Motivation Monday

India

Christmas is a wrap.  All the decorations are down, our far flung family are resuming their lives, and we are left with warm memories.  For the first time in a very long time all twelve of us were gathered together for a week of family fun and bonding.  It was pretty great.  We gather again in June in Hilton Head to pick up where we left off.  Our Grandson will not be with us as he is heading on a school trip to Greece, but we'll have a great time none-the-less.

So now the next big adventure starts.  Since joining Rotary I've wanted to participate personally in the grand effort to help eradicate Polio in our world.  It is a fundamental goal that all Rotarians are working towards achieving.  So when I saw an opportunity to go to India and help in some little way, I thought it might be just the thing.  My wife agreed as did two other couples in our Rotary Club and we're off for India on New Year's Eve.  We go via San Francisco and then it's direct to Delhi.  16 hours!  Phew.  From there we'll proceed to Agra where we'll spend 3 days helping the local club distribute vaccine and participate in activities.  In addition to the Rotary time we'll also do a fair amount of sightseeing in Agra and Jaipur.

Ever since I visited India for work, I've wanted to take my wife to experience it so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.  We're with friends so that makes it even better.  And the tour operator who is in charge of our accommodations, tours and transportation seems very good so I'm confident we'll have a great time.  But it is a difficult and challenging place to visit.  As they say...don't drink the water!  We've been to the local health travel clinic and have received all shots and prescription strength diarrhea medicine.  So....we're off.  Depending on the connections I'll try to provide a narrative along the way.

Friday Funnies

Motivation Monday

Parental Advice.

You're welcome!

Cool Pic

Friday Funnies

The Impeachment Letter

News broke this afternoon of a letter that President Trump sent to Speaker Pelosi regarding the whole impeachment saga.  It is classic Trump!  I'm sure he didn't draft this but I am sure he edited it.  His fingerprints are all over it.  Like his use of social media, this is another tool that he is using to reach Americans.  I hate Twitter, but I certainly understand his use of it and other social media.  Because without those methods his message would never get out.

Since it's his letter, he can lay out the arguments as he and his supporters see them.  He certainly didn't get a chance to do it in the closed rooms in the basement of the Capitol.  And he wasn't able to call witnesses or confront his accusers in the open Intelligence Committee circus that followed.  Which is ironic because he went to court to get a determination on executive privilege and now is being charged with obstruction of Congress because he went to court.  I'm not a rabid Trump supporter but I've gotta say if they can do this to the President, no matter who he is, they can do it to you and me.  Due process is the last thing he's been afforded.

Of course, the letter and all the arguments are from the Republican point of view and if you're on the other side you'll have a whole different perspective.  But from the other side the main thing I've heard is hearsay, opinion, and fatalistic comments like, "if we don't pursue impeachment, our Constitution is at stake" or "Trump is a clear and present danger to the country" and other such nonsense.  The people who are spouting these kinds of ridiculous accusations are the same ones who have been trying to impeach him since Inauguration Day, and this isn't going to work either.  It also seriously calls their credibility regarding these charges in to question.  Oh, they are being very correct and stating that they haven't made up their minds.  But it is total bullshit...they made up their minds 3 years ago.

So while they try and make the case that the charges are worthy of removal,  I'm not buying it.  Obstruction is obviously bullshit and the vague abuse of power thing could mean every President in our history could have been impeached.  And more importantly every President in our future could be impeached.  Beyond any charges or actions though, the worst, most scary thing occurring is that this has broken along party lines and the Dems are weaponizing impeachment.  If we start impeaching Presidents because one party doesn't like him or her, then we're headed to a dark and scary place.  Both charges are frivolous and won't hold water.  But again, the only thing saving us is the Republican controlled Senate.  I don't like that he will be acquitted along party lines just like I don't like he's being charged along party lines, but if it puts this to bed without the dangerous consequences we'd see if he's removed by Dems overturning 63 million votes, then I can live with it.

Most in the media are shocked at this letter.  They can't be believe he'd be so direct and forthright, that he'd challenge Pelosi directly, that he'd put all this info into the public domain without a filter.  And that's why they haven't, don't and I don't think ever will get him and his supporters.  We have a real Mars-Venus situation going on here.  "Miles Law" (where you stand depends on where you sit) comes into play more every day.

