Trump is a dangerous and deranged man-child. Write your representatives.

[johnson1010]

I'm surprised "Impeach Trump" isn't in the drop down menu of message categories when writing our representatives. I picked "civil rights" but it could have easily been "basic incompetence".

100% no contest the number one thing we need to convey to our representatives is that getting this piece of trash out of government is our number 1 voting issue.

It should have been obvious to everyone during his campaign that he was the least qualified human being to run for this office since there has been a United States of America.

When the inevitable impeachment comes around tell your representative to be one of those who stood against the obvious blundering malice of Trump and his lackeys. This will be in the history books. Did we learn from the last time the most powerful nation in the world was co-opted by a lunatic, or did we ignore those lessons entirely?

[geo]

During Obama's presidency, I heard lots of people call him names and even accuse him of overstepping his bounds as president. But the bottom line is the Constitution lays out specific grounds for impeachment, which are “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” People can write their congressman all they want, but to be impeached and removed from office, the House and Senate must find that the official committed one of these acts. Has Trump committed any of these acts? I don't see a case, but give him time.

[johnson1010]

Treason possibilities:
Multiple of his close advisors in direct conversation with Russian government during campaign, including his sec def. nominee undercutting Russian sanctions which were imposed due to Russia's hacking of Trump's opposition in order to position him as president of the united states.

Less concrete, but likely, Trump's financial connections to Russia and possibly Putin to bail him out during one of his fantastic plummets of fortune. There may literally be a check signed to Trump with Putin's name on it.

Bribery possibilities:
Trump will not divest his business interests and has already and will continue to pad the pockets of his business interests leveraging the presidency to do so. Like when he paid his business hundreds of thousands in rent for his campaign headquarters, and now while using white house Decepticon Kellyanne Conway to literally urge people to buy his family's products.

Crimes possibilities:
28 charges of sexual harassment. 25 million dollars paid to the people suing him for fraud in his Trump "University" lawsuit. at least 1 charge of raping a 13 year old.

What about just gross incompetence? is there no specific language indicating they can be removed for totally fucking everything up?

[geo]

I agree he's on shaky territory already. If he cannot separate himself from his business interests, he can be accused of using his office for personal gain, which I believe is illegal.

Trump's attitude towards Russia is perplexing. There are rumors that Russians have something on him, tapes of him cohorting with prostitutes or something like that. If he's being blackmailed, I would guess he could be convicted of treason.

One thing is for sure, Trump has a lot of enemies. If there's something out there, it will come to light sooner or later.

[LanDroid]

If he cannot separate himself from his business interests, he can be accused of using his office for personal gain, which I believe is illegal.

No. In our wisdom, the American people have made it legal for the President and the Vice President to profit for personal gain. Conflict of interest laws do not apply to those two people. However, Constitutional prohibitions against accepting bribes etc. from foreign governments do apply.

[DB Roy]

Trump’s Russian ties boggle the mind. Since the news that all 17 of America’s intelligence agencies agree that Russia hacked into four organizations associated with Hillary Clinton or the DNC and given the information to Julian Assange and subsequently published on Wikileaks, Trump has fervently defended Russia by appealing to Putin and Julian Assange—a man he wanted executed back in 2010 for publishing leaked emails damaging to him. Why would Trump openly cast doubt on his own intelligence agencies whom all living ex-presidents agree he will depend on for all his future intelligence briefings without which he cannot govern effectively? Because the reason for the Russian hacks were to influence the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor and against Hillary Clinton. Trump’s adamant refusal to accept the assessments of his own intelligence services can only be accounted for because he had prior knowledge of the hacking.

Trump, of course, denies he has any ties to Putin or to Russia. “I have ZERO investments in Russia,” he tweeted, a classic businessman’s and politician’s lie. Yes, he has zero investments in Russia because he has failed to land any. He did try to establish a Trump Tower in Moscow and failed. Investigations have shown he has been, for years, entangled with Russian “businessmen” and some of them are in Putin’s financial circle. Many of his aides, advisers and cabinet picks have extensive dealings with Russia and Putin.

