Legal Justifications for Impeachment

THE ABSURD TIMES

"No, my son. I have it on the Highest authority that you'd best enjoy yourself here, for afterwards there is no chance for you."

So, we will finish with the impeachment now. 

• Emoluments: Anything he does enriches himself, including visitors at Trump tower near the White house.  Also, the only bank that would even consider loaning him money was Russian owned.  Not clear how much he owes.  Every act so far designed to enrich the upper 1% (he is one of them).
• Treason: Ample evidence of sharing top classified information with Russia – in the White house!
• Firing Comey, stating the whole reason was to hinder the investigation into him, his staff, and Russia:  All clearly obstruction of Justice and admittedly so.

The Constitution uses the term "high crimes and misdemeanors", not clear what the latter is in this case, but the crimes part is pretty clear.

Below are discussions of it in more detail, including one congressman, from Texas, who openly called for the impeachment.  Some phrases had been blanked out as [expletive deleted], but we used linguistic techniques to reconstruct them.[1]

Last week, Texas Democratic Congressmember Al Green became the first congressmember to call for President Trump's impeachment from the floor of the House of Representatives. Since then, the African-American lawmaker has received a barrage of racist threats, including voicemails in which callers threaten to lynch him. For more, we speak with Congressmember Green.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Al Green, is it true you've received death threats? I want to—I want to go to a town hall meeting Saturday, where you replayed recordings of threatening voicemail messages left for you. Let's go to these two particularly disturbing messages. I want to warn our viewers and listeners, the calls contain graphic racial slurs.

CALLER 1: Hey, Al Green. We've got an impeachment for ya. It's gonna be yours. It's actually going to give you a short trial before we hang your [nigger] ass.

AMY GOODMAN: This is another one of the phone calls left on Congressman Al Green's voicemail.

CALLER 2: You ain't gonna impeach nobody, you [nigger]. Try it, and we'll lynch all you [fuckin' niggras]. You'll be hanging from a tree. I didn't see anybody calling for the impeachment of your [nigger] Obama, when he was born in Kenya. He's not even an American. So [fuck] you, [niggra]!

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Green, these you got on your voice message machine?

REP. AL GREEN: We did. And they have been turned over to the Capitol Police. There will be an investigation. It is our hope that the persons who perpetrated this kind of ugliness will be caught and that they will be properly prosecuted.

But I also said at the town meeting, and I will share again now, that this type of effort to intimidate will not stop what we are trying to accomplish. It won't thwart our efforts one scintilla. We will move forward.

And I am concerned about my staff. We have a lot of young people that work in our office. We have an intern that's still in high school. And persons making these kinds of harmful threats, literally saying they will murder me, these things create a good deal of concern for my staff. So, we're going to do all that we can to protect ourselves, but we assure people that we will continue to move forward.

And finally, I really want to make this point. This had to be exposed because you cannot hide hate. If you hide hate, hate will grow and fester. Hate becomes emboldened. So you have to expose it. You also have to expose it so that the American people can know that people of color live with this kind of behavior that is not something that we have to assume won't be perpetrated upon us. These are ugly statements, but it doesn't matter whether you are the CEO of a major corporation or a member of Congress. People in this country—some, not all—believe that they can intimidate you by threatening to lynch you.

One more thing. The calls in support far outnumber the hateful calls. They far outnumber those who would perpetrate invidious discrimination. And I want to emphasize this, because I believe in America. I really do believe that my country, the country I was born in, the country I love, I salute the flag—I believe that this country is moving in the right direction. There are some bumps in the road, but we are moving in the right direction. I believe that we still believe in liberty and justice for all. I believe we still believe that this is a country where all persons are created equal. So, I think we've just got to deal with these issues. We cannot hide them. They have to be exposed. But I still am grateful to be in this great country.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Al Green, I want to thank you for being with us.

