Sometimes you reflect on the utter embarrassment that is the warring Westminster government, and the opposition that, well, I dunno about you, but does anyone, much less them, have an idea what their Brexit policy is?
You know perfectly well that people all over Europe and the rest of the world (in as much as they give a stuff about what’s happening here), are choking themselves laughing at the mess that mighty Britannia has got itself in.
But, there’s always the comfort that the insignificant May and her hapless squabbling friends… well, no, not friends… more, well, enemies, are no marks on the international ridicule scale, compared with the orange-faced muppet in the Gold House.
He is, quite simply, incomparable.
Enjoy, as Seth and his team takes a “Closer Look” some of the more ridiculous moments in the last few days…
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
I wonder, can the most ridiculous President of the United States ever, be beyond recall?
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I bet Munguin’s fortune that some very clever people are working very hard to get rid of him right now, Douglas.
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dc…….Beyond recall? Yes…..pretty much.
From Article II, Section 4: “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5: “The House of Representatives shall……..shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6: “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.”
So, absent “Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” we don’t get a do-over when the constitutional democratic process gives us a narcissistic, incompetent, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic demagogue and self-confessed sexual predator as President of the United States. We don’t get to simply declare “no confidence” and pick a new one.
It does indeed properly require treason, perjury, or other HIGH Crime. Such a crime might come out of the Trump investigations that are underway, at which time the orange faced moron might be impeached and convicted. Richard Nixon was, on the face of the evidence, guilty of a high crime, but he resigned rather than face the process.
The hard cold fact is that no president has ever been removed from office by the impeachment process over the span of 228 years that the federal constitution has been in effect.
Two presidents have been impeached. Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998-1999. Both were Democrats who were impeached by Republican majorities in the House of Representatives. (Which requires only a simple majority vote.) But while the Senate was under Republican control in both impeachment trials, the required 2/3 majority for conviction was not achieved by the Republicans, and Johnson and Clinton remained President.
So no president in American history has ever been involuntarily removed, and absent criminality, it surely won’t happen to Trump, who has a Republican majority in both houses of Congress.
In fact, the Bill Clinton impeachment so poisoned the well, that impeachment (or the threat thereof) has effectively become a political tactic. There were Republicans vowing that they would would file impeachment charges in the House on the very day that Hillary Clinton would be sworn into office.
So as much as I despise Donald Trump, I’m against his removal from the presidency. It could be a disaster for the constitution in a way that a Trump presidency would not be…..IMHO. The constitution is what matters, in a way that the transient will of the people as expressed in Congress does not.
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Danny,
Thanks for clearing that up.
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Thanks dc. I suspect that the near constitutional impossibility of removing an elected president (absent serious criminality,) must seem unusual for countries with a parliamentary system where the head of government can be removed by a vote of no confidence (as I understand it.)
In Trump’s case, he has a further political safeguard in the form of a Congress in which both Houses are controlled by his own party. A situation which did exist in either of the two cases in history where a president has been impeached, or in the case of Richard Nixon who WOULD have been impeached. In all of those three cases in 228 years, the opposite political party controlled the Presidency and the Congress. (Another thing which does not happen in parliamentary systems where the executive function of the government and the legislative function reside in the same elected body.)
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PS to England. This is the way to treat a constitution!
In a big white building at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, between Capitol Hill and the White House. In a great marble columned hall called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. The four pages of the Constitution on a pedestal under glass in the center, under big gold letters inscribed in marble proclaiming “Constitution of the United States of America.” Hushed voices and a respectful attitude are de rigueur, with the Declaration of Independence on the left, and the Bill of Rights on the right. Also among the other documents enshrined in the rotunda is one of four surviving copies of a 1297 reissue of Magna Carta by Edward I….the version still in the official statue rolls of England (the Archives people say.) All very cool!
And Trumpy is (or pretends to be) more interested in a song and a flag at a football stadium. The big gold letters would probably impress him though. 😉
An eagle shows up from time to time and hangs around the documents. He has been spotted at the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution. Hushed voices and a respectful attitude have their limits in Washington.
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Thanks for the photos Danny
I seem to recall an encounter between Trump and an Eagle…
But you’re right… the Big GOLD Letters would be of endless fascination to him.
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LOL……yes Tris, the symbol of America obviously did not like Trumpy one bit. That certainly tells us something.
Even while being threatened by an Eagle, Trump says “how does my hair look.”
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H ah ha.. His hair looked ridiculous, as always.
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Tris……off topic……But perhaps useful to any and all who are having trouble dealing with WordPress in login or whatever.
