Not so fast, Stubby by @BloggersRUs

Not so fast, Stubby

by Tom Sullivan


Trump has tiny hands hat seen at the DNC. Photo by Lorie Shaull (CC BY-SA 2.0).

President Donald Trump issued a string of threatening tweets Saturday evening aimed at any Iranian retaliation for his assassination-by-drone of Iranian military commander Qassim Suleimani.

"Let this serve as a WARNING," the "short-fingered vulgarian" tapped out at his Florida golf resort, "that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!"

WAR CRIME

"Making the clearly-recognized historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples ... the object of attack"

Geneva Convention Protocol I
(also: U.S. Department of Defense, Law of War Manual, 5.18) pic.twitter.com/yqKLA6JHbY

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 4, 2020

The local Veterans for Peace chapter held a small anti-war rally downtown here in the cold and rain Saturday. It was one of many across the country called to protest Trump's escalation of tensions with Iran. No doubt, some of those on the streets attended rallies on Dec. 17 calling for Trump's impeachment.

Whatever came of impeachment, by the way? It's almost as if by attacking Iran in Iraq and threatening to commit war crimes, Trump diverted people's attention. Well, not so fast, Stubby.

Trump has been impeached by the House. Nothing will erase that. What remains is to see how the Senate handles a trail. For now, leaders cannot agree on how to conduct one. Taking his cues from Lewis Carroll, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell prefers to start the trial first and consider witnesses and documents later:
Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer have made zero headway on designing a bipartisan set of rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial more than two weeks after their first face-to-face meeting on the matter.

The two leaders gave dueling floor speeches on Friday but held no substantive meeting. In a brief conversation on the floor, Schumer told McConnell to focus on his demands.
The Senate majority and minority leaders will have time to argue while Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds back the two articles of impeachment already passed in the House. House Democrats may add to them before sending them on to the Senate. Pelosi is unlikely to transmit anything before Trump's State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Rapid acquittal before then by the Republican Senate majority would provide the bantam rooster a perch from which to crow.

McConnell "would prefer to sweep the entire sordid business under the rug and acquit the president as quickly as possible," without hearing from administration witnesses, writes the New York Times Editorial Board. (Hence, Pelosi's reluctance to hand him the instruments for doing so even as more evidence against Trump surfaces.) The Times concludes:
If Mr. Trump has nothing to hide, if his own decision to withhold Ukraine aid was based on a similar concern for the national interest, and not made for personal gain, then he should be demanding that every administration official involved in the Ukraine machinations testify under oath, in a Senate trial. And Mitch McConnell should welcome them.

Their silence only strengthens the case that the president is abusing his power.
With abusing power, abusing the law, and abusing women the only tools in his toolbox, the whole world looks to this president like the Trump Organization. Voters handing Trump the presidency in 2016 was like handing a child a loaded gun. Last week, he pulled the trigger. Last night, he threatened to target Iranian cultural sites, a clearly defined war crime.

Perhaps it was just more bullshitting, tweeted former Deputy Assistant to President Obama Colin Kahl. Surely, Department of Defense planners versed in the laws of war would not "provide Trump targeting options that include Iranian cultural sites." Right? Right?

Pundits long predicted that at some point Trump's behavior would rise to meet the responsibilities of his office. Any who held their breath waiting passed out long ago. Any senators failing to vote for his removal from office will pass into history in the same ignominy as the Trump presidency.