Impeachment Proceedings Need to Start Now

By LAURENCE H. TRIBE, The Boston Globe, 17th May 2017

¡REVOCATORIO YA!

ALL SPIDER-MAN fans will recognize the line, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We need to act now on that maxim’s converse: When great power is placed in the hands of one who cannot be trusted to act responsibly, we must take that power back. 

That means starting now to trim President Trump’s power to do irreparable harm to the nation and, ultimately, the world. That’s why I’ve previously raised 25th Amendment questions about Trump’s ability to “discharge the powers and duties of his office” and have recently called for immediate initiation of impeachment investigations — akin to convening a grand jury to consider returning a criminal indictment. 

This call may be politically unrealistic; and it wouldn’t advance my progressive agenda. Vice President Mike Pence is no picnic. Nor is House Speaker Paul Ryan. But there’s no time to lose. While the deputy attorney general appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as independent counsel on Wednesday to pursue possible criminal prosecutions and Congress’s intelligence committees dig deeper into who did what with whom to tilt the 2016 election toward Trump, the House needs to start digging now into the Trump administration’s abuses of power and Trump’s blatant violations of his oath faithfully to execute the office of president.

That digging, which might or might not result in impeachment articles and a Senate trial of Trump (and possibly a Senate trial of Attorney General Jeff Sessions as well), cannot wait for the possible passage of legislation (which Trump would veto anyway) to create either a special blue ribbon 9/11-style commission or a commission to inquire into Trump’s mental ability to govern constitutionally. The situation calls for urgent action on multiple fronts, not more delay.

Clear proof of urgency came with Trump’s boastful sharing of highly classified intelligence provided to us by Israel — about a new ISIS strategy for using laptops to blow up civilian airliners, no less — not with our allies but with the Russian ambassador and foreign minister. That urgency was underscored by what had happened just the day before, when Trump suddenly sacked FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge that the FBI wouldn’t target Trump himself in its recently accelerated investigation into apparent collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. And the urgency escalated exponentially with the revelation that former director Comey, whose honesty no one has ever questioned, kept contemporary memos of every Trump intervention in the FBI’s investigation of possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.

Repeating his now characteristic pattern, Trump first fanned out his troops (this time including the national security adviser) to release fake news. He then blurted and tweeted something closer to the truth but said not to worry: Just as he had claimed unfettered authority to decide whether to keep or replace Comey as the leader of the investigation into his campaign, he insisted that he had an “absolute right” as POTUS to decide what top secret information to share with whom for whatever reasons he wished.

It seems increasingly likely that the many parallel ways Trump, his family, and his White House team kiss up to Putin — whose request for Trump to entertain the ambassador, so often found at the center of Trump confidantes’ intrigues, Trump told an interviewer he of course had to grant — will ultimately be explained by the Russian trail of money and its laundering that is finally getting closer attention. But whether that’s the tip of a grossly unconstitutional iceberg or just the strangest bunch of coincidences ever, we need to get to the bottom of the money pit through investigations beyond the reach of Trump’s machinations.

In the meantime the House has a duty to start digging right now into Trump’s seemingly impeachable offenses before any more potentially irreparable harm is done to our national security. Just to name those offenses, they could even include treason — both in acquiring the presidency through what may have been collusion with our adversaries, and in using that office to give those adversaries aid and comfort in return, as well as grow the family fortune at America’s expense.

Those offenses also include what looks every bit like quid pro quo bribery — in offering favorable treatment to Russia (and other governments that aren’t our friends) in return for something Russia might do for him, and in offering a favor to the FBI director, whom Trump described as essentially a job-seeker, in return for assurance that the FBI investigation of Russiagate would exclude Trump himself. Nor is looking into these matters with an eye toward impeachment and possible removal from office optional: Article II Section 4 of the Constitution says the “President [and] Vice President . . . shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That’s “shall,” not “may.”

Despite that mandate, tradition has made the whole notion of impeachment so radioactive, and the instances of its abuse as a political tool against presidents of the opposing party so distasteful, that the reluctance to invoke it is now palpable. But, given the even greater difficulty of using the 25th Amendment to remove a president who is clueless about constitutional limits and delusional about his duties, we need to get over the allergy to the basic concept of removal through impeachment and stop thinking of it, inaccurately, as retribution for sinister intent.

Trump’s invariable reply to claims of alleged abuse echoes Nixon’s infamous remark: “If the president does it, it’s legal.” That was Trump’s answer to challenges to the travel ban directed at Muslims (in places where Trump doesn’t have business interests, not the places that have sent terrorists to kill Americans); to his many financial entanglements in evident violation of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses; to his sudden discharge of Comey; and, most recently, to his decision to share with our Russian adversaries information too sensitive to share even with our allies. To each allegation of abuse, Trump’s childlike answer is: I’m the president, so I can do no wrong.

