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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Elephant(s) in the Room...
[link:https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/17/senate-impeachment-trial-schedule-100536|]
If I was an elephant in that room I would be petrified. The majority are hiding at the centre of the herd, hoping not to be noticed for their chicanery. They have seen what happens to those who wander away from the herd and although some of them know, in moments of personal reflection, that something stinks bigly in the court of Trump, their sense of survival is so short term they do nothing about it. And in doing nothing they risk the very foundations on which America was built.
We can all see the despoiled, ethics free, rotten to the core elephants in the committee room. What they are trying to do is front and centre in the rights distortion of democracy and they may get away with it this month, but in November 2020 America needs to tell these literal and prophetical elephants to fuck right off, that they will not stand for such egregious abuses of the very systems set up to protect the American people from tyranny.
History shows us that hard fought for freedoms can be easily lost and far harder to restore...
I believe that the law is the most important thing in the world today. I don't mean the practice of lawyers. I mean the law itself. Normally I sleep well. If there's one thing that can keep me awake at night it's a vision, which I sometimes have, of this country being ruled by the wishes of its rulers and not by the rule of law.' Could it happen here?'
'Of course it could. It's too bloody easy for a Government to panic and set the law on one side because it happens to be inconvenient. Temporarily, of course. They always mean to bring it back again -- some time.' --Flash Point, 1974 Michael Gilbert
Farmer-Rick
(10,216 posts)We lost democracy in 2000.
usaf-vet
(6,215 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,216 posts)FakeNoose
(32,791 posts)... and proceeded to make them even wealthier and more powerful beyond their wildest imagination.
Farmer-Rick
(10,216 posts)That ensured they would get very little competition from new business start ups.
So, when you start your own business, your Social Security taxes double (on a doubled tax already). Keeps the competition from smart but poor people out of the market.
And then of course he doubled all the Baby Boomer's Social Security taxes to pay off their parent's retirement and their own retirement.
And then the same party who doubled our taxes tried to take away our social security by pretending that the younger generation pays for the older generation's retirement. Not since Raygun has this been the case. And people kind of bought it and I still hear that lie against Social Security today (though mostly from clueless Libertarians.)
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)is the way the gop totally ignores their oaths of office. How they brush aside the TRUTH, that tRump is a thug and they stand beside him. He is not presidential material. Never has been, never will be. He is not even a passable Mafia don, he is too ignorant. Do they know something we do not, like the fix is already in for November? The lesser of them (not Moscow Mitch of course) risk losing their seats, once their constituents finally wake up to the traitorous behaviour. Maybe they are counting on their voters not being particularly bothered by the outright illegal acts of this clown?
keithbvadu2
(36,949 posts)'Rule of law' was important to the GOP back when Clinton was Prez .
They seem to have gotten over that silly idea now that it's Trump.
paleotn
(17,989 posts)Other than the fact that turnout will probably be somewhat higher, I see no real differences between those 2 Novembers. * will lose, but it won't be as crushing as it should be due to foreign interference and voter suppression. Dems will take the Senate, but not by much....51 to 49...and retain control of the House. But when the new Prez and the next Congress are sworn in, it will be worse than 2009. A country even more deeply divided. Blue America becomes bluer and red America more starkly red. A divide the likes of which we've not seen since 1860, coupled with the threat of domestic crazies, funded or at least motivated by foreign interests. I do believe the end goal of several foreign powers is to break us up, just as they've worked to break up the EU. And, ironically, we may end up being an easier egg to crack than the European Union. The next 10 to 15 years may see a reordering of alliances and a shift of political and military power, creating a world we'd barely recognize today. To be honest, I'm getting damn sick and tired of living in "interesting times", as the old Chinese adage goes.
GeorgiaPeanut
(360 posts)Thank you
ancianita
(36,148 posts)Rulers who talk law and cannot enforce law are subject to tyrants.
Tyrants are those who, because THEY control the forces of enforcement, will make law mere paper, and make THEMSELVES the law.
This is not about being a scofflaw.
The law rules rulers only as long as rulers let it -- (per Koch, "If you don't have the courts, you've got nothing). When rulers force their way out of rule of law, they ARE the law.
The coup is established.
William Barr is their enabler.
Thus comes the coup of a nation of MEN over a nation of laws.
Farmer-Rick
(10,216 posts)We have laws on the books right now that would have put Traitor Trumpy in jail before he ever ran for the GOP.
We have laws on the books for years that would have prevented Wal Mart, Amazon and even Microsoft. They are called anti Trust laws.
ancianita
(36,148 posts)By any means they choose.
No assumptions of enforcement by any of the three branches of government allowed.
Those who scoff at the law should never be in a position to define or control whom they choose to enforce any or all laws.