Anyway, if you haven't seen the letter, it's a doozy!  I've copied it below.  Read it for yourself and see what you think.

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives.  This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.

The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence.  They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever.  You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!

By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American Democracy.  You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification scheme—yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America’s founding and your egregious conduct threatens to destroy that which our Founders pledged their very lives to build.  Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans of faith by continually saying “I pray for the President,” when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense.  It is a terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!

Your first claim, “Abuse of Power,” is a completely disingenuous, meritless, and baseless invention of your imagination.  You know that I had a totally innocent conversation with the President of Ukraine.  I then had a second conversation that has been misquoted, mischaracterized, and fraudulently misrepresented.  Fortunately, there was a transcript of the conversation taken, and you know from the transcript (which was immediately made available) that the paragraph in question was perfect.  I said to President Zelensky:  “I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”  I said do us a favor, not me, and our country, not a campaign.  I then mentioned the Attorney General of the United States.  Every time I talk with a foreign leader, I put America’s interests first, just as I did with President Zelensky.

You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offense—it is no more legitimate than the Executive Branch charging members of Congress with crimes for the lawful exercise of legislative power.

You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars.  You know this because Biden bragged about it on video.  Biden openly stated:  “I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars’…I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours.  If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’  Well, son of a bitch.  He got fired.”  Even Joe Biden admitted just days ago in an interview with NPR that it “looked bad.”  Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely accusing me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually did.

President Zelensky has repeatedly declared that I did nothing wrong, and that there was No Pressure.  He further emphasized that it was a “good phone call,” that “I don’t feel pressure,” and explicitly stressed that “nobody pushed me.”  The Ukrainian Foreign Minister stated very clearly:  “I have never seen a direct link between investigations and security assistance.”  He also said there was “No Pressure.”   Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a supporter of Ukraine who met privately with President Zelensky, has said: “At no time during this meeting…was there any mention by Zelensky or any Ukrainian that they were feeling pressure to do anything in return for the military aid.”  Many meetings have been held between representatives of Ukraine and our country.  Never once did Ukraine complain about pressure being applied—not once!  Ambassador Sondland testified that I told him: “No quid pro quo.  I want nothing.  I want nothing.  I want President Zelensky to do the right thing, do what he ran on.”

The second claim, so-called “Obstruction of Congress,” is preposterous and dangerous.  House Democrats are trying to impeach the duly elected President of the United States for asserting Constitutionally based privileges that have been asserted on a bipartisan basis by administrations of both political parties throughout our Nation’s history.  Under that standard, every American president would have been impeached many times over.  As liberal law professor Jonathan Turley warned when addressing Congressional Democrats: “I can’t emphasize this enough…if you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power.  It’s your abuse of power.  You’re doing precisely what you’re criticizing the President for doing.”

Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening.  Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat.  You have developed a full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it!  You are unwilling and unable to accept the verdict issued at the ballot box during the great Election of 2016.  So you have spent three straight years attempting to overturn the will of the American people and nullify their votes.  You view democracy as your enemy!

Speaker Pelosi, you admitted just last week at a public forum that your party’s impeachment effort has been going on for “two and a half years,” long before you ever heard about a phone call with Ukraine.  Nineteen minutes after I took the oath of office, the Washington Post published a story headlined, “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.”  Less than three months after my inauguration, Representative Maxine Waters stated, “I’m going to fight every day until he’s impeached.”  House Democrats introduced the first impeachment resolution against me within months of my inauguration, for what will be regarded as one of our country’s best decisions, the firing of James Comey (see Inspector General Reports)—who the world now knows is one of the dirtiest cops our Nation has ever seen.  A ranting and raving Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, declared just hours after she was sworn into office, “We’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf****r.”  Representative Al Green said in May, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.”  Again, you and your allies said, and did, all of these things long before you ever heard of President Zelensky or anything related to Ukraine.  As you know very well, this impeachment drive has nothing to do with Ukraine, or the totally appropriate conversation I had with its new president.  It only has to do with your attempt to undo the election of 2016 and steal the election of 2020!

