An Egg Balanced At Roof’s Apex

Emotional Schiff Speech Goes Viral, Delighting the Left and Enraging the Right
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times

“But here, right is supposed to matter.  It’s what’s made us the greatest nation on earth.  No constitution can protect us if right doesn’t matter any more.  And you know, you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country” …

For this instant, we stand at a crossroads. A crossroads as profound as any yet witnessed by our nation in some sevenscore and four(ish) years.

This constitutional crisis we face seems to have invented itself after the fizzle of the Muller Report. Ironically, the crucial phone call having taken place the day AFTER Robert Muller’s Disney Hall of Presidents audio-animatronic™ testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

Congress Obstructs Itself

We used to leave partisanship at the water’s edge. Now we can’t even leave it at the jailhouse door.

Politico: Republicans livid over Nadler’s ‘cover-up’ accusation 

Senate Republicans are fuming after Rep. Jerry Nadler accused them on the Senate floor of engaging in a “cover up” to protect the president, seizing on his remarks Wednesday as a significant misstep that they say undercuts Democrats’ impeachment case.

The fact that it might be true only amplifies the display of crocodile tears from a defense that has no facts with which to defend itself. Thus, the traditional “ad hominem in substitute for debate or thought.”

Last night, it became apparent that the “Know Nothing Party” that presaged the divisions leading to the first Civil War has been replaced by the “I Don’t WANNA Know Nothing Party”  presaging the second.

Cognitive Dissidents — The Law Itself Is At Stake in Impeachment

Listen:

White House Calls Impeachment Charges ‘Frivolous’ and ‘Dangerous’ in Legal Brief
Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal

—  President Trump’s legal team argued Monday that the articles of impeachment were frivolous and dangerous and should be swiftly rejected by the Senate.  —  Mr. Trump’s team filed a 110-page legal brief …

Tomorrow, what a nation fears will be a kangaroo court will convene to Whitewash felonies, high crimes and misdemeanor in the mistaken notion that this is all “just politics.”

Well, if so, so was WWII.

But let’s not waste time on the endless minutiae and sophistry that comprises the entire core GOP case. Let’s talk about oaths and let’s talk about facts.

Trump’s Penis Envy Speech

Donald J. Trump (the “J” stands for “Judas”) made a speech this morning taking a weird victory lap over having had US air forces targeted but nobody having been killed. As distorted/reported by Faux Nooz™:

Trump to make statement on Iranian missile strikes, assures nation ‘All is well’
 Brooke Singman / Fox News

President Trump declared Wednesday that Iran “appears to be standing down,” in the wake of missile strikes on American bases in Iraq that he said resulted in “no casualties.” …

That is amply dealt with elsewhere. What I wanted to point out were these two deeply disturbing statements buried in the ofttimes nonsensical, macho braying text:

Bolton’s Hair-Splitting “Patriotism” – Party over Country

John Bolton, Ambassador ofttimes to CloudCuckooLand has issued an embarrassing and highly calculated statement that he is willing to testify …

Before the Senate, that is.

Listen:

STATEMENT OF JOHN R. BOLTON
Posted on January 6, 2020

During the present impeachment controversy, I have tried to meet my obligations both as a citizen and as former National Security Advisor. My colleague, Dr. Charles Kupperman, faced with a House committee subpoena on the one hand, and a Presidential directive not to testify on the other, sought final resolution of this Constitutional conflict from the Federal judiciary. After my counsel informed the House committee that I too would seek judicial resolution of these Constitutional issues, the committee chose not to subpoena me. Nevertheless, I publicly resolved to be guided by the outcome of Dr. Kupperman’s case.

This fairly drips with a false nobility that nothing in Bolton’s past justifies. We have a clear abuse of power, a shakedown of a foreign government, and Bolton clearly has information vital to the case. But DEMOCRATS run the House of Representatives (given a mandate by the “Blue Wave” of 2018 that our mainstream media denied happening until even a blind man could tell that it had HAPPENED) and Mr. Bolton decided to play partisan politics rather than patriot.

The squirming on the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin is quite evident in the first paragraph.

The Assassins’ Apologia

Note that an apologia is NOT what we currently term an ‘apology’; it is a defense and a denial of accusation. There is no admission of guilt. The opposite, in fact:

A formal defense or justification.
[Latin: apology]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.

Donald J. Trump (the “J” stands for “Judas”) has decided to toss out the ultimate distraction: an open act of war against Iran, an assassination carried out in broad daylight and claimed by Team USA with chest beating and puffer-fish expansiveness.

Airstrike at Baghdad airport kills Iran’s most revered military leader, Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi state television reports
Washington Post

BREAKING: It was not clear who carried out the strike, but the death of Soleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, seems certain to send tensions soaring between the United States and Iran…

Within hours, the Pentagon took responsibility and announced that Trump had ordered the “hit.”

Assassination as a tool of statecraft is historically stupid and counterproductive. But let’s dive into that with a short fisking of the Official Statement from the Pentagon: your tax dollars at work both slaying AND rationalizing the murder.

Some Housekeeping at the End of the Teens

I have been blogging since 2004, which is fifteen years. I have been contributing to the Jon Swift Roundup since  2010 which is ten years now. I had originally met “Batocchio” when he was substituting for Mike Finnegan at “Mike’s Blog Roundup” on Crooks and Liars, which has been a fan and promoter of my blogging  for more than a decade now (going back to 2007) and past Mike’s retirement a few years ago. [Most recently, HERE]

Batocchio, who has taken on this thankless task explains:

This tradition was started by the late Jon Swift/Al Weisel, who left behind some excellent satire, but was also a nice guy and a strong supporter of small blogs. As usual, I’ll quote Lance Mannion, who nicely explains:

Our late and much missed comrade in blogging, journalist and writer Al Weisel, revered and admired across the bandwidth as the “reasonable conservative” blogger Modest Jon Swift, was a champion of the lesser known and little known bloggers working tirelessly in the shadows . . .One of his projects was a year-end Blogger Round Up. Al/Jon asked bloggers far and wide, famous and in- and not at all, to submit a link to their favorite post of the past twelve months and then he sorted, compiled, blurbed, hyperlinked and posted them on his popular blog. His round-ups presented readers with a huge banquet table of links to work many of has had missed the first time around and brought those bloggers traffic and, more important, new readers they wouldn’t have otherwise enjoyed.

It may not have been the most heroic endeavor, but it was kind and generous and a lot of us owe our continued presence in the blogging biz to Al.

I received my first invitation in 2o1o, thusly: