Reader and attorney Ann German has had
IMPEACH PUSSY GRABBER
bumper stickers (see below) printed. In you live in or near Missoula you may see this vehicle, belonging to a friend of Ann’s. He’s apparently happy to have his number plate in the picture too, but blurring the numbers is the printer’s policy, hence the grey blob on the number plate.
The printer, Northern Sun, won’t be putting these stickers in their catalogue, so the only way to get some is via Ann. Anyone can have up to twenty for free by contacting her.
E-Mail:
Address:
Ann German
Attorney at Law
P. O. Box 1530
Libby, MT 59923
Phone:
(406) 293-4191
Is a Trump Impeachment Likely?
Of course, there’s no way of knowing. However, you may recall Professor Allan J Lichtman. He has a model for predicting presidential elections and has correctly called every one for thirty years, including the election of Trump.
Anyway, he made a second prediction: that Trump would be impeached by his own congress. As the Washington Post reports:
“I’m going to make another prediction,” he said. “This one is not based on a system; it’s just my gut. They don’t want Trump as president, because they can’t control him. He’s unpredictable. They’d love to have Pence — an absolutely down-the-line, conservative, controllable Republican. And I’m quite certain Trump will give someone grounds for impeachment, either by doing something that endangers national security or because it helps his pocketbook.”
There’re already plenty of indicators that conflicts of interest are likely to arise in a Trump presidency. He will be retaining ownership of all his businesses and his three eldest children are on his transition team and sitting in on meetings with foreign diplomats. Trump has asked for security clearances for all three, and daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner will be part of the Trump administration. Personally, I think both are more capable and honourable than the president-elect, but it still looks dodgy.
Lichtman’s comment about Trump endangering national security is quite possible too. There are so many delicate situations in the world at the moment, and Trump could easily blunder in and mess something up without realizing what he’s done. He’s neither a diplomat nor a nuanced thinker, and has not been taking the opportunity to learn from the State Department.
I’m worried about what will happen on the international scene with a Trump presidency. In the US itself though, I think they’re better off with Trump than Pence. His extreme conservatism could do considerable damage. For example, Trump won’t change marriage equality – Pence will try to reverse it.
What’s that Chinese curse? May you live in interesting times.
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I have just shared this post on my Facebook profile. One of the problems with Trump is that he is so outrageous that it is hard to take him seriously. And the lack of ability to take him seriously, in my opinion, is a real problem!
Heather, I take your point about Pence. Good point. That also horrifies me. May we live in interesting times indeed!
I must make a donation. You deserve it!
Thanks so much Martin. 🙂
Ann is sending me some of these bumper stickers. You know where to find me if you want one, even if you don’t put it on the car!
There have been a number of people who have speculated that Trump might not finish even one term for a variety of reasons. One is that he’ll get bored with the day-to-day details of the job and pull a Palin; another is that his conflicts of interest will either force him to resign or be impeached; or he will do something so egregious that he will have to be removed for the good of the country.
Any of those scenarios, however, will give us a President Pence, which would be even worse given his theocratic leanings.
Yeah, I can see him getting bored. He likes the idea of being president, but actually doing the work required is another matter. There are so many potential scenarios.
I’m far more cynical than you. Didn’t he say something about letting others do the heavy lifting (i.e., the real work), while he spends his time sitting in the Oval Office (with a baseball cap on) or holding racuous rallies and “Making America Great Again”? Pence is an appalling alternative, but even if Trump does leave, the damage he alone will have done (even in a brief time) will be incalculable (and after all, he picked Pence). Look at his alarming cabinet picks: foxes for the hen house; and now “corporate raider” Carl Icahn as a “special advisor,” not even a federal employee, not subject to any federal scrutiny and oversight (and his own security force — what next, his own private army?). And just wait until he gets to the Supreme Court. And as for marriage equality, first of all, it’s obvious that he’ll promise anything to any group in order to further his ends, and he’s constantly reversing himself, then denying what he just said, then reversing and denying again and again ad nauseam. Further, he may not do anything himself, but I doubt that he’d mount any kind of spirited defense if his minions doing the real work (such as his VP, and members of his cabinet) worked to erode it, along with other gains the LGBT(&c.) community has made in recent years. I think that many in the gay community must be exceedingly apprehensive as to how they’ll fare under a Trump presidency. I read that he’s “expressed support for North Carolina’s HB2.”