Congressman Adam Schiff cheated and lied all the way up to the present day, even going so far as to fraudulently make up, out of thin air, my conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine and read this fantasy language to Congress as though it were said by me.  His shameless lies and deceptions, dating all the way back to the Russia Hoax, is one of the main reasons we are here today.

You and your party are desperate to distract from America’s extraordinary economy, incredible jobs boom, record stock market, soaring confidence, and flourishing citizens.  Your party simply cannot compete with our record: 7 million new jobs; the lowest-ever unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans; a rebuilt military; a completely reformed VA with Choice and Accountability for our great veterans; more than 170 new federal judges and two Supreme Court Justices; historic tax and regulation cuts; the elimination of the individual mandate; the first decline in prescription drug prices in half a century; the first new branch of the United States Military since 1947, the Space Force; strong protection of the Second Amendment; criminal justice reform; a defeated ISIS caliphate and the killing of the world’s number one terrorist leader, al-Baghdadi; the replacement of the disastrous NAFTA trade deal with the wonderful USMCA (Mexico and Canada); a breakthrough Phase One trade deal with China; massive new trade deals with Japan and South Korea; withdrawal from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal; cancellation of the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord; becoming the world’s top energy producer; recognition of Israel’s capital, opening the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; a colossal reduction in illegal border crossings, the ending of Catch-and-Release, and the building of the Southern Border Wall—and that is just the beginning, there is so much more.  You cannot defend your extreme policies—open borders, mass migration, high crime, crippling taxes, socialized healthcare, destruction of American energy, late-term taxpayer-funded abortion, elimination of the Second Amendment, radical far-left theories of law and justice, and constant partisan obstruction of both common sense and common good.

There is nothing I would rather do than stop referring to your party as the Do-Nothing Democrats.  Unfortunately, I don’t know that you will ever give me a chance to do so.

After three years of unfair and unwarranted investigations, 45 million dollars spent, 18 angry Democrat prosecutors, the entire force of the FBI, headed by leadership now proven to be totally incompetent and corrupt, you have found NOTHING!  Few people in high position could have endured or passed this test.  You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family.  You conducted a fake investigation upon the democratically elected President of the United States, and you are doing it yet again.

There are not many people who could have taken the punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done so much for the success of America and its citizens.  But instead of putting our country first, you have decided to disgrace our country still further.  You completely failed with the Mueller report because there was nothing to find, so you decided to take the next hoax that came along, the phone call with Ukraine—even though it was a perfect call.  And by the way, when I speak to foreign countries, there are many people, with permission, listening to the call on both sides of the conversation.

You are the ones interfering in America’s elections.  You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy.  You are the ones Obstructing Justice.  You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.

Before the Impeachment Hoax, it was the Russian Witch Hunt.  Against all evidence, and regardless of the truth, you and your deputies claimed that my campaign colluded with the Russians—a grave, malicious, and slanderous lie, a falsehood like no other.  You forced our Nation through turmoil and torment over a wholly fabricated story, illegally purchased from a foreign spy by Hillary Clinton and the DNC in order to assault our democracy.  Yet, when the monstrous lie was debunked and this Democrat conspiracy dissolved into dust, you did not apologize.  You did not recant.  You did not ask to be forgiven.  You showed no remorse, no capacity for self-reflection.  Instead, you pursued your next libelous and vicious crusade—you engineered an attempt to frame and defame an innocent person.  All of this was motivated by personal political calculation.  Your Speakership and your party are held hostage by your most deranged and radical representatives of the far left.  Each one of your members lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger—this is what is driving impeachment.  Look at Congressman Nadler’s challenger.  Look at yourself and others.  Do not take our country down with your party.

If you truly cared about freedom and liberty for our Nation, then you would be devoting your vast investigative resources to exposing the full truth concerning the FBI’s horrifying abuses of power before, during, and after the 2016 election—including the use of spies against my campaign, the submission of false evidence to a FISA court, and the concealment of exculpatory evidence in order to frame the innocent.  The FBI has great and honorable people, but the leadership was inept and corrupt.  I would think that you would personally be appalled by these revelations, because in your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you tied the impeachment effort directly to the completely discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that “all roads lead to Putin,” when you know that is an abject lie.  I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.

