www.newsmedianews.com
--- NewsMediaNews ---
NEWS


Use Advanced Search

Login

         
Apply to report     registration help


+ Larger Font | + Smaller Font

PUBLISH
Make my home page

VIEW BY CATEGORY


News Resources
Countries

  Afghanistan
  Africa
  Albania
  Algeria
  Andorra
  Angola
  Anguilla
  Antigua
  Argentina
  Armenia
  Aruba
  Asia
  Australia
  Austria
  Azerbaijan
  Bahamas
  Bahrain
  Balkans
  Bangladesh
  Barbados
  Belarus
  Belgium
  Belize
  Benin
  Bermuda
  Bhutan
  Bosnia
  Bolivia
  Botswana
  Brazil
  Brunei
  Bulgaria
  Burkina
  Burma
  Burundi
  Cambodia
  Cameroon
  Canada
  Cape Verde
  Caribbean
  Cayman Islands
  Cen African Rep
  Chad
  Chile
  China
  Christmas Island
  Columbia
  Comoros
  Congo
  Cook Island
  Costa Rica
  Croatia
  Cuba
  Cyprus
  Czech/Slovakia
  Denmark
  Djibouti
  Dominican Republic
  Dubai
  East Timor
  Ecuador
  Egypt
  El Salvador
  Equatorial Guinea
  Eritrea
  Estonia
  Ethiopia
  Europe
  Faroe Islands
  Fiji
  Finland
  France
  Gabon
  Gambia
  Georgia
  Germany
  Ghana
  Greece
  Greenland
  Grenada
  Guadeloupe
  Guam
  Guatemala
  Guinea
  Guyana
  Haiti
  Holland
  Honduras
  Hong Kong
  Hungary
  Iceland
  India
  Indonesia
  Iran
  Iraq
  Ireland
  Israel
  Italy
  Ivory Coast
  Jamaica
  Japan
  Jordan
  Kazakhstan
  Kenya
  Kiribati
  Korea
  Kuwait
  Kyrgyzstan
  Laos
  Latvia
  Lebanon
  Lesotho
  Liberia
  Libya
  Lietchtenstein
  Lithuania
  London
  Luxembourg
  Macau
  Macedonia
  Madagascar
  Malawi
  Malaysia
  Maldives
  Mali
  Malta
  Marshall Islands
  Martinique
  Mauritania
  Mauritius
  Mexico
  Micronesia
  Moldova
  Monaco
  Mongolia
  Montenegro
  Montserrat
  Morocco
  Mozambique
  Namibia
  Nauru
  New Zealand
  Nicaragua
  Niue
  Niger
  Nigeria
  Northern Ireland
  Norway
  Oman
  Pakistan
  Palau
  Palestine
  Panama
  Paraguay
  Peru
  Philippines
  Pitcairn Islands
  Poland
  Portugal
  Qatar
  Romania
  Russia
  Rwanda
  Samoa
  San Marino
  Sao Tomé
  Saudi Arabia
  Scandinavia
  Senegal
  Serbia
  Seychelles
  Sierra Leone
  Singapore
  Slovakia
  Slovenia
  Solomon Islands
  Somalia
  South Africa
  South Americas
  Spain
  Sri Lanka
  St Kitts
  St Lucia
  St Pierre
  St Vincent
  Sudan
  Suriname
  Swaziliand
  Sweden
  Switzerland
  Syria
  Taiwan
  Tajikistan
  Tanzania
  Thailand
  Tibet
  Togo
  Tonga
  Trinidad
  Tunisia
  Turkey
  Turkmenistan
  Turks & Caicos
  Tuvalu
  Uganda
  Ukraine
  United Kingdom
  United States
  Uruguay
  Uzbekistan
  Vanuatu
  Venezuela
  Vietnam
  Virgin Islands
  Walli & Futuna
  Yemen
  Zambia
  Zimbabwe
  World

Suggest new Category




Click here to buy sell on eBay!

 

 

 

The Truth website

 


Click to go to this page



A Quote in Time

See full quotes list


 

Latest newsmedianews articles
This page shows all direct input items filed for the current month                    Search Direct Input items              Archives



Restoring the Threat of Impeachment for Future Office Holders       printable version
10 Jan 2021: posted by the editor - General, Features, United States

By David Swanson
In the past 150 years, U.S. presidents have lied, cheated, stolen, warmongered, incited hatred and violence, driven inequality and corruption through the roof, taken over major powers from the Congress and abused them, gained the power of nuclear war and abused it through numerous threats, accelerated the destruction of the earth's environment, failed to protect the basic rights of people, pardoned their cronies for outrageous crimes, committed thousands of specific, open, public, and indisputable impeachable offenses, and been impeached for only two things.

