Epilogue to Impeachment: Trump’s Wild Victory Celebrations
Every great saga deserves an epilogue. I mean Trump’s Impeachment Saga, not my whacky accounting of it. Trump, the TV Director in Chief, could not help making a Grand Show of his pre-acquittal State of the Union, his Attack on Prayer during the Annual Prayer Breakfast, and a well covered Total Acquittal Celebration in the large and packed White House East Room. He also celebrated acquittal night in his government leased Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.
Clinton gave a humble Rose Garden apology after his impeachment acquittal. Trump, rightfully, celebrated not only his impeachment acquittal, but his new status as The First President Who is Now Above the Law. The cable news channels again gave him complete, commercial-free coverage, just as they did in defeating Hillary Clinton. It was also mostly a campaign boost to Republicans in the audience, and a time to throw shade over Senator Romney and leading Democrats, preceded by a full range of personal insults. This is how Hillary lost, through vast, free and network self-serving TV coverage of Trump, as opposed to neglect of Hillary Clinton.
Speaking of Hillary, Trump brought up her 30,000 deleted personal emails again. Even after attending the yearly National Prayer Breakfast, the concept of Forgive and Forget could not compete with his compulsive vengeful brain disorder. Trump also called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for praying for him, and Senator Romney for honoring his oath to God to be fair in the Trump Impeachment trial. What an embarrassment to the religious leaders running and attending the National Prayer Breakfast. The theme was Love Your Enemies. Trump’s anger at Romney is not only displayed on his twitter site, but is retweeted on the OFFICIAL White House website. How Absolute does Trump’s power and demand for Allegiance have to be? Doesn’t Trump know that it would have taken 20 Republican votes to convict? Is total and continued national embarrassment a sequence of misdemeanors?
Since 75% of the country wanted a real impeachment trial with witnesses and documents, Romney may turn out to be a real American and religious hero. Especially if the House continues to investigate, and the Supreme Court eventually rules that Trump cannot block witnesses and documents.
The key that bugs me today, is Attorney General William Barr’s declaration that the only investigation of candidates for office had to be initiated through his Department of Justice, not the FBI or CIA, as the initial Trump investigations did. This means that any against Trump will be banned, and that there will be investigations against Trump’s opponents. This is the great abuse of justice practiced world wide by dictators.
Trump implied all retribution starting with the Russian investigation. He also still wanted Hillary’s erased emails.
In that same line, the Treasury Department just turned over the Joe Biden’s and Hunter Biden’s financial records to the Senate Finance Committee. They have still refused to turn over Trump’s tax records, as clearly required by law.
At the same time, the cable TV is micro-focusing on a 0.1% difference in Democratic delegates in Iowa between Pete and Bernie, in a state that shouldn’t matter in the first place. To quote the great and unexpected sage of the Trump impeachment, Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, “Get Over It”.
While I am usually envious of Trump’s good health and extemporaneous lecturing with total idiocy, today he had a cold. Being too proud to take a Sudafed, he loudly sniffled or sucked it up, before every sentence. Too much late night celebrating.
I was going to joke around that Trump’s staff was trying to keep him busy so that he wouldn’t call Zelensky again, or Putin or Xi Jinping. But the Barr and Treasury actions are also bad. Barr was in the front row, applauding the President’s acquittal, after perhaps helping to block subpoenas by the House. What about the independence of the Department of Justice?
I really don’t have to track Trump’s future malfeasance, since the Press does, as well as some groups. The Sunlight Foundation tracks Trump’s conflicts of interest and emoluments. Trump’s violations of the Constitution or Abuse of Office is tracked by Republicans for the Rule of Law. Occasionally, bloomberg.com tracks “Trump Team’s Conflicts and Scandals”.
Did Trump learn his lesson from the impeachment? Apparently not.
My Song Intuition prompted me with the music from “A Whole New World”, but I initially started saying “Brave New World”, probably after the distopian world of Aldous Huxley. Anyway, selectively taking phrases from “A Whole New World” (by Alan Menkin and Tim Rice, from Disney’s Aladdin,) : “A whole new world, A new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no, Or where to go. … Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling, Through an endless diamond sky. A whole new world, Don’t you dare close your eyes. … Every turn a surprise, With new horizons to pursue, Every moment red-letter. I’ll chase them anywhere. “
Rachel Maddow pointed out that out-of-state Republicans were calling into the Iowa Caucus phone lines to tie them up, and add to the confusion.
This election interference is just in four days of this week. A Whole New World.
