Impeach Him, Tonight

Vikram Bath

Vikram Bath is the pseudonym of a former business school professor living in the United States with his wife, daughter, and dog. (Dog pictured.) His current interests include amateur philosophy of science, business, and economics. Tweet at him at @vikrambath1.

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63 Responses

  1. veronica d says:

    Yes please.Report

  2. Pinky says:

    You’re massively distorting both the Proud Boys denunciation and the Twitter video. I hate that. This is a serious moment, and we should be calling balls and strikes.Report

    • Pinky in reply to Pinky says:

      Just in case the OT doesn’t delete your comment: grow up. I’ve been here the whole time, calling balls and strikes, not doing pathetic stunts like your little name-calling. The world needs adults right now. Today, you only get a silver medal for contamination of our democracy.Report

      • CJColucci in reply to Pinky says:

        Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem was out drinking with his crew after a game. After they had all imbibed several adult beverages, one umpire boasted: “I call ’em as I see ’em.” The second replied: “I calls ’em like they are.” Klem sat quietly for a bit and finally said: “They ain’t nothing ’til I call ’em.”Report

      • Mike Schilling in reply to Pinky says:

        There’s a joke that a Vegas comedian used to tell that goes like this:

        Frank Sinatra saved my life. These five guys were bearing the crap out of me and then Sinatra told them “OK, guys, that’s enough.”

        That’s exactly what the video was. You, the rioters, are special people, you’re standing up for what’s right, everyone who’s not with us is evil, but you’re done enough for now.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to Pinky says:

      You really are struggling to ignore everything that Trump really said, aren’t you? Trump literally tweeted that he loves them and that this is only happening because his “sacred landslide” has been stolen from him. He also called Biden “so evil.” He whispers stop while screaming give me more to the. erotic delight of the Magats.Report

      • Pinky in reply to LeeEsq says:

        I’m not trying to ignore Trump’s role in all this. He has been behaving indefensibly for the past two months. While the behaviour itself is indefensible, the man should be defended against false claims, though. When Vikram makes half a dozen points and I know off the top of my head that two of them are wrong, I’m not going to take the rest of his points seriously. You know when it’s easiest to spot a person in the wrong? When only one person is in the wrong.Report

        • RMike in reply to Pinky says:

          Why not name the two false points? You took the trouble to comment twice. It’s hard to take your comments seriously when you dismiss the entirety of a post with vague accusations supported by literally nothing. Give the poster a meaningful opportunity to respond.Report

          • Pinky in reply to RMike says:

            Trump has repeatedly denounced white supremacists, including to Chris Wallace who asked the same question in a debate four years prior. Trump said he has denounced them repeatedly, and asked for specific people to denounce. Biden said, “Proud Boys”, who Trump didn’t appear to have heard of, but in the overtalk of being told to tell them to “stand down”, he said “stand back and stand by”. A reasonable person can’t watch the footage and come away with the idea that Trump failed to denounce white supremacy or indicated any kind of support for the Proud Boys.

            Likewise, the tweeted video was clearly an attempt to defuse the situation, not an endorsement or call to arms. You can say he was too sympathetic to them in his statement, although I think it was necessary to talk them down to make them feel like they were being heard. And you can fault him for not changing his position on the legitimacy of the election if you want. But that statement of his was presidential. I can only assume that Twitter pulled it because it contained unverified statements about election fraud, but you should be able to find it.Report

    • Philip H in reply to Pinky says:

      Ok – armed people waving Trump flags stormed the capitol today after he said at a rally they should go up to the capitol.

      What exactly would you call that? Because from the cheap seats it looks like a coup.Report

    • Slade the Leveller in reply to Pinky says:

      The Republican Party should be known as the party of insurrection from now until the last day of the Republic. Damn right this is a serious moment, and trying to parse the Proud Boy tweet is a not very serious effort to minimize Trump’s call to action.Report

      • Brandon Berg in reply to Slade the Leveller says:

        You want to name one party the party of insurrection in perpetuity, and you decided that this trumps the Civil War?Report

        • Philip H in reply to Brandon Berg says:

          Yes it does. The civil war was started by certain states who wanted to keep buying and selling people as chattle slaves to prop up their economic system. They lost.

          These domestic terrorists have allegiance to a President of a particular party, a party which until yesterday had done nothing (and is still doing very little) to reign in either his followers or their own colleagues because trying to ride the wave kept them in power. They have now discovered they can’t ride the wave, much less direct it.Report

          • Brandon Berg in reply to Philip H says:

            This isn’t a “good” comment, or an “intelligent” comment, or even a “more-or-less coherent” comment, but kudos on typing it all with your nondominant hand.Report

          • Oscar Gordon in reply to Philip H says:

            Ummm, the party of slavery was the Democrats. By your logic, we get to keep reminding them of that even though all of those Democrats are pretty much dead by this point.

            No, parties get to redeem themselves. We’ll see if the GOP finds it’s way out of the wilderness.Report

            • Philip H in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

              Sure they get to redeem themselves. Maybe they will. But so far they haven’t and they have indeed earned the label Party of Insurrection.

