Thursday, January 23, 2020

Guilty as Charged but ?

So he did it, but is it a crime?

The answer is yes but they are not dramatic sort of crimes.

The first crime is trying to use the power of his office for personal gain.  The personal gain was to create a controversy about a political rival that he and his propaganda machine can use to attack.  This tactic was quite successful against his last opponent even when all the accusation were false.

In some ways he has succeeded in doing this as the involvement of the Biden's in Ukraine has garnered some headlines and I guarantee that will increase.  He failed in one aspect getting the Ukrainians to go along with it.

This is illegal because he held US Assets to pressure Ukraine.  Yes he eventually released them but that doesn't mean it wasn't a crime.  The GAO has pointed out it violated US law.

However, most Americans don't see this as particularly meaningful.  The see it as inappropriate and maybe a violation, but more like a speeding ticket than say a murder.  There is a deep suspicion that politicians are always doing things like this and the fact that this got exposed is more bad luck than anything out of the ordinary.  We don't trust Government and we keep seeing Media exposes about how Government has been lying to us for many years, maybe forever.

The second crime involves the cover up which is clear but once again seems like the sore to thing politicians do.  He put roadblocks in the path of the Congress which went around them instead of fighting them out in court.  That decision might be the one that results n the failure of the process.  Clearly the witnesses could clarify the crime and the issues.  The House could have waited for the courts to weigh in, but instead moved ahead hoping the Senate would get on-board.

It probably won't and thinking it would was more a pipe dream than anything else.

Possibly worse is that the process has been made boring.  Most of the Senate seems bored and the viewing public even more so.  It confirms the high school belief that History is boring.


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