Treason: What Is It? - And Impeachment?

I am to be included in the group that firmly believes that the 45th President of the United States committed acts of treason today while in Helsinki, Finland.
   What, exactly, is treason?  The latest Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the English language defines treason as: (1) the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance, or to kill or personally injure the sovereign, or the sovereign's family;  (2) the betrayal of a trust.
   In the United States Constitution, Article III, Section 3 states: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.  No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
   The Congress shall have the power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted."

And I believe that now is a good time to review Sections 1 and 2 of Article III as well.  They read:
"Section 1
The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.  The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
 Section 2
The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;  - to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;  - to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;  - to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;  - to controversies between two or more states;  - between a state and citizens of another state;  - between citizens of different states;  - between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.
  In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction.  In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exemptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
  The trial of all crimes,except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed."

Impeachment

Impeachment in the United States is the process by which the lower house of a legislature brings charges against a civil officer of government for crimes alleged to have been committed; it is analogous to the bringing of an indictment by a grand jury.  At the federal (Presidential) level, this is done by the United States House of Representatives.  Most impeachments have concerned alleged crimes committed while in office, though there have been a few cases in which officials have been impeached, and subsequently convicted, for prior crimes.  The impeached official remains in office until a trial is held.  That trial, and their removal from office if convicted, is separate from the act of impeachment itself.  Analogous to a trial before a judge and jury, these proceedings are conducted by the upper house of the legislature, which, at the federal level is the United States Senate.

  At the federal level, the United States Constitution, in Article I, Section 2, Clause 5, grants to the House of Representatives "the sole power of Impeachment," and Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 grants to the Senate "the sole Power to try all impeachments."  In considering articles of impeachment, the House of Representatives is obligated to base any charges on the constitutional standards specified in Article II, Section 4: "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

** I think that pretty well covers everything, don't you? **

Registered Trademarks & the Emoluments Clause

Registered trademarks are a great way to make money.  If you have a well-known name, like President 45, you can make millions by trademarking your own name.  Last month, the government of China gave preliminary approval to one registered trademark by President 45, and it pretty much sailed by unnoticed.  That trademark was for construction services businesses.  Two days ago, China announced the preliminary approval of 38 new trademark registrations for the circus peanut, which raised quite a few eyebrows.  These trademark applications were made in April of 2016, when the US Presidential election was running hot and heavy.
   The newest approved trademarks cover a wide variety of businesses: spa and massage services; golf clubs; hotels, which include escort services; insurance companies; financial companies; real estate companies; restaurants; bars; and a trademark classification that includes bodyguards, concierge services, and social escorts.  Three of the approvals use the name Scion, which is the name of the President's sons line of hotels.
   All thirty-nine trademarks were granted to a company registered in Delaware as DTTM Operations LLC.  Unless someone objects to the trademarks in letters addressed to China's government within 90 days of the preliminary approval, the trademarks are automatically registered as law.
   Maryland's Ben Cardin said, "For a decade prior to his election as President, DT sought, with no success, to have lucrative and valuable trademarks granted in the world's biggest market (China).  He was turned down each and every time.  The floodgates now appear to be open."  Cardin called on the federal Departments of Justice, State, and Commerce to "brief Congress, immediately, on these matters and on the potential constitutional dangers that they present."
    Ben Cardin is concerned about violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which bars elected leaders from taking anything of value from foreign countries, unless approved by Congress.  Dianne Feinstein of California said the trademark approvals are "exactly what the Constitution's Emoluments Clause was designed to prevent, and the President is blatantly defying it."
    Kathleen Clark, a government ethics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told National Public Radio last month that by giving the circus peanut valuable name rights, Chinese officials may hope that they can influence policy decisions.  And that represents a breach of the Emoluments Clause, she believes.

US Constitution - Checks and Balances

The United States of America's constitutional system includes a notion known as the "Separation of Powers."  In this system, several branches of government are created and power is shared between them.  At the same time, the powers of one branch can be challenged by another branch.  This is what the system of checks and balances is all about.
    There are three branches in the United States government as established by our Constitution.  First, the Legislative Branch makes the law.  Second, the Executive Branch executes the law.  Last, the Judicial  Branch interprets the law.
    Each governmental branch has an effect on the others.

