So the House has voted to impeach Donald Trump, for a second time. His trial in the Senate, alas, won’t be happening until after Biden is sworn in. Here’s hoping Trump won’t do too much more damage to our country in the last six days of his term.
Open thread!
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We’ve also fortunately been able to avoid his Twitter commentary because he’s banned from Twitter (and every other social media platform). I am aware that Trump will not be convicted and will probably have left office anyway by the time the vote is, but at the very least the senate can and likely will bar him from ever running for president again.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon-believing representative, has declared that she will file impeachment articles against Biden on January 21. This will go absolutely nowhere, but I’m slightly curious to see what she thinks qualify as articles of impeachment.
I imagine her “articles of Impeachment” will pretty much consist of “ARRRGGGGHH!!!! STOLEN ELECTION!!!!! PEDOPHILES!!!!!! GUN CONTROL!!!!” written in crayon over and over again.
@tim gueguen
I’m expecting some Q drops to make an appearance.
@Naglfar
He must be convicted with a supermajority before they are allowed to bar him from office on a majority vote. He almost certainly won’t be barred from running again.
Given that some Democrats are calling for punishing the social networks that enabled Trump, can we please prosecute the “liberal” media at Fox, NBC News, CNN and Simon and Schuster for giving Trump and co so much airtime?
DrVanNostrand: while impeachment bans running for office again, there’s also the 14th amendment which was intended to ban confederates from running (though they pretty quickly were given an amnesty, so it has never applied).
@DrVanNostrand
From Reuters:
Trump could challenge this in court as it hasn’t been done before, but legal experts say it could happen without being convicted, as it would be a separate vote.
If the Republicans were smart they would get just enough Republicans who are probably safe from being primaried any time soon to help impeach and bar Trump from running in 2024. Then they can use the “unfair treatment of Trump” to rally the base when campaigning while also getting rid of Trump.
@Naglfar
Thanks for the link. After hearing the coverage on NPR, the legal scholars they interviewed made it seem like a clear cut issue. Apparently, it is still somewhat unsettled. Good to know.
Pretty hard to feel too thrilled when I’m pretty sure more violence from right wing extremists is coming and it’s looking more and more like the capitol putsch was an inside job, but I am glad the Dems didn’t wimp out and just let Trump finish out his term with no attempt at accountability.
This next week can’t go by soon enough.
@DrVanNostrand
Looking further it appears that there is debate over whether that can happen, so we will have to wait and see what Schumer does and what the courts say. Honestly I’m not super optimistic given the current Supreme Court, but on some level I think the establishment Republicans might be seeing Trump as a liability right now.
@weirwoodtreehugger
All the people I know working for state governments in state capitols have been told to stay home and not even approach their office buildings, exactly because of the FBI warning about this. More right-wing terrorist violence is absolutely coming.
Good idea anyway, during the pandemic, if they can telecommute via Zoom.
This morning, I had some hot chocolate with impeach-MINT ice cream and this weekend I’m gonna make im-PEACH-ment cobbler.
That’s all.
Saw a number of people calling it “Twim Peach” or “Twinpeachment” and posting images of Agent Cooper et al.
Honestly, it won’t necessarily be a bad thing for the trial to happen until after the inauguration. Democrats will have the slim majority by then, meaning McConnell won’t be able to cut the hearings short like the first impeachment.
Trump: The president with more impeachments than terms.
Let’s hope all wannabee dictators be at least as incompetent as Trump.
If they could just … not be ? it would be better. Too many deads and too many traumatized by Trump already.
Before the era of the Drumpf, I used to remind people that real life fascists and nazis weren’t anywhere near as competent and organized than their propaganda and pop culture made it to be. Now, I can also add “but they *were* much more competent and organized than Trump”.
Up side – the bugger’s lost his ability to pardon anyone. That’ll be useful in the long run.
I don’t think the impeachment will stop Trump from issuing pardons.
? Over-reached again, de-speeched again
And now he has been impeached again
Defrocked, disgraced, and demoted is he
I hope Biden is planning a secure virtual inauguration. This is going to be the longest week ever.
Well, at least one person thinks Giuliani has done such a terrible job he doesn’t deserve to be paid.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/534192-trump-tells-aides-not-to-pay-giulianis-legal-fees-report
@Buttercup
It looks like most of the events will be virtual, but so far Biden has said he will be taking the oath of office outside (though I hope there will be fortifications around the capitol).
@Naglfar –
Argh, Marjorie Taylor-Greene… Never was there a more perfect representative of the people of their district. Ga-14 is that extreme NW corner of the state that is the tail of the Appalachia Mountains, combined with being on the I-75 corridor between Atlanta and Chattanooga, so it’s perfect exurb-style white-flight country, overlaid on country that was already historically white and racist.
Everything you need to know about this corner of the state in one anecdote:
My wife worked for a law office about 20 years ago, before cellphone and GPS ubiquity, and one of the partners at the firm she worked for had to drive to Rome, GA (in this corner of the state) for a trial. She got lost and stopped at a gas station to call the office for directions, and while on the phone with my wife (who was back at the office), the partner looked over at a mom coming into the gas station with a little baby in a carrier.
“Aw, what a cute little baby bunting” she said, as she saw it was white with some kind of little decorations on it and a little hat.
Then she realized that the ‘baby bunting’ was a little miniature baby-sized KKK robe, complete with hood.
Husband officially gets to come home in 9 months!