Dammit, dammit, dammit. Petey Boy got lucky. The articles of impeachment were brought to the floor, and ELEVEN Democrats missed the vote, so the Republicans had enough to shelve the articles. This does not bode well for the new Congress. Those 11 votes would have done it. But no. It went down 211-204. We fluffed up.
Now, yes, we are supposed to be Democrats and support our people, but damn, 11 votes. It’s infuriating. Taking Hegseth down would have been such a marvelous thing to happen. Could we bring it back in January? Unknown, but as the saying goes, better late than never. Someone could try. Who else detests Hegseth as much as we do? And how could it be arranged that everyone is actually *there*? All questions with no easy answers.
But there’s more to the article that’s entertaining. It dulls the frustration a bit. My gratitude to Raw Story:
John Ullyot, who stepped down from his role as the Defense Department’s top communications official in the spring of 2025, sat down with Erin Burnett just hours after Hegseth narrowly survived an impeachment push on the House floor. Pointing to the combative news conference Hegseth held the same day, Ullyot told Burnett the defense secretary “looked like a Fox News fire breather, frankly, or a cable news fire breather who is trying to get a point across.” “So he’s essentially somebody who is, he makes it about himself, not about the troops,” Ullyot said. “He actually likes … to have the focus on him.”
Well, isn’t that exactly what he is? The Pentagon, the military, he knows best; he doesn’t listen to his experienced leaders, struts about like a bantam rooster puffing and preening, but there’s nothing behind the macho manly-man persona he thinks he is right for the military. But his prejudices are well known. If only we could have gotten him out. Trump might actually have been relieved.
Fox News fire breather. What an image. It seems Hegseth is going back to his roots. You would think a fire breather would be good. It keeps things peppy. It feels passionate. You want to listen to him. The problem is that Hegseth makes it all about him instead of the organization he handles. It gets repetitive and boring by the third time he speaks. If he were talking about the Pentagon and the military, it might stay interesting. Well, no more.
Yes, the ranting continues about a man who has screwed up our military, and it will take literally years to fix because we need a president who respects the military, which Trump does not, and Hegseth thinks it’s his own personal task force, like the current DOJ is an attack dog for Trump. Just about every day, stories come out about Hegseth screwing up something else. The latest is disrespecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by laughing and taking photographs and selfies, and having to be corrected by the soldier on duty. When a caretaker of a very important duty and location has to step off the Path to correct the Secretary of Defense, it should be instant grounds for dismissal. It won’t happen.
Now we have to hope that a Democratic Congress will be able to pull the Articles of Impeachment off the shelf, dust them off, and take action. There’s so much we have to do, but please don’t forget about Petey Boy. He needs to go the hell away.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking is the ability to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
One of ours who’s name escapes me had a serious medical problem and was hospitalized so I’m ok with giving him a pass. That still left ten who didn’t vote for one reason or another and the ‘stuck in traffic’ excuse a couple gave just doesn’t fucking cut it. All knew a vote was coming, and should have allowed for the possibility it would come up at anytime. Perhaps Johnson had info. that enough were missing or deep into something or other elsewhere in the Capitol or over taking with someone in one of the Senate Office buildings and realized he should put the thing up for a vote and maybe get lucky.
What really galls me is one of the names on the list that didn’t vote was Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi! WTF? She should have been helping Jeffries whip votes.
Yes, absolutely a pass for the man in the hospital. Pelosi was on the West Coast, with something involving veterans. There was one other who also deserves a pass for something, but I have forgotten his name. It’s in an article that’s a couple layers deep. There is no excuse for the others. There just *isn’t*. We needed to do this!
My question is what are Cantaloupe Caligula and this jackwagon hiding from the American public?
The Pentagon has advised military bases to plan to operate off the grid for up to 90 days while the U.K. has instructed its citizens to stockpile food, water and cash for a possible massive disruption…….. yet not a word to the US citizenry.
Yesterday, Microsoft Outlook faced massive service disruptions, the FAA was forced to declare a grounding of all planes not currently in flight and NOAA (National Weather Service) has reported disruptions to accessing their sites and products. Way too much coincidence for me.
Are these two idiots going to give an upcoming possible infrastructure attack the Covid treatment? Stick your fn head in the sand and hope no one notices and maybe it will just go away.
