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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Impeachment.





There is no question that Trump is a person who makes a mockery of democracy. He wanted to pressure Jeff Sessions and James Comey to try to end the Mueller investigation. He publicly attacked witnesses. He wanted McGahn to fire Mueller and McGahn refused to do so. The Mueller report is now the best selling book at the Amazon list of books. The report documents 10 times when Trump obstructed justice. Trump told people in his cabinet to lie for him. He has encouraged people to lie in order to give them pardons. So, Trump's evil actions are clear. Trump is clear to have a hatred of the rule of law. Therefore, I do believe in the impeachment of Donald Trump. Today, there is the She the vote forum featuring 2020 Democratic candidates. This forum represents the truth that black women and women of color are the most progressive electorate in America. No Democrat can win the Presidential election without a massive support among black women voters. That's the truth. Women of color were on the front-lines in the 2018 midterms.

Some news today is that a judge ruled that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and the EPA can be sued by Flint residents. The Flint water crisis was caused when corporate interests (and state governmental institutions) switched the water supply in Flint from a cleaner water supply to a lead-filled poisonous water supply. That has caused many Flint resident to have disabilities, diseases, and death in many cases. Lead filled water supply and lead filled homes are found nationwide in cities plus rural locations. The former Governor Rick Snyder, who presided over the switch in the city’s water supply from the Detroit system to the heavily polluted Flint River, was protected from liability under the “sovereign immunity” doctrine. The same was true for the federal government, including the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yet, one judge said that both can be used for civil liabilities.

Legal actions were initiated by residents and businesses charging Flint city officials, the state of Michigan and two private consulting firms with 14 claims of harm, ranging from violation of bodily integrity to gross negligence. Another action by approximately 3,000 city residents is underway in federal court targeting the EPA for its negligence. One problem is that the money to rebuild the infrastructure in Flint has been lax. $77 million of federal money are just loans and must be repaid without grants and outright investments to the people of Flint. This is a national emergency and the infrastructure of Flint must have total reconstruction without delay.

There is a debate among Democrats about impeachment. Pelosi said that Trump is an existential threat to democracy. Yet, she won't call for impeachment since she wants impeachment to exist in a strict framework of bipartisan support for it, explicit crimes, and other reasons. Other Democrats want impeachment. Recently, the Presidential candidates of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren want Trump to be impeached. The White House will fight the House subpoena of the former White House counsel Don McGahn. No man is above the law. We have these democratic institutions to make the point that a reactionary resident of the White House must be held accountable for his actions.

There is the reality of armed vigilante militia groups illegally detaining migrants along the U.S./Mexico border. This is fascism. No armed vigilante has the right to illegally detain any human being. United Constitutional Patriots (UCP) is one name of such organization. Trump has promoted xenophobic rhetoric by slandering migrants as "invaders." ICE has increasingly detained many people including black immigrants. Some of the vigilante falsely called themselves as Border Patrol. Many members of such groups have ties to neo-Nazis, white supremacists, etc. For example, the neo-Nazi co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), J.T. Ready, was investigated for the murder of 3 migrants. He was investigated by the FBI. He committed suicide. Three members of the Minutemen American Defense militia, a split-off from the MCDC, were convicted in 2011 for the 2009 murders of Raul Flores Jr. and his nine-year-old daughter Brisenia. This is not new, but the persecution of immigrants continues even in 2019.

By Timothy

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