Impeachable Offenses?

The constitution uses the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" in talking about impeachment.

What this actually means is debatable.  Treason and bribery, which are also mentioned are fairly clear.

One definition is that an impeachable offense is whatever Congress says it is.  This may seem a bit arbitrary but is it really?

It probably is the best definition since the body that determines the ultimate definition is in fact the legislature.

So if a majority of the House feels certain acts are indeed within the definition they are correct.

It is up to them.  Of course before that we can and will have a lot of discussion and whether the Senate agrees is a different issue entirely.

Whistleblower and Hearsay, So?

One of the things about hearsay is that it is, by itself, of questionable value, since it is one persons account of what another person said.  It is generally inadmissible in court cases since the person doing the actual talking should be the one questioned, not someone who heard him/her.

However, hearsay is certainly constantly used in investigations and other matters, providing a path to determine who needs to be investigated, or questioned.

Some are attacking the whistleblower report because it relies to a large extent on hearsay.

Since the purpose of a whistleblower report is to alert others to possible bad behavior, hearsay is certainly acceptable since it will be the results of the investigation that matter.

We have the transcript of the call that was the heart of the whistleblower complaint and it verifies the hearsay in the complaint.

It is part of the process to uncover corruption and it worked.

Improper Behavior

It is hard to judge whether we live in particularly bad times considering the behavior of our public officials.

What is clear is that we have more information than they did in the past, so for instance, we know almost instantly when they do something.

In the past there would be a delay.

In the days before television and maybe radio, news was slower and a bit more filtered.

Many of our public officials engaged in certain behavior which was essentially ignored by the media of the time.

Nothing is currently ignored.

The past of course had its own corruption and feuds.  Famously John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were bitter rivals.  Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel over comments about his character.

Our history is filled with politicians lining their own pockets and engaging in questionable practices.

Some were clearly better than others but even in recent times we have had Presidents with questionable histories and behaviors.  

The current incumbent has a history of sexist behavior, improper business dealings and ongoing lying and paranoia.

Is he the worst ever?  Like I said, its hard to judge, but he is in the running.

Clueless Leadership

There was a report that in some private conversation or communication, the administration told the Iranian President that if he agreed to negotiations we would lift all sanctions.  Once the report came out it was denied by the administration.

The problem is that the Iranian regime, for all their fundamentalist beliefs and enmity to Israel, have more credibility than our administration does.

Was this offer made?  I don't know but thinking about it, probably.

The administrations foreign policy efforts have almost no successes.  We and the world are in worse shape than we were before the last election.

North Korea scored a major propaganda coup and has continued to develop its weapons.

We withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal and have nothing with which to replace it.  Our sanctions are hurting Iran but we have seen drones shot down, oil fields attacked and tankers seized.

Our allies don't agree with many of our positions and it shows.

We have allowed China the inside track on trade in the Pacific by leaving the trade agreement.

Whatever our interests are in Venezuela, we are not achieving them.

Russia continues to expand and interfere.  We have embarrassed the Ukraine.

The administration was embarrassed by a teenage girl at the UN and really want's something to distract the public it can call a victory.

Would they have proposed such a deal in private?  I'm sure they would, but they can't pull off private very well either.

Facts, Alternative Facts?

The start of an impeachment inquiry is a bit like a roll of the dice.

The outcome is uncertain.

What will happen is that testimony and documents will come out and the American public will have better insight into the events.

Of course most people will rely on the media coverage to get their facts so we know that there will be two versions circulating.

Even the media with the bias, and maybe they all have some, may be forced at some point to accept some alternative facts.

It would have to be impossible to dispute and even then it will be spun.

So the next few months may be more of a media trial than anything else.

Facts are becoming more and more malleable in today's world.

Now What?

The question of guilt or innocence is almost irrelevant to the impeachment proceedings.  He clearly is guilty of what he is being charged with, but can he be convicted?

We already know that it is more likely to be determined based on politics rather than guilt or innocence.

The real jury is the American public since most politicians are concerned with getting reelected.

