Freak Out Friday – January 17, 2020

Pens.

That’s what it’s come down to.  That is how desperate the GOP has become.  They’re obsessing about pens.

They are endeavoring to get huge mileage out of the fact that when Nancy Pelosi signed the impeachment documentation, she used multiple pens.

The fact that Trump has spent over $100 million dollars on golf trips, enriching himself on taxpayer dollars in flagrant violation of the emolument clause, that the GOP is fine with.  But supporters of a man who has properties with his name emblazoned upon them in gold are freaking out because Nancy Pelosi has gold pens with her name on it as a souvenir from the signing ceremony.

Never mind that signing documents in DC is such a customary stunt that it was even done on an episode of “The West Wing.”  Never mind that it was done during the Clinton impeachment by the GOP, except because they’re idiots the pens had a typo on them and read “Untied States Senator.”  Hëll, never mind that LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act with multiple pens.  

The fact is that no one has ever complained about it in decades, until now.

Because the GOP is just that desperate.

Because the right wing is just that far out of its collective mind.

It’s really kind of a shame.  The Democrat and Republican parties used to be capable of working together.  They may have had different opinions of how government should be run, but they both believed in the truth and they both were fundamentally patriotic.  They believed that this country should stand for something.  That we should defend our allies because that was what this country was supposed to do, both for their safety and for our own.

But in the cult of Trump, that’s all gone away.  Now it’s every man for himself.  Trump has boasted that he wants to charge other countries for the protection of our armed forces, effectively transforming our soldiers into mercenaries. He has relentlessly lined his own pocket while dismissing the emolument clause, part of the Constitution that he swore an oath to protect, as “phony.”

And this week we watched as Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, who have already publicly stated that they are incapable of being impartial jurors, swore an oath to be exactly that.  And they are on record as stating that they are working in conjunction with the White House lawyers and are loath to allow for witnesses to be called…unless Joe and Hunter Biden are on the witness list.

Basically they want to give Trump exactly what he’s been craving:  hours of the Bidens being interrogated.  Why? Because many Americans are fundamentally stupid.  A sizable portion of them don’t read beyond headlines; hëll, many of them share articles from satirical news sites as if they’re genuine.  Trump knows that the Bidens’ answers will be of no relevance.  All people will need to remember is that the Bidens were relentlessly questioned about corruption, linking it in their minds and proving that Trump was right to be worried about it.  Just as years later Hillary Clinton haters obsess about how she was grilled for hours about Congress and simply breeze over the part about how all that questioning came up with nothing.  Say “Benghazi” and “Hillary” and watch them go off on a rant.

Except we once again have evidence that Trump’s interest had nothing to do with actual investigation.  Rudy Giuliani’s aid, Lev Parnas, has been hitting the talk show circuit, endeavoring to lay groundwork for his own defense, and he’s come up with some gems.  He has made it clear that Trump didn’t care about actual investigation; he just wanted the Ukraine President to announce that an investigation was under way.  Because that was all he needed, since he is well aware of just how stupid Americans are.  He knew that all he had to do was say Biden’s son was under investigation and in our environment of “Guilty and never innocent,” that would be sufficient to condemn the son and taint his greatest presidential rival.  

Meanwhile the Government Accountability Office has finally weighed in, declaring that Trump broke the law when he held up the money that congress had set aside for Ukraine military aid.  Since the $214 million had been allocated by Congress, Trump did not have the power to hold it up just to accomplish his own policy aims.  “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” stated the report, which would be genuinely relevant if Trump had ever given the slightest indication that he was remotely interested in faithful execution of the law.

The fact is that we need to get witnesses other than the Bidens testifying before Congress.  We need the Senators to actually keep the oaths they’ve sworn to uphold.  And we need them to grow a pair and make the right decision in the hope of saving not only their political party but the country as a whole.  

PAD