If you're "Mad as Hell," write your Congressman

AROUND THE BLOCK

Dear Congresswoman Frankel

  

I live in the Florida’s 21^st Congressional district. My representative is Lois Frankel. As I “quoted” former President Obama in a News with a Twist post recently (Trump trashes Obama over a "certain section of Ukraine;" Obama strikes back!), “I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore.” Well, neither can I. So I began writing to Ms. Frankel.

You might be interested in today’s letter.

September 5, 2019

Dear Representative Frankel,

I wrote to you on August 24.

In that letter I mentioned that I write a blog, "Around the Block;" some posts are straight commentary, others, sub-titled "News with a Twist," are satirical.

My letter quoted from my posts regarding President Trump’s Greenland/Denmark kerfuffle and his comments regarding Jews and disloyalty.

Yesterday "Around the Block" dealt with the president’s apparent altering an official weather map with a black sharpie – now popularly called “Sharpiegate.” To ensure my readers realized that what I wrote was not satire (i.e. "News with a Twist") I sub-headed it “Even I Can’t Make This Up!!!!”

I learned this morning that falsifying a National Weather Service forecast is a federal crime, which can result in a fine or imprisonment.

Forgive me, but if this is truly a federal offense, and if Mr. Trump ordered the map to be altered or, as some are suggesting given his fondness for black Sharpies, altered it himself, is this not a “high crime" or, at least, a "misdemeanor?”

This morning’s news is filled with stories about Mr. Trump’s usurping the authority of Congress’ control of federal expenditures by diverting $3.6 billion from the military budget to build his wall! How? By invoking his “emergency” powers. (Note: the definition of emergency is, "a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.") Yes, that “emergency,” the one that has been with us for the 2-1/2 years of his presidency

Allow me to quote from my original letter to you: "this has gone too far; Congress has to act. Democratic Congressmen must be stronger and louder. Democratic Congressmen must shame their Republican colleagues to do something. We all know why they don't act: he gets them what they want and look the other way at his lies, his demeanor, his lack of thought and his policy by Twitter. But they must be pressured for once, finally, to have a conscience and think about the American people, not only their own, and their benefactors', self-interests.”

Congresswoman Frankel, what I didn’t address in my original letter was the question of impeachment. I understand that you currently do not support impeachment. And, I am aware of the arguments against impeachment: bad timing, no Senate removal resulting in the emboldenment of his base through Trump’s inevitable crowing of “witch-hunt” and “fake news.” (By the way, one argument for impeachment is that even if they don't vote to remove, GOP sycophantic senators would be forced to demonstrate their duplicity and cowardliness in front of an engaged, national TV audience.) 

Do we simply trust the voters to remove him, particularly given the intransigence of that base and all the roadblocks to a fair election: GOP voter suppression laws and intimidation; foreign intervention; voter apathy, particularly with people of color; a Democratic primary field that seems more intent on tearing each other down than tearing down Trump…?

We have reached a tipping point. As a member of Congress, you have the sworn duty of oversight of the Executive Branch of government. Has there ever been a more obvious or critical time to exercise that oversight in an aggressive and substantial way?

Sincerely,

Theodore Block