Would you put it past either of these incompetent morons?
Please add to the list of countries issuing stockpile in case of disruption advisories…..
Japan, Canada, France, and the Netherlands have instructed its citizens to stockpile essential supplies.
Okay, this worries me. My husband is doing our biweekly grocery run tomorrow. I’ll tell him. The fact that more *countries* are advising their citizens of this really makes me worry. What don’t we know?
No, I wouldn’t put it past either of them to wait, lie, and see if “it gets better.” That’s exactly what they will do if something that major happens. And for all we know, it could start here. Sure, that sounds a little bit far-fetched, but …but.
Have him take out CASH, if banking is disrupted, your cards will be useless…..everyone still honors cash.
I am not one to portray Chicken Little, but these are just too many coincidences to ignore or dismiss…..throw on top of that we are approaching the biggest travel day AND the biggest retail day of the year next week, and you have one mighty fine recipe for disaster.
Better to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it.
Okay. I’m getting F***ING tired of having to remind people of HOW IMPEACHMENT WORKS.
I’ve read so many leftist and leftwing content creators just freaking the hell out about those 11 Democrats and how they should’ve been there for the vote and yadda yadda yadda.
Here’s what we ALL need to remember about the IMPEACHMENT PROCESS.
Point the first: The House holds a vote on articles of impeachment (I write “articles” because most impeachment involve multiple reasons, rather than just one–and each article MUST be voted on). To compare this with the criminal trial process, this would effectively be where the district attorney or other lead prosecutor has gotten a formal indictment by the grand jury to proceed with the case to trial. The House vote requires a simple majority vote. I will also note that, while the 11 Democrats are being criticized, adding those 11 to the number who did vote comes to 426, meaning there are 9 OTHER representatives who didn’t vote–according to a quick search, there are only 2 official vacant seats (one vacated by a GOPer last April and one vacated by a Dem also in April)–leaving 7 OTHER non-voting members. The way the math is mathing, the current House party breakdown features 218 GOPers, 214 Dems, 1 Independent and the 2 vacancies. Meanwhile, the vote was 211 to 204. And we already have a list of the “Evil Eleven” (haven’t heard that term come up but it seems to be the feeling by the outraged leftist creators out there) but here, again, is what’s missing. Only 1 GOPer (Massie who introduced the bill) voted for the impeachment while 203 Dems voted for it (as a technicality, the vote was actually to TABLE the bill so the Dems and Massie actually voted AGAINST the measure but I digress). Meanwhile, that aforementioned Independent? Well, he’s a former GOPer and he voted to keep Hegseth. And it turns out ALL SEVEN of the other non-voters were GOPers. So, even if EVERYBODY had shown up for the vote (I really haven’t heard any criticisms of the missing GOPers from the right-wing side), the vote would’ve been 218 to 215.
After putting a little perspective on the House vote, now we get to what happens in the impeachment process after that.
Point the second: AFTER a successful House vote that produces articles of impeachment against the person, the House then sends it to the Senate for a vote whether to proceed with the impeachment or not. In the criminal trial comparison, this is usually when a judge listens to both sides to set a trial date (and, in some cases, to determine if the evidence available warrants the trial). In the impeachment case, this vote is determined by the Majority Leader. If he feels there may be merit, then he’ll allow a vote; if he feels there isn’t merit, he’ll deny a vote. And, as the current Majority Leader is a GOPer and one who is more than happy doing Drumpf’s bidding on most issues and he also kind of helped Hegseth through his confirmation hearings so even if the impeachment articles were sent to him, the chances of him even considering to allow a vote are practically zero (since that would basically be an admission that he’d made a bad decision). But . . . let’s just pretend we’re in a reality where a GOPer politician IS willing to acknowledge a bad choice and he does bring it before the Senate for a full trial. (And it IS considered a trial.) He will set a date to allow the House to decide who will “prosecute” the impeachment and allow the party facing impeachment to assemble a defense team. (This latter point is a bit more akin to a formal debate rather than an actual criminal trial as the “defendant” doesn’t normally ever “take the stand” in their own defense. In a criminal trial, the defense team may or may not have their client take the stand–they may even dissuade their client from taking the stand at all–but in impeachment cases, it’s very uncommon for the person facing impeachment to plead their own case.)
