To impeach, or not to impeach

[pbrower2a]

(10-30-2019, 01:40 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(10-30-2019, 08:57 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(10-30-2019, 02:44 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(10-29-2019, 02:02 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(10-29-2019, 08:44 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: What's the point of it? The Democrats will never get 67 votes against Trump. So what is this good for? To show that they really, really dislike him? I think we all know about that.

This was said about Nixon too, and Trump is the modern Nixon.  If GOP Senators feel threatened, the calculus will change fast.  If not, then it will left to posterity to address this properly … or not.  

Personally, I think Trump would be okay with being impeached and convicted, it he is then able to parlay that into a Trump Network to rival Fox.  He hates this job, and he's not making money like he expected.

According to you, he's making all kinds of money off being President. I don't think he's making nearly as much as he did while in business. Now, according to you, he's not making money like he expected going in so to speak. Won't you be surprised if Obama turns out to be the modern Nixon today as you says. One thing I've learned about the liberals over the years is liberals/Progressives/blues tend to ignore, try to avoid   and openly defy/ go against   conventional wisdom as much as humanly possible. How much is a fake news channel going to be worth in six years? I bet he'll be able to purchase the old TV networks  and all their newer   cable networks for a bargain price.

1. He is still making deals to establish profitable operations with the aid of his office. "With the aid of office" is what is different. He is using the Presidency to enhance the value of his brand which is identical with his ego. Trump has the delusion that he can make a killing off his deals in the near future, although I expect him to be in no position in which to enjoy such.

2. His ideology is corporatism -- the idea that government melds with Big Business, both getting bigger at the expense of the little guy. What Dubya did as a big-government right-winger with comparative baby steps, Trump does with (pardon the metaphor) great leaps forward. Competition vanishes among the elites but becomes increasingly intense among the common man, who is expected to make bigger sacrifices as a worker or consumer. There are legitimate purposes for government intervention in the economy: to mitigate disputes, to aid the unfortunate and helpless, and to do what the private sector either cannot do or cannot do equitably.  

3. Nixon had his dark character; Obama is by contrast about as sunny a character as there is. Note well: there are right-wing media, and they were looking to poke holes in the Obama persona. They would have loved to expose a sex scandal or shady dealings. They would have been delighted to expose some emotional blow-up. Obama gave them nothing. Conservatives would have been wise to recognize that apart from ideology he was a good model of how a conservative President conducts himself. 

Trump has sought to disparage Obama at every turn. Pardon my repetition, but the next effective President from the conservative side of the political spectrum will behave much like Barack Obama.  If you want an idea of what that will look like, then think of another mature Reactive, who falls short of the epochal leader of the type of a Lincoln or FDR, but in a 1T a sixtyish Reactive is exactly what fits the mood if free of rancor. Try Dwight Eisenhower. Obama was that sort of leader when around fifty. 

4. Conventional wisdom? Many of us liberals consider history relevant beyond the pornography of fascism, Bolshevism and insane despotism. Most of us recognize who Caligula, Nero, and Commodus were and how relevant they are for judging leaders who entertain the masses with spectacles while bleeding the treasury. OK, at least our gladiatorial games (boxing, pro wrestling, and American football) and chariot races (auto racing) are less bloody than those depicted in [i]Gladiator[/i] and Ben Hur  and don't involve feeding Christians to the lions as in Quo Vadis? (which might involve a literal shark tank) -- and are strictly private in funding.  

Much of what many people consider conventional wisdom is their own vile tendencies and desires. Remember well: blunders must first seduce. Donald Trump goes beyind seduction: he is addicted.

5. Will it be CBS/Viacom/Paramount or Disney-ABC that ends up buying out FoX Propaganda Channel when it is discredited, and its technical infrastructure is available at fire-sale prices? Time-Warner already has CNN, and NBC already has CNBC and MSNBC.  I can see CBS/Viacom/Paramount introducing the new channel with what becomes a filler in "News as History" and with news with legitimate educational value for children (I/E content). Maybe CBS or ABC finds a way to collaborate with NPR news which is limited in its paucity of images. Credibility is everything in long-term success in news except when the news fits a popular agenda. FoX Propaganda Network has an aging, unsophisticated audience that is aging into oblivion. 

