An Impeachment Primer

This is your lucky day!

I bet with all of the impeachment of President "Donald" J. Trump talk, you said to yourself, "I don't know what exactly impeachment is and if there have been other Presidents that have been impeached. Is there someone who can help me?" 

Like I said, this is your lucky day because I was a history major and political science minor in college.  I can tell you all you need to know about Presidential impeachment. For your added benefit, I will be fact-checked by The National Association of History Majors.


What is impeachment?  Impeachment is a political process in which a President can be removed from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors".

What are "high crimes and misdemeanors"?  It doesn't have a precise meaning. To regular people (voters) is means committing a felony (robbing a bank) or misdemeanor (petty theft).  To political activists on Twitter, it means any action of a President you don't like.

Huh?  President Gerald "R" Ford once said  "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment. Wait. Is that a hole? Whoaaaaaaaaaaa."  (Note:  The National Association of History Majors advises that the last part of this quote is an ill-advised attempt at humor and will write Mr. Manis a strongly worded e-mail.)

Where does impeachment start?  It starts in the House of Representatives, or as it is known in our nation's capital, "Not The Brightest Collections of Former Bartenders Around".  From there it goes to the Senate where the President goes on "trial" and can be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.  However, and this is important, a President can be "impeached" and not removed from office.

Have Other Presidents Been Impeached?  Yes, two Presidents have been impeached.

Andrew Johnson.

Andrew Johnson was one of Abraham Lincoln's not well thought out ideas.  He was a Democrat from Tennessee. Lincoln thought it would be neat to a have a Southerner on the ticket even though Johnson wrote a book about the environment and said the "earth has a temperature" like he was some high school librarian.  (Note:  The National Association of History Majors advises that Mr. Manis has confused Andrew Johnson with another Vice President from Tennessee, Albert  "Al" Gore.)  Lincoln, as you may remember, was assassinated and Johnson became President.  Johnson was basically an uncouth goob and he was impeached for that reason.  Technically, Johnson was impeached for firing Secretary of War Edwin Staton and this violated the "You Can't Fire Edwin Staton Act".  Johnson was almost "convicted"  or removed from office by the Senate.  But, the Senate finally concluded, "We know this is 1868 and all, but man this is a boring reason to remove somebody from office. We'll let him go with a good talking to and put a note in his file in human resources."  (The National Association of History Majors: "Sigh") 

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton

Now, this is the President with the Vice President that had a book about the environment! (The National Associate of History Majors: "Yay. Something accurate!")  President Bill's trouble began when an "independent prosecutor" began investigating a sneaky land purchase in President Bill's home state of Arkansas and ended with President Bill's getting in trouble for lying about dropping his trousers in front of an Arkansas state employee and doing something gross with a cigar to a White House intern. There was also something about a blue dress.  We learned way too much information about President Bill.  The House of Representatives impeached President Bill but the Senate, like with President Johnson, failed to convict him.  Historians have concluded that it was a mistake to impeach President Bill, mainly because it made his battle-axe wife, Hillary, a sympathetic character, which historians say was nearly impossible to do.


What about Nixon?  In 1972, Richard Nixon was cruising to a landslide re-election against the hapless George McGovern when he decided to do the most Nixon thing possible. He ordered a break-in to The Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel to obtain information that would hurt McGovern's chances, even though McGovern had as much of a chance of becoming President as I have becoming People Magazine's "Sexiest Man of The Year".  (The National Association of History Majors: "Amen").  Then in true Nixon fashion, he lied about it for two years. Unlike President Bill, there was no sex involved, so it was kind of boring.  There were tapes and hearings. Somewhere along the line Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew (yes, that was his name) had to resign from his office for something totally unrelated to Watergate (the name of the scandal, not the hotel) and Gerald R Ford (see above) became Vice President.  Long story short: when it became apparent that Nixon would be convicted in the Senate he resigned before The House could vote on impeachment. This led to  Ford becoming  President on my 15th birthday.

Will Trump Be Impeached? Probably. The Democrats really want to impeach him. He is their great orange whale.  I seriously doubt if he will be removed from office.

But hey, I'm a history major. What do I know?

This Week's Picks 5

I've got some great news for all of the University of Tennessee fans.  Tennessee will not lose this Saturday.  It is a lock.  You can take it to the bank.

