Thursday, June 16, 2022

I Have A Few Notes…

No offense to a guy I remember from a boy’s choir in elementary school, but Jacob is beating Luttig silly on the TeeVee.

That’s not a statement on what Judge Luttig has to say, but he’s not bringing the “blockbuster” testimony George Conway promised.
Yeah, not so much: And freely adding insult to injury: And I haven’t read/analyzed the judge’s statement (which I assume was entered into the record but not read in camera), that lit up Conway's twitter feed earlier,  but I do have a visceral reaction to hyperbole: Mike grew up in the South that I did. Texas sought independence from Mexico so that it could profit from the Southern slave economy.  East Texas, where Mike and I were raised, was the beating heart of that desire, and old times there are not forgotten.  He was probably on the high school campus the day the fight broke out, a fight between black and white students because the blacks resented losing their high school to segregation, and the whites who resented blacks being at their school (there was never any question of closing the white school, or of sending white students to the black school).  He grew up in the '60's, as did I.  He knew about the civil rights movement and the anti-war protests and the violence done in response to the death of Dr. King and Malcolm X and all the political/social turmoil of the '60's and '70's.

"War" just strikes me as a poorly chosen metaphor.

Trump didn't declare war on democracy, or our system of government.  Trump only did what Trump does: tried to have it his way.  He's Jared Kushner; a rich little shit who thinks he's entitled to the privileges of the world and to an honored place in it.  Trump didn't want a war; Trump just didn't want to be a loser.  Did he find people to support his delusions and his grab for power?  Of course he did.  Every election results in people who question the "legitimacy" of the outcome.  Those people are just usually on the fringe of power, not at its center.  And even then, the center held.  62 court cases rejected, because there was no evidence.  And now we're told Pence could have sent the votes back to the states for reconsideration of for new slates to be put forward.

Says who?

This was a Joint Session of Congress run by rules agreed upon by both Houses.  None of those rules said the Vice-President acting as President of the Senate had the last word on what could, or could not, happen.  At the very least I could see Pence declaring himself large and in charge, and McConnell pulling the Senate Parliamentarian out of the wings to say "Oh, I don't think so!", and Pelosi and McConnell agreeing to tell Pence to pound sand.  Reports are McConnell refused to leave the Capitol grounds while the mob was in the chamber.  He insisted on waiting until order was restored, and the work of Congress that day would be completed.  You think Pence was going to intimidate McConnell when a mob didn't? Do you think anybody is going to intimidate Nancy Pelosi?

There might have been debates, there might have been legislative (v. insurrectionist and criminal) chaos in the chamber, but the outcome would have been the same as it is now.

And hell, we might have all been the stronger for it.

"War"?  Nonsense.  Even Cruz and Hawley would have quailed if their votes were the determinative ones to accept the electoral count.  They don't want to be responsible for anything; they just want to be noticed. This whole carefully choreographed clown show was never going to work.  Which doesn't mean it wasn't illegal or shouldn't be taken quite seriously and that all possible criminal process shouldn't be brought to bear.

But "war"?  Mike is older than me, by one year.  He didn't get drafted to Vietnam, probably because he went to college.  I missed it because I had a high draft number in the last year of the draft.  A college deferment never entered the picture. Either way, neither of us knows anything about real war.  It's an exciting metaphor, and fun to toss around, especially because it mean you live in "significant times," and that somehow makes you significant, too.  I've lived through interesting times, and I find it doesn't make me all that interesting.  It does tell me how normal chaos is, how much of American society and culture and governance is held together by spit 'n' prayer, rather than by cohesion and commonality and holding to irrefutable principles.

It's a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down.  But here we are.

I have to conclude with this, for no obvious thematic reason except this post is supposed to be about the testimony in the hearings today:
Yes, and.... Turn out the lights, the party's over....🎶
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