We fought a revolution against George III to escape that sort of absolute power, whether grounded in corrupt motives or growing out of incapacity. We fought World War II against such claims of boundless authority. Although we have at times tolerated and even propped up dictators for what they could do for our country, this is the first time in American history that we’ve been led by someone who admires those strongmen and sidles up to them for what they can do or have done not for their country but for themselves, by raping and pillaging their nations and their people as needed. These episodes have this in common: They treat the power with which we have entrusted Trump as a plaything to use as he pleases, not to maintain and guard America’s greatness as he took a solemn oath to do; not to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” but to satisfy his immature ego, his endless need to boast, and his insatiable greed.

So it is time to act — and our constitutional system gives us the tools with which to begin.

Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School.

Lunar

This short film is dedicated to all people who believe in peaceful expansion of our borders.

In the year 1957 the cold war expands to space. The Soviet Union sends Sputnik as the first man-made object into Earth orbit.

Three years later Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space. The so-called "Space Race" seems to be decided.

But in 1961, President Kennedy promised to send American astronauts to the Moon.

The Apollo Project was born. A space ship had to be built that is strong enough to escape Earth's gravitation, land on the moon and bring the crew safely back to our planet.

Digital motion designer Christian Stangl worked with his brother and composer Wolfgang for 18 months on this short film. The foundation were thousands original NASA photographs, taken by the astronauts during the Apollo missions, which were released in September 2015. It is an animated collage using different techniques to bring the stills to life. Amazing to watch!

With bicycles, impoverished indigenous girls in Guatemala get a taste of freedom

Indigenous girls in northern Guatemala must often travel great distances to get to school, a factor that leads to high drop out rates. Bicycles help them stay in school. © UNFPA/Alejandro De León

CHISEC, Guatemala – Like many girls in Pecajbá, in Guatemala, Gladys Azucena Cho Cuc was forced to drop out when she reached secondary school. The high school was simply too far from home.

In rural communities around here, girls travel an average distance of about 8 km to get to class. Their commute often takes them over corn fields and rivers, and some girls spend part of their journey in the dark.

These communities are largely indigenous, and many face high rates of discrimination and gender-based violence. Fearing their daughters may be harassed or assaulted, many parents pull them out of school.

Hundreds of vulnerable girls received bicycles to help them stay in school. © UNFPA/Alejandro De León

In March, the UNFPA-supported Opening Opportunities programme, with the United Nations Foundation, the Population Council and the Girl Up Campaign, delivered bicycles to roughly 250 girls who had been forced to drop out or who were at risk of abandoning their studies.

The bicycles ease the difficulty of getting to class, and for safety, the girls can travel together. "Now I can go to high school because I have a bicycle and it's safer to travel in a group," Gladys told UNFPA.

Poverty is common among the country’s indigenous communities. Many have limited access to drinking water, health services, safe roads and school. Those in the Chisec district face especially high rates of poverty.

Girls in these areas tend to drop out of school and get married early. One study from 2015 showed that out of every 10 girls who are married or become pregnant, nine drop out of school. Only four of the 10 have received information about how to prevent pregnancy.

But bicycles will help these girls continue their educations – which in turn will help them learn how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy.

"A bicycle has the power to change lives," said Verónica Simán, UNFPA’s representative in Guatemala. “More than a form of transportation, it is a symbol of freedom and autonomy, and a resource which allows these girls to continue studying and not give up on their life plans.”

The Open Opporunities programme also reaches girls with comprehensive sexuality education, and works with community leaders to empower and support girls. © UNFPA/Alejandro De León

"Without a bicycle, I couldn't have continued studying,” explained Juana Toj Gómez, who is now a university student and Opening Opportunities mentor in Chisec. “The institute was so far that it took a long time to return home at night. My older sisters didn't have bicycles and they couldn't finish their studies."

Since 2013, Opening Opportunities has worked with more than 50 Mayan Q'eqchi' communities, getting community leaders to actively support girls’ education and the prevention of child marriage.

The programme has also identified 2,500 girls and adolescents who are ready to start high school – about 60 per cent of whom had already dropped out. These girls were connected with mentors from the community.

The mentors are all young women, like Ms. Gómez, who speak the local indigenous language and have received training in empowering youth. In community-based safe spaces, these mentors offer lessons in comprehensive sexuality education, which includes accurate information about reproductive health, human rights, healthy relationships and gender equality.