WordPress is HIGHLY browser dependent. It does different things with different browsers. So if it isn’t working right on one browser, try another. Here is my current status among four browsers I use….Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera……..with Windows 7 Operating System:
In all cases, I access WordPress with…….munguin dot wordpress dot com:
Firefox: WordPress opens with me already logged in with my “Danny” account. (It doesn’t show me any pictures on any threads except the current one.)
Chrome: Essentially same as Firefox. WordPress opens with me already logged in with my Danny account. (It doesn’t show me any pictures on any threads except the current one.)
Internet Explorer: Worpress opens and doesn’t recognize me at all. If I click on “Leave A Reply”, it gives me all posting options……..including the Email Address/Name option which I used before I established a WordPress account. (It shows me ALL pictures on all previous threads.)
Opera: Just like Internet Explorer. Doesn’t recognize me. All posting options open. Shows all pictures.
Other people may have different results than mine on their own computers. But if you’re having trouble with WordPress, try another browser. WordPress’s behavior seems highly browser dependent.
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Oh heavens…
Thanks for the information. It says something for you that you bother to comment here at all mate.
And Munguin and I thank you for your perseverance!
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The Trump circus – it does strain credulity. But then, so does the man himself. “Believe me!” Aye, right.
My choice of US news source is MSNBC, particularly Rachel Maddow: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show. Also on Youtube, though I’m never sure what I’m doing on Youtube, so I don’t use it very much at all.
One recent piece of information that is of definite interest to us here is that the Russians – this, as part of the ongoing investigations into Russia’s meddling in the US presidential election last year – have been fingered as fomenting “independence” movements in other countries in order to weaken them. Craig Murray is, I think, wrong in pooh-poohing the very idea of Russian involvement in that; my judgement says that yes, it was happening, and is still happening, but no, it was not the kind of operation that the Russians / Soviets used to do, and with which former Ambassador Murray is certainly familiar with. It’s a new, social media phenomenon.
Of course, the US itself would never do such a nefarious thing, because they usually preferred to prop up disgusting, right-wing, serial human-rights-abusing tinpot dictators and military regimes against threats of insurrection…
The US foreign policy position was against the recent Kurdish referendum, which came out 80% in favour of independence, at least according to the figures I have seen. We (that’s the royal we) note too Obama’s opposition back in 2014 (lukewarm, I thought) to our Scottish independence referendum. Taking all that into account, I do remember being surprised at the number of posts on facebook back then mentioning RT, Russian Television, as a reliable source of information compared to the BBC. I also saw some attempts to portray the annexation of the Crimea as normal and justified.
My takeaway from it is that we have to be on the lookout for propaganda no just from our Usual Suspects, but also from external sources. We do not want it. We do not want anyone to be able to say that we only regained our independence because of some Russian propaganda effort (with the collusion of the Usual Britnat Suspects in Scotland? In British intelligence circles?). It would take the shine of the whole thing, and sow doubt and distrust, and furious cries of “We was robbed!” We can do without that. We need to do with propagandists and propaganda trolls – “ours”, as well as everyone else’s – exactly what we should be doing with your ordinary basic troll with the personality disorder or three, which is to shut them up and shut them down, and allow them to shout and scream and do all they like, but not within our earshot. We need to do this after we have thought about whether to make some kind of complaint about them, whether to the medium carrying their message, or the polis, or someone else.
Of course, we vile Cybernats are probably less likely to be taken in, because our defences have been honed by our own meeja environment. We have, rightly, become extremely sceptical of our State broadcaster’s output, but perhaps our defences are not so alert to RT and other Russki propaganda (should be “Russkaya propaganda, but hey, who’s counting). I can’t think of any non-UK sources who’re propagandizing against the UK / Scotland at this time, but if any of you has, I would most certainly like to know.
Oh lord, I’ve been going on and on and on again, haven’t I?
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Agreed. We want to win but we want to really win.
Not thanks to Russia, or anyone else.
It has to be our decision. Other people interfering isn’t on.
I laughed, though, at the No 1 country in the world (that escaped the clutches of the British Empire by warlike means) and a very rich Australia which managed to get away by peaceful means, lecturing Scotland that they were better off remaining under the Brits.
Irony or what.
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Tris……I was appalled at the time of the referendum at Obama and the Washington powers that be seeming to entirely forget America’s revolutionary history.
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Well, we laughed a bit, becasue I don’t seriously think that Obama or the PM of Australia changed many votes.
