#703 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday July 11)
Good morning,
IMPEACHMENT MANIA
There is an old adage, often attributed to George Washington, that “the best offense is a good defense.” That phrase has been turned on its head by the Republican push to impeach nearly everyone in the Biden administration. By throwing so much flak in the water, they no doubt hope some of allegations will stick in people’s minds and the public will find itself reverting to the another age-old adage, “all politicians are the same.” False equivalency and the use of the threat of impeachment are now the order of the day. Here’s the latest:
Merrick Garland, Attorney General, is being pursued by the Republican State Leaders Committee for “alleged interference in Hunter Biden’s case,” which is “a slap in the face to Americans across the country and violates his sacred oath to uphold our laws…” The articles, introduced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, assert impeachment for “facilitating the weaponization and politicization of the United States justice system against the American people.” I find it ironic that one of former president Trump’s most vocal supporters has said not one word about Mr. Trump’s clear and unambiguous attempts to weaponize the Department of Justice, viewing it as subservient to him, while pursuing Mr. Garland.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Majorkas is being pursued over border policy and enforcement. Representative Clay Higgins states on his website: “articles of impeachment [have been filed] against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his failure to secure the southern border, dereliction of duty, and wanton disregard for his Constitutional oath.” According to Politico: “House Republicans are quietly ramping up their intra-party persuasion campaign to get the votes they need to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas...GOP leaders are facing serious pressure from conservatives eager to fulfill a big promise to the party’s base by voting to recommend the Homeland Security secretary’s removal over Biden administration border policies…”
President Biden. Lauren Boebert, Congresswoman from Colorado, has introduced articles of impeachment. The articles claim high crimes and misdemeanors over the handling of the border crisis. Others would extend this to perceived influence peddling (with, as yet, no evidence to back up the claims), springing from his son’s activities. And while Speaker McCarthy has not pursued this matter (based not on evidence, but on feelings about misconduct), most presidential aspirants are jumping on the “impeach Biden” bandwagon. Even Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and darling of the “moderate” end of the party, says impeachment should be pursued now. This is all coming from a party that would not vote to impeach or convict a president of strong-arming another head of government to assist in his political manipulations or for inciting supporters to march on the Capitol and do little to stem the violence.
ON A HAPPIER NOTE…
This evening is baseball’s All-Star Game. I’m looking forward to a good game, with lots of exciting moments. And now that baseball has instituted new rules designed at shortening the game and increasing the action, it should be even better than before.
In light of today’s event, some baseball trivia:
RECENT ALL-STAR GAME DOMINANCE
The American League has won the last nine straight games. In the last 25 games, the American League has won 21, the National League has won only three and there was one tie (unholy in the world of baseball, but there simply weren’t many players remaining in that one). In the last 34 games, the American league has dominated with a record of 27-6-1. It seems there’s something going on…
Of course in the 1960s through the mid-80s (before the current American League dominance), the National League dominated, with a record of 27-5-1. So maybe it’s just chance…
STATISTICS
Baseball is a game of statistics and many are being broken by Shohei Otani, the two-way sensation. Meanwhile, for the first time since Ted Williams, there’s a player flirting with batting .400.
One list I found most interesting is the likelihood of certain events occurring. The below data reflect the likelihood over 235,736 games of each of these single-game feats occurring. Parentheses represent the number of times they actually have occurred:
2 grand slams in one inning, once each 235,736 games (only happened once)
3 hits in one inning, once every 75,579 games (3 times in history)
20K in 9 innings, once every 47,147 games (5 times in history)
3 sacrifice flies, once every 21,431 games (11 times in history)
2 grand slams, once every 18,134 games (13 times in history)
Perfect game lost on 27th batter, one in every 18,134 games (13 times in history)
Unassisted triple play, one in every 15,7165 games (15 times in history)
10 RBI, one in every 14,734 games (16 times in history)
4 HR, one in every 13,096 games (18 times in history)
Perfect game, one in every 9,822 games (24 times in history)
Immaculate inning, one in every 2,068 games (114 times in history)
No-hitter, once in every 739 games (319 times in history)
Hit for the cycle, once in every 687 games (343 times in history)
Happy All-Star Game Day!
Glenn