Outgoing Congressman Thomas Massie introduced Articles of Impeachment against Whiskey Pete Hegseth. He’s done that before. He tried it in September of this year, too. MAGA Mike, the Johnson responded by shutting the House down early and fleeing to safer venues. He didn’t have to go to that extreme this time. The House just voted to shelve the motion. Done. I’d like to say it was a good try, but the Republicans swatted the effort down in about twenty-four hours so, really, it was just a try.
They got away with that because this is still the old Congress. People on the left got very angry with several Democrats for not showing up to the vote. I think they’re putting the cart before the horse on that. What do you want, a show or a removal? Because Massie’s Articles of Impeachment were a show. The GOP still controls what’s left of this Congress. They’re not going to impeach one of their own. Don’t you remember Trump’s impeachments?
They never even considered evidence. Trump was in trouble, the Republicans came to his rescue. This Congress was most likely to do the same for Whiskey Pete. So the MAIN effect of Massie’s articles was to get the charges read into the Congressional record. That’s not nothing. It’s just next to nothing. Massie was making a point. Some of the Dems didn’t feel an urgent need to get back just to cast a show vote.
I suspect they’ll get him in the next Congress, when there’s some chance of an honest vote. Impeaching Whiskey Pete would certainly be a good thing. Obviously, this corrupt-Republican-controlled Congress wasn’t going to impeach Hegseth. But it turns out, the Democratic Congress says they’re not planning to pursue many impeachments, either.
I saw a sketch, I think from Saturday Night Live, in which cops caught a bank robber and when the bank manager asked about throwing the robber in jail, the cops said, “No, we think he’s learned his lesson,” and “Now is not a time for looking backwards. We’re looking forward,” and a few other inspirational sounding phrases that all come down to mean, “We’re letting the criminal get away with it.”
We’re already hearing those noises from the Democrats. Trying to impeach everyone would be a pretty time-consuming effort and nothing else would get done. Of course, they’re not going to get much done so long as Cadet Bone-spurs has his special little veto hat, either. At this point, I’m not sure it’s “getting away with it” so much as “giving them a little more rope to hang themselves with.” We all know where they are. We can find them later.
There is a possibility the ‘no impeachments’ bit could just be make-nice talk until the Dems actually control the House, but I suspect the Dems intend to try and manage GOP behavior by legislation and oversight. It’s worth a shot, for now. It might actually work. Nobody knows because the GOP never even tried. Wouldn’t want to offend Herr Gropinführer Trump.
But I DO hope the Dems took notice of the reaction from people when eleven Democrats chose not to participate in a show vote because it was a show vote. One of the first things the Dems will do to undermine their own recent success is start telling work-a-day Joes – ALL of whom are very definitely subject to the law – that there’s no real need to enforce the law with these high-ranking, self-described “important” people…
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Okay, so California did NOT pass Proposition 40, the one-time tax on billionaires. Largely, that’s because the billionaires spent hundreds of millions of dollars making absolutely sure they never, ever have to trickle anything down. I never expected Prop 40 to pass. Too many people were scared the billionaires would leave the state.
Honestly? I’m not sure what the problem might be with that. You want to go live in freezing North Dakota or humid Texas? Have at it. Mostly, they just extract from the state and they’ve now made clear, that’s all they’re ever going to do. Take, take, take. I’ll hear from people about this so let me add, I know they pay token amounts. I also know those “token amounts” look like huge sums of money and for most of us, they are. But they’re a fraction of what work-a-day Joes pay as a percentage of income.
I think too many people accepted the threat that kept coming up in this, the most expensive opposition campaign in California history: secretly, it’s an “everyone tax.” The billionaires ran ad after ad pretending that might be true. It wasn’t, but gullible is gullible. And, hey, gullible is expensive, too. Since Prop 40 didn’t pass, but the state is still going to need money, who do you think they’ll turn to now? It’s ironic. The masses were afraid the billionaire tax might somehow apply to them, so now the masses will get to pay more in taxes because the billionaires absolutely, positively will not trickle anything, ever.
I stand by this statement: Unearned Income should never be taxed at a lower rate than Earned Income. Honestly, I understand that many Californians who voted against Prop 40 would support a national tax on the billionaires. They just think a state tax means the billionaires flee. Evil Musk fled. Much of his business is still here, so what did California lose, the relative pittance he was willing to part with?
The GOP has done serious economic damage to this once-great nation, what with their constant and on-going tax cuts for the rich. Eventually the richest rich people are going to have to pay their fair share or the nation won’t be able to pay it’s bills. Why not start now? I know, because they don’t have to and we can’t make ’em…
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The US could lose it’s “measles free” status, here in the near future – for no reason other than all of that measles spreading around the country and the people who have died from measles ever since our nutball “health” guy started spreading lies about vaccines. The Trump Regime is a race to the bottom and straight backwards. We’re losing ground in EVERY way under these fools…
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Okay, SO…the Republican controlled congress has just released a report that claims they didn’t see any evidence of Trump raping and molesting girls with his best friend and co-conspirator, child sex-trafficker Jeffery Epstein – and all they had to do was not read the full report and question only Trump loyalists. They spoke with the person who hopes for a pardon from President Pedo. They spoke with Bill Barr.
Do you know who they didn’t talk to? A single one of the victims. That seems curious, to me. It seems that if one is trying to investigate crimes, one needs to talk to the victim of those crimes, right? Wrong, apparently. Most especially, if you intend to declare a perpetrator innocent. My guess? This isn’t going to be the end. The GOP (Guardians of Pedophiles) needed to issue THIS report now to offset the future and far more honest report expected from the Dems in the coming months. But this gives the base something to cling to, and really, that’s all they need…