The Legislative Branch

 1.  Checks on the Executive Branch
     *  Impeachment power (House of Representatives)
     *  Trial of impeachments (Senate)
     *  Selection of the President (House) and the Vice President (Senate) in the case of no majority of electoral votes
     *  May override Presidential vetoes
     *  Senate approves departmental appointments
     *  Senate approves treaties and ambassadors
     *  Approval of replacement of Vice President
     *  Power to declare war
     *  Power to enact taxes and to allocate funds
     *  The President must, from time-to-time, deliver a State of the Union address
 2.   Checks on the Judiciary Branch
     *  Senate approves federal judges
     *  Impeachment power (House)
     *  Trial of impeachments (Senate)
     *  Power to initiate constitutional amendments
     *  Power to set courts inferior to the Supreme Court
     *  Power to set the jurisdiction of courts
     *  Power to alter the size of the Supreme Court
 3.   Checks on the Legislative Branch, itself - because it is bicameral, the Legislature has a degree of self-checking.
     *  Bills must be passed by both houses of Congress - the Senate and the House of Representatives
     *  The House must originate revenue bills
     *  Neither Senate nor House may adjourn for more than three (3) days without the consent of the other
     *  All journals are to be published


The Executive Branch

 1.   Checks on the Legislative Branch
     *  Veto power
     *  Vice President is the President of the Senate
     *  Commander in chief of the military
     *  Recess appointments
     *  Emergency calling into session of one or both houses of Congress
     *  May force adjournment when both houses cannot agree upon adjournment
     *  Compensation cannot be diminished
 2.   Checks on the Judiciary Branch
     *  Power to appoint judges
     *  Power to pardon
 3.   Checks on the Executive Branch
     *  Vice President and Cabinet can vote that the President is unable to discharge his duties


The Judiciary Branch

 1.   Checks on the Legislative Branch
     *  Judicial review
     *  Seats in both House and Senate are held on good behavior
     *  Compensation cannot be diminished
 2.   Checks on the Executive Branch
     *  Judicial review
     *  Chief Justice sits as President of the Senate during a presidential impeachment

