The Democrats’ most recent attempt to pass a Bill of attainder would be laughable…
…if it was a joke. But this is not the Babylon Bee, and this is not the Onion.
What am I referring to? It’s so awful that even some Democrats are angry at the bill’s sponsors. The bill is called the “No Glory for Hate Act,” which is a pretty funny title in an Orwellian way, because if it were passed it would be an act of hatred if I ever saw one:
The ‘No Glory for Hate Act’, sponsored by Representative Linda Sanchez (D-California) and co-sponsored by 13 other Democrats, calls for banning any “twice-impeached president” from being buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The ashes of such a president couldn’t be inurned at Arlington, either.
The bill’s heading refers to prohibiting the use of federal funds for the “commemoration of certain presidents,” but only Trump fits the criteria of being impeached twice by the House. To the chagrin of Democrats, he’s also the only president to have been acquitted twice by the Senate. But ironically, like predecessor Barack Obama, Trump never served on active duty in the military and therefore doesn’t qualify for burial at Arlington anyway.
Not to be tripped up by that technicality, the Trump punishers went further in their bill, prohibiting the use of federal funds to create or display any symbol, monument or statue commemorating a twice-impeached president…
…Democrats…did make sure that “certain former presidents” will apply only to Trump – now and in the future. It specifies that it applies to any president who has been impeached twice “on or before” the date that the legislation is enacted. Future impeachers need not apply.
Bill of attainder.
Why don’t they just add “twice-impeached presidents whose name begins with a “T” and ends with a “p”? That’ll make it even more clear.
I’ve never been a big fan of most members of Congress. But these days we have an especially ignorant, tyrannical, brazen, hypocritical, and vindictive bunch on the Democrat side.
Remember my post about Trump as Hector? I wrote this on January 8:
I see so much hatred of Trump online today that it actually eclipses what I’d seen previously, and that’s saying something. Now it has the flavor of dancing on a grave. It disgusts me, but that’s the way it is.
When I was very young, I read a child’s version of The Iliad. I remember reading in it that after Achilles had killed Hector, he triumphantly and in rage defiled Hector’s corpse:
Hector lies slaughter’d here
Dragg’d at my chariot, and our dogs shall all in pieces tear
His hated limbs…
Even as a small child, I felt a horror so strong that I recoiled and had to put the book down for a while.
I don’t see the Democrats letting up for the foreseeable future. They are afraid of zombie Trump rising up to challenge them in 2024.
These people are sick, literally. Hatred eats from the inside out.
Hatred like this is more destructive of the hater than the hated, I’m told. I would say “I hope that’s true”, but that would put me in their category too. So let me repeat an elementary-school taunt I always found particularly stupid: “I’m rubber and you’re glue. . .”
It somehow seems singularly appropriate right now.
The use of the word “hate” by leftists is curious indeed and very instructive, being wielded as a weapon to demonize conservatives (who are supposedly filled with bigoted or racist or xenophobic “hatred” for others), to agitate for illegitimate and unconstitutional categories of expression and action (“hate speech” and “hate crimes”), as well as to divert attention away from their own frenzied hostility to anyone and everyone who dares to dissent from “progressive” dogma.
Maybe it’s time for a mob to take care of any symbol, monument or statue commemorating former Klansmen who were prominent Democrats.
These antics are intended solely to throw red meat at the rabid leftist base. Nothing more. They’re juvenile stunts aimed at juvenile supporters.
Republicans are often quite guilty of silly posturing and grandstanding as well, but rarely to the same level of absurdity and immaturity as what we’ve seen from leftist Democrats in the Trump era (and, to be clear, we are still in the Trump era; his presence will loom large for many years to come).
Arrogance or desperation?
The healing power of “and”?
The important thing is, though, that they stand foursquare against hate.
There are currently no humans living or dead to whom this bill could apply, but there is a small out in that if a future President is convicted of crimes this bill would apply to them.
