Impeachment Vote - 12/18/2019

Bottom line … there are two possible outcomes of today’s action in the US House of Representatives; 

The House may vote to impeach the Current Occupant of the White House, on a largely party-line vote.  The Senate will fail in its duty to conduct a meaningful trial, and the C.O. will retain his office.  His behavior will become even more juvenile, vindictive, and criminal than it has been; comfortable in the impunity provided by the results in the Senate.  Republicans will claim that the fact that none of them voted to impeach is proof that this is a partisan impeachment process – but the reality is simply that their party discipline makes them accessories-after-the-fact for Trump’s criminality.  Enough people will buy the Republican line that many key battleground states may well go to Trump in the next election.  

The other possibility is that enough Democrats ignore the clear evidence presented to them, and fear for their reelection—or recognize the futility of passing this on to the Senate, only for it to die there—and vote against impeachment, killing the process here.  The Republican fable about the partisan nature of the accusations, and the acceleration of Trump’s misbehavior will be exactly the same as in the first scenario.  In addition, the Democrats will face the perception that they are too weak and fragmented to uphold the law.  This would likely be even more costly among voters in battleground states.  

So, which is the correct action?  

I feel that it is the duty of the House to pass these articles of impeachment, calling out the criminality of this man, despite the certainty that there will be no enforcement action by the Senate.  We owe it to posterity that a meaningful response to these offenses be written into history – whatever the consequences.  Failure to act in the face of obvious guilt encourages further offenses, lies to the future, and diminishes the role of congress as a co-equal branch of government  

Senate Trial and Posterity

There needs to be a trial in the Senate, even though the chances of the Current Occupant’s conviction and removal from office are vanishingly slight.  

It may be impossible at this point to prevent our nation from descending into an extended period of darkness, but the historical record of this time—and of those who endeavor today to prevent or slow this descent must be preserved.  It may not bubble back to public consciousness in this country in our lifetimes, but this must be documented for the rest of the world, and for posterity.  

Cult Leadership

When we have a normal, healthy admiration for a leader or other public figure, evidence that they are incompetent, corrupt, or otherwise unfit will compromise our support, and threaten those bonds of admiration.  

It’s different when we have given over a portion of our identity to the one we admire.  When that occurs, revelations of that person’s corruption may be perceived as a threat not just to the other, but to our judgment; even to ourselves.  It is a natural reaction, in this situation, to try to minimize these revelations.   

In the extreme, people may have entirely subsumed their identity into that of their leader.  Accusations are felt deeply and personally – and rejected at a wall of cognitive dissonance.  Counterintuitively, the more serious the charge—and the clearer and more undeniable the evidence—the more they are rejected, and the more closely these followers will cleave to their leader.  

Leaders may cynically lock down their hold on followers by intentionally making absurd statements, then repeating them incessantly.  This serves two purpose with followers; as a loyalty test, and as a training tool, to reduce their will question anything their leader says.   

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
- Voltaire

Census and Citizenshiip

The Census Bureau has the responsibility of counting every person in the country every ten years.  

Under the best of circumstances, the toughest challenge they face each time is gaining the trust of marginalized and vulnerable segments of our population, in order to assure their full participation - which is absolutely necessary for the Census Bureau to fulfill its responsibility.  The Census Bureau works hard to assure people that none of the information they provide is shared with other government agencies, and will never be used against them.  

Imagine the headwinds created when the most prominent face of our government is a malign entity, who constantly expresses hatred, prejudice, and malice for exactly these vulnerable segments of society, and is loudly, persistently calling for changes to the form that will identify these people.  

Presumably, the question about citizenship will not be on the forms that go out next year.  But the damage is done.  The cruel treatment being doled out to asylum-seekers, and The Current Occupant’s insistence that non-citizens be identified and rounded up, reinforce the latent fears of the vulnerable, and an undercount is almost a certainty.  

Religions and Conflict

There is no conflict between Christianity and Judaism

There is no conflict between Christianity and Islam; between Islam and Judaism; between Hinduism and Buddhism; Hinduism and Islam, or any pair of religions.

In fact, there is no conflict between any of these, and a secular perspective that values empirical evidence over revealed wisdom.  Many of the best minds in science and in religion are comfortable with toes dipped in each pool.  

The conflict is with those who lack the imagination or confidence to feel that their beliefs are right, without insisting that all others are wrong – and with those who manipulate them for their own purposes.  

Chablis-Drinking Liberal Elitist

The other day, a friend called me an elitist ‘chablis-drinking’ liberal.  

As much as I appreciate his comment, I really needed to set him straight.  I told him I don’t particularly care for chablis.  Much of what passes for ‘chablis’ in this country is just generic white wine - hardly worth using for cooking.  True chablis is grown and made exclusively in the Chablis subregion in the Burgundy region of France.  Though it uses the same grapes as white burgundy, it isn’t aged in oak, so it is missing the complexity that adds appeal to other white burgundy.  

But actually, I usually lean more toward the deep, righ reds anyway … mourvedre, well-blended cabernet, or tempranillo, for example.  

My friend thanked me, then suddenly pointed at his watch and said, ‘Hey, look at the time!  Gotta run!’

It’s good we had this talk - was happy to help my friend with his misperception.  This is just the kind of dialogue that can help gain understanding, and bridge the divides in our polarized society.  

CLIMATE CHANGE FRAUD

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE FRAUD ADMITTED

In a remarkable turnaround, Dr. James Hansen conceded that his research over three decades was mostly made up. 

“In the early 1980s, NASA needed to find a way to remain relevant, and to distract the public from the investigations that revealed that the so-called ‘Moon landings’ were all staged.  So, they put me in charge of a program to promulgate this apocalyptic theory about Global Warming.  I mean, we had all these satellites up there, not doing much other than navigation, weather reporting and spying.  We could tell people anything we wanted, and they’d just suck it up.

“It threw a scare into us a few years ago, when James Inhofe, the Senator from Oil, brought a snowball into the Senate chambers.  But his compelling testimony was soon forgotten, so we spun more yarns, and passed out more dollars to our lackeys in the research conspiracy industry.  But then this year, we knew we were had when it got cold in the mid-west, and the man with the biggest brain in the universe, revealed us as a mockery. 

“So, I admit it.  We’ve been making this up all along. We are ready to refund all the research money we have wasted; not to the government, but to those most in need – the fossil-fuel industry, whom we have slandered all these years.  We are ready to admit that coal, ‘beautiful, clean coal’, has been the answer all along. 

Fortunately, NASA has a new mission … MARS!!! 

Climate Change and Denial

There seems to be somewhat broad confusion on the issue of anthropogenic climate change – most notably among certain high-level political figures, who benefit from the confusion.

Climate scientists have never asserted that continuing human emissions of greenhouse gases would result in uniform temperature increases across the planet.  This was NEVER an outcome of research into this issue.  From the start, some models have predicted regions where they suspect the average temperatures may decrease.

The underlying driver is increasing global temperatures, but the effects vary widely.  As with El Niño / La Niña cycles—which causes flooding in some regions and drought in others—the effects of climate change will be all over the map.

Those who cherry pick data to find a glacier that is actually growing, or who look at a one-year anomalous plateau, while ignoring the broader trend, simple broadcast their foolishness and stubbornness.  This is embarrassing on an individual basis, but highly destructive when national or global leaders encourage denial of the science, and delay in addressing this increasingly dangerous crisis.