The first was lying under oath and obstructing a critically important investigation into consensual oral sex.

The other was obstructing an out-of-control propaganda operation about Russia, and pressuring the government of Ukraine by withholding deadly weapons from its Nazi-aligned war-making government.

Both impeached presidents were acquitted, came out of the process with stronger support than they'd had before, and had zero penalties imposed on them.

This is roughly what most of the U.S. public knows about impeachment, which is why this critical tool of public accountability is in danger of being dismissed by the public.

This is not, in reality, the full story. The U.S. House has impeached 20 officials, including President Andrew Johnson. Eight of them have been convicted in the Senate, three more resigned before they could be, and another was expelled by the Senate and the trial dropped. That's 12 out of 20 effectively dealt with.

Even this is not, in reality, any more than scratching the surface of the full story. The vast majority of impeachment efforts have led to resignations or firings, court rulings, or governmental actions that have resolved to some extent the offenses at issue, prior to achieving an impeachment, much less a conviction. An attorney general like Alberto Gonzales, for example, will typically be forced to resign before impeachment hearings can inform the public about all of his outrages, or about the power of impeachment. But that doesn't mean Gonzales would ever have left without the activist sliver of the public demanding his impeachment.

Even with presidents, the popular story only scratches the surface of what's actually happened. Richard Nixon only left because he was about to be impeached. Harry Truman only lost the power to take over factories because pressure was building to impeach him. John Nichols' book, The Genius of Impeachment, tells some of this history. But Nixon was quite a few years back now. Anybody paying attention knows that every president since could have been impeached for numerous outrages, and that both Clinton and Trump were not impeached for their worst abuses of power.

George W. Bush, who, according to CNN this week, merely "lived through the war on Iraq" (unlike, I would note, over a million of his victims) was a prime candidate for impeachment, as was his vice president. I organized dozens of experts to draft dozens of articles of Bush impeachment for Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who actually introduced a fraction of them (35) into Congress. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked as unimportant an effort that we proponents called preventative, that we swore was about precedent, and that we grimly promised would see similar abuses of power in subsequent presidencies if not acted on.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump predictably expanded on numerous Bush power abuses. But only delusional, racist, rightwing impeachment efforts against Obama got much media attention. Advocates for Trump's impeachment since his inauguration day have long since compiled highlight lists of the most critical articles of impeachment being ignored by the Congress. To take just one topic, Trump has instigated violence against various groups since before his inauguration, including immigrants, blacks, leftists, etc. For Congress to suddenly care only when that violence reaches the halls of Congress is a serious problem, and should tell us all a great deal about who Congress "represents." But it is much better than nothing.

I think finally impeaching a president for a legitimate reason, for a public undisputed act, and for an act that the public wants him impeached for, could seriously help restore the status of impeachment in many people's minds, which could be very good for the future of U.S. government. It could also strip impeachment of numerous slanderous misconceptions. For decades we've been told that any impeachment would take months. The time and work supposedly involved has been a chief argument against numerous impeachments. In vain we have argued back that a vote could be held in 1 day. Now, suddenly, there's been an admission that we were right all along.

Of course, Congress has run screaming from public indisputable actions, in favor of dubious allegations. That has assisted the stalling tactics and evasion of which claims about long impeachments have been part. Trump has openly profited from office, incited violence, interfered with voting rights, discriminated on the basis of religion, waged illegal wars, blown people up with missiles, threatened nuclear wars, pardoned criminals, politicized prosecutions, abused immigrants, neglected those in need, intentionally and openly exacerbated climate collapse, instructed subordinates to break laws, supported coup attempts (in other countries), illegally torn up disarmament treaties, etc., etc., and Congress has preferred unproven allegations about Russia and Ukraine. To finally, at long last, impeach Trump for something he indisputably did would wipe away generations of pretense that an impeachment must be a long obscure investigation, while open power abuses are perfectly permissible.

So, it actually matters that right now we not let Congress get by with just rhetoric or with just the delusional passing of the buck to Mike Pence, or with merely finding some other means of barring Trump from holding future public office. It matters that Pelosi not be allowed to run out the clock on this impeachment. (Pushing the Senate trial into the next Congress and even the next presidency would be fine, and Pelosi fans may feel free to declare it the Genius of Pelosi, but no single person has done more to evade, stall, and sabotage the power of impeachment for decades, so wariness of her delays is always merited.) It matters because a precedent has to be set for presidents who try to overturn elections through fraudulent actions, dishonest demagoguery, and the instigation of violence. It matters because Trump may pardon everyone involved, because he may commit new outrages - even much worse ones, because his successors certainly will if he is given a pass, because if the Biden presidency doesn't start with a serious approach to turning the page it will not deliver anything the world needs, because Trump must be effectively barred from running for office again, because the nonviolent rule of law must reclaim respect now being gained by the increased use of military force in U.S. streets, and for numerous other reasons. But one key reason to impeach is to save the important tool of impeachment from being thrown in the trash.

