Suppose I’ve always been a sucker for U.S. politics, as politics in Canada tend to be more staid, diplomatic, rather dry. In the U.S. every election is a grand show that crisscrosses the country, with verbal swipes and scandals and shenanigans lasting for months and months and months. On the other hand, in Canada, after a short campaign, a brief song and dance, sometimes scandal has tiptoed about, but for the most part our elections are concerned more with budgets and healthcare and resource management, for instance, you know, issues, and are generally not personality contests as they tend to be in the U.S., with each candidate being groomed and scripted and polished.

A judgement? Not really, as in part the U.S. president must be able to put on a show, as the constant glare of the spotlight focuses on every word, note, memo and utterance being recorded for posterity. Thus, in fact, the White House over time has become like a fortress that you can not escape, with security officers following your every move, and everything in your life becomes an open book, for criticism, for or against, worthy or not, the media becomes all presidents friend and foe, depending on how the day, week, month may go, as they have been thought of as the leader of the free world and therefore everyone has a stake and is a position of great power.

So far, the rumpTus has been found wanting – he is too weak, to spineless, too self-involved, too greedy, too easily led astray, too corruptible, too focused on his reflection in the mirror to notice, or care, about anything else. He is a pawn at the mercy of pundits on talk radio, Fox News hosts, Putin’s praise, rather than to the sound advice of his own hand-picked Generals.

“I don’t share the conventional view that if Mr. Trump is impeached by the House, the Republican-dominated Senate would never muster the necessary 67 votes to convict him. Stasis would decree that would be the case, but the current situation,already shifting,will have been left far behind by the time the senators face that question. Republicans who were once Mr. Trump’s firm allies have already openly criticized some of his recent actions, including his support of Saudi Arabia despite the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and his decision on Syria. They also openly deplored Mr. Mattis’s departure.”

The New York Times
Opinion | The Inevitability of Impeachment
By Elizabeth Drew, December 27, 2018

It is not new to scheme for the esteemed office, certainly nothing new in that. Nixon, for instance, was willing to steal for the position, sending underlings to do his dirty deeds, with suckers, enablers & pawns sent off to do time for his crimes.

Also, other presidents have been impeached, like Clinton, for instance. However, the founding fathers, as Drew points out, they put in some stiff provisions to make it difficult to remove a president.

“The founders understood that overturning the results of a presidential election must be approached with care and that they needed to prevent the use of that power as a partisan exercise or by a faction.So they wrote into the Constitution provisions to make it extremely difficult for Congress to remove a president from office, including that after an impeachment vote in the House, the Senate would hold a trial, with a two-thirds vote needed for conviction.”

ibid

Is the author of the NYT op-ed correct? Is it inevitable? Are we there? Well, given her experience as a respected journalist from the Watergate scandal, I would say if anyone knows the lay of the land it would be Elizabeth Drew.

Maybe the question now is more are the Senate Republicans ready to turn, as an unsuccessful impeachment would embolden the 45th even further?

In Nixon’s time, many in the GOP were still defending him until the tapes were released. It was that proof, that recorded voice of Nixon himself that was the final nail in his coffin. Are we there yet? Is it hot enough for them? Can they see the reality that the rest of the world sees, finally? Give it time, give it time.

One thing that is certain, this particular president is great at digging his own grave, at igniting such a backlash due to his ineptitude and chaotic government, and his past corruption and dirty deals haunt him, flaunting the laws of the land with tax evasion and laundering Russian oligarchs mulla, maybe through direct financial interests of his own, or through those of his compatriots of corruption around him, he does it to himself. He attracts those who are greedy for more and are willing to do whatever it takes to acquire more, and thus they are like those low-lying fruit, and now with all eyes firmly focused on everything Trump touches or has touched, it is just a matter of time before everything begins to tumble down around him, and can only stand and watch it all plucked away.

Corruption can be addictive, hard to turn away for some, once it’s worked once, and again, and once you have a taste of its riches, easy dough, it becomes easier and easier. In time all the greedy in the wild are attracted to all your bright and shiny baubles, and whether you set out to be corrupt or not, you get egged on, ah, just one more time, and it becomes so easy, and you get more and more greedy, and that is when you are caught.

I have a feeling that Trump will regret becoming President. He had it not so bad up their in his shiny tower, above it all, play acting, perhaps, but still.

With this shutdown, the Democrats dominating the new Congress beginning January 3rd, all eyes will be on getting the government back up and running.