These and other efforts are helping poor, rural girls in northern Guatemala see the world differently. For those armed with information, education and transportation, barriers give way to possibilities.

Over the last 14 years, the Opening Opportunities has benefitted more than 14,000 girls and adolescents in Guatemala. UNFPA has supported the programme for the past 12 years.

The psychology of the to-do list (or why your brain loves ordered tasks)

Studies have shown that people perform better when they have written down what they need to do. What makes the to-do list such an effective productivity tool? By LOUISE CHUNN

Almost everyone struggles with getting stuff done. But some of us struggle with the stage before that: just figuring out what it is we need to do. The to-do list is, in theory, the answer. It’s a time-honoured system that’s beautiful in its simplicity: work out what needs to be done and in what order, write down the tasks, do them, and then, one-by-one, cross them out.

Psychologist and author Dr David Cohen believes his struggle to stay organised is helped, but not entirely solved, by his to-do lists, which must be on paper – preferably in a diary – and need to be constantly monitored. “My family think I’m chaotic,” he says, “but I would be much more so without my lists – they’ve kept me in line for years.”

Cohen puts our love of to-do lists down to three reasons: they dampen anxiety about the chaos of life; they give us a structure, a plan that we can stick to; and they are proof of what we have achieved that day, week or month.

A system is needed – and scribbled notes on hands won’t cut it.

In less harried days, our memories might have done the work. Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik was perhaps the first to note the brain’s obsession with pressing tasks. The so-called “Zeigarnik effect” – that we remember things we need to do better than things we’ve done – stemmed from observing that waiters could only recall diners’ orders before they had been served. After the dishes had been delivered, their memories simply erased who’d had the steak and who’d had the soup. The deed was done and the brain was ready to let go.

More recently, a study by professors Baumeister and Masicampo from Wake Forest University showed that, while tasks we haven’t done distract us, just making a plan to get them done can free us from this anxiety. The pair observed that people underperform on a task when they are unable to finish a warm-up activity that would usually precede it. However, when participants were allowed to make and note down concrete plans to finish the warm-up activity, performance on the next task substantially improved. As Bechman notes: “Simply writing the tasks down will make you more effective.”

Some people resist this kind of structure, however. They think it will stymie their creativity or prevent them from being flexible with their working day. For time management expert David Allen – whose book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity has made him a cult figure in the field –these free-spirited types are plain wrong. He believes anyone with a full schedule and no structure will struggle to cope. A system is needed – and scribbled notes on hands won’t cut it.

“Write my novel” is a pretty foreboding task; “outline first chapter of my novel” is far friendlier

It’s not enough to scrawl “bank” or “Mum” on a Post-it note, says Allen – you need more detail. Is it an email, a visit or a phone call, and for what purpose? If your to-do list isn’t clear and to the point, your tasks probably won’t get done – and they certainly won’t be prioritised.

Detail isn’t the only important factor, however: you also need to be realistic about how long things will take if you want to construct a workable timetable for the day. That means factoring in the potential for floating off onto social media or other distractions if you know you’re susceptible.

One trap people fall into is to consistently avoid tackling the larger, more major projects. The best way to overcome this is to break them down into much smaller, achievable blocks. “Write my novel” is a pretty foreboding task; “outline first chapter of my novel” is far friendlier and stands a chance of getting done.

Does Cohen finish everything on his lists? “Oh God no! I found an old diary the other day from six years ago, and there was something in there that I still haven’t done.” On the other hand, he has written 35 books – on subjects ranging from body language to Sigmund Freud’s cocaine use – so his to-do lists are yielding pretty impressive results. (The Guardian, 10.05.17)

Unequal Scenes Project

Unequal Scenes portrays scenes of inequality in South Africa from the air

Discrepancies in how people live are sometimes hard to see from the ground. The beauty of being able to fly is to see things from a new perspective - to see things as they really are. Looking straight down from a height of several hundred meters, incredible scenes of inequality emerge. Some communities have been expressly designed with separation in mind, and some have grown more or less organically.

During apartheid, segregation of urban spaces was instituted as policy. Roads, rivers, “buffer zones” of empty land, and other barriers were constructed and modified to keep people separate. 22 years after the end of apartheid, many of these barriers, and the inequalities they have engendered, still exist. Oftentimes, communities of extreme wealth and privilege will exist just meters from squalid conditions and shack dwellings. 

My desire with this project is to portray the most Unequal Scenes in South Africa as objectively as possible. By providing a new perspective on an old problem, I hope to provoke a dialogue which can begin to address the issues of inequality and disenfranchisement in a constructive and peaceful way. 

Johnny Miller