>Local comment

Name: Remember me
E-mail: (optional)
Captcha

back to main headlines

    
Advanced Site Search

within   using

Latest Items

   
Newsmedianews ads


RANDOM POLL
[poll topic refreshes on page load]
Advanced Poll
Has the UK become intolerant of criticism?
YES
NO
DON'T CARE


Results
More polls




Direct Input Archives

Direct Input Headlines
No current entries to show

Archives


World's End, Black Mountains, Wales

Easyspace.com



Google

Web 

this site

 

 

Newsmedianews ads

 

 

GreatCampingSpots.com

 

 

 

In Association with Amazon.com

 

 

Alibris: Books, Music, & Movies

 

 

 

Download complete CD of 10 songs


news resources
Afghanistan | Africa | Albania | Algeria | Andorra | Angola | Anguilla | Antigua
| Argentina | Armenia | Aruba | Asia | Australia | Austria | Azerbaijan | Bahamas | Bahrain | Balkans | Bangladesh | Barbados | Belarus | Belgium | Belize | Benin | Bermuda | Bhutan | Bosnia | Bolivia | Botswana | Brazil | Brunei | Bulgaria | Burkina | Burma | Burundi | Cambodia | Cameroon | Canada | Cape Verde | Caribbean | Cayman Islands | Cen African Rep | Chad | Chile | China | Christmas Island | Columbia | Comoros | Congo | Cook Island | Costa Rica | Croatia | Cuba | Cyprus | Czech/Slovakia | Denmark | Djibouti | Dominican Republic | Dubai | East Timor | Ecuador | Egypt | El Salvador | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Estonia | Ethiopia | Europe | Faroe Islands | Fiji | Finland | France | Gabon | Gambia | Georgia | Germany | Ghana | Greece | Greenland | Grenada | Guadeloupe | Guam | Guatemala | Guinea | Guyana | Haiti | Holland | Honduras | Hong Kong | Hungary | Iceland | India | Indonesia | Iran | Iraq | Ireland | Israel | Italy | Ivory Coast | Jamaica | Japan | Jordan | Kazakhstan | Kenya | Kiribati | Korea | Kuwait | Kyrgyzstan | Laos | Latvia | Lebanon | Lesotho | Liberia | Libya | Lietchtenstein | Lithuania | London | Luxembourg | Macau | Macedonia | Madagascar | Malawi | Malaysia | Maldives | Mali | Malta | Marshall Islands | Martinique | Mauritania | Mauritius | Mexico | Micronesia | Moldova | Monaco | Mongolia | Montenegro | Montserrat | Morocco | Mozambique | Namibia | Nauru | New Zealand | Nicaragua | Niue | Niger | Nigeria | Northern Ireland | Norway | Oman | Pakistan | Palau | Palestine | Panama | Paraguay | Peru | Philippines | Pitcairn Islands | Poland | Portugal | Qatar | Romania | Russia | Rwanda | Samoa | San Marino | Sao Tomé | Saudi Arabia | Scandinavia | Senegal | Serbia | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Singapore | Slovakia | Slovenia | Solomon Islands | Somalia | South Africa | South Americas | Spain | Sri Lanka | St Kitts | St Lucia | St Pierre | St Vincent | Sudan | Suriname | Swaziliand | Sweden | Switzerland | Syria | Taiwan | Tajikistan | Tanzania | Thailand | Tibet | Togo | Tonga | Trinidad | Tunisia | Turkey | Turkmenistan | Turks & Caicos | Tuvalu | Uganda | Ukraine | United Kingdom | United States | Uruguay | Uzbekistan | Vanuatu | Venezuela | Vietnam | Virgin Islands | Walli & Futuna | Yemen | Zambia | Zimbabwe | World
Human Rights | Science | Journalism | Music | Showbiz | Sport | Technology
Clickable News Globe


Top | Privacy | Forum | Comment XML news feed directory MP3 Sounds | Links | Publicity | Contact
On-line Editing | Publish news | Guestbook | Site Status | Site Map
publish an item from this page to Newsvive.com Seed Newsvine
© Newsmedianews

Web newsmedianews

See traffic details for this site