Thursday, October 31, 2019

 Well, well. Well, well, well. It is on, as they say, like a neckbone.



 The House of Representatives voted to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump today. Speaker of the House, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi said they have enough on Trump to make a "solid case". Apart from two Democrats - Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota - who chickenshitted out, the vote fell entirely along party lines at 232-196, surprising absolutely no one.

 I say "surprising no one" because if anyone thinks Congressional Republicans are anything but party toadies and complete boot-lickers for the Trump Administration, I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona for you. Just as something to consider, when Bill Clinton was drawn up on impeachment proceedings back in 1998, five Democrats crossed the aisle to go against him.

 And I'm no fan of Clinton, but if you're really of the mind that Clinton lying about getting a beejay - when it was no one's business to ask - is worse than the shit Trump's pulling, well, you probably think "fake news" is an actual thing and that Trump is divinely placed. Now, I know there's a lot of you out there, but you're going to have to deal with the fact that the next couple of months is going to be rough on the Blind Idiot God. All sorts of early morning, barely coherent toilet Tweet storms are on the way, kids.

 So, there are a couple of questions here. One, will Trump get impeached. That's a pretty good question. If what Pelosi says is true - and we have absolutely no reason to doubt her - the odds are pretty good this will end in impeachment, making him the third president to be impeached after Clinton and Andrew Johnson. As of right now, there are 234 Democrats in the House, a fairly commanding lead over the 199 Republicans. The late Elijah Cummings' seat will need to be filed, but I don't doubt that'll turn Republican. The questionable one is Katie Hill's seat, but we'll get to her in a minute.

 The second question in front of us is, if the goofy bastard is impeached, will the Senate convict him and, thus, kick him out of office. That's a little more of a puzzler. Right now, there are 53 Republicans in the Senate and 45 Democrats. Now, despite some shifting attitudes among the GOP and Trump's attempts to bribe wavering Republicans, they are loyal little bastards. But they're not stupid, and despite relatively little change in Trump's overall popularity one way or another, don't think for a moment Mitch McConnell won't cut him loose to save his own skin.

 And the third and final question, if he's impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, will Trump actually leave the White House? Now, that's the stickiest wicket of them all. I'm pretty sure that along with everyone else, Trump was sort of surprised he won in 2016. I've heard enough to convince me he was running just to get some "I was cheated by Crooked Hillary" clout so he can start up his own FOX-like news service. One of his daughters-in-law said as much just before the election.

 But goofy shit happens when people are screwing around, and Donald Trump actually became the President of the United States. Sometimes it seems like he relishes the power and adulation, and sometimes it seems like he resents the actual work and any sort of criticism he gets for anything, especially since he'd never had to deal with actual work or criticism. He's "joked" about staying in office for 16 years at his rallies, and if he could get away with sitting on his ass and Tweeting how mean every was toward him, I think he might.

 Which means the answer to that final question is "who knows, depends on what the dumb shit feels like on that particular day". His supporters are darkly hinting at a mass uprising and "second Civil War" if their Blind Idiot God is dethroned. They are ride or die for him and refuse to shake loose their support. They're convinced God Himself put Trump in that seat and, anyway, what does it matter if some liberals and minorities and LGBT folk are massacred by gun fetishists, they're not human anyway.

 Of course, it is way, way too early to make any predictions how any of this will wash out. Though his maladies are much more serious, obviously Trump will get an easier go from the media than Clinton got. He's box office, baby, and the press doesn't give a shit about us anymore. And we cannot discount the gormless nature of the Democratic Party and its willingness to shoot off its metaphorical big toe just for what seems like the hell of it. It'll be an interesting ride.

 Okay, so let's talk about Katie Hill. Y'all, Katie Hill got the shaft and, in doing so, exposed the incredible double standard this hypocritical culture operates under. A freshman Representative, Hill won election in 2018, beating the lizard-like Steve Knight, for California's 25 District as a part of that year's "Blue Wave". She'd gotten a pretty good start on things, working for LGBT rights and serving on, among other things, the Committee on Oversight and Reform as the Vice Chair. She was considered a solid up-and-commer, able to connect with the center as well as younger, more progressive voters. Bright future, all thought.

 Until earlier this month, that is, when right-wing cesspool RedState published allegations that she had improper sexual relations with her campaign manager. Initially backed by Pelosi and the rest of the D's, the House Ethics Committee announced last week they were investigating allegations she'd fooled around with a male staffer as Representative, which if true, would've been an ethical violation. Hill denied that allegation but admitted she'd had a past relationship with a female staffer when both we out of college a decade ago, which was outside the scope of the committee's investigations.

 The spin on this, however, is through her abusive shitbag of an ex-husband (divorced in September) Kenny Heslep and wingnut radio rat bastard Jim Messina, several nude photos of Hill had been leaked and "thousands more" were floating around out there. This has ties to the actual GOP operatives as Heslep and Messina were said to have been "shopping around" the photos to Republican hitmen, particularly possible opponent for next year's race Mike Garcia. By the by, Heslep told his folks that his phone had been "hacked", but fuck that guy.

 What makes all this really disgusting is the RedState "reporter" Jennifer Van Laar, who also works for the gutter trash Daily Mail, who "broke" this story has also referred to herself former 2020 challenger Suzette Valladares' campaign manager. Valladares has since dropped out and claims Van Laar had nothing to do with her campaign, but the benefit of the doubt there has been flat obliterated. She did work for Steve Knight before he lost his seat and runs a Republican consulting and opposition research firm in California.

 So, yeah, this is all hinky as hell. Hill most likely did nothing wrong but offend the bluenose sensibilities of incredible hypocrites, something she pointed out in her resignation speech. She went down swinging, voting for Trump's impeachment proceedings, and says she plans to work to fight against "revenge porn", and I think we can all agree that purveyors of such deserve nothing but kicks to the crotch and tobacco spit on their white shirts.

 Screaming hypocrite Duncan Hunter (R-Shitass) had five actual affairs while actually still a working Representative and used taxpayer money in the support thereof. He's still in the House. Brett Kavanaugh have been credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women, and we're supposed to feel bad about how the latter was treated by Democrats during his conformation hearing. Forty-three women have accused Trump of rape, sexual assault, and general skeeviness, even caught bragging about it on tape. Plus he's been tied to pedophile peddler Jeffery Epstein, but we're not supposed to talk about that.

 Look, y'all. She's 32, a Millennial, and that's a group that's had high-quality digital cameras for most of their lives. For whatever reason, people like to take dirty pictures of themselves in flagrante nekkid and share them with their beloveds. We need to get used to it. They've been doing it since before smartphones became ubiquitous and will do it when whatever technology replaces it. Holograms or something, I don't know.

 Point is Katie Hill did, and I cannot emphasize this enough, absolutely nothing wrong and if we let Van Laar, Heslep, Messina and the GOP in general get away with this, we're much poorer as a society. Hill made her choice, and since she knew the Republicans had more pictures of her and she also knew they'd spread 'em all over FOX given half a chance, it was probably the right one for her. I wish her luck.

 The question has floated around: do we have a double standard when it comes to female sexuality. And the answer is, of course we do, don't ask such asinine questions. On top of all else a woman has to do to make it in this world, she has to appear sexually pure while also being sexually available to the "right sort of men". And for the most part, men get away with being complete bastards, though it is getting better thanks to #MeToo. It's still lopsided as hell and those that disagree hope to benefit from it somehow or another, convince me otherwise.

 All right then. There's today. I'm sort of looking forward to taking it easy this weekend, because this week has been a booger. Congrats to local boy Brian Dozier and his Nationals teammates, and y'all stay warm.