What do you want our Congressional Representatives, here Tulsi Gabbard but also Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, to do, to focus on in May 2017?
I want them to focus on, to address specifically, Congressional appointment of a special prosecutor with power of subpoena to pursue and to publish the findings of grounds of impeachment and possible criminal indictment of President Donald J. Trump.
I am very concerned that our top intelligence agencies' conclusion with a high degree of confidence that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections to further Trump's election prospects and to undermine confidence in our democracy is not being adequately pursued in the four Congressional probes underway, largely because they are partisan led and are re-focusing on leaks and on Secretary Clinton, as requested by President Trump.
Does that not deserve extensive non-partisan investigation for the sake of the country and our democracy? We need to prevent such efforts continuing in the U.S. and as a Russian tactic to undermine NATO, the EU and the U.S. The same tactics have been underway as well in France, Austria, the UK, and a Nordic country.
Treason is at issue if there was collusion of his Presidential campaign with the government or intelligence organs of Russia to influence the outcome of the U.S. 2016 elections. The direct financial benefits to his campaign manager Manafort, to Trump's National Security Advisor Flynn, and a dozen others affiliated with the campaign form a pattern that is worth pursuing; we need a public accounting.
Then there are Mr. Trump's in-your-face and persisting violations of the U.S. Constitution's emoluments clause, the suspiciously timed approval of Chinese trademarks for Ivanka Trump's branding while she is working in the Oval Office and while the President of China was visiting, among many other questions about business and financial issues, such as the Pennsylvania Avenue Trump hotel now being used by foreign dignitaries who want to see Mr. Trump.
I do feel our country is at risk when a president and an adversary try to undermine and intimidate the free press, the judiciary, and human and civil rights, in multiple ways.
But this is a blog post meant to elicit your views and hopefully enlist your support in speaking with our representatives on this issue, which I consider fundamental. Impeachment won't happen unless the electorate demands it.
Your views?
Michael
Michael A. Ceurvorst
d16-2 precinct president
When Tulsi came to Kauai for her Town Hall at the War Veterans Center, I took notes and spoke with her at the end of the event. We have spoken many times before.
My notes below are for reference, recall, and editing. Missing are ACLU rep Susan Storm's apt question on impeachment and Tulsi's answer that Pence might be worse but she is investigating impeachment because it is something being looked at in several circles.
For a lengthy if rambling overview including both research and journalistic persistence, see Evan Osnos' article in the current New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/08/how-trump-could-get-fired.
Osnos has been writing about Trump for a long time. He also mentions American University historian Alan Lichtman's new book, meant as an "how-to" for impeachment.
Others, such as Kauai Indivisible's Lee Ann Spencer, felt Tulsi's answers, while noddingly right, were too generalized and didn't provide enough specific how-to's in moving forward.
John Zwiebel has a number of useful links and comments I invite him to post here.
Tulsi
The Veterans War Memorial was jam packed. Tulsi did an initial and intentionally short presentation on herself, her committee assignments, and an update re North Korea as a threat to Hawaii, then opened it up for about an hour of Q&A. Sheets of red and green construction paper were divided and handed to audience members with the instruction, if you agree with what Tulsi is saying, hold the green up. If you disagree, hold the red up. Q's were submitted in writing and were allowed from the floor, but there were dozens of questions and only about a dozen got asked and answered, ranging from
-- her moral compass as a Democrat, [she had no ready answer to the questioner who had voted first for Harry Truman]
-- to Syria visit with Assad and her opposition to wars of regime change,
-- Bridget Hammerquist's protect-our-
-- to exploitative monopolistic Hawaiian Airways [answer included a HI AL bill she cointroduced to exempt two places from extra taxes that will be put on airline tickets under the designation already enjoyed under "essential air services designation'],
-- Ray Catania supporter of unionizing asked her stance on HR785, a national right-to-work law meant by GOP to cripple and even eliminate unions [answer: Tulsi strongly defends and believes in the right of collective organizing and bargaining and so opposes HR 785]
-- Education. Trump and Ryan budget proposals that would, under DeVos, end all support for teacher education and development entirely and end all funds for after school services [Answer: a real slap in the face to educators and would hurt the very people most in need. Tulsi referred here as she had elsewhere to touring with Bernie Sanders and education as a right... lots of cheers. Tulsi referred to a very good bipartisan education bill passed the house in 2016 which teachers unions supported but that got killed. She hopes to bring it back "our responsibility to keiki is not a partisan issue" more cheers]
-- prison reform and juvenile sentencing [Answer: needs to be part of the entire criminal justice reform, enlisting federal, state and local cooperation. Current Congress efforts do not address root cause, we need to seek ways to divert juveniles from criminal system. The decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level has not occurred, and while the GOP wants to build more prisons, there are marijuana possession arrests in the U.S. every 43 seconds, ruining so many lives. Tulsi cited a doctor who said he has never in his 20+ years of practice handled a single life-threatened mj overdose but he handles so many alcohol-related life-threatening cases. Something is wrong with that, so she is working on removing mj from the fed. designation as a class 1 controlled substance.
