Writer’s Lounge – Senate Republicans “Just Ran Away” From The Constitution
Senate Republicans run away from the Constitution as fast as their little legs will carry them.
The writing is on the wall in black Sharpie marker. Senate Republicans have tossed the Constitution to the gutter, after taking a collective whizz all over it. While at this writing, the deed is not official, it will be in a matter of a few days, perhaps only a few hours.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander cast their lot with the invertebrates in the chamber. The Hall of Shame will be expanded with the final roll call, not only for the subpoenaing of witnesses but the so-called “acquittal” itself.
The Senate GOP is not even defending Trump on evidentiary grounds, because the horse is out of the barn and the corral regarding that. What you’ve seen over the course of this transparently absurd and grotesquely dishonest fiasco, has been an application of a strangely ironic version of classic Marxist dialectic.
In this instance for example, what were established foundational principals of the framers to the likes of Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr in 1998, no longer have any practical advantage in 2020, because the rules cannot be held to apply to Donald Trump, as they were to be held to Bill Clinton.
The excuses not to hold him accountable have migrated from “Bolton is lying”, then to “using the power of the office for personal political gain is not impeachable” and finally to, “guilt is inconsequential – we can’t remove him for “inappropriate” actions.
The last one is Senator Alexander’s chicken hearted excuse for his fecklessness and that of his colleagues. Expect Trump to take his “victory laps” next week. The seeds of defeat have been sown in his ‘victory’.
Multiple polls showed that the American people, by a clear majority, wanted witnesses to be called in this counterfeit trial. All of them produce a result that is a stunning rebuke of the Republican party, including this from Quinnipiac University on Tuesday:
Trump, in reality, will never be acquitted of the high crimes he has committed in the office he holds. While the GOP Senate tells America, they’ve “heard all they need to hear”, more exhibits of Trump’s corrupt and criminal conduct pour out and will continue to pour out over the next several months.
The combined weight of it all, will, as if it hasn’t already – demonstrate that the corruption permeates the Republican Party. History will record that, with the possible exception of Mitt Romney – no national GOP elected official, stepped forward to so much as lift a finger to try to balance the scales of justice in the people’s favor.
There is now no remaining force to serve in restraining the impulses of Trump – none. Trump will act with unbridled ferocity, bidden to do so by the pusillanimous political party that he owns the deed to, free and clear.
Democracy is at a crossroads.
There was a time when as Americans, we could afford to be a little condescending towards our neighbors in the global community, because compared to so many other nations, we had a system of laws – whereas by comparison, the others had a system of rule by the oligarchs, the organized crime syndicate and its Don and by the kleptocracy.
We fell short a lot, but the true and authentic notion of “patriotism” was to commit to doing better, not worse. Hence such reforms as the Thirteenth Amendment, the right of women to vote and the end of Jim Crow (officially speaking, anyway).
What can we say to the other nations we disdain, now? Can we explain away the manner in which Trump, with the aid of power addicted cowardly invertebrates, evades justice?
The historical event of the crossing of the Rubicon by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C., is a poignant metaphor for our moment in history.
It’s not a perfect analogy, because in Caesar’s day, the Roman Senate actually forbade him to march his army into the city. But there was a civil war as a result and the Republic – which is what a lot of ideologues on the right insist we call our government – was dissolved.
A dictatorship, called the “First Triumvirate” was installed consisting of Caesar, another general curiously enough named Pompey and a supremely wealthy member of the aristocracy, Crassus.
Oh, but you say, “it can’t happen here”.
Perhaps not, but it has happened elsewhere in all of our lifetimes, and if history is not to be repeated, it’s up to you now and no one else.
by Richard Cameron
A friend of mine and I were just tossing some numbers about the economy back and forth after National Compass’ edition of Writer’s Lounge titled, “Trump’s So Called Booming Economy Is Actually A Bust” was published on Thursday.
He quoted data compiled by the Brookings Institute showing that “Median take-home wage for bottom 41% of US labor $10.22 an hour or about $18,100 net take home.” He additionally noted that “If this was inflation-adjusted buying power from 1980, they would be paid $28.60 per hour.”
I responded that it was an excellent and timely observation, adding:
And so if we take that median take home wage for the bottom 41% and apply the highest wage gain under Trump, which is somewhere between 2.8 and 3.2, so let’s call it 3% – a worker earning $10.22, if he or she is getting 40 hours a week, is reaping a whopping …. drumroll please … sound of envelope opening …. $12.27 more per week – or 48 dollars and some change each month! This is the reality when financial reporting highlights “wage gains” for workers.
Meanwhile, the individuals that were gifted tax avoidance with Trump’s “Tax Reform” bill of 2017 – such as Fortune 500 CEO’s are getting fatter, according to the Economic Policy Institute – taking home 278 times the average pay of their own employees. CEOs in the top 350 corporations are averaging $17.2 million annually.
Dare I ask if the top executive does 278 times the work of his medium payed employee? No, I guess I better not. Forget what I said.
– Richard Cameron
We published a report on Saturday, outlining the questions most people have regarding the Coronavirus.
Less than a week later, the number of reported cases, the death toll and the suspected extent of infections has increased dramatically.
Also since then, I happened to learn about a simulation that was conducted last November to arrive at a sense of the potential deaths and other contingencies that just this type of virus might eventuate. It was held by the Center For Health Security and it was called, the “Event 201 Scenario”.
The conclusion arrived at from this fictional epidemic ‘war gaming’ exercise, included this from the summary:
The whole human population is susceptible, during the initial months of the pandemic, the cumulative number of cases increases exponentially, doubling every week. And as the cases and deaths accumulate, the economic and societal consequences become increasingly severe.
The scenario ends at the 18-month point, with 65 million deaths. The pandemic is beginning to slow due to the decreasing number of susceptible people. The pandemic will continue at some rate until there is an effective vaccine or until 80-90 % of the global population has been exposed. From that point on, it is likely to be an endemic childhood disease.
Today, the Trump administration declared a public health “state of emergency” related to 2019-nCov.
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