Wednesday, July 12, 2017

What's normal?

The TV is on in the background. I'm half listening as Congress interviews the proposed candidate to replace James Comey as FBI director. I am struck by the degree to which the questions are designed to ferret out the man's willingness to admit and act on criminal conduct on the part of the American president and his staff. When has an FBI director's confirmation ever been so clearly tied to his being a clear challenger of the White House? The cynic in me thinks it's all just stagecraft.

The man, whose name I can't be bothered to look up, is doing his best to thread the needle, to please the president who nominated him, and the committee members who see the president for what he is. It all adds up to obfuscation and double speak. I already don't think much of the man by virtue of the fact that he accepted an offer to work for this president. That's wrong thinking of course: Some part of me is hoping that people with courage and integrity sneak past the gate and get themselves in a position to act against the criminal tomfoolery that passes for federal governance these days.

Meanwhile VP Pence takes pains to distance himself from Donny Junior's meeting last summer with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have incriminating material on the woman who was Daddy's main roadblock in the race for the White House. This is apparently enough of a smoking gun that Pence put out a statement that when Donny Junior met with the Russian lawyer, he, Pence, had not yet joined the campaign. The man is as bad as his boss, and that's saying something.

The president's son-in-law Kushner and then campaign manager Manafort did join Donny boy in the meeting with the Russian lawyer, however, and some now theorize that Junior's colossally stupid release of his emails pertaining to setting up the meeting are intended to protect Kushner, who, as a campaign official then, and senior advisor now, could be indicted for taking the meeting. But, I don't get that reasoning. Kusher was there. And he failed to disclose this meeting and several others with the Russians on his security clearance forms. In any other administration his clearance would be revoked, he'd be removed from his position, and perjury charges would be brought against him.

It's all one big clusterf*ck, and it is diverting us from some real true dangers happening in the background, laws being passed under the radar, by Republicans who will continue to ignore the criminality and woeful ineptitude and mental instability of the president because he sucks up all the press attention and leaves them free to do their dirty deeds in the dark. And I, for one, am entirely convinced that the Russians didn't just peddle oppo research and hacked DNC emails, they actually tampered with voting machines in at least three states. That's why the return results last November didn't make any sense. And if they could tamper with actual voting machines then, why can't they do it again for the 2018 mid terms? Combine that with voter suppression laws and jigsaw-like gerrymandering of voting districts, and we might be stuck with these idiots and mercenaries for a long time to come.

I don't even know why I am writing this. Just venting, I suppose. Some days, I have no heart for any of it. Today is one of those days.

*

In other news, all the kids happened to stop by after work yesterday, and we mindlessly watched Forged In Fire and talked and dozed and ate dinner and laughed at some summer memories from their shared childhoods, and the house felt entirely normal.



11 comments:

  1. Your family is beautiful.
    Politics are not.
    Oh Lord. We are so fucked.

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  2. I have no heart for it anymore either. Just knowing how many decent people there are in the world (many through blogs like yours) and trying to practice gratitude for all the goodness in my life is what keeps me going.
    Mary is right, your family is beautiful in all ways.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  3. Thank you for this concise take on the atrocities dancing down the halls of our fragile freedoms. Beautifully writ. Love Rebecca

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  4. Yes, we are so fucked. and I doubt that we have enough time on our side for the pendulum to swing. Try to see around corners and protect your brood...that is my instinct. The house full of children , family, so heavenly. We must save ourselves...save our lovely families!

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  5. Oh that pic of your daughter and her dad!!!! ❤️❤️❤️. About the rest... I'm sick about our joke of a country...

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  6. Concentrate on the love around you. You are right about the rest of it, march, write, sign petitions, call your legislators and when it is all too much, take solace in your kids.

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  7. I love that picture of your daughter and your husband - such joy!

    Having a normal family life seems the only way to have normalcy these days. I have to choose when I read news. Some days I just can't do it.

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  8. Good to have that "entirely normal" to help get through all the "clusterfckery!"

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  9. Venting in these troubled times is important and necessary! Writing it all down helps me think it through, too, though I don't usually keep what I write. I'd rather forget it all. :)

    I agree with you that anyone willing to work for Trump -- especially in this sensitive position -- is automatically suspect in my book. I haven't been following the Congressional interviews at all.

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  10. Such a great picture of your daughter and your husband.

    Re politics, I agree with everything you said, to such a degree that it's depressing to think about. My coping mechanisms seem to veer from venting to meditation and back again ... whatever works ...

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