GOP Rescue of MTG Will Restore Truth. Here's Why!

                If you caught that half-hearted apology that #MarjorieTaylorGreene (MTG) gave on the House floor, (video above) you might not have realized the significance of the moment, so I thought I would explain it more clearly.

                On the face of it, (R) #KevinMcCarthy (CA), a very weak House minority leader, displayed his characteristic weakness by broadcasting how sincere and apologetic MTG was with him when he and the Republican conference confronted her about all of the stuff she said before she was a member of Congress.

                It’s important we characterize The Spineless One’s misunderstanding of the #MTG transgressions as pre-Congress, something he probably didn't thoroughly research, because McCarthy seemed to not understand that most of what MTG said when confronted with her own pre-Congress words and actions, she held ground or doubled down on days before he finally dealt with it, and a five minute Google search would have provided the pertinent facts to Kev' the Spineless.

(the worse of MTG's pre-Congress comments, below)

                It's actually hard to say if Kev' the Spineless knew or didn't know about #MTG's ardent stance in the days before she relented because there was a moment in which, he with no spine, seemed to try to address it all and quiet the party infighting that was building between the #Trumpian right he's vying to lead,  and the moral majority which included a handful of Republicans who voted in favor of #impeachment. The group of #Republicans who voted to impeach included #LizCheney (WY) who was personally taking friendly fire on her committee seat too for her decision to hold #DonaldJTrump to account for his role in the #insurrection. Spineless Kevin seemed most interested in no one in his party becoming the villains over this, even though McCarthy was more than willing to demonize the House #Democrats for doing the exact same thing #Cheney and the other Republicans did. #Trump most certainly would have made villains out of the 10 Republicans in the #House who voted to impeach him. Kev' the Spineless let them all off the hook.

                Constant retaliation and demeaning labels like Kev' the Spineless abounded under Trump, whereas relenting to the moral majority was unlikely to have happened had #DJT still been the party leader orchestrating the response. The willingness of MTG to hold strong for days when confronted by reporters about her pre-Congress behavior and ongoing post election justification of herself, only to eventually relent, was a misstep and a clear sign of the beginning of the end of an era, the era of unrepentant lying.

                Displaying weakness with a closed door Republican conference and a secret vote over MTG's and Cheney's committee status via a closed door Republican conference, Kev' the Spineless allowed MTG to temporarily keep her committee seats, although, by not removing MTG himself, he forced Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of his House colleagues to bring the matter to the floor for debate and a vote. The vote didn’t end well for Greene. In fact, some reports have suggested, if Pelosi had decided to make her floor vote against MTG a secret just as Kev' the Spineless did, even more Republicans would have voted to remove her.

                Either way, it didn't really end well for Republicans, MTG or McCarthy either who was summoned to meet with Trump days before of all of this came to head, probably to tell Kev' the Spineless that he needed to be more relentless and relent less.

Did McCarthy come back with
marching orders after meeting  
with Trump in Mar-A- Lago?

                At least, that's what seems to be the case because, in the aftermath of his Trump meeting, McCarthy came out in public with a piece of paper containing a list of Democrats and a warning (possibly written in sharpie) that, if he (McCarthy) is ever the majority leader, he will go after specific Democrats on committees (Eric Swalwell (CA) and Maxine Waters (CA) were the only names he mentioned) as retaliation for what was done to MTG. While not-so-spineless Kev' had a clear warning for Democrats, it's not apparent what punishment would be doled out to the 11 Republicans who voted along with the Democrats, an element of  his spineless response to all of this,  something Trump would not have overlooked.

                Nonetheless, Trump and all those who still love him probably appreciated the new and improved spine Kev' tried to display after meeting with the GOP's recently deposed party boss.  However, much like the results of Nov. 3rd and the ensuing GOP response that followed, McCarthy's retaliation speech felt like more of the same sour grapes complaining we'd heard following the presidential election loss as well. Whatever you call his attempt to warn and complain, once again, it was too little, too late. (video below)

                When given a final chance to save herself from what was clearly becoming her inevitable fate, MTG blinked. In that brief moment, she appeared sincerely interested in retaining her committee assignments, at least interested enough to try and kiss ass like we had never seen her do before. By relenting, as she was likely advised to do, neither MTG nor the person who advised her to relent had any clue what they were doing to the brand in that moment, and I believe it was bad advice. 

                In one last ditch effort, MTG did her level best to avoid being stuck in Congress for two years with nothing to do except peddle more odd conspiracies and oppose Democrat legislation whenever possible, and it failed. Perhaps the residents of Forsythe County, GA won’t see their rebellious rep as nearly as useful to them anymore and will consider a recall themselves, especially since MTG did not rediscover her own stripes until the morning after her committee assignments were gone?