On Tuesday, former CIA Director John Brennan testified to the House Intelligence Committee that he had growing concerns last year that Trump's campaign may be colluding with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election—and that the Russians might lead Trump officials down a "treasonous path." Trump has now hired a lawyer to represent him in the ongoing investigation, which has sparked mounting calls for Trump's impeachment. For more, we speak with John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of Free Speech for People, one of the organizations that launched the "Impeach Donald Trump Now" campaign just moments after Trump's inauguration.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: John Bonifaz is also with us, Free Speech for People. John, you came on Democracy Now! like within a week of the inauguration, calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump. How have things changed? You focused on violations of the Emoluments Clause at the time. Explain what your concern was with that. And is that still what you feel is grounds for impeachment?

JOHN BONIFAZ: Amy, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be on with Congressman Green and with you this morning.

We have launched this campaign with RootsAction on the day of the inauguration at ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org. More than 1 million people all across the country have called for this impeachment investigation in light of the president's direct and ongoing violations of the anticorruption clauses of the Constitution. His refusal to divest fully from his business interests placed him on a collision course with the Constitution from the day he took the oath of office. But we have since expanded the grounds for our call for an impeachment investigation to include obstruction of justice, in light of the shocking revelations that the president fired the FBI director to try to stop a criminal investigation that may incriminate him as well as other associates in his campaign.

Congressman Green is an American hero. He's standing up for our Constitution and our democracy at this critical moment in our history. And we're urging people all across the country to join us at ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org, to stand with him and to make sure that this president be held accountable via the impeachment process.

AMY GOODMAN: So how does this move forward right now, John Bonifaz?

JOHN BONIFAZ: I think it's incumbent upon all of us all around the nation who believe in our Constitution and the rule of law and democracy, that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law, that we stand up, that we stand with Congressman Green, that we call on our members of Congress to join him in making this call to issue an impeachment resolution and start the process in the United States House of Representatives.

I know there are people who are saying, "Well, we need to get the facts out." And we do need to get the facts out. But as Congressman Green has eloquently stated, we need—we already have these facts. They're talking about getting other facts. The facts are out on obstruction of justice. The facts are out on the violations of the anticorruption clauses of the Constitution.

And we're dealing right now with a constitutional crisis, in which this president is openly defying the rule of law in our Constitution. So, people all across the country need to stand up. Nine communities, including the Los Angeles City Council, have already passed resolutions calling on Congress to take this action. Brookline Town Meeting in Brookline, Massachusetts, is going to vote this Thursday on this question. And many other communities in the weeks ahead will do that, as well. And people can go to our site at ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org. They can download a local resolution and have it passed in your community. Hold an impeachment town hall, as Congressman Green did this past Saturday, and get your community talking about this critical question of our time. This is about our Constitution. It's about our democracy. And we all need to stand up.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Al Green, have Republicans come to you in support, any of your—any of the Republican congressmembers?

REP. AL GREEN: Well, I've had Republicans to say to me that they oppose these ugly things that have been said. I have not had any Republicans to tell me about the resolution that I'm proposing or the impeachment effort. And that's because I have not asked. I have intentionally not approached colleagues on this issue. This is a question of conscience for me. And I hope that my colleagues will approach it as I have, but I will not ask anyone to do this. I'm not lobbying anyone. I have concluded that this has to be done, and my hope is that others will see things similarly. But if they do not, I will understand. I think the people of the United States of America, as John has indicated, have to get involved. It's a participatory democracy. If the people will advance their will, the will of Congress will be advanced.

AMY GOODMAN: The Hill has reported that Congressmember Justin Amash of Michigan, Republican, admitted Trump may have committed an impeachable offense if he asked FBI Director James Comey to drop the FBI's investigation into Flynn. Amash is at least the second Republican openly to say Trump may have committed an impeachable offense. Also Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo did, from Florida, said this on CNN last week. Your thoughts on this, Al Green?

REP. AL GREEN: Well, thank you, Amy. I think a good many people see the obstruction of justice, and a good many people understand that obstruction of justice is impeachment. I think it's beneficial that three members of the Republican Party have given these indications. But I also understand that there are a good many members who will be silent until given the opportunity to vote. And at that point, they will voice their opinions. My hope is that they will have heard from enough of their constituents, so that they better understand the will of the people. I think the will of the people will prevail. It's just a matter of making sure people understand what the issues are.

