Tag archive: Damocles

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All the President’s Witches

With Nicnevin’s Night on the horizon, November 10th, named for an ancient Scottish goddess of witches, I thought now might be a good time to take an in-depth look at the leading players in the latest version of what Donald Trump terms the “Witch Hunt” against him. Three of these “witches”, like Macbeth’s cauldron-stirring trio, will be giving the first public testimony in the “blasted heath” of the House Impeachment Investigation next week, starting Wednesday, November 13th. These are acting US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, State Department deputy assistant secretary and Ukraine expert George Kent, and ousted US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

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The Halloween Impeachment: Trick or Treat?

On Thursday, October 31st 2019, the US House of Representatives voted to advance with a formal impeachment proceeding, after a month of closed-door sessions garnered “flawed process” arguments from congressional Trump supporters. Halloween was perhaps the perfect date for an escalation of what Trump terms the “Witch Hunt” against him.

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Of Baseball and Hardball

Two competitions of gargantuan proportions reached simultaneous apogees on October 22, 2019, as the World Series of Baseball kicked off in Houston, while in the nation’s capital the House Impeachment inquiry garnered the testimony of a key diplomat involved in the Ukraine “arms for dirt” scandal. While the outcome of both contests is still in doubt as of this writing, it’s beginning to look more and more like the underdogs may emerge the winners.

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Trump at 1000: The “Very Stable Genius” Displays His “Great and Unmatched Wisdom”

On October 16, 2019, Donald Trump “celebrated” a millennium of days in the Oval Office, which means the rest of us have suffered with this administration for a thousand earthly rotations. The miracle is that we’re still standing, if barely.

 

Trump commemorated the day with a meltdown in front of Congressional leaders, including the self-release of a photo showing him being chastised by Nancy Pelosi; the leaked release of an admonitory letter to Turkish President Erdogan that reads like a Third Grade composition; the self-bombing of hastily abandoned US bases in northern Syria to prevent their use by enemy forces; the House Impeachment Hearings testimony of a chief State Department adviser who had resigned the week before in protest over Trump’s Ukraine shenanigans; and a Jerry-Springer-style meeting at the White House between the bereaved parents of a British citizen killed in a driving accident and the US diplomat’s wife who killed him.

 

Is Donald Trump nuts? Or a genius? Or crazy like a fox? Or cracking under the pressures of the Oval Office?

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Pelosi Pulls the Trigger

At 5:04 PM EDT on Tuesday, 24 September 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fresh from a Democratic Caucus meeting, stood before the nation and announced that the US Congress was beginning formal impeachment investigations against Donald J. Trump. Critical mass had been building for this step in the caucus for a week, since the revelations of Trump’s outrageous breech of ethics, convention and quite possibly laws, in requesting aid from a foreign government in his 2020 US presidential reelection.

 

Perhaps more surprising, Mitch McConnell supported a unanimous nonbinding resolution in the Senate requiring the White House to release the full report logged by a national security whistleblower concerning Trump’s interactions with the Ukrainian president. Has the worm truly turned?

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Joe Biden’s Family Tragedy

Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential nominee frontrunner Joe Biden is often credited with having an authentic, “folksy” style, especially when interacting with individuals who have suffered great personal tragedy or loss. There’s a reason for this: when it comes to suffering and loss, Biden has a lifetime of experience.

 

Just after winning his first Senate race in 1972, Biden lost his first wife and their infant daughter in a devastating car crash, which also severely injured their two sons. Biden was in fact sworn in for his Senate seat at his sons’ bedside in the hospital. Forty-three years later, the Grim Reaper picked up where he left off, and claimed one of those boys, Biden’s eldest son Beau, who lost a two-year battle with brain cancer.

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