.
.
.
Trump-right assclown Arthur Schaper snarls “Why, Lou, why???”
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of our Constitution forbids any “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under” the United States from accepting any “present or Emolument” from “any King, Prince, or foreign state” (“emolument” defined as “a salary, fee or profit from employment or office.”) As Hamilton wrote in the Federalist No. 22, “One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption.” During the pre-Constitutional period of the Confederacy, our framers saw way too much gift-giving from the European powers to important Americans, which if they didn’t affect their policy decisions, would certainly always keep alive that suspicion.
Fast forward to this hot day, and we have a President who’s never stopped accepting MILLIONS of dollars from foreign governments, including problematic and hostile ones *cough*Russia*, and does this classic clause mean anything if it’s not enforced? Hence, a lawsuit from 196 Congressional Democrats (it would be so nice to have one or two Republicans who gave a fuck) against President Trump. I’ll let Amy and Keith take it from here:
“…Well, let’s just start with the fact that he owns a bunch of golf courses. Foreign nationals can take out memberships to the tune of — I don’t know — several hundred thousand dollars, pay, you know, annual dues in the form of about $25,000. And those things go straight into his personal accounts. They are — that’s money that goes straight to him. And so — and then there’s other things. If anybody goes to stay a night in his hotel, I mean, he is essentially receiving payments from foreign sources, which he’s not entitled to do unless he gets permission from Congress, which he has not got. So, he’s violating the Constitution. And he was violating it on day one. When he put his hand up and swore that oath to protect and defend the American people, he was in violation. And he needs to be held accountable.”
So, 196 Democrats from Congress and Senate involved in this suit – that’s ALMOST all of them, but not quite. I was reading that our Senator Dianne Feinstein is not involved, but she gave a good reason – she’s the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which is one of the two Senate Committees busy investigating the President, and she sees a conflict there, but meanwhile vows to “continue to be a vocal opponent of the president’s illegal acceptance of foreign payments and benefits.” But the same article listed my own Congressman, the irrepressible Lou Correa, as one of only four California Democratic Congressmen to refrain from the lawsuit..
Which just, of course, made me curious. Does he have a good reason? A bad reason? No reason? Too busy? Is he planning to sign on first thing Monday? His aide and my old friend Claudio Gallegos had no idea. His staff in Santa Ana and DC had no idea. His communications director Andrew Scibetti had no idea, said he would find out and call me back, which he didn’t. And I no longer have Lou’s cell number. The Times article mentions that some of the Dem holdouts are from “districts with a strong Republican or evenly divided electorate,” but that sure ain’t true about Lou’s district, and I hope he doesn’t pretend it is.
Good thing I live in the most politically important neighborhood of Anaheim, Anna Drive, where he should be showing up any minute to meet the Secretary of State of Guanajuato, México, and will not be able to avoid me! HEY, I THINK I HEAR HIM OUT THERE…
Guanajuato bigwigs with Lou in center, at Anna Drive 6-17-2017
Well, that wasn’t too enlightening. He says he hasn’t decided if he’s going to sign on to the suit or not, and that he’s been too busy with other things. And as he names them off, they are all immigration-related. Immigration is obviously his main focus, and that’s important these days, but there are other issues too, and plenty of other damage that Trump is causing to the nation and the world beyond deporting and terrorizing Mexican immigrants.
I guess it’s not a real big deal if it’s 196 or 197 Democrats suing the President, but I’d just like to feel that MY REPRESENTATIVE is doing his part to defend the emolument clause of the Constitution. Oh well, at least I have the dance videos I took today, two folklorico, two Chinelos (the last one Chinelo DISCO!)
He doesn’t want to upset the republicans in his district.
More like the Republicans in the rest of the state and Congress.
Lou would like Republicans to see him as “the Democrat who can be reasoned with.” Maybe he thinks that eventually this might win him a U.S. Senate seat, or the Governorship, or even the Vice Presidency (in a Joe Liebermanish sort of way) sometime in the future.
Not signing onto this suit — or doing so only reluctantly, belatedly, and under duress from the likes of the fearsome Orange Juice Blog and its fiery readers — is a way of signaling conservatives that he’s their de facto candidate in some future Dem-on-Dem race, something at which Loretta tried (half-heartedly) to do and failed.
Some Democrat will have to run against him in the 2018 primary. (Daly too.) The worm is turning.
*Is Lou….really one of the Koch Brothers? Deep Cover….. He always had great Christmas parties though. Lou will never be a Kamala Harris…our prediction!
“No person holding any office of profit or trust under them…” (The United States”) “…shall, without the consent of the congress, accept of any PRESENT…” (Gift)
“…emolument…” (salary,pay of profit) “…office or title of any kind whatsoever from a KING, PRINCE or Foreign State”. Art.1, Sec.9.
Trump has not accepted ANY gift,salary,pay or profit as any proceed from holding any “office or title” from or under ANY King, Prince or foreign nation.
The nature of Capitalism allows that one has the right to sell the legally proffered services or products of an enterprise to anyone that pays for or buys them. Trump is entitled to be paid market value for any of his services or products.
To be shown to have violated this article one must prove that a person accepted a gift or other remuneration in return for some favor given to the foreign state. By not signing on to the Democrat minority’s baseless lawsuit connotes the tacit approval of the majority of congress that Trump is not violating the Article. He has a right to be paid for his lawfull services and sales.
Well, we’ll see what the courts say about that. We’ve never had such a businessman president, or one who behaves so incautiously in ALL things.
Fellow member of the bar:
Could you perhaps give us a sense of what you know about money-laundering and how law enforcement officers determine when it constitutes bribery even when part of a commercial transaction? Because that’s what we’re talking about here — and your analysis does not suggest that you have factored in huge overpayments in putatively arms-length transactions even one bit.
*The Trump is full of Saudi Bucks…..the Fabreze concession is sold out…..Kelly Anne bought out NYC Macy’s before they closed. Ivanka changes her nail coloring every day……Twitter Stock is going through the roof……..Democrats are going to take the Congress back in 2018……..Vlade Putin is investing in General Electric and Ratheon…….Life is so good now that we have a true, white and wonderful President……what could go wrong? Alex Baldwin has job security and the ratings are great…even though the comedy on the show is kind of getting iffy!
Steven Colbert is still great…..so is John Oliver and Bill Maher…..heck even Jay Leno has a Car program……how bad can it be?