ANYONE KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON? (WITH GARRY AS THE CLOSER)

/ Marilyn Armstrong

I keep reading about how Trump is going to be impeached. Meanwhile, I keep thinking two presidents were impeached: Andrew Johnson and William J. Clinton. Neither was removed from office. It was more like a bad mark on their permanent record than getting expelled. They were harder on Harry Potter than either impeached President.

This doesn’t mean I had or have anything against Bill Clinton (I liked him a lot) except the whole thing about men and their zippers and how come they can’t just keep them zipped — at least until they get out of office. Would it really kill them to not screw someone inappropriate for a few years? Men can be such pigs. But I digress.

I do not think Trump will be impeached. “Why not?” you ask.

Because the Senate doesn’t want to. Even if Democrats utterly wipe the floor with Republicans in 2018 by winning EVERY available seat in the Senate, it does not mean the Senate will impeach Trump. And if they did, why does everyone assume that impeachment would unseat Trump? It hasn’t unseated the two presidents who were impeached. The only thing that can unseat a president are “high crimes and misdemeanors” for which there exists no clear, current definition.

Moreover, a GOP-dominated — or even a Senate with a substantial percentage of them — does not have to act on impeachment. Regardless of the outcome of any investigation, now or in the future, there is no mandate to do anything about it. And yet, despite the ineffectiveness of previous impeachment procedures, everyone is convinced that this time, it will be different.

Why? What would make this time different than before? What new law is on the books? What new interpretation of “crimes the president can commit” exists?

I’m as unhappy as anyone about the state of the nation, but I’m a pragmatist. The harder I look at it, the more I’m convinced this is another not-happening event. Senators aren’t going to take him down. For way too many of them, it would be the same as taking themselves down.

If we are all very lucky, Mueller’s investigations will take down many of his Trump’s cronies. Which maybe will improve the situation a little bit. But eliminating Trump? You think so? If you think so, I’d like to hear why you think so. Based on what? Because I want to believe. I really do.

In the end, I believe that ending this disaster will rest with us. Voters. In 2018 and 2020. If we cannot stand together and sweep the bastards out of office, life in these United States is going to get increasingly ugly and frightening.

Talk to me. Tell me I’m wrong. Convince me I’m crazy or I just don’t understand the situation.

I’m listening.

And from Garry Armstrong:

This has been primary conversation for Marilyn and me, which depresses the hell out of us, but one thing seems clear: The Squatter isn’t giving up his land because of all the bad news and the threat of impeachment. Unless they nail him on treason, he’s not getting out of Dodge. Unless they get Watergate type material on him, he won’t give up the ranch. It’ll take a great showing by the Democrats in the mid-terms and deep doo-doo for the Republicans for the Bully Boys to run their Jefe out of town.

Meantime, it’s great fodder for late night comedy/ talk shows. As the revival tempo monologues pile up the missteps by Orange Head and his minions, the audience gets more and more excited, anticipating a climax that the Big Fat Bad Hombre is leaving. No! Not happening that way. Sorry to be a party pooper but reality bites.

Don’t shoot the messenger. Men are cheaper than guns.,

55 thoughts on “ANYONE KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON? (WITH GARRY AS THE CLOSER)”

  1. To be frank, when he was elected my husband who had predicted this event reassured me betting that he would be impeached before the end of 2017. I didn’t want to jinx it but now it looks sadly unlikely. But 2018 is coming up soon, and I still keep my hopes high.

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  3. Our only hope is the same as the Nixon solution. They get so much on him he is forced to resign under the promise that President Pence (not really a much better choice for POTUS) will pardon him right away for the good of the nation. If he will just get out of town!

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  4. I don’t understand what’s going on either. The best I suppose that we, as a nation, can hope for is that a miracle happens and someone who actually possesses an ethical bone in their body shows up for the 2020 election. And we all know how rare and unlikely that scenario is. Maybe someone will circulate a handbook describing the show, because those of us in the cheap seats are confused as hell and that huge telemonitor thing they use to show us the goings on is giving me a migraine. Me? I am terrified. I’m a 99%er and apparently that idiot with bad hair and the ugly fake tan wants to kill me and all like me, by starving us to death, turning us out on the streets en masse or letting our chronic illnesses do the job. I’ve no idea why either, I never did anything to HIM, including voting for him. Maybe it’s time for that good man or men to DO SOMETHING about it, because apparently the lack of action is all it takes for evil to take root, spread and grow. Maybe it’s just time it was all over with, we’ve screwed ourselves royally and there’s no apparent way out of the quagmire..

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    • I’m with you all the way. He is going to be a mass murderer, all while smiling at the world and telling them what a GREAT job he is doing. Does he really believe it? How evil IS he?

      Getting him into office was easy. Getting him out? That is going to be a very different thing. I hope we find a way to do it. I count on him continuing to eat the crap he eats. Clogged arteries may get him before the elections.

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  5. It doesn’t matter who we get in office here (Canada) but they stay too long, become entitled and corrupted and it becomes a real delight to throw them out of office. That usually happens after 10 years.
    Election night is very exciting.
    Leslie

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  6. It wasn’t Clinton keeping it in his pants. It was lying under oath that led to impeachment.