In the House, with a Democratic majority there is some possibility that articles of Impeachment might actually pass.

The Democrats constitute the majority required and assuming the facts are as obvious as they seem it should be a fairly simple matter.

The problem will be when it goes to the Senate.

This is the actual trial and at the end of it two thirds of the Senators have to vote to impeach.

This seems extremely unlikely, unless of course the proceedings lead to a public outcry demanding action.

So the goal has to be to get the public convinced, beyond reasonable doubt, that he President has committed crimes that deserve removal.

Some of the crimes are not likely to be convincing, especially to his base.  Making the case will be a difficult thing indeed.

Progressive Agenda

In the next election the Democrats are faced with a small dilemma concerning who the nominee should be.

It is not so much a question of what side of each issue they are on but more an issue of how far along the spectrum they should be positioned.

The desire that each American should receive affordable health care when needed is a fairly common goal.  Is it an all or nothing goal though?

The trouble with compromising is that it doesn't seem to be effective in today's political climate.

The Affordable Care Act was crafted to include many provisions the other side had supported but it didn't garner a single opposition vote, was widely attacked and probably led to the loses in 2010 that have shaped the way many states were gerrymandered.

It is still under attack although of course it has actually become quite popular.

Would it have been better to have implemented universal health care when the democrats controlled both houses and the presidency?

Probably couldn't have passed it and as we saw if you lose the whole issue gets delayed.

You have to get what you can when you can or risk getting nothing.

The end game can stay in view.

Nature

Nature isn't cruel, it is simply indifferent.

Consider any prey animal, say a gazelle.  It lives its life just fine until one particular unremarkable day when it is caught and eaten.  Perhaps it has even been chased before and escaped but its immaterial to nature.  One day while trying to flee it gets brought down, killed and eaten.

Similarly nature treats most of its creations the same way.  You eventually will become fodder for other life.  Even if you don't die violently, you most likely decompose and be consumed.

Unless of course you get buried under volcanic ash or get mummified.

People have taken greater control of this process than any other creature on the planet, finding way to fend off certain diseases and survive certain disasters.  We can even predict when some are coming.

Unfortunately we are also by all the evidence the cause, or at least the contributor, to some.

We have carelessly introduced or removed things into nature on an unprecedented scale.

It isn't a new phenomena we have been doing it since we started slash and burn agriculture.

Still it is only in the industrial age that we started to dig up carbon and re-release it into the atmosphere.

It took millennia for that carbon to become coal, oil, natural gas and remove it from the environment.  We are reversing the process at breakneck speed.

Nature will adjust, it always has.  We weren't always around and we may be returning to a state that doesn't support our survival.

Nature doesn't care.

Is the Ukraine his Waterloo?

In, I suspect, every culture there is a term or expression similar to Karma, or Hubris.  Generally it is the belief that things will even up eventually.

Whether you think its the action of the Gods or simply the law of averages, those who fly too close to the sun eventually get burned.

Now is a series of fortunate or perhaps unfortunate events we have seen the election of a person with more Hubris than anyone.

He has gotten away with almost everything as a wealthy celebrity and has convinced enough American to vote for him because of a coalition of what are close to lost causes.

He has put together a coalition of anti abortion evangelicals, white nationalists, gun supporters and various hate groups (racists, misogynists, homophobes, isolationists, etc.)

He was fortunate that we have an electoral college that allows someone who loses the actual vote to win narrowly.

It seems clear that he is due for some Karma and losing an election is probably not enough.

His broken promises about coal and manufacturing, his harmful farm policies, his environmental destruction and his foreign policy blunders are all building up.

Does he have any wishes left is the only question.

What Is Legal?

This is a nation of laws that apply to everyone.

At times those laws impact elected officials and when they do those elected officials if found guilty are penalized.

We have a bit of an unusual situation when that elected official is the President.

The constitution assigns the process to our elected officials to effectively indict and then convict or acquit based on evidence.

One crime would be obstruction of justice.

