(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

Rep. Ro Khanna disappointed me the other night. He floated the idea of censuring the president* as opposed to opening an impeachment inquiry. This, of course, was the notion that the Republicans laughed at in 1998—MoveOn.org began in those days as "Censure and Move On"—because their goal was to overturn the 1992 and 1996 elections by any means necessary. This alternative is even more lame in our current circumstances.

This is a president* and an administration* that does not take congressional subpoenas seriously, and that respects the constitutional order even less than it understands it. A censure would do absolutely less than nothing. One of the ways you can tell it's a terrible idea is that Peggy Noonan has raised her glass to it. She believes that impeaching El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago would be too "divisive." And this from someone who once pondered in print whether Fidel Castro had blackmailed Bill Clinton into sending Elian Gonzales back to live with his father in Cuba, memorably wandering off the trolley with the immortal phrase, "Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to."

Even in the best of circumstances, which this assuredly is not, congressional censure of a renegade president is next to worthless. The only president ever censured was Andrew Jackson and he ignored it and, later, had it expunged from the congressional record, and largely from history. You could get pretty good odds that this president* wouldn't even know it happened. If you believe, as I do, that this is the most perilous presidency* in American history, there is only one way to end it. Start the inquiry. Get the wheels in motion.

There’s only one solution. Win McNamee Getty Images

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Tuition Blues" (Jimmy Smith): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit to the Pathe Archives: Here, for no particular reason, is the Sultan of Zanzibar as he visits the Manchester Ship Canal in 1929. Apparently, this chap was named Khalifa bin Harub, and he was a long-running sultan indeed, ruling his sultanate from 1911 until 1960. He seems happy to be among men who wear sillier hats than he does. History is so cool.

If it's not one damn thing these days, it's another. From CNN:



Residents in Nottinghamshire, England, are being warned by police to be vigilant of the animals that dug out of their enclosure on Tuesday. The raccoon dogs are "potentially dangerous if approached as they are not domesticated," Nottinghamshire police said. A resident was able to capture a photo of one of the animals at a nearby farm shortly after they escaped. Raccoon dogs, also known as tanukis, are members of the canid family, which includes dogs and wolves. Although they look a lot like dogs, experts don't recommend adopting raccoon dogs. The mammals are are found mostly in East Asia and Western and Northern Europe.



I pride myself on my knowledge of funky animal species around the world but, I have to confess, the tanuki got by me. However, after extensive consultation with Blog Director of Research Dr. Google, I discover that tanuki fur is prized by bunco artists who use it to relieve wealthy suckers who buy fake furs of their money. In other words, you think you are a Friend of the Earth who buys manufactured fur and it turns out that you're really wearing raccoon dog to the opera.

The mythical raccoon dog, in the flesh. Arterra Getty Images

And then there's this, courtesy of the Mother Earth Network, which I did not necessarily need to know.

Believe it or not, the mythical tanuki's exaggerated scrotum has nothing to do with male virility or sexual over-indulgence. The origin of this defining characteristic dates back to 19th century, when metal workers wrapped gold in tanuki skin before hammering it into gold leaf. The strength of the tanuki's skin was so great that, according to legend, a tiny piece of gold could be hammered thin enough to stretch across eight tatami mats. Because the Japanese terms for a small ball of gold ("kin no tama") and testicles ("kintama") are so phonetically similar, the image of a tanuki with a gigantic testicular region is now associated with good fortune and stretching one's money.

That whole stretching-your-dough business baffles me, unless it is the entymological source for the slang phrase, "old moneybags."

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, Live Science? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

The quadrupedal to bipedal switch made by this sauropodomorph — a type of herbivorous, long-necked and long-tailed dinosaur — appears to be unique among the animal kingdom. "We cannot find any living animals, besides humans, that do a transition like this at all," said study co-lead researcher Andrew Cuff, a post-doctoral researcher in biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the United Kingdom...M. patagonicus, the researchers found, likely walked on all fours as a baby because its center of mass (also known as its balancing point) was so far forward. If it had only walked on its two hind legs, the dinosaur would have face-planted.

It must have been quite an event around the Patagonicus household when baby P. took its first steps. Dinosaurs were adorable then to make us happy now.

The Committee is always happy when it is provided with evidence that the reach of the shebeen is growing, so hostile Top Commenter Scott Aiman won this week's Top Commenter of the Week when he reported that a certain Arkansas senator is trying to raise a little money off our account.

Got a fund raising letter from Senator Tom Cotton, raising money off Commie Charlie's hate filled spew ("bobble throated slap**** from Arkansas, etc). Will send a donation. Thank you, Furr Face.

Thank you for your prompt reply. The Committee is grateful for your efforts on its behalf and your Beckhams are in the mail. Don't hold your breath waiting for them.

I'll be back on Monday with whatever fresh hell awaits us this weekend. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snakeline, or the mythical tanuki may show up and leave you holding the bag, as it were.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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