Of course, it is their Bye Week.

When my son, Ben Manis The Great Number 38 was the twelfth string running back for the Kennesaw Mountain High School Mustangs, I looked forward to the bye week. Mainly because Kennesaw Mountain was known as a "band school".  The marching band always won all of these marching band awards and the football team was just number one in our hearts.

The Bye Week meant none of the hustle and bustle of a game night. You could come in, eat supper, and watch a movie.

So, Tennessee fans, just take this Saturday off. Relax. The Volunteers are just having one of those seasons. Y'all will be back. One of these days. Maybe. Perhaps. Hopefully.  Probably not, but you never know. Oh, who am I kidding? All hope is lost. You might has well throw your orange spirit wear in a pile and set it on fire.

This Week's Picks!



Bees vs The Other Owls:  When we last left our buzzy bees, they had just lost a heartbreaking game to The Citadel, which the last time I checked, was in the Southern Conference in the FCS. Hey, it can happen to anybody.  Temple, incidentally, is the alma mater of Bill Cosby. Cosby played for Temple and he had a great bit about playing Hofstra. Tech's new head coach Geoff Collins was Temple's head coach last year.  He's probably the only person who has ever wished he was back in Philadelphia.  Temple wins.

Meechigan vs The University of New Jersey But We Call It Rutgers:  Quick! Name a team that should be playing a whole lot better. Of course, it is Michigan.  I'm not sure what is wrong with Michigan, but it may be two words that rhyme with Him Jarbaugh.  Rutgers win.

Raw Tad vs Ole Mess:  I haven't been keeping up with Alabama that much except to notice they are killing people.  The big news is that Coach Satan Saban has criticized the students for leaving the games when Bama is up by 14 billion points.  I didn't think Satan Saban noticed other non-football playing carbon-based life forms. Meanwhile, Ole Mess was robbed last week by a group of refs that even Kamala Harris would deem as retarded. Bless their hearts, Ole Miss just can't have nice things. Bama wins

SoCal vs Wooshington:  In case you don't remember, Washington quarterback Jacob Eason used to be the starting quarterback at Georgia The Huskies are 3-1 but they really haven't played anybody. Meanwhile, the Trojans are 3-1 also, but they beat Utah last week and the Utes (really, that's their team name) are supposed to be pretty good. This would be a big win for Washington if they could get it. They won't.  USC wins.

Kennesaw State vs Reinhardt:  My Beloved Owls take on The Reinhardt University Eagles.  Reinhardt is just up the street from Kennesaw State in Waleska, Georgia. Where is Waleska?  Go to Canton, Georgia and take a left. Reinhardt, like Kennesaw, used to be a junior college and it has grown up to be a university. They are a fairly competitive NAIA football team.  Owls win

What's So Funny?

For the past couple of month, I have been watching old "Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In" episodes on my Amazon Prime account.

Quick history:  "Laugh-In" aired as a "special" on NBC in the fall of 1967.  NBC added it as a mid-season replacement to air on Monday nights at 8:00 to go up against "Gunsmoke" in January of 1968.

"Laugh-In" quickly became a hit. It spawned such catchphrases as "Here Comes The Judge" and "Sock  It To Me".

Let me tell you, watching these shows, some 50 years later, can be difficult. Some of the jokes weren't that funny in 1968 much less 2019.

But I have found myself laughing out loud at some bits. The 1968 fall season opened with Arte Johnson's German soldier character standing next to Bob Hope. Johnson says, in a thick German accent, "I waited for you every Christmas".  You can't tell if Bob Hope is just being the greatest straight man on earth or if he had no idea what was going on

Henry Gibson had a character that was a priest who would sip tea at the weekly cocktail party. The cocktail party was where "Laugh-In" would trot out their fair to middling jokes, but it also gave a look into the culture of 1968, much like a Johnny Carson monologue would do.

Gibson's priest said, in a high moralistic tone, "I'm all for the modernization of the Church, but I refuse to call the sacramental wine the Bible Belt".

Maybe those two examples aren't knee slappers, but it wasn't bad and they made me laugh some fifty years later.

However, I'm sure that there is somebody, somewhere, ready to file an article about how "problematic" it is to watch "Laugh-In" all these years later.

