Tuesday, November 19, 2019

 Well. It's been a weird day and one that I was unwilling to participate in. However, interesting things happened so let's not dally.



 Okay, let's dally a bit, because, frankly, I actually didn't pay attention all day and need to put it off some. I don't know why, but today was one of my zombie days. Last night was actually a decent night's sleep with the accursed machine staying on my face the entire time. Admittedly, I woke up about 1 a.m. and read for a couple hours, but Otis let me sleep in. It was 8:30 a.m. before I woke up, and he still snoozed until breakfast was ready.

 Which is unusual for him. He's usually up by six and raring to go. Unless I hop to immediately, he will get very obnoxious and start jumping at the bed. Not on it, at it, managing to make the whole thing shake with his 20 pounds. But as I said, it was almost 9 a.m. before he stirred today, which generally means he isn't feeling well. However, he's spent the entire day outside barking at whatever he feels needs a good barking, so I guess he likes the occasional lie-in like everyone else.

 As for me, I spent most of my time reading There's No Such Thing As Werewolves, picking through a couple short story collections, and listening to The Who, for some reason. I don't know why The Who. I mean, I like The Who like most people of taste and discernment, but they're neither my favorite band nor do they fit into the whole Byrds-Butterfield-Sahm-Dr. John thing I have cooking right now.

 One thing funny about The Who. After they played the 2009 Super Bowl, the ones the New Orleans Saints won, my predominately African American co-workers all wanted me to burn them Who mix CDs. And to a man, they were all sort of shocked that the band had a near 40-year history and was shy the original rhythm section that'd gone on to see Jesus. Well, I think it's funny; most of these guys don't give two thoughts to classic rock yet the Saints bring us all together.

 Okay, okay. I'm putting it off, but interesting things happened with regards to Impeachment thanks to today's testimony, none of it to Trump's benefit. In fact, between the witnesses called for the Democrats and the ones called for the Republicans, Pres. Bitchface had to throw a whine session in front of reporters the complain how mean everyone was to him, poor thing. Bill Clinton pushed back on his impeachment hearings, but this is just another mark against what has to be the biggest crybaby the White House has ever seen. How the rubes still think this guy's the Alpha Male, I have no idea.

 I'll say it again, and apparently polls agree with me, that Impeachment won't move the needle one way or another. Apart from self-deluding milksops who claim to be "independent centrists who hold both sides in contempt and abhor both sides equally (and wind up voting Republican if they vote at all)" we've all gone into this with our minds pretty much made up and our ground pretty much staked.

 But it does look like the worm is turning, even if it doesn't dislodge the faithful. After morning testimonies from former VP Pence aide Jennifer Williams (already thrown under the bus as a "Never Trumper" by the big baby) and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (who the official White House Twitter account spent the day  trashing, which went over like a treat with nobody but the cult), the witnesses called by the Republican stooges caping for Trump spent their time basically torpedoing the defendant's case even if to cover their own asses.

 Former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker contradicted previous written testimony, claiming he "failed to realize" the investigation into Burisma Holdings was linked to Trump trying to dig up dirt on former VP and 2020 candidate Joe Biden. Volker, who says he's acting on information received since he gave written testimony (sure), called Biden "honorable" and rejected the Republican-fueled "conspiracy theory" that stems from the famous Perfect Call. That's got to sting.

 For his part, Tim Morrison said he didn't think there was anything illegal about the call but the former National Security Council official noted he was concerned about the optics of the call should it leak out. That's probably the best the Trump team could hope for. Nevertheless, he expressed concerned with the conversations EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland had that tried to tie Ukrainian investigations into the younger Biden as a condition of receiving U.S. security money.

 An interesting point to today's testimony was the aforementioned attempt to discredit Vindman by both the White House and the Trump partisans in the House during testimony. While the White House twittered that Vindman might be a double-agent (partly because he's Jewish and Soros) for Ukraine, not accusing anyone just saying, dipstick Jim Jordan said Vindman's peers didn't care for him until the Lt. Col. brought out several letters of recommendation, causing Jordan to shrink back like the rape-apologist sleaze he is.

 All over Twitter, the hooting MAGA morons made hay about Vindman's Purple Hearts, with many saying they were given out like candy or that he gave himself a scratch for it. I'll say it again, while I have no love for the military or their "service", anyone who's shocked Republicans will so easily slime and denigrate a Purple Heart winner wasn't paying attention during the Bush Junior year. None of that sort of behavior comes as a shock to anyone who did.

 The U.S. Army's said they're prepared to relocate Vindman and his family to a secure place if deemed necessary, which says all sorts of thing about Trump and his cultists, and none of it good. For her part, Williams' testimony expounded on the hinkyness of the call and seemed implicate Mike Pence, the weird bastard, in the whole mess. Do not mistake it, beloved, Mike Pence is as bad as if not worse than Trump.

 At the very least, we've still got two more days of this mudshow to go. Along with testimony from Sondland, we'll hear from Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs, as well as David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs. Thursday brings us former NSC senior director for Europe and Russian Fiona Hill, who's already testified that Sondland told Ukrainian officials to go ahead with the "investigations" to get in good with the Trump Administration. Finally, David Holmes will speak and that should be fun. He's the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine official who overheard that July phone call between Trump and Sondland that demanded those investigations into younger Biden too loosen up the U.S.'s belts.

 After that, who the hell knows. The Democrats in the House could be as feckless as everyone thinks they are and decide there's nothing to it, or Nancy Pelosi could put on the spiked heels in preperation for a good nut-crushing. Time, as the say, will tell.

 And that's good enough for today. Tomorrow, on top of everything else, I get to try to remember how my month's gone with the Therapist, while come Friday my brother and his wife will be visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday. Beyond that, I have nothing to add. So there you go.