Two Milestones In History

On this day in 1868, President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives with 11 articles brought, the first President to be impeached. Nine of the 11 articles related to his attempted removal of radical Republican Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, which violated the Tenure of Office Act (repealed in 1887). The vote was 126 to 47. Interesting how the attempted removal of a Cabinet official prompted impeachment proceedings, when today, it's Trump's m.o.

Also on this day in 1988, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn a ruling that awarded right-wing Bible bigot and huckster Jerry Falwell $200,000 over a satirical article in Hustler magazine. Hustler had parodied Falwell's first sexual experience, and Falwell sued. The Court stated that however offensive the satire was, the First Amendment protected the magazine's satirizing a public figure. Now recall Trump's empty threat against NBC over last weekend's SNL satire of him and his wall nonsense; he so wants to be a dictator.