Trump Firing of FBI Director Comey Sets Off Calls for Independent Investigator of Russia-Trump Connections
Echos of Watergate. May 9th, 2017 will go down in American history, much like Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre”.
It’s all over the news. In the middle of a FBI investigation into Trump’s connections with Russia, Trump fires the man at the head of that investigation.
It is a constitutional crisis in which the rule of law in America is now at question. Trump and the White House are seriously trying to derail the investigation into whether Trump and his people colluded with Russian intelligence in manipulating the 2016 Presidential election. Trump now has a pattern of firing law enforcement professionals when they get too close to the secrets he and his people hold.
There is a whiff of fascism, as Trump tries to assert himself as the main authority in the country. He has disparaged the separation of powers by blocking any cooperation with the Congressional intelligence investigations, he has disparaged the First Amendment with his attacks on the press, and now he has threatened the rule of law.
Only the very foundations of American democracy are at stake, a democracy that has been flailing deeply in recent times.
If Trump is allowed to appoint the person who will now lead the FBI investigation into the White House and Putin’s connections to undermine this democracy, then we’ll see more than a whiff of fascism.
But it’s not over.
Senate Democrats have been called to their desks for a 9 am (Eastern time) emergency response to the crisis.
Americans all over the country have been closely watching this latest unfolding of events – the Comey firing, the literally unbelievable reasons given for the firing (‘Comey was mean to Hillary’), and the push-back. The Resistance movement is still intact.
And it’s time for an independent special prosecutor and a special, 9-11 – type commission to take over all the investigations into Trump’s probable collusion with a foreign government to thwart our election.
Unless one is appointed, confirmed in large numbers by the Senate, and empaneled with sufficient resources, Americans will not be able to trust any results or conclusions from the investigation.
Now there is clear evidence of a cover-up, and it was the cover-up that did in Nixon back in 1973 and 74.
Before you hyperventilate about a fascist takeover of our country – which is surely your primary response to anything the president does of which you don’t approve – take a deep breath. Sure, the short-fingered vulgarian in the White House can appoint an FBI director, but said appointee still must be approved by the Senate. That’s not really fascist at all. And sure, he rails against media for some odd reason, but what has he done that’s worse than the last administration? Nothing – you can still call him a fascist with no repercussion.
Of course this reeks of something…I’m not sure of what though. Additionally, all of those who called for Comey to be fired are now horrified that he has been.
Consequently – everything that you complain about leading to fascism in the fourth paragraph could have been just as easily said of the previous administration.
What are people actually “horrified” with? The firing or the BS rationale behind it?
It is often said that cover-ups are worse than the underlying conduct they seek to hide.
You forget, ol bearded friend, that all Trump needs is 51 Republican votes in the Senate to confirm any new appointment.
Our analysis that Trump represented a type of American fascism was made in March of 2016. And back then, many, many agreed. See this http://obrag.org/?p=104978. We have been consistent in this analysis, so don’t ding us now that we can confirm it.
You can dislike what Comey did during the campaign, but oppose that he was fired in the middle of his investigation.
I’m not suggesting that you haven’t been consistent, rather, the president has a funny way of being a fascist – in that he isn’t actually one. He’s just a terrible president with an equally terrible temperament.
I highly recommend reading “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin” by Russian journalist Masha Green. When you see what Putin has done and compare it to what trump is doing, it looks like he is trying to follow Putin’s playbook as closely as he can. Luckily for us all, this isn’t Russia so he can’t be as successful but trump, being the idiot he is, doesn’t realize that. Still, it’s a scary picture.
Bearded OBcean, here’s a quarter. Use it to buy a clue. Nothing in the fourth paragraph can even remotely be tied to the last administration.
Please don’t disparage my intelligence by offering me a quarter. Turning to insults, much like foolish inconsistencies, is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Didn’t the previous administration wiretap journalists and consider themselves at war with a certain media outlet that they tried to block from covering their pools etc?
Didn’t the president routinely disparage the separation of power by passing executive orders that were questionable in their constitutionality because he couldn’t pass his initiatives through Congress?
Didn’t the IRS under the previous admin target conservative groups?
It’s a day of the week and the sun rises and sets. It’s what administrations do. Some, like our present one, is worse than others.
Republicans will not agree to any type of independent commission. Why would they, they all support Trump. This was done to take the news cycle off the Russian investigations, and other stupid shit Trump does daily, and has worked perfectly for them.
More importantly this plays to the minds of people that think we live in a democracy and not a plutocracy. “The only good government, is no government.”