Circular Illogic
Dana Milbank has a great piece in the Washington Post this morning where he describes how Republican senators made a mockery of Trump’s impeachment trial, repeatedly violating their oaths and violating Senate rules. Many didn’t even bother to show up during the House Managers’ presentations, or if they did, smacked on chewing gum or read magazines. As I read these descriptions, what struck me was what a poor job Chief Justice John Roberts did, not even trying to get Republicans to follow their own rules in the trial. Trump always whines about how everything is rigged against him; well, this trial was certainly rigged in favor of him even before it started.
In voting to block all witnesses and close the record, Republicans completed their corrupt mission of acquitting Trump even as they admitted that he is guilty. Milbank’s best line of the the piece was when he described Lamar Alexanders illogical reasoning for refusing to hear any witnesses. Alexander’s statement was whiplash inducing as described by Milbank:
“’There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this,’ Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) declared late Thursday. But the choice of ‘what to do about what he did,’ Alexander said, should be ‘in the presidential election.’ What an elegant solution! He accepts that Trump is guilty of cheating in the election — and, therefore, his fate should be determined by the very election in which he has cheated.”
Milbank nails it in those brief sentences by pointing out the idiotic reasoning behind not only Trump’s lawyers but his enablers in the Senate. They admit Trump is guilty, yet either say it doesn’t rise to the level of impeachability or that the election should determine his fate. How goddam stupid – if inviting, indeed extorting a foreign government to interfere in a presidential election is not impeachable, then nothing is. Even more stupid is saying that the election he’s trying to rig is the one in which he should be punished.
The illogic is gobsmacking.
With the upcoming rubber stamp Trump acquittal, Rethuglicans
1will have not only gifted our “president”* with a blank check for absolute power, they will have grabbed one for themselves.
Look for even more aggressive efforts to disenfranchise voters,
campaign violations, Russian money laundering and numerous
other crimes. When the acquittal vote comes down, America will no longer be a democracy and Putin didn’t have to fire a shot!
I disagree. By rigging the impeachment trial the Senate GOP has established Trump’s guilt, and sealed his fate. As well as their own.
2Yeah, makes me sick! To keep my sanity, I have vowed to do at least one good deed a day. There will be a lot of hurting people out here soon, so a donation to the food bank or a kind word will help. I sent money to Moscow Mitch’s opponent yesterday.
3What the hell happened to the America we knew?
When Lamar Alexander said that, I thought if I ever decide to rob a bank, I want him on my jury. When political obituaries are written, GOP Senators will have this trial as the first sentence – and I hope it starts in November with John Cornyn!
4If the Constitutional remedy cannot remove a president who commits a crime, then we cease to be a republic and become a democracy. DJT is no longer prez because he didn’t win the vote. I can live with that.
5Yet these are the same people that delusional joe, ex senator from MasterCard, thinks he can work with if the thuglicans reatin the senate, with a few quisling d’s like munchkin w.v. and some of the false flag thuglicans the dnc and dscc recruited.
6After all after supporting and protecting traitors since at least the bankers attempted coup against FDR all of a sudden these liars with decide that their oath mean something and decide to work for the US instead of actively trying to subvert it.
Irony and satire just received CPR from an unlikely source, humorless Republicons. Albeit a band-aid as first aid, but baby steps for those fledgling fools. While some of us cringe at what license to steal IQ4.5 carves out of this farce, Moscow Mitch and the Republicons are now in the unenviable position of heading into the 2020 election with the massive IQ4.5 albatross strung around their ever so noose worthy necks. Because whatever they may say or do, Donnie has more criming to do.
7Wouldn’t this conspicious failure to enforce the rules upon a court room and or the “jury” be cause for removal of judge plus sanctions and the proceeding declared a mistrail?
8The one good thing out of all this is that it gives me an excuse to drink heavily.
9Essentially, Republican Senators said that they were going to acquit Trump because they wanted to, facts, justice, oaths, and precedence notwithstanding. I hope their behavior comes back to bite them, very hard indeed, in November.
I can’t imagine what another four years of Trump would do to the country, and I don’t want to find out. It would be great if we could keep the House and flip the Senate, too. And while I’m wishing, how do we donate to MoscowMitch’s Democratic opponent, and to LeningradLindsey’s?
