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The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
I've heard a number of people in real life, on the television, and on the internet say that Trump is goading the Democrats to impeach him. A number of these people are convinced that this alone is reason enough to not try to impeach and convict him. I respectfully disagree.
Although I am an old man who believes strongly in non-violence, I am reminded of a time in my life when I was neither
..as a young man, I really enjoyed fighting. This was mainly in the boxing ring, but not always. While in my late teens, for example, there were a number of times when in social settings (bars or a party) when I had a verbal disagreement with someone, and they would say,You don't look that tough.
Their next sentence was usually, Hell, I don't 'box' in a street fight, as if I expected a referee to appear. No, sir. If I knew a fight was bound to happen, hearing, Go ahead you hit me first was music to my ears. The next thing they heard was my fists sizzling through the air, marking the beginning of their impeachment ...er, beating.
Perhaps there is some truth to be found in Joseph Campbell's telling Bill Moyers that most of Irish history can be found in the question, Is this a private fight, or can anyone join? But I outgrew this stage in my early twenties. By the time I became a father, though I was bigger and stronger than in my teens, I had stopped fighting in or out of the ring. And as a father, I taught my sons and daughters that is better to walk away from a fight, if possible.
Of course I taught them how to defend themselves if attacked. Malcolm X was correct in saying that sometimes, the best way to turn the other cheek is by breaking the other fellow's jaw. Now, Malcolm often used stark visuals to communicate symbolically. He knew how to call a cruel, violent bully's bluff. And that is what Trump is a cruel violent bully. And his goading of the Democrats is a bluff. Nothing but a bluff.
I was talking with a close friend last night. We talk about politics on an almost daily basis. She said that she is feeling increasing frustrated by the pace of the Democrats in DC in terms of holding Trump accountable, and hopeless about her ability as an individual to have any influence on these events. Now, I understand this. Yes, I do. In fact, I think that is the same general fatigue that quite a few good people are experiencing. That's why it's good to take rests every so often, just the same as boxers do between rounds.
Do not get fatigued to where you are burning out. No, your mind can play tricks on you then. Your mind is more likely to process in-coming information incorrectly. It may be that you mistake Trump for a Teflon don. He isn't. In fact, he knows he is in trouble, and that is exactly why that shit stain on the American fabric is bluffing so loudly. Do not be fooled. Listen to George Harrison's Beware of Darkness.
In between rounds of boxing, I did three things: breathed deeply, listened to my coach, and determined what plan to execute in the next round. I was calm in knowing that I could set a pace that my opponent could not keep up with. Patience was key. When the right time came, the last thing he would hear would be my punches sizzling towards him
...and then the referee saying, ....8, 9, 10.
We are approaching that point with Trump. Beatle George sang, Beware of greedy leaders, they take you where you should not go. And Trump was moving this country in that wrong direction. But America is uniting to bring itself in the right direction, and that includes plucking Trump from office. This includes the grass roots, the local Democratic Party headquarters, the state representatives, and our elected representatives in DC. More, it includes the thousand former federal prosecutors that signed the letter, and the federal judges who are deciding the cases where Trump seeks to further obstruct justice.
It's happening. Maybe not as quickly as some want, but it's happening. And it's happening far quicker than Trump wants, because it is at a pace where he cannot keep up.
Peace,
H2O Man
dalton99a
(81,392 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I believe "momentum" is coming into play. It's building in mass and velocity.
Hekate
(90,556 posts)Mme Speaker came out of her meeting with House committee chairs and said it is clear that Trump is engaged in a coverup. Whoops -- that's Watergate-speak.
Then she and Chuck Schumer went into an infrastructure meeting with Trump and it was very clear she'd gotten under his skin with that comment. If I heard right, he told them he wouldn't do anything whatsoever until they stopped investigating him, and then stomped out to the Rose Garden where he had a prepared sign of some sort waiting, and had a tantrum.
Nancy Pelosi's comment on the president's behavior? She played the pity card on him. She's "praying for him." He's upset and can't concentrate on more than one thing at a time. She is sorry for him.
Waterman, it was masterful.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)is an exceptional leader. And this era will define her legacy. I have great confidence in her.
I'll add that this morning, I was wondering how she would play Trump. I knew she was going to, but wasn't sure how. She played him perfectly!
