Unnatural Disaster
The fundamentals of impeachment are simple enough, but sufficiently abstract that you might be forgiven for thinking that serious consideration of an impeachment inquiry should remain a ways off. Article II, section 4 of the Constitution provides that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” This last bucket of impeachable offenses is broad—but it is not formless. As Charles Black, Jr., explains in his classic 1974 handbook on the subject, some acts are not crimes but are sufficiently abusive or ignominious to render an individual unfit for the nation's highest office. On the other hand, as one of us recently wrote in an extended meditation on Black’s analysis, crimes rise to the level of the impeachable offense specifically if they are "subversive of government or political order“ or simply so serious as to make a president "unviable as a national leader." …....
In 1833, Justice Joseph Story explained that impeachment is not limited to "crimes of a strictly legal character" but also "has a more enlarged operation, and reaches, what are aptly termed political offenses, growing out of personal misconduct or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests, various in their character, and so indefinable in their actual involutions, that it is almost impossible to provide systematically for them by positive law." This is a near-perfect description of Trump’s wide-ranging abuses and the challenge that now lies with Congress: the order that the positive law is unable to provide is now its to impose.
By Jane Chong, Benjamin Wittes
Monday, August 28, 2017, 8:36 AM
https://www.lawfareblog.com/its-time-congress-needs-open-formal-impeachment-inquiry
Hurricane Harvey is a natural disaster. With the devastation and suffering that it has brought being reported on by high-quality news sources, it can be overwhelming. While thousands of ordinary Americans are taking extraordinary steps to assist those in need, and numerous reports tell of their heroic actions, this is a national emergency. Those impacted require both immediate and long-term assistance. And the general public wants to provide that assistance, because that is what good people do. Yet the amount of pain Harvey has caused continues to increase.
Americans are also seeing an ugly undercurrent that poses danger to our society. Few people were not offended by Trump's focus upon himself – and the hats he peddles – when he made his trip to Texas. And Kellyanne Conway illustrated just how toxic the Trump administration is, with her hostile reaction to Chris Cuomo's questions about the role that climate change is playing in natural disasters such as the current flood. Cuomo was not attempting to blame Trump for Harvey; rather, he was questioning if climate change deniers, including Trump, have a responsibility for how we respond to the increasingly frequent major floods.
As terrible as the flood is, there has been some encouraging news in recent days. None is more important than the updates on the investigations of the Trump-Russian scandal. Almost daily, we learn of more and more connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The news that Mr. Mueller is coordinating with the NYS Attorney General suggests that attempts to abuse the presidential power to pardon criminals is being knee-capped.
It's also encouraging to see that more and more people are expressing their beliefs that the Trump presidency is a failure. A focus group of citizens from Pennsylvania that voted for Trump showed that there is buyers remorse. And this is not only because of the exposure of the Trump-Russian scandal. It is because Trump is unqualified to serve as president.
The Lawfare article quoted above illustrates how widespread the recognition of the dangers of allowing Trump to continue to serve as president has become. Pressure is being exerted upon the republicans in the House and Senate to take their oaths of office seriously, and respond to this unnatural disaster. The link below provides the best timeline for the Trump-Russian scandal. It provides information that can be used by the grass roots' efforts to lobby their elected representatives to impeach Trump.
http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-russia-timeline/
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