shermann7, One opinion, Opinion: Trump subverts the Constitution
By Jay Bookman
On Monday, President Trump ordered the immediate public release of unredacted, highly classified documents critical to the FBI’s investigation into Russian election meddling and into the possible involvement of Trump’s own campaign.
What 'stuff' did I post about Bill and Hillary? I simply stated that there were not the votes in the Senate to convict him, and that GOP hypocrisy and moral imbecility was rampant, then as now.
You posted as though Clinton's acquittal in the Senate was news.
It's the bane of the stupid not to know they are stupid. Thanks for the reminder of the truth of that statement.
Your projections about what you believe others don't know about a document you clearly have neither understanding of nor respect for are laughable.
On Monday, President Trump ordered the immediate public release of unredacted, highly classified documents critical to the FBI’s investigation into Russian election meddling and into the possible involvement of Trump’s own campaign
Among other things, Trump ordered release of FBI interviews with sources regarding his former aide Carter Page, ignoring concerns about the impact on national security. He also demanded the release of all text messages among top FBI officials related to the Russia investigation, and in unredacted form.
It is unprecedented for a president to reach into the Justice Department and order such a release during an ongoing criminal and national-security investigation. In most cases, material that sensitive would not see the light of day for half a century, if then.
It is even more extraordinary given that Trump himself may be a target of the investigation that he is exposing, and that Trump admits to ordering the documents’ release in hopes it will undermine and even end that investigation.
According to Trump, the release of these documents will reveal the existence of an immense conspiracy against him within the top levels of the FBI, CIA and the Justice Department, “one of the great scandals in the history of our country,” as he put it in an interview with The Hill. Trump predicted that exposure of that corruption will prove to be one of the “crowning achievements” of his administration and “a great service to the country, really.”
I’ll give Trump two things: He truly seems to believe this craziness, and if this conspiracy does exist, it would indeed be the greatest scandal in U.S. history. If the top leadership of the FBI, the Department of Justice and the CIA conspired to overthrow a legitimately elected president, working against him both before and after he won election, then yes, the exposure of that plot would indeed justify the praise that Trump prematurely heaps upon himself.
And if that conspiracy exists, it has extended well into the Trump administration. FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, would have played a critical role in its continued coverup, as would CIA Director Gina Haspel. If it exists, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, another Trump appointee, has also participated in both the conspiracy and coverup. If these documents prove what Trump claims they will prove, those people and others deserve not only to be fired but prosecuted.
But the conspiracy does not exist, and release of these documents, cherry-picked as they are, will probably prove it does not exist. Instead, it is yet another example of what has become Rule One of modern Republican politics: There is no problem so troubling that it cannot be explained away by a sufficiently convoluted conspiracy theory.
So far, federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies have balked at carrying out Trump’s order for immediate release of the classified documents. They fear the precedent it would set for partisan use of such material, as well as the damage it might do to the investigation or national security.
But every day that goes by is another day of frustration for Trump’s demand for immediate release. Every attempt the agencies make to redact sensitive information against the president’s wishes will be perceived as confirmation of their disloyalty by a president already drowning in paranoia.
And if Trump insists on his original order, if he tries to strong-arm law enforcement into becoming partisan playthings, top officials may resign rather than follow a lawless order and this slow crawl toward a constitutional crisis may turn into a heedless rush.
shermann7, Why Trump's National Emergency Sets An Alarming Precedent
One other opinion.
Feb 24, 2019, 09:10pm
Steve Denning Senior Contributor Leadership Strategy I write about Agile management, leadership, innovation & narrative.
Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on February 15 set out to turn a legislative defeat into a political victory. Trump’s declaration, which was made in the White House Rose Garden before he headed to Mar-a-Lago for three leisurely days of golf, was aimed at a funding the construction of the Southern border wall in contravention of the express decision of both houses of Congress.
Trump’s declaration has little to do with building a wall. It’s a call to arms of his base. It’s all about mobilizing his supporters.
“I don’t believe,” wrote Ronald Reagan .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/23/republicans-big-gut-check-vote-tuesday/ , “the President has the power to declare an emergency short of war.” In the coming days, Republicans will have to vote on whether to go along with Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. Their votes will constitute clarifying moments in American history,
--- [Republicans] claim to be pro-military, but Trump’s action would take money away from the defense budget. They claim to be pro-property rights, but Trump’s action would result in the taking of private property along the border. And they claim to be constitutional conservatives, but Trump’s action is an obvious violation of Article I of the Constitution .. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript : ‘No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.’ ---
On this view, Trump’s declaration of emergency to allocate funds against the express will of Congress is the act of a lawless president. It circumvents an explicit decision of Congress, undermines a basic principle of the Constitution, and puts in question the very spirit and principles of the American experiment.
The breach is so flagrant that even Trump himself hardly expects to get away with it. He doesn't seem to care whether the wall gets built or not, even implying falsely that the wall is already under construction. He is declaring the national emergency more to demonstrate that he can get the funding, than to accomplish anything specific.
The problem for the country is that if Trump is allowed to get away with this fictional declaration, it risks leading to further erosions and incursions of the Constitution’s checks and balances and a further slide towards autocracy and an undermining of the rule of law.
“The whole idea that presidents… can declare an emergency and somehow usurp the separation of powers and get into the business of appropriating money for specific projects without Congress being involved, is a serious constitutional question,” Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.) told CNN in early February .. https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/politics/trump-border-wall/index.html .
--- “Now Republicans have a chance to vote their consciences,” writes Max Boot, “if they have any left. The House will vote Tuesday on a resolution to repeal the state of emergency. The Senate will have its opportunity soon. This is the most important vote that Republicans will make in their lives.