Any member of Congress who votes in support of impeachment—against every shred of truth, fact, evidence, and legal principle—is showing how deeply they revile the voters and how truly they detest America’s Constitutional order.  Our Founders feared the tribalization of partisan politics, and you are bringing their worst fears to life.

Worse still, I have been deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam right up until the present.  I have been denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to present evidence, to have my own counsel present, to confront accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the so-called whistleblower who started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual phone call that was made.  Once I presented the transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters (they never thought that such evidence would be presented), the so-called whistleblower, and the second whistleblower, disappeared because they got caught, their report was a fraud, and they were no longer going to be made available to us.  In other words, once the phone call was made public, your whole plot blew up, but that didn’t stop you from continuing.

More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.

You and others on your committees have long said impeachment must be bipartisan—it is not.  You said it was very divisive—it certainly is, even far more than you ever thought possible—and it will only get worse!

This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth.  You are not just after me, as President, you are after the entire Republican Party.  But because of this colossal injustice, our party is more united than it has ever been before.  History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade.  Your legacy will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.

Perhaps most insulting of all is your false display of solemnity.  You apparently have so little respect for the American People that you expect them to believe that you are approaching this impeachment somberly, reservedly, and reluctantly.  No intelligent person believes what you are saying.  Since the moment I won the election, the Democrat Party has been possessed by Impeachment Fever.  There is no reticence.  This is not a somber affair.  You are making a mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your hatred of me, of the Republican Party, and tens of millions of patriotic Americans.  The voters are wise, and they are seeing straight through this empty, hollow, and dangerous game you are playing.

I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election.  They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.

There is far too much that needs to be done to improve the lives of our citizens.  It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats in Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American People.  While I have no expectation that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.

One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.

Sincerely yours,

DONALD J. TRUMP

President of the United States of America

cc:       United States Senate

United States House of Representatives

Motivation Monday

Anti-Semitism

I've said this before, but there are a lot of issues that surprise me.  And as I age, sometimes something that seems like sort of a no-brainer are met with objection, derision, and antipathy.  One such issue was the Executive Order that President Trump signed this week.  You can read it here.  If you haven't kept up, there has been a significant concern in many quarters that anti-semitism is rearing it's ugly head and sometimes even being encouraged on university campus' across the nation.  It is despicable and there is no excuse for it.  The world went through this bullshit a long time ago and the watchword that emerged was "Never Again".  But like all things, memory fades and new ideas emerge.  But by any measure, anti-semitism is terrible and needs to be squashed whenever it is encountered.

So the EO simply states that the U.S. Government won't stand for the rise of anti-semitism and will fight it.  How you might ask?  Well, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn't include religion as a protected class.  So this EO states that protection of Jews and fights against anti-semitism on the campus will be ramped up and they will be treated as a protected class.  The way they'll do that is what you'd expect.  Money.  If the government finds that a university is allowing anti-semitism to rise, federal funding could be withheld.  Since universities live and die by the pocketbook and federal money is key to survival, this is a pretty smart tactic.  Hopefully, it'll work.  You never know but at least, at the very least, he is trying to do something.  This is very unlike so many who have occupied the oval office before him.

So Trump has a signing ceremony at the White House and a lot of people show up to support this smart move.  Included are a lot of Jews.  His daughter and son-in-law who are Jewish are among them.  Seems like a win.  A no-brainer.  A good deed designed to protect people who have been oppressed for thousands of years.  

But not so fast.  Almost immediately the articles in all the usual fish wraps started about Trump wanting to round up Jews like the Nazis.  There are all kinds of articles out there about Trump's nefarious intent in signing this EO.  Over on FB I've seen some posts that are mind-boggling.  People comparing him to Hitler, claiming that he personally wants to pin yellow stars on all Jews, that the only reason he signed the EO is that so he can categorize Jews as a nationality instead of a religion and that it would be easier to round them up and send them to the gas chambers.  Some claiming that the next step is forcing Jews to claim their religion to get passports.  Or that they'll have to have dual citizenship.  It is surreal.  Seriously surreal.  

