Soft Coup Ongoing Against Trump?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Turkey’s Daily Sabah broadsheet believes a soft coup is ongoing to oust Trump. It’s been brewing since his triumph over Hillary and inauguration in January 2017 - my view, not the newspaper’s.
Last year, I said pro-Hillary dark forces and other anti-Trump coup plotters keep throwing endless amounts of dirt against the wall, hoping enough sticks to oust him or undermines his presidency if removal efforts fail.
Things aren’t getting easier for him. Special council Mueller’s Russiagate witch hunt continues - despite discovering no evidence of Kremlin US election meddling nor an improper or illegal Trump connection to Russia.
Controlling the House, undemocratic Dems plan investigations into Trump’s affairs, likely to continue endlessly to harass him for the wrong reasons, ignoring what’s most important - US policies both right wings of the nation’s war party agree on, along with serving privileged interests exclusively at the expense of ordinary people.
Once Mueller’s probe ends and a report is issued, House impeachment of Trump may follow - a likely futile effort to remove him from office with Republicans controlling the Senate.
The Constitution’s Article I, Section 2 empowers House members to impeach a sitting president, Senate members with sole power to try them - a two-thirds super-majority required to convict, what’s highly unlikely with Republicans controlling the upper house.
Article II, Section 4 states “(t)he President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Trump is culpable for lots of wrongdoing, not the above unlawful actions, other than Nuremberg-level crimes of war and against humanity - offenses no US officials ever faced, the vast majority in Congress as culpable as the executive.
Trump’s sex life and payments to paramours aren’t impeachable offenses. By email, Law Professor Francis Boyle mocked the notion of attacking him this way, saying:
“The United States House of Representatives solemnly impeached President Clinton over a bl*wj*b and lying about (it).”
“That is the standard for impeachment by the US House of Representatives: a bl*wj*b. A fortiori then the House Democrats can solemnly impeach President Trump for having real sex with a porn star and a playboy bunny and paying them hush money over it.”
“Of course, that will make the United States of America once again the laughing stock of the world. But we are already that now under President Trump.”
In Ankara, John Bolton got a rude awakening. President Erdogan snubbed him for saying withdrawal of US forces from Syria is conditional on defeating ISIS (the US supports) and protecting Syrian Kurds.
The US doesn’t give a hoot about them, YPG fighters used as a proxy force, Kurds to be betrayed when no longer needed, the way Washington always operates, never to be trusted.
Erdogan slammed Bolton, saying he made a “grave mistake,” adding “(i)t is not possible for us to swallow (Bolton’s) message…”
It pleased Netanyahu and angered Erdogan, Bolton saying “(w)e don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum so they don’t endanger our troops.”
The Daily Sabah said “(i)t was probably a bad idea for Bolton to go rogue and try to impose conditions on the United States withdrawal from Syria.”
Erdogan also criticized what he characterized as “(d)ifferent voices…emerging from different segments of the (Trump) administration.”
The Daily Sabah stressed that “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate (his) agenda” - Trump more a figurehead than head of state.
Dems are using his demand for a border wall as another way to weaken him. Partial government shutdown continues in its 20th day with no signs of resolution.
On Wednesday, Trump walked out of a meeting with Dem leaders Pelosi and Schumer, tweeting:
“Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
Schumer accused Trump of staging “a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way.” What’s going on has nothing to do with whether to build or not to build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico.
It has everything to do with political bickering. For Dems, it’s about weakening Trump, wanting him ousted or replaced by one of their own in 2020 elections.
There’s nothing pretty about the way Washington operates, the agenda of both right wings of duopoly governance harming ordinary people everywhere.
They both share blame for endless wars on humanity, neoliberal harshness, police state toughness, and increasing totalitarian rule.
That’s the deplorable state of America today, things worsening, not improving - Washington’s criminal class responsible for what’s going on.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
