Gleaning Facebook: Profile in Courage - Tom Rice

 I do not know much about Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina, but today he was a profile in courage when he put our republic above his party to set a precedent for American presidents in the future: No one is above the law.

His statement to his colleagues and constituents said:

“Once the violence began, when the Capitol was under siege, when the Capitol Police were being beaten and killed, and when the Vice President and the Congress were being locked down, the President was watching and tweeted about the Vice President’s lack of courage.

“For hours while the riot continued, the President communicated only on Twitter and offered only weak requests for restraint...

“...I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”

Read the rest of his remarks here: https://www.wbtw.com/.../rep-rice-votes-to-impeach-trump/

Comment

Vincent Mendes

Wow, an old friend of mine is on his staff. I had no idea Rice voted to impeach today (he’s telling the truth when he says he has “backed this president through thick and thin”). I messaged my friend to please thank the representative from a fellow American.

Gleaning Facebook: Remove Trump

 I have called Senator Loeffler ---(202) 224-3643 --- and Senator Perdue ---‭(202) 224-3521‬ --- daily for the last few weeks and made one last call before the vote today. I am reduced to begging. I begged each to change their intentions. To put politics behind them and stand for our Constitution. To stand for our republic. As even Republican senators Alexander and Rubio have admitted, the case has been proven. The president is guilty of trying to coerce foreign leaders to interfere in our 2020 election on his behalf. If that is not a removable offense there can be no removable offense.

So I begged.

I have done what I can do.

My children, my grandchildren, our posterity can know I did not stand by quietly while our nation turned toward authoritarianism.

Deborah Lake Dawson I did to but it will not change things. He came out applauded the disgusting speech last night.

Jaki Day We have done the same, Terrell Shaw. We have been calling our Senators here in TN and at one point we were getting hung up on before we said hello. It was so discouraging to think that we are not heard.

At one time we received an email from Mrs. Blackburn to just bash the Democratic House process. Sad.

Terrell Shaw Jaki Day yes, the only replies I have had from Perdue and Loeffler were highly partisan bashing e-mails rather than real responses.

Lila Moore Well said, Terrell Shaw

Paula Dickinson Use the vote in November.

Terrell Shaw Certainly will. 

George Dean I am so tired of the Hitler youth crowd/ Trumpers and their blind ambition to have a puppet in an office that will forever change the face of America...but I too tried to voice opposition....Silence is Betrayal..Dr. KIng.

Deborah Lake Dawson I am at the end of my rope. I just Don't see how we can get him out of office! I really think I want tok leave. There are places where you can spend much less and live a simple life with no crime, fresh produce and rent less than $1000 A month. I am very weary

Gleaning Facebook: Like the 1770s American Must Choose Sides

 Today is a sad but important and inspiring day in American history. The Trump presidency is exactly the sort of emergency that the founders made plain demands impeachment. Today Democratic representatives in Congress came together, despite political obstacles and uncertainties, to do the right thing and propose two articles of impeachment.

We saw the embarrassing display of raging House (capital-R) Republicans siding with Donald John Trump despite the overwhelming evidence of blatant betrayal of his oath of office without offering a scintilla of refutation for the damning facts of his abuse of power and contempt of Congress. We also saw, yesterday and throughout this process courageous, principled ordinary American patriots speaking truth to power.

Today we heard two articles of impeachment proposed. I believe there could have been many more, but these two should be obvious to any reasonably fair-minded American:

1. Donald John Trump has abused his power, beginning during the transition, through the inauguration, and continuing to this moment -- all to benefit himself without regard to his oath or the good of the nation.

2.Donald John Trump has blatantly and publicly been in contempt of Congress's oversight duties by continuously obstructing their Constitution responsibilities to investigate his criminal behavior.

We have had instances of presidential misbehavior in the past. NO other president has so consistently behaved so contrary to his oath. If THIS behavior cannot bring about impeachment then the American president is no longer subject to the law and America is no longer a Republic.

It is time now for Americans to choose sides again, as they had to do in the 1770s.

We each must choose whether we will be patriots or royalists?

Are we a (small-r) republicans or monarchists?

It appears that, in 2019, many Republicans are NOT republicans.

Gleaning Facebook: Today's News

If tonight's reports are credible, and I would be shocked at this point if they were not, Donald John Trump clearly and undeniably must be impeached for accusations of very serious crimes AS president. If he is guilty (Cohen's testimony and other testimony, recordings, and e-mails, and other evidence will likely show that he is) he must be removed. It is difficult to believe, in that case, that his Vice President is not also guilty of obstruction, at least. If, as I beleive, both are guilty of crimes, I hope Mueller will have incontrovertible evidence against both of these loathsome unAmerican liars/criminals.

