The King Trump defense is terrifying

By Dilip -
There is a crime against the Constitution going on right underneath the chief justice's nose.
Because any self-respecting institutionalist who has devoted his life to the defense of the Constitution and separation of powers should be able to recognize how dangerous and disingenuous lawyer Alan Dershowitz's argument is on behalf of President Trump. 

 US legal system at breaking point

"If a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment," Dershowitz said on Wednesday.  With this argument, Dershowitz completely conflates a president's self-interest with the national interest. If a president thinks "'I'm the greatest president there ever was. If I'm not elected the national interest will suffer greatly,'" Dershowitz believes "that cannot be impeachable."

This is not consistent with the vision of the founders. It guts the system of checks and balances and it defies common sense. But we might be waiting a while to hear the cries of outrage from small-government constitutional conservatives like Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee -- despite the fact that this is the most breathtaking argument for an imperial presidency that could possibly be imagined...read more:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/opinions/the-king-trump-defense-is-terrifying-avlon/index.html

see also
Is Donald Trump the Second 9/11? Or Is He the Third? By Tom Engelhardt
Chauncey DeVega: Trump is mentally ill but our real sickness runs much deeper
Trump, Troll-in-Chief, wags the Impeachment Dog by Going to War with Iran
Donald Trump has blundered into a crisis of his own making with Iran. By Mohamad Bazzi
Victor Jara murder: ex-military officers sentenced in Chile for 1973 death
Andrew Bacevich: High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Fading American Century
Lucian Truscott: Trump wants to end the forever wars - except the one about oil and money
William Astore: The U.S. Military’s Lost Wars // Chris Hedges: The American Empire Will Collapse Within a Decade, Two at Most
Tom Dispatch - William Astore, From Deterrence to Doomsday? // C. Wright Mills on The Structure of Power in American Society (1958) // The Week the World Almost Ended by Nate Jones and J. Peter Scoblic
Sam Kriss: 'Neoliberalism' isn't a left-wing insult but a monstrous system of inequality
Andrea Mazzarino, How War Targets the Young
Keeping up with China: US Navy orders $22 billion worth of submarines // World military expenditure grows to $1.8 trillion in 2018
World military expenditure grows to $1.8 trillion in 2018
MONEY TO BURN: Over 300 banks and investors back 6 of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn
John Sentamu - It’s time to act against the oil companies causing death and destruction
Capitalism and war: The money behind Sudan's most powerful militia
Michael Roberts: The top 1% own 45% of all global personal wealth; the bottom 50% own less than 1% // Global Economic Volatility and Socio Political Reactions
From Siberia to Australia: the age of fire is the bleakest warning yet 
The Amazon is burning. The climate is changing. And we're doing nothing to stop it
George Monbiot: Ayn Rand - A Manifesto for Psychopaths


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