I appreciate you pointing out Trump's egregious level of grift, secrecy, and conflict of interest with his gross meme coin dinner scheme. He is taking every opportunity to monetize the presidency to put money in his personal pocket. It's just so heinous. So yes, keep shining the light on his misdeeds and abuse of the office.
However, I differ with you on the question of Impeachment. We all know that Trump has an incredibly long list of impeachable offenses, but readers have to understand how the House and Senate work. I'm no expert, but from what I understand, impeachment proceedings will not happen with Republicans holding the House; Speaker Johnson will not bring it to the floor. Jon Ossoff is right.
And having some kind of shadow impeachment hearings done by Dems is not what will raise awareness of Trump's crimes; I really don't think that's the best use of their time. BUT there is still PLENTY Dems can do between now and midterms. For one, what WILL raise awareness of Trump's grift and massive corruption is for lawmakers to find creative ways to draw public attention to themselves - a la Cory Booker - and hammer on Trump's illegal actions. They also have to show how Trump’s grift, etc., hurts regular Americans, AND they have to articulate what the Dem party offers that will solve real working people's problems.
AOC and Bernie are doing a bang-up job. We need to push all our Dem lawmakers in both houses of Congress to get big and public and loud with their anger, in whatever way they can. They have different comfort levels with different kinds of actions, but we need them to be a lot louder.
After midterms, we can reevaluate the possibility of Impeachment. Now, if Republicans miraculously change their position on Trump (not likely), then if the numbers are there we could talk impeachment. Remember, though, that the destruction of the administrative state and concentration of power in the president is totally Steven Miller's doing. And Vance would still be there, and he's anti-Europe, pronatalist, and a general dimwit. And if HE were gone, we'd have Johnson, the fakey Christian anti-woke warrior pushing these Godawful bills through. So yuck. I say we find other ways to neuter this regime's power and focus on turning more and more of the public against them. Only massive nonviolent action and/or economic failure that affects Trump will change anything he tries to do.
You're correct. The odds are not good. But I suspect there are some weak links here among Republicans, including Tillis on the Judiciary committee, that could make the endeavor successful.
Ultimate success? Probably not. But the exposure of this scandal is necessary. It's getting lost in the barrage of bad news from the administration, and it should not.
I totally agree that it's getting lost in the firehose of news this regime throws at us, and it needs to be highlighted. It's the perfect example of his grift. I guess I'm not sure what the best way is to do that. And I'm coming to this from the perspective of the protest movement and the need to keep growing it and keep involving more people. Maybe articles of Impeachment would raise the profile on the meme grift? I'm just not sure. I think ppl might look at it like, "blah blah, old news, more no-good impeachments," and tune out.
I feel like we need to puncture the wall between news and entertainment, because the ppl we need to engage are those who aren't consuming news anyway. We need some viral videos that satirize how crooked Trump’s meme enterprise & dinner are. Funny stuff gets passed around. I'm just thinking - what's going to work its way into popular culture, to people who aren't consuming news?
I appreciate your thoughtful replies and understand the desire to have the maximum effect. But I don't think this is an either/or situation.
The evidence -- for the American people, if not Republicans in Congress -- is pretty easy to follow and compelling. We need to present it rapidly. Loudly.
Satire is effective, but it too can get lost in the wave of Colberts, Stewarts, Kimmels. We're not going to laugh this criminal, this fascist, out of office.
But if we convince Americans he is (1) ruining the economy and (2) robbing us, we have a chance.
As Clinton's people said, it's the economy, stupid. But it's also the corruption. There must be a limit on how much will be accepted, even from Trump.
Selling air, PERSONALLY profiting, and opening the door wide open to people buying favors is a pretty damn big display of corruption. We can't just write this off as just Trump being Trump and we'd better keep the powder dry until we're sure we can win.
We'll be staring at the backs of other dissenters in a Salvadoran prison, hands cuffed behind our backs, if we continue playing nice and trying to be smart to the point that we're utterly defenseless, utterly stripped of our rights.
Really excellent points, thank you! You've convinced me. I appreciate all your follow-up discussion on this. And you're right, just to restate what stuck with me:
1. People don't take kindly to being robbed; they need to get the message loud and clear that this is happening - while THEY are struggling to pay for rent and basic bills.
2. It doesn't have to be either/or.
3. Dems do spend too much time dithering over the perfect approach.
4. Comedy gets lost in the huge world of existing late night sketches. And it carries the risk of not being taken as seriously as we all need to take this. We truly are just a hop away from a death sentence in El Salvador.
Funny how loudly Republicans howled over Hunter Biden taking advantage of his access to dad to give his own business dealings gravitas in the eyes of his business partners. Trump is not just meekly sitting there while relatives patch him into phone calls. He's actively generating cash by selling access (via fake $) to the White House. And that's just the most obvious of his numerous money-making schemes as president.
Yes, please bring the Republican preachers out now, about corruption in government and presidential crime families. Crickets...
Contacted Moreno & Husted OH senators about impeaching trump the #KingFelonFürher & his düfus minions NOW.