So is it legal to order witnesses not to answer questions under the pretense of executive privilege?

Does executive privilege exist in a criminal investigation?

If it does and if it can be used it seems to undermine the entire process.

Unfortunately the whole process has been largely compromised by the current state of politics in this country where right or wrong is now determined based on party loyalty, not ethics.

Each side blames the other.  Its up to the American public to figure it out and vote.  Its not going to be easy to fix, but we need to restore ethics into our politics.

Sterotypes

There are people in this world who hate Americans because we have done something that hurt them or because we represent the evil in the world with our commercialism and arrogance.

Obviously they have stereotyped us and what they accuse us of is probably represented by a small number of us.

Similarly, we have a tendency to lump foreign nationals together because of the actions of a small number of them.

Terrorist acts against us involve a relatively small group of people.

Both sides are wrong to make sweeping judgments against people because of the actions of a few.

Still, it is clear that the distrust is not going away soon.

We have a similar problem in this country involving black and white Americans.

I was watching a documentary abut white privilege and while interesting I think it perpetrates a view that is problematic.

White people in this country get treated normally while black people do not.

I think we need to call it discrimination instead of White privilege.  Most white people don't feel privileged.  Being able to shop in a store without being considered suspect is not privilege, it is how it should be.  The fact that black people are considered suspect is the problem.

I think we can all agree that discrimination is simply wrong.  We all should get treated normally.

Its not a privilege, its a right.

Saudi Attack.

Its a sad day when the credibility of the administration is so low that you question pretty much everything they say.

Its even worse because they seem to contradict themselves frequently.

Take the question of who attacked the Saudi Oil Facilities.

This should be something that is easily answered since the Saudis have some of the most sophisticated defense systems in the world.

The idea that they didn't detect the attack is questionable in the first place.

Then we have one high level administration official saying it was Iran, while the Saudis are non committal and the dontard says we need more evidence.

Meanwhile a rebel group in Yemen is taking responsibility but of course they are accused of lying, we accuse everyone of lying nowadays.

It is also interesting to note that the Saudis wanted to cut production at the latest OPEC meeting but that was opposed by us.

This attack conveniently accomplished just that.  It also has led us to impose more sanctions on Iran, which we have no problem doing.

It just seems that in today's day and age with the technology the Saudis and we have that such an attack should have been detected.

Something is rotten in the Kingdom.

Selling Ideas

Its often said that all politics are local meaning we vote because of issues that impact us directly.

Many of the issues being debated have little impact on people's day to day lives.

Things like the size of our paycheck or benefit payment are big issues.  Proposals that will reduce those are not very popular.

What people want to hear is that things are going to be better.  One of the reasons we are where we are today politically is that when Obamacare passed the narrative was controlled by the opposition.

The good aspects were effectively suppressed and the fact that it increased coverage and saved money was widely ignored.

American are very much in support of its provisions now, concerning pre-existing conditions, children covered until age 26 and preventive care at no additional cost.

Major plans have to clearly demonstrate how they help the average American.

Its their country after all.

Failed Policies

Diplomacy is one of those things that is hard to get right but extremely important.

It may not seem that way when you listen to the talking heads on "news" channels who spell out exactly what should be done.  I love it when they spell out a course of action and act like it is a guaranteed roadmap to success.  Often they say things like "Well what else could they do?.

The fact that they may find multiple options outside the imagination of these commentators is actually almost certain.

We have an amateur in charge of our Government who hires based more on ideology than competence.

With the bombing of the Saudi oil fields we see an option probably not considered on morning commentary shows.

Is our Iran policy a success?  Well it might be too early to say, but so far it isn't achieving much.  We have inflicted pain on their economy but it appears that in most of the world we are seen as the problem.

We abrogated a multi nation agreement that was being followed for political reasons.  It was not an agreement that gave us everything and Iran nothing, unconditional surrenders don't happen without a war.

If the idea was to force additional concessions from Iran by being tough, well so far it is not working.

Nor is anything else.

Science Denyers?

Sometimes people with certain beliefs simply ignore facts they don't like.