All good points. His cabinet picks are worrisome, and history shows that even though they might get tough questioning, they’re likely to get through. I think the last time one failed was when Bush One was there. Even worse in Gen Flynn, because he doesn’t even get scrutiny.
I thought he said he didn’t want to get involved in HB2 though, and it looks like it will get overturned, so that’s something.
I have little faith in most of the people Trump has chosen, but I also think a lot of things aren’t going to be that easy to change whatever they say. For example, it’s legally impossible to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement before Nov 2020.
I lot of the mayors of the big city have got a fair bit of power and are pushing back too such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and more. The big cities vote Democrat, and they also produce most of the country’s wealth – something like 80% iirc.
Dull times never looked so good.
Just got this off a comment thread at the WaPo:
Any of these scenarios could occur. I’m beyond making predictions anymore. Progressives need to focus on the change required in their own approach to ensure the world only need face such damaging absurdities for four years. They haven’t so far shown any hint that they can do it. I read just the other day that the soon to be ranking Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said this during the campaign:
“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
F*ckwits like him should put out of their political misery. With friends like these…
So you want to replace Trump with Pence, or both of them with Ryan? Each of those scenarios gets better. But Democrats need to quit daydreaming and face up to a few cold hard facts.
(1) Democrats’ pathetic loyalty to Obama remains unreciprocated; he leaves their party substantially weaker than he found it. He is too self-absorbed to care about bolstering the institution, and too ideological and incompetent to broaden its appeal.
(2) Trump will be the 45th president. And nobody likes sore losers.
(3) Pence is odds-on favorite to be the 46th president, and a dozen or more other plausible Republican nominees are on deck. The Democrats have nobody on the horizon.
(4) For all his real and imagined foibles, for the time being at least Trump continues to demonstrate uncanny political instincts, not least the ability to co-opt his intramural critics while simultaneously absorbing their counsel. Almost every decision to date has served to further consolidate his position. Meanwhile the Democrats respond with bumper stickers. Sad!
I don’t really disagree with anything you say j.a.m., except I don’t think Pence would be better than Trump, and I think the GOP party-line on Obama (which is a lot of what you say, but not all) is a bit unfair. It’s true the Dems are substantially weaker since 2008, but I’m not sure how much can be blamed on Obama. Some is the Dems fault, but some is also because of the obstructionism of the Republican House and Senate.
Worryingly, I think that at the moment Pence is looking like succeeding Trump. However, he sucks up to Trump really badly and if Trump stuffs up big time, Pence could be damaged in the crossfire. However, he hasn’t been damaged so far because, as you say, Trump’s political instincts are so good. He gets away with stuff no-one else would, and it’s a disgrace.
It’s true that there are a lot of plausible candidates coming through the Republican party and not so much through the Dems. It’s what I’ve said several times – the Dems would have been far better off with Hillary as pres in 2008, and for Obama to come through now. The Dems haven’t done a good job of succession planning, and the far left have too much influence (just like the far right have too much influence in the GOP).
I’m sorry Heather, but your last line is rather bizarre. The US is the perfect example of what Nick Cohen meant when he said the choice in too many countries now was between a neo-liberal right-wing party and a nationalist right-wing party, with no social democrat choice as there traditionally has been. The left (let along the far left) don’t have *enough* influence on the Dems, let alone having anything near the massive influence the far right have on the Reps!
I think we probably talking at cross-purposes here Ken. I’m talking about the same people that Nick Cohen rails against having too much influence. Though to take your point, the right part of the Dems has too much influence too in the hierarchy – like Pelosi etc.
Ok, though not sure that’s what Cohen meant. I think he made a distinction between establishment “left” parties, which are now too often neo-liberal, and left activists, who are those you seem to be referring to and who generally don’t have that much influence on the establishment parties.
As that fine gentleman, who gets far less recognition than he should said: These are the times that try men’s souls.
Heather – when I was ordering more stickers today, Northern Sun told me that they will be offering “impeach pussy grabber” buttons in Febraury . . . they’re pink and have a cartoon cat’s incredulous face on them.
Oh wow! They sound cute! You’ll have to send me a pic when they’re done. I’m happy to write about them as well if you want me too.
uh, February, that is . . . .