conviction. Yet not one House Republican voted for these articles. If this shallow, hurried and wholly partisan impeachment were to succeed, it would rip the country apart, pouring gasoline on the fire of cultural divisions that already exist. It would create the weapon of perpetual impeachment to be used against future presidents whenever the House of Representatives is of a different political party.

“Our founding documents provide for duly elected presidents who serve with ‘the consent of the governed,’ not at the pleasure of the United States Congress. Let the people decide.” 

We would all hope to be so privileged to have a deciding juror like Senator Lamar Alexander if we are proved guilty but odds are that we will not get Trump justice.

Republicans Are Trump's Three Wise Monkeys

Three Wise Moneys - Republicans On Trump Impeachment

As Trump's impeachment trial, or lack there of, looms in the Senate, Republican Senators who will take an oath to be impartial jurors play their roles as one of Donald Trump's Three Wise Monkeys. The Three Wise Monkeys saw no evil, heard no evil and spoke no evil because they had their hands covering their ears, mouth and eyes. The principles behind the Three Wise Monkeys may date back to hundreds of years BC before taking its final form in Japan. The framers of the U.S Constitution never thought a co-equal branch of government created to be a check on an out of control Executive Branch would be controlled by Three Wise Monkeys and become subservient to the Executive Branch to the point of being jointly complicit in covering up and enabling constitutional breaches including inviting foreign interference in our elections to advantage a sitting President. 

 

 

Living in The Age of White Reparations 

As the fourth estate of the press revealed that Trump rolled over his top advisors after they advised him not to withhold congressionally approved aid to Ukraine the truth is sitting in front of their faces to see, read and hear. Trump asked the President of Ukraine to, "do him a favor though" in order to get aid and that favor was to announce an investigation into his rival Joe Biden and his son. If this impeachment trial is like the Brett Kavanaugh FBI investigation for his confirmation to the Supreme Court when people called and went to the FBI with information that was ignored because it was outside the very narrow scope defined by the White House, then we no longer have three co-equal branches of government. If the Senate conducts a rigged sham impeachment trial and clears Donald Trump summarily then we no longer have a President, but an unchecked and untouchable head of state who could wreak havoc for the rest of his current term and do untold damage if reelected with no risk of constitutional restraint or reelection.

 

 

Photo of Three Wise Monkeys 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rayinmanila/42687150801

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

     

Impeachment: If Soldiers Face Death, Senators Can Face Witnesses To Preserve America

Work of  U.S federal government, in the public domain in the United States

In the Constitution Congress has the sole power to declare war. In recent years, Presidents have entered the United States in multiple wars without Congressional declarations of war. When the United States enters a war the expectation is for those in military service to fight in those conflicts and if required, to give their lives in combat. Military members, members of Congress and the President take an oath that all contain these words, "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  

Trump: Nixon on Steroids

 

Congress and Presidents have sent Americans to face deaths in wars foreign and domestic to maintain our republic! The least they can do is face the truth, witnesses and voters to make sure we protect our republic from foreign powers being invited to interfere in our elections going forward! Impeachment is not a political party exercise, but an emergency button to be pushed if a President, of any political party, is violating his oath of office and placing our republic in peril. We expect military men and women to sacrifice their lives in order to protect our freedoms, among those, to have free and fair elections free from foreign influence. The United States was born because it broke away from foreign rule through a bloody war and it should be obvious why an invitation by a sitting U.S. President, elected under a cloud of election interference by Russia, to the President of another country to assist him in an upcoming election by smearing his political opponent.

 

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to hear key fact witnesses before acquitting President Donald Trump of the articles of impeachment drawn against him, then the Senate has lost its moral authority to send brave Americans to their deaths in defense of their right to display such moral cowardice in a free country.