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)K&R
I'm reminded of when I had bouts, and after the first round ended, went back to my corner thinking, "Gracious! He's not cooperating! This will be tougher than I thought." But I wasn't discouraged. Instead, I focused on doing what it would take to win. To anticipate what he was attempting to do, punish him for trying it, and then force him to fight how I wanted. It's similar to that with Trump. So we have to consider the meaning of Spinoza's saying, "But all noble things are as difficult as they are rare."
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Martin Eden
(12,844 posts)
is to build a case for impeachment strong enough to convince a clear majority of American voters that We The People need to remove Trump from office.
Republicans may nevertheless block conviction in the Senate, but there will be a price to pay for that and the GOP will be stained with the fetid excrement of this POtuS for a long time to come.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Trump's finances -- his taxes specifically -- are going to help build the case. There's enough there that by the middle of the summer, people will understand why it was important to get all the documentation.
Martin Eden
(12,844 posts)... which enabled Putin to put his cajones in a vice.
If it walks like a Russian asset and talks like a Russian asset ...
malaise
(268,693 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)By no coincidence, that is the exact word that I use to describe you, my Wonderful Sister!
malaise
(268,693 posts)uponit7771
(90,301 posts)... have reacted like a damn baby and dangled infrastructure
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)It's providing a much-needed laugh, I think. What a brat! No self-control.
uponit7771
(90,301 posts)... it sounds just like something I've read Nixon say.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Nixon actually had a good side. It didn't amount to much, but it was there. Trump doesn't have any "good" in him. None.
I remember Nixon very well. I felt sick when he was elected in '68, and worse when he was re-elected. But I'm sure that he is looking down from hell at Trump, and feeling disgusted.
Hekate
(90,556 posts)...and what it is for. He did things I thought were bipartisan agreements about progress, like the EPA. Little did I know the depths of corruption the entire GOP was about to sink to.
Nixon was a bastard and sonovabitch, but Trump is beyond anything I ever imagined.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)By the mid-1980s, I began to think a lot about how both LBJ and Nixon had serious mental breakdowns towards the end of their times in office. I had disliked LBJ because of Vietnam. My father used to tell me that without the war, LBJ would have been the second coming of FDR. But that's another topic, and I'll try to veer off-course.
Nixon did more for traditional Native Americans than any other US president, to this day. Now, that's amazing. Although he said crude things about them to others, he was sincere about respecting their cultures. I'm sure that was from the combination of his mother's influence and being a Quacker.
Trump has no redeeming qualities that I am aware of. He is as out of place in nature as Nixon was in a crowd of strangers. It is evident that his mother had at most a minor influence on him. Were she to have had a largely negative influence, that would be one thing. But she is entirely MIA in his life story.
malaise
(268,693 posts)That comment brought back stark memories of Nixon's melt-down to a lot of people. It made watching the news very entertaining yesterday. Knowing that Trump was watching made it even more so!
malaise
(268,693 posts)Nancy's name for the Cover Up King Con will stick
She gave that tub of rancid lard a spanking, for sure!
Yesterday was one of those days that will be remembered as a historic point. No question in my mind.
spanone
(135,791 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)MartyTheGreek
(564 posts)I boxed a little too in H.S. but not much beyond AAU amateur fights and sparring at the gym. After H.S., I spared a little at the Job Corps in Pgh with a semi-pro that volunteered at our gym. He was gracious to me but let me have it if I did't box the way he was training me. One day the semi-pro took me up to Charlie Daniels Boxing Club up in the Hill District. That place that inspired students at CMU to write Hill Street Blues. In this case, a place where white people don't go alone or be escorted with a brother. I recall my one and only gym match there a total failure. A little too much dancing and not enough punching. The point unknown to me was to see if I had the right stuff. The coach yelled out mid third round... "Now start boxing!" Dude rung my bell in short order and I crawled back to the Job Corps with my tail up under my butt.
Years later in the Navy, I started training with the boxing team at the gym at Amphibous Base, Little Creek, VA but my ship seemed to be always underway on match nights to make the team so I rigged up a heavy bag on the helo deck and mostly worked out alone. I was 5' 9" about 162, and a Boiler Tech all tatted up about 5' 11" and 175 always gave me crap and acted like a tough guy when I went through the BT berthing. Fast forward to the ships Smoker Day (helo deck anyone wanting to box). The Marines and the Frogs on-board did not put forth anyone my size to fight me, so Boiler Tech tough guy wants a challenge. Ding, right off the bell here comes a flurry of haymakers, bob and weave, stick, jab, jab, stick, then I saw his knees get week and we're only into the first round. Well, I did not want to end it. I knew I had him, so I decided to put on a show and just started body blows and clean contact hits till near the end of the third round. I stunned him again and could have finished him off, but I pulled the rest of my punches. There comes a time when you know you can break someone's jaw, nose or knock them out.