(video below)

               

                 When relenting didn't stop her removal from her committee assignments, the same person who once refused to relent until she had little choice, decided to go back on television the following morning and tell the world “I feel free [to speak as I want again]". Apparently, it took mirrors that only exist in MTG's house, a good night of sleep and freedom from committee assignment confusion to remind her of who she really was and what she had done to the brand, because, like that ugly person you take home for a one night stand, the morning after was nothing like the night before. 

A snake eating its own tail.

            What MTG is saying in this twice revised walk-of-shame is, the position she claims to feel free from she also was willing to stand naked in apology before the world, and agreed to enslave herself and bridle her slithery tongue if her colleagues in Congress would have only allowed her to stay in her position of power; a position that provided the pressure to deal with her awful behavior in the first place. 

                What MTG also doesn't recognize is, once you denounce your own lies, you no longer have the “freedom” to lie the same again. MTG might think she is more free minus her committee seats, but her tongue has already been clipped by a moment of weakness from herself and Kev' the Spineless, and there simply is no way to repair a clipped tongue or walk again once you've been cursed to crawl.

                For the rest of her days in Congress, everything MTG says will have that familiar hissing sound of self destruction- like a vicious snake that pounces but doesn't even recognize it's eaten its own tail. Right or wrong, that snake we called Trump could drown out all the hissing noise by standing firm behind the lies and the liars and redirecting the blame or chewing on the tails of anyone and everyone but himself. After this recent matter involving MTG, it appears as if Trump's "never relent" posture left the GOP when he did.

                        Why does this matter? If the true facts of the JFK assassination can still be debated, and they are, 911 and Sandy Hook don’t have to be considered real events to everyone either, which is the place we have found ourselves after a four year war against truth. Every war is based upon a series of battles, and truth won its first battle in this war when it removed Trump from office. By voting to remove MTG from her committees, the House of Representatives handed truth another battle victory while simultaneously declaring that certain agreed upon truths must be treated with the level of respect they deserve while you are serving in Congress, assuming you want a committee assignment and plan to stay in D.C. for more than two years.

                Losing access to all committee seats will not be helpful to MTG's reelection efforts, so the likelihood is, this moment of truth is both the beginning and the end of MTG. It's possible she'll run for office again in two years given her bulldog disposition, and it's even possible she could win in her redder than red voting district that must be a bit peculiar place if they voted for her to begin with. It's more likely that her own constituents have seen enough from her and will be ready to move on from the MTG experience and controversy given the lack of committee influence that now comes with the package.

               While the pandemic and the recent election make most of this MTG madness sound like no big deal to a whole lot of people, the universal space in which we could once agree on any basic truth evaporated over the past four years into a matrix of conspiracy theories and lies that used to exist only  in the National Enquirer or The Onion. What we have now, even Snopes couldn't fix. 

                If describing the punishment of one very ardent Trump supporting representative as a victory and restoration moment for truth seems like a big declaration, consider this?

                From this day forward, any Trump-like allegiance to lies can and will burn you in an institution where people are elected to represent true lives and real life situations such as pandemics and the economic recoveries they cause. Mischaracterizations of certain facts is a normal, unfortunate part of politics. Disagreeing about essential truths like birth certificates of an elected president, or death certificates of massacred school children makes the hope of collaborative governance extremely difficult, to say the least.

WE The People, have spent far too long trying to establish a more perfect union based on our divided perceptions of agreed upon truths for us to come to this moment of  allowing ourselves to become lost in a jungle of confusion over clearly proven lies and conspiracies. By way of this punishment of MTG, the House of Representatives at the very least has declared that events like 911 really happened despite all the memes and videos you can find on the internet to the contrary. They also decided threatening fellow members of Congress is not allowed and peddling conspiracy theories will endanger your ability to thrive in Congress even when your own party refuses to hold you to account the way both parties used to do pre-Trump  If you need a point of reference to my last comment, Google the names Steve King or Al Franken).

                WE ejected Trump out of office at the same time that WE elected MTG and a handful of other QAnon friendly types in. While that felt like a bit of a contradiction at the time, in hindsight, the devil we knew seemed much more important than the ones he inspired. Despite the fact that D.C. is now overrun with Trump's little inspirations, genuine demons don’t relent nor do they give a damn about the value of universal truths such as, all of our elections all over the land have, for a very long time now avoided election fraud by employing high integrity election handlers from both sides of the political isle, and those people used to be trusted and respected by ALL of us who cared to vote regularly. 

               Trump set US up for this moment from the moment he first ran for office because he never really thought he would win and instinctively created excuses to deal with any possibility of losing. In reality, the goal of being president was never as valuable to our 45th president as the goal of running. In running for president, Trump could add to the legend and mystery he created around himself. In being president, he could only expose his immense need to golf, his true self-serving nature, and expose himself to way too many institutions designed to ensure America wins no matter who our president is. In the final analysis of what WE've endured, there simply was no way for both Trump and the U.S. to come out victorious in this. One of us or both of us were always destined to lose.