Like I said, it's surreal and I don't remotely get it.  I do know that the oppression that Jews have experienced for thousands of years is horrific and shameful.  I also know that the Holocaust was real, more disgusting and despicable than can be described, and that we all should be galvanized to the proposition that it never happens again.  And yet there is murderous oppression around the world today.  There has been unspeakable genocide in many places around the world including the Soviet Union, Cambodia and in many corners of Africa.  We can't save them all, but when we can do something, we should support efforts to protect not only Jews, but all oppressed people.  Clearly, as the leader of the free world, the country with by far the best economy (for now), and as a beacon of freedom around the world, we should do all we can.  That includes admitting more refugees in a responsible manner from places that engage in terrible oppression, helping reputable parties to head off or fight oppression where we can, and doing everything possible in our country to never countenance the rise of something like white-supremacy or antisemitism.  If it's happening somewhere, it can happen anywhere.  Our universities are particularly vulnerable to influence and even brain washing when it comes to these scourges.  I say any action taken to squash them is good.

I'm not sure I've seen any example of the hatred people have for Trump that is more explicit than this.  They are so quick to vocalize examples of Trump's anti-semitism, but the examples are all out of context and mostly convenient soundbite snippets from the compliant media that confirm the worst possible opinion, no matter the context, the event or the entire quote.  Politically, Jews vote mostly Democratic which baffles me, but it is what it is.  That some should go so far as decrying a small move to call out and attempt to get rid of antisemitism as much as possible indicates their unreasonable hatred.  Personally, I believe Jews should be lining up in droves to support Trump.  They have no better friend.  

When is Impeachment Not Impeachment?

By any measure we're in new territory.  Now that two articles of impeachment have been drafted and voted out of the House Judiciary Committee on strictly partisan lines, it will go to the full House for a vote.  If you've been following at all you'll know that I, along with a growing number of people aren't buying it.  The two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are so obscure, ill-defined and generic as to be laughable.  I'm absolutely positive that every President in our history could have been impeached for doing these things.  And the original charges have disappeared because they can't make the case.  Additionally, there have been no fact witnesses but instead a lot of people giving their opinions.  So there's not much to go on except the denial by the White House and the outrage by deep state bureaucrats who are used to getting their way.  It really is quite something.

So what makes Trump different.  Simple.  Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Simply put, the Dems hate him so virulently that they have let that overcome their good sense and logic (if they ever had any).  So they will vote to impeach no matter what because of their hatred.  It's really quite a sight to see.

But the reason we're in new territory is that this impeachment will be strictly along party lines.  Oh, there might be a few Dems who make a political calculation that a vote against will get them reelected and that is more important to them than staying true to their caucus.  But it's all political.  The idea that we'd remove a duly elected President from office over obscure and unproven charges and strictly along party lines ought to give us all pause.  I really hope that this impeachment of Trump is a one-off just because they hate him so dramatically.  Because if this becomes the norm, God help us.  If we decide that every time a President from another party is unacceptable and we determine that the answer is impeachment, then it's a slippery slope to the dawn of a new age.  I don't know what the result would be, but I don't think we'd like it.

So for me, this process is so corrupt and out of control that the impeachment will come with a big bright asterisk because of the vote along party lines.  It isn't impeachment, it's theater.  And a sick theater at that.

Friday Funnies

Impeachment...the Fizzle

I admit that I couldn't watch much of the Judiciary Committee hearings on impeachment.  You may have seen my post last week on Four Lawyers.  I didn't watch much of that one either.  Just enough to get the gist of what was going on.  And then yesterday they had the two lawyers testifying on the Intelligence Committee hearing outcomes.  And in a sort of very weird scenario the Dem lawyer was able to go up to sit with members and question the Republican lawyer.  It's all very bizarre.  I did catch a few snippets throughout the day and it might just have been the most predictable back and forth that I've ever seen.  We all know what both sides think.  We all know how they are going to vote.  We all know their minds are made up.  We all know who hates Trump and who doesn't.