The Trump cult of personality is dying daily and running out of steam and, Pelosi knows we're on the right side of history. The longer the Rope-A-Dope show, the more sticky stuff rubs off on the rest of the MAGAts. The score cards are finally telling the true story, we have a tough guy trying to throw haymakers against a wiser more skilled politician. It won't end well for him!
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I've been involved in the Great Sport for over fifty years. Heck, over 55 now. Time flies. After a total of 329 fights my friend Rubin talked me into hanging up the gloves, and going to college. And when the Hurricane spoke, I listened! We'll have to talk more about this .....but I will say that the two fighters I brought to the finals of the NYS Golden Gloves (not including NYC) are both intense body-punchers!
Speaker Pelosi played that bot today. She made him loose his cool, just as surely as Ali did to Frazier a week before their second fight, on the set of Wide World of Sports. (My brother and I were ringside for that one!)
MartyTheGreek
(564 posts)I hear that! I was always the short stocky guy trying to fight on the inside then up. Great work on the Golden Gloves! Boxing kept me off the streets some. It all started for me at the YMCA on Pgh, North Side. I'll have to re-watch that Ali - Frazier fight. Wow! You were there for one of the classics! How many can say that!
My last boxing analogy... Many are going to need some smelling salts in the days ahead as the cognitive dissonance sets in for the 30% ers. Some may never peel away, but more are being woke and are even going against their party daily. We're winning more rounds these recent days and the final bell is nearing in this smoke filled room and a clear winner is suddenly emerging! Her name is Justice!
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Boxing is, in a very real sense, a social program. My brother and I ran a gym in the 1970s. Besides us, there were over 75 kids active in our club. Not everyone fought competitively, but everyone participated ....some just sparring, some for the exercise, some to learn self-defense, and others just tying gloves, etc. Of these, more than 50 had experienced "problems" at home, in school, and/or in the community. While they were active with the club, none had further problems.
As a retired social worker then psychiatric social worker, I've yet to see any social program with that type of results. Now, it was at a specific time and place, and other boxing programs might not get the exact same results. But they come close.
I don't mind saying that in my early years, I was one of those "angry young men" that can be problematic at times for society. Whatever powers that fuel the universe determined I required two mentors: Rubin Carter and Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman. (They could both be tormentors, too!) It's curious that they both boxed, too.
kentuck
(111,052 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Today has been a good day, hasn't it?
MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I appreciate that!
coeur_de_lion
(3,676 posts)Aside from DU and a little bit of carefully selected news sites I am on a break from internet and already feeling better.
I may stay offline until something significant breaks.
What I see in the news is encouraging but I need much more than encouraging news. I need a real break. The Mueller report. The tax returns. The start of the impeachment hearings.
Meanwhile I am reading a book.
Thanks H for keeping my spirits up!
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I'm re-re-reading the Mueller Report. And reading a book my daughter gave me last week.
You'll be getting the good news you are hoping for in about two weeks' time. Maybe not as huge as you'd like, but enough to make you happy. Until then, do things like read and meditate. Come up with a mantra, such as "Trump is so fucked!" or "Impeachment Hearings to Start Soon!" Doing this helps to prevent one from grinding their teeth at night. Don't need any broken teeth.
coeur_de_lion
(3,676 posts)Is all about love and nothing to do with trump. When I meditate I dont think of him at all.
So for 10 minutes a day I am peaceful. Really helps.
See you in a few weeks!
grantcart
(53,061 posts)For those that want to turn impeachment into a microwave action, just remember if you lower the bar it can be used against you.
Impeachment is not like cooking a in a microwave or baking a cake. It's like an old fashioned barbeque of an entire hog where, whether it is done in Texas or at a luau in Hawaii takes all day and all the neighbors are going to have a chance to weigh in on every aspect of the process.
Turns out that Pelosi is a great barbeque master and she is going to roast Trump slowly until a broad consensus is in hand.