Judy Carne (fun fact: she was Mrs. Burt Reynolds for a while) was the "Sock It To Me Girl".  She would say, "It's sock it to me time" and a big boxing glove would punch her in the face or a mallet would hit her over the head or she'd fall through a trap door or water would be thrown on her.  We would have vapors of this type of comedy today.

Ruth Buzzi's big character was "Gladys", who was a homely looking spinster always fighting advances from Tyrone, Arte Johnson's dirty old man.  Tyrone once asked her, "Do you believe in the hereafter?"   Gladys replied, "I most certainly do".  Tyrone said, "Good, now you know what I'm here after."   I'm sure somebody will point out the "body shaming" and the sexual harassment of these bits.

This is the 25th Anniversary of the TV show "Friends".  Apparently, there is a new cottage industry explaining how "problematic" the TV show was, besides the obvious fact that a guy like Ross would never in a billion years hook up with a girl like Rachel.

My favorite one is from Buzzfeed titled "Actually, 'Friends' Is Terrible"  and it is by a young lady that is my son's age.  Here it is for your consideration.  Spoiler alert:  a lot of it has to do with Monica's fat suit.  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/friends-anniversary-bad 

I'm all in favor of being contrarian when it comes to situation comedies. I was never a fan of "Happy Days"  and that was long before Fonzie jumped the shark. But, even though "Happy Days" was about the '50s and Ralph and Potsie wore '70s  haircuts, I've never seen an article that says ACKCHYUALLY HAPPY DAYS WAS HORRIBLE.

It seems we have lost our sense of humor.

I don't know exactly when this happened. It seems we have now an expiration code when it comes to comedians. I remember when Tim Allen first came out.  Man, this guy grunts. Crazy! Now we find out that he is sort of a Republican and that makes him icky.

Bill Maher is a later day Lenny Bruce. Except when he calls out the "Squad" for their anti-semitism or when he fat shames.

We can't quote Woody Allen anymore, without at least acknowledging his issues. Lord knows you can't quote Bill Cosby.

Now even Dave Chappelle (DAVE CHAPPELLE) is problematic.

This is the only test I have for comedy: does it make me laugh?  If it doesn't, I don't watch it or listen to it.  In other words, I'm not looking for humor to "shed light" on any subject. I'm just looking for some laughs.

I don't see what is so hard about that.

We can no longer take a joke. As another "Laugh-In" character used to say, "And that's the truth."

 

This Week's Picks: The One With The Snarky Tennessee Memes

I don't care what anyone says, the United States of America is number one when it comes to creating memes about college football teams. Like this one about the University of Tennessee.

And this one, about the University of Tennessee

This one is my favorite.

Just to show you I'm fair.

This Week's Picks!




Pups vs Wolves That Are Red:  UGA has another breather before the Irish Men With Anger Issues come into town. For the record, Arkansas State is in the Sun Belt Conference, which means they are a little bit better than an FCS. Also for the record, a Sun Belt Conference team beat Tennessee, so anything can happen. It won't.  UGA wins.

Bees vs The Lords of Discipline:  What do you know? The Bees overcame "The Manis Jinx" and beat South Florida. They'll do it again this Saturday against The Citadel. Just like Georiga, Tech's schedule will become harder after this game so they ought to enjoy it while they can.   Tech wins


Row Tads vs The Illegal Game Birds:  Every year, around this time, one of my Facebook friends posts a picture of a topless Bama gal that has the Bama elephant painted on her chest. Let me tell you, that elephant has some mighty big ears. That doesn't have anything to do with the game but it makes me smile because it shows how fanatical some of the Bama fans are. I mean, the lady is a wee bit too old to be painting her chest and walking around in public. On top of that, she is at best a "five" with beer/gin/scotch goggles on, but I'm sure her husband and mama love her.  Anyway, her elephant has some big ears. Where was I?  Oh yeah, the game.  Bama is Bama and South Carolina is South Carolina.  Bama wins
 
Barely Tennessee vs. Rocky Topped.  My wife and I like to go to Chattanooga every now and then. It holds special memories for us. I won't go into it here, except to say my son's middle name is Nooga. Anyway, things are rough at Old Rocky Top. Bless their hearts. Oh yeah, enjoy one last snarky Tennessee meme.   Tennessee wins.