It’s probably inappropriate for other countries to try to influence the outcome of an internal referendum, but both of these countrie having escaped British rule.. and profited therefrom, having the cheeks to suggest that we would be better with England…
That was insulting. It was like they were saying ” we got away and did much better than the mother country, but you lot are so bloody thick and useless, you’d founder”.
I’m not sure we’d have expected anything more from the arse who was PM of Australia, but from Obama we did. He’s an intelligent and thoughtful man.
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Tris….Well said!
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Good comment Tris, BUT you’ve NOT heard the last of that london born @£$€ yet.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/statesman-tony-abbotts-to-advise-new-british-brexit-free-trade-think-tank-20170927-gyq2xd.html
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That caused another stir here. Boris Johnson, again it was said, should have been sacked for using the FCO to launch something that didn’t have Cabinet backing and was not government policy.
Fox and Gove, two of the most right wing, were with him.
If May had been a proper prime minister she wouldn’t have tolerated that insult to her premiership.
But if she sacks Boris, I suspect she may be finished.
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eddjasfreeman,
Thanks for reminding me just how good Rachel Maddow is. I used to follow her, a lot, and then, for some reason I could not access her. I kind of wish she could be cloned and broadcast here, y’know on UK politics, too. I doubt many UK politicians could survive.
She is what our best TV journalists should aspire to, but don’t.
She is what journalism should be all about. Enough about my Rachel Maddow fixation!
Sadly, I get the idea that she has a team behind her that makes the largely flawless presentation unique. Our ‘information providers’ are constrained to regurgitating press releases, and such. Because they do not have the financial back-up that I suspect Rachel does.
We are left, and I do not mean it in a derogatory way, with folk doing it out of a house.
Our host is amongst these warriors.
It is quite astonishing what incredibly high content some folk can do out of their house.
Nuff said.
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Yes, I am comparing Munguins Republic with the absolute best that US TV can do. I do not think it falls far short. That is high praise, and I do not do high praise, ever.
For absolute clarity, me and Stewart Campbell, him of Wings Over Scotland have separated, though I am probably not noticeable in the pile of correspondents he hacked off. The man has some issues, especially over the deaths of football fans that I find unacceptable garbage. On that subject alone, the man is a moron.
I choose never to comment again on his web site. And I have not.
I have no idea whether you will block me for telling you who I am, or what I am about. Frankly, you sir, are the nearest thing to a Rachel Maddow we have on this side of the pond.
Anyway, best wishes.
Over and out.
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He’s also dead wrong about the Gaelic language, but hey, I’ve been wrong a couple of times in my life too. I have a feeling Stu Campbell must be a bit of a trial to live with! He’s also a necessary part of Scotland’s alternative media landscape.
He is dead right about that Siobhan McFadyen too – I had occasion to read a couple of her things once because some barking Yoon eejit [last three words not independently corroborated, but correct on the balance of probabilities] had been stupid enough to swallow something she wrote in – mental blank – the Express, I think. It was truly lamentable stuff. Jaw-droppingly bad.
Where was I? Oh yes, the Rev. He did us all a great service with his wee varicoloured books. He’s dead right about most things, and does a great job debunking the all-pervasive lies and myths. The fact that he pisses off the Yoons something rotten is just icing on the cake; the fact that he pisses off some of us as well from time to time I think comes with the territory.
But he never puts up posts with photies of orangutans, because – I’ll paraphrase what you were saying in my own way, Danny – Tris inspires loyalty and affection as well as respect. (I shall refrain from blowing kisses in the direction of Munguin Towers, for I know that that would embarrass Mr. Munguin’s humble minion something rotten.)
Quite a lot of what people say on here is well worth listening to, when we’re not just being silly, anyway, and except for that twit Freeman’s unadulterated garbage. I hope some of the good stuff is filtering up into the rarefied circles where our High Heid Yins and other Heid Bummers while away their time; I dunno about you, but I like to think I may be making a difference, however small.
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eddjasfreeman
I dunno. I did a huge amount of time being either on the voting side, y’know where folk actually cast their votes, occasionally on the opening of postal votes and mainly on counting votes. In all of that time I did not suspect cheating. Perhaps, had I been in Argyll, things would have been different. But I was in Glasgow, and to the best of my immediate knowledge, the votes were fairly dealt with. I certainly dealt with them fairly, and I like to think my colleagues did so to.
