Impeachment, Politics and a New Piece of "Fiction"

Politics

The Senate will not vote to remove the President.  The Republican Senate, afraid of retribution in primary elections by Trump’s gullible and ignorant base, and of being put in the majority leader’s doghouse, will not approve the House’s Articles of Impeachment.  The final decision on what the Impeachment hearings produced will be made by the voters on November 3 by you, the voter  ....  but not all of you!   Some of your votes just won't matter.

Polls showing that almost all potential Democratic candidates would beat Trump should be ignored.  Indeed, Hillary Clinton beat him, and she isn’t in the White House.  Nationwide poll results do not tell the story.  Poll results should be watched in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other States where Trump’s appeal to those shortchanged by social, demographic and economic changes gained him crucial electoral votes in 2016.  Those States are all that count.   We know what will happen in New York, California, Oregon, South Dakota, Missouri and Kansas.  Results are in effect pre-determined there.   If you live there, please vote, but your vote really won't matter.  New York will go Democratic and South Dakota will go Republican regardless of your vote.

Democrats must resolve their conflict between progressive new ideas and a more centrist approach quickly.  They cannot afford to alienate any Democrats.  Not doing so might reduce Democratic turnout and be a gift to our impeached but un-convicted president.

And for what it’s worth, right now I am looking toward either Senators Michael Bennet or Amy Klobuchar to form part of the ultimate Democratic ticket, which part I'm not sure.  Where Biden, Warren and Sanders end up is still up in the air.

 JL

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The lawyers who defended the President before the Senate used fancy language, no evidence, attacks on the accusers and other legal gimmicks to befuddle the jury of Senators.   They said nothing in defense of the President other than attacking the process.  New heights of fiction were reached by Alan Dershowitz who claimed that even if all of the charges against Trump were true, they wouln't justify impeachment.  No reputable Constitutional lawyers would endorse that.  


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And here’s my latest work of fiction:

Bulletin from The Office of Alternate Facts

An apple, loosened from its attachment to its branch on an apple tree, will fall to the ground.  It won’t shoot upward toward the sky nor remain hanging there in mid-air where it was before its stem snapped.    This is because of what Isaac Newton defined as “gravity” in his laws of motion.

But, friends, hold on a second, please!  Let us assume that at the same instant that the apple falls from the tree, right here in the United States, a similar apple becomes detached from its stem on an apple tree in Argentina.  That apple will similarly fall to the ground, but clearly, it is not falling in the same direction as its North American cousin fell.  That is because by just looking at a globe, you can see that what is “pointing upwards” in the Northern hemisphere is “pointing downwards” in the Southern hemisphere, and of course, vice versa.  You can see the difference.  You can’t tell me “up” and “down” are the same thing directions in these two places.  To an extraterrestrial observer out in space with a very powerful telescope, those apples clearly would appear to be falling in different directions!  So clearly, just as some claim that “gravity” is a fact, it can be proposed that there is an alternate fact stating that, at a minimum, “up” and “down” are not the same thing as Newton claims they can be.

Well, for “believers” in what Newton suggested, there had to have been an explanation for the crazy idea of “up” equaling “down” in different places on our planet.  The three “laws of motion” which he devised serve well to explain to “believers” that something called “gravity” is the force that brings this about.  That is, of course, if they choose to believe in them.  To back up these “laws,” an impressive formula is included to prove the theory.  (This is included in the appendix.)  Simply, they supposedly claim that every object in the universe that has “mass” exerts a pull, or force, on every other object that has “mass” and that that pull or force, in the case of the apples and everything else in the universe, is what creates the illusion of “up” and “down,” and also keeps the planets revolving around the sun rather than their falling haphazardly out into space and gives order to most other things in the universe. Today, most people accept this explanation of what “gravity” is as factual.  Newton did not, however, deal with the possibility that there might be alternate facts, as your looking at a globe illustrates to anyone whose mind is not closed.   Someone standing precisely on the Earth’s south pole clearly is upside down from someone standing precisely on the Earth’s north pole, no matter how one claims otherwise.  And of course, an empirical, objective look at matters scientific requires such open minds.  Right?  And that is precisely why our group is dedicated to promulgating alternate facts.

When we next meet, our agenda will include a new, revealing, paper on why, really, if you sail far enough out into the ocean, you will indeed fall off the earth.  This is contrary to the fake news which has been circulating for about the past four or five hundred years claiming that our planet is a sphere rather than a flat surface, as had previously been well documented for many centuries by the revealing woodcuts made by many extremely learned monks.  (One of these woodcuts is included in the Appendix.)

Meanwhile, let me remind you that the deadline is approaching for registering for our 2020 worldwide seminar on “Climate Change – The Greatest Hoax Since Noah’s Ark.”  Originally scheduled for a lovely resort on Australia’s southeast coast, we may be relocating that event since the “Happy Koala Lodge” doesn’t seem to be answering the phone.   Wherever we end up, be sure to bring your alternate facts.  Rumors that prospective alternate locations have been subject to unexpected volcanic action, wildfires, flooding or earthquake are clearly no more than fresh fake news originating with supporters of the aforementioned Mr. Newton, whom it is rumored is currently trying to understand the alternate facts recently reported in the media, specifically, 

that apples actually have been occasionally seen falling upward from trees in Buenos Aires!   Always, friends, please keep your mind open to new ideas.

Jack Lippman, Acting Alternate Factotum

Appendix:

A:   Newton’s three laws of motion may be stated as follows:

1. Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it.
2. Force equals mass times acceleration [f (t) = m a (t)].
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

B:   Woodcut illustrating that the earth is flat.  (Translation of inscription: ‘A missionary from the Middle Ages, or possibly a middle-aged missionary, announces that he had found the point where the heavens and the Earth touch one another.’)  This graphically confirms the flatness of the earth.   Our modern-day Alternate Fact Research Team out in the field tends to place that point about three miles north of the city of Manaus on the Amazon River in Brazil.  

JL