Thinking Some More About Impeachment

UPDATE: As I head toward pushing the publish button, there is breaking news that may suggest that the “global deal” I refer to below—if it exists—is under strain or could have fallen apart under the pressure of revelations by the House investigations. I’ll quote Karl Denninger briefly to provide the potentially new context in which to read what follows:

Biden Blows Up

So much for the claims of the "sweetheart" deal.....

It appears that Hunter's counsel tried to pull a fast one -- twice.  First, yesterday the Clerk of the Court claims that Hunter's counsel attempted to get a filing pulled through misrepresenting that they were the counsel of the people who filed it.  They now claim that was a "misunderstanding" but it got the judge royally pissed off, and with good reason.  The filing in question came as an Amicus from Congress, so there is likely some further inquiry headed in the direction of said "counsel" from that general direction as well.

But then today the hearing fell apart.  It appears that Hunter's counsel tried to get on the record that the "scope" of the deal was that this was basically over for Hunter.  The DOJ was having nothing to do with that and stated that the investigation is not closed but refused to specify what other areas of concern and potential charges might be out there including possible FARA violations, which can be (if willful, and this quite clearly would be) serious stuff -- a 5 year felony, to be specific.

Let me be clear. KD appears to imply that “claims of the ‘sweetheart’ deal” were somehow a conspiracy theory. I don’t buy that—I believe that the facts surrounding this plea deal as it developed clearly indicate that a "sweetheart deal” is exactly what had been intended—as Jonathan Turley has been contending all along. Instead, my suspicion is that DoJ is backing out of it precisely because of the intense scrutiny coming from the House.

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I hope I’ve made my position on impeachment clear. My view is that Zhou was impeachable the moment he stepped into the Oval Office, back when he was installed there by the Ruling Elite and the Deep State. Evidence of wrongdoing has never, ever, been lacking—that’s simply not an issue. Bluto Barr and Waste of Space Wray knew all about this well before the 2020 election. You’ll notice that as the focus lately has expanded from Hunter to Zhou himself Bluto has receded from the talk shows. That’s not coincidence.

On the other hand, it’s still clear to me whether there is any base in DC for getting the full truth and nothing but the truth out to the American people. Any serious impeachment inquiry would likely involve too much collateral damage to the political establishment. The fact is that Ukraine has for years been ground zero for political money laundering for the US. And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when we start talking about the best government money can buy. As a result, it’s only prudent to wonder whether the pussy footing around the issue of impeachment is a sign that the Ruling Elite would prefer to do some sort of deal that would remove Zhou but minimize the collateral damage. Also factoring into these considerations are constitutional complications—the fact that nobody in either party really wants Kama Sutra in the OO, Zhou’s visibly declining health and mental competence—starting from a low point to begin with, and the narrowly divided houses of Congress, which affects as well the question of whether a new VP could even be confirmed if Zhou is removed. There are risks for both parties in all this, which increases the attractiveness for a global deal of some kind. The problem is that a global deal isn’t in the interests of the American public or of constitutional order.

Now, yesterday Margot Cleveland presented a brief but compelling case for setting up an impeachment inquiry in the House. Obviously, she’s writing from the standpoint of what’s good for the American people and their constitutional order. The title and the first couple of paragraphs say it all, although there’s more at the link. What Cleveland says—and going back to my first paragraph—is simply inarguable by any person of good faith:

Only An Impeachment Inquiry Can Unravel Biden Family Corruption And The Feds’ Role

The evidence is too damning for our president and the DOJ and FBI. It’s time to start an impeachment inquiry.

Last week, our country passed the tipping point: The evidence of President Joe Biden’s corruption during his time as vice president is now so overwhelming and the implications so serious, the disparate investigations underway in the House and Senate can no longer suffice. Nor can the Department of Justice and the FBI — even under the auspices of a special counsel — be trusted to oversee the investigation given the overwhelming evidence that they obstructed the probe into the Biden family.