But Trump’s Russian dealings are deep. The idea of building a Trump Tower in major cities around the world including the Soviet bloc isn’t even Trump’s idea (although he’ll gladly take credit for it). The idea was originally that of a Russian immigrant to the U.S. named Felix Sater. Trump claims to barely remember him in sworn testimony given in 2013 but Sater remembers Trump very well as they communicated on a regular basis for six years, that Sater flew to Colorado with Trump, that he escorted Trump’s kids, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, around Moscow in 2006. Sater was unable, however, to swing a deal to have a Tower built in Moscow.

Sater founded a firm called Bayrock Group LLC. He was also a government informant against the mob. Former business associates who lost money in Trump-related projects say that Sater has threatened to kill them. In 1991, Sater, working as a stockbroker, stabbed a commodities broker in the face with a piece of broken glass severely injuring him and lost his trading license and spent a year in prison starting in 1993. After getting out of prison, Sater joined up with an old acquaintance helping Wall Street brokers at White Rock Partners working in collusion with the La Cosa Nostra crime syndicate to run a $40 million stock fraud operation. He was busted in 1998 but became an informant to avoid more prison time. In 2001, he started Bayrock and had his own office the Trump Tower. Sater stated in 2008 during testimony given in a libel suit filed by Trump against author Tim O’Brien over his book “Trump Nation” (which Trump lost) that he became friendly with Trump and also met Donald Jr. when they worked on a deal together in Phoenix.

In 2005, Trump worked with Bayrock to develop various projects in Moscow. Sater was the go-between for Trump to a group of Russian investors but nothing came of the meetings. In 2007, a 46-story hotel called Trump Soho was launched in New York with the help of Bayrock. In 2009, a lawsuit was filed against Trump by condo buyers over the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale. One of the complaints was the Trump did not disclose the criminal past of one of the members of his team, presumably Sater. Trump simply washed his hands of the project claiming he had no liability.

Sater was sentenced in 2009 for his part in the stock fraud (it had been delayed because of his informant status which was netting them a great many crooks). He was fined $25,000 and did no prison time. In 2010, Trump Organization gave Sater its business cards and an office employing him to seek out more deals for the Trump empire. When Trump began his run for president, Sater declared his enthusiastic support stating, “He will make the greatest president of our century.”

Another partner in the Trump Soho project was the Sapir Organization founded Russian immigrant Tamir Sapir (now deceased). Working as a cab driver in New York, Sapir speculated on Russian oil and New York real estate and struck it big. Bayrock was controlled by a former Soviet official named Tevfik Arif. While Trump claims he did not know of Sater’s criminal history, Tim O’Brien says this is untrue, that Trump continued doing business with Sater even after his sordid past became public knowledge. In a deposition of Trump in 2007, O’Brien’s lawyers asked Trump if he was going to sever ties with Sater because of his ties with organized crime and Trump replied that he had not yet decided. Despite Trump’s claims of barely remembering Sater, there is a photo taken September 19, 2007 in New York at the Trump Soho launch party showing Trump speaking into a microphone and standing next to him are Tevfik Arif and Felix Sater. In 2008, Donald Jr. claimed, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere In New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

O’Brien also knows about Trump’s dealings with the mob in Atlantic City going back to the 1990s, particularly with Kenneth Shapiro whom O’Brien calls “a street-level gangster and a bag man for Philadelphia’s Scarfo crime family…” and Daniel Sullivan, a mob associate and FBI informant. Trump later told O’Brien, “…[T]hey say that Dan Sullivan was the guy that killed Jimmy Hoffa.”

When American banks would no longer lend Trump money due to his many bankruptcies (and despite his supporters’ claims of what a brilliant businessman he is), he turned to Russian banks for loans. In 2013, he and Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov set up the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Trump Vodka was an attempt to break open the Russian market. It didn’t work. Trump also sold a Palm Beach mansion to a Russian billionaire named Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million.

