impeachment – Oscar Valdes

A Vote Against Trump is Not a Vote for Betrayal, but a Vote for Freedom.

It will be up to 20 brave Republican senators to help redirect the course of the nation.

This next week, the full House will vote on approving the articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of congress – which will then move to the Senate where the president will be tried.

Sixty seven yes votes are needed to convict the president. Being that there are only 47 democratic senators, a full 20 Republicans are needed to switch sides to convict the president.

Can it happen? Odds are that it will not.

But there is always the possibility of a surprise.

Why?

History will not be kind to those who have sided with Trump in spite of the overwhelming evidence of improprieties during his tenure. Not just the articles of impeachment. And the perception of how history will view us matters to decent men and women who have made a long term commitment to the health of the nation.

Only 20 Republican senators are needed to turn out a president who shows no signs of standing up to despots the world over, be them Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, El-Sisi in Egypt or the Saudi prince.

Only 20 Republican senators are needed to turn out a president who could not stand up against the Saudi royal family after they butchered the distinguished journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Only 20 Republican senators are needed to turn out a president who, after 3 years in office, has not mustered the mettle to tell Putin that interference in American elections is not allowed.

So here’s an opportunity for 20 courageous Republican senators to take a stand.

Dear senator, will you be putting your career in jeopardy if you do so?

It depends on how you view yourself. If you think of yourself as someone who understands the crisis of values that the president has thrown the country into, and realizes that Trump lacks the capacity to lead the nation in these convulsed times, then you will stand up to him and join those who vote to convict.

If you lack this awareness, then you will bow to the great showman and buy into the great deception that he orchestrates daily.

Do not forget, however, that history will not be kind to you when you side with Trump.

But then, history may not be important to you. Short term gains may be what matters to you most. If so, please consult your conscience and ask, was this nation built by shortsighted men?

When Trump goes on trial in the Senate, you will have the option of choosing how do you want history to judge you.

A vote to acquit is a vote to join Trump in his poor choices and impulsivity and self promotion.

A vote to acquit is a vote to imperil the freedoms that have made us a special place in the world.

Daily courage is needed to preserve it, for freedom does not come cheap.

Will 20 brave, visionary, responsible leaders please stand up to defend our freedoms, or will you choose to pass and have the nation wait for others to muster the courage?

Oscar Valdes

How Trump Helped Biden

Sometime ago I wrote that both Biden and Sanders ought to bow out of the race given their age. I was half wrong.

Biden has shown strength and has begun to appeal to more of the undecided. Part of his gains he owes to gaffes his adversaries are making. Warren shares too many of Sanders’ campaign positions and it has started to hurt. Sanders is overly identified with the Medicare for All concept and has boxed himself in.

But Biden owes much also to Trump himself.

Trump has an abundance of flaws and no reluctance to reveal them, but he also has had sharp political instincts. If not massaged properly, though, they may backfire.

Back in July, when Trump looked at the field of democratic candidates and considered their possibilities, he thought Biden was the one he needed to undermine the most. And so he chose to go after the former vice president with all the craft he could muster. But Trump overplayed his hand and poor judgment got him in trouble.

Trump may survive the impeachment, but there is no doubt that the attempt to pressure Ukraine’s president Zelensky into investigating Joe Biden’s son’s work with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, was a political move intent on defanging Biden as a candidate and rival. That fact is unassailable. So it doesn’t matter if Trump is not found guilty of attempting to bribe president Zelensky with the promise of $ 396 million in military assistance to defend against Russia in exchange for his agreeing to investigate Joe Biden’s son. It doesn’t matter because the damage has already been done.

The impeachment process, playing in congress to great fanfare, amounts to a huge plus for Biden and the democrats.

Additionally, the damage inflicted by the impeachment process is not limited to Trump himself, but affects the entire legislative representation of the Republican party, which in their shameless surrender to Trump, have chosen to not see the real elephant in the room, the decent people they were appointed to represent.

I was originally opposed to the impeachment of the president on grounds that it would be a loss of valuable time to get the message out to the public that a president bent on dividing the nation should not be reelected. But the democratic legislators have done a great job of moving things along and the matter has now been handed over to the Judiciary committee to draft the charges against the president.

The whole impeachment inquiry process has not been the ‘plus’ Trump boasted it would be for him. Quite the opposite, it has been a resounding minus.

So go, Joe, go! Your stances are appealing to the center. And if Warren and Sanders’s supporters acknowledge that defeating Trump is what is most essential to this election, then it will happen.

So go, Joe, go!

By the way, you keep talking about the pushups you do, so just how many do you do?

Is Trump Guilty of Colluding with Russia?

The Mueller probe may yet find evidence of illegalities but, as far as Trump ever entering into an explicit agreement with Russia to help him get elected, I don’t think he ever did that.

Mind you, I’m no Trump fan, but I did believe that, once elected, and in spite of all the absurdities he had stated during the campaign, he deserved a chance.

Well, he’s had his chance and has proved me wrong.

Trump may not have entered into a deal with Russia to subvert the election, but on other weighty matters he is clearly guilty.

Who would have thought that we would be witnessing an American president choosing to ignore the task of bringing the nation together?

Who would’ve thought that we would be seeing a president willing to grossly manipulate anti-immigrant sentiment?

A man carelessly tampering with trade policies, which carries the grave risk of putting a damper on the world’s economic growth.

A president who routinely violates rules of the most elemental decorum.

A man who devalues women and has yet to apologize for it.

A president who chooses to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement, in flagrant denial of solid scientific evidence.

A man who ignores the considered reports of his own intelligence agencies and shows himself reluctant to stand up to Putin and the Saudi family.

A president whose careless remarks on foreign policy have undermined the alliances America has worked so hard to shape since World War II.

Trump is guilty of all of the above.

Previous presidents have made serious mistakes during their term but then have shown a measure of contrition.

Trump is oblivious to such notion.

For two years we have seen him in action. Two years during which he has carried on about building a wall on the border with Mexico, an expenditure that is a shameless waste of resources needed for far more pressing matters, such as investing in the education of our citizens.

Two years in office, a parade of tweets and insults and never an apology from the man.

Two years in office and no attempt to bridge our differences. Instead, a sustained effort to accentuate them.

What does that tell me about Mr Trump?

That he is a shallow and self serving man with no true convictions other than what is good for him and his brand. And though intelligent, he chooses to use his capacity to indulge his greed for power and in so doing to mislead us.

What drives the man?

The relentless pursuit for self-aggrandizement.

But the nation can be deceived only for so long.

The results of the mid term elections, a referendum on Trump, stand as a sign that we are collectively coming to our senses, and so the tide is starting to turn.

Americans will make mistakes at the ballot box. Even grievous ones. We have done it before. That we are a democracy does not prevent us from having poor judgment. But what Trump’s 2016 election shows is how costly such mistakes can be.

The Mueller probe may well turn up information to impeach Trump but unless there is incontrovertible evidence for his guilt, the pursuit of that path is littered with uncertainties that may backfire and squander precious energies.

Where I see real hope is in the new Democratic majority in the House. It will be up to them to check Trump’s reckless behavior and do so in a manner that speaks not with partisan zeal but with a goal to unite the nation and recapture our strength.

Let us keep up the pressure.