Impeachment for All
Impeachment for All
Ralph welcomes international security expert Paul Rogers to discuss the US-Israeli war on Iran. Then, Ralph speaks to constitutional law experts Bruce Fein and John Bonifaz about their upcoming impeachment symposium.
Paul Rogers is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University, and an Honorary Fellow at the Joint Service Command and Staff College. He is open Democracy’s international security correspondent.
I think if you look at the war overall, then essentially of the three (I use the term as a crude term) participants, the one that is basically doing most badly is the United States, followed by Israel, followed least by Iran. Relatively speaking, the Iranians (particularly the Revolutionary Guard Corps) are closer to where they wanted to be, which is not true of the United States and certainly isn’t true to a very large extent of the Israelis as well. In other words, the war is going badly. for the people who are determined to try and defeat Iran.
Paul Rogers
People tend to think Iran is on its own against these huge odds. Well, it isn’t. In many ways, certainly Russia and certainly China have a real interest in what is happening. But as far as China is concerned, they will not help directly. They will not, in other words, as far as we know, arm Iran without payment. They will see them as a reasonable customer. I think (more widely than we realize) as far as you get away from D.C., then I think you see the world in a rather different way, particularly across the global south it is certainly seen in a different way…And I would come back to a point which I think is a fair point made earlier—essentially, the Iranian Republican Revolutionary Guard Corps has been working towards this time for decades. And they will not be easily dislodged. It could happen eventually, but I think it’s highly unlikely.
Paul Rogers
John Bonifaz is a constitutional attorney and the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People. Mr. Bonifaz previously served as the executive director and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, and as the legal director of Voter Action. He is the author of Warrior-King: The Case For Impeaching George W. Bush and the co-author (with Ron Fein and Ben Clements) of The Constitution Demands It: The Case For The Impeachment of Donald Trump.
Threatening to execute members of Congress is unique to Trump. Kidnapping people off the streets and sending them to foreign torture prisons is unique to Trump. Freezing public funds that have been duly appropriated by the United States Congress and not distributing those funds is unique to Trump. Attacking the United States judiciary, refusing to comply with multiple court orders issued by federal courts across the country is unique to Trump. Engaging in these murders on the high seas…these paramilitary attacks on people in the Pacific and in the Caribbean is unique to Trump. Now, it’s true that there have been other violations of the War Powers Clause…But the scale of the War Powers violations today is unique to Trump. And this current new, illegal, and unconstitutional war against Iran is threatening the entire world. And so I think that whether they be Democrats or Republicans or Independents, they have to wake up and recognize they have a duty here.
John Bonifaz
Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.
Ralph, me and John have been trying to impeach Presidents—Democrat, Republican—for decades for these illegalities. The idea that we picked out Trump is absurd. Look at my history. Half of my life has been devoted to getting Presidents impeached and removed from office…So the idea that this is partisan, at least among us, is factually absurd.
Bruce Fein
I think we need to be even more candid about the nature of the crimes. This is not just illegal wars under the Constitution. He is committing the crime of aggression, the same crime that we sentence Nazis to death at Nuremberg for committing aggression against Poland, against Denmark, against Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, etc.
Bruce Fein
This is what is defined as a dictator by any ordinary use of the English language. We need to get away from “authoritarian,” “Oh, he’s pushing the envelope.” This is what dictators do. He stated, “I can do anything I want.” And he does it. He kills people. He deports them without due process. He spies on them. He suppresses free speech by using the government to penalize anyone who says anything that’s critical, detracts from Mr. Trump. I mean, it is impossible to conceive of the framers thinking anyone like Donald Trump, given his words and his actions, would remain in office more than a fortnight if Congress was doing its duty.
Bruce Fein
News 4/3/26
This week, the Trump administration backed down and allowed the Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin to pass through the American blockade and deliver a shipment of 730,000 barrels of oil to Cuba. The AP writes, the shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily energy demand for nine or 10 days. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío commented on the situation, “The arrival of an oil tanker to a country has likely never generated so much news as the Russian one to Cuba…It’s a sign of the brutal siege Cubans endure with heroism and stoicism. It’s a demonstration of the criminal cruelty of imperialism against a nation that refuses to be dominated.” Trump’s public statements on the matter however loom ominously over the island nation. On Sunday night, Trump told reporters “Cuba’s finished…whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter.”