Kennesaw State vs Alabama State.  Even though I (somehow) graduated from Kennesaw State (it was Kennesaw College back then), I try to be objective when it comes to making my picks. It is my name on the marquee, after all. Even with that, I thought if there was any FBS school the Owls could beat, Kent State would be it. But, no, my Beloved Owls lost. All is not lost. Kennesaw State University President Whitten gave me a thumbs up on Facebook and said I was "an Owl in high standing" for my pick.  The Owls will get back on track.  Owls win. 

Climate Change, Meat, and Paper Straws

Science was not my best subject in school, so I am uniquely unqualified to render an opinion on "Climate Change" or  "Climate Crisis" or "Global Warming", or whatever they are calling it nowdays.

So you know I wasn't going to watch 7 hours of the CNN Town Hall with the rapidly depleting numbers of Democratic candidates for President.

 I'd rather have a 7-hour root canal without anesthesia than watch it.

You don't have to be Nostradamus to know ahead of time what the Democrats would say.

1) Climate Change  is real.

2) Let us explain why Climate Change is real:  shut up.

3) It is all Trump's fault

4) Ha, Ha, look at him using a sharpie to draw on a map

5) Give us all your money if you want to live.

6) We are all going to die. Right now.


In case you didn't know, there is something called The Green New Deal, which is the creation of someone I think was probably my equal in Science knowledge, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I'm sure the most she has used her science background before The Green New Deal was making a killer Moscow Mule.

But apparently, The Green New Deal is sacrosanct.  It promises to ban:  fossil fuels, 99 per-cent of cars, 99 per-cent of planes, meat, and cow farts. "Moderate" Former Vice President Biden has said The Green New Deal does not "go too far", although he may have thought it was a new menu item at Applebee's.

According to news accounts of the "town hall", not one candidate criticized The Green New Deal. Let that sink in. Democrats have rightly gone bonkers when President Trump goes to Wacky City.  But they don't even blink when a proposed plan wants to ban fossil fuels, which would be a major restructing of American life to say the very least. That to me is weird.

This is the group of people that want to replace President Trump. But what do they want to do? They want to get rid of "fracking".  Kamala Harris, who will be on the ticket if Grandpa Joe wins the nomination, says she "absolutely" wants to get rid of fracking because "We have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the impact of the health and safety of communities."  Note the term: "We have to". (Just for fun, count how many times she uses this phrase.)

However, our grand and glorious protectors of our nation's trust (CNN) did not ask two simple questions. One, what evidence do you have that fracking impacts the health and safety of our communities enormously?  Two, why do we "have to"?  Can't we have one of these marvelous discussions the left always want to engage in before we get rid of something that arguable has helped the United States to no longer be dependent on The Middle East for our energy?

Harris was also asked at the Town Hall about supporting dietary guidelines to decrease the consumption of red meat.  I'm still not clear what "red meat" has to do with climate change except maybe cow poots, but hey, the progressives are on a roll.

Harris said, "The balance that we have to strike here, frankly, is about what government can and should do around creating incentives and then banning certain behaviors."  We already have a balance. The government inspects the meat and makes sure it is fit to eat. Then the government prints a "pyramid" which shows you the proper diet. Up until 2019, the government thought you could make your own decisions about what you order off of a menu.

What does she mean by "creating incentives" and "banning certain behaviors"?  I don't know, but I would bet it means you would no longer be able get one of those monster hamburgers that have double cheese, triple smoked applewood bacon, and an egg on it.

She continued: "I mean, just to be perfectly honest with you, I love cheeseburgers from time to time. Right? I mean, I just do. But there has to be also what we do in terms of creating incentives of what we will eat in a healthy way, that we will encourage moderation, and that we will be educated about the effect of our eating habits on our environment. And we have to do a much better job of that. And the government has to do a much better job of that."

While I appreciate her honesty by admitting she loves "cheeseburgers from time to time" in front of that group of nitwits at the townhall, she doesn't explain how our "eating habits" effects our enviroment. It appears our "eating habits" are just another aspect of life some people in government want to get their grubby hands on.

Here's a question to ponder. Was there any doubt in your mind that Senator Kamala Harris would be in favor of "banning" plastic straws?

Of course she does. Just like a Southern Baptist being against drinking alcohol, a Democrat has to be against plastic straws.  However, and expect this to become an issue in the upcoming Democratic primaries, Harris had the gall to admit, in public, that it is difficult to drink out of a paper straw.

