Recent events have brought to mind the term “Kangaroo Court.”  It’s a term we’ve all heard many times.  Kangaroo courts are sham legal proceedings which give the impression of a fair legal process, but in reality, don’t offer impartial justice, but always render verdicts that are decided in advance, and which invariably are against the accused.  No one really knows the origin of the term “kangaroo court.”  Kangaroos are native only to Australia, but there’s no evidence that the term comes from that continent.  Some resourceful souls have attributed “kangaroo court” to claim jumping  disputes during the California Gold Rush – hence the kangaroos.  That’s just a guess, but the jumping abilities of kangaroos was known in the USA by the early 1800s, so that could be right.  Indeed, the first known reference to a “kangaroo court” was in an American magazine in 1853, so the timing fits.  The kangaroo court comparison nowadays applies to the disgraceful performance of House Democrats in their so-called “impeachment inquiry.”  The Democrats have been trying to impeach President Trump ever since his election.  They really haven’t come up with a good reason, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for them, as they are sure he must be guilty of something.  The whole sad episode is eerily reminiscent  of Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel, The Trial.  The Trial is the story of one Josef K., who wakes up one morning to discover that he’s been arrested on unnamed charges.  They keep insisting that he’s guilty, but they won’t tell him of what.  Throughout the novel, Josef struggles futilely against a secretive and tyrannical court system.  In the end, he’s executed by a knife to the heart.  Neither Josef K., nor the reader ever learns what crime he committed.  Fast forward to the 2019 House of Representatives, in the hands of  the secretive and tyrannical Democrats.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows that pursuing impeachment is liable to create a backlash that will jeopardize her control of the House, which was the result of the elections of more than 30 allegedly moderate Democrats in districts won by President Trump in 2016.  Democrats gained control in a mid-term election.  The expected greater turnout of Trump voters in 2020 could erase those gains if the phony moderates are forced to take sides on impeachment.  That’s why Tricky Nancy won’t allow a House vote to authorize an impeachment investigation.  Instead, Pelosi announced a continued “impeachment inquiry,”in other words a continuation of the witch hunt, based upon no evidence, or unspecified evidence, designed to damage the President.  Meanwhile, Pelosi has put the “inquiry” in the hands of Adam Schiff (for brains) and his Intelligence Committee, which operates behind closed doors.  It hears from witnesses chosen by Democrats, and questioned by  Democrats in secret, then has Democrat members leak selective portions of the testimony that make Donald T. seem guilty.  Guilty of what, you ask?  They won’t say.  They won’t permit Donald T. the right to counsel during the “inquiry,” they won’t permit him to call or question witnesses, nor have they given Donald T. the privilege of knowing precisely what he is to defend against.  For a group so dedicated to lecturing us on the need to preserve “American values,” the Democrats have gone out of their way to deny to the President every right upon which America was founded.  Even the most loathsome criminal (and I know this because I’ve defended a few of them) is guaranteed the right to counsel, the right to confront the witnesses against him, the right to call witnesses in his own behalf and procedural due process, that is the right to know what you are accused of and against which you must defend.  We afford these protections to terrorists, and even to foreign combatants, but according to the Democrats, not to the duly elected President of the United States.  You see, they tell us, this is not a legal proceeding, it political, so those rights don’t apply.  Not really.  Impeachment comes from the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.   And although it gives the House “the sole power of impeachment,” that doesn’t permit the House to impeach for no reason, or for any reason it may cook up.  A President may be impeached and removed from office only for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.  Although the popular notion is that whatever the House decides is impeachable will suffice, that’s not the case.  Under the statutory interpretation doctrine known as ejusdem generis, when specific crimes (treason and bribery) are followed by general violations of law (other high crimes), the general violations are restricted to those of the type specified.  That’s been our history.  Andrew Johnson was impeached for violating a specific act of Congress.  Nixon would have been impeached for obstruction of justice, a high crime.  Likewise Bill Clinton – perjury and obstruction of justice.  Those charges were brought only after public hearings, during which the President was accorded all the rights mentioned above.  The Chief Justice of the United States presides over trials of the President.  Not a legal process, huh?  No Chief Justice of the United States would or should preside over a proceeding derived from a mockery of justice.  The bottom line is that the Democrats have no candidate who can beat President Trump in next year’s election, so they have decided to permit the intelligence community to stage a coup, and seek to inflict as much damage on him as possible.  For people who continue to decry perceived “threats to our democracy,” it is the Democrats who have a knife poised at the heart of our republic.