Impeach him (again) already

I'm still climbing out of my latest black hole episode, but I have managed to catch up a bit on the news of the last week-plus. I presume most if not all of you reading this are aware of most things, no need to rehash the big stories, but I have some observations on what Felon47 has had to say about a few things.

Tomorrow night the fascist wannabe dictator will give the State of the Union address, which will be chock full of lies and outrage. I'm not interested in the generalities of his whiny grievance fantasies or his fictitious claims of great successes in ... well, anything, really, as his only real successes have been as a con man, fraudster, rapist, and in assorted financial crimes. But sometimes he reveals things in his rantings that are worth noting.

For instance, when asked about his reaction to the arrest of the rapist formerly known as Prince Andrew, Felon47 said it was "sad." It's telling that he finds it sad when a fellow member of his ultra-privileged class is held to account for criminal behavior, but the whole exchange is worth parsing:

FOX REPORTER: On Prince Andrew, do you think American associates of Jeffrey Epstein will wind up in handcuffs too?

FELON47: I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. That's very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it's a shame. I did nothing. I think it's so bad for the royal family. It's very sad. It's a very sad thing. To me, it's a very sad thing.

Firstly, the question was about "American associates of Jeffrey Epstein," and Felon47 goes immediately to himself. "I've been totally exonerated." Of course, he hasn't been exonerated, totally or otherwise. He just hasn't been charged. Yet. Then he starts to pivot to the Andrew arrest, but can't help but interject "I did nothing," which is one of his tells. Also, he does not ever actually answer the question, he answers a different question that wasn't asked. He wasn't asked what he thought of the Andrew arrest specifically, he was asked whether he thought Americans in similar positions to Andrew would now face arrest and the only American he mentioned was himself, in a lie.

As if we needed more evidence this guy is up to his armpits in Epstein-related crimes, this exchange makes me even more certain that he's guilty of everything that's been alleged regarding his association with Epstein and then some. There's more that  hasn't yet been publicly alleged and he's scared shitless that it's going to come out.

Then there's Felon47’s tantrum following the Supreme Court ruling that his tariffs are illegal. As if he didn't know that ruling was coming. As if several people hadn't told him repeatedly that the president cannot unilaterally levy duties and taxes. No, even in his addled mushbrained idiocy he knew his tariffs were illegal, but: He genuinely does not know what a tariff is—he really does think it's a fee paid by exporter nations—and more to the point, he also genuinely expects the Justices he appointed to SCOTUS to rule in his favor no matter what. They are supposed to be his operatives, just like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and Kristi Noem are his operatives rather than actual responsible officials that take their jobs and their oaths seriously.

Sometimes they have been his operatives. Those Justices decreed the president is immune from prosecution no matter what crimes he commits so long as there's a patina of "official" surrounding it. That was a blatantly unconstitutional decision, so why not do it again here? That's a good question for another time.

But it's the comments Felon47 made I want to delve into.

In his press conference after the ruling, he said, "I'm ashamed of certain members of the court. Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country." First off, he's incapable of shame. He's wounded by the decision, he's enraged about it, and he's vindictive as fuck, but he's not ashamed. He's pissed at two of the three Justices that he appointed and he's pissed at George W. Bush's Chief Justice Roberts for adhering to the clear language of the Constitution and the law. But he can't admit that, so he lies and says he's "ashamed" of them. Then there's the echo of what he said about former Vice President Mike Pence after the January 6 insurrection—the very same wording, "not having the courage to do what's right or our country." He's pissed off that his assumed toadies were, in his judgment, too cowardly to commit crime with him, too chicken to declare the Constitution a dead letter and appoint him king. After all, that's what he appointed Gorsuch and Barrett (and Kavanaugh) to do.

Not comprehending other possible motives, Felon47 then came close to accusing the Justices of treason. "It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests," he said, not bothering to elaborate. I can imagine a couple of possibilities here: he thinks foreign business interests or heads of state resent paying his tariffs—which they do not pay—and are paying off Supreme Court Justices to remove them; or, since he himself is in the thrall of foreign interests as a longtime "useful idiot"-style Russian operative, he assumes rival global factions like Europeans are conducting their own sabotage campaigns and have compromised "his" Justices.

Either way, the idea that Justices of the Supreme Court would respect the Constitution of the United States doesn't enter his thinking. He doesn't know what the Constitution says, for one thing, but regardless, laws are for people with no power, so that cannot be a motive. Has to be something else, something selfish, something he can claim grievance about.

He wasn't done, though, he also said the 6-3 ruling was "an embarrassment to [the Justices'] families, to one another." You have to wonder about that being a threat. An instruction to his shadow militia of pardoned Jan. 6 criminals and "Proud Boys" and other thugs to make those Justices' relations targets for terrorism. He has a history of doing just that kind of thing, using such phrases to incite others to carry out violence against his opposition. It's one of the few things he actually calculates and effectively communicates because it's mob-style. And mob tactics are what he knows better than anything.

Continuing to rant, Felon47 also likened tariffs to "license fees," which makes no sense to anyone, and complained that the ruling means he's not allowed to charge "one dollar" to a foreign nation. Well, it's true that he can't charge other countries for ... nothing? ... but that isn't what the ruling said. Because the ruling was about tariffs. Which are paid by Americans. Yet, he went on to threaten that he can and will use tariffs "in a much more powerful and obnoxious way" going forward, which, yay, can't wait to see that.

I look at all this and, once again, for the millionth time, marvel at the fact that the Republican Party is so utterly corrupt that they keep this moronic tyrant in power. If just a relative few of them respected their oaths of office, they would join the Democrats in impeaching and convicting this embarrassing pustule of a spoiled brat and facilitate bringing him and his entire administration of criminals up on charges immediately.