David Phillips
They should step down.

Terrell Shaw
Amen.

Jim Curry
Temper-tantrum-throwing toddlers never go quietly.

Susan Polkinghorn
Pence has got to go also. Somehow. Some way.

Jean Filson Linos
What came out now???

Terrell Shaw
Buzzfeed report: Cohen was told by Trump to lie to Congress about Russian ties. There is supposedly other evidence of this beyond Cohen's testimony.

Dan Lovingood
Agreed.

Mary Ann Witcher
Sing it Brother!!! I so agree with your posts.

George Anderson
I totally agree.

Anne Edwards Langley
We can only hope he has the evidence

Christy Davis
But her emails...

Sandra Pride
amen

Chad Watson
I think both have to go too. However... if they try to impeach BOTH simultaneously... (thus making Nancy Pelosi President) ... I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough Republican votes to achieve it. However... i do think we're very close to having enough Republican senators to impeach 45.

Sandra Pride
Forget impeach,arrest them both along with all their co-conspirators even if that's half the GOP in D.C.

George Barton
Watched Smerconish this morning on CNN. He is no friend of Trump, but he has doubts that this is true news. Trump does not send e-mails, only twitters. When those "buzz" folks are questioned, their stories don't jive. They say they have only heard about these incriminating documents, they have not seen them. This may end up hurting the press more than Trump, especially if it's a he said he said Even Mueller says it is not accurate.

Terrell Shaw
George Barton I saw that. BF stands by the report. Very puzzling.

Drew Fountain
Shhh ~ let him continue this till 2020. He continues to erode the GOP base, alienating the very people who elected him. Give him enough twitter time to write his own ticket out of 1600. The core GOP members are turning their backs on him , so time is on our side ...
Yes I know there are a few spineless brown-nosers like Bitch McConnell who will follow him until he's out, but then he'll kiss up to the new administration.

He is magically undoing decades of work that Bob Pittman (ClearChannel/IHeartRadip) has done to take the word "United" out of the United States. Let him continue those efforts to reunite the people of our nation. Dishonesty, bribery, collusion, and racial discrimination may be part of nation's past, but our nation in 2019 will not stand for that behavior.

Gleaning Facebook: Impeach!

The cover-up is on for our crooked president and his sleazy cohorts. Impeach.

Comments:

Sharon Clark
He has some Intel to show the house and senate intelligence committee leaders that will clear the whole thing up...cough cough ahem...(sarcasm)

CeCe Baker
What I've been saying since November 9: #IMPEACHTrumpNOWForTREASON applies.

Anne Edwards Langley
The entire time he was screaming Lock Her Up look what he was up to. The Glen Frye song "The Heat Is On" comes to mind

Charlie Hehn
I like the line from smugglers blues....."Pay offs, rip offs and things nobody saw......" to me it epitomizes politics in general, left/middle/right.

Paula Graves
I CANNOT wait to see what Flynn knows

Sharon Clark
But will he tell all

Drew Fountain
Shhhh .... just wait, we need to let the man do what he promised. He promised America many things - one promise was to "Drain the Swamp" well that's exactly what will happen.
All those senators/congressmen that blindly supported his hateful rhetoric will have to answer to their voters , and what are the GOP candidates doing ? They're already cancelling town-hall meetings with their constituents, or they're just not showing up,
So, Thanks to him, in two years the house and senate will see a significant turnover . So Yes he will drain the swamp, but those impacted are those red supporters who blindly followed his irrational agendas with a mantra of "we're anti liberals". So all those neo-conservatives that drank that very unsweetened tea - they threw fistfuls of cash and support to that candidate, Soon they will soon realize they were victims to the big deceiver.
It's clear that our society swung too far right ... so now it's time to let the national pendulum swing left for a while. Most Americans grow weary of the deception , the "wink, nudge" business deals, and prefer straight talking honest ideas.

Melissa Pyle-Hamilton
Indeed. Impeach that sorry thing!!!

Ishmael Williams
May the first 100 days be the last. Take Pence with you. Ryan should not be placed in the president's office by a corrupt admin. Lets declare this presidency a bust and get our second choice - Clinton.

Melissa Pyle-Hamilton
Amen! Although, based on popular vote, Hillary was the #1 choice. That along with Russia's tampering leaves us wondering just how badly America really wanted Hillary as President.

