Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune “They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Impeachment “Trump trial set to consume Capitol” [The Hill]. “Forty-five out of 50 Senate Republicans have already voted to advance a motion to dismiss the trial on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, making it extremely unlikely that 17 Republicans will join Democrats this week to convict.” “Trump’s lawyers argue in pretrial brief that his January 6 rally speech ‘was not and could not be construed to encourage acts of violence’ at the Capitol” [Business Insider]. “In their pretrial brief, Trump’s defense lawyers said he had only ‘used the word ‘fight’ a little more than a handful of times and each time in the figurative sense.'” • Just like Democrats, then? More: “‘It was not and could not be construed to encourage acts of violence,’ they wrote. The brief went on to say that ‘the real truth is that the people who criminally breached the Capitol did so of their own accord and for their own reasons, and they are being criminally prosecuted.’ • Throwing the rioters under the bus. More: ‘Democrats cannot pretend that they were confused by the word ‘fight’ in the context President Trump used it in his speech,’ the brief said. ‘Speaker Pelosi has used this word multiple times herself in the context of election security, and the well-known nonprofit started by rising Democratic darling Stacey Abrams and endorsed by none other than Speaker Pelosi is literally called ‘Fair Fight,’ and it asks people to join the ‘fight for free and fair elections.'” • Yeah, but everbody khows Democrats don’t mean it; “fight for” is always just puffery. Anyhow, here is the brief (PDF), which also argues: “Absent an imminent threat, therefore, it is expressly within the First Amendment to advocate for the use of force; similarly, it is protected speech to advocate for violating the law; and as Mr. Trump did neither of these things, his speech at all times fell well within First Amendment protections. He thus cannot be subject to conviction by the Senate under well-established First Amendment jurisprudence.” • Not that liberal Democrats care about the First Amendment, of course.