    As for Trump, well, if the Democrats are smart (and I do not think they are) this could be the best thing that ever happened to their party. Unfortunately, the party has its own high levels of corruption. Rather than obviously obstructing, they should be busting their asses to appear to work with the Republicans. It should be drama. It should be showmanship. It isn’t. They — as liberals often do — skulk away, their tails between their legs whining, “Poor me. The president tweeted something this morning and I’m not going to the meeting. That’ll show him!” It’s a dysfunctional family.

    I’m worried less about Trump than I am about his base. OH well…

    I’m done with the lot of it.

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    • Yeah, but he didn’t need to screw his intern either. I really LIKED Clinton. I met him a couple of times and he was a great guy, but he was a stud. You just knew it when you met him. It was like an aura surrounding him. Sure, lying was the “specific reason” he was impeached — but screwing was at the bottom. I get really tired of men who can’t keep it their pants, no matter how important it is that they do so. What is WRONG with them?

      Both parties are corrupt. The Democrats were in power for a long time and I didn’t see them cleaning out the dirty money either. Everyone loves the money. Nor do I understand WHY the Democrats are NOT using this as a rare opportunity to fix what has been so wrong for so long, but corruption is like that. If you aren’t corrupt when you begin politics, you will be soon enough. It taints everyone it touches.

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      • Screwing your intern is abad idea but not a crime if she’s over 18. I think Clinton was a good president overall but I knew he was a liar and had limited integrity when he said he never inhaled. And he thought we were stupid enough to believe him 😀

        They’re all icky. And no one who has power will let go even to clean up their act. The campaign was dirty. All of it. Icky. 😞

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        • As I said, I actually LIKED him. They are ALL sleazy because politics is politics and has always been a slimy business. Hopefully you get someone who is sleazy, but also has the better interest of the country too. The two are not incompatible.

          I know he didn’t break any laws with his intern. She was old enough and I’m pretty sure it was exactly what she wanted, too. There was no molestation involved. But it was still a really stupid idea for a man in that position. Kennedy was the last president to get a personal pass on “private” matters.

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  8. The order of succession in this instance is not pretty. Pence is just the start. Shoot em all and start over.
    Loved that cartoon, btw. That’s hysterical.

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    • oops, sorry, addendum just sailed in. My husband and I do not discuss politics, gummint, or He Who Shall Not be Named. It’s been a long good marriage, and I firmly believe that it isn’t served by shrieking political preferences at each other.
      Anyway. A month or so ago he did try to show me how good a person/president we had by telling me how he ‘allowed’ a kid to mow the White House lawn. Apparently this had been the kid’s dream forEVER. And he mowed the whole damn thing. Not sure if the Prez paid him or not, but the point is, my husband was holding this up to me as the really cool example of what a great guy we have as President.

      This appears to be the mindset of a lot of people who otherwise would be dealing with reality way too often, politically.
      And now I have to deal with my own reality, which is ‘OMG it’s snowing and the shed door is open…”

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      • Trump is going to tell us how great he is while a big percentage of Americans die from controllable chronic ailments about which he will say it wasn’t his fault and it’s all fake news. If we are very lucky, he will eat his way into a heart attack.

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    • I think we need to recognize that it is going to take a united effort on the part of people who vote to clear these losers out of office — and put people who actually care about this country INTO power. We need good people willing to run for office and we need to ELECT them. And keep electing them and force whoever IS in power to get the big money out of politics — or it’s going to be more of the same — forever. The idea makes me ILL.

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      • I can imagine how difficult that would be unless they all go at once. I know a municipal politician who went in with good intentions and could get nothing done, he was outnumbered. He quit, knowing that there was no way he could make change by himself.

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  11. Is collusion with a foreign power to win an election considered high crimes and misdemeanors? Obstruction of justice? How about treason? Lying to…well, just about everyone? Or destroying our country? I am not a religious person, but I am praying that Trump will be found to have committed a crime worthy of being removed from office. Too bad Pence, McConnell, and Ryan won’t be joining him in orange jumpsuits.

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      • Both parties have done this through the years … but Republicans seem to do it better. We need to clean up our political act. Money and our endless elections have taken total control of the country. Until we get the lobbyists and big money people out of the politics, we are in the soup. I intensely dislike this administration for its total lack of ethics and compassion — but this is the direction in which we’ve been heading for a long time. We landed where we were aiming and it’s ugly.

        But Democrats were in power for a long time — and THEY didn’t clean up the laws, either. No party is willing to clear out the big bad money people because everyone uses that money. It will take a united effort by every American to dig out of the muck. Otherwise, this is going to be “the way its done” and the losers will be US.

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      • In a democratic system at least you can vote the bad guys out every few years. What appalled me is that after three years of a government that was very unjust to the poor, the unemployed and the elderly people actually voted to keep them for another three years. That is why I feel that people are stupid.

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  13. I think it’s even worse than you describe here — the House impeaches (indicts, brings charges), and the Senate tries. There is a larger margin for the R’s in the House, and they are pretty loyal to 45. It would take a lot of effort for the House to impeach, or bring charges, AND the Senate to remove him from office..

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    • No president has ever been removed from office, including the two who were actually impeached. The thing is, there are no rulings in place for what exactly would require a president to be removed. Short of provable treason, “high crimes and misdemeanors” doesn’t actually mean anything.

      So he could BE impeached, assuming we were able to get majorities in both houses — and STILL be president. He has no respect for the office, so he wouldn’t take himself out as Nixon did. He’d stay there until the last toll had rung.

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