Letter to the Editor

President Trump’s acts are definitely impeachable; the facts are crystal clear!   Trump elevated his personal, political interests while undermining our national security interests.  Three of John Bolton’s deputies came forth and testified during open-impeachment hearings, delivering details on the apparent scheme or back-channel to extort or force the newly-elected Ukrainian-president Zelensky, to announce via CNN that he was opening an investigation into Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden and Burisma, the energy company for which he’d worked.  Trump conditioned crucial aid to Ukraine on that slanderous announcement, a meeting with Zelensky,  (desperately-desired) and froze $400 million in Congressionally-approved foreign aid to Ukraine, (a fledging-democracy, fighting Russia there, so we don’t have to fight them here).  The approved aid-monies had to be spent by 9/30/19, the end of the fiscal period, or be lost to them.  Zelensky needed the aid immediately to help save lives.

We have dedicated, hard-working, nonpartisan diplomats and intelligence-officials, who work diligently for our nation, and Donald Trump undermines them all.  Thomas Jefferson said something to the effect that ‘if  a country spends more on diplomats and diplomacy, they would spend less on armies, armaments, and human lives’.  Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any supporters.  What if he were to stroll down Constitution Boulevard and set our Constitution ablaze?  Our democracy depends on protecting our Rule of Law.  William Barr, nefarious Attorney General, (who should also be impeached) recently spoke before the Federalist Society, saying that “liberals are shredding norms, legislative & judicial branches are encroaching on Executive authority”.                      The Executive branch is NOT weakening!   The presidency has become more powerful than our founding fathers envisioned it to be.  If the presidency has been weakened, it’s because the office-holder has weakened the Rule of Law, and has disgraced the office; he will use anything and anyone in service to his own personal, political interests.  Attacking and undermining our allies, while strengthening and upholding autocrats and dictators, attacking the freedom of the press, displaying unintelligence, instability, blatantly rude, hateful, bigoted behavior, while involving himself in continual criminal activities, violating the Emoluments Clause, pardoning cohorts and persons of dishonor, weakens the office.   High crimes and misdemeanors, Bribery, Extortion, Obstruction of Justice, Obstruction of Congress, Abuse of power and justice, Betrayal of Oath of Office could all be included in Articles of Impeachment to be brought against the 45th president of this United States!

Trish Forsyth Voss

House Republicans had extreme difficulty forming intelligent, legitimate questions for the highly-respected U.S. diplomats, George Kent and Bill Taylor, during the first open-impeachment hearing on Nov 13th.  They really embarrassed themselves, but I’m sure they will serve-up extra-snarky behavior to Marie Yovanovitch, the hastily-ousted, threatened, former ambassador of whom Trump said to cohorts, “she will go through some things”.   Republicans chant the talking-points:  “the whistleblower should be outed” (interrogated), and testifiers are only repeating “second or third-hand hearsay”.   It’s really hard to hold that line, as long as president Trump is obstructing justice by forbidding staff, who have first-hand knowledge of the criminal activities, to testify before the proceedings.   The White House has instructed the State Department to NOT EVEN review the notes, cables, text messages, etc. received from the foreign-service employees, and NOT to turn over any information to the Congressional impeachment panel.  ‘Contempt of Congress’ is more than an attitude; it will be an article of impeachment.   Pelosi stated the evidence was already clear that Trump has committed bribery (another article); she stated that Trump’s “perfect phone call” was “perfectly wrong!”   Trump leveraged his campaign interests against the lives of many, for a leg-up in the next election cycle.  Trump will throw, under the bus, anyone who gets in his way!

