On the impeachment hearings

[Sandy]

https://www.vox.com/2019/11/14/20964528 ... ment-polls
https://www.voanews.com/usa/impeachment ... ent-effort

Political polarization was not something the founding fathers had in mind when they placed the supervision of the presidency in the hands of the Congress. If, as a private citizen, I could commit crimes and then go out and hold rallies denying it or changing the narrative and perspective and by getting enough favorable responses make the law enforcement and judicial system back off because of "public opinion," then our laws would be worthless. I think it is unfortunate that the illegal activity outlined by the Mueller investigation, which is substantial, clearly meets the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors" as far as the president is concerned but didn't prompt enough members of congress to begin an inquiry. I have little doubt that in addition to the Ukraine mess which has surfaced, there are other impeachable conspiracies that Trump has engaged in which will eventually come out, that's the man's M.O. And that's aside from the other crimes he's committed, including the mess that wound up closing his "foundation."

Even after teaching history and government for years and going through all that required professional development, amounting to a second master's degree, I'm still learning things about this because impeachment of a president is rare. Yes, it still seems that the partisan divide will lead to the senate not removing from office, but that's not necessarily the only outcome of an impeachment. The impeachment by the house is, in and of itself, a disciplinary act against a President that becomes part of his record regardless of the Senate vote. I think there will be some Republicans in the senate who think long and hard about the implications of their vote and will forgo party loyalty to do the right thing, there are a few who have already announced those intentions. If they do decide to "hold their guys in line," they will suffer electoral consequences in 2020, about which there will be little doubt.

Would the Republicans sit still for any of this if this were a Democrat in the White House? Compare this to the Clinton impeachment for an answer to that question. They had nothing compared to this. They spent eight years waiting for Barack Obama to spit on the sidewalk to try and impeach him. We have a broken system here and this needs to be fixed.

[William Thornton]

You can fix it the first Tuesday in November.

[Haruo]

If only enough New Yorkers would volunteer to be carpetbaggers...

[Sandy]