Now that we’ve gotten through that, let’s get to the final bit.
Point the third: The trial is over and the jury (Senate members) hold a vote. It’s not done in secret as it’s a formal Senate vote. So, the Senators vote. And here’s where things get problematic.
Point the fourth: An individual is considered to have been “impeached” with a simple majority vote. Since this impeachment does NOT involve the President, the Vice President acts as the judge. If the trial results in a 50-50 tie, the VP does NOT cast a vote (his role is not that of “President of the Senate” as it was during Hegseth’s confirmation vote). Also, with a tie vote, the person is NOT technically impeached. If the vote is “guilty” by 51-49 then the person has been impeached. If the vote is “guilty” by 49-51, then the person is NOT impeached. So, that’s it, right? Not so fast.
Point the fifth: Well, we’ve just seen Hegseth get impeached. Why is he not being forcibly removed from his position? Well, because he wasn’t guilty ENOUGH. To be impeached AND removed from office requires a much heftier vote: A two-thirds majority vote of those present is required. If all 100 Senators are present, then that means 67. If only 90 Senators are present, then that means 60. Two-thirds of all Senators who are there. If all 100 Senators are present but, let’s say 5 choose to vote “present,” then we still need a two-thirds majority vote or 67. Essentially, it’s conceivable that 35 members could vote “present” and nothing would happen to Hegseth because those “present” votes are treated as “not guilty” votes (kind of the same way we say that people who don’t vote in an election are still essentially voting for the winner). Anything less than that two-thirds majority leaves the impeached person in their office. Now, depending on the size of the majority vote, a person with any sense of real morals and obligation to serving the best interests of the country would do the HONORABLE thing and resign their office. We’re dealing with Hegseth. We can easily say he doesn’t know the meaning of “honorable” so there’s no chance that he would DO the “honorable” thing.
Now. Getting to the final point:
Point the fifth: Let’s say this procedural vote HAD resulted in Hegseth’s being “impeached by the House.” AND, let’s say that John Thune rushed things through so that the trial could take place before Jan 3, 2027 (when the new majority-Dem Senate is seated). What would be the outcome of that trial? Currently, there are only 47 Democrats and Democratic-caucusing independents in the Senate (and Fetterman is a genuine toss-up). For Hegseth to be REMOVED (which is, after all, the only option of MERIT in this situation), he has to be found guilty by 67 Senators. Again, at the moment there are only a “guaranteed” 46 “guilty” votes. TWENTY-ONE VOTES would be needed FROM GOP SENATORS to get Hegseth removed from office (by force, if necessary). Does it rain chocolate in your universe while unicorns ride rainbows? No? Well, that whole impeachment process was a waste of time.
But, what of the other option? Let’s look.
Point the sixth: IF Thune had the articles of impeachment placed before him, he could simply go ahead and speak with Democratic leaders to set a trial AFTER the new Senate is seated. (He’d probably get some major flak from Drumpf but he’s also not up for re-election until 2028 and even though #DiaperDonny criticized Thune’s refusal to change the 2020 election results, Thune still 70% of the GOP primary vote against 2 challengers. That was the only serious primary fight since he was first elected to the Senate in 2004.) And IF that trial didn’t happen until mid-January or so, and we manage to pull off getting that 56 seats (getting Alaska after just having the Dem declared the winner in Mississippi), AND Fetterman doesn’t decide to defect to the GOP and actually votes WITH his Democratic and Dem-caucusing Independents, that STILL leaves us ELEVEN seats short of the votes to remove Hegseth from office. There were only THREE GOP Senators who voted against Hegseth’s confirmation: Mitch McConnell (who “chose” not to run for re-election); Susan Collins (who was just beaten for re-election); and Lisa Murkowski (who’s still in the Senate). So, of them, there’s ONE likely vote to kick Hegseth to the curb, so we’re now up to 57. We still need another 10. Does anyone want to consider which of the other 43 GOPers in the Senate will choose to stand up to Drumpf and kick out HIS Secretary of Defense? There is the possibility that fifteen GOP Senators might decide the impeachment trial would be a nice time to use some “sick leave” which would allow the 57 (likely) “guilty” votes to remove Hegseth but, that’s about as likely as there being liquid chocolate raining from the sky during the next thunderstorm.