Impeachment

(diary)

More horrible times, but repeating that is a truism.

Biden has taken off over the past weeks and it looks confident that he will vanquish the threat of a contested convention and a Sanders hissy fit. Well, the fit will still happen but there will be no air to sustain it. The loss of Warren (at least for me, as a guy) I can live with and in fact I turned around pretty quickly to Biden after she dropped out. He was never even on my short list of choices because, let’s face it, we really need to stop with old and white and male beating out qualified. However, when he became effectively the last man standing, I felt how I think many people felt (again, as a guy) that a clear, reasonable decision had finally brought some certainty into our, Democrats’, direction moving forward. The certainty is the thing.

Impeachment

(diary)

The DOJ has been destroyed with Barr, now on to the IC with Richard Grenell. No experience in intelligence (no pun), hated by Germany when he was Trump’s ambassador to Germany, Fox News contributor. He’s an “acting” director so, no Congressional oversight. A senior adviser to Grenell is Kash Patel. He worked closely with Giuliani and tried to discredit the Russia probe. Quoting Masha Gessen: “Institutions will not save you.”

Impeachment

(diary)

Fri 14 Feb 2020

I’m ending the week that should have despondency instead with optimism. One of the lawyers I follow (probably Teri Kaniefeld?) advised that the coming months up until the election, and likely after, will contain a maelstrom of offenses. He’s completely unfettered, he benefits from distractions, there’s no chance that Rs will check him in any way from this point on. Instead of focusing on the day’s chaos, plan for the exit strategy that is the next election. Accept that there is (very likely) no punished or pause for him while in office. This is good advice that could have been given at any point in the last 3+ years, so the following it always depends on just how much zen-like calm you can muster.

Impeachment

(diary)

Fri 7 Feb 2020

Every week is exhausting and I don’t want to write and think about what is happening.

Just today, in casual conversation, I spoke with a guy who said–politics not having been broached prior–that it’s stupid to think that the political climate is worse than it’s ever been. This is the same guy who once said that he doesn’t follow political news because you can’t trust anyone. Yes, those two ideas express an internal, intellectual contradiction. This is what we’re up against. (Unrelated: he also felt that it was stupid to encrypt medical data because everyone “shares all of their personal information on social media anyway.” I pointed out that encrypted data gives them the choice to reveal what they’re comfortable with revealing. His response was a defensive retreat, explaining that he just found it “humorous” that people stress over medical privacy while at the same time revealing medical conditions. This is a corollary to reality TV syndrome: watch people make bad decisions in life so that you can feel superior. This form is: label others’ decisions bad so that you can feel superior. (The mood of the conversation ended poorly.))

Impeachment

(diary)

Fri 31 Jan 2020

For the past 3+ years political events have compounded daily to the horrible then more horrible; this week compressed that and moved the catalyst of horribleness from Trump to (mostly) the Republican Senators. What they’ve done is shocking.