Expect that to get part to cut in reconciliation.
any former President that has been twice impeached by the House of Representatives on or before the date of enactment of this Act or has been convicted of a State or Federal crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity as President of the United States.
As I said back in the Trump acquitted thread, I want to know the names of anyone in the GOP who helps this one along in any way.
no “other” humans, edit button disappears for me.
Why don’t they just get it over and pass a law that simply says Trump can never run for federal office again.
When Tulsi left the House, the Dems remaining integrity left the Congressional floor.
The more the go after Trump, the stronger he gets. The Dems are seriously ridiculous bowing to the lowest denominator within the party.
These doofusses just cannot let it go. It is pathologically debilitating. He is *still* living in their heads rent-free, and the lease looks for all the world to be multi-year. It is beyond pathetic. The width and the depth of the hatred is *stunning*.
This is not just liberal/conservative, or left/right, or Democrat/Republican, or even Democrat-&-RINO/Republican. It is far more. The closest I can manage is that it is tribal, primitive; but not like Japanese/Chinese, or Germans/Jews, or Chinese/Uighurs, or even Caucasian/PeeOhhCee. It is beyond any subsets of fellow-humans/fellow-humans.
It is more like humans/snakes, entirely different species . . . except (honestly, now) it’s come to where left-leaning humans will regard poisonous snakes with *far* more consideration, as fellow members of God’s creation.
(It’s also on display this week, in spades, vis-a-vis Rush Limbaugh.) God help us all.
What causes the civilized to pull back and refrain from excessive vengeance? Fear of future karmic consequences? Regard for the humanity of even hated enemies? Those civil concerns are a factor, but for those lacking the excessive vengeance impulse, deeper, more comprehensive knowledge is in play.
The truly wise are aware that the entirety of everything in our awareness is what might be called a “karmic bubble”. The full range of phenomena from Trump the savior, the stolen election, Biden the molesting pervert – everything up to the twinkling stars above – is the result of our karma. Consider the calming effect of that level of awareness. Then consider the civilizing result over generations as we collectively approach it.
Although the Democrats’ Trump obsession is over the top, at least their formally proposed remedies are legal and nonviolent. The illegalities of their election thievery were likewise nonviolent – equivalent to a large scale unarmed robbery.
There is strong evidence that humanity is evolving toward greater levels of nonviolence. We still feel violent impulses, but are less inclined to act on them. That said, the evolution is slow.
What of the violence of Antifa and BLM? It’s mostly directed at property, mostly nonlethal, and mostly responded to (or not responded to) nonviolently. The overall nonviolent trend is holding. If Team Biden’s misguided foreign policy leads to war, the stark contrast with Trump’s record of peace will stand out all the more.
We are impatient with how far we are from more ideal civility because it is out of reach in this lifetime. This is where we are for now. The timeline stretches far far beyond.
“Those the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
This bill is, IMO unlikely to pass. Though if it does pass, in and of itself, I think it will have minimal impact upon liberal’s perception of the radicalness of the Democrat’s ‘solutions’.
But each ‘success’ will encourage even deeper levels a radicalism by the democrat activist base, which the democrat leadership will be forced to accomodate. Which will inevitably result in ever greater repulsion among the dem’s liberal supporters.
This is why, “The more the[y] go after Trump, the stronger he gets.”
Banned Lizard,
Not to overly disparage the explanatory power of the “karmic bubble” but “the twinkling stars above” existed billions of years before humanity existed… making it impossible for them to be “the result of our karma”.
So too with your assertion that the Democrat’s “formally proposed remedies are legal and nonviolent“. They’re illegal as hell and encourage violence because their object seeks to destroy America’s foundational precepts.
“What of the violence of Antifa and BLM? It’s mostly directed at property, mostly nonlethal, and mostly responded to (or not responded to) nonviolently. The overall nonviolent trend is holding.”
Families of those killed in St Louis, Denver, and Portland by BLM/Antifa may find your mostly nonlethal characterization less than comforting.