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It is because of this that the Rev Stewart Campbell and I are no longer ‘friends’. He viewed this as challenging his narrative, I viewed it as telling the truth. When you really get under his skin, he is incredibly aggressive and daft. Liverpool supporters died and he is right and inquests are wrong? I have a fair degree of time for him, but on some topics he is a complete, utter idiot. Something he fails to recognise. It is his worst failing.
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On the subject of Wings.
We should be really grateful for what Stuart has done. His forensic analysis of so many issues and his debunking of the utter Jackie Bailly they spout.
I haven’t commented on his site because I’ve seen the way he treats people who make mistakes in spelling or grammar, or who disagree with him. I didn’t care for what he said about Mundell, although I maintain absolutely that it was NOT homophobic.
I profoundly disagree with him on Gaelic, and I’m sure on many other matters.
I doubt that we would ever be friends.
But he has been invaluable to the movement.
Thanks for all the kind things you say about Munguin’s Republic.
Much appreciated.
Very much … 🙂
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Rachel is superb… as is Keith Olberman.
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dc……You may know that Rachel Maddow holds a PhD in political science from Oxford, which she attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. “Dr.” Maddow has the top ratings on the MSNBC network which features programs of political news and opinion as its entire prime time weeknight lineup, and most of its daytime schedule too. She is absolutely detested by right wing Republican politicians who are reluctant to submit themselves to a Maddow interview and risk having their heads handed to them on a platter. The right wing Bible thumpers also hate her because she is openly gay.
As for a comparison with British TV, I do marvel at what sometimes seems to be the pure nastiness of some British TV journalists I’ve seen when interviewing politicians. Even on the august BBC. By comparison with British interviewers, the Americans often seem to me to come off as somewhat bland in their greater politeness and civility. I’d say that even the hard hitting American political reporters aren’t as purely nasty and insulting as some of the Brits seem to be.
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Yes, Danny – you’ll have tried restarting Firefox etc. with all the add-ons disabled? I have found that WordPress is actually pretty inconsistent in its behaviour, and I don’t think it’s always My Fault.
I discovered at one point that my advertising blocker was having unfortunate side effects on some sites. On another occasion, it was the ad blocking from my VPN provider… most sites are OK when their links to advertising get blocked, but some just stop loading, or load incorrectly. Some sites don’t like you refusing their trackers…
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Thanks Ed. I’ve not looked into adjusting Firefox startup. It’s only fairly recently that all the pictures on all the posts except the current one disappeared on Firefox and Chrome. Still OK for me on IE and Opera. It’s not been reported by other Firefox users on your side of the pond.
WordPress certainly does behave differently with different servers for me.
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I’m really sorry you are having to go through all this…
You too Conan.
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Tris…..But with perseverance and computer savy, sweet victory is assured. 😉
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Tris……You mentioned Conan. I’m confused about that actually. Do I understand that he has had difficulty with his screen name ID in MR postings? And will his fans be informed of his interim screen name until he is able to sort this out?
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Yeah, you know that Conan and Gizmo are one and the same yeah?
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Tris…….I thought that was the case, but wasn’t absolutely sure. Thanks.
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Ha! No, I didn’t! Sorry, Conan / Gizmo – remarkably inattentive of me.
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Cheers Danny.
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You too Tris. Note absence of avatar.
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Hi Conan. I’m pleased to see that the Librarian is still with us. With or without avatar, although the duggie was cute. I do hope that the commentary in Latin remains intact! 🙂
FYI, in my case as regards an avatar, I was surprised that WordPress picked up my old Google avatar without specific input from me. But it was associated with one of several Google/YouTube account names I had; and I had to go through a series of Logouts from WordPress and then go sign into Google with a new account name and then post a new WordPress comment with THAT Google account name to finally get where I wanted. The situation was complicated by the fact that at first, the comment on a new Google account only posted as “Awaiting Moderation.” That required approval by Moderator Tris in each case; but within 24 hours WordPress fully recognized the name as its own and I could post without moderation. And at the end of the day, I could finally LIKE other comments without an annoying error message (or maybe it was a signin request) popping up.
Also FYI, it was only yesterday while playing around with it that I found that all this only works when WordPress is accessed using Firefox or Chrome browsers. WordPress on Internet Explorer (and Opera) still do not recognize the Google account for signin. That’s annoying in one way, but useful in another. I discovered that if I wanted to, I could go back to signing in the old way with only an Email address and a name. The old way allowing me to use my name, but without an avatar, and without the power to LIKE.
