Putin’s Trump: New American Journal graphic by Walter Simon

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

It’s unclear if impeaching the mother fucker is the right way to go at the moment for Democrats in the House. But somehow, someway, Trump must go.

Share this: #TrumpMustResignNow

The damage he has already done to the country and American democracy is so great that we may never recover as it is. If he is allowed to continue damaging our way of life just because Democrats, Republicans, the press and the people are too afraid to state the obvious and do what is necessary we may as well start bowing down to Vladimir Putin and let the Chinese run our economy for us.

I’ve been saying this for so long now it’s ridiculous. I’ve urged protesters to surround the White House and demand his resignation. I’ve urged the press to walk out on him and stop covering his idiotic, incompetent and corrupt tweets.

I’ve asked legal scholars on Facebook to help make the case.

Finally, a New York Times columnist named David Leonhardt agrees with me and makes the case in the Sunday paper.

The People vs. Donald J. Trump: He is demonstrably unfit for office. What are we waiting for?

To summarize some of the key points:

The presidential oath of office contains 35 words and one core promise: to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Since virtually the moment Donald J. Trump took that oath two years ago, he has been violating it.

He has repeatedly put his own interests above those of the country. He has used the presidency to promote his businesses. He has accepted financial gifts from foreign countries. He has lied to the American people about his relationship with a hostile foreign government. He has tolerated cabinet officials who use their position to enrich themselves.

To shield himself from accountability for all of this — and for his unscrupulous presidential campaign — he has set out to undermine the American system of checks and balances. He has called for the prosecution of his political enemies and the protection of his allies. He has attempted to obstruct justice. He has tried to shake the public’s confidence in one democratic institution after another, including the press, federal law enforcement and the federal judiciary.

The unrelenting chaos that Trump creates can sometimes obscure the big picture. But the big picture is simple: The United States has never had a president as demonstrably unfit for the office as Trump. And it’s becoming clear that 2019 is likely to be dominated by a single question: What are we going to do about it?

Cleary we should not wait for a major disaster before we find the courage to act.

The biggest risk may be that an external emergency — a war, a terrorist attack, a financial crisis, an immense natural disaster — will arise. By then, it will be too late to pretend that he is anything other than manifestly unfit to lead.

For the country’s sake, there is only one acceptable outcome, just as there was after Americans realized in 1974 that a criminal was occupying the Oval Office. The president must go.

How can we continue to allow a president to use his office to enrich himself? This is a core mission the Constitution was written to prevent, and Trump violates it out in the open on a daily basis. He doesn’t even bother to hide it, which might be why his base of supporters continue to stand by his side. Apparently they wish they could get away with this kind of corruption to enrich themselves. Is it possible that a third of the American population really are that corrupt at heart?

Trump has used the presidency for personal enrichment.

The president of the United States lied to the country about his commercial relationship with a hostile foreign government

… the Trump administration is almost certainly the most corrupt in American history.

Trump has violated campaign finance law.

A Watergate grand jury famously described Richard Nixon as “an unindicted co-conspirator.” Trump now has his own indictment tag: “Individual-1.”

Noone in American history has gotten away with dog cussing the FBI, the Justice Department and federal judges the way Trump has — and lived free of prison to tell about it. If I said any of the stuff Trump has said about them my Facebook page and Twitter account would be shut down and I would be locked up for sure.

Trump has obstructed justice.

Trump has repeatedly lied to the American people. He has claimed, outrageously, that the Justice Department tells witnesses to lie in exchange for leniency. He has rejected, with no factual basis, the findings of multiple intelligence agencies about Russia’s role in the 2016 campaign.

Obstruction of justice is certainly grounds for the removal of a president. It was the subject of the first Nixon article of impeachment passed by the House Judiciary Committee. Among other things, that article accused him of making “false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States.”

Apparently Trump literally wants to destroy American democracy and take over the country as some combination of a fascist dictator, a mob boss and a monarch. He expects people to bow down and kiss his ring, including Congress, or he will just shut down the government and leave the country ungoverned.

Trump has subverted democracy.

The Constitution that Trump swore to uphold revolves around checks and balances. It depends on the idea that the president is not a monarch. He is a citizen to whom, like all other citizens, the country’s laws apply. Trump rejects this principle. He has instead tried to undermine the credibility of any independent source of power or information that does not serve his interests.

Trump has described journalists as “the enemy of the people” — an insult usually leveled by autocrats. He has rejected basic factual findings from the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office, research scientists and others. He has told bald lies about election fraud.

Individually, these sins may not seem to deserve removal from office. Collectively, though, they exact a terrible toll on American society. They cause people to lose the faith on which a democracy depends — faith in elections, in the justice system, in the basic notion of truth.

No other president since Nixon has engaged in behavior remotely like Trump’s. To accept it without sanction is ultimately to endorse it. Unpleasant though it is to remove a president, the costs and the risks of a continued Trump presidency are worse.

So get off your asses people and help share this story and let’s get on with removing Trump from power. If you just can’t get off the couch and travel to Washington to surround the White House and protest, the least you can do is share this with everyone you know on Facebook, including your Republican and Christian friends. Let them scream at me. I will gladly take the heat. I’m not afraid of the motherfucker. I have nothing left to lose.