The Donald Trump Score Card

My guess is that Nadler & Schiff & Neal & the others will come back to work after a few days of rest and then start with Lev Parnas, Bolton, and some subpoenas. March is when we'll hear about the tax returns from the Supreme Court. Early voting starts in 7&1/2 months.

 

Trump's Impeachment Is Just Like The Fall Of the Roman Empire
by Timothy Joseph
February 8, 2020

Trump's Impeachment Is Just Like The Fall Of the Roman Empire

excerpt:

"Leader is the State

Trump’s lawyers argued that the president’s personal position is inseparable from that of the nation itself. This is similar to the notion that took hold during the ascendancy of the man known as Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, who was in power from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14.

Trump defense attorney Alan Dershowitz asserted that “abuse of power” by the president is not an impeachable offense. A central part of Dershowitz’s argument was that “every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest” and that “if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

This inability to separate the personal interests of a leader from the interests of the country he or she leads has powerful echoes in ancient Rome.

There, no formal change from a republican system to an autocratic system ever occurred. Rather, there was an erosion of the republican institutions, a steady creep over decades of authoritarian decision-making, and the consolidation of power within one individual – all with the name “Republic” preserved.

Oversight becomes harassment

Much of Rome’s decline into one-man rule can be observed in a series of developments during the time of Augustus, who held no formal monarchical title but only the vague designation “princeps,” or “first among equals.”

But in fact the senate had ceded him both power (“imperium” in Latin) over Rome’s military and the traditional tribune’s power to veto legislation. Each of these powers also granted him immunity from prosecution. He was above the law.

Augustus’ position thus gave him exactly the freedom from oversight – or what Trump calls “presidential harassment” – that the president demands. Such immunity is also the sort that Richard Nixon seemed to long for, most famously in his post-presidency declaration that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”"

 

Republican Senators Tried to Stop Trump From Firing Impeachment Witness
By Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman
Feb. 8, 2020
Updated 10:52 p.m. ET

Republican Senators Tried to Stop Trump From Firing Impeachment Witness

excerpt:

"The senators were concerned that it would look bad for Mr. Trump to dismiss Mr. Sondland and argued that it was unnecessary, since the ambassador was already talking with senior officials about leaving after the Senate trial, the people said. The senators told White House officials that Mr. Sondland should be allowed to depart on his own terms, which would have reduced any political backlash.

But Mr. Trump evidently was not interested in a quiet departure, choosing instead to make a point by forcing Mr. Sondland out before the ambassador was ready to go. When State Department officials called Mr. Sondland on Friday to tell him that he had to resign that day, he resisted, saying that he did not want to be included in what seemed like a larger purge of impeachment witnesses, according to the people informed about the matter.

Mr. Sondland conveyed to the State Department officials that if they wanted him gone that day, they would have to fire him. And so the president did, ordering the ambassador recalled from his post effective immediately. Mr. Sondland’s dismissal was announced just hours after another impeachment witness, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, and his twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, were marched out of the White House by security officers and told their services were no longer needed.

The ousters came two days after the Republican-led Senate acquitted Mr. Trump on two articles of impeachment stemming from his effort to pressure Ukraine to incriminate Democratic rivals. Outraged Democrats called the firings a “Friday night massacre” aimed at taking revenge against government officials who had no choice but to testify under subpoena about what they knew."

 

Republican Senators Tried to Stop Trump From Firing Impeachment Witness

excerpt:

"Among the Republicans who warned the White House was Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who after voting to acquit Mr. Trump said she thought he had learned a lesson."

 

Article from January 2018.

Democracy can deteriorate rapidly.



Disrupter in chief: How Donald Trump is changing the presidency
A year into the presidency, Trump’s freewheeling, norm-busting approach to the office is the new normal.
By Linda Feldmann Staff writer
January 4, 2018

Disrupter in chief: How Donald Trump is changing the presidency

excerpt:

"In truth, the Trump disruption so far hasn’t proved to be as, well, disruptive as it could have been. Trump is not a dictator – far from it. Respect for the Constitution remains deeply embedded in the American psyche. The two-party system remains vibrant, as seen last month in Doug Jones’s stunning upset in the Alabama special Senate election – a rare Democratic victory in a deeply Republican state.

“It looks so far like our system is more resilient than a lot of people thought it was,” says Gene Healy, vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute and author of the book “The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power.” “The courts and to some extent Congress have pushed back.”"

 

This is the man Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to- and these are actual quotes from him.

 

Is he now esconsced in the White House mental asylum ???

