Friday, March 10, 2017

Impeach (弾劾)

Impeach is "Dangai" in Japanese. This evening, a Korean court upheld the impeachment of South Korean's president, Park Geun-Hye, an event that occurred early in the evening Friday morning in Korean time. A big deal for MJ, and it probably wouldn't resonate as much with Americans except for the fact that less than 2 months into office, President Trump has alienated enough people in the country for many to mention possible impeachment (still premature, IMO and many experts' opinion, but not a wild or shocking idea anymore that it might happen sometime during this administration). The latest news has Trump accusing former President Obama of wiretapping his phones, a completely inane accusation in its own right that doesn't pertain to the welfare of the country. Even if Obama had tapped Trump's phones (which Obama's administration has refuted) what does it have with running the country? And it clearly didn't work, so just get over it. It's like accusing the other team in a basketball team of cheating AFTER you already beat them, when you have a match next that you should be preparing for. Just seems like sour grapes from a man who has much, much bigger things on his plate, like getting a decent healthcare plan working. The theory for impeachment of Trump based on accusing former presidents of misconduct without evidence is that the constitutional remedy for presidential misconduct is  impeachment, which seems a little thin to me, but I guess impeachment is in place to discourage presidents from misconduct in general, and certainly Trump has skated the line already regarding bad/ controversial acts.

Our local trampoline park had an impeachment of sorts, where the previous managers were replaced with new ones, and there were new policies in place and different prices showing up. It's a messy process, customers have to reset their expectations, there's a new set of rules, etc. Like a new restaurant or coffee shop with new management, even if I had been a regular customer of that establishment, I might reconsider my business there or re-evaluate my standards, even if the previous experiences were good.

Similarly, Impeachment on the presidential level is just bad for all parties involved, especially with such high stakes involved. The president/other elected official was supposed to serve for a specified term, everyone expects to do so, but they behave so poorly that they cannot finish out the term. A new leader has to be designated, not elected, somewhat dulling the democratic process (although I guess especially in 2016 if you voted Trump you had to be cognizant that Vice President Mike Pence would take over if anything were to happen), the time building relationships with Trump goes totally to waste for other countries' elected officials, the country looks bad (S. Korea might get a bad reputation now internationally as a country without a stable head of government),

I was once "impeached" as commissioner of my fantasy baseball league. As trivial as it sounds, it still kind of hurt to have my actions be judged by all the members of the league and others put themselves on a high horse to judge my actions. I realized that some of my actions were not done with the best intentions of the league in mind and were self-interested moves. In fantasy baseball leagues, the commissioner is usually also a player in the league trying to work against the other teams in the league and better their own team, and these interests sometimes collide. Luckily, in government, we have representatives who are supposed to be working for the people and not against the people, theoretically. I hope never be impeached again, and I hope for the American people Donald Trump doesn't NEED to be impeached.... but if he does need to be due to his own interests coming before the country, then he should be impeached..........like President Park of South Korea was today.


Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

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