Hamiliton wrote, "A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. The prosecution of them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused. In many cases it will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt."
In other words, he knew impeachments would be political circuses and he decided to pitch the tent in the Senate, which is the one body of government where every state is equal. That would prevent Virginia and New York from bullying the rest of the country.
Today, the threats are California and New York.
I have no doubt that given the fact that no crime was committed and an election looms in 11 months, that Hamilton would have rigorously opposed this constitutional lynching, as would Washington, Franklin, and every colonialist named Lee.But USA Today believes it knows better and that it can somehow sway public opinion to have the Senate fire the president and turn its back on the will of the people in 30 states and one congressional district in Maine.
The newspaper never gave Donald John Trump an endorsement, a chance, or an apology. It has zero credibility with President Trump's supporters.
I wrote what I thought was a nice comment to this article only to have the electrons malfunction and my thoughts vanish. It was quite lengthy and losing it took the swindout of my sails.
ReplyDeleteSo the short story is "may the profession die a swift and dishonorable death" (rhetorically speaking).
I checked Trash and it wasn't there.
DeleteYou should've checked the gutters.
Delete"I checked Trash and it wasn't there."
DeleteWhen I saw this comment I thought that you were being funny and saying that journalism is in the trash. In jest I wrote that you should of checked the gutters. You probably were scratching your head wondering what I am smoking.
Now I realize that you were being helpful and looking for my post. I think that the situation is just the occasional glitch on my end. I really should create my posts in Word where I can see the whole thing and then paste into the comment box in your blog. That way I can be sure that it doesn't vanish into cyberspace.
If I type out "Hey Russia, if you're monitoring my activity, can you help me find my missing post?" will the Deep State take out a FISA on me?
I'm sure that you are too modest to say this but I can. You, too, are an indispensable blogger.
ReplyDeleteThis question may be off thread, but has the identity of Steele's Primary Subsource been disclosed? If not is there (informed) speculation?
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Sergein Millian. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
DeleteCorrection: Sergei Millian
DeleteUSA Today is like CNN--almost no one reads/watches them, so they publish outrageous click bait, hoping sufficient eyeballs find their content in order to satisfy their billable advertising rates.
ReplyDeleteCorporate media has devolved to the lowest common denominator, as there are no (practical) limits to the supply (capacity is unlimited and nearly costless), meaning content (such as USA Today) is worthless. Given the economic model, there will never be sufficient demand to result in a net positive price on a constantly expiring product.
Last I checked newspaper ad revenues had halved in the past 10 years--no better illustration of a dying industry exists.