But the Antifa gal who got off without jail time after conviction for throwing a Molotov cocktail at Portland police should find solace in the mostly nonlethal characterization. She only intended to burn the cops? The NY Antifa lawyer duo who tried to Molotov cocktail the police in their vehicle should get off too (fuze failure on their part)?
Flame throwers, Napalm, and other incendiary weapons in war have been historically some of the most feared by soldiers (terrorizing). Why would Antifa use them I wonder?
Banned Lizard:
Go easy on the Banned Substances, Old Chap.
I cannot decide whether so many people who enter politics are simply despicable; or whether it is the sense of power (even the diffused power of a congress member) infects them.
For lack of a better word, we are ruled by mob of cretins.
@Oldflyer:
Leftists are by definition despicable. (Oh dear.. Lack of Nuanced Thought. Better check myself in for counseling.)
Who not on the Left with any decency or self respect would submit himself and those near and dear to him to the constant character assassination of the media? Add to which the physical risk is rapidly rising. So, mostly only scumbags on the Right are going to step up.
Beyond that, rivers of gold flow through the Imperial Capital… or near enough — after all, it ostensibly regulates Harlotsville on the Hudson’s Casinos. The sums in play are beyond most human imagining —> corruption, blandishments, threats are too.
It’s always been dirty, even back at the very hallowed beginning of it all. But I think there is such a thing as Critical Mass and that was reached debatably when in the last 75 years… just that for a long time it was possible to believe otherwise.
As for the entire Managerial Class and Clerisy having gone insane since fall of the Soviet Union, that’s another story with its own pathology for another day. Certainly doesn’t help at all.
No happy endings, I fear.
Compare current violent episodes to wars, including civil wars that we know of. The bigger picture may seem irrelevant in the moment, but consider all the violence that isn’t happening because the conflict hasn’t exploded into full civil war.
Portland police must dodge molotovs. Have we forgotten the moaning fields of tens of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers dying in agony, others lingering with eventually fatal gangrene and other painful conditions?
Expand your timeline perspective. Life extends beyond not only current obsessions, but far beyond this life in this body.
@Banned Lizard:
Is there a quiet corner in some spare tesseract out back of your n-dimensional time and space-bending Panglossian Philosophy where I might gently deposit the utterance of another sagacious (you guessed it) Sage?
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Now I must go take a dump in my Garden. General Honoré told me this is how to make stuff grow faster.
Portland police must dodge molotovs because, the Mayor and DA feel that the lives of LEOs are less important that the feels of the left? Justice!
The left were trying to provoke a lethal reaction and get people killed or seriously injured. You good with that, philosopher? BTW it was one of the Antifa fellow fools who got to do the fire walking/dancing because he didn’t dodge very well. It was the police put out his burning, burning love.
If and when you are assaulted by a leftist who decides to necklace you or yours you may reconsider pain and burn injuries. Disfigurement is a feature. You will be a Burned Lizard then. Inconceivable.
Expand your conception of what is legal and allowed? Don’t worry, the left will treat you fairly. Minneapolis was mostly not burned down. It’s fine. LOL
But never fear, Fellow Future Felons… National Review comes to the rescue!
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/are-trump-supporters-losing-faith-in-democracy/
You just can’t make this #@$% up.
The Swamp = The Establishment. We’re anti-establishment. Ergo…
Well thank you, Mister Food Truck Driver! I see it clearly now.
Just about impossible to get a Cuban Sandwich in Hong Kong. Why can’t Globalization at least give me that?
Yo Om. Stopped clock twice a day and all that.
🙂
Re: NR article … Trump supporters losing faith in democracy
Zaphod:
NR comes to the rescue indeed. But look at the 679+ comments — mostly negative and well-articulated.
________________________________________
If there was hope, it must lie in the proles…
–Geroge Orwell, “1984”
________________________________________
Maybe even the National Review commenter version of proles.
