Impeachment trial open thread—"Head on a pike"

I had a discourse on welfare states vs. socialism all planned in my head for today, and then I foolishly woke up and saw the above quote.

There are many ways to take this.

If you are of a particular bent, this is one more example of Donald Trump's dictatorial leanings. This is not something a president says to a co-equal branch of government. Obviously he sees his party's legislators as nothing other than ciphers, there just to execute his whims. As believers in our democratic system, we should be aghast that the putative chief executive would even think of issuing such a threat.

Of course, you can also say: Karma is a bitch. The GOP hitched its wagon to an aspiring autocrat. It shouldn't be surprised that he's acting out as he is as he faces ruination. The GOP had a chance to repudiate this evil in 2016. It may have meant the splitting of the party, but at least they would have kept their honor and independence. But, obviously, the party was too far gone by then. Trump isn't a cause of Republican pathology, but merely its greatest symptom. The party had been sick for generations.

And then, there's the way I'm reacting: with utter derision. This is nothing but the outcry of scared little boys and girls, seeing their gravy train derailing, seeing that they will have no lives worthy of the name after Trump is excised like a cancer. Who's going to hire Stephen Miller? Kellyanne Conway? Mike Pompeo? While some of the more timorous on or side can't envision Trump not triumphing, the fact is that very soon his time will come to an end, and everyone who attached themselves to him will have their lives destroyed. Thus this threat. We don't know who issued it, but it sounds like the desperate act of a desperate regime, of minions who want to hang on for just one more day, hoping for a dark miracle to save them.

And, of course, they're not helping themselves in the only court which really matters, that of public opinion. This is but more sauce for the goose, more evidence of this regime's incompetent malfeasance. The majorities which are insisting on a real trial will now grow ever larger. The cover-up is so hamfisted that it offends anyone not firmly willing to go down with the ship.

Happy Friday, everyone. The flopsweat is drenching.