Both of them are just a corrupt as the Felon Fürher😔
I appreciate you pointing out Trump's egregious level of grift, secrecy, and conflict of interest with his gross meme coin dinner scheme. He is taking every opportunity to monetize the presidency to put money in his personal pocket. It's just so heinous. So yes, keep shining the light on his misdeeds and abuse of the office.
However, I differ with you on the question of Impeachment. We all know that Trump has an incredibly long list of impeachable offenses, but readers have to understand how the House and Senate work. I'm no expert, but from what I understand, impeachment proceedings will not happen with Republicans holding the House; Speaker Johnson will not bring it to the floor. Jon Ossoff is right.
And having some kind of shadow impeachment hearings done by Dems is not what will raise awareness of Trump's crimes; I really don't think that's the best use of their time. BUT there is still PLENTY Dems can do between now and midterms. For one, what WILL raise awareness of Trump's grift and massive corruption is for lawmakers to find creative ways to draw public attention to themselves - a la Cory Booker - and hammer on Trump's illegal actions. They also have to show how Trump’s grift, etc., hurts regular Americans, AND they have to articulate what the Dem party offers that will solve real working people's problems.
AOC and Bernie are doing a bang-up job. We need to push all our Dem lawmakers in both houses of Congress to get big and public and loud with their anger, in whatever way they can. They have different comfort levels with different kinds of actions, but we need them to be a lot louder.
After midterms, we can reevaluate the possibility of Impeachment. Now, if Republicans miraculously change their position on Trump (not likely), then if the numbers are there we could talk impeachment. Remember, though, that the destruction of the administrative state and concentration of power in the president is totally Steven Miller's doing. And Vance would still be there, and he's anti-Europe, pronatalist, and a general dimwit. And if HE were gone, we'd have Johnson, the fakey Christian anti-woke warrior pushing these Godawful bills through. So yuck. I say we find other ways to neuter this regime's power and focus on turning more and more of the public against them. Only massive nonviolent action and/or economic failure that affects Trump will change anything he tries to do.
You're correct. The odds are not good. But I suspect there are some weak links here among Republicans, including Tillis on the Judiciary committee, that could make the endeavor successful.
Ultimate success? Probably not. But the exposure of this scandal is necessary. It's getting lost in the barrage of bad news from the administration, and it should not.
I totally agree that it's getting lost in the firehose of news this regime throws at us, and it needs to be highlighted. It's the perfect example of his grift. I guess I'm not sure what the best way is to do that. And I'm coming to this from the perspective of the protest movement and the need to keep growing it and keep involving more people. Maybe articles of Impeachment would raise the profile on the meme grift? I'm just not sure. I think ppl might look at it like, "blah blah, old news, more no-good impeachments," and tune out.
I feel like we need to puncture the wall between news and entertainment, because the ppl we need to engage are those who aren't consuming news anyway. We need some viral videos that satirize how crooked Trump’s meme enterprise & dinner are. Funny stuff gets passed around. I'm just thinking - what's going to work its way into popular culture, to people who aren't consuming news?
I appreciate your thoughtful replies and understand the desire to have the maximum effect. But I don't think this is an either/or situation.
The evidence -- for the American people, if not Republicans in Congress -- is pretty easy to follow and compelling. We need to present it rapidly. Loudly.
Satire is effective, but it too can get lost in the wave of Colberts, Stewarts, Kimmels. We're not going to laugh this criminal, this fascist, out of office.
But if we convince Americans he is (1) ruining the economy and (2) robbing us, we have a chance.
As Clinton's people said, it's the economy, stupid. But it's also the corruption. There must be a limit on how much will be accepted, even from Trump.
Selling air, PERSONALLY profiting, and opening the door wide open to people buying favors is a pretty damn big display of corruption. We can't just write this off as just Trump being Trump and we'd better keep the powder dry until we're sure we can win.
We'll be staring at the backs of other dissenters in a Salvadoran prison, hands cuffed behind our backs, if we continue playing nice and trying to be smart to the point that we're utterly defenseless, utterly stripped of our rights.
Really excellent points, thank you! You've convinced me. I appreciate all your follow-up discussion on this. And you're right, just to restate what stuck with me:
1. People don't take kindly to being robbed; they need to get the message loud and clear that this is happening - while THEY are struggling to pay for rent and basic bills.
2. It doesn't have to be either/or.
3. Dems do spend too much time dithering over the perfect approach.
4. Comedy gets lost in the huge world of existing late night sketches. And it carries the risk of not being taken as seriously as we all need to take this. We truly are just a hop away from a death sentence in El Salvador.
Funny how loudly Republicans howled over Hunter Biden taking advantage of his access to dad to give his own business dealings gravitas in the eyes of his business partners. Trump is not just meekly sitting there while relatives patch him into phone calls. He's actively generating cash by selling access (via fake $) to the White House. And that's just the most obvious of his numerous money-making schemes as president.
Yes, please bring the Republican preachers out now, about corruption in government and presidential crime families. Crickets...