I never thought the day would come when I would be thrilled about Chuck Schumer. But this week, he led the Senate to a vote declaring the Mayorkas impeachment articles unconstitutional, ending the impeachment trial before it could begin.
For days, I have been watching TV, seeing the House come up with this impeachment drive, and I’ve been telling the people on the tube over and over again, “Those charges don’t meet the constitutional criteria for impeachment!” Even the cat agreed with me, and our cat has never even read the Constitution, but she knows it better than the majority of House Republicans.
As soon as the articles arrived at the Senate, Chuck Schumer organized the vote to dismiss them as unconstitutional, just like he heard me talking about it through the TV.
Somebody might say there still should be a trial, but no, the dismissal constitutes the completion of the hearing. It showed there could never be a two-thirds finding of conviction, because more than half the Senate agreed the charges weren’t appropriate.
This sort of thing happens all the time in other courts. A case makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and gets dismissesd on a technicality — lack of standing of the plaintiffs, for instance. In regards to an impeachment, the Senate is a court and can act like one. Thanks, Chuck Schumer.
Outside the U.S., there are loads of other things going on. Israel slapped back at Iran. Ukraine is still losing its war against Russia because it doesn’t have enough arms. China has banned WhatsApp.
It’s all extremely important, so what do I notice? The UK is on the verge of prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to young people going forward.
Instead of telling everyone they can’t buy cigarettes, the UK wants to make it illegal from now on for anyone born on or after 2009. So if you’re 15 or under, or if you haven’t been born yet, no cigarettes for you. The law hasn’t been made final and may eventually include other tobacco products.
People who are now 16, 17, 18 or older won’t be affected, ever, by the law as now considered. All those people would be “legacy” buyers. It’s a way to avoid having to hear a huge uproar from angry voters. The ones who would complain the most aren’t voters yet, I’m assuming.
Maybe America’s alcohol prohibition Amendment 18 would have worked better if it was set up the same way. If they had confined the prohibition to people born after 1904, who knows how history might have been different? Maybe there would never have been a repeal because most people who would have cared would have been exempt from the prohibition anyway.
Maybe something like this would get gun regulation passed. Only have the new regulations apply to kids born after some date, and leave old people already in militias alone.
If the U.S. Constitution had said no one born after 1760 could buy slaves, our founding fathers would have been cool with that, and the Civil War might have just been fought among centenarians.
Back in the U.S., the Washington Post has called attention to what I consider an annoying development. It’s saying that most of the country’s internet workings are handled by mega computer centers in Virginia, and they’re running out of electricity to deal with the loads. Since green sources of energy can’t be found fast enough, they are going to need new coal plants. Without them, there will be internet brownouts.
I’m sorry. I have to have my streaming Stephen Colbert, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” John Oliver and old “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” videos. Fire those coal plants up! Daddy needs his streaming.
It’s too late to use the UK trick with the internet because too many kids born after 2009 have been allowed access to the internet. We’d have to set the limit later, at 2022, and even that will get us a lot of screaming from toddlers getting their smartphones snatched away from their pudgy little hands.
Who knew it would come down to this? Streaming internet or the environment?
Al Gore did this to us. He invented the internet and global warming. Whatever we do, we should not allow Gore to be a legacy streamer. If anyone has to give up streaming, it should be him.
Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at [email protected].
Read more of the April 24–30, 2024 issue.