The Runback: It Was All a Work
Almost everybody got what they wanted from the Second Trump Impeachment Trial
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
Podcast Episode #20
This week we talk with Kenneth Burns from WHYY Radio in Philadelphia about his career in the radio industry, spanning from Washington to Philadelphia to Baltimore, as well as the infamous incident with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake and how that led to his departure from the market;
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News and Politics
Do Democrats want to try to force Baltimore Sun sale by threatening Eminent Domain? Documents link Senator Sarah Elfreth to the Save Our Sun “non-profit” effort to take over Maryland’s largest paper by threatening Eminent Domain if they didn’t sell.
Who Are Democrats Trying to Fool? An Emergency Bill from Senate President Bill Ferguson is a Red Herring.
Social Justice Hits Home: “Unity Day” in public schools shows how we are sacrificing our children in the name of progressive values that will ultimately unravel the fabric of our society.
Sports
The Murder Mystery of Super Bowl LV: Who murdered what could have been the best Super Bowl ever? We go through the suspects.
Major League Baseball Screws Up Some More: The Minor Leagues have been officially corporatized.
Culture
BattleBots Bracketology: Who’s best positioned to win the Giant Nut? What you need to know before the World Championship Tournament airs this Thursday.
Shameless Plugs
Thanks to Maryland Matters for publishing my piece on the arrogance of the Maryland Democratic Party.
I appeared on Friday’s edition of Dr. Politics & The Political Architects Show discussing impeachment and more.
The Monday Thought
The Second Impeachment Trial of Donald John Trump came to a weird end on Saturday.
After Democrats insisted that they be allowed to call witnesses in the trial to testify against ex-President Trump, they were granted their wish. And then they changed their mind.
That’s right, after House Managers and Senate Democrats insisted for weeks on the need to call witnesses, they agreed to call new witnesses. It was a surreal moment, one that Trump’s lawyers were thoroughly unprepared for.
Though to be fair, Trump’s lawyers were thoroughly unprepared throughout the entirety of this trail.
With the lack of witnesses, the Senate just went ahead and wrapped up with the trial. And, just as I predicted, 57 Senators voted to convict Trump with 43 voting to acquit him.
Not that all of the 43 who voted to acquit Trump want to deal with him anymore, either. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted to acquit on technical and constitutional grounds but did not mince words about Trump’s practical guilt.
But let’s get down to brass tacks: this impeachment trial was a work. It was scripted. It was preordained. Everybody got what they wanted out of this.
Establishment Democrats wanted to continue to hang the albatross of Donald Trump around the neck of congressional Republicans. By impeaching him again, forcing a trial, and making both houses of Congress go on record about its is exactly what they wanted.
Trumpist Republicans got what they wanted. They got to furiously defend their God again and make themselves heroes to the Trumpist electorate.
Institutional Republicans, like McConnell, got what they wanted. They got to vote no on the impeachment itself on technical grounds while using Trump as a pinata on his ultimate role in this.
Everybody played their part. Everybody got what they wanted. Ultimately?
The only people who came out looking good in this entire fracas were the ten Republicans in the House and the seven Republicans in the Senate who voted their conscience and voted to convict Trump. They did what they thought was right as opposed to being pawns in this latest Washington performance art, much in the same way I wrote about two weeks ago.
So now that we got that out of the way, let’s all move onto the next problem Congress can’t fix….