                What Trump had to lose by winning the presidency was the somewhat normal freedom that allows powerful people to do lots of illegal stuff an evade the law, but he also lost the perception of self-made wealth that was shattered by the revelations about his family, mostly from his family. What WE the People had to lose by electing a lying, immoral person was our connection to truth and our universal acceptance of right and wrong. 

                We decided pussy grabbing, caged children, anti-Semitism, homophobia and political retaliation against friend or foe were all okay until the day we said "enough already". Now, with the committee removal of MTG, we've added false conspiracies, threats of harm and other unwarranted colleague confrontations done by any current committee members of Congress to our collective list of "enough already". 

                Of course, this doesn't entirely undo all the damage done to the concept of truth that occurred over the last four years, but it helps.

Did Nuggets Beat Dallas Because Murray Got Tossed?

 

Whether it was the chaos in D.C. inspired by "what's his name", or this virus that has driven the daytime drinking levels to exponential proportions, giving a damn about sporting events has been terribly difficult. Thankfully, our orange mistake and the fecal odor from that Capitol Hill raid are getting dealt with in a similar manner, so let's talk hoops and see if we can avoid one of those virus mutations

If you saw the Nuggets play yesterday (hit the link above if you missed it) and you agree like me that it's finally time to care about the Nuggets enough to talk about them, then I have a question for you. 

Did the Denver Nuggets win the game last night in Dallas in large part because of the third quarter ejection of Jamal Murray and in small part PJ Dozier, who went down earlier in the game with a hamstring injury, or was it a victory despite the loss of two key players, especially their all-star guard Murray?

Before I clarify my question so you don't think I am hating on Murray or Dozier, my answer is both. They won despite the challenge of losing two very important players, but they also won because one player in particular got out of the way and allowed a few fresher legged, hungry pups to eat.

While I have always appreciated the toughness and grit of Murray, it has always felt like coach Mike Malone gives him injured PT (playing time) just to help him get used to learning how to play injured like Kobe used to do, not because it's the best thing to do for him or the team, especially given the depth the Nuggets have at the guard spot and the difficulty of healing and injury while playing with it. 

As for Dozier, he has quickly become the kind of guy Malone relies on because of his length and ability to play team defense and because he fills in at four positions on the floor. Dozier is not yet a star player, but losing him last night makes it a win despite the loss of a secret weapon of sorts. With Murray it's a differet story. His current injuries and erratic performances thus far turned his ejection (which was legitimate thanks to his ball busting behavior) into a moment for someone else to shine, and Michael Porter Jr. came through.

By allowing Murray to play through injuries that everyone knows about, which makes the injury a ready made excuse if he needs it, Malone is forcing his team to hope for the best mental focus and performance out of their injured star who himself forces these moments on his coach to develop mental toughness while slowing the development of key backups interested in his job and simultaneously nullifying the reason for upgrading the backups in the first place. But it's all of that and one other thing.

Without Murray on the floor, a player who demands and gets his number called by the Nuggets quite a bit in every game, the Mavericks didn't really know where to focus their defensive efforts which had to be game-planned for Murray and Jokic especially late in the game. Because they aren't saddled with expectations yet, the Nuggets backups come at you like mosquitos in the summer time, and there really is no way to defend against mosquitos in the summer time. Without Murray on the floor, the capable stable, or maybe I should say swarm of Nuggets guards- Campazzo, Morris, and especially Porter Jr.- got to perform without the expectations you get after putting up 50 points more than once in the playoffs, and that is a good thing.

This is not to say the Nuggets are a better team without Murray. This is to say they aren't bound by his performances or his presence on the floor like they were last season, and that's, once again, a good thing. #whatdoyouthink

Bonus Note: R.J. Hampton actually got significant PT in something other than garbage minutes because of the loss of two guards...and he looked impressive, especially on defense. Keep an eye on him!!

 

Pandemic Newsflash: Consumer Confidence Is Our New Leader. Political Spin Has Novel Coronavirus

      [ADOLESCENT WARNING! THIS ARTICLE HAS A TON OF SHIT AND A FUCK OR TWO]

        It has been a while since I've written on politics; a year in reality, however, over two years if you exclude the piece I wrote last May on Pelosi and her reluctance to impeach Donald Trump. Since I've been away, a lot has happened in our world, but really, not a damn thing has happened at all except the 2018 elections and this current pandemic, the matter that brings me back to the arena of political lip flapping.

