January 2020

The trial of Donald John Trump began 1/21/20; the Democratic House managers began Opening Arguments, laying-out foundational details of the case against the president; several votes were taken throughout the first day, with all Republican Senators voting down each request to subpoena government documents and for witnesses, Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton.   The first day’s proceedings ended on Day 2, around 2 a.m.   Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Hakeem Jeffries, Zoe Lofgren, Jason Crow, and Val Demings all spoke eloquently; they showed clips of witness testimonies from the impeachment hearing that occurred in the House.  Trump’s legal team took turns speaking falsehoods and platitudes, urging a quick end to this “Constitutional Nonsense”.  Senator Chuck Schumer said Wednesday, “it was a dark day from a dark night”.   “This is a partisan forced-march toward a predetermined outcome”, stated Sheldon Whitehouse, Democratic Senator and lawyer.

The GOP Senators stated they wanted to follow the William Jefferson Clinton impeachment trial, but “The so-called Clinton ‘precedent’ was a very advantageous one for Trump because it overlooked that the Senate HAD ALL THE EVIDENCE IN CLINTON” case, per the NYT.   Even without any further evidence, the impeachment hearing in the House garnered more than enough to prove the extortion case of Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress, which Trump proves daily.  The OAG stated Trump did break the law in withholding Congressionally-authorized aid to Ukraine, and Trump and Mulvaney have both confessed to that.   We, indeed, have a Constitutional Crises if a president is above the Rule of Law, and if we can expect nothing better from our democracy.  “We struggle to protect this idea, and our security”, urged Adam Schiff, in Wednesday’s arguments, “A president does not have the right, under our laws and our Constitution, to use the powers of his office to corruptly solicit prohibited foreign-aid in his reelection, to withhold official presidential acts to garner such help, to undermine our elections and place our security at risk. He does NOT!  His obstruction strikes at the heart of our Constitution, it threatens our last line of defense, that our founders enshrined in our system to protect our Democracy from a rogue president who presents an ongoing threat. Every American should be concerned about that.” The media, the investigation, impeachment, and trial are guardrails. Will they hold?   “Obstructing an impeachment inquiry to neutralize and nullify the impeachment clause, to shield himself from any accountability” is a flagrant criminal act!

Trish Forsyth Voss

The Articles of Impeachment were delivered to the Senate 1/15/20; the trial proceedings began in the Senate the following afternoon.  Adam Schiff presented the charges, the Senate received the impeachment articles; Chief Justice, John Roberts, was sworn in for the impending trial, set to resume on Tuesday, Jan 21, 2020.  President Donald John Trump has been impeached!  Make no mistake: Senators will be on trial as much as president Trump, who has ordered his administration to ignore the lawful subpoenas from the House, ordering all the departments NOT to provide any requested documents or evidence.  The exception: the White House provided a draft of the July 25, 2019 phone call from Trump, proving that he did indeed try to coerce a foreign leader to  ‘do him a favor’  in exchange for Congressionally-authorized aid to Ukraine.

In the holiday-vacation ‘pause’, more evidence has come forth and is included in the impeachment materials received in the Senate; damning evidence regarding Rudy Giuliani’s actions, and explosive evidence and phone transcripts of Lev Parnas, indicted key-player in the Ukraine affair.  Parnas, with his criminal-attorney, Joseph Bondy, in an interview with Rachel Maddow 1/15/20, laid-out details of his clandestine exploits with Giuliani, for the president, and Parnas implicates Barr, Pompeo, Pence, Nunes, Perry and others, as all being “on the team”; much as Gordon Sondland outlined during his hearing testimony, “They were all onboard”.   Parnas even talked about a congressional-candidate from Connecticut, Robert Hyde, who was surveilling and stalking our former U.S. ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, whom they wanted eradicated, of whom Trump told Ukrainian president Zelensky by phone, “she’s bad news; she’s going to go through some things”.  Trump even tweeted out defamatory remarks about Yovanovitch, which sounded like threats, on 11/15/19 as she gave testimony during the House impeachment hearing.   The FBI visited the home and business of Robert Hyde on 1/16/20.

Trump was the architect of these schemes; directing the many threats to Zelensky, if he failed to announce an investigation into Burisma & Biden.  Trump held Pence back from attending the inauguration of Zelensky; he withheld the crucial aid to Ukrainians, who were defending themselves in a hot-war with Russia.  The ‘T-team’ also sought a natural-gas deal in Ukraine.   Dmytro Firtash, an indicted Russian, mobbed-up oligarch, was funding these schemes executed by Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, et al.    Senators will be judged by history and held responsible for their actions and inactions.

