William G. Stinson (born circa
1945) is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania
State Senate. He was elected to represent the 2nd senatorial district in the Pennsylvania Senate in a 1993
special election.
However, Federal District
Judge Clarence C. Newcomer declared him
the loser of that election after finding that Stinson had engaged in election
fraud. and ordered Stinson's Republican opponent, Bruce S. Marks, be seated in his stead. The latter
took office on April 28, 1994.
The fraud was conducted using
absentee ballots, often in the names of deceased people. The decision was
notable because it shifted control of the state Senate from the Democratic
party to the Republican party, the first time such an event had occurred at the order
of a federal judge.
By now, you are well of the fact that history often repeats
itself, so allow me to bring the story shown above into the modern era.
On August 21, 2018, Michael Cohen (Donald Trump’s personal
lawyer and fixer) pleaded guilty to 8 felony charges in a Manhattan court. At
almost exactly the same time in a Virginia court, Paul Manafort (Trump’s
campaign manager) also pleaded guilty to 8 felony charges. In addition to pleading
guilty to the felony charges, Cohen also admitted to the court that Trump had
instructed him to make hush money payments to both Karen McDougal and Stephanie
Clifford/Stormy Daniels so that the affairs would not affect his results in the
2015 Presidential election, which would be a violation of campaign finance
laws:
In
addition to Cohen and Manafort, three additional associates of the president (Michael
Flynn, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos) have either pleaded guilty or been convicted
of crimes since Trump took office:
In
addition to the legal problems of the five individuals listed above, the fact
that White House Counsel, Don McGahn, has been cooperating extensively with
Robert Mueller’s legal team will mean that the 45th president will
be under even more pressure than he was before, a fact that was brilliantly illustrated
by editorial cartoonist Steve Benson on the morning of August 22:
Ominously,
the cartoon has been removed from the electronic pictures on the Arizona
Republic, which means that the paper undoubtedly received a LOT o flack for
printing it.
Rudy
Guiliani, of course, is making Trump’s position even shakier:
Despite yesterday’s stories about Cohen and Manafort, Robert
Mueller’s investigation is far from over. In June, Robert Mueller indicted 12
Russians for their role in hacking the DNC website. In July, it was revealed
that the National Rifle Association has deep ties to accused Russian spy Maria
Butina. (since the NRA contributed $30 million to Trump’s campaign, the legal
term for the situation they are in is called “deep doodoo”), but things are
going to get REALLY UGLY from this point forward:
On
June 9, 2016, a meeting was held in Trump Tower in New York City between three
senior members of the Donald Trump presidential campaign – Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort – and at least
five other people, including Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was arranged by publicist and
long-time Trump acquantiance, Rob Goldstone on behalf of
his client, singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov. It was
disclosed to U.S. government officials when Kushner filed a revised version of
his security clearance form. Although the initial excuse for the meeting
was to discuss the adoption of Russian children, the true purpose of the
meeting was to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the
Russians:
According to 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, the Russian
government definitely interfered in our 2016 presidential election. Although
the Obama administration became aware of the Russian involvement prior to the
election, and disclosed it to members of Congress, Mitch McConnell suppressed
evidence of the collusion so that it would not effect the election results, and
act that would likely be considered obstruction of justice, and would force
McConnell out of office.
To get a better idea of what could happen next, we need to go
back in time, to the year 1789, when the Electoral College was established by
the Founding Fathers. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise
between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the
President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
As Alexander Hamilton wrote in “The Federalist Papers,” the Constitution is designed to
ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who
is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” The
point of the Electoral College is to preserve “the sense of the people,” while
at the same time ensuring that a president is chosen “by men most capable of
analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances
favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons
and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”
Since the establishment of the Electoral College, 5 men have
lost the popular vote, but became president due to the actions of the Electoral
College. Here they are:
John Quincy Adams, in 1824
Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1876
Benjamin Harrison, in 1888
George W. Bush, in 2000
Donald J. Trump, in 2016
If you analyze the list of our best and worst U.S. presidents,
you will notice that the quality of the winners has declined over time. Here
are the rankings of the 5 men shown above:
John Adams - #14
Rutherford Hayes - # 29
Benjamin Harrison - # 32
George W. Bush - # 30
Donald Trump - # 44
Let’s back up a minute, and repeat a key sentence about the
Electoral College that I mentioned above:
” the Constitution
is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot
of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite
qualifications”
In the fall of 2016, more than 100 of American newspapers
published editorials stating that Donald Trump was not qualified to be
president. One newspaper, the Arizona Republic, endorsed Hillary Clinton for
president, the first time in the paper’s 126 year history that it had NOT
endorsed a Republican for president:
The opening paragraphs of the paper’s editorial is worth
reading again:
Since The Arizona Republic began
publication in 1890, we have never endorsed a Democrat over a
Republican for
president. Never. This reflects a deep philosophical appreciation for
conservative ideals and Republican principles.
This year is different.
The 2016 Republican candidate is not
conservative and he is not qualified.
That’s why, for the first time in our
history, The Arizona Republic will support a Democrat for
president.
The complete
article is listed below:
In view of the fact
that many of candidate Trump’s rallies were pretty rowdy affairs, it’s not
surprising that the editors of the newspaper received death threats because of
their comments about Donald Trump. It’s also not surprising that a Trump
supporter shot and killed 5 employees of the Capital Gazette in June of 2018:
Wisconsin, along
with Ohio and Pennsylvania, proved to be critical in Trump’s victory, since the
popular vote margin was razor thin in all three states. The link below goes
into more detail on how Hillary Clinton was robbed in Wisconsin:
If you have read
Hlllary Clinton’s most recent books, “What Happened?” and “Hard Choices”,
you’ll recognize the fact that not only s she one of the most qualified
presidential candidates our country has every had, she was also cheated out of
a victory that was rightfully hers.
Most, if not all,
Trump supporters have likely forgotten the fact that Donald Trump was VERY supportive
of Hillary Clinton in both 2008 and 2012.
As ugly surprises
continue to result from the Mueller investigation, it is rumored that even
leaders in the Republican party would be in favor of impeaching Donald Trump,
but it is highly unlikely that impeachments proceedings would start before the
2018 mid-term elections. Even if impeachment eventually came to pass, it would
not be the most ideal situation, since Mike Pence would not actually be much of
an improvement over Donald Trump. Although Mike Pence called for an end to the
Mueller investigation as recently as May, there is strong evidence that he was
ALSO involved with the collusion with Russia, which would also make him ineligible
to hold office.
Barack Obama has
been rated as the 8th best president our country has ever had, but
Donald Trump seems to be determined to erase as much of Obama’s legacy as
possible while he is still in office. In order to protect Obama’s legacy as
much as possible, and to repair our relationship with our allies, there is only
one logical way forward,
As I mentioned in
my first paragraph, there IS legal precedent for removing a public official
from office due to “irregularities” that jeopardize the validity of the
election. As a result, the BEST approach for our country is for Congress to
remove Donald Trump and his ENTIRE administration as soon as possible, and
swear in Hillary Clinton as the 46th president of the United States
BEFORE the election of 2020. Since it will take more than 2 years to repair the
damage done by the Trump administration, her term of office should run from the
time that she is sworn in until January 20, 2025, but she would not be eligible
for another term after that.
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