        I would love to think that something I enjoy researching and engaging in so much is more than just creative political opinionating, yet, I am now well aware of how truly foolish politics can become thanks to the last 3 years of pure foolishness we've been reduced to. Of course, this is not to suggest that politics are not important. This is to insist that the day to day exchange of thoughts and ideas in our current political arena has been proven to be nothing more than the last surviving circus in America with a ton of elephants and donkeys rolling around, doing silly tricks and shitting all over the place in the process. If anyone has watched the manner in which Congress has gone about dealing with what should be the most bipartisan issue in the history of bipartisan issues and can describe their behavior any better than I did in that last sentence, I highly encourage you to do it and share the results with me. I am totally curious on how many creative ways there are to describe a shit show.

        I enjoy Twitter and Facebook (sorry Google) as much as the next person, but my decision to get away from writing full blown articles (that I would want to read) about televised political pooping was not easy, but it was necessary. At some point it became obvious that the media was simply using Trump- and other people's anger towards him- for the sake of clicks and revenue, and there was just no easy way to not be a part of all that except to not be a part of all that, so I took a hiatus and decided to write a book instead.

        Now that we are all locked down in a pseudo-national quarantine, many of us have had the opportunity to reflect on ourselves and our lives, drink a lot, or drink a lot and reflect on ourselves and our lives all at the same time. Drinking and reflecting typically involves a replay of all the regrets, so I would encourage dancing when you drink and not much reflecting on life. Just a suggestion. Nonetheless, if you have embraced the opportunity to get to know the people in your home, including the one you see in the mirror every morning, you might finally be coming into the realization that nobody, and I repeat, nobody can be the blame for your happiness or sadness.  My apologies if I lost you or killed your morning buzz from that comment.

        For those who are still with me, I have to confess that I mostly lived by that mantra before the election of Donald fkn Trump. I include the FKN with no intention of disrespecting the President of the United States of America that I have very little respect for, but to emphasize the depth of the hatred I HAD developed for the guy we call president. I'm using all caps to bring strong attention to the word HAD, because I USED to hate the guy. Now, I just feel terribly sad for him and US.

 
        My deep sadness started over 2 yrs ago, when I no longer had the desire to write another word about this man. At the time, I also started that book project, so my assumption initially was that I could not easily co-mingle my brain when it came to writing. While the book is finally  winding through final edits, I now realize my inability to co-mingle had very little to do with anything other than the state of depression I was in for American politics. In a way, I have gone through the stages of grief over the death of American politics- my deceased mistress- via the election of Donald J. Trump, which essentially acknowledges that I experienced anger, stage two of grief, for way too long towards this man we call president. Most of our denial happened during the campaign, and we can all recall the bargaining we went through of blaming Hillary for being an awful candidate, or blaming non-voters for not voting. We are not over the Russia blame, but that's another topic for another day.
     
        Every divinely authored sermon in life is one you are learning yourself as you are sharing it with others. I used to love sharing the image to the right as a sermon to myself and to encourage other people to take ownership of themselves and dominion over their emotions. In the spirit of a true confession that might help someone else who is struggling with the same issue, I used to hate our fuckin' president and the mere sight of him made me angry. I ran away from talking about him because there wasn't anything new to be said, but mostly, I was mad as hell and couldn't find enough creative ways to say that or anything else.

        Today, I acknowledge that Trump used to own me the way he currently still owns a bunch of you. I am writing again today to purge this issue, to hopefully save some of you from the silent chains you bear, and to take back agency with myself and my native realm of artistic expression- political lip flapping. He who angers you might own you......but he who kills your creative spirit is killing you as well. So, I am back to writing about politics again because a newsworthy matter has arrived. But, mostly I am writing because I must.

        I am writing again today because pandemics happen about as often as ill-suited businessmen winning the presidency. While we have found ourselves to be mostly vaccinated against the damages of voting for the wrong person to lead our nation, we have also found out that vaccinations against viruses and bad presidents take a while to be created and only work if you take them.

       The best option that exists to deal with a novel virus is to self distance, mask up or stay home for the biological ones, and educate yourself on the nuances of the other virus any way you can until it is forced to go away via concerned citizens or term limits, whichever comes first. If you hadn't noticed, pandemics are great for film study or research of any kind. This moment film study/research for me came without intention as I was simply enjoying my morning coffee and scrolling through the movie channels to make sure I get maximum value for the premium channel services I am paying for during this pandemic. Because I insist on getting value out of my purchases, I now know why we are all going through this pandemic like a kite without a string.

       "Where's My Roy Cohn" was the documentary I came across and it left me wishing I had researched him back when his name first became mentioned in connection with Trump. I had seen a few pieces about Roger Stone which made me believe I understood a little bit about Trump, but Stone admits in this documentary, Cohn created him too, and you simply can not understand Trump or Stone without knowing Roy Cohn.

        For those who aren't old enough or didn't follow the Roy Cohn story close enough to know much about him, this documentary not only let's you know who he was, it tells you everything you need to know about the current ring leader of our Washington D.C. circus, and why he wants the spotlight kept on him and all of his pronouncements instead of any other animal in the act, including the media.   