I can vouch for that. My wife and I went to my favorite socialist ice cream shop, Ben and Jerry's on my birthday.  Ben and Jerry made me an incredible milkshake. But there was only one problem: they only had paper straws.

I came to one conclusion: paper straws suck.

The reason for this is that paper straws really don't suck like a plastic straw. But for the record, Senator Harris wants to encourage "innovation" on paper straws.

That's how far we've come in this country in sixty years.We've gone from a President promising to land man safely on the moon to a Presidential candidate promising to make paper straws suck.

Literally.
                         

This Week's Picks

You can always count on one surprising college football game in any college football year.

For example, several years ago, Appalachian State beat Michigan, at THE BIG HOUSE. That was an unexpected victory, sort of like Trump over Clinton.

However, even Appalachian State over Michigan was nothing like Georgia State beating Tennessee.

It wasn't the first time a Sun Belt conference team defeated an SEC school. Louisiana-Monroe defeated Alabama in 2007.

Georgia State didn't defeat Tennessee. Georgia State beat Tennessee. It wasn't luck. It wasn't a blocked field goal. The Panthers. The blessed Panthers beat Tennessee.

Clay Travis said this was the worst thing to ever happen to a bunch of Tennessee Volunteers since the Alamo.  At least at the Alamo, they were put out of their misery.  The 2019 edition has the rest of the season to slog through.

This Week's Picks




Dawgs vs The State of Murray.  In case you flunked geography in high school or went to Sprayberry, there is not a state in the union called "Murray". However, Murray State is in Kentucky and their team is called "The Moonshiners".  I know, that's kind of weird. Wait, check that. Murray State's team is called "The Erasers".  Hold on, fact check time. Snopes has just advised me that Murray State's team is called "The Racers". A famous alumnus is Bill Bailey, who came home, and is now a former mayor of Seymour, Indiana. That's all I got.  Dawgs win! 

Bumbles vs Bullies:  Both Georgia Tech and South Florida had really bad games last week. Tech was blown out by Clemson and South Florida got whacked by Wisconsin.  If there is a game the Bees can win, it would be this one. Oh, why not?  Bees win!
 

Ellesyou vs Tessas:  I know a lot of you think I just sit down and rip TWPs out with no thought at all. That is incorrect.  Sometimes I sit down and pop open a can of Coke Zero and rip these out.  However, I am going to cut and paste something I found on this thing called The Internet.  "It will be only the second game played between the two schools in over 50 years, and the first in the regular season since 1954."  Isn't it odd that LSU and Texas haven't played in a regular-season game in 66 years?  After several down seasons, Texas is playing better and LSU is still smarting on having to play in the same conference as Alabama.  But for sheer entertainment value, you can't beat LSU coach Ed Oregron, who was raised down in the swamp. He hunted gators for a living. He'd just knock 'em in the head with a stump.  I think LSU is better.  LSU wins!

Stony Brook vs Utah State;  Occasionally, I will weigh in on schools I know absolutely nothing about (all together now: "Oh Really?!").  Utah State is out in the Mountain West Conference and it is where my friend Paul's son goes to college.  I will say that based solely on the pictures on Facebook, Utah State looks like a beautiful school.  Their football team is pretty good.  This week they are playing Stony Brook, which is one of your fancy-schmancy Long Island schools.  I know less about Stony Brook than I do Utah State. However, I can tell you a famous alumnus of Stony Brook is Joy Behar. If that isn't a reason to pull for Utah State, I don't know what is.  Utah State wins!

KSU vs KSU: My Beloved Owls fly up (get it?) to Kent, Ohio to play Kent State University. Here are some of the alumni of Kent State:  Drew Carey, Steve Harvey, Michael Keaton, Chrissie Hyde, Joe Walsh, most of the band Devo, Nick Saban, and Lou Holtz.  Kennesaw State's alumni: me, Mac Powell, and Ty Pennington. I read that Kent State has a 69% chance of winning this game. If my math skill doesn't fail me, that means the Owls have a 31% chance of winning.  The mayor of Owl Town, Caric Martin, has issued a proclamation preventing me from just saying "KSU Wins". Okay, Mr. Mayor:  Owls win!