The Magna Carta - Why It Matters To Americans Today

If you didn't, or don't, like history the the term Magna Carta probably rings a bell, but it seems just a tiny footnote that a teacher wanted you to remember for some unknowable reason.  But the Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was extremely important, both in England, and in America.
   By 1215, thanks to years of unsuccessful foreign polices and heavy taxation demands, King John of England was facing down a possible rebellion by the country's most powerful Barons.  Under duress, he agreed to a "charter of liberties" known as the Magna Carta, that would place him and all of England's future sovereigns within a rule of law.  Though it was not initially successful, the document was reissued, with alterations, in 1216, 1217, and 1225.  Eventually it served as the foundation of English common law.  Later generations of Englishmen would celebrate the Magna Carta as a symbol of freedom from oppression - as would the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who used the Magna Carta as a historical precedent for asserting their liberty from the English crown.
    John, the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, was not the first English king to grant concessions to his citizens - though he was the first to do so under a threat of civil war.  Upon taking the throne in 1100, King Henry I issued a Coronation Charter, in which he promised to limit taxation and the confiscation of church revenues, among other abuses of power. Henry, however, decided to ignore these promises, and the Barons lacked the power to enforce them.  Later, though, the Barons gained more leverage when the English crown needed to fund the Crusades - and then pay the ransom for John's older brother, Richard the Lionheart, who was taken prisoner by the German Emperor during the Third Crusade.
   In 1199, when Richard died without an heir, John was forced to contend with a rival for succession - his nephew, Arthur, the young son of John's elder brother Geoffrey, the Duke of Brittany.  King Phillip of France supported Arthur for England's crown, and there was war.  John won and was able to consolidate his power. But he angered many of his supporters with his cruel treatment of his prisoners - including Arthur, who was probably murdered at John's order. John renewed his war with France, and by 1206 had lost both Normandy and Anjou, along with other continental lands.
    King John began a feud with Pope Innocent III in 1208, which further damaged his prestige.  He then became the first English sovereign to be excommunicated (followed later by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I).  After another embarrassing military defeat by France in 1213, John attempted to refill his treasury - and rebuild his reputation - by demanding scutage (money that was paid in lieu of military service) from the Barons who had not joined him on the battlefields of France.  By this time, Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury (whose appointment John opposed), was able to direct the unrest of the Barons and they put increasing pressure on King John for concessions.
    With negotiations stalled in early 1215, civil war broke out, and the rebels, led by Baron Robert FitzWalter, took control of London.  Forced into a corner, King John yielded, and on 15 June 1215 (at Runnymede on the Thames River) John accepted the terms in a document called the Articles of the Barons.  Four days later, after further modifications, the King and Barons issued a formal version of the document which would be known as the Magna Carta.  Intended as a peace treaty, the charter failed it's goals, as civil war broke out again within three months.  King John died in 1216, and the advisers of John's 9-year-old son, Henry III, reissued the Magna Carta with some of it's most controversial clauses removed.  This averted threatened conflict.  The document was reissued in 1217 and once again in 1225, in return for a grant of taxation to the King.
     Written in Latin, the Magna Carta was effectively the first written constitution in European history.  Of it's original 63 clauses, many concerned the various property rights of the Barons and other powerful citizens, which suggests the limited intentions of the framers.  The benefits of the charter were for centuries reserved only for the elite classes, while the majority of citizens still lacked any voice in the government.  In the 17th century, however, two defining acts of English legislation had dramatic implications for future legal systems in the United Kingdom and America.   The Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeus Corpus Act (1679) referred to Clause 39 in the Magna Carta, which states that "no free man shall be... imprisoned or dispossessed... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land."  Clause 40 was also very important - "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice."
    In 1776, our rebellious forefathers looked to the Magna Carta as a model for their demands of liberty from the English crown.  The legacy of the Magna Carta is especially evident in the Bill of Rights and in the Constitution of the United States of America - and nowhere more so than in the Fifth Amendment ("Nor shall any persons be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law"), which echoes Clause 39, written in 1215.  Many of our state constitutions also include ideas and phrases that can be traced directly to the Magna Carta.

Jury Duty

I sat down and read my 5-page Jury Duty Summons this morning.  I had briefly run my eyes over it when it arrived, and just took in the fact that I am summoned to appear on Friday, 7 November - tomorrow.  I sat down today and carefully read every part of it, and filled out the page of information required.  Then I re-read the other instructions and found that I must call a certain number, after 6 p.m. tonight, and listen to a recording, to see if, and when, I must actually report.  What?  I cleared my calendar of work for tomorrow when I got the notice.  Then there's the small note that says to expect to serve as a juror, if selected, for one full day, but that most trials run for three days - and occasionally longer.  After one has been kept serving on a jury for 3 days, then one will be recompensed $50 per day for the fourth and any additional day.  OK.   I served once as a jury member in a civil case that lasted for 13 hours - all in one day.  I also served on the Grand Jury for six months, and saw 6 cases.  But both of these happened while I lived in Gainesville, Florida.  This is my first call for Jury Duty in the 10 years I've been a registered voter in Boulder County, so I really can't complain.
   What has amazed me is how many people have told me ways to "get out of jury duty" and "ways to get excused."  I guess I am showing that I was raised in another era, or by parents who wanted to do a service for their community.  Mom and Dad were happy and proud to be on a jury.  I am, too, when I'm chosen.  Why should I want to escape from jury duty?  We are guaranteed a right to trial by a jury of our peers in either a civil or criminal case.  This was written into the Constitution of the United States, and that was a carry-over from the Magna Carta - which King John was forced to sign in 1215 (by his leading land-owners, who were tired of not getting any trial, just a royal decision).  Why don't most of today's voters want to serve on a jury?  To me, it's a service that I owe other people of my city, county, state, and nation, for the right to vote - and I'm happy to make the pay-back.