At the end of President Trump's first term, congressional Democrats impeached and tried the president, and the one and only article of impeachment was for “incitement of insurrection.” 

The focus of this charge was a statement made by the president telling the January 6^th rally attendees that, "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore”, the operative word there being “fight.”  Of course, the assumption was the definition of the word fight can only include physical violence.  The House managers must have never heard anyone say, “I’m going to fight this cancer with all my energy.”  They certainly did not anticipate the president’s counsel playing video showing Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer and certain impeachment managers using the word “fight” and not being charged with anything.  The implication was that the president encouraged and incited violence at the Capitol, one of the results of which was the murder of a Capitol police officer.  This charge was specifically included in the article.  We know now it was a lie and there was no evidence then to make such a charge.

The constitutional text covering impeachment requirements includes the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors.”  The generally accepted viewpoint is that this describes any serious abuse of power, including legal and illegal activities.  Any civil officer can be impeached for misconduct, violation of oath of office, or serious incompetence.

Joe Biden, in the early days of his presidency, issued executive orders stopping the construction of the border wall and the Keystone pipeline.  Regarding the pipeline, this order put Americans out of work with the justification being the claim by so-called environmentalists that pipelines cause irreparable harm to the landscape, the animal kingdom, and the climate.  This argument was used decades ago regarding the Trans Alaska pipeline.  One notable claim was that the West Arctic caribou herd would be endangered.  The fact is that since the pipeline was completed, the herd is now four times larger. While this fact alone may say nothing about Joe Biden, it does tell us that his reason for killing American jobs is based on lies.  I would say this qualifies as serious incompetence. We will call this Article 1.

It is clear to everyone that a completed border wall will go a long way toward the goal of stopping massive illegal entry into our country, a goal shared by all sovereign nations that understand the purpose of an established border.  The prime responsibility of a president as head of the Executive branch is to enforce federal laws.  Failure to do so violates the oath of office and is clearly an example of serious incompetence.  Here we have Article 2.

Also, on day 1 of his presidency, Biden issued an executive order requiring everyone on federal lands or in federal buildings to wear a face mask.  Daniel Horowitz explains that masks are designated as experimental medical devices.  Vaccines and face masks have only been allowed for use by the FDA via the Emergency Use Authorization.  The law covering these devices states, “Federal law governing the conditions of authorization of unapproved emergency medical products (21 U.S.C. §360bbb–3(e)(1)(A)(ii)(III)) requires the secretary of HHS to "ensure that individuals to whom the product is administered are informed," among other things, "...of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product."   Stated simply, masks are experimental medical devices and as such their use cannot be required.  I am fairly sure that violation of federal law qualifies as misconduct, violation of oath of office, and serious incompetence -- a trifecta and Article 3!

Most recently, the president announced his desire for a guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial saying, “I'm praying that verdict is the right verdict, which I think it's overwhelming, in my view. I wouldn't say that unless the jury was sequestered now."  So, the head of the executive branch, whose job is to enforce the laws, (and to leave judging guilt or innocence to a different branch) has entered judicial branch territory by deeming the verdict he is dreaming about to be the correct one.  This is misconduct at the very least, with oath of office violation and serious incompetence thrown in for good measure.

 Using racist math, we’ve now have a total of four Articles of Impeachment.  That is a pretty good start.

If we want to be thorough, we must consider Maxine Waters for impeachment as well.  As noted earlier, President Trump was impeached for incitement of insurrection.  Auntie Maxie went to Minneapolis to tell reporters and a crowd of protestors, if the former police officer isn't found guilty of murdering Floyd, "We've got to stay on the street and we've got to get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business."  Waters said she was "hopeful" Chauvin would be convicted of murder, but if he wasn’t, "we cannot go away."  I think urging a mob to commit violence, masked as “being confrontational,” is greater evidence of incitement than Trump using the word “fight.”  Congressional representatives are also subject to impeachment, so I offer Article 1 for the impeachment of Maxine Waters.

But now, as I snap back to reality, it is obvious to me and anyone who has inhabited the planet for more than two days that neither of these two will face impeachment, thanks to the current makeup of the House of Representatives.  But until Joe Biden issues an executive order banning them, I can at least dream.

Image: Pix4Free.org

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