On something less political, I was shocked to find back in the 1980's, the typical customer of the traditional department store was 59 years old. Unless one has a product or service whose utility is largely limited to people already old (let us say nursing homes) one cannot maintain profitability unless getting a younger generation of customers. Knowing this, are you surprised that Montgomery-Ward is no more, along with many old-fashioned regional department stores, and that Sears is dying?  Target, Meijer (it will likely expand into Minnesota within ten years about as it gets into the Nashville, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis areas), Kohl's, and Wal*Mart survive by treating dry goods as if groceries.

Yes, he's actively involved with some American trade deals with some foreign country's right now. However, I don't believe he has much time or much need to dabble in business related to him personally or much need to do what Biden may have actually done as far as using his position to pull some strings, open some doors, eliminate/end investigations and financially set up his kid for the rest of his life before he leaves politics or checks out so to speak. I'm pretty sure the Trump kids are very capable of running the company they've been involved with running for many years and dabbling on their own with other business without relying upon their father at this point in their lives. Yes, his obvious lack of a cozy blue attitude/temperament that is often fake. If you were able to read body language and weren't emotionally connected to Obama and liberal movements that pertain to you personally, you'd be able to see Obama and the Democrat's for what they are vs what they should be according to the propaganda you've been fed and the propaganda you've been feeding others for years. BTW, most reddish folk don't take the time to show you their actual capabilities in advance like I've been doing for years when business schedules permit. So, how many blue plutocrats have been eliminated for doing what those who claimed to believe and claimed to support shouldn't have been doing had they truly believed in what they were being paid to sell to the American public. Dude, what we are seeing today has become so obvious it's comical at this point.

1. All Presidents seek to promote American trade, with countries buying more American-made products and services. Because economic stewardship is a big part of how we judge our political leaders, the effort to promote trade that benefits all Americans is a legitimate activity. Doing so for the gain of the President is illegitimate. Self-dealing through the Presidency is not a legitimate activity.

2. The kids seem like pampered brats. The best top managers of family businesses have as a rule been around during the go-go phase of the business and have put effort into the company. His kids seem like heirs who would sell off the Trump business empire to a current competitor for a neat profit and then live in opulent splendor. Donald Trump is really an awful businessman, someone who starts enterprises that require others to do the investing and in which he gets well compensated as a promoterHe thinks that his name alone is worth something in making something more valuable. Should there be a failure, then someone else gets stuck.  He has the easiest way of making money, leasing out property in a place with a housing shortage. He is only a landlord; it is far more difficult to be in the vehicle, electronics, software, retail, banking, energy, or food-processing business.   

3. I read a book titled A$$holes concerning obnoxious characters in public life, Big Business, and entertainment. The author quickly dismissed Obama as being much less of an a$$hole than Dubya, let alone Trump. Obama was quoted as saying "If you want to be an a$$hole, then I do not need you". Give Obama a conservative agenda, and he still wins support from me on occasion. Trump would still be a disaster if he were a boilerplate liberal on most issues. Dealings with North Korea? Abandoning the Kurds? If a liberal did such things, then conservatives would be right to condemn this President. Why can we liberals not condemn this President for things that we would not do ourselves? 

Doing bad things to people may be profitable (think of slavery as an extreme of degradation), but it does not engender trust. Consider this: as a substitute teacher, the first person that I try to develop as a friend is... the janitor. You may need his services, and he may know a few things about the school that I do not know.

4. I have Asperger's syndrome. One consequence of Asperger's syndrome is incompetence in judging human body language. I tend to operate on a rational level even when such is not in my best interest.    

5. You suggest that you are competent at installing and maintaining HVAC units. If you are as good as you say you are at it, then you have legitimate cause for pride. When you try to convince someone that you are the person to do the job, then you express a record of success. You know enough that there is business not worth taking, which comes with experience. You do what all of us try to do: you play up your strength at what you do well. Such does not distinguish people by any obvious grouping of age, gender, ethnicity, religious heritage, or gender preference. If one does not put one's best foot forward, then how does one present himself?

6. It is Donald Trump who has done shady stuff, someone who has made a mockery of the separation of powers and of the checks and balances. He has given indications of suspect character in his business practices and some infamous deeds and statements of overt sexism. 

....All in all, Donald Trump is a catastrophic failure as President, and he gave us all copious reasons for expecting the worst.