There is only one option left that can deliver truth and transparency to the American public, and that is an impeachment inquiry that investigates not just President Joe Biden, but Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney David Weiss, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

An important caveat. What Cleveland is advocating would make a nice start, but if “truth and transparency” for the American public—a truly novel concept in the 21st centry—is what we’re interested in, shouldn’t the inquiry go beyond impeachment and go back to the Russia Hoax and everything that flowed from that—the removal of Trump, the J6 hoax, etc.? The Zhou regime flowed from everything that went before. It can’t, or certainly shouldn’t, be viewed in isolation. I assume that Cleveland would agree with Alexander Mercouris’ recent observation that the systemic corruption of the American Republic—including the legal system from top to bottom—has advanced to the point that it’s time to put career ambitions aside in favor of a grand effort to prevent a catastrophe for our entire constitutional order. Her advocacy for a formal impeachment inquiry would at least have the potential for a more wide ranging and deep diving examination that could get into the direction in which this nation is headed.

As it happens, yesterday Speaker Kev hinted that the time may be near to take that step—to set up a formal impeachment inquiry. Dems are still stonewalling, still in denial over the mountain of evidence, but Speaker Kev went there in terms that were similar to Margot Clevaland’s—a formal impeachment inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of all this. Please note the way Zerohedge nicely ties this in to the fake impeachment of Trump—it’s all connected:

McCarthy Hints At Biden Impeachment Over Crimes Trump Was Impeached For Asking About

Right. Trump was impeached for asking about Ukraine—ground zero for DC corruption. That’s when the Power Elite circled the wagons against the Orange Man.

"When Biden was running for office, he told the public he has never talked about business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we prove is not true," …

"We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But Hannity, this is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed," …

MCCARTHY just spoke to reporters in the Capitol. He stopped short of officially announcing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, but signaled he believes it’s the only way to get certain information he’s seeking.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 25, 2023

As the Babylon Bee aptly points out...

McCarthy Says 783rd Impeachable Offense By Biden Will Be The Last Straw https://t.co/eFLXOTSxcU pic.twitter.com/AblToh64aY

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 25, 2023

It all sounds good, but is this merely preliminary palaver leading to a deal that would leave all skeletons in their closets—if that’s where political corruption skeletons are kept? Speaker Kev’s more expansive statement to Fox News could be taken either way—truly serious, get-to-the-bottom-of-it inquiry, or preliminary palaver while all the ducks are being place in a row for a global deal. Fox speaks of a “redline” that Speaker Kev says would trigger a formal impeachment inquiry. The relevant fact is that the evidence that should trigger an impeachment inquiry was known before Zhou ever set foot in the OO:

"What I've said is, if they withhold information, the impeachment inquiry allows Congress to have the apex of power to get all the information they need. All this information people are finding out now is only because Republicans have investigated," McCarthy told Fox.

"The people of America have a right to know what went on. They have a president who lied to the American public and said they didn't get any money from China. We know that's not true. …”

McCarthy added that if "at any time" he felt they weren't going to be able to get the information they needed to progress through the investigation, then they "would have to rise to the level of impeachment inquiry."

"That's not happening today. But what I'm explaining to everybody [is] that if we don't get the information, I will go to impeachment inquiry to make sure we get all the answers," he said.

...

"What we're looking [at] right now is getting an answer to the questions and seeing, did [Attorney General Merrick] Garland lie to the American public or not? We know what has been said in these meetings, and we're going to get the answers," he said."

If they withhold information? Is that the 783rd impeachable offense?

Anyway, this is where we stand for now. But I’d like to close with some excerpts from foreign observers that seem relevant to me with regard to the current crisis in the America Republic.

I’ll start with an article by a Spaniard that tries to explain, for Americans, the disappointing results of the Spanish elections. Without getting into electoral details—you can read the article for that—what happened is that conservatives of one sort or another won the popular vote but can’t form a government in the parliamentary system. It’s a deadlock. But in discussing this the author makes an interesting observation about the state of modern society, which strikes me as applicable to American society:

Spain Has Fallen Before

His [Socialist Pedro Sanchez] incompetence is endless, and it is hard to understand why he has been voted for by nearly 7,700,000 people—compared to the little more than 8,000,000 who voted for the P.P. If I had more faith in mankind I would be inclined to believe that this is a result of rigging, but then I would be a leftist. Actually, I feel closer to H.L. Mencken here: “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

What is happening in Spain is happening all over the West. The left has so triumphed in its cultural, educational, and media wars, has so inoculated relativism and sectarianism, that its leaders can commit the worst barbarities and still receive millions of votes.