While the open-impeachment hearing was underway, Trump was hosting a warm, welcoming meeting at the White House with autocrat, Erdogan, Turkey’s president, and several GOP senators, who addressed some concerns (such as Turkey’s aggression on the Kurds) in the partially-televised foreign policy meeting.  “The senators warned that Turkey will face US sanctions unless it reverses course on the purchase of a Russian missile defense system”, sources said.   Trump thanked Erdogan for helping us fight ISIS, which they didn’t.  Trump said Erdogan had a good relationship with the Kurds; he doesn’t!  Erdogan’s military just killed hundreds of them.  Senators present were dismayed when “Erdogan pulled out his ipad  and made the group watch a  propaganda video that depicted the leader of the Kurdish-Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist”.  Richard Haass, president of the council on Foreign Relations, tweeted, “the president of Turkey is invited to the White House despite close ties to Russia and contempt for human rights/democracy and the president of Ukraine, who is being attacked by Russia is denied an invitation because he refused to provide dirt on a political opponent of Potus.  Shameful”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Open impeachment hearings begin Nov 13th, with Bill Taylor, American diplomat still stationed in Kyiv, former US Army commander, Bronze Star Vietnam-vet, testified previously that, “President Trump told his appointees to establish a quid pro quo with Ukraine, trading much-needed US military assistance for political favors from president Zelensky”.  The career-diplomat testified that “freezing the aid was harmful to US national security and freezing assistance to Kyiv could embolden Russia to be even more aggressive toward Ukraine”.   Full transcripts from the closed-door hearings have been made available for the public to read. George Kent, Deputy Asst. Secretary of State, top Ukraine policy official, is to testify Weds, Nov 13th also.  Next Friday, Nov 15th, Marie Yovanovitch, former ousted-Ambassador to Ukraine, is scheduled to testify in open-hearings.  Why are they testifying again?   The preliminary hearings gathered facts and evidence, and the open-hearings expand on that information before the trial goes to the Senate.  More impactful than reading the transcripts is tuning-in to witness the compelling testimonies, just as many of us did with the Nixon hearings and the Clinton impeachment.

David Hale, highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, testified on Nov 6th; “reportedly planned to say the State Department worried about the reaction from Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who was one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador”; several officials opposed the dismissal of Yovanovitch, who testified that she “asked Hale to get Pompeo to issue a statement defending her”.   Hale was expected to say that, “Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and other senior officials, determined that publicly defending the Ambassador would hurt the effort to free-up U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.”   Pence aide, Jennifer Williams, assigned to work on European and Russian issues with the vice president’s office, was another witness listening on the July 25th phone call; she testified Thursday, Nov 7th, and  is now protected as a whistleblower; was expected to testify as to what Pence knew about the shadow Ukraine policy.

Trump, supposedly, lobbied Barr in the last couple weeks, to hold a news conference saying that the president broke no laws in his phone call with Ukraine leader; Barr declined to do so, and Trump disputes that he asked Barr to intervene.  William Barr, Attorney General, Department of Justice, did just that before the Mueller report was released; fixer Barr basically exonerated Trump, and few Americans bothered to read the report.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The House voted 232-196 to approve the resolution 10/31, to formalize the rules for the impeachment inquiry and set the stage for the upcoming public-hearings, amidst cries & lies of ‘foul’ from House Republicans.  The House is well within the bounds of the Constitution and historical practice.  According to U.S. Constitution, Article 1, section 2: provides the House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment.  Articles 2, section 3: the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.  Article 1, section 5: each House may determine the Rules of the Procedure.  The Republicans will continue their circus of propaganda tactics.

Michael McKinley, former senior advisor to the Secretary of State resigned 10/10, and testified before the House that  he was disappointed by Secretary of State Pompeo’s lack of public support for diplomates named in the Ukraine controversy.  Laura Cooper, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense, testified 10/23,  that she sought the release of the U.S. military aide to Ukraine, withheld in late July; the hold lifted on Sept 11, as bipartisan scrutiny of the decision mounted.  Career diplomat, Bill Taylor, testified 10/22 that Gordon Sondland told him that “EVERYTHING Zelensky wanted was dependent on him publicly announcing that he was investigating Biden”, and his son’s position at Burisma.  Trump tried to strongarm a foreign ally to investigate his political opponents after freezing U.S. aid to Ukraine.  Decorated Iraq war-veteran, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who still works for the White House, testified 10/29, that he listened in on the July 25th phone call, and was startled that U.S. aid to ally Ukraine was ‘contingent’ on a quid pro quo, and that “crucial words and phrases” were omitted in the summary, which he tried to get corrected.  He reported those omissions to NSC legal advisor, John Eisenberg, who decided to lock-down the phone summary in a highly- classified server, which would be obstruction.  Eisenberg may testify next week.   House Republicans tried to smear Vindman, which backfired badly.   Christopher Anderson, worked under Kurt Volker at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, testified on 10/30,  that former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, cautioned him about Giuliani, that he could be an obstacle to increased White House engagement, and referred to him as a “hand-grenade, who could blow us all up”.   Tim Morrison, “arms-control expert”, left his post and testified the following day 10/31, corroborating that Trump was indeed requiring a quid pro quo for U.S. military aid.                                                     The ABCs of Impeachment will be:  Abuse of Power, Betrayal, Corruption.

