heroic_jawline: (Default)
Steve Rogers ([personal profile] heroic_jawline) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2018-03-16 06:07 pm
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Lies Your Other Teachers Told You, Friday, March 16, 2018

"Welcome back," Tony said with a smile. "Hopefully you enjoyed the break."

And didn't steal a panda.

"Today we will be discussing the first instance of impeachment with a US President." NO REASON WHY.

"There have been three impeachments in American history so far," Steve added, "and the first one was--on paper, at least--for Andrew Johnson firing the Secretary of War in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which said that he couldn't fire someone who had been confirmed by the Senate. Granted, the Radical Republicans had passed the Tenure of Office because they expected Johnson to fire someone. He had a Cabinet full of people he hated."

"Johnson, in case you don't recall, was the Vice President under Lincoln, becoming president through his assassination," Tony said. "He was a southerner and held southern sympathies despite remaining loyal to the union. Under him, attempts to solidify many of the rights for the newly freed slaves were vetoed. Which placed a target on his back--and rightly so."

"Yeah, he was a pretty crass, ignorant racist," Steve said, not saying that it sounded familiar because he was Being Good, Darn It. "He was also heavily outnumbered by the Radical Republicans in Congress, a party that looks much more like the modern Democrats of today. They passed civil rights legislation that allowed black men to testify in court, to sue, and to buy property. Johnson vetoed that bill, Congress overrode his veto by one and it was pretty much a political disaster from that moment on.

"The writing was on the wall for where this standoff would end," Tony said, giving him a proud look for not going there immediately. It was like they were growing as people! "Congress maneuvered the reconstruction of the South into their hands and made it a military affair. The military being much more supportive of their agenda than the president. So, it was under the purview of the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. And beneath him, the general we mentioned in passing before, Ulysses Grant."

Steve nodded. "In a Cabinet meeting in August, Stanton told Johnson that the military governors would now answer to the Congress and not the President and that every order would pass from Grant through the House of Representatives. Johnson, infuriated, fired him and tried to replace him with Grant. Maybe he should've done it via tweet because Stanton refused to leave his position, which was...fairly awkward."

"However, Congress had basically assumed Johnson would do this." You know, like they were psychic or something. "So, they had also passed--despite his veto--the Tenure of Office Act which prevented the President from firing people in certain jobs without Congressional approval first." Tony shrugged. "Baited and then trapped."

"In their defense, Johnson was a really, really terrible president," Steve said. "So he was impeached, but not convicted. No President--again, so far--has been convicted by the Senate."

"So, question time!" Tony said, clapping his hands together. "Was Congress right to do this? If their policies were reversed, would you still maintain your answer?"
intotheout: (bored)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"And then you end up wishing the aliens would invade."
imafuturist: (trying to look innocent)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Tony's eyes crinkled a little in an attempt not to laugh at that. "Yeah, but then they want bring a guy who wants to eat the planet. It's a real mess."
intotheout: (wtf fandom)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Tip actually had to pause and stare at Tony for that one for a second.

"Did the Gorg invade your world too?!"

Apparently planet eating aliens were a Thing.
imafuturist: (talking at you)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Nah, guy named Galactus? Wore purple armor. Was about the size of Manhattan."

Super uncool.
intotheout: (huh)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
". . . Oh. The Gorg used a big purple moon-sized ship thing. Weird that it's all purple, though."
imafuturist: (wait what)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Huh." It was like a weird inter-dimensional constant or something. "Were there heralds for them?"
intotheout: (what white nonsense)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not officially? The Boov showed up first, but that's because they were on the run from them. Which makes sense, when you have an entire race of aliens whose language is based on punching."
imafuturist: (this is gonna end in tears)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, that seems like it might cause a few diplomatic snafus," he admitted slowly.
intotheout: (hmmph)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"Gorg isn't even the species name," Tip said. "He's just the one who killed all the rest and then cloned himself a billion times to take over the galaxy. Real class acts, the Gorg."

Tip's world was weird.
imafuturist: (...what)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Really?" Tip's world was indeed weird. And this was coming from Tony.
intotheout: (side-eye braid)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeeeee-ep," Tip answered. "The Boov actually gave the Gorg the cloning technology in a peace-keeping effort, to help with their lack of resources. The Gorg used it to build their giant purple spaceship out of living Gorg tissue and make it literally eat other planets instead." She shrugged. "I mean, the Boov did totally stage a hostile takeover of Earth and force humans to live on special 'human preserves', so they're not exactly perfect models of diplomacy either, but . . . yeah. The Gorg suck."

She almost didn't feel bad for personally causing the entire species to have a violent allergic reaction that quite possibly killed them off in space.
imafuturist: (talking at you)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] imafuturist 2018-03-16 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Our aliens are usually more overtly genocidal and consider humanity vermin to get rid of on a perfectly nice planet while they have a slapfight with each other."

Neither the Skrulls nor the Kree would appreciate that assessment, but there they were.

"I think hopeful science fiction lied to us."
intotheout: (sigh)

Re: Discuss!

[personal profile] intotheout 2018-03-16 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"The Boov lightened back up once humans helped give the Gorg the boot," Tip said. "They moved to Titan and opened trade negotiations and everything. They just . . . kind of thought we were all these weird backwater savages who needed their 'civilizing influence', first."

Sound familiar? Yeah. And yet white people in her world still hadn't figured out how terrible they were to people of color.