Volume 2, Issue No. 51
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .
Our latest as of Thursday, January 14, 2021
~ The end of Donald Trump has just been deigned days away from what the Constitution says of his lawful term as President of the United States. The people's representatives, a majority of 232 of the House's 435 voting members, have voted to impeach him a second time for inciting a rebellion against the bicameral legislature - a co-equal branch of the executive and judicial branches of government - in an attempt to stay in power for another four years. For all his arrogance and bravado, in the end, he's a sorry creature of his own devilish impunity.
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A RECORD SECOND IMPEACHMENT
Donald Trump's Historic Comeuppance
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” ―
A total of 232 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach (197 against) President Donald Trump, earning him the infamous appellation of being the only American president to have been impeached twice.
Trump's comeuppance has long been coming. He governs by tweets, propagates lies, stifles the truth, misrepresents facts, and apparently delights in sacking officials who displeased him.
It's unbelievable, and quite unseemly, that he succeeded in creating a vast pool of supporters bedazzled more, I believe, by the glitter of celebrity he wrapped himself in than by the way he runs and governs the nation.
Truth-telling does not appear to be part of his vocabulary as a businessman and as president. His art of the deal might as well be the art of the steal for it's almost always rigged in his favor.
His own blood despises him, such as his niece, Mary L. Trump, the 55-year-old daughter of his brother Fred "Freddy" Trump Jr., the oldest of the Trump siblings; and his 83-year-old sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge, who eloquently said: "He (Donald) has no principles. None. None . . . His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God".
As they have seen him close and personal, both their views are weighty and meaningful. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/08/donald-trump-gets-bashed-by-his-sister.html).
"For Donald," Mary L. Trump writes in her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, "lying was primarily a mode of self-aggrandizement meant to convince people he was better than he actually was".
She adds: "Donald's displays of confidence, his belief that society's rules didn't apply to him, and his exaggerated display of self-worth drew some people to him. A large minority of people still confuse his arrogance for strength, his false bravado for accomplishment, and his superficial interest in them for charisma".
When the coronavirus struck a year ago and the disease (COVID-19) it brought metastasized into a pandemic in March, Donald Trump simply shrugged it off, saying it would magically disappear, and even suggested injecting people with disinfectants.
While the number of people infected and dying leaped to staggering heights, he showed neither humility to accept mistakes nor empathy to express concern. It's "arrogance for strength" in the flesh that Donald Trump was.
His "false bravado for accomplishment" materialized at the very moment he summoned law enforcement agencies and the military to drive protesters out of Lafayette Square in DC so he could stage his photo op standing in front of a church holding a bible aloft.
In all the news coverages I've watched online, the most horrifying was last week's assault on the U.S. Capitol. And when the authorities seized back control of the building from rioters, five people were dead and dozens injured.
Videos and still pictures of that moment were so vivid as to evoke my own personal experiences as a young reporter and foreign correspondent. The historical parallels, such as the violent attack breaching the Capitol, the ransacking of offices, etc., are reminiscent of at least two events in Manila.
One is the so-called People Power revolution in the Philippines in 1986 which saw the end of Ferdinand Marcos' reign and his departure for Hawaii, and two, which was prior to that, the Plaza Miranda bombing of August 1971 that caused nine deaths and injuries to 95 others.
Both were life-changing episodes in contemporary Philippine history, like this one that unfolded on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.
That Donald Trump was impeached yesterday (January 13, 2021), or a week after the siege of the Capitol, was good enough for me. It didn't matter if the Senate convicts him or not. That it was the second within the span of one year (the first impeachment was on December 18, 2019) only proved his incompetence.
What's important for me, at least, is a record for posterity showing that a man like Donald Trump could not just trample on the majesty of laws, individual rights, established institutions, and the Constitution, without being repulsed, held accountable, and punished.
Donald Trump rightly deserves his comeuppance. (Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved).
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