So we know that Trump has been dealing with Russians in business for a long time. We know that American banks stopped lending Trump money some years ago and the belief is that he going to Russian banks for loans. So how beholden is Trump to the Russians? We know the Russians helped Trump get elected but is it credible that Trump knew nothing of it? If not, then who in the U.S. was colluding with the Russians to get Trump elected and why? I mean, if people were saying the Russians helped get me elected by hacking into government computers and those of rival political parties, I would demand an investigation. The idea of calling the intelligence agencies a bunch of bullshitters and citing a man I once wanted executed as an authority to counter their claims does not inspire anyone with a functioning brain to believe I had no involvement especially when I tell everyone to just forget about it and move on to other more pressing matters. That has to set off alarm bells. One should find the fact that Trump brazenly implored the Russians to find Hillary Clinton's missing 30,000 emails on national television before the election to be reason enough not to believe any claim that Trump did not know about clandestine Russian help in the election.

The implications are far-reaching. Everything from American domestic policy and security to NATO and Middle East policy is profoundly affected if Trump is owned by the Russians. We cannot trust anything he decides on because we don't know who is actually calling the shots. When one looks at what we DO know about Russian involvement in the election, one should greatly alarmed at how deftly it was performed. DNC information hacked and given to Wikileaks, damaging fake news stories about Hillary Clinton made up by RT and spread through the media with help from Infowars and Breitbart--both outlets closely associated with Trump.

The question is when did Trump become so enamored with Russia? The answer seems to be in the late 80s when his own empire was on the verge of dying in a black pool of bankruptcy. Someone rescued him. Who? The answer likely lies in his tax returns which we will never see--unless someone leaks them. So we MUST question why Trump has surrounded himself with so many people with close ties to Russia and personal friends of Putin--Rex Tillerson, Michael Flynn, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Boris Ephshtein (the Russian-born communications director for Trump's inaugural committee and himself an investment banker with close ties to Moscow), etc.

I am shocked how easily his minions and diehard republicans have fallen in line to either praise Russia or demand people lay off Trump's relationship to that country. Would they do that for Hillary or Obama? No. But one also has to wonder how long this can go on. Someone is going to dig up something sooner or later. Some insider fed up with the bullshit is going to leak something very damaging and the dirty laundry will come spilling out. There can be no doubt that the Russians can ruin Trump politically and financially at any moment if they choose to. I expect that someday they may elect to do just that. The question, what we will have lost by the time that happens?

[DWill]

Recall that back in 2009, Barack Obama traveled overseas and made a series of mild apologies for the U.S. acting at times as if it owned the world. The commentary on this back home was scorching--a U.S. president apologizing! A few days ago, Trump told Fox news that Putin's violence against his political opponents was nothing to make a big issue of. We do a lot of killing, too, Trump said, you think we're so innocent? This remark was too extreme even for Trump's many Republican apologists to condone, although they still think he's fit to occupy the office, of course.

Mainly what Trump again showed was his inability to think critically, to make important distinctions. Only Polyannas would deny that the U.S. has done unsavory things in foreign countries (perhaps some of what Obama was apologizing for). But extra-judicial killings against domestic political enemies is another category. Putin has done that, probably a lot of it. Alleging that the same has occurred here puts one in the territory of paranoid conspiracy theories. Trump is very capable of going there, though.

[ant]

We do a lot of killing, too, Trump said, you think we're so innocent? This remark was too extreme even for Trump's many Republican apologists to condone, although they still think he's fit to occupy the office, of course.

Read Chomsky.
Evidently you are not familiar with US policies and military involvement that do in fact scrub away any ideas we are a morally upright nation that does not cause the suffering and death of innocents.

Trump was right - we aren't innocent.

[DWill]

It seems you didn't read the entire post. Are you claiming that U.S. presidents direct taking out those they consider their political enemies?

The larger point the Fox interviewer was getting at was Trump's admiration for, and absolute refusal to criticize, Vladimir Putin. That is all passing strange.

[geo]

I've been thinking about Trump's recent Nordstrom tweet.



There are so many problems with this tweet, I think you could write a book about it. Beyond the inappropriateness of using his position to berate a company for making a business decision, Trump piles on a couple of non sequiturs on top of a false premise. Is this really how this guy's brain works? Apparently so. Terrible!