Is this simply the fundamental flaw of democracy, or does it signify a deeper spiritual crisis of the West? Or a bit of both? I’m not actually sure that American politics is actually more corrupt than in the past. However, the pervasive relativism of American society—the triumph of the Cultural Marxism of the West—as the corruption is used to advance a culturally Woke agenda that increasingly shocks a morally disoriented populace. This is the appeal of Trump, of course, as his supporters see through the empty virtue signalling for votes of so many “conservative” figures.

Alastair Crooke, in his latest article, also looks at the dysfunction of American politics and the societal roots of that dysfunction:

Counter-Revolution – ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’

Crooke sees “a radical and increasingly iconoclastic mood” in the American electorate, and he says that the question ‘Do you know what time it is?’ is a catchphrase on the Right. It is that mood that he addresses. That mood expresses the view that “Wokish culture” is an existential threat to America that calls for urgent and sweeping action. The Ukraine debacle will play a role in this:

To be blunt, both the U.S. and Europe have stalked brazenly into traps of their own making. Caught in the lies and deceit woven around a claimed inheritance of superior cultural DNA, (vouchsafing, it is said, almost certain victory), the West is awakening to a fast-approaching disaster to which there are no easy solutions. Cultural exceptionalism, together with the prospect of a clear ‘win’ over Russia, are draining rapidly away – but exiting delusion is both slow and humiliating.

The coming devastation is not just centred around the failed Ukraine offensive and NATO’s weak showing. It comprises multiple vectors that have been building over the years, but which are reaching culmination synchronously.

In the U.S., the run-up to momentous elections is underway. The Democrats are in a fix: The party has long since turned its back on its old blue-collar constituency, engaging instead with an urban ‘creative class’ in an exalted, world-shaping ‘social engineering’ project of moral redress, in alliance with Silicon Valley and the Permanent Nomenklatura. But that experiment has run off into the weeds, becoming ever more extreme and absurd. Push-back is building.

Predictably enough, the Democratic campaign is not gaining traction. Team Biden has low, low approval ratings. But Biden family pressure insists that Biden must persevere with his candidature, and not yield to another. Either way – Biden staying or going – there is no ready solution to the Party’s conundrum of a non-performing, non-platform.

The electoral landscape is a mess. Heavy ‘lawfare’ artillery is intended to break the Trump defences and drive him off the field, whilst an attrition of disclosures of Biden family malfeasance are intended wear down and implode the Biden bubble. The Democratic Establishment is spooked too by the flanking manoeuvre of the R. F. Kennedy candidature, which is snowballing rapidly.

Put simply, the Democratic wokish ideology of historical redress is separating the U.S. into two nations living in one land. Divided not so much by ‘Red or Blue’, or class, but defined by irreconcilable ‘ways of being’. The old categories: Left, Right, Democrat or GOP are being dissolved by a Cultural War that respects no categories, crossing the boundaries of class and party affiliation. Indeed, even ethnic minorities have been alienated by the zealots wanting to sexualise children at age 5 years, and by the pushing of the trans agenda on to school children.

Ukraine has served as the solvent to the old order and has become the Albatross hanging around the neck of the Biden Admin: How to spin the looming Ukraine debacle as somehow ‘mission achieved’. Can that be done? Because the escape route of a ceasefire and a frozen line of contact is unacceptable to Moscow. In short, ‘Biden’s war’ cannot continue as it is, but nor can it do ‘other’ without facing humiliation. The myth of American power, NATO competence and the reputation of U.S. weaponry hangs in the balance.

Opposition to the disastrous war is starting to manifest as a bipartisan issue. An issue that—rather than dividing partisans of either party—divides the Ruling Class from their Subjects. This is in addition to the Culture War divide as it will reveal the financial corruption of the war’s supporters. As the extent of the disaster inevitably becomes more clear over time, opposition to the war may have a further dissolvent effect on settled Uniparty positions.