Trump Impeachment Watch: ‘Punch the F.B.I.’ edition

May 11, 2017 Originally published on SFGate

There is only one way to impeach an openly corrupt, inept, incompetent, grossly compromised, Russia-loving, crotch-groping, globally loathed sitting president, and that’s through an act of congress.

Correction: A functional, autonomous, fair-minded congress, one largely populated by thoughtful, well-educated representatives of deep integrity, each willing to go to the mat for the sake of the country and the survival of democracy itself.

You can see the problem. We have no such thing. The Republican party owns congress right now, is the most grossly power-mad, shamelessly cold-blooded, morally laughable in American history, is chugging Trump’s gross authoritarianism like a vampire sucks blood from a dying child.

This is why it doesn’t really matter, not yet anyway, that a handful of Republicans have expressed moderate-to-melodramatic levels of outrage at Trump’s shocking, brutal firing of FBI director James Comey. Sure, McCain, Flake, Burr are all annoyed, a little mad, might have a bit of sway here and there, make themselves look good. But Mitch McConnell has never seen an opportunity for molesting the American democratic system he doesn’t like. He won’t dare urge his Lord of the Flies-like gang of terrified trolls and rich white guys to take any true action.

I’ve spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey’s firing. I just can’t do it.

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) May 10, 2017

What about Rod Rosenstein, the (formerly) well-respected, non-partisan Deputy AG? Could he step up? Order a special prosecutor? An independent investigation? He could. Except he’s the same guy who wrote the shameless lie of a memo that AG Jeff Sessions then used as a pretext to let Trump screw over the American people yet again, and fire James Comey. You following all that? They deeply hope you’re not.

Seems like Rosenstein, merely two weeks into the job, has already been compromised, punched in the gut by Trump. And as the New Yorker’s John Cassidy put it, Trump’s firing of Comey isn’t merely another dumb stunt by an inept leader. It’s far worse than that.

“It amounts to a premeditated and terrifying attack on the American system of government” and possibly “will usher in a constitutional crisis.”

By law, only the House can bring impeachment articles, and only the Senate can try those articles. As the House’s bluntly cruel ACHA vote proved, Republicans are shameless in their willingness to murder the common good for their own abominable, vampiric ends.

But that doesn’t mean they’re immune, or their power ironclad. Far from it. Many loose ends exist, landmines abound, the recoil is strong. The epic #TrumpRussia scandal is comprised of multiple octopi, tentacles splayed everywhere, flailing wildly, spitting fire and doom. It is far from over. In fact, Trump’s latest lurch into despotism might backfire on him in ways no one – least of all, him – can yet imagine.

Jim! To think this all could have been avoided had you not pulled that Hillary email stunt days before the election. And now the nation is in flames. Just sayin’

Who knows who might get snared, what new scandal detail might pop up, what critical information might spew forth at any second? The F.B.I. is, right now, full of shocked agents, sucker-punched by a president who believes them stupid and disposable, blocking him from absolute power. How many reams of incontrovertible proof have they already compiled on Trump’s shriveled, corrupt soul? Election rigging? Tax evasion? Putin pee parties? Something far worse, far more imminent? Who’s the next Deep Throat? How many will there be?

And what about you? What can you do, ye who is reading this right now, ye who is feeling increasingly powerless, numb, stunned and stabbed every day by the headlines, unable to keep up with the onslaught of Trump-enabled horrors?

You take a deep breath, and keep pushing, reposting, expressing outrage. Do not get complacent. Do not normalize the orange goblin’s behavior. Trump hates negative press, especially when it’s accurate and damning and true – which, these days, most all of it is, when coming from the re-galvanized MSM. We have power in unity. We have power in poll ratings, threats to 2018 midterms, collective voice.

Find those stories – they are plentiful and everywhere – and keep pumping them into the mainstream, as antidote to the cancer Trump is jamming down America’s lungs. Talk about them. Call your representatives and demand an independent investigation. Keep the Resistance hot. This is the only way.

See, Trump would like you to believe he’s a ruthless, big-man dictator, a strongman thug the mold of the killers and despots he admires most in the world. He would like it to be known he has no qualms about punching, groping, dismantling democracy right in front your face, tearing it apart with his puny iron fists. Big man! Angry tweets! Fire people! Grrr!

Thing is, Trump’s fists are made of nothing but sawdust and mealworms and the off-gassing of dung beetles. He is a coward, violently incompetent, morally sociopathic, gorged on power. He is our greatest humiliation, a disgrace to the world. His biggest fear, of course, is that everyone knows it.

And oh, do we ever.

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Mark Morford

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