Jim Geist

impeach and REMOVAL.

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The current Republican administration is the most shameful in history. Impeach and remove.

Comments:

Sharon Clark
Hypocrite

Anne Edwards Langley
If I were Hillary I would be giddy at this point

Terrell Shaw
Except that when we impeach the Prima Donald, we'll be left with Pence. The right thing would be to overturn the illegitimate election, but we have no mechanism to right this horrible wrong.

Ray Langley
I believe Pence knew what was going on

Donald Murdock
Hopefully, Flynn will blow the whistle on Pence, Trump, and the whole horrendous house of cards. Interesting times. Should be fun.

Jim Geist
Wow.....dirty, dirty, dirty......

Tim Shiflett
I would rather have Pence there. He is the best of the bad choices. If Flynn goes, we have Ryan, and............just, no.

Terrell Shaw
Take the House in '18 and have a Democratic speaker ready by the time the impeachment trial ends?

Tim Shiflett
Okay, we're in the realm of good miracles, here. LOL

Imagine the GOP's worst nightmare; President Pelosi. Heads would explode..............

Terrell Shaw
Virtually what I was about to punch into my iPhone! 

Tim Shiflett
LOL

Ray Langley
I really believe Pence and Ryan are part of the cover up

CeCe Baker
#IMPEACHTrumpNOWForTREASON

Laurie Craw
Shouldn't be celebrating yet. This may be a trick. He may be being paid by Russians to lie under oath and protect his co-conspirators.

Gleaning Facebook: High Crimes? Where?

 If you are one of the majority ---- yes, polls say a MAJORITY --- of Republican voters who believe the president should be impeached --- IMPEACHED, it has come to the point that the Tea Party types think disagreement with them is an impeachable offense ---- put up, or shut up. If the GOP, in a 20 year span, impeaches two presidents on weak to non-existent grounds I believe they will finally be finished as a major national party.

Young folks, are you paying attention? Vote the crazy right out in November.

If you vote in the Republican primary (sheesh!) please put a political end to the likes of Jack Kingston.

Impeachment? What nonsense.

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David Marlin Rains "Impeaches two presidents" should be corrected to "impeaches the last two democratically-elected Democratic Presidents." Repubs do not believe in "democracy as the will of the People" nor in "elections have consequences." Perhaps they will hold their breath and roll on the floor until they get what they want.
Sam Burnham You and I are mostly going to agree on this one. Impeachment is a nuclear option that should only be used in extreme cases of obvious criminal activity. It wasn't right with Clinton and I don't support it now. I don't agree with Obama on policy and I do believe he has shown a disregard for the Constitution but that is why we have separation of powers. Impeachment is one tool in checks and balances. And it is a severe one with unfathomable repercussions. It is not to be carried out flippantly. Besides, from a conservative viewpoint, why in the world would you do that? There is a progression to it and we sometimes forget the roles involved. I can't think of any conservative that would impeach Obama to willingly and knowingly inaugurate Joe Biden.
David Marlin Rains Sam, I love the last line
David Marlin Rains http://carlspackler.com/sounds/072.mp3
Donald Murdock No impeachable offenses have been committed, nor have any been brought before the people or the legislature or judiciary or the media by anyone with any real credibility. Thus far, though a bit heavy handed at times, the President has operated well within the bounds of Constitutional law and, for the most part, in the best interest of moving the nation and all of it's citizenry past the status quo of contemplating our collective navel while Rome burns. When bold, and sometimes unpopular, measures are taken, those who are fearful of any kind of change are gonna be quick to become reactive rather than think about the long-term consequences of willful ignorance and pretense. Not trying to make anyone wrong, but sometimes it's not a bad thing to rattle the cage a bit. Over simplifying issues is easy, but denies the rational approach to a hugely complicated process. At least this President hasn't tripped over his pecker. Yet. Meanwhile, the KKK is actively soliciting new membership by leafleting Atlanta neighborhoods. Wish I had a mini-gun in the closet. (There's always another side to the other side...my dark passenger sneaks out now and again.)
Terrell Shaw And I firmly believe that for every push of the boundaries (rattling of the cage?) by this president, a more extreme GOP example can be found from W or Ron.

Sam Burnham I think my response would be that we don't need to enter impeachment flippantly, regardless of who is president.
Laurie Craw The rest of us can impeach the Supreme Court 5 and all those House Republicans who tried to renege on their Constitutional duty to pay the nation's debts! Let's make it a clean sweep!