              And I am well aware of the fact that Democrats were the party of slavery. Brandon seems to think that means they are tarred for eternity for that. And he also seems to think there was some sort of push from Party leadership to perpetuate slavery. There wasn’t. The states made that push. The states’ leaders committed treason. And then lost the war.Report

          • Pinky in reply to Philip H says:

            I love that you spelled chattel “chattle”. I’ve noticed that some people think the word means cattle-like.Report

        • Slade the Leveller in reply to Brandon Berg says:

          The party whose adherents carried the flag of insurrection into our nation’s Capitol? Seems fitting.Report

      • Pinky in reply to Slade the Leveller says:

        The “party of insurrection”? The Republicans aren’t even the party of the most attacks on federal facilities in 2021, and we’re only a week in.Report

        • Philip H in reply to Pinky says:

          I wasn’t aware there was a volume threshold that had to be passed before we could condemn a party for inciting its followers to sedition and treason.Report

    • Mike Schilling in reply to Pinky says:

      There’s a joke that a Vegas comedian used to tell that goes like this:

      Frank Sinatra saved my life. These five guys were bearing the crap out of me and then Sinatra told them “OK, guys, that’s enough.”

      That’s exactly what the video was. You, the rioters, are special people, you’re standing up for what’s right, everyone who’s not with us is evil, but you’re done enough for now.Report

  3. Kazzy says:

    “ They think they are staring at the end of American democracy. Faced with such a threat.”

    I disagree. These assclowns have no such fear. If they did, they wouldn’t have treated the whole thing like a damn tailgate party. If you have an existential fear that you’re way of life is about to end, you don’t pose for selfies. These violent, anti-American criminals fear little more than losing their privilege.Report

  4. Saul Degraw says:

    This would be nice. I doubt it will happen but it is deserved. There are some reporters tweeting that they spoke to Cabinet members who are considering invoking the 25th Amendment. This seems more plausible but I doubt it will happen.Report

  5. Jaybird says:

    Waiting two weeks to find out whether today was a super-spreader event.Report

  6. Saul Degraw says:

    Report

    • DavidTC in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      We _really_ need to do what the 25th allows and set up an independent commission to do the duties of the 25th instead of the Cabinet.

      We _also_ need to change the rules so Presidents cannot operate as Trump has, with so much unconfirmed Cabinet.

      In fact, I’d like to forbid _any_ unconfirmed Cabinet. Like, literally everyone in charge of the Executive departments should be confirmed. We should have like two of them in each department to take over, and if something particularly bad happens, we can swap a confirmed person in from another department.

      We should literally not be able to have people with cabinet authority who have not been confirmed by Congress, because, and this is something we all forget, _they are in change of removing the President_ under the 25th.

      At least, if we don’t fix that.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      What advantage does this have over impeachment and removal? It still requires a 2/3 majority to be done over the objections of the President.Report

      • Brandon Berg in reply to Brandon Berg says:

        Oh, I see. If I’m reading out right, the Cabinet and VP can temporarily remove the President for up to three weeks while Congress deliberates, at which point Biden will be in office.Report

  7. Chip Daniels says:

    Revolutionaries have no other means to their end, but violence.

    All this talk that we’ve been hearing nonstop about 2nd Amendment solutions, watering the tree of liberty, of Patriots and 1776…It had no other possible end than this.

    The media and punditry largely laughed it all off as cosplay and metaphor and hyperbole. But it wasn’t. They were, and are, deadly serious about not having faith in the democratic process and not accepting the legitimacy of any other political group than themselves.Report

  8. Jaybird says:

    Chevron’s on board:

    Report

  9. North says:

    I agree. Pelosi should have articles drawn up and submitted immediately. Whether it ends in his impeachment or the clock runs out the important things is that that congress defends itself. Also it’d force the GOP to decide where they stand on this matter.Report

  10. InMD says:

    If they can get it done they should.Report

  11. Saul Degraw says:

    As my brother says, Mitt Romney, not an arsonist: https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1347010009150988297?s=20Report

  12. greginak says:

    Yup impeach again. Impeach two more times if they can fit it in. Impeach him from ” can’t you just find some votes” and for instigating this riot to stop the counting of votes.Report

  13. Mark from NJ says:

    Amen.Report

  14. Yes, impeachment or 25th amendment. Or some other legal means.Report

  15. Slade the Leveller says:

    And now the House has gone into recess. So, we’re left with the choice of the party of insurrection or the party of incompetence.Report

  16. Marchmaine says:

    As I mentioned in the other thread, I think the 25th is the most expeditious route. Since then, It seems POTUS has ‘pledged’ that there will be a peaceful transition. Obviously I have no insider info, but this strikes me as a concession granted to Pence. If true (and that’s a big if)… I’m profoundly disappointed in Pence; a cowardly dereliction.Report

    • Stillwater in reply to Marchmaine says:

      Well, Pence was picked for a reason. Did anyone (seriously, *anyone*) think he was a man of high or any ideals? I can’t think of a more oozy, gelatinous, unprincipled politician in action right now.

      OK. Ted Cruz. But Pence is solidly in the second tier.Report

  17. philip H says:

    Articles of Impeachment for introduction, so proud of everyone co-leading this effort with us. We need to move quickly to remove this President from office. pic.twitter.com/vbZtA7g6fc— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 7, 2021

    Report