        Yes. The media is just another animal stuck in this circus act, because most of the media has no way of knowing how to make it all end, and the rest have no desire to. The media of America is as dirty as Donald says we are even if we have tried our level best to minimize our overt dirtiness with him. Similarly, the Congress of America is as corrupt and guilt worthy as anyone when it comes to how we got into the mess we are in However, no one should read these indictments and consider themselves exempt.

        If you are not a part of the media or Congress, you still consume whatever media they give, giving them very little reason to feed you anything else, and you vote- or don't vote- with partisan predictability allowing for life-long incumbents and giving them no reason to listen to you. The real circus used to exist because it had a crowd that made it exist. In America's political circus, you are now either a performer or you are the constituents of the performance, because, the people who refused to go to the circus because it glorified caged animals played as active a role in making the circus go away as the people who got bored with the show.

        When I took a look in my own mirror over two years ago, I saw a disgruntled media person as well as an angry constituent who kept buying a damn ticket, and I no longer wanted to be either one. I was covering Donald's latest moment of disrespect towards someone new each day as if it deserved to be talked about like news. Mostly, it was and is just shocking and embarrassing. It absolutely is not newsworthy anymore. Pandemics aside, history will give us all plenty of time to be shocked by this MAGA moment in history that we've created or allowed. With all due respect, with everything at stake and no one steering us through this but YOU, it is not time to keep being shocked by another day of the same shit.

       We all know where to go to find his latest tweet if we need a jolt to our senses with a fresh bucket of embarrassment. If that doesn't work, go see the Globetrotters. Unlike the circus, they still have a crowd. Otherwise, nothing has really been newsworthy about this man we are forced to call president for well over two years, and that includes that slow moving, dodge-able bullet called the impeachment trial. By the time Pelosi finally decided she had enough, America was stuck in a "why now" moment of disbelief over her late pull of the trigger. When we all woke up from too many hours of impeachment coverage, we were left feeling as if the thing she finally impeached him for was much less important than the Mueller report, especially considering how Trump openly did towards China the same thing that he was impeached for doing with Ukraine.

        Trump is only right about the slime in Washington D.C. because he rubbed shoulders, donated to to both sides and slid smoothly without detection between the slime for years. In essence, he was and is the slime too, so nobody noticed or cared that he was there. In addition, nobody understands the slime or the slimey better than him, however, he told us that from the very beginning along with a bunch of other things that have many of us shaking our heads as though he wasn't up front about it all. Of course, he straight up lied about the taxes, but you get my point. He is who we thought he was, so the rest is up to YOU. You can remain stuck in denial, anger, depression, or bargaining away the blame on non-voters, but its time for acceptance so we can save our nation.  In the final analysis, if this pandemic and the presidency of Donald J. Trump does not help us to achieve anything personally, then it will not help us achieve anything collectively because all change begins with YOU.

        I am proud that I stared into the mirror over two years ago, saw a guy who was angry over a silly white man with an orange tan, and said enough already. Two years later, I am actually over the sadness and fully within acceptance, but Facebook doesn't really give you a wide range of options to click when responding to posts or comments in regards to Trump, so 😢 wins every time for me still.

        Now that I stand here healed and on the other side of my pain, I am also proud to say that I have gone through the stages of grief over the death of American politics too, and it has helped me immensely as we all sit back and watch the kind of disarray in D.C. that we've never seen at historically bipartisan moments when the world desperately needs leaders to lead.

        Take it or leave it. Congress is broken and Donald is all we have, which means we don't have much. After watching the Roy Cohn documentary, I now understand how we got him (and Ronald Reagan too btw😳....yes, watch it) and who he is better than I ever did before. At the risk of a spoiler for those of you who haven't seen it, it will explain why Trump pretends everything is a positive no matter how bad it looks. This is what Trump learned from Cohn as the number one lesson. This is what he does no matter the moment before him. This is what has worked for him immeasurably prior to a pandemic, and this is exactly what is going to kill him figuratively, along with countless Americans literally, because a virus with no vaccine and this level of contagiousness will become the kind of bad news that even Roy Cohn could not spin before it is all over.

        It all ready is, and you can't simply tell people who are afraid of a virus that is killing thousands, 'you are doing a good job' when you are not. The job will be good when WE the People are willing to go places again. PERIOD!! What our president is doing right now will not bring confidence to anyone, which means he is functionally useless, which means YOU are the only hope WE have left.

Watch any 4 television commercials in a row like I did, and
see if you notice any trends or similarities in the theme? If
you can't already tell, YOU are the only hope for this economy. 