And finally, this, on this question of others, I believe that others who desire to speak up will have the opportunity to do so as more things come out, as there's more evidence presented. I think that we haven't seen the last of this evidence that is ultimately going to be presented. But I also know that we already have enough to impeach, because of the firing and because the president confessed on national television that he did it because of the investigation.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Texas Congressmember Al Green, John Bonifaz of Free Speech for People, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. AL GREEN: Thank you.

JOHN BONIFAZ: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: We'll continue to follow your actions on the floor of the House, Congressman Green, and this whole impeachment movement around the country.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we'll go to London to speak with Tariq Ali about the suicide attack at the Manchester arena. Stay with us.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

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[1] Devices such as phonemes, allophones, syntax, dialect, and so on.  It also shows a certain personality and level of education, all pointing to a typical Trump voter (although, of course, not all of them).

WHY AND HOW TO IMPEACH NOW -- MIDTERMS

THE ABSURD TIMES

SECTION 1

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

SECTION 2

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

SECTION 3

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

SECTION 4

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
    
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

DECISION FOR IMPEACHMENT

EDITORIAL MEETING

We had an editorial meeting of the entire staff to discuss the future, or lack of it.  Editors and contributors such as Czar Donic, Bernard Shaw, Arthur Schopenhauer, Papa Yaga, Honest Charlie, Ellis Dea, Tsar Donic, and others sat at the table.  In the center was the most beautiful chocolate cake you've ever seen in your entire life.  That cake was really wonderful, believe you me. 

First discussed was the farce of religion and what is done in its name.  Arguments flew back and forth until Shaw said:

Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.

That pretty much ended the discussion, especially since Arthur began to show signs of irritation and nobody wanted to let him go on about the subject.

Eventually, things led to the talk of impeachment.  It is pretty clear that such a step would have to be started by congress, with a majority of Republicans, and that was considered unlikely so long as Trump was likely to sign anything they finally sent them.  He likes signing things anyway, no matter what they mean.  If something happened, abruptly, we would get Pence, the Ryan, then Hatch, then Tillerson, and so on down the way until perhaps things would wind up with Betsy De Voss as President.  So, something had to be done.

This led to the 25^th Amendment.  For some reason, actually for obvious reasons, there has been a tremendous upsurge of searches of the 25^th Amendment.  It seems that until LBJ, after the Kennedy assassination, recognized the need to have things clearly outlined and the amendment was passed.  So we looked it up, several places, along with discussions, and here it is:

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.^[3]

Additionally, after the Vice President, comes the Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan), then the President pro temp of the Senate (Orrin Hatch of Utahahah), and then the Secretary of state and so on dawn the cabinet.  However, section 4 has never been invoked, although the other sections have been needed.  Mike Pence could conspire with other member of the cabinet, and then send a letter to Ryan and Hatch.  After that, things get hairy, but they are spelled out and all you need to do is read and imagine.  It could happen.

The decision was made to talk about impeachment, obviously, with a slight objection from Papa Yaga, and we promised to put an explanation of Russsia at the end.  He agreed, and thus the discussion.

We need to review the election.  Bernie Sanders was very popular and had great enthusiastic support, both from regular Democrats and from independents.  Many who were Obama voters, and some who later voted for Trump, were amongst his supporters.  However, the party was seen as having been bought by corporate interests, and Hillary's ties to Wall Street were well known.  Her long association with corporate interests represented everything that had turned off many voters, anger some, and led many others simply not to participate.  It is still clear that the party is unwilling to be the party of the lower and middle classes, the unions, teachers, and workers, and instead does what it can to support the corporate world.

The only worse force is the Republican Party.  As it stands today, it is not only highly influenced by corporate interests, but those very corporate interests have been appointed to Presidential Cabinet positions.  In other words, Democrats may have served corporate interests, Republican are corporate interests.  This is what we call a two party system.  Trump fooled enough people by not sounding corporate, that is the only difference. 

He wants to provide Tax reform.  More precisely, he wishes to take 800 billion dollars away from Medicaid and give it to corporations in the form of tax cuts.  He will try to undermine and remove any and all of the "New Deal" and any legislation passed since that helped the lower and middle classes.  There is no doubt.