-- Russian involvement in Trump campaign and 2016 elections: [Yes, transparency necessary, must pursue to get to bottom of this. Must get disclosure of Trump's financial interests. She's co-introduced legislation to require Pres. to submit annual disclosure of financial interests statements as members of Congress now do.]
-- Medicare for all? [Yes, her support of Sanders again invoked, again more cheers. Plus, need to address, in connection with immigration reform, shortage of health care providers, esp. in rural areas, and she backs legislation allowing importation of Canadian prescription drugs that had been forbidden by previous GOP legislation, and must allow Medicare to bargain for Rx drugs. Health care is a fundamental right. More cheers]
-- James Armstrong thanked her for votes to keep us out of wars and then focussed on ongoing problems in VA care, citing 22 suicides a day, long wait times, etc. [Tulsi touted VA Accountability Act giving VA Administrator the power to fire and remove bad actors at VA at any level, including the top, and to prevent them from getting bonuses, as now happens, unless issues clarified. Wrong for us not to care for returning fighters. Efforts to provide more care, including for "invisible wounds" when vets return, and she is working for that.
-- Restoration of Glass-Steagall and cutting out or weakening CFSB? [Tulsi: this is my sixth town hall and the first time this important question has been raised: She thinks Dodd-Frank needs some tweaks but not abolition, is completely for restoration of Glass-Steagall safeguards/separation, sees needs to keep consumer finance protection. Does see negative effects of current law on community banks whereby small banks have had to increase compliance officer employees from 2 to 50, in one instance, and thus carry a burden that the big banks easily absorb. T says there are greater risks now than before with Wall Street remaining unchecked and receiving handouts, unlike the community-based banks. An add-on note: This is not just a GOP issue. Too many of her colleagues in the Finance Committees, both Dems and Republicans, seem beholden to financial industry, tied to Wall Street handouts -- she used slightly different words but that was clearly the msg -- so we need the public/grass roots to make their interests clear.
-- Should Jones Act from the 1920s be repealed as it contributes to huge costs for shipping things to HI? [Tulsi understands the question but still supports Jones Act as relevant now because its fundamental purpose of ensuring a merchant marine available in crises and in war by becoming part of the USN is still a real need, and the Jones Act does support smaller shippers and keeps them going
-- Thank you for "Stop Arming the Terrorists" Bill [T submitted that with cosponsors because she realized we are funding fighting the terrorists -- Al Qaeda and ISIS are real terrorists who intend to harm and try to harm the US and we need to defeat them -- while at the same time through CIA and others we are funding and arming groups in Syria and elsewhere that are working with or directly part of Al Qaeda and ISIS. It makes no sense once you realize the contradictions. Some cheers.]
-- Coalition building? [When in 2013 T. won her Congressional seat and realized how poisonous the partisanship was, she said she asked herself
"what could I do to carry with her the spirit of aloha and to increase the chances of cooperative work on common problems. I thought I should not overthink this. So I called my Mom. Mom, could you make me 435 little boxes of your secret macadamia-nut chocolates? Not even I have that recipe. She won't give it up.
When I explained to her why, she said, OK, honey. I'll do that.
Mom, I need them next week.
OK,honey.
Mom, that's not all. Can you also make 435 BIG boxes? That's for their staffs.
OK, honey. It will take me a little longer.
So Mom got two big pots going and stirred two pots at a time. I did a hand-written note with each one, saying something simple like, this is a bit of aloha from Hawaii, a spirit of openness. I would like to work together. Within three days we had even senior Republican leaders crossing the aisle and asking where the Hawaii rep with the candies was. Many said they had eaten the whole box themselves and they needed another one to take home to their spouse. And oh, what were Hawaii's needs in finance, from those on that committee, or transport....
So it is not complicated to reach out. That is a beginning of coalition building, so important now.
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