     
        Scared people need honesty over bluster. Scared people realize viruses don't know your political affiliation so they want truth in times of fear and not Roy Cohn derived political spin. To watch Donald do his thing before I knew about Roy Cohn was infuriating and terribly confusing before I grew to accept it for what it is. To watch him now that I know what he is doing and why he keeps doing it despite watching it not work day after day is enlightening to the point of almost refreshing in a way. What this pandemic and that documentary has shown me is that, Donald can't lead any other way, and he might not be interested in learning after all of these years of using the media to simply spin the narrative, just like Roy taught him.

        In a way, this pandemic has proven to everyone still evaluating what we currently have in a president versus what we are being offered by way of Joe Biden, that Donald only knows spin....and golf. He might know real estate, but he has failed a lot in that arena and we have yet to see those taxes to determine if he's particularly good at real estate, so the jury is still out on the topic.

       Through his two hour daily televised circus events, Trump reveals his style of leadership for all to clearly see. In a moment when the playbook has already been written for him, in simple words with large text, Trump is floundering and can't seem to read this Dr. Seuss book or listen to Dr. Fauci's advice.  Recent polls suggest only 35% of Americans are still listening to him for guidance through this pandemic. While some of you might be focusing on the number I just shared and evaluating who in the hell that 35% could be, I am focusing on the fact that someone decided we needed a poll asking who are you listening to right now. As I publish this piece, I am two days removed from my 51st birthday, and I am hard pressed to recall when such a question has ever been asked. Ever!!

        If you watch Governor Cuomo (NY) each day, you quickly realize this should be so easy to do, yet, all Trump can do is the same thing he has done from day one. In this crazy circus of elephants and donkeys, the ring leader turns just so happens to be a one-trick pony.

        For every other situation prior to this pandemic, his song and dance has been enough to at least satisfy his base and satiate Mitch McConnel and Republicans from the urge to preserve the now mythical co-equal balance of power that WE were falsely made to believe would protect us from tyranny back in grade school.

             Most importantly, WE. Me. You. US, now know that WE are the straw that stirs the drink. Without us, all the ingredients could be available, but the sugar will settle to the bottom and the drink will taste so awful that it doesn't matter what price you put on it, WE won't buy it. The signs were always there if you listen a lot of news. Whenever they talk about the economy- under Obama or Donald- they define the strength of it as being one thing and one thing only. CONSUMER CONFIDENCE! If WE can't trust what you are selling us, WE surely won't trust dying over what you are selling us, will WE? I love the taste of well made Kool-Aid just like the next person, but not enough to die for it, especially when I can just make that shit at home.

        In the name of home-made kool-aid, I'm back into this arena of political lip flapping because my brain is no longer co-mingled, and there is finally something worth flapping about, which is this current conversation over CONSUMER CONFIDENCE; aka., YOU and me. I started my mirror moments over two years ago, so I am fully into this process of self realization we are all enduring during the era of Trump in general and the pandemic specifically.  At the risk of over inflating my own value, it seems clear to me that me, and people like me, will determine when it's time to get Taco Bell back to normal business levels, not elected officials. If you fools who aren't taking this seriously could save the economy by yourselves, the current businesses that are still open would not be down 40% in sales, but they are, and, even with a return to everything open, everybody won't be outside buying Taco Bell until everyone can be made to feel safe while doing it.

            I ask you, random consumer reading this post? Are you rushing back to any place that is crowded and has a potential health risk just because its one of the places who has an owner deciding to open so you can regain your sense of normalcy, or are you willing to let the other people buy shoes at an understaffed Ross until you feel confident that it is safe?

        Don't answer that. You don't need to. Without question, only consumer confidence will work to save our economy. Period. There is a window for business owners with limited liquidity to ride the storm to save themselves by offering stock options instead of money, so they can retain staff with the promise of future wealth sharing, but that is also much too close to Socialism and much to close to right to ever happen. Because fighting to become the powerful makes some people afraid to share what they've gained, many powerful people will practically risk and lose everything they have rather than willingly let go of their power. Donald J. Trump is exhibit A for this dynamic as he holds on to his powerful way of manipulating the world at the risk of losing the presidency and millions of lives during his watch.

        If circumstances play out as they are currently headed, we will get to witness a mass realignment of power- be that actually or just conceptually- as WE all are forced to fully reckon with the reality that capitalism is controlled by the consumer and no one else. In other words, how often you stare yourself in the mirror each morning and the message you deliver to the person standing there will determine the future of your individual financial situation, which will determine the future of our nation. In other words, this post and our future is all about YOU.

    In the face of a pandemic, getting to know yourself is kinda' not optional unless you intend to drink yourself broke to avoid all of that. For those of us embracing our mirrors and saving our money, it is clear. WE the People are the only hope for our personal survival and for the survival of our nation, and the rest of the world is anxiously waiting to see what we'll do next. Not just about opening our country, but whether or not we will return to who WE used to be for ourselves and the world at large. 