In more news of Trump backing down, or “chickening out” as the saying goes, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is telling his inner circle that he is willing to end the military operation in Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he wants the U.S. to stick to its original 4-6 week timeline and focus on “hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks…while pressuring Tehran diplomatically.” This report adds that if this fails, Trump plans to “press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait.” This aligns with Trump’s recent statements on Truth Social, telling allies like the UK to “Go get your own oil!” With all of this said, Trump has sent the USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to the region, is weighing the deployment of another 10,000 ground troops, and is considering a “complex and risky mission to seize the regime’s uranium,” all while calling the war an “excursion” and “a lovely stay.”
Meanwhile, 25 Senate Democrats have signed a letter by Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia requesting that Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican Chairman of the Armed Services Committee launch a bipartisan probe – complete with hearings and a report – into the strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School for girls in Minab, Iran at the beginning of the war. This letter notes that the majority of those killed were girls between ages seven and 12. Moreover, this letter implies that the Pentagon chose this target based on wildly outdated intelligence, raising grave questions about the competence of the military apparatus. While several high-ranking Democrats signed this letter, including Dick Durbin and Cory Booker, along with progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s name is nowhere to be found.
Elsewhere in the region, the Israeli Knesset has passed a new law effectively proscribing the death penalty exclusively to Palestinians. Human Rights Watch states “the bill imposes the death penalty for the deliberate killing of a person with the intention of negating the existence of the State of Israel.’” HRW adds that the new law “mandates execution by hanging, restricts access to legal counsel and visits from family members, limits external oversight, and grants immunity to those involved in carrying out executions.” In a piece calling for the immediate repeal of this law, Erika Guevara-Rosas of Amnesty International writes “By authorizing military courts, which have a conviction rate of over 99% for Palestinian defendants and which are notorious for disregarding due process and fair trial safeguards, to impose effectively mandatory death sentences and ordering the execution within just 90 days of the final ruling, Israel is brazenly granting itself carte blanche to execute Palestinians while stripping away the most basic fair-trial safeguards.” In an interview with CNN, Mustafa Barghouti said this law “confirms very serious fascist tendencies in Israel” and “consolidates further the system of apartheid.”
Anti-Palestinian extremism continues to grow within the United States as well. Al Jazeera reports that last week, domestic law enforcement “foiled a plot against prominent Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani in New York City.” Kiswani is the founder of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist group active in the City. The suspect, apprehended by the FBI in an undercover operation, has been identified as a New Jersey man named Andrew Heifler, a young man affiliated with an offshoot of the far-right Jewish Defense League (JDL), described as an extremist group with a history of violent attacks targeting Arab American activists during the 1970s and 1980s. Heifler was reportedly planning to target Kiswani’s home with Molotov cocktails. Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the plot, saying “We will not tolerate violent extremism in our city. No one should face violence for their political beliefs or their advocacy…Our city must meet hate with solidarity, and meet fear with an unshakable commitment to justice and to one another.” Kiswani vowed that she “will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine.”
Also in New York, Congresswoman and possible 2028 presidential candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a private meeting with the powerful local branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. During this meeting AOC was asked whether she would support the imposition of an arms embargo on Israel. According to City and State NY, AOC affirmed that she would and stated that “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.” Pressed on whether she would vote against so-called defensive capabilities – namely the Iron Dome – Rep. Ocasio-Cortez definitively answered “yes.” This marks an evolution of her position; AOC previously voted “present” on a bill to provide $1 billion in funding for the Iron Dome in 2021. Many read this as an acknowledgment from AOC that the politics of this issue have shifted, particularly on the Left, and in order to shore up her progressive support she needs to stake out a bold position now.
Turning to the international progressive movement, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has led Spain in a Leftward direction since 2018 despite the rise of the European Right is convening a summit of progressive forces in Barcelona slated for April 17th and 18th. Sánchez, who has chaired the Socialist International since 2022, emphasized that the Right has “for years woven a network of alliances to propagate their national populist discourses adapted to each country,” and stressed that the Left must do the same to remain politically viable, per El País. Notable attendees include Brazilian President Lula, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. There have been many attempts to unite the international Left, with mixed results, but it is never too late to try.
In our final story on the international Left, the New Democratic Party of Canada – the country’s third largest and most progressive major party – has selected former journalist and activist Avi Lewis as their new leader, the BBC reports. This story notes that Lewis’ elevation comes in the context of the NDP suffering a steep decline in recent years, going from the main opposition party in 2011, to holding just six seats in Canada’s House of Commons today. Lewis – grandson of one of the party’s founding members and son of Stephen Lewis, who led the Ontario NDP and served as the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations – ran on a platform designed to revive the struggling party by “prioritising worker rights in the age of artificial intelligence, ending new oil and gas pipelines and projects, and exploring state-owned, non-profit grocery stores.” Despite his illustrious lineage, Lewis holds no seat in parliament and therefore cannot participate in official debates. The NDP faces an uphill climb not only back to power but even to relevance. According to this story, “a quarter of past voters…see the party as ‘irrelevant’...and 40% say its best days are behind it.”