So what does this have to do with impeachment?  Simply this: it is necessary to keep the Republican Party, the majority party in the House, preoccupied with this and other issues until a midterm election can allow enough opposition party members to be elected to stop some of this attack on people.

Blame the Russians for interfering? Haven't we gone over this enough? First, we know there is no direct evidence that they did the hack.  Beyond that, who knows?  We do know that we constantly interfere in other people's elections and governments, even overturning them. There is no reason to doubt that they adopted our practice.  It is the job of our own center-intelligence folks to look out for that.

Trump said "I love Wikileaks!"  He encouraged them to look for Hilary's e-mails.  And we don't care about them anyway.  If Donald can share intelligence openly with the Russians, why can't she have her own e-mail system?  And who cares?  She is over with and the only thing that is now disturbing about he is that she wants to be considered part of the "resistance".  That is worthy or resistance right there.

Ok, so we know all the typical B.S., but we do need to occupy Congress with something distracting to keep them from screwing us.  The most obvious is Impeachment, using every Chauvinistic and Jingoistic (look the words up) cliché we can, even though we know it is erroneous.  It is the only sort of thing that would get our media and Trump types to start impeachment.  So, here are some points to make:

• The Russians have hacked into our "Democracy" (forget the real definition of "Democracy"
• Trump and his team worked with them on this.
• Lots of money went to Russia and then much gets kicked back to Trump.
• Flynn told the Russians that they were going to life sanctions when Trump becomes President.
• Flynn got paid by Turkey (his guys in suits attacks peaceful demonstrations in D.C. and Erdogan is now attacking the D.C. Police force for defending the demonstrators). 
• Russian TV hired Flynn.
• Kushner gets payoffs from Russia (remember, Russia = Bad Guys).
• Trump fired Comey, head of FBI, because he investigated all this.
• People involved with Trump and Russia are all taking the 5^th which means they are guilty – Trump says so.

There are even some true points to make, although they might be less effective:

• All republicans seem to want people to die of existing conditions.
• People will loose their disability payments.
• Food Stamps will be cut in half or more.
• They will soon go after Medicare, Social Security, and anything else that helps people.

Well, that's about it.  It has been very tiring to watch this happening.  We have had it.

HUNGER STRIKE IN PALESTINE

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: Latuff on the Hunger in Palestine

Jerry Brown Sells Out

By

Dr. Czar Donic

Jerry Brown used to be a good guy.  Here he is signing some legislation that forbids any attempts at Boycott, Sanctions, and divestment against Israel.  Our story below is about the hunger strike of Marwan Barghouti and others around the world against the treatment of Palestinians.  Nelsen Mandella and Jimmie Carter support Barghouti, as do many others.  Brown the Sell Out, followed by more illustrations and then an interview:

And another of Nitwityahoo's bitches:

 

Here is Barghoutti's son:

It has been almost a month since over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike inside Israeli jails. The strike, which began on April 17, was called by Marwan Barghouti to protest poor living conditions in prison and the administrative detention law, which allows Palestinians to be held without charge. Barghouti is the most high-profile Palestinian in Israeli detention. Some have described him as the "Palestinian Nelson Mandela." In a New York Times op-ed announcing the strike last month, Barghouti wrote, "Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel's illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike." We speak to his son Arab Barghouthi. He recently launched the "saltwater challenge," asking supporters to express their solidarity with the hunger strikers by posting videos online drinking saltwater.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I'm here in San Francisco, will be speaking in Santa Cruz and in Palo Alto, and then we're on to San Diego and Los Angeles.

But right now we're going to talk with a guest here in San Francisco. It's been almost a month since over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike inside Israeli jails. The strike, which began April 17th, was called by Marwan Barghouti to protest poor living conditions in prison and the administrative detention law, which allows Palestinians to be held without charge. Barghouti is the most high-profile Palestinian in Israeli detention. In a New York Times op-ed announcing the strike last month, Marwan Barghouti wrote, quote, "Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel's illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike."