Trish Forsyth Voss

After a phone call with Turkey’s president Erdogan, Trump gave the order that our military forces abandon the Kurds, who did most of the fighting against ISIS.  Then Erdogan began his ethnic-cleansing pogrom against the Kurds, who lived near Turkey’s southern border.  Erdogan’s military strikes released at least 100, previously jailed, ISIS terrorists.  Trump has claimed that those liberated ISIS members will flee to Europe, so we have no need to worry.  Trump touted that he was bringing our military home, but that’s not true; some 1000 troops were sent to Iraq and 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia to protect their assets.  Trump claims the Saudis are paying cash for our military’s protection, so American lives are imperiled, again, at the mercy of convoluted policy.   Putin and Assad met recently to divvy-up Syria.  This scenario rewards Putin’s geopolitical goals, helps Assad, Erdogan and Iran.  The Senate Republicans and Democrats have been incensed about this abrupt change in foreign policy, who it serves, and how we have basically abandoned our allies.  Trump declared his actions as strategically brilliant.  President Trump called a meeting recently at the White House, summoned Pelosi, Schumer & Steny Hoyer, then acted like they’d requested the meeting with him.  Trump began verbally-attacking the House members, especially Pelosi, and as she stood up to leave the meeting she said to him, “all roads, with you, lead to Putin!”    Trump tweeted-out a picture someone snapped of Pelosi standing across from Trump at the table, 3 generals to Trump’s right looked as if they were hanging their heads; all those at that long table were men.  Pelosi posted the now iconic image to her Twitter page.

Then there’s the issue of the Ukrainian investigation and the impeachment inquiry.  House Republicans are trying to obstruct, witness-tamper and decry the process as unfair.  One talking-point is that the Nixon & Clinton impeachments had open hearings, but those investigations were ruled over by Special Counsels until they were ready to begin the open hearings.   Whistleblower complaints went first to DOJ this summer, but William Barr refused to appoint a Special Counsel, who would have held private investigations.  The House is conducting depositions within the rules.  The members of the six House-committees involved in the impeachment inquiries are authorized to attend the hearings; 48 Republicans and 57 Democrats; 13 of the Republicans involved in the 10/23 ‘impeachment protest’ already have access to the hearings.  If you seek truth, seek out real news venues.

Trish Forsyth Voss

More whistleblowers have come out from the White House and governmental agencies reporting serious abuses of power by the president and his administration. Kurt Volker, former US special envoy to Ukraine, resigned that position on Sept 27, and testified for 10 hours on Oct 3rd before House Democrat’s impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.  Volker provided text messages among State Department officials “documenting the effort to get Ukraine to launch investigations that President Trump wanted”.   Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, who was ousted from her position because of her anti-corruption work in the region, testified for nearly 10 hours before a joint House subcommittee on 10/12/19.  She stated “the State Department was attacked and  is being hollowed out from within”.  Fiona Hill, former senior NSC director for Russia testified on 10/14/19 before the same impeachment inquiry, to give backstory on Rudy Giuliani and Gordan Sondland, who “circumvented the national security council and the normal White House policy to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine”.

The full House convened on 10/15; the impeachment committees:  House Intel, Foreign Affairs. and Oversight and Reform — having worked through a 2-week recess.  George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs, testified 10/15 that he had issued a warning back in March 2019, about Giuliani’s disinformation campaign in Ukraine.  Gordon Sondland, Ambassador to the European Union, testified 10/17/19, that  he “was disappointed by president Trump’s  direction that we (diplomats) involve Mr. Giuliani”.  Sondland testified that he “opposed the president’s request to run Ukraine policy through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, but he contacted Giuliani anyway at Trump’s direction, and that Giuliana drew a direct link between scheduling a White House visit for Ukraine’s newly elected president and the demands that Ukraine prioritize investigations targeting Trump’s political rivals, including Vice President Joe Biden”.

A court ruled that Congress may receive the requested Trump’s tax returns.  Another federal court ruled that Trump violated the law with his Emergency Order to build his wall, taking money from other projects already adjudicated by Congress.  The House voted 10/16/19 overwhelmingly 354-60 to condemn President Trump’s withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, acquiescing to Erdogan, betraying our Kurdish allies, who fought for us against ISIS.   Joe Walsh, Republican presidential candidate, calls for his fellow Republicans to support Impeachment for president Trump, stating that his actions comprise “the very abuse of power that our Founders feared”.   Mick Mulvaney, acting-chief-of-staff, held a press briefing 10/17,  admitting to a Quid Pro Quo.   Extortion!