Trish Forsyth Voss

“The Trump administration gave no details of imminent threat evidence, to justify their targeted-killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major-general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and commander of Quds Force, “responsible for exterritorial military clandestine-operations”, and included in Iraq’s state security. Despite Soleimani being immediately replaced by his deputy, millions of Iranians crying, shouting and marching in the streets, carried the pictures of Soleimani and  Iraqi militia leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, one of Iran’s top lieutenants in Iraq, a veteran of battles against the U.S. and the Islamic State.   The attack violates the agreement the U.S. had with Iraq: not to use their territory to attack other countries.  The Iraqi parliament swiftly voted to expel U.S. troops.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge, and Tuesday, Iran launched several ballistic missiles into two Iraqi bases, housing Iraqi and U.S. troops.   No deaths were reported.

Trump gave a televised statement on Wednesday, stating that “Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon”, that he was issuing further economic sanctions on Iran, and that he would be calling on NATO (yes, the same NATO he’s called obsolete and has alienated in multiple ways) “to become much more involved in the Middle East process”, stating NATO “must now break-away from the ‘remnants’ of the Iran Nuclear Deal”, from which Trump withdrew the U.S.   Trump didn’t advise Congress of his intended actions, nor did he advise our NATO allies in the region, placing them at risk, and now expects that NATO should fall into line behind him to help him save face.   Alienating our allies, destabilizing long-standing relationships, escalating tensions to appease his own ego, does not increase our diplomatic standing worldwide.  On Wednesday, the Secretaries of State and Defense, Head of the CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff gave a ‘supposed’ briefing to Senators, from which many emerged frustrated and upset!  Republican Utah-Senator, Mike Lee, stated he’d never seen a worse briefing, but he was most enraged by  the briefers warning Senators they should not debate nor discuss the appropriateness of further military intervention in Iran, as that would only embolden Iran.

The Ayatollah promised further revenge.  Iran has precise military capabilities, able to hit Israel and southeastern Europe, and has substantial maritime defenses.  Iran provides material support and training to regional militant groups, whose defenses might well threaten the U.S, and give Iran plausible deniability.  The world should now be on high alert!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Do-nothing Democrats?  Don’t believe it!  Not much for the Dems to be proud of?  WRONG!  Nearly 400 bills, not including resolutions, have been passed by the House to help the American people, but those bills languish in the McConnell graveyard; McConnell dubbing himself “the grim reaper”.  Most of those bills sit, ignored as McConnell instead has prioritized the Senate in confirming over 150 conservative judges (many unqualified) to life-terms, transforming the federal judiciary.  The majority of those stalled bills concern bipartisan issues like raising minimum wage, saving net neutrality, Equal Pay Act, reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, protecting  & expanding healthcare, bringing down prescription drug prices, protecting preexisting-conditions, universal gun background checks.  Dems have passed bills at a rapid clip, in addition to investigating a rogue-president, whom more than half the country now want removed from office.   Legislative paralysis has gripped Capitol Hill long before the impeachment began; the Republican-controlled Senate has ignored their duties for years.  Some senators SAY they are anxious to pass some positive legislation, but actions speak louder than words.  They stand solidly behind their Don, defending the Trumpino Crime Family at each turn.  Trump only has time for golfing, hosting obscene rallies, doing corrupt deals and tweeting out insults, calling the FBI and our awesome diplomats “HUMAN SCUM”!

You can thank Master Parliamentarian Pelosi for some of the best parts of the new trade bill that passed; read some moderate news reports about it.  And we can possibly thank Pelosi if we get the prime witnesses in the Senate trial that we should hear from: Bolton, Mulvaney and Pompeo. The majority of WE THE PEOPLE want to see a real Senate trial.  Rudy Giuliani should be indicted soon, and more information will be forthcoming from Lev Parnas and others, so this PAUSE may prove impactful.   On a different note: the people who claim they didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but defend him to the hilt are ludicrous: some say they voted for a 3rd party candidate in 2016, but voting for a 3rd party is a throw-away vote, as any ‘political scientist’ knows!  Why do these ludicrous people keep defending this despicable con-artist, in spite of all the evidence that shows he is colossally-crooked, monstrously-cruel, and absolutely spiritually bankrupt?  They didn’t vote for him, but they sure sound like they would next time around.   As for me, “I’m gonna get me a beer” with Warren or Buttigieg.

Trish Forsyth Voss