In Los Angeles, a shocking new poll shows City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who entered the race at the last possible moment, in a commanding lead. In this poll, Raman drew 33% support, with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass trailing at 17%, statistically tied with another insurgent progressive candidate, Rae Huang. Other candidates – tech executive Adam Miller and former reality television personality and registered Republican Spencer Pratt – round out the field with 13% and 12% respectively. This poll appears to be an outlier. Other recent polls have shown Bass at 20% to Raman’s 9%, and Bass at 25% with Raman at 17%. But, if this poll is accurate, it would be a stunning testament to the success of Raman’s campaign thus far and a massive warning signal to Bass. If the Mayor slips any further, she could find herself locked out of the general election by Los Angeles’ top-two “jungle primary” structure. This from the LA Times.
Finally, we turn to the world of professional sports. This week, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Home Team Act, which, if passed, would require the owners of major league sports teams to allow local communities the option to buy a team before unilaterally relocating across state lines or to a different metro area. This announcement sent ripples through the sports world, with many fans excited by the prospect of keeping their home teams at home. ABC7 Chicago notes that “Sanders specifically mentioned the Bears’ threat to leave Chicago,” while the San Diego Union-Tribune believes this bill could keep the Padres in San Diego despite multiple offers to sell. San Diego has been particularly sensitive to this threat since the Chargers left for LA in 2017. In the press conference announcing this bill, Bernie unsubtly displayed the jerseys of the Brooklyn Dodgers, his hometown team, which famously relocated to Los Angeles ahead of the 1958 baseball season.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
Discussion about this episode
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/impeachment-for-all
Thanks so much to all on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, you are so inspirational with your continuing hard work and news of the world, with expert analysis.... so good.......
Thank you, Mr. Nader, for your tireless and long term service.
You are truly a national treasure.
Thank you also for everyone else on this podcast, including your great guests.🙏🕊️
What service is that? He talks the talk but he doesn't walk the walk. He should have stuck with criticizing automobile manufacturers.
He knows what to say but he has no idea that he's supporting the very machinery he's complaining about.
Ralph has a long history of service. He is doing what he can do now. It is not up to him to do things for us. If you think it is not enough, just don't listen to him. Easy. I, for one, do learn a lot and apply a lot of his wisdom. I at least try.
Talking the talk is not the same thing as walking the walk.
He's still addicted politics. Politics is all a farce, and is always criminal activity.
That's your opinion, not a set, accept and universal definition of politics.
I don't have to define "service" to you. But I do believe that his work on consumer protection, his presidential runs, his writings, his work on environment, and a bunch of other things he has done are services. I, and many others, benefited from them.
If you think that the focus should be somewhere else, then go there. I don't think any of us who appreciate Ralph are here and only here to wait for his guidance to tell us what to do. Many disagree with some of his points. It is called human interaction. It is normal. And I am pretty sure most of us do listen to other sources
Now, if you are coming here to simply say how wrong he is and that he should have stayed with the automobile manufacturers, that is borderline trolling. It is not intellectually honest. You have your opinion and others have theirs. I listen to people and then I think about what I heard. If I don't agree at all, then I don't go back.
But you do you, I am not really interested in debating what Ralph should be doing. He is capable of making this decision for himself.
Everything you just said is from the script written by the fascist swine who control everything on this planet.
Yes, you do have to define words that you use if you're using them incorrectly. I specialize in teaching people how to recognize bogus terminologies, as well as how to recognizing mental programming operations.
Mr Nader does not understand anything about psychology, which is why he doesn't understand where the global sources from which all wickedness originates. Or does he? If he does, he's just playing along the way all of the other mouthpieces play along.
Until you admit to yourself that everything on this planet is rigged by one fascist global faction, who writes all of these scripts that all of these mouthpieces use, you are perpetuating global fascism. You're not allowed to fix anything, and you're not allowed to opt out of paying for the bodyguards of the fascist globalist swine writing the scripts.
If you continue to discuss everything based on the lie that there's a level playing field, you'll never understand why you can't fix anything. The only thing you can fix is to deprogram yourself.
I have worked for some of the highest level politicians in this country as well as corrupt corporate media, and that's the short list. Don't tell me what I don't know. They're not opinions. They are facts, based on personal experience and literally thousands of hours of study since the 1970s.
So, is it only me or anyone who disagrees with you a fascist? You sound like someone full of self-importance. I will be on the look out for the day you save us all from our ignorance and, following this victory, saves the world.