If Republicans support this unconstitutional power grab, they will have completed their transformation from the party of Reagan — a party devoted to conservative principles — to the party of Trump — a party devoted to no principle other than a desperate desire to propitiate a capricious would-be tyrant in the White House… .who represents a clear and present danger to democracy in the United States. ---
Trump’s Attempted Reality-Distortions
In declaring the emergency on February 15, Trump was, as always, exploring what he can get away with, whether it is claiming that tax avoidance just made him smart, or denouncing the mothers of dead soldiers, or now, declaring a national emergency when there is none.
Trump’s declaration comprised a series of attempted reality-distortions. His trade war is going well. He is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Statistics are for idiots: they can be made up or discarded on a whim. The press is the enemy of the people. Evidence-based propositions are for plodders.
Trump makes up facts as a magician pulls rabbits out of a hat, declining to reveal where they come from. The more discombobulated his opponents become, the more his supporters applaud the performance and the more they want him to continue.
Trump’s Consolidation Of Power
Yet beneath Trump’s seeming drollery, there is also an insidious agenda. Trump ultimately doesn’t care about truth or the future of the Republic or democracy or the rule of law. He continues to act as if he never expected to be held to his oath to uphold the Constitution, any more than he ever expected to repay the loans he got for his casinos. Just as it was the foolish bankers who lent him the money who were deluded, so it was the American people who dreamed that he would ever support the rule of law.
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On February 15, Trump mocked the legal system by reciting in a sarcastic sing-song voice how his declaration of a national emergency will be tied up in court in the Left-leaning 9th Circuit through appeals and then to his ultimate vindication in the Supreme Court. Whether the wall ever gets built, is less relevant than Trump’s claimed dominance and mastery of the political and legal scene. If allowed to stand, his claimed dominance becomes real.
Trump spoke, not to inform, but to elicit complicity in his self-promotion at the expense of the institutions of the Republic. His utterances delivered a form of enjoyment that derives from his opponents’ anguish. For those who trust and believe in the rule of law, the Constitution and truth, there’s nothing funny about such attacks.
Trump speaks as if abiding by the Constitution and allowing Congress to determine how money is spent is a calling for small-minded bureaucrats. Great men, Trump is implying, are not troubled by such niceties: they make their own laws and find their own financing, just as Trump himself continued his businesses despite multiple bankruptcies. Declining to play by the rules, Trump floats above and beyond any norms. Trump is a scofflaw extraordinaire.
By exploiting the political power of his base, and threatening any defectors, Trump seeks to force Republicans to participate in his fictions and subvert the Constitution. By threatening retaliation in upcoming primaries, or another government shutdown, he enlisted even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to do the thing he promised never to do: to support a declaration of a national emergency. Trump’s allies are treated as fair game, to be coerced and humiliated.
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Why His Base Loves Trump
Trump’s hold over his base comes from their love of what his critics despise in him: that he doesn’t take anything seriously. Exchanging nuclear taunts with the President of North Korea was all in a day’s work, known as “executive time.”
Environmentalists who care deeply about the fate of the planet are among the easiest to provoke: their rage is so close to the surface, the slightest riff about cold weather and global warming is enough to set them off, to the huge amusement of his supporters. He appoints a panel of climate-change deniers to study the risk of climate change. In Trump’s world, everyone and everything is vulnerable: whatever his opponents care about is fodder for his mockery.
Trump insults Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” so persistently that her supporters fly into a rage at the mention of the name, to the great hilarity of his supporters. The cruelty of Trump’s taunts is deliberate. Derogatory nicknames for “Little Marco” and “Jeff Bozo” channel latent popular anger for political purposes. Everyone and anything are acceptable targets—the more solemn and respected the better. The name of the game is to disturb and disrupt and get away with it, to demonstrate and strengthen his own power.
The rage of his unwitting victims is aggravated by Trump’s sadistic glee. His innovation is to take delight in calculated illogicality, deliberate misstatements and exaggerations, with continued ironic recycling of his greatest hits such as "Lock Her Up!" and “Build The Wall!”
Trump distinguishes himself from any other politician by not recognizing any limits. Anything can be said or done, and there are no repercussions because it’s “Trump being Trump.” Trump has formed a community around the enjoyment of his malevolence. Eliciting the derision of his supporters towards his critics is the point: the primary goal is to sustain the pleasure of the anonymous collective in mocking the elite, the establishment, the guardians of the status quo, the press, the justice system, along with the brown races, the s-hole countries, the gays, whoever.
Trump’s Double Standard
Trump’s base revels in the outcry of the wounded and the aggrieved. To Trump, morality is a pretense, a front, something he doesn’t believe in and suspects that no one else does either. Yet Trump claims to have it both ways. He is indifferent to social norms for himself, while also being a merciless punisher when others break those norms. Trump acts as a self-appointed cultural critic while maintaining that anyone who is offended can’t take a good joke. The double standard is baked into the cake. The result is a logic of pure power and punishment.
There is an element of detachment associated with Trump’s punitive glee. At some level, the base may recognize that it’s impolite, even improper, for a president to lead chants to denigrate his enemies, but they don't want to end the pleasurable rush that comes from the joining in the insults, by facing the fact that the labeling comes with a cost.
Trump’s world no longer has any affiliation to what was once the Republican Party. Trump’s only commitment is to Trump himself. Trump enables, channels and validates the untrammeled expression of racist, sexist, xenophobic sentiments. It is this moral gutter into which the Republican Party is being thrust.
A Moment Of Truth For Republicans
Trump is the antithesis of everything that the Republican Party once stood for. On Tuesday February 26, Republicans in the House, and subsequently in the Senate, will have to vote on whether to go along with Trump’s fictional declaration of emergency. It will be an opportunity to show whether they are to continue the descent into the travesty of governance that is unworthy of this country, or whether they have a conscience. Their votes will constitute clarifying moments in American history.
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