It's Only A Crisis Because Pelosi Is Afraid To Impeach

     Donald J. Trump, America's current President, wants to be impeached just as Nancy Pelosi says, and he will stone-wall his way into making it happen if he must. Pelosi wants to win even if it means not doing her job, as if Trump will impeach himself for her. 

     So the war is underway. Impeach him and run the risk of helping him get re-elected, or try to beat him at the ballot box while fighting back the morality cops, like Elizabeth Warren, who see this as a clear matter of integrity.

     
 I agree with Warren and I believe Pelosi and the Democrats are joining Republicans in a really dangerous game of wanting to win the politics of the day so badly, they are running from the spirit of justice in a nation much too passionate about honoring that spirit.

     Wantonness is not a great emotion to plan around, but it is the driving force for everything Democrats talk about these days. They want Trump gone so badly, but they are afraid to listen to the Mueller report and just "Do Their Jobs" because of the potential political backlash.

     Instead of simply reading the report- which, I am starting to question if many in Congress have- Democrats want to chase down Bob Mueller and former White House attorney, Don McGhan, who might be forced to testify, but will never be able to say anything that isn't already contained in the report. No matter how much Democrats want their way on this, they will look silly having McGhan turn to pages in the report to read it out loud on television for them. In essence, they want Mueller and McGhan  and Trump to do their jobs for them.

     In fact, Pelosi said as much when she recently resorted to stuttering her way into a weird explanation of Trump trying to "self impeach", a term nobody in the world understands but Pelosi. Even her attempts to clarify herself only amounted to saying that "Trump is building the case for his own impeachment".

     Translation: Pelosi wants Trump to do her job within Congress of whipping up support for impeachment by convincing individuals who are too lazy to do their jobs, to do their jobs and finally read the report. Pelosi herself is more willing to claim that we are in the midst of a Constitutional crisis rather than do her job and accept the answer the Constitution has given for this crisis moment.

     Because of the Providential perfection of our amendable Constitution, you can never have a Constitutional crisis until you run into a problem that the Constitution has no answer for. The problem right now is that the politics are historically horrible on impeachment, which has nothing to do with a crisis at all. This is about Pelosi wanting to have her cake and eat it too. But, everyone wants to have and eat their cake right now, and it's not a good look for any of them.

     Progressive Democrats say they want a woman to be the next President of the United States, but can't find one the masses seem willing to support yet. In addition to their Medicare-for-all plans, these progressives really want America to finally get serious about climate change vis a vis their Green New Deal, which is currently just a cool name and not quite a deal or a plan yet.

     Many of the new progressives in the party came to Washington D.C. on a commitment to impeach this President, but they have been quieted by Pelosi even though the Mueller report gives them more ammunition to impeach than they had when they arrived.

     Republicans have their own wants, but they are limited because they got that tax cut that turned out to be 4-5% bigger than anyone ever wanted or asked for. As it stands, way too many Republicans simply want Democrats to move on from Mueller's findings and turn a blind eye to the outlined obstructions and impeachment instructions messaged in the report. If you read between the lines on Pelosi's "self impeachment" comment, she seems willing to comply.

     Unfortunately for the GOP, moving on from Mueller means moving on to a huge spending bill that Trump negotiated directly with Chuck and Nancy (Schumer and Pelosi) realizing Congress is hardly the right place to make agreements anymore. This odd trio have agreed to a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that will probably get jammed by the politics of deficits, special interest add-ons, or a combination of both

     But I am mostly upset with Pelosi who is convinced the impeachment process will "die at the Senate's edge" and has fended her party away from the process, even though she seems more and more willing to discuss the option herself after the controversial AG Barr Senate testimony recently.  If Democrat voters start to feel this President deserves more than he is getting, they will stop pressuring this President and start pressuring his enablers instead- Democrats included.

     Pelosi is correct in her view on the dead end road impeachment faces in the Senate, but she is dead wrong in her overall analysis of the benefit to detriment because justice can never be about politics. Whether every Senator in America chooses to align themselves on the right side of history or not doesn't diminish the importance of making them have to. 

     In fact, this is not the time to run from the process and suggest the ideal of a Constitutional crisis. This is the time to use the process and make every person in Congress have to place their marker in the history books for our grandchildren to study. This is a time to shame those who haven't read the report, and this is also the time to better explain what the word impeachment means.....because, in the minds of many, the word means removal, and Americans don't like removing people WE voted for unless we have no other choice. The first Democrat to own the process of explaining impeachment to US all will help drive the process to its proper conclusion, and they might even win the White House for their efforts.

     An impeachment is a trial.  Period. It is a fact finding process intended to investigate cabinet officials who could be immune to such an inquiry if not for impeachment. Anyone geeky enough to be reading this already understood that. Many Americans do not. The only crisis currently is that Congress is at a stand still in getting documents from the White House for every current congressional investigation, including Russian election interference, and Congress can't begin their duty of oversight without compliance from the Trump administration.