You are right, I don't know you. You also don't know me. You assume that I have no personal experience of any kind. calling people fascists because you consider them ignorant just ends conversations. And yes, you have opinions, obviously based on your experience. Maybe you are proved right sometimes, and I am sure you are proved wrong. Like all of us. What you don't have, just because such a person does not exist, is monopoly of knowledge.
so, rant away. Since I am hopeless and a fascist supporter, I guess I am doomed to ignorance, so it would be a waste of everything to keep this conversation
My legitimate perspectives don't make fascism areality. Fascism makes fascism a reality.
Apparently you have no knowledge of the global monetary system set up 1,000 years ago, so you should study that. Then you'll be able to connect the dots.
Everything is controlled by that system. Talking about fixing things doesn't fix things, and the only fixing going on is the rigging that is committed in every aspect of everybody's lives.
The global entity in control does not permit anything to be fixed, except that they fix everything in their own favor.
Your sense of equanimity is admirable, Adriana. As a grandma, i aspire to something similar. 🙏🕊️
I appreciate you saying that. I hope we all aspire to do better. I am not a grandma but old enough that I could be 🥰
@Kathryn R Titus Moving the goalposts.
What I'm moving is people's perceptions, away from the personalities who do the dirty work for the global faction that controls everything. The establishments wants everybody focused on the personalities so they won't point the finger at the puppeteers.
You did not answer my question. You haven't defined "service."
What he's serving is continuing to deflect attention away from where all wickedness originates. That's what everybody should be focused on.
Ralph can talk about whatever he wants to. Sorry (but not sorry) if you don't like that.
Nobody ever said any differently. Got something worth saying? What I'm telling everybody is that they are all delusional, because they believe in things that don't exist, such as democracy, and sanity, etc.
Study some actual history, not the history written by the bullies / profiteers who f*** everybody at their own expense. If you can't see the repeating patterns, you have a lot of homework to do.
Your reply is Gaslighting.
Sorry, you don't know the definition of gaslighting either. Try to get an education.
You are welcome for me handing you a love offering that you didn't recognize as such. Now do something useful with it.
Don't patronize me.
Don't misuse vocabulary. Handing you a love offering is not patronizing. It's a gift. You're welcome.
Where to begin with such a fine program? Paul Rogers is spot on in his assessment of the Iran war and that assessment spells danger in terms of where this war will lead. As I wrote in my recent Substack piece “Stop in the name of love...”, there’s no logical way of knowing where a war carried out by two power-hungry lunatics will go. This war could go nuclear because Iran is inflicting substantive damage on Israel, and Israel would probably consider the use of nuclear weapons if it feels its existence is threatened. In terms of Trump’s ultimate decisions on the Iran war, it’s sort of like riding a bumper car in an old amusement park, and I don’t think this war of aggression is amusing in any way. Just like in the bumper car scenario, we collectively don’t know where this unstable president will go next. Who knows where these unhinged characters will go with their collective or individual lunacy? I agree with Paul Rogers that Trump is unlikely to pick up his marbles at this point, declare victory, and leave. There are too many of his donors who will abandon him, and though he probably will not seek a third term, their abandonment of him now will be a blow to his ego. Narcissists are usually not good dealing with the latter.
In terms of Bruce Fein’s talk, really, what high crime or misdemeanor is Donald Trump not guilty of? As Bruce Fein delineates, the crimes, from threatening individuals who disagree with him, to wars and acts of military aggression, could easily be brought before Congress if Congress weren’t so full of Trump sycophants and Democrats who are either weaklings, or on board the corporate military-industrial complex train to nowhere.
The current landscape is likely more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.
"Impeachment" does not mean removed from office. How do people not know this? It simply means you're being put under scrutiny.
Yes, its a long process. His crimes would feel as if the “Law” could cover. One would think raping children would put a person in prison.
People with a moral compass would think so. But this fourth-world nation doesn't have a moral compass.
And the reason for that is that people erroneously believe that we have a government, which is in fact an organized crime racket.
All Americans should be aware of JFK's June 10, 1963 commencement address at American University - his 'peace speech'. That a sitting president gave this speech is significant. He was also assassinated five months later.
I disagree with Ralph when he says that Israel prefers that the numbers of deaths in Gaza remain low. The government of the place is committing genocide, occupying several other countries, committing ethnic cleanse, destroying hospitals everywhere, using the tactic of double hits every single time, and passing laws that mandate death by hanging only for Palestinians who dissent form Israeli narrative. All this with the world watching and doing absolutely nothing.