Well, to talk more about the hunger strike and Marwan Barghouti, who has been described [by] many as the "Palestinian Nelson Mandela," we're joined now by his son. Arab Barghouthi recently launched the "saltwater challenge," asking supporters to express their solidarity with the hunger strikers by posting videos online drinking saltwater.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Arab Barghouthi. Why drink saltwater?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: Well, thank you, first of all, for having me. Salt and water is the only thing that these prisoners are living on. They haven't taken anything other than the salt and water. And it's a symbolic act. And we just wanted to be creative, outside of the box, to raise the awareness and let everyone know what is going on. It's been going well, and it went viral in the Arab world. And here, it's growing more and more.

AMY GOODMAN: Arab, tell us about your father, Marwan Barghouti.

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: Well, my father is a political leader that has been struggling and fighting for his freedom and his people's freedom for more than four decades. He spent more than 21 years of his life in Israeli jails, was kicked out of Palestine for seven years. He was elected twice as a member of the Palestinian Parliament. And he is a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, which is the highest committee of Fatah party. My father is very well supported nationally and internationally. He's supported by icons like Nelson Mandela himself, who met with my mother and showed his support to my father's campaign, international campaign for his release. The former U.S. President Jimmy Carter happens to be one of the biggest supporters of my father and sent us a video asking for the release of Marwan Barghouti personally. My father is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by seven nominations, seven times. Two of the Nobel Prize laureates just did the saltwater challenge and happen to be one of the main supporters of my father.

AMY GOODMAN: So talk about why your father, Marwan Barghouti, started this hunger strike.

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: Because, as he said, he exhausted all the ways to negotiate with the Israeli prison authorities on their very basic human rights. And this is exactly why the hunger strike is called Freedom and Dignity. My father was visited by my sister for the first time in one year, one month before the hunger strike. And she told him, "Dad, we can't do this anymore, because your health is the only thing that keeps us going." And he looked at her. He told her, "I haven't seen your brothers in years. I haven't been there for your wedding, for your brothers' weddings. And I don't know your daughters." Her daughter is 4 years old. And he told her, "This is exactly why I'm going for a hunger strike. The injustice that has been practiced against me and against my fellow prisoners is nothing—is something that we have to raise our voice for."

AMY GOODMAN: Arab, when did you last see your father? How often can you and your brother and sister see your dad, as well as your mother?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: I was 11 years old when he was arrested. I used to see him twice a month until I turned 16. After 16, I would see him maybe once every two years. I haven't seen my father in two years.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: They just don't give me permission to go. And this happens also to my 1-year-older brother. My oldest brother, Qassam, has seen him only three times. And Qassam himself was imprisoned for three-and-a-half years for basically no reason, for being guilty of being the son of Marwan Barghouti. My mother would see him once a month, but sometimes they just don't give her permission for three and four months.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, the Israel Prison Service released footage of Marwan Barghouti purportedly eating in his cell. Barghouti's supporters have said the video was fabricated in an attempt to discredit the hunger strike. Barghouti's wife, Fadwa Barghouti, spoke out against the footage and warned that Israel intends to defeat the hunger strike by all means.

FADWA BARGHOUTI: [translated] The level the occupation has reached, in my opinion, is a deterioration. Instead of focusing on this video, the world should blame and punish Israel for this ethical deterioration, where they are fabricating a film. We were not surprised, because during my last visit to him, I heard from him that they will launch a serious battle against this strike, using all tools and methods to defeat it.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you comment on this, Arab? Today is your mom's birthday?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: Yeah, it's her birthday, and I send her my love and energy. And I—

AMY GOODMAN: Where is she?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: She's in Ramallah. She's the one who holded my father's message and took it everywhere, and she's the reason why he's recognized internationally. And hopefully, next year, I will celebrate her birthday with my father.

Regarding the video, let me tell you that I'm his son, and I can't tell it's him in the video. That's first. Even if it's him, my father spent more than three years in the solitary confinement, so it would—it can be taken anytime. But on the other side, this shows you the amount of desperation the Israeli government got to, to put such a cheap and low-quality video. And here, I just want to say that they like posted the video. They put him in the solitary confinement to punish him for the op-ed New York Times article. They did torture him. And the only thing that they didn't do is just to meet demands. This shows you, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: I have 15 seconds. The conditions in the prison?

ARAB BARGHOUTHI: It's really bad. And we have sick prisoners. We have the administrative detention, which is holding prisoners for years without even visiting the trial court, with not visiting the families. I haven't touched my father in 15 years. This tells you all what the hunger strike is all about.