Ah, however, quietly in the backrooms and corridors of the hill the lawyers and experts in various fields of expertise are gathering, ads placed, CV is analyzed, and thus the prez ain’t seen nothing yet, he is about to experience a whole new level of intrusion and scrutiny the likes of which he can’t imagine. Up till now, it has been like a hundred pokes and prods, annoying but not financially threatening, and I imagine the moron in chief will look back fondly on these first couple years as a walk in the park in comparison. Perhaps look back and wish he’d resigned back in these good ol’days.

“A recent committee job posting reviewed by CNN asked for legislative counsels with a variety of expertise: “criminal law, immigration law, constitutional law, intellectual property law, commercial and administrative law (including antitrust and bankruptcy), or oversight work. “

CNN
House Democrats scooping up staff, lawyers to power Trump investigations
By Lauren Fox, Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju,
Updated 8:10 PM ET, Fri December 28, 2018

At the one spectrum, the least of his incompetence is that he sabotages his own gains, refuses to be diplomatic, moral, wise, or do any of the things that one would do in order to garner a larger following, so he’s a crap leader in that arena. And it’s his own fault as he takes his marching orders from pundits on cable news and international despots whose goal is to weaken U.S. power, which would suggest he does not think for himself, has put himself in the position of being beholden to others, and that is obviously a dangerous situation for a President of the United States to be in.

So, surprise surprise, the burgeoning and loud majority of American’s now believe he should be impeached, or censured in some fashion so as to prevent him from doing more damage.

So, in the meantime, we all watch as he systematically destroys relationship after relationship internationally, sends the stock market off a sickening roller coaster ride of ups and downs never seen before, giving inexperienced lackey’s top-level jobs they are ill-suited for, and he has made his White House into some kind of chaotic 3-ring circus international laughing stock.

“No one has ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

P.T. Barnum

Suppose he’s sort of becoming the family crackpot, eh? Displaying for all the world just how deranged he can be, flaunting it almost, exposing the weak underbelly and their seeming inability to control him.

I’m not sure yet though if the majority of the GOP has the kahuna’s to turn on him, yet. Eventually, they may have no other choice as the man will bring them down with him when he falls. And, I have no doubt that could happen, and, well, personally I would love to watch that seething mass of corruption and greedy lawmakers making deals with the devil (aka NRA), and turning their collective head away as the man erodes America’s reputation internationally, as world leaders look on horrified at one unhinged tweet after another, but what a spectacle, what a farce.

America is in a dangerous place at the moment, whether or not everyone understands how dangerous, it is precarious, it has been weakened.

America is especially a dangerous place if you have some variation of brown skin, in that case, it can be deadly. Two young people die in the care of the border patrol and Trump owns that. Hundreds and thousands of government employees not sure if they are going to get paid, and Trump owns that. Hundreds and thousands watching in horror as their stocks plummet and financial chaos looming, and Trump owns that. American Journalists fearing for the lives, within their own borders, and Trump owns that. The EPA clawing back important rules and regulations to protect parks and waterways, the air, the soil, the food, the very ecosystem everyone relies on endangered, Trump owns that.

However, this article has sparked a groundswell, as a veteran of the Nixon era scandals, and the road that led to his eventual resignation, she speaks with a knowledge many of the younger generations of journalists just do not have.

I mean, Clinton’s impeachment was more farce, really, and in the end, didn’t end so well for the GOP. After his impeachment proceedings his ratings reached their highest point at a whopping 73%, and at his departure, he finished up at 65%, the highest since Truman. Chew on THAT.

In the end, perhaps the biggest weakness of this prez is that he believes his own press. He thinks of himself as this great tycoon, the character he played on The Apprentice, and he managed to convince a lot of folks that he really was this great self-made tycoon.

As it turned out, a hidden scam lurked behind the mysterious increases. In October, a New York Times investigation into the origins of Mr. Trump’s wealth revealed, among its findings, that the future president and his siblings set up a phony business to pad the cost of nearly everything their father, the legendary builder Fred C. Trump, purchased for his buildings. The Trump children split thate extra money.

New York Times
As the Trumps Dodged Taxes, Their Tenants Paid a Price
By Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig
Dec. 15, 2018

Victimless crimes? Well, those tenants may not agree. The families of those little ones at the border may not agree. The family and friends and co-workers of Kashoggi may not agree. The victims of the increased racist violence may not agree. The farmers left bankrupt by his tariffs may not agree, or the GM workers who’ve lost their jobs, or, well, add your own, there are many hundreds and thousands, millions of victims, now and in years to come because of this man.

With that NYT piece outlining his inheritance of almost a half billion from his father over the years, and the New Yorker article on the creator of The Apprentice, he has been exposed as the sham he is, as the many facades of fakery he has used as cover are ripped away, we are all now seeing the moron behind the mask, the stooge, the pawn, the poor little rich boy.