@huxley:
If I well-articulated my pitchfork, would that make it a flail?
Re the Proles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0iAcQVIokg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2c-X8HiBng
“consider all the violence that isn’t happening because the conflict hasn’t exploded into full civil war.” Banned Lizard
Hasn’t exploded… yet. The democrats are working very hard to correct that and have just gotten started.
Iran has greatly increased its rush toward achieving nuclear capability. Years ago, they practiced launching missiles into low earth orbit from ships in the Gulf. The Russians have been selling container ship missile launch systems for over a decade on the open market. That all adds up to the potential for an EMP attack.
Successful attacks upon just 9 electrical subsystems would bring down the US electrical grid and would do so semi-permanently, as replacement transformers are only made in China with a 2 yr wait list.
Cut off the electrical grid and you’ll quickly learn how fast the thin veneer of civilization collapses with the average grocery store having just 3 days food supply on hand.
In general, people are as good as circumstances allow.
Even then, the barbarians ever threaten civilization’s gates.
“SAVAGE BEATING Shocking video shows baseball bat thug clubbing a cyclist unconscious in New York as people walk by without helping”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14100829/baseball-bat-attack-man-street-new-york-brooklyn/
“In general, people are as good as circumstances allow.”
Eh, not so fast there, Joker. The breaking point isn’t when people turn on each other. It’s when the government decides to confiscate the food being produced and stored in the rural red parts of the U.S. to feed the helpless masses in the big city blue death traps. That’s when it hits the fan.
Mike
@MBunge:
Largest private owner of farmland in the USA on Line 2 for you. He says his name is William Henry Gates III.
Looks like you got a big ally right there along with all those other agro-conglomerates which dominate farming in the Lower 48.
Or maybe not 🙂
Interesting, though, that billionaires have been buying up agricultural land as fast as they can. It’s almost as if neo feudalism is the end game when the financial system goes AOT… No, not AOC.. although I do wonder about her centre of gravity.
@Zaphod:Interesting, though, that billionaires have been buying up agricultural land as fast as they can. It’s almost as if neo feudalism is the end game when the financial system goes AOT
SHTF, land title won’t mean anything. Feudalism requires peasants to work the soil to feed the soldiers who defend it.
@Frederick:
You think guys like Gates don’t have de facto private armies already?
He’s Good to Go.
Peasants won’t be in short supply. He’s not gonna sterilize all of us ?
I never worried about Antifa because it consumes the Democratic power base. When it tries to move to Red areas or areas where “Karens” live it gets squelched ASAP. So let it burn.
The totalitarians know they have a very short window to operate and they are trying to jam as much of their agenda as they can. People be damned. The proles voted for Trump anyway. Now that latest overturning of a Trump initiative. They can’t have them not being college debt slaves.
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2021/02/19/biden-signs-executive-order-ending-trump-industry-apprenticeship-program/
Also:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/19/jjoe-bidens-war-on-women-equality-act-to-end-legal-recognition-of-biological-sex/
I hope like hell that the entire US “women” Olympic Soccer Team is replaced by Trans. The reaction will be truly fun to see.
Weep for poor Megan
Rapin-dope her 15 minutes of fame is done busted.
@Zaphod: Whatever Gates has is gone two weeks after SHTF, and the same for the other billionaires. All they have is money… and they’ll be captives to the people who formerly served them, who know where they keep all the good stuff and have the first crack at looting it.
That would seem to put Barack in jeopardy from the next Republican Congress, since now actions can be taken against Presidents whether in office or not. Oh! My bad, I remembered that we are talking about Repubs — the spineless breed of humans.
DEEBEE:
No, because of this quote in the post, about the bill:
That’s one of the reasons it would be a bill of attainder. It could only apply to Trump and no one else.
@neo:It could only apply to Trump and no one else.
Now it could. It will also apply to anyone who has been convicted of a State or Federal crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity as President of the United States, those people don’t exist yet but may someday. Check the text of the bill…