Trump committed an impeachable offense yesterday

[RandomAccess]

Well, it's my contention that he commits impeachable offenses daily, but this one was a no-quibble, clear violation of the Constitution and his oath of office.

He failed to implement a law duly passed by Congress -- Russia sanctions.

Trump Blew a Deadline to Impose New Russian Sanctions and Democrats Are Furious https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210164247
Trump’s lack of follow-through on the sanctions law has angered congressional Democrats, who accuse the president of failing to stand up to Russia over its intervention in the presidential race. “The Trump Administration had a decision to make whether they would follow the law and crack down on those responsible for attacking American democracy in 2016,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “They chose instead to let Russia off the hook yet again. I’m fed up waiting for this Administration to protect our country and our elections.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Mother Jones, “We’ve got to be pretty tough about this. But with the president not imposing any sanctions, that’s hard to understand.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) questioned Trump’s motivation for blowing the sanctions deadline, pointing out that that the Trump administration had this week allowed Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, who is currently under sanctions, to visit the United States.

“We sanctioned the head of their intelligence and then the Trump administration invites him to waltz through our front door,” Schumer said. “This is an extreme dereliction of duty by President Trump, who seems more intent on undermining the rule of law in this country than standing up to Putin.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/trump-blew-a-deadline-to-impose-new-russian-sanctions-and-democrats-are-furious/

Warning from Seth Abramson:
We should all be clear on the fact that Trump is taking all these pro-Russia actions to ensure the inevitable Russian election interference in 2018 and 2020 will be in his and the Republicans' favor. We are watching treachery on a historic scale in slow motion and doing NOTHING.

Link to tweet

[pbmus]

1. Banana republic stuff....

[orangecrush]

2. Seth is right

Let's see if voices are raised tonight.

[BadgerMom]

3. I agree and disagree.

I agree we are witnessing historic treason, crimes and treachery. I wish I saw a clear path to take to stop them. I believe voting, marching, registering others, and speaking up are the most potent powers we have right now. The Mueller investigation is our best hope. Waiting for Mueller is waiting for Godot, for sure. Honestly, if someone has any ideas about how to accomplish something, I will support it. Ideas, anyone?

[renate]

4. I think that trying to work up outrage about Russia among people who aren't already outraged...

... is probably not the best road to follow. It's like the idea of trying to use logic and reason on them in the first place. That's not what gets them worked up.

Plus the entire thing is, by design, impossibly convoluted and confusing and overwhelming, even to people who've been following the plot every step of the way. Even if they could be weaned off of Fox, which they cannot, could you imagine trying to catch up now?

They were promised jobs and a land of milk and honey. Have their lives improved since Trump was elected? I suspect not. So I think that's probably going to be a more productive approach to the November elections than anything related to Russia.

[BadgerMom]

13. That I agree with.

[kst]

5. Did he violate the letter of the law?

Josh Marshall, who's usually pretty good about these things, writes:

You’ve likely seen the reports that the Trump administration violated the spirit though probably not the letter of the new Russia sanctions law by simply deciding not to impose any sanctions.

I haven't read the text of the law myself (and if I had, nobody should necessarily trust my interpretation of it).

Is the law worded loosely enough to permit Trump to avoid actually imposing sanctions?

The article on TPM.

[RandomAccess]

19. Thanks. Even so, Claire McCaskill said that we're in a

Constitutioanl Crisis because he ignored this law.

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. Yeah, and what is the PGIC gonna do next....the repug Congress is

refusing to hold him accountable for ANYTHING. What is to stop him from rounding up homeless people and putting them in concentration camps? Or, like Hitler, rounding up people without jobs and doing the same?
The bastard must feel so emboldened today since he is getting away with EVERYTHING. Evidently, we can do NOTHING to stop his dictatorship.

[triron]

7. Why are the dems so lame in their comments on this??

[onenote]

10. because they all voted for the law and know it really doesn't force Trump to do anything

[RandomAccess]

20. See this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10166826

[UTUSN]

8. R#37 & K

[onenote]

9. Have you actually read the law? I have. And it's riddled with provisions

that allow the president to waive sanctions by filing a report with Congress.
If it was so clear cut, I'd expect one of the articles to cite to a specific provision in the law that imposes a mandate on Trump. But because this is in the area of foreign relations, Congress always provides the president with an out.

[SergeStorms]

11. To be fair to Trump....

there were 5 votes in Congress, total, against those sanctions. 517 Reps. and Sens. voted for the sanctions. Trump is just looking out for those five Reps. and Sens. to make sure their opinions aren't overlooked! Yeah, that's the ticket! I'm sure Trump will come up with even tougher, more severe sanctions against Russia after he talks to those 5 Reps. and Sens.

[BigmanPigman]

12. I read about this on DU at 1:00 yesterday

yet most of the MSM didn't even mention it and if they did it was for all of 1 whole minute(woo hoo) and at the end of the news. The media is STILL complicit with the Fucking Moron and $$$$ from ratings. NOT much has changed since we all watched an empty podium waiting for the Fucking Moron to speak at one of his fascist campaign rallies. Free publicity for him and Hillary was never asked about real issues and if they did she was at the end of the broadcast.

NOTHING has changed since the election and everything is still in play for the complicit and hypocritical GOP, Russian interference, the big $$$ donors (the Mercers, Kochs, NRA, Religious Right), social media (Fuckerberg and Twitter), MSM, blind as sheep cult/base, Fux Ruse propaganda, etc for the midterms to have the same results as the 2016 election.

WE HAVE TO WIN THE MIDTERMS! We all must make a personal promise to knock on doors, call, donate in small sums, and drive people to the pills or this country will be lost for generations.

[gibraltar72]

14. And the day before

And the day before that. And the day before that. etc, etc. etc..

[GopherGal]

21. Just on the days ending in "y" (NFM)

[Miigwech]

15. What in the heck is going on?

Will no one stand up for the American rule of law? Paul Ryan is so horrible and if and when we as a country get out of this mess, he will go down in history as a traitor.

[Initech]

16. At this point I'm all for forming our own country.

Let the Trump jumpers wallow in their own juices. Can we call it "The Deep State"?

[triron]

17. I'm in.

Need a website to start pushing it.

[triron]

18. kick for visibility