Win some, lose some! But the point is that WordPress can be beaten (sort of,) and all it takes is a fearless attitude, a modicum of perseverance, a Munguin’s Republic thread on which to post test messages, and an accommodating Tris who must approve those test messages as Moderator. (I’ve found that Tris IS endlessly accommodating in that regard.) I think I now have no less than four different WordPress posting accounts and methods, with three different screen names, and one avatar.
Perhaps none of this is of any actual interest to you as Gizmo Madug, but I wanted someone to know (besides Tris,) and who might understand. 😉
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-are-you-guys-doing-booing-john-mccain/2017/09/28/c27ca7dc-a477-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.08e94411ab93
At that same time, Trump was dodging the draft by claiming that bone spurs stopped him from serving his country in uniform. And yet this crippling condition didn’t stop the spoiled Ivy League student from playing football, tennis and golf. After four draft deferments, Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 on the same day 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in Vietnam.
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I was just hearing on MSNBC – what with Trump screaming about disrespecting the flag and so on and on – that not one of the Trump family has ever served in the military. What an a*sehole the man is. He’s whipped this up only as a distraction from the mess that’s being made of handling the Puerto Rican hurricane, and the vultures circling closer as he will finally be held to account for his crimes.
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Yes Ed…….Trump is a master of misdirection. He whips up some red meat for the American culture wars when things are not otherwise going his way. He started his war about the flag and the national anthem to divert attention from the Puerto Rico catastrophe, the latest failure of the Republican health care bill, and the failure of his candidate in the Alabama Senate primary.
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Aye, Niko. I’m pretty certain that the word “irony” has no meaning to Turnup.
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The problem with impeaching Trump is that his VP is worse.
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Illy…….very true! Trump is only a demagogue with no real convictions besides political self-interest. On the other hand Pence, is an extreme right wing religious ideologue.
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Yes it’s pretty obvious that Trumpers is a hilarious, malevolent, dangerous idiot but imagine a dystopian future where there’s no google, twitter, electricity or even wordpress. Where someone’s taken one of the last available cans of spray paint, and let’s say irrelevantly that it’s an old British Leyland shade of green called Tundra.
He, she or the surviving radiation mutated form of humanity, has written the following over the existing graffiti on the wall of one of the few remaining motorway underpass tunnels:
Before the nuclear winter came the rulers were so funny.
O how we laughed!
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greig…..Nice description! 😉
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LOL. Nice.
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One, me, gets the ridiculous idea that Donald Trump is mad enough to press the nuclear trigger. “It is all fun and games until someone dies” I have the idea that Donald will not really hesitate. Personally, I think he is that daft. Or, alternatively, that manipulative.
We, ladies and gentlemen are living in ridiculously dangerous times.
Let us hope we come out of this wiser and not dead.
Perhaps neither China nor Russia, who have co-contiguous borders with North Korea, will see a world desolated as not worth it. America would get it’s pathetic victory and North Korea, bits of South Korea, China and Russia would be destroyed for a very long time. I have never been, in the least, impressed with either North Korea nor the USA. They are both rogue states.
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Tris, I am fairly sure that I did not ‘like’ my own post on here. That would be ridiculous. Is an explanation available or what? I am obviously grateful for the other three people, including your good self, that thought it was worthwhile, but self aggrandizement is really not my thing.
[I may be being taught American, I am fairly sure that aggrandisement is spelt this way. Correct me if I am wrong.]
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dc……I have slipped and accidentally LIKED a comment of my own from time to time. But all I have to do when that happens is just turn OFF the LIKE by putting the cursor on the like star and clicking it again. That turns it off after a fraction of a second. It essentially works as an off/on toggle switch instead of registering multiple LIKEs. At least it works that way for me.
Yes, lots of words with and S in Britain use a Z in America. I think that Lord Clark’s companion book to his BBC series “Civilisation” was marketed as “Civilization” in the USA.
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Yeah, I’ve like my own posts… Terrible huh?
The OED favours Z for many of the spellings too Danny!
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dc……I have occasionally said that Kim would never hit the nuclear button since that would be self-destructive. But that of course assumes rationality and even sanity on his part. Perhaps a false assumption on my part! On the American side, the same question of rationality and sanity applies to Trump.
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Two of a pair, I reckon. Both spoilt brats with no self discipline.
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Tris…….Exactly!
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Well, I have my triple A batteries working again. Love and respect to y’all, it is kind of hard to recall a better bunch of folk. Maybe the also amazing folk on Space.com, but that was another life. Sadly demised.
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dc…….BTW, the off/on toggle switch for LIKE works whether its your own or someone else’s comment. I just tested about six off/ons on this comment.
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He loves me. He loves me not. [da capo al fine]
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