10Precedents, drat it. Precedents. My typing fingers got ahead of my brain.
11The senate just endorsed the case of jury nullification.
12Call for juries to ignore the law and decide upon personal decision unmoored from any law or legal precedent
K@12:
13Good point. The idea of me being aquitted for beating the crap outta some guy for harming my daughter sounds hunky-dory to me.
Applying the same concept to the biggest case of abuse of power, by the most powerful person in America, is Monty Python-absurd. “You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just cause some watery tart threw a sword at you.”
Roberts is very overrated IMO. Anyone else remember him muddying up Obama’s inauguration by messing up the oath? So bad they had to do it again off camera. I’ve always thought Autism.
14Joe Hill at #14 wrote:
Chief Justice Roberts has epilepsy.
Those of us who also have epilepsy wish he would speak out about his trials with the disorder, because it shows that epilepsy is not a bar to holding an important or critical condition.
That said, it is his right to keep his medical condition private if he chooses.
Conservatives have claimed in the past that the only reason Chief Justice Roberts upheld the ACA is because he has epilepsy (it would be irresponsible for them not to speculate).
A seizure would also explain why they had to do the oath again off-camera.
An Epilepsy Foundation article about him from 2014:
https://www.epilepsy.com/article/2014/3/chief-justice-john-roberts
(more at the link)
15James, short answer, he’s a Republicon. Sharing isn’t him; he’s all on the “I’ve got mine, screw you” side of things. Whether his seizure disorder is either mild or controlled by excellent medical care, extending the same benefits to all isn’t in his wheelhouse.
Ironic how many of the ‘compassionate conservatives’ claim to be Christian, but none of them are like this guy:
“And why is it, oh God, too political to demand the dismantling of white supremacy and racism? From a state whose laws support voter suppression, target the disproportionate incarceration of black and brown people, and do harm to the undocumented?
When oh God did it become too political for a woman to make her own medical decisions, or for a child to want to attend school without guns?
How oh God is it too political to pray for LGBTQ people, who in the year 2020, simply desire protections for housing and jobs
Is it political to pray for the well-being of transgender children, who are at the greatest risk for suicide, whose colors I wear around my neck today, and who want to be called by their correct pronouns, and be allowed medical treatment.
Remind us, oh God, that you did not create the marginalized and oppressed political, but all your children you created in your image and you called them good. We lost our way when we chose to politicize their very existence.
If we’re not affected by minimum wage or threatened with deportation, if we can afford health care or if the color of our skin or the faith we practice or the person we love doesn’t dictate how we are treated, then it’s easy for us to politicize the lives of others. So forgive us we pray, embold us to speak out for the vulnerable, quiet us to listen to their voices, convict us to put your people before party and liberate both the oppressed and the oppressor in your longing for beloved community. In your name we pray, Amen. ” ~ Methodist pastor Andy Oliver
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/umc-pastor-shocks-florida-state-house
As a lapsed Jew of an atheistic/agnostic bend with none of the afflictions mentioned by Pastor Andy, I can endorse everything he said. It’s not an ideal world or a perfect world, but striving for those ideals is what democracy should be all about. The 14th Amendment and all the equality it promises is perhaps the most important of all the Amendments. We don’t need Jesus to tell us what is right, and we sure as hell don’t need Republicons telling us that everything that is the opposite of right is right.
16Again, I agree with Paul ADK@2. Given that the Senate would acquit Trump regardless, it’s to our benefit that the Senate clearly showed that they had no pretense of fairness or reason. It would have been far worse if they had voted for witnesses and evidence, because that would give them a fig leaf of being impartial. [We’re all agreed that they would have ignored anything that would have cause them to convict.]
And I vote for Joyce@3 to be our exemplar. It’s easy to get caught up in the hate the Republicans and their drones are spewing out. We need to keep in mind the traditional American values of generosity, hospitality, and concern for others.
17Every time Democrats confirmed Repugnut Supreme Court Judges, they were abetting the treason of Republicans!
18Impeach Roberts. Impeach McConnell. Impeach Trump Again.
19