“No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus; and yes,
Virginia, the president can be impeached “For Being Ye Publick
Ass.”
----from The Quotations of Chairman
Joe
So observed these columns, citing chapter and verse, on
August first of last year. (1) Indeed it amazes how the serial
defenders of the modern imperial presidency—no matter the party
rushing to the defense—emphasize the phrase “High Crimes” to
mean that the chief executive must not only be seen to have shot
someone on main street, but that their must be a video presented
showing evidence that it was in his hand when the deed was done. As
stated in that entry “High Crimes” meant, in the eighteenth
century, violating one's oath of office. But concentrating on this
part of the phrase misses entirely the two words that follow: “and
misdemeanors”. A misdemeanor is a minor infraction. Read
literally, and inclusively, the president could be impeached for
jaywalking or double parking. Now no one is suggesting that recourse to impeachment be taken over trivialities, for to undo a national election is serious business. But you get the point.
I bring this up because, as discussed in the entry of
last August, one can be impeached for—among other things—appointing
unfit subordinates. (2) Appointing the unfit is an impeachable
offense. This brings us to the Federal Reserve.
Caesar Disgustus, observes the editors of The New
York Times, “has been toying with two contentious possibilities:
Stephen Moore, an economics pundit and former Trump campaign adviser
with a reputation for being reliably wrong; and Herman Cain, a
former pizza executive. Both men have expressed enthusiasm for
adopting the gold standard...
“Republicans are still pondering a challenge to Mr.
Moore,” opines the Times, “who has raised alarms on
professional as well as personal ground (the I.R.S. Claims he owes
$75,000 in back taxes). He admits to knowing next to nothing about
monetary policy, and his opinion writing over the years has drawn
criticism from economists of diverse views. As Justin Wolfers of the
University of Michigan put it, 'More than possibly any other
economist in modern America, he has a track record of getting the big
issues wrong.' Wall Street isn't crazy about him, either.” (3)
Then there is Herman Cain, promising to do to America
what Dominoes Pizza man Tom Monihan did for the Detroit Tigers. Cain
is, of course, the refugee from the 2012 campaign that stood 666 on
it's head with a totally idiotic and doctrinaire tax scheme
predictably transferring more of the tax burden upon the shoulders of
the working classes with his 999 flat tax proposals. The details of this regressive tax proposal are thankfully no longer relevant since the author had been
kicked into the dust bin of history. That is until our Disgustus,
having exhausted his available talent pool, went rummaging through
the refuse. (4)
Similarly, our intrepid Caesar has appointed several
members to the federal bench whose ignorance could not even McConnell abide. And now, as the editors of the Times point out,
he is cleaning out the Department of Homeland Security and replacing the
ethically challenged Kirstjen Nielsen with one Stephen Miller, tRUMP's version of Joseph Goebbels, because Nielsen balked at reintroducing family
separation of migrants at the border. Mendacity and sadism tRUMPs
experience and competence if not ethics and morality.
We are now laboring under the weight of several acting
heads of departments, including the Defense Department and Homeland
Security as our Caesar Disgustus struggles to impress his ignorance
and mendacity upon the nation. There are consequences when one
imposes ignorance on the system. (5) There are greater consequences when
ignorance is accompanied by mendacity and sadism.
“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison.
_______________
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
-
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