Category: News

  • It’s Not the Crime

    Okay, so I have read a great deal today about the new Trump scandal. These are my thoughts;

    1. It’s never the crime, it’s the cover up. As far as I can tell, Trump broke this rule, bigly. The way Trump handled the Russian prob was to claim that he had no idea that what he was doing with Russia was illegal. That seemed to be the point Muller made, that he could prove intent. If Trump intended to commit a crime. This time around, if Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department did try to hide these phone calls, and the whistleblower complaint, then that would show intent. They all knew it was illegal and had to stop it from getting out. To me, that takes away the argument that the call was innocent. The withholding of Ukraine’s defense money might also show intent.
    2. Attorney General Barr is all up in this. I know the NYTimes ran this idea first, but now that Trump is saying to foreign leaders that Barr will contact them, then Barr needs to answer why the President would think that. What conversations has Barr had with Trump about Biden? I know full well Barr will claim that he cannot talk about his conversations with the President, but is there anything at the Justice Department happening about Ukraine, and Biden? When did that get started? Who started it, and when?
    3. This is a stretch, but Rudy is going through a nasty divorce. I don’t think he has his head on straight, and can’t keep all of the truth, lines, and smoke from blending together. Investigators should lean on him, as I think he would be the first to crack.

    None of this is good…

  • It’s Happening

    I’m talking about the impeachment inquiry of Trump, and I find it very hard the believe that articles of impeachment will not be drawn up by the House. And there will be a trial in the Senate, which at this moment looks like Trump will be acquitted.

    That is the short and long of it.

    Now, I’m here to talk about the politics of it, and this is my crazy theory how the Democrats should behave if they want to win the 2020 election even with the acquittal.

    First, regardless that the polling shows most people don’t care, if you believe the President broke the law, then you have to go down this path. If you don’t it makes you look complicit.

    Second, I have heard the chatter that through the course of the investigation, the Democrats could change people’s minds and get the poll numbers in their favor of conviction in the Senate. Unfortunately, I believe that past behavior of the Senate is the best predictor of the future behavior of the Senate. Moscow Mitch will lead the acquittal charge.

    The way I see it, Republicans and Trump supports will stay just that, and nothing will sway them. That means what Democrats might lose with an acquittal are moderates and independents, and part of their own base. M and I’s will leave because no one is talking about the kitchen table issues they care about, and the Dem base will leave because it will appear that Trump is untouchable.

    So, how do Democrats win this situation?

    This is my thought…

    Once the Articles of Impeachment are approved by the whole House, go after Moscow Mitch and all the Republican Senators by saying that they are stooges, and will acquit Trump because they are spineless and put party ahead of country. Just like they did with health care, and taxes, and the environment, and all the other issues that matter. Treat the Senate trial as a far-gone conclusion, because the whole game is rigged, just like the economy. Spin it all back to Republican corruption. Even when Republicans will claim, and they will, that this trial is being forced on them as a political stunt, Democrats immediately hit back with that the Republican vote is a political stunt as well because they are afraid of Trump, and that Democrats would love to get back to the work of the people, but corrupt Moscow Mitch won’t let anything come to the floor of the Senate. So, let’s talk about the 2020 election and issues important to America. Just keep on the attack that Republicans are corrupt and the ones who rigged the game.

    Attack, and stay on the attack. Leave Trump alone. Articles of Impeachment was the best that Democrats could get, and don’t be afraid to say that. Admit it, be proud of it, and call out the other side for corruption. Don’t give in, and most importantly, don’t apologize.

  • Trump or the Emmys?

    These are the first two thoughts that popped into my mind when I thought about writing a blog today; do I write about Trump or the Emmys?

    I could say that writing about Trump, again, will do nothing but make me feel defeated and powerless. Yet again, we have another situation where Trump has gone and done something illegal, and then ho goes and gaslights the world into believing that he was doing everyone a favor for doing this thing, which in his opinion, wasn’t illegal at all. I think Bill Maher had the best reaction this past Friday which was that this will follow the same cycle of denial, then admitting to it but it wasn’t wrong, and then starting another scandal to make everyone forget about the first scandal. I also expect this to happen, which is why I feel defeated and powerless.

    Speaking of defeated and powerless, I watched part of the Emmys, and it was a rather dull affair. The only take away I had was the free broadcast television was now officially dead. SNL was the only over the air broadcast show to win, and the rest went to cable or streaming. This is the new entertainment world we live in. It is a little sad that free tv is no more, as what I mourn for are all the great 15 and 30 second commercials we will never see, as no one watches commercials. All of those jingle writers will be out of a job. Sad.

  • Compartmentalizing

    I just have trouble saying that word, let alone spelling it.

    I think that was what I was trying to write about yesterday when I was speaking about Brett Kavanaugh.

    I don’t think I was very good at it, as a day later, I now feel I know what I was trying to say.

    And then that white dude got fired from SNL before he every performed on the show. This is another white guy, who should have known better.

    There was a piece about Shane Gillis getting fired that I think was very insightful. The comedian who wrote it made a very good point that most comedians punch down with their jokes, and most comedians are white men. It’s just lazy humor, and it always has been. As some comedians were lamenting that we live in an age where you “can’t joke about anything anymore,” but I have to disagree. If I might point out, 40 years ago, Asian Americans weren’t “cool” with being made fun of by white guys because 40 years ago, no one asked Asian Americans, “Are you cool with being made fun of by white guys?” The funny thing is that 40 years ago you would have gotten the same answer you are getting today, the difference is other people are now asking and listening to the answer.

    Either way, he lost a job for what he said, and he will have to live with that.

  • Oh, Brett

    I can’t help but wonder what is going through the head of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh?

    If he’s innocent, I do feel a little bad for him.

    If he did it, then he’s going to get what he deserves. (If you aren’t sure, this is what I am talking about.)

    This story so touches a nerve with me. Though I am a white male in America, outside of that, I do not see any similarity with Brett. If anything, he is emblematic to me of how screwed up America is right now.

    Though I was not born into a well-connected family or got to go to cool places for Summer vacation, or even could get away with behaving “badly” and have it chocked up as “boys being boys.”

    There is a part of me that believes Brett when he says he has no memory of the events he’s being accused of. It’s not that he was too drunk. It’s because why would he need to remember those moments?

    When you think you sit on top of the world, then you start to believe that everyone wants to be like you. Brett was having fun, and everyone around him was having fun, right? If we are all having fun, and fun is good, then nothing bad is happening. Thus, those moments were inconsequential, and thus forgettable.

    And I saw those actions in high school, and even in college. I saw the reactions, and the impossibility to convince that guy that his “joking around” was actually hurtful. To that guy, everything was taking from hi perspective, because we all want to be him, right?