The Widdershins

Because let me tell you, there are 99 red trial balloons floating over the Senate right now. (I think they use Drumpf’s farts to fill those stinky things.) These Republican pishers will do and say anything to spread their poisonous cloud of hate, bigotry and ignorance over our country. They want to rig the game so they win all the time, and they really don’t care how they do it.

Take McConnell’s balloon about the rules of the Mango Moron’s impeachment trial. If they get these through, there will be “precedent” which they feel they can then re-use once a Republican President gets re-elected. (They’re not sure when that would be, but they do play the long game – unfortunately.) If they don’t get this crap approved, they will keep trying other sulfurous balloons until one stops floating, pops, and stanks up the joint.

Democrats…object to the wording of the section pertaining to votes to call new witnesses before the Senate. The rule includes a new hurdle before votes on witnesses and documents can occur: A majority of senators would have to agree to the concept of allowing witnesses and documents before they could vote on the individual pieces of evidence [emphasis mine].

You know when we “agreed to the concept of allowing witnesses and documents” in America? When the British justice system was brought to this country during colonial times, and then it was refined even further when the Constitution, our law of the land, was established. That was, like, a long time ago, dudes, and by now, everyone knows that a trial must allow witnesses and documents! As I used to say a lot more often, duh f’ing duh! And the American people agree in overwhelming numbers.

This is not a vote that, in a nation that respects the rule of law, would ever be taken. But there we are, the stinky, poisonous balloon of the infamous Unitary Executive (aka Dick-Tator) concept floating dangerously over the Senate.

Loyola Law School Professors Karl Manheim and Allan Ides write that “the separation among the branches is not and never was intended to be airtight,” and they point to the President’s veto power as an example of the executive exercising legislative power. They also cite other examples of quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial power being exercised by the executive branch, as necessary elements of the administrative state, but they contend that ultimately all administrative power belongs to Congress rather than the President, and the only true “executive” powers are those explicitly described in the Constitution.^[14] In this understanding, Manheim and Ides follow in the footsteps of Lessig and Sunstein.^[1]

Oh, but Drumpf has taken this much further, and his drooling sycophants in the GOP pretend to believe he comprehends the Constitution when he says, “Article II says I can do whatever I want.” It doesn’t, and he doesn’t. Check out this amazing account of when that gob of orange goo was asked to read the Constitution on camera by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker. All six living Presidents were participating, and each President selected his own section to read.

…Trump had selected the opening of Article II, the part of the Constitution that addresses a president’s election and the scope of his or her power. It would normally have been the perfect selection for a president—but was an ironic one for Trump, who had spoken of his desire to exercise his executive power as much as possible, including by threatening Congress and challenging the judiciary.

With LED lights on stilts in front of him, Trump took his seat. “You’re lucky you got the easy part,” Pelosi told him cheerfully. “It gets complicated after this.” But the president stumbled, trying to get out the words in the arcane, stilted form the founding fathers had written. Trump grew irritated. “It’s very hard to do because of the language here,” Trump told the crew. “It’s very hard to get through that whole thing without a stumble.” He added, “It’s like a different language, right?” The cameraman tried to calm Trump, telling him it was no big deal, to take a moment and start over. Trump tried again, but again remarked, “It’s like a foreign language.”

…Whatever the reason for Trump’s discomfort with the reading, several watching agreed on this much: He behaved like a brooding child, short-tempered, brittle, and quick to blame mystery distractions for the mistakes. “I didn’t expect this, but I felt sorry for him,” another witness said. “When [Vice President] Pence is reading it, when [former vice president [Dick] Cheney is reading it, I knew they knew the Constitution. And I thought, Before he got this job, he really should have read it.”

Yes, he really should have. Maybe that’s why 51% of Americans want the Senate to impeach and remove Drumpf.

51% of Americans polled said that the Senate should vote to remove Trump, while 45% said the Senate should vote to acquit him.

CNN’s poll also found that 58% of Americans believe the president abused his power and 57% believe he obstructed the inquiry by Congress into the matter.

These statistics represent an uptick in public sentiment against the president across almost every measure.

A Fox News poll last month found that 50% of voters believed Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 53% believed he abused his power, and 48% believed he obstructed Congress.

These numbers are only getting worse. That’s why those gross balloons are floating around everywhere. The Republicans are cornered. Let’s keep them that way!

This is an open thread.