     Insert AG Barr, who runs the Justice Department and is the key lineman blocking out front for all of Trump's obstruction efforts. Ultimately, someone in the Department of Justice will have to decide to indict their boss if Democrats attempt to hold Barr in contempt for not testifying before the House as requested recently. Lying to Senators about the letter he had received from Mueller is also perjury, which is an impeachable offense. As with Nixon, obstruction of a congressional investigation is also an impeachment worthy offense. 

     At the very least, Trump and his administration have promised to obstruct and are presently living up to the promise. The reasons to shut up and do something about this administration are recent, ongoing, and exist outside of the Mueller report, a report which also begs for something to be done.

     Impeachments alone have never resulted in the removal of a President because they were not necessarily intended for that. Before the Senate ever gets a chance to vote to remove a President via impeachment, a majority vote has to happen in the House first. The Founding Fathers intentionally designed an impeachment to be just as difficult as it should be. 

     Despite popular perception, the politics of impeachment are much more damaging to the party of the President, but that is beside the point. The impeachment process is the point and it is a provision designed for scenarios that demand it. It is part of the oath of the office that Congress promises to fulfill when the President and his cabinet fails to fulfill their own oaths.  History has painted impeachments as toxic, but politics themselves are naturally toxic and occasionally corrupt. By reinforcing the toxicity of an impeachment, Pelosi and Democrats are blaming the remedy.

     A concerted push for a better understanding of the process would offer better clarity to the word itself and to the necessity for invoking it when the Constitution demands. The Democrats anxiously screaming for impeachment need to acknowledge the confusion about the process and clarify it enough to tilt public perception and force Pelosi's hand. 

     The reason impeachments have never removed a President is because our hope-filled dream of Democracy in this fractured Republic typically intervenes. In reality, the standard for removal has always been higher than"... high crimes and misdemeanors", even while the standard for impeachment is not. Until Nancy Pelosi gets that and gets the courage to do what is right and not what is politically expedient, she is failing her country, her party and herself.

     I hate to beat a dead horse, but this horse deserves a beating. Pelosi asking for hearings with Mueller is the equivalent of asking him to slap her and the rest of the Democrats over the head with the obvious before they do what the report begs of them. All of this because everyone in D.C. wants a political victory even if America loses along the way.

     Until political wantonness changes, beating Trump at the ballot box is the only trick the Democrat pony can pull off, and Joe Biden is the best option to do it. Yet, beating Trump in 2020 is what Nancy needs. It has nothing to do with integrity, justice or addressing the reason Trump won in the first place. Trump happened for a reason and his approval ratings have never been low enough for me to think that mysterious reason has changed.

     Yeah, Russia is the easy answer, however, I tend to believe that Russia tipped a scale that was waiting to fall over from eight years of the racial uneasiness from a black president that millions refused to call their own. Now, we have millions on the other end of the political spectrum unwilling to do the same with Trump although the underlying issues from both sides are bigger than either men.

   It might be time for each of US to take ownership of our own part of this problem. We all want the America WE dream of but can't see how we become our own worst enemies screaming to the winds for the America we want instead of pursuing a nation that fulfills the wants of many, Trumpians included. The Trumpian army isn't confused about what's wrong even if they have a fully distorted view of who to blame or how to fix it. 

     Because the "Lord Is My Shepherd" I loathe the word want and wantonness, and I run from the use of the word as often as I can. It is a selfish emotion.  It defies my spiritual upbringing and denotes a desperation that defies the constant provisions of God. It screams desperation, yet, some needs are desperate, and I too want this rightfully elected dude gone just as passionately as the rest of you.

     What I don't want is to use want as a strategy to get him out. I don't want an elected president to lose his job without the full benefit of a due process too politically risky to touch. I would like for Trump to get everything he deserves, even if the process results in a real exoneration and not a fake news variety.

     What I also don't want, is for Democrats to pursue a political gain and
short circuit the process and the pursuit of democracy intended by the Founding Fathers who created the impeachment to properly adjudicate the misdeeds of a President gone array. If the misdeeds are unfounded, only the process can fully investigate and set the record straight, either way.

     No matter how Trump fights it, history will be forced to sniff out the truth. No matter how Pelosi fights it, the impeachment process was meant to deal with certain presidential matters and everyone in Congress currently playing politics instead of doing their job to clarify the historical record will be held accountable by history as well.

     No, this isn't a Constitutional crisis because there is an answer for this moment and it lives in the Constitution. One day in the future, Republicans and Democrats will regret not reading the report soon enough, and they'll regret trying to take this moment to use it as an opportunity for their own political gain.  Every American who lets them get away with it will feel the same regret.