Trish Forsyth Voss

We are in a dangerous situation!  Trump is actively inciting violence and a bloody civil war from among his frenzied base.  Adam Schiff and other Dems have received death threats.  Trump has accurately been accused of acting like a mob-boss.  Don Trumpino has dirtied-up most of his administration.  Mike Pompeo has finally admitted to being on the phone call, listening in, to Trump pressuring Ukraine president Zelensky, to come up with dirt on Joe Biden’s son.   Pompeo stated, “I know precisely what the American policy is with respect to Ukraine, and we will continue to drive those sort of outcomes”.  Pompeo has threatened staff, and advised them not to cooperate with Congressional Impeachment hearings.  Trump suggested that people look at Mike Pence’s Ukrainian phone conversations, which he stated “were also …. perfect”. It appears Pence has much deeper involvement.  William Barr has been acting as if he’s Trump’s consigliere, instead of being the Attorney General for ‘We The People’.  Barr has traveled to Italy and elsewhere,to influence foreign leaders to get on-board with a plan to discredit our 17 intelligence agencies by formulating a disinformation campaign against the results of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election-meddling investigation, which snared dozens of offenders, sending several of the worst to prison.   Barr has opened a new investigation into the old, previously-debunked ‘Hillary Clinton email-scandal’.   They are reviewing all the previously-reviewed emails of everyone who communicated with her!  Mike Pompeo traveled to Italy upon Barr’s return, following-up on Barr’s overtures.  John Brennan, former CIA Director, who has been outspoken on Trump’s many outrageous activities, said on 10/2/19, that he is scheduled to be ‘interviewed’ by U.S. Attorney John Durham, in conjunction with William Barr.
Trump is rattled, and has flagrantly acted-out in the last several days.  He is undermining the very foundation of American democracy.  He has obstructed in everyway possible.  He has demanded ‘his right to face the whistleblower’.   His Republican friends in Congress have tried to rally the talking-point: ” the whistleblower has reported second or third-hand information”.   Several of his most-committed ‘friends’ have been around long enough to have heard of Linda Tripp; they had no problem investigating her second-hand allegations against William Jefferson Clinton.   The visiting Finnish president observed close-up a totally embarrassing spectacle of Trump interacting with the press Oct 2;  Trump stated, “I watch my words very closely; there are many that think that I am a very stable genius!”  God Help US!

Trish Forsyth Voss

“Our daily American nightmare continually reveals an ever-greater depth of corruption; we stand aghast at Trump’s sycophantic administration’s antics and cover-ups.  This is too much to be borne!  “Let Saudi Arabia defend itself”, exclaimed a recent St Louis Post-Dispatch editorial in Register-Mail; “We should continue decoupling U.S. dependence on unreliable Saudi-oil, not defending a kingdom that fails, in all respects, to uphold the basic values America stands for”.  Remember,  15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi-nationals.  Trump vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution, 4/16/19, that would have forced an end to American military involvement in Saudi’s civil war against Yemen.  Trump seeks to continue our dependence on oil-rich nations, as he fights against California’s stricter vehicle-emission standards; he threatened 4 top auto-makers with anti-trust lawsuits.  Trump seeks in all ways to enrich himself at America’s peril.               As millions of people marched all over the world on Sept 20 for Global Climate-Strike, the youth  calling themselves Generation G-N-D, Green New Deal, Trump moved to drastically roll-back emission-standards, while auto-makers strive to manufacture more fuel-efficient vehicles that Americans are favoring.  Trump seeks to limit and prohibit wind and solar energy producers, though these energy-sources produce much cheaper, cleaner power.  Trump provided no American leadership, not even attendance, at this summer’s G-7 Summit.

