We didn’t? Damn. Lousey example, then.
Point remains, though. No war, no treason.
But he’s gotten richer since he became President.
Every week, the Federal Elections Commission publishes a weekly digest of the commission’s procedures for the week. This week, the FEC Chair, Ellen Weintraub, wrote an article about “Draft Interpretive Rule Concerning Prohibited Activities Involving Foreign Nationals" and published it on the fec.gov website. Republican FEC commissioner Caroline Hunter objected to the publication of the entire digest. So Chairman Weintrab published the digest and the link to her article on her Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1177719828632739842
Wouldn’t his time be better spent trying to break into Al Capone’s vault or something?
I guess having been attacked by a foreign country isn’t good enough then?
Random hypothetical: what if we ended up declaring war on Russia because of the election attacking nonsense? Could we charge Trump with capital-T Treason then? Or would we run afoul of ex post facto rules?
I was referring to capital-T Traitor (as in formally committing capital-T Treason), but I get your point. Thanks
I am very encouraged that Volker, special envoy to Ukraine, resigned. He is the State Dept. rep who was interfacing with Ukraine and Giuliani. He has firsthand knowledge of most of the whistleblower’s secondhand info. If he turns on Trump/Giuliani, it will be very damaging. (Volker is more of a McCain Republican so I don’t think he has any Trump loyalties.) Once irrefutable wrongdoing comes out in the impeachment trial and poll numbers drop, I expect Republicans to rapidly abandon Trump like rats jumping off a sinking ship. Are you ready for President Mike Pence?
Nope, nope nope; not good enough – although at least the rest us could ignore him again. As I said last year, I want him in prison. I want him in prison a long, long time. Long enough for him to sit and contemplate how it all came to pass, and it slowly dawn on him that he could have continued to grift a couple hundred thousand here, a million there, for as long as he lived. But then he decided on a lark to run for president.
One talking point I’ve heard is to be on the lookout if/when Republicans and conservative commentators start talking about how great Pence is as an indication that Trump’s about to go under the bus.
I don’t think anyone thinks he is great. He is just less erratic and unstable. They will get Romney or someone who has broader appeal to run in 2020.
I heard that’s where Hillary stashed her emails.
Right. Pence would have poor chances for election.
I called Ted Cruz’a office this morning and suggested a Romney/Cruz super-ticket to save the GOP, lol.
I disagree, in the sense that there doesn’t have to be an active war going on against a foreign country. The Constitution says ‘Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.’
(bolding mine)
Two people have been convicted of treason against the US when there wasn’t a war going on. John Fries led a tax rebellion in 1800, in which his forces were defeated by a US militia. He was convicted of treason and later pardoned by President Adams. Then Walter Allen was convicted of treason in 1922 for taking part in the 1921 Miner’s March against the US Army in West Virginia. Allen was convicted but lodged an appeal and disappeared while out on bail.
So if I lead an armed insurrection against the US, I could (and should) be convicted of treason.
I think this would be excellent on Pay-per-View. I’d gladly pay $20 to see Geraldo get his ass kicked on TV. I don’t care if the “rotten snitch” is a little old lady with arthritis. She could still kick Geraldo (I give the word ‘pussy’ a bad name) Rivera’s ass.
But in both cases they took up arms against the US Army. In any case I don’t think what Trump did is treason. He should be impeached for it and removed from office, but it’s not treason.
Paul Begala with advice on how to survive impeachment, which he submits because “The Trumpsters are probably too stupid, egotistical and gutless to actually take my advice”
The main point is that Clinton survived becasue he got some stuff done, incuding a balanced budget and a surplus.
I don’t know if Trump’s approval rating is going to go down because of this, but I see no way it is going up.
Caveat - Begala is a Clinton fanatic, I am not. The best I can say about him is that he was better than Bush would have been.
I’ll bet Trump wishes he could charge labor union members with treason.
Trump’s Department of Education — led by Betsy DeVos, herself a blatant criminal — is trying to suppress college-level treatment of the Middle East that does not conform to GOP ideology.
Ukraine is an ally and, that we know, he was working with their politicians not their military.
In the case of Russia, we currently have them under siege (i.e. restricting the supply chains in and out of the country) and are supplying their enemies with armaments to use against them. If he was working with them, that would have been with the intelligence directorate of the Russian army (the GRU).
In either case, the aim would have been to prevent the proper functioning of the US election. Doing so is, essentially, the same as performing a coup. It just happens to be a form of coup where it’s not as obvious that it occurred.
It is fair to call a coup a “taking up of arms against the US”, regardless of whether arms were involved. If you tie up the old king and secret him out of the country, all with no weapons used, that’s still a coup. If you hire people to treat the king like he’s going crazy, and convince him to abdicate, that’s still a coup.
If you’re extorting an ally to provide you with the materials you need in order to execute your coup, that’s probably not treason from the standard of “working with an enemy”. The ally was also a victim.
If you are collaborating with an enemy power to provide you with the material you need to execute your coup, and particularly if you are working with a branch of their military, you have committed treason.
But minus a foreign power aiding you, even though you might be trying to execute a coup, it’s not treason under the standard of the Constitution.
I assume that this would be the relevant statute:
So the word would be… Seditionist?
Somewhat recent news (the last link below) but many seem to be unaware of all of this: