Month: January 2020

Impeachment 2020: A Lifetime of Education

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
3512
 

The curtains are about to come down. The audience is leaving the auditorium, shaking their heads either in dismay or victory, having seen the whole show. Even if they see the play again, they will never see anything quite like what was presented in this arena.

It has all been like a show. Yet, the impeachment inquiry and trial have been an education like I would never have imagined. It will take a while for me to fully digest what I have witnessed. But this is my first take . . .

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Hoyacon
Hoyacon
108
 

I consider that a man’s brain, originally, is like a little empty attic. And you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out or, at best, […]
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JennaStocker
JennaStocker
23
 

Minnesota winters can be long, cold, and dark. After the decorations and lights are put away, time slows down and the reality that spring is still a solid 4 months away sets in. Groundhog Day is a footnote on the calendar. Six weeks of winter is a guarantee, the question is how many of those […]
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America’s Gerontocracy Poses Great Risks

Tom Patterson
Tom Patterson
158
 

Americans seem oblivious to the implications of our government becoming a gerontocracy, governance by the elderly. All three branches of the federal government have key leaders who would be deemed long past retirement age in the private sector.

Ronald Reagan was so far our oldest president. Opponents derided his age and purported lack of attention to governing. Yet President Trump will be 74 in June, a year older than Reagan when he sought reelection in 1984.

Trump’s leading challenger, Joe Biden, is 77. Bernie Sanders is 78, Michael Bloomberg is 77, and Elizabeth Warren is “only” 70, older than Reagan when he was first elected.

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She
She
87
 

Yes, I’m well aware that even the title of this post may be a Code of Conduct violation, not to mention a grammatical faux-pas of the first order (pace Winston Churchill.)  Have at it, Ricochet Editors.  But.  “Lady in a Fur Coat,” a stray cat, was taken to an animal shelter with such acute and […]
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Gary Robbins
Gary Robbins
13123
 

Lamar Alexander concluded that there was no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part to investigate the Bidens, noting that the House Managers have proven this with what they call “a mountain of overwhelming evidence.” This is a rare rebuke by a Republican Senator for […]
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GrannyDude
GrannyDude
8215
 

I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Rising  Star: The Making of Barack Obama by David Garrow.  If you are interested—very, very interested—in the granular details of Chicago politics in the 1980s, this  is the  book for you.  The travails of this  labor boss and that alderman and this activist priest and that graft-prone pol…. […]
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OmegaPaladin
OmegaPaladin
2615
 

“Are you aware that House intelligence committee staffer Shawn Misko had a close relationship with Eric Ciaramella while at the National Security Council together? “ This was the question that Sen. Rand Paul attempted to ask during the impeachment hearings.  Chief Justice Roberts refused to read the question.  There is no requirement under the law […]
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In the Impeachment, It’s Joe Manchin’s Time

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown
558
 

It is Senator Joe Manchin’s time to shine. It is time for him to stand up for party and for country. He has a chance to plant his standard in the ground and start rallying the Democratic Party back to responsible, American governance. Imagine this scene Friday, as the proceedings resume:

Senate Majority Leader rises: “I yield two minutes to the senior Senator from West Virginia.” A gasp and stir goes through the chamber, Chief Justice Roberts is gobsmacked. Sen. Manchin strikes forward and proclaims:

I am a Democrat.

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Henry Castaigne
Henry Castaigne
43
 

For the first time in four years, life expectancy in the U.S. is going up. Deaths from drug overdoses are going down and the survival rates of cancer are continuing to go up. Suicide is recorded still going up as but I think that statistic is deceptive. I think that much of the reduction in […]
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Judas Iscariot, Whistleblower

Old Bathos
Old Bathos
147
 

The crisis in government is not the ongoing impeachment farce. The crisis is that the very concept of a higher moral principle has been replaced by a sensibility in which the choice of policies, politics, and actions are governed by a perception about which will make one appear enlightened and clever rather than moral. It is not as if there is a coherent policy structure behind the ferocity of the hatred of Trump. It is about that sensibility.

I would argue that the famous British traitors Philby, McClean, Burgess, et al., were less enthralled by Marxist dogma than by the idea of the destruction of a political order they were ‘enlightened’ enough to despise. The exhilaration of their own cleverness was reward enough. Narcissists make for the best traitors. Just ask Benedict Arnold. Or Judas Iscariot who apparently realized rather late in the game that the project Jesus had in mind was not going to be a big résumé boost for someone who expected a lucrative policy role in a new regime.

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Ole Summers
Ole Summers
56
 

I know the national media attention has been firmly fixed on the impeachment trial in the Senate. As the members of this body created to weight the heaviest of national matters are sentenced to their chairs to wade through a fraud case with no real charges and no evidence, I was struck by the contrast […]
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