This quote inspired by the recent travesty in the U.S. senate that surprised no one, but is now drawing a slight investigation into the country and how things are done (or not done), which will have the requisite shelf life of a few days, then blow over and things will return to their corrupt, undemocratic norm.
A friend of mine posted on Facebook a gloaty #stillyourpresident and has been taking a bit of a shelling for it. In the midst of the shelling, he defended his position saying, "He was just proven not guilty via a trial. We cannot question the verdict of that trial anymore than we can question the verdict of a trial of a hypothetical loved one who gets convicted of vehicular homicide because they are our brother and he didn’t mean it or only drank once." He went on to say, "As Americans we have to respect the system."
My retort was, "But to be fair, in your vehicular homicide analogy, the cop who measured the blood alcohol level, the people who saw the accident, the survivors of the accident, they just might be allowed as witnesses, no?" To which, to his credit, he replied that he would have voted in favour of calling witnesses if he were a senator.
I then posted, "Corrupt people with too much power altering proper legal procedure. That's the issue here. Alice Walton (Walmart bazillionaire) has refused breathalyzers while drunk driving. She even struck and killed a woman while, witnesses say, she was speeding. Got away with it. Not only should you NOT respect this, you are supposed to fight it. Dawson and Downey in A Few Good Men. They were found innocent but dishonorably discharged. Because they followed orders but shouldn't have. They were nobodies so they had to pay the penalty. If they were Walton or Trump, they would have had a "good" lawyer who altered proper legal procedure. I think the senators who voted against witnesses shouldn't go to jail, but they should be dishonorably discharged. What do you reckon?"
Well? What do you reckon? Should the cop who took a pile of money from Alice Walton to NOT test her blood alcohol level be dishonourably discharged too? Does it depend on how much? Even a million bucks is small potatoes to Alice Walton. But I'm sure it would convince a LOT, I'd even venture to say a MAJORITY of police officers to waive the breathalyzer. Anybody disagree? Maybe YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
The media will say Republican senators voted "along party lines" or it was a "partisan" vote or some softer sounding euphemism for what it actually is: highly entrenched bullying and peer pressure. I submit to you that Republican Senate leaders "whipping" the vote against calling witnesses is even beyond peer pressure. It is purposeful alteration of proper legal procedure. There's another term for that we've been hearing for the last 3 and a half years: it's called obstruction of justice. You can't have justice if you obstruct proper legal procedure. Why the hell do they even get a vote? If your best friend was up on charges of, I'll stick with the analogy, vehicular manslaughter, and he also happened to be your boss, and for some obscenely unethical reason you were able to vote on whether or not witnesses to his crime could be called in his hearing, and he told you to vote against calling witnesses in his trial or you'd be fired, what do you think you'd do? No, no, no! Even better, he called you up and he told you that if you voted against calling witnesses in his trial... you would have a long and prosperous career in his company. A perfect phone call! No quid pro quo! He didn't say if you allowed witnesses you'd be fired, but it's exactly what he meant.
Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, well done! Every other republican senator should be dishonorably discharged. When leadership harms the people it MUST be removed. This is an obligation, not a suggestion. So despite people insisting you must honour your leadership and/or legal system, you, as American citizens, have a higher calling to answer.
But the American people knew this would happen, didn't they? And they will soon get used to accepting another vile and outrageous attack on their democracy and way of life. And this will strengthen the resolve of bad politicians and people with power in America to just keep treating the American public like bigger and bigger pieces of shit. How long before this goes too far?
*** Whoops! Sorry. Well done Mitt Romney! Susan Collins jammed out.
P.S. Instead of ripping up papers and giving sarcastic rounds of applause, maybe Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should do some soul-searching and rule-changing about why in the name of fuckety-fuck party members of an impeached president are even allowed to vote on ANY part of his trial, not just calling witnesses. Or whoever is in charge of this colossal FUBAR in American government procedure. An obvious hole to plug. Let's not hold our breath until it happens though.
P.P.S. Instead of the above happening, THIS happens! It's in your face, catch me if you can, Trump doing the Joker dance down the steps of parliament singing, "I'm tremendous! I'm untouchable! Everybody's stupid but me!" bald faced, unrepentant corruption! If he DID walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, his flunkies would pass laws that allowed people loyal to him to be jury members and choose the witnesses and evidence exhibits to be introduced during the trial... if there even would be one.
Right of revolution. In political philosophy, the right of revolution (or right of rebellion) is the right or duty of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that acts against their common interests and/or threatens the safety of the people without cause.
Do your duty America! And don't depend on your ridiculously impotent voting system.
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