80 to 90% of the Jewish/zionists in the occupied Palestine agree with the genocide and only protest the war with Iran because the bombs are falling on their side. They don't really care about appearances, they know they will not be punished. Even the UN has cowered and let the Iran illegal attacks pass as if Iran is the rogue part.
I dont understand what the opposition in Congress is waiting for to impeach.
My legitimate perspectives don't make fascism areality. Fascism makes fascism a reality.
Apparently you have no knowledge of the global monetary system set up 1,000 years ago, so you should study that. Then you'll be able to connect the dots.
Everything is controlled by that system. Talking about fixing things doesn't fix things, and the only fixing going on is the rigging that is committed in every aspect of everybody's lives.
The global entity in control does not permit anything to be fixed, except that they fix everything in their own favor.
Everything you just said is from the script written by the fascist swine who control everything on this planet.
Yes, you do have to define words that you use if you're using them incorrectly. I specialize in teaching people how to recognize bogus terminologies, as well as how to recognizing mental programming operations.
Mr Nader does not understand anything about psychology, which is why he doesn't understand where the global sources from which all wickedness originates. Or does he? If he does, he's just playing along the way all of the other mouthpieces play along.
Until you admit to yourself that everything on this planet is rigged by one fascist global faction, who writes all of these scripts that all of these mouthpieces use, you are perpetuating global fascism. You're not allowed to fix anything, and you're not allowed to opt out of paying for the bodyguards of the fascist globalist swine writing the scripts.
If you continue to discuss everything based on the lie that there's a level playing field, you'll never understand why you can't fix anything. The only thing you can fix is to deprogram yourself.
I have worked for some of the highest level politicians in this country as well as corrupt corporate media, and that's the short list. Don't tell me what I don't know. They're not opinions. They are facts, based on personal experience and literally thousands of hours of study since the 1970s.
I don't think that Trump will leave as long as he can manipulate the market and get his family to make money with bettings and the such. He is a grifter, he will grift
Obama participated in extrajudicial assassinations even of American citizens. Embraced and expanded bush’s crimes of torture etc
A couple other observations to note. First the collective anti civilian siege on Gaza following Oct 7 and continuing to this day is not a war. It’s an extermination, a genocide, anticipated and planned for many many years before this revenge action to Oct 7. But throughout the discussion it is referred to as a war. Language and the facts behind language are important.
Second point is the repeated mention during the exciting discussion and actions moving forward on impeachment the speaker rightly said that the focus is on constitutional crimes, not ad hominem attacks on trump personally. Agreed! BUT I was offended and disturbed that the impeachable person could do whatever ever he wants outside of that focus including Epstein activities. Our settler colonial country’s constitution was written by and for rich white men and did not include the same rights for poor white men, any women, indigenous people, Africans abducted from their homes and enslaved to build the country’s economy. All these groups continue to claw their way toward equality. The Epstein gang physically, sexually and psychologically abused women and girls. This is well known so dismissing sexist and pediphilic crimes as ok to be involved with vs the constitutional crimes mentioned instead of placing them in another crime category only because of the mistakes committed in the constitution is not a good idea. Distinguish the two criminal activity groups or choose something less dismissive of women and girls PLEASE! If I have misunderstood these remarks please explain.
My boa constricter " Henry", dropped down from my lamp over the front door and strangled the unwanted intruder and dragged his carcus across the street and buried him alive in my not so friendly Maga neighbors back yard.
I have always been supportive of high tech and those fancy home surveillance systems, but sometimes old premitive methods I learned In the jungles of Nam 66 works best.especially if you can train them to do God's will at your will. I bet I need not tell you who the unwanted intruder was?,
however at this point I usually go into my standard Adolf T bashing, but my wife said dinner is ready so I will conclude at this time and save you from that annoyance and dispare.
Good luck America have a great day my friends.
Here is another very good assessment of the war by Ben Norton - would be a good guest
https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/iran-winning-war-us-trump
Glad to see that you are live-streaming the impeachment conference, but disappointed in your choice of venues - Facebook? I don't do "social"media, and U-tube? owned by "don't be evil" Google - would need to open up account (:
Why not on Zoom? it is a good medium, records proceedings and provides an e-mail link to them so one can watch again or if one misses it live, and can be added to "calendar" apps which reminds people when it is soon to start ... have watched many webinars on it ...
I am a chemist. I think about the thousands of missiles that Iran is storing and all of the solid and liquid fuels they use, and about all the explosive warheads, and I cannot understand how Iran managed to get the millions of pounds of chemical explosives that they apparently did without alerting some monitoring force. It must have taken multiple shiploads of chemicals. Is there actually no monitoring of conventional explosives?
Look forward to April 8. The 17 articles of impeachment give me a good talking base when I call my reps again.