AMY GOODMAN: Arab Barghouthi, I want to thank you so much for being with us, the son of the Palestinian political leader now on hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti. He's been in prison for more than 15 years. Arab has recently launched the "saltwater challenge," asking supporters to express their solidarity with the hunger strikers by posting videos online drinking saltwater.

That does it for our show. I'll be speaking in Palo Alto, in Santa Cruz, in San Diego and Los Angeles. Check our website.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

The Trump Pawns

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: For a long time, I had nothing but contempt for LBJ, what with his forcing hundreds of thousands of people into the military combat in an illegal, vile, and disgusting war.  Now, he looks like a prophet.  He passed Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, the law that forbids discrimination on basis of NATIONAL ORIGIN, and so on.  At the same time, he was John Kennedy's vice President and the Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater, advocating "bombing Hanoi into the stone age," and the John Birch Society  (a fascistic organization backed by the Koch brothers' father – yes the ones who were behind the Tea Party). Not 

to be partisan, Nixon wanted a National Healthcare System.

If what he had so say above is not clear, perhaps you have heard of Bob Dylan:

http://absurdtimes.blogspot.com/2017/05/only-pawn-in-their-game-bob-dylan.html

So what has happened? Well, France just proved they had more brains than the American Public, but to be fair, her opponent was not very well-known, and he was certainly not the product of a fixed system as was Hillary.

On to Trump, starting with international affairs.  Brexit made Trump possible.  Trump made Le Pen impossible.  This will continue.  When we heard about the hack, if there was one, and heard that there was no election discussion possible, we posted this: http://absurdtimes.blogspot.com/2017/05/dear-france-juste-une-note-pour-vous.html

Fortunately, France got the idea and the warning was not needed.  Putin would like the European Union to fall apart, but that is unlikely now.

The attacks on Hispanics and especially Mexicans here have made our servant in Mexico very unpopular.  This will lead to the election of Obrador as the next President of Mexico.  We will do our best to prevent this, and the CIA knows it will come.  Will they follow orders and kill him first?  Even the previous right-wing President, Fox, said "We will not pay for your fucking wall!" [Direct quote] 

Speaking of Putin: he does not want NATO expanding eastward.  Russia has always been surrounded by enemies and of course he hates Hillary.  She helped the coup to overthrow a friendly leader (to Russia) with a fascist oriented one.  What is to be expected.

Let's move internally: Hillary announced that she is part of the resistance!  Who does she think she is fooling?  She is part of what many here resisted.  Many who voted for Trump originally voted for Obama – because he seemed to want to change things for the better.  This time around, Bernie Sanders attracted many of those who wanted such changes, but that was buried.

The typical Trump voter did not know much about policy, but most of them are furious at the healthcare dismantling the Republicans are carrying out.  Right now, they want to cut 840 Billion dollars from Medicaid.  Why? It's a part of "Tax Reform".  In this case, it means giving that money to the upper 1% of the population.  Of the 217 representatives who voted for this atrocity, only 17 were brave enough to have a town hall this time.  None of them were well-received.

Forget about net neutrality.  Forget about FCC regulation.  Right wing forces are taking over the media.  For example, Sinclair is taking over the Tribune – a right-wing newspaper at best, but at least a newspaper.  Get used to slower speeds.  However, in order to comment to the FCC, you can go to GOFCCYOURSELF.COM .  See, they made it incredibly complicated this time to comment, so this site was set up in order to make it easier. 

If we want to discuss regulation, the best sign so far in the many demonstrations is: DEREGULATE MY UTERUS!  I know, it's a women's thing, but they have no impute as to this health care bill.   All the senators working on the Senate version are white males of middle age (mainly). 

Only A Pawn In Their Game - Bob Dylan

Dear France -- Juste une note pour vous faire savoir quelle catastrophe Trump a été ici et que Le Pen est votre version de lui.

Just a note to let you know what a disaster Trump has been here and that Le Pen is your version of him.

Juste une note pour vous faire savoir quelle catastrophe Trump a été ici et que Le Pen est votre version de lui.