Trumped Up

I’m sure that I speak for millions of people when I say “Thank God* that’s over”.

Of course, I am referring to the ridiculous spectacle that is the Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump, which joins the Russia Collusion farce, The Mueller report disaster, the Kavanaugh hearings debacle and various other attempts to discredit the President, on the ash-heap of history.

I am not saying that President Trump is perfect – not even he would say that – but this blatant attempt to re-write the history books by changing the result of the 2016 election has gotten far more attention that it deserved. Here are my observations on this comedy of errors.

• The campaign to impeach this president began on the day that he was inaugurated… before he had even had a chance to do anything impeachable.
• From the day that the Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives, it has been obvious that they have been looking for something, anything, that they could use to impeach the president, and, hopefully, remove him from office.
• This has been only the third presidential impeachment in history, and the first to be brought strictly along party lines. It is known that there were closed-door hearings to which Republican representatives were not invited. How is this “fair and impartial”?
• There were two charges of the article of impeachment – “Abuse of Power”, and “Obstruction of Congress”. The first charge alleges that the President used his office to start an investigation into corruption, in an attempt to smear a political rival. The question is which of those was the real reason, which goes to intention. It is wrong to impeach a president based on what you believe that he was thinking.
• The second charge – “Obstruction of Congress” – is a far ore nebulous charge that attempts to criminalize the President’s use of Executive privilege to prevent people from Testifying to Congress. This is a legitimate component of separation of powers; the Executive should never be at the behest of Congress. The correct response of Congress should have been to petition to the courts to override Executive privilege. The fact that they did not do this is telling.
• When President Trump threatens to deny financial assistance, to force a corruption investigation in a foreign country – and it is not explicitly clear that he did – that is a case of “Abuse of Power”, but when Vice-president Biden threatened to deny financial assistance to prevent a corruption investigation in the same country – which he openly admits that he did – it was a case of “Nothing to see here, move along”. Make that make sense.
• The call for “witnesses and documents”, while reasonable-sounding, is actually a Red Herring, as this evidence should have been presented with the impeachment. It is not for the Senate to do the house’s dirty-work for them.
• In addition, the people who were calling for witnesses were also telling us that Hunter Biden’s testimony is unnecessary and irrelevant, even though it is central as to whether there was corruption to investigate in the first place. All witnesses or none; neither side should get to cherry-pick which witnesses should be heard and which should not.
• Rep. Schiff should be called to account for his fictional, sensationalized, and possibly slanderous rendering of President Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President.

In the end, Justice was done. The President’s actions may have exceeded his legitimate powers, but even if this is the case, they were hardly grounds for removing him from office. A partisan impeachment was countered with a partisan acquittal. If the House Democrats’ intention was to create a public spectacle, they have achieved their goal, but I suspect that their actions will have dire consequences.

Thanks to their frantic floundering, The President, now emboldened and angered, has emerged stronger than ever in an election year, and is on course to be the first president in U.S. History to be both impeached and then re-elected. As if that was not enough, they have also weaponized impeachment, which can henceforth be used by a future Republican-controlled house against a Democrat president.

And we will all be left poorer as a result.

*Or insert the Deity of your choice

Why Jussie Smollett is a liar

I have been following this narrative for a while. Here are my initial thoughts when the story broke.

Initial Behavioral Inconsistencies

• He claims to have fought off two attackers but does not have injuries consistent with a vicious attack. What happened?
• He claims that the assailants said “This is MAGA country”. He subsequently denied saying this. In which universe is Chicago “MAGA Country”?
• He claims to have fought off two attackers with tuna sandwich in one hand and a phone in the other. How did he do this?
• He had his phone with him, but did not call the police until forty minutes later, after he got home. Why did he wait for so long to report a crime?
• He finally called the police about twenty minutes later, after he got home. Why so long? Why didn’t he call the cops on the spot?
• He claims that the attackers placed a “noose” around his neck, but was still “wearing” it when the police arrived. Why would he keep it on?

Meeting the police

• Smollett claimed that he was on the phone with his manager when the attack occurred… at 2AM?
• …but when asked for his phone, he didn’t turn it over immediately. When he finally did, some of the phone numbers had been “redacted”, ostensibly in order to protect the privacy of contacts and people who are not relevant to the attack. Why do you think that you get to decide what evidence is and is not “relevant”?

*Sigh*, first Cavanaugh, now this. Given the total lack of evidence and questionable behavior of the alleged victim, I am convinced that Jussie Smollet is a liar.

Time will tell.