And so we've had I don't know how long of a build up to the moment of Articles of Impeachment.  We've heard that there are a multitude of charges based on the Ukrainian nonsense and that they have him dead to rights on many very specific things.  That he has broken the law in so many very specific ways that there's almost too many to count.  Today was to be the day.  The day they nail Trump with specific charges that will result in removal from office.  So what happened?  Well, the best I can tell there are two charges.  The first is "abuse of power" and the second is "obstruction of Congress".  Huh?  Really?  I mean seriously...as I said at the very beginning...is that all there is?  My expectation is that Trump's lawyers will have a field day with this.  Here's the Reader's Digest version.  They say he abused power because he fulfilled his Presidential duties of working with foreign leaders.  He abused his power because he executed his policies.  Not a policy of the oh so wise diplomatic corps.  But his policies.  It should be obvious.  He's the CINC.  Full stop.  He gets to do that.  And he gets to take whatever actions he can (within the law) to root out corruption, which he was doing.  As far as obstruction of Congress goes, remember how this started.  It was a one-sided kangaroo court held in the basement of the capital in which the Republicans couldn't call witnesses, cross examine witnesses and were generally shut out.  When it got to the light of day, Shiff was a butthead and didn't allow many of the Republican requests.  So if I were Trump I might have done the same thing.  "Fuck you guys.  When you decide to make it fair, give me a call."  So bottom line is that there is no there, there.  They are embarrassing themselves.  That was evident today when they indicated that USMCA would pass.  They are desperately trying to get this wrapped up and off the stage.  It will go to the Senate and it will fizzle.  I don't know how they'll dispense with it, but I suspect it will be fast and with little fanfare.  If this doesn't show the pathetic deep state though, I don't know what does.

Motivation Monday

Friday Funnies

Four Lawyers

So the House Judiciary Committee opened today with four lawyers to testify on the Constitutional implications of the whole Trump-Ukraine mess.  Three rabid Dems and one mollified Republican gave their OPINIONS about what we've been inundated with for the last several months.  Since I watched a fair share of the Intelligence Committee hearings I thought I'd check this out.  I didn't last long.  It was bad, real bad!  Had to turn it off.  The little I heard was so very predictable.  The Dems absolutely, no doubt about it believe the President should be impeached and removed.  The Republican was more circumspect and warned against responding to how the wind blows without evidence.  But he was drowned out by the media.  This will be heavily used to the advantage of those who have already made up their minds.  As far as I can see, for a significant chunk of the population who are skeptical of this whole thing, their testimony will serve to further besmirch the legal profession.  But maybe they don't care.

Lawyers occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.- Winston Churchill

Mean Girls...Updated

Grieving

If you read the post about our sobering Thanksgiving, you'll know that we lost a friend last week.  Someone with whom we had a past.  Someone who hasn't been particularly close in many years...and yet the history is there.  So the grief, while not the same as a close family member, is still there.  And as we age, we face this more and more.

One of the links I like on the panel to the right is Bayou Renaissance Man.  He has some interesting subjects and can come up with some rather poignant insights about life.  Today, coincidentally, he has a column about the death of a friend.  It's good, but the advice he quotes from someone else is better.  In fact it's invaluable.  So I'm going to provide the link to read it here and copy the relevant part below.  Most likely you won't remember this post.  But if (when) you find yourself in this position, it's valuable to read and take some solace from it.

Alright, here goes. I'm old. What that means is that I've survived (so far) and a lot of people I've known and loved did not. I've lost friends, best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, grandparents, mom, relatives, teachers, mentors, students, neighbors, and a host of other folks. I have no children, and I can't imagine the pain it must be to lose a child. But here's my two cents.

I wish I could say you get used to people dying. I never did. I don't want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter the circumstances. But I don't want it to "not matter". I don't want it to be something that just passes. My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love. So be it. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are a testament that I can love deeply and live deeply and be cut, or even gouged, and that I can heal and continue to live and continue to love. And the scar tissue is stronger than the original flesh ever was. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are only ugly to people who can't see.

As for grief, you'll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you're drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it's some physical thing. Maybe it's a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it's a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.

In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don't even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you'll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what's going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything...and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life.

Somewhere down the line, and it's different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O'Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out.

Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to. But you learn that you'll survive them. And other waves will come. And you'll survive them too. If you're lucky, you'll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.

Motivation Monday