 

Rush Limbaugh denied smoking risks in 2015: ‘Smokers aren’t killing anybody’
The conservative radio host has long extolled the glamour and societal benefits of smoking, while downplaying its dangers.
By Martha Ross | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 4, 2020 at 9:53 am | UPDATED: February 5, 2020 at 10:39 am

Rush Limbaugh in 2015: 'Smokers aren't killing anybody'

excerpts:

“Smokers aren’t killing anybody,” the conservative host declared in an April 2015 segment of the “Rush Limbaugh Show,” then argued that tobacco users should be thanked because their purchases generate tax dollars that fund children’s health care programs.

“I’m just saying there ought to be a little appreciation shown for them, instead of having them hated and reviled,” Limbaugh said. “I would like a medal for smoking cigars, is what I’m saying.”


"Fast forward to Monday, when Limbaugh, 69, went on his radio show to announce that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

Or fast forward to Tuesday, when Limbaugh was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom award during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. First Lady Melania Trump, seated next to Limbaugh in the House gallery, presented him with the award."

 

and he refered to NFL team members as bloods, and crips.
The world is overpopulated, and limbaugh is taking up to much space.

 

Because they probably have similar viewpoints.

 

For a president I’ll take shallow over socialist every day of the week.

 

Because they don't want the information to get out to the public? They are protecting Trump from criminal charges again?

 

That's what the KKK always says.

 

Yeah... Fixed that for you

 

Right on Mister T!

 

Trump budget would cut $4.4T in spending, boosting defense while slashing safety nets, foreign aid
By Gregg Re | Fox News
February 9, 2020

Trump budget would cut $4.4T in spending, boosting defense while slashing safety nets, foreign aid

excerpt:

"The White House on Sunday unveiled a $4.8 trillion budget proposal that would slash spending dramatically on foreign aid and social safety nets, while including $2 billion for a southern border wall and substantially boosting funding to NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security.

Fox News has confirmed the details of the budget, which The Wall Street Journal first reported. The package as-is stood little chance of passage in the House of Representatives, which the Democrats have controlled. Still, it served as a signal of the president's priorities as Republicans have aimed to retake the chamber in the 2020 elections.

In all, the White House is seeking to cut $4.4 trillion in federal spending over the next 10 years, including reductions in spending on food stamps and federal disability benefits through more stringent work and eligibility requirements. Modifications in Medicare prescription-drug pricing would account for $130 billion in savings."

 

Trump is again claiming credit for work that was done by others.

Trump simply signed the bill that Manchin introduced and that Manchin and others in Congress had worked on for years while Trump was tweeting insults at everyone.



West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin responds to Trump calling him 'weak & corrupt' over impeachment vote
William Cummings
USA TODAY Published 1:04 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2020

Trump tears into Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney over impeachment votes

excerpt:

""I got the Pension Bill approved, Manchin couldn't do it," Trump tweeted, in an apparent reference to the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019, which Manchin introduced in November. The bill, which protected the pensions about 100,000 retired coal miners, was passed as an addition to the $1.37 trillion spending package approved in December.

Manchin tweeted that the people of West Virginia "know exactly who has worked day & night for the last 5 years to secure their healthcare & pensions & it wasn’t you.""

 

Trump is on an impeachment revenge campaign that includes insulting Manchin for voting to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. Manchin was the only Democrat who voted to approve Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Trump with his black/white, winner/loser, superlative, 100% loyalty world view doesn't realize that he can't get everything that he wants from people.

Trump insulted the wife of the late congressman Dingell because she thanked him for lowering the flag after the death of her husband but didn't vote against the articles of impeachment. Trump claimed at a rally in December 2019 that her deceased husband might be looking up from hell. He's still insulting her.

Ironically, at his rallies Trump likes to play the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

 

Trump allies plan to keep investigating the Bidens — both officially and unofficially
Sen. Lindsey Graham says Rudy Giuliani will feed dirt on the Biden family to the DOJ, as the Senate continues its investigation into Hunter Biden.
By Anya van Wagtendonk
Feb 9, 2020, 4:38pm EST

Trump allies plan to keep investigating the Bidens — both officially and unofficially

excerpt:

"One of the main fronts in this process is set to take place through a backchannel, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch Trump ally and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Graham, said Attorney General William Barr has set up a “process” for receiving information about the Bidens from Ukraine, using Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as an intermediary.

This revelation came shortly after Giuliani claimed to have a uncovered a “smoking gun” involving former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, that would legitimate Trump’s request last July for Ukraine’s then-new president to investigate him and his father.

Giuliani made the claim on Fox News’ Watters’ World Saturday night, saying that he and his team now have three witnesses ready to share evidence of Biden’s son having engaged in corrupt activities.

“I want to prove what happened,” Giuliani told host Jesse Watters, “Because I believe if we prove what happened, [Trump] will be totally vindicated.”

The lawyer then made a public request of the South Carolina senator, calling for him to begin an official Senate investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.

“Lindsey, get started,” Giuliani said."