Trump’s GOP does nothing to enact gun-safety reforms while the majority of Americans speak loudly to ban the sale of battle-ground weapons to civilians, all the while our children start their school terms with live-shooter drills. Back-to-school preparations should involve fun and inspiring activities, not traumatizing ones.  We find that Trump had ordered military stop-overs at his Scotland golf-course, had aircraft re-fueling at a more-expensive, nearby gas facility, instead of the facility they’ve long used, while he pocketed gains from tax-payer expenditures.  And now, the latest (as I write this) debacle unfolds the tale of the whistle-blower, who reported “credible and urgent wrongdoing” of a White House executive promising a foreign leader something scandalous and potentially illegal; hopefully we will glean more truth in the coming days regarding this situation.  Trump then admitted he had discussed ‘Joe Biden’ with the Ukrainian leader in the past few months.  Trump has again stalled his financial records from being revealed to Congress.  My hope is that Michigan U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and other Republicans will influence and inspire GOP senators to become patriots and vote for eventual Impeachment, as the GOP did with presidential predecessor Richard Nixon.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Why is Sharpie-gate important?  President Trump altered a weather warning-map to include Alabama in the path of threat from Hurricane Dorian.  Birmingham  weather service then tweeted a clarification that there was “no threat to Alabama”, which Trump obviously took as a rebuke, so he doubled-down, tweeting further. We now find that Trump pushed acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney to deal with NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Mulvaney ordered Wilbur Ross to threaten NOAA, federal scientific agency employees with job loss if  NOAA did not repudiate weather forecasters who contradicted Trump.  It’s actually illegal to alter or direct suppression of weather warnings, for obvious reasons; to evacuate or what …. citizen safety is at risk.  The public should be able to trust extreme-weather warning-services!   Trump was asked recently about his administration’s actions; he stated, “it is all a hoax of the fake-news media”.  The Trump administration regularly attacks evidence-based sciences.  There are now investigations into whether NOAA violated policies and ethics with their actions. Meanwhile, Trump has decided to deny temporary protected status to Bahamians after the utter destruction of their homes and islands; they are surrounded by putrid death, with 2500 people missing.  SAD!

Gun safety is high on the list of many Americans’ concerns, as our daily lives are increasingly affected by home-grown terrorists armed with semi-automatic weapons and piles of ammunition.   These domestic-terrorists have far outpaced ‘threats of violence’ from foreign bad actors.  After each mass-shooting, the president says they will take action, but nothing comes of his empty promises, as he’s in lock-step with NRA officials, who have contributed heavily to his election-campaign and the campaigns of many elected Republicans, and continue to similarly bribe them.  Some Republicans, running in suburban areas, even selfishly want some gun-safety reforms.  The Democratic House, last February, passed a gun-safety bill, sent to the Senate, and Moscow Mitch, sitting on a pile of bills, has no intention of bringing any of them up for a vote.   Too many Americans have experienced loved ones taken from us by violence.  We need to find better ways to ‘make community’ among each other, with social values that are continually evolving amidst rapid demographic changes.  The majority of us, including responsible gun-owners, want tighter background checks, Red-flag laws, more easily-accessible mental health services, which means more funding for it.   Pete Buttigieg’s TV ad remarking on kids learning active-shooter drills before they learn to read really hits home!

Trish Forsyth Voss

There seems to be a collective insanity upon America, which is made worse by those who foment hatred and violence.  It’s hard to believe that in 2019 we, Americans, are living through this hellish experience, with too many tolerating, some even ignoring or excuse-making for this abhorrent ‘leader’ of our country, who is constantly promoting division, attacking our fellow citizens, and calling immigrants vermin and criminal invaders.  There should be no tolerance whatsoever for Trump’s words and actions, his HATE-rallies, demonizing minorities.  “A Trump campaign ad recently featured QAnon signs — weeks after the FBI warned that anti-government, identity-based and fringe-political conspiracy theories very likely motivate some domestic extremists to commit criminal, sometimes violent activity.”  The criminally-insane are being provoked to horrendous acts of violence and mass-murders.  A fish rots from the head down.  Inside the mind of Donald Trump is a scary place.  Those claiming to be proud nationalists are inciting mass-murder.  Trump is a white nationalist.  “The White House rebuffed attempts by DHS to make combating domestic terrorism a higher priority.”  All Trump’s political allies, all who work in the White House, Republicans who won’t come out against him, those who support and carry his racist-attacks also deserve blame for the division and sorrow throughout our land.   It’s a moral choice to support or even tolerate white supremacists.  The 2020 presidential debates are American arguments for our choice to ‘Heal or Divide’.

Eleven articles of impeachment were brought against the 17th U.S. President in 1868;  Andrew Johnson was impeached partly for “contempt, ridicule and disgrace to the office of the presidency, that he did commit high misdemeanors while in office, through abuses of office — he brought harm to society”.  There is precedent for impeaching a president for excessive, harmful bigotry.  There is systemic racism in our nation that Trump didn’t create, but he has turbo-charged it, and willful ignorance or dangerous tolerance of its presence in our society is a bridge too far to travel any longer.  It’s not just for Democrats to try to counter this.  Republicans must come out against this; their constituents are also dying because of their failure to curb the insidious instincts of Donald Trump or to help remove him from office.  Do your loved ones actually have to die a violent death for you to wake up?   We are living in dark times.  We are existing in an intolerable state of collective overwhelm!

Trish Forsyth Voss