Friday, November 15, 2019

Friday, November 15, 2019

 Maybe this weekend will let up on me. I'd much rather write about XCOM or blues harmonica or the terribly interesting book I'm reading or anything else but this big ol' goofy world. Nevertheless, if reality insists on being silly, it's my duty to lay it out and make fun of it.



 I exaggerate, of course. It's not my duty to do anything; I do this for fun. Still and all, the world continues to turn and events are clicking along in an interesting manner, if nothing else.

 Let's just cut to the heart of the matter and not bullshit ourselves. Today was not a good day for President Trump. Today's impeachment testimony throws him deeper in the soup and one of his most enthusiastic bully boys has been caught out guilty as hell. Now, of course, the cultist faithful, be they the average Joe Wingnut or the high-payed boobs that make up Fox News' "opinion" side of things, they're still ride or die. Furthermore, I still say nothing will shake them.

 Which does pose an interesting conundrum, though. Like with George McGovern and the Democrats at the end of the Sixties, the Republican Party will be irrevocably changed once the Trump Era ends. Of the many factions that make up the GOP - Evangelicals, wealthy interests, garden-variety racists and other nutjobs - they are not going to get out of this unscathed. The people who championed the idea of John McCain running for president with Joe Lieberman as his VP are going to have to take a good, hard look at themselves.

 For one, they'll probably be run off by the rest of the GOP monster. Trump is the average American dickhead's Blind Idiot God and they will follow him straight to Hell. The Evangelicals have their own game, and if nothing else, their refusal to dump Trump because he's objectively an unrepentant sleaze of a human being should eliminate the merest benefit of the doubt that they possess either shame or a sense of hypocrisy.

 The wealthy will lock us all out of their gated high-rise compounds, of course, but those that do have a vested interest in the uninterrupted continuation of the Republic will find themselves left high and dry by the rest because, frankly, the other groups benefit if the societal machine eats itself. And they are not going to give up on Trump anytime soon. Guys like Joe Biden are fooling themselves if they think anything close to an epiphany is coming for the GOP as whole.

 Now whether this is good or bad for the rest of us, especially those of us on the marginalized edges, well... there's just no telling. In any event, I have gotten off track. I don't want to write about the News but, dammit, today was flat full of news, so much so that I don't really know where to start. Hell, chronological order doesn't help because this morning was active, boy.

 Well, just jump into it, then. Impeachment hearings continued today, as we saw former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch dropped several turds into Trump's punch bowl. One thing that was interesting is while she was telling the House that she felt threatened by the Administration and particularly Rudy "Damn, I'm Stupid" Giuliani to play along with Trump's attempts to get the Ukraine government to dig up non-existent dirt on Biden and his son Hunter, Trump actually threatened her.

 Well... maybe. It depends on your definition, but he was still a petty little shit out in public, tweeting that everything "turned bad" in the various places Yovanovitch was posted. And like pretty much everything else Trump claims as gospel, there's really no truth to it at all and he's just being a petty little shit trying to muddy the waters. Fact is, Yovanovitch's record as a diplomat is considered top shelf, especially in the shakier parts of the world that's been her stomping grounds.

 Rep. Adam Schiff called Trump's little fit - which he claimed was his right as "free speech", a call which has unfortunately become the last refuge of every rat bastard in the country - witness tampering and Yovanovitch did say she felt intimidated by the President accusing her of being incompetent and perhaps even part of the endemic corruption the Ukrainian government and people have struggled with for almost two decades.

 Of course, the Democrats are going to try to use this as a wedge against Trump and, of course, the Republicans will try to pooh-pooh it away as nothing serious while they still pull for Trump. That's politics, and if you think it's going to be any different, then the entire sweep of World History disagrees with you. Get a helmet and nut up.

 However, it remains to be seen how this will wash out. One thing us proles sometimes forget is just how powerful the bureaucracy of Washington D.C. is apart from whatever horseshit politicians kick around to stay in office. Trump and his lackeys call it "the Swamp" and since I've been alive, at least, every two-bit hustler running for office has decried the red tape and morass in Washington.

 However, that same mess is what keeps the goddamn lights on and the roads repaired, despite how much we despise it. And apparently, Trump's antics and the GOP's solid backing of said antics have, to not put too fine a point on it, thrown shit into the fan of government. Like his attempts to keep his taxes from Congress via the Supreme Court, setting up a possible conflict in re: separation of powers, pretty soon someone is going to have to blink.

 One wonders if there are cracks in the dam, though. While true believers like the rock-stupid shouty man Jim Jordan are in for the long haul, crooked snake Nikki Haley - previously thought to be angling to boot Mike Pence out of the VP spot - stuck it in Trump's back a bit today. Trump and his goons are still trying to out the whistleblower, probably in hopes one of the MAGA brownshirt will take a shot at them, Haley delivered a fairly sharpish rebuke for such behavior. She argued that whistleblowers should always be protected because it doesn't work in any other way, but grain of salt. She's on a book tour that's probably a lead-up to a run in 2024 or later, so she's trying to cover all the bases, like a politician do.

 Mark Sandy, a career employee at the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to break ranks, testifying in a closed-door deposition if subpoenaed. Now, recall, no one in the Trump mob or even their Fox toadies deny that Trump made the call nor that he was looking for dirt on Biden; they just say nothing was wrong with it. And this actually sets up the most interesting crackin the solid front protecting the president.

 This morning after Trump's tweet whine against Yovanovitch, Fox News anchor Bret Baier, in no small amount of shock, said that it made him look guilty as hell, legal or illegal, and Schiff was able to use it to his advantage. Of course, the mouth-breathers that make up the "Fox At Five" gibberfest saw it differently, and indeed one of the "excuses" they're using if the Ukrainian phone call is impeachable, is that Trump is just too damn stupid to know otherwise.

 Okay, be patient, I'm coming to an end. There is just so much going on today, stuff I didn't even touch on, that it's a booger to lash it all together into some sort of coherent whole. Still, I do want to add one last thing, because it is so long in coming. Roger Stone, the guy who still pleasures himself with memories of his time with Nixon's C.R.E.E.P. crew was found guilty today on all the counts against him, seven in total. This includes obstruction of justice, witness tampering and five counts of false statements, all to protect a president that is likely as not toss him completely under the bus.

 Now whether the dirty little ratfucker will see the jail time he deserves or, indeed, be granted a pardon by Trump is still up in the air. He'll be sentenced Feb. 6, 2020, so hopefully it permanently ruins his digestion and sleep between now and then. In any event, this is not only yet another Trump crony who got caught breaking the law for The Boss, but can lead back to Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. And that can tie into this current Ukrainian business, given how crooked and incompetent these goons are.

 All right, enough. That's a solid chunk for anyone to digest and, frankly, I need a moment to ponder it and figure out what it all means. We're still a ways to go to see just how all this will affect not only Trump's presidency but also the "American experiment" in general. Maybe this will crumble the foundations. Maybe this will prove, like Nixon, how the republic can take the blows and come out alive, if maybe changed a bit.

 And maybe it's all a dream within a dream within a dream. Time will tell.

 Maybe.

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