Her, "I am going to pray for the President" today was beyond wonderful and reminded me of the barbeque master laying on another layer of sweet sauce causing the pork skin to carmelize.
What is Trump going to say, "No I am going to pray for her" or "I don't need any goddamned prayers".
She is the master impeachment barbequer.
3Hotdogs
(12,324 posts)How'd that work out for us? We had four more years of McChimp's bullshit.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I could be wrong -- I often am -- but I think Speaker Pelosi knows that Trump may try to ignore court rulings. And that might be enough for the republicans in the Senate.
I loved your response about a swine barbeque. For some reason, it reminded me of the chant in "Lord of the Flies." Plus another George Harrison song!
Laelth
(32,017 posts)That said, I appreciate your thoughtful contribution on this topic.
Personally, I see no point in delaying impeachment. Nobody expects the Senate to convict, so were wasting our time trying to build a stronger case for impeachment. In addition, it makes our party look petty and partisan to continue these investigations when we have plenty of evidence to bring Articles of Impeachment NOW.
I say, punt this ball to the Senate and make it Mitch McConnells problem. After a quick impeachment, Democrats can then start working on the problems that actually matter to the American people, and we can kill Trumps witch hunt narrative if we simply impeach him, drop our investigations, and move on.
Let the Republican Senate and the SDNY handle this mess while Democrats lay out a positive vision for the nations future. Impeachment is the way to put this sorry chapter of our nations history behind us.
-Laelth
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I think that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is taking a step in that direction today -- moving in a way to get the ball rolling in a more formalized manner. Between that and this week's federal court decisions, we are in a good position.
I saw an interesting interview with a Representative from a purple district in California last night. She said that her office had reported that, up until this week, the phone calls they were getting were about 2 to 1 against impeachment. Now, they are 3 or 4 to 1 in favor of impeachment. That's important.
What is also important is that more and more republicans, behind the scenes, are beginning to believe that Trump may have to go. They are also contacting their elected lap dogs in DC. Although this is beneath the surface, it is important to be aware of.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Thank you for that information.
-Laelth
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)The list of crimes is plenty long, indeed.
-Laelth
proud patriot
(100,704 posts)Thank you Sir ,
proud patriot
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)That's very nice! I do hope that your family liked it.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)I just don't want it to drag on more because it could take us to 2020 and there is so much to do before 2020, like preventing the GOP from cheating, the Russians from getting involved, etc.
I pray that you are right.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I'm pretty sure that sources in cluding Russia as well as other nations will be attempting to disrupt the 2020 election. And as you noted, that's one reason we have to remove Trump. He welcomes their interference.
Still, I think that we are better prepared at the grass roots' level to counter disinformation and misinformation campaigns.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)I feel encouraged. And apparently Im missing some great moments since I dont watch tv! Id have loved to have watched Nancy Pelosi say shell pray for him. 😆.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)That was a high point, for sure. But it wasn't the only slap in Trump's face that Speaker Pelosi delivered!
I don't have "regular" tv myself. I watch the news on YouTube, usually an hour after it plays on television.
burrowowl
(17,632 posts)Reminds me of my grandmother: Jesus said to turn the other cheek but he didnt say what to do if they hit that one.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)I had used some of his other quotes recently, while speaking to the faculty and students in a Women and Gender Studies department at an area college. The administration is reducing funding for it, and none of the other departments are being supportive ....because they fear similar cuts. I was not surprised at how few of the students knewho Malcolm was, but I was very happy that they were interested in his teachings!
Trueblue Texan
(2,419 posts)I think the Dems in Congress know exactly what they are doing. I think Pelosi fully expected the bickering and badmouthing they are getting for supposedly dragging their feet on impeachment. (Lord, the press is sooooo predictable with how they pick up the bait and run with it.) With each apparent delay, more evidence of corruption is uncovered, the more the courts deliver justice and support the separation of powers and the more we see Trump weak, trembling with panic, and out of control.
Yes, justice WILL prevail. It's happening.
H2O Man
(73,506 posts)If you get on a highway and head east, you will end up east, unless you get off along the way and head in a different direction. We're heading east. We will reach our destination. The only question is if Trump will opt to get off at an early exit. He is a weak man, and not up for a real fight.
Me.
(35,454 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)"With patience, the smallest creature can climb the highest mountain." -- Rubin Carter
brush
(53,741 posts)H2O Man
(73,506 posts)"Build the case, keep up the pace." I like that!