Take climate change.  We have plenty of evidence to support it.  Sometimes you hear people argue that it is part of  natural cycle ignoring the science that shows we are reaching unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The glaciers are melting, the sea levels are rising and storms are getting more intense.

Lets even accept the possibility that it is also related to a natural cycle although that hypothesis is iffy.

Why would we continue to pump additional greenhouse gases into the air?

The question is that even if there are other factors involved, why would we want to make it worse?

Unless you simply deny scientific evidence you don't like.  We don't really get to pick and choose.

Moving Forward!

There are some things that are truths but which some people don't want to admit.

For example, progress, while benefitting most people doesn't benefit all.

For most improvements in history there were winners and losers.

Generally the winners outnumbered the losers, but if you were a loser, that's not much consolation.

I'm not being complex here, we used to have elevators that required operators, now they don't, no more elevator operators.

There is a long list of jobs we no longer need, and in most cases the people who lost those jobs simply had to move on.

Sometimes the changes are more dramatic than others.

As farming was transformed with the introduction of tractors and other equipment that could replace field workers we saw a migration from farm to city. It was disruptive but in a generation is was absorbed.

We have seen a similar disruption in manufacturing as robotics and international trade has eliminated many high paying low skill manufacturing jobs.

The adjustment is ongoing and mitigated somewhat by our demographics.

However it isn't going to revert to what it was.  It has to become something new.

What will that be?  Well predictions of that sort are generally wrong because we don't know what we don't know.

We just need to move forward and be ready to meet the challenges.

Shebate, Hebate they all Debate

And the winner is.....

Probably Joe Biden since he basically wins by not losing at this point.  Otherwise everyone seemed to do OK with the possible exception of Julian Castro who took a cheap shot or two at Biden.

Pretty sure he did it because it seemed to work, at least for a time for Kamala Harris in the first debate.

They did articulate some differences but in general they agree on the main platform points that are emerging.

Universal Health Care.
Strong Action to Combat Climate Change
Improved Immigration Policy
Better International Trade Agreements
End to "Endless" Wars
Reduce Racism and Social Injustice

What I didn't hear addressed was how to reduce the deficit and pay down the National Debt.

There were some discussions about how to pay for new proposals, like Medicare for All, but assuming that is covered we still have a tremendous debt to pay down.

The other thing is that we now hear presidential candidates talk like they can do anything they want.

Joe Biden did point out that it has to be constitutional.  No one really addressed how they could do these things if they had a hostile congress in one or both houses.

Even if swept into office with control of both houses, they will have to deal with a Supreme Court that is becoming more conservative.

They have to make promises, but keeping them might be difficult indeed.  Still, you have t try.

The Internet has made us Stupid

I was watching something on the Internet the other day talking about the top things many Americans believe that aren't true.

It was a bit scary in many respects but based on some results of "man on the street" interviews, many were not that surprising (yes a lot believe big foot exists).

However one statistic, based on a Pew Study was scary.

Almost 50% of Americans believe that major media just makes up false stories.

Yes I've heard the dontard carry on about fake media, but I didn't realize he was believed by so many.

I'm not talking about fringe news outlets either, but network news and respected newspapers.

I realize they use deceptive headlines and other tricks to catch your interest but even those publications you see on the checkout line turn out to use deceptive headlines but actually in the story stick to actual facts mostly.

Yes some of the stuff you see on social media is just false but that is from tainted sources.

I blame the Internet but it is also the constant attacks we see on some cable news and of course the dontard.

It explains a lot if that many people simply ignore factual news reports and rely on propaganda.

Its also scary.

https://www.journalism.org/2019/06/05/many-americans-say-made-up-news-is-a-critical-problem-that-needs-to-be-fixed/

9-11 Again

Like many Americans the details of that day remain fresh in my mind.

When I was first told a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I was under the impression it was a private plane and it was an accident.

I was told in my office and had to walk to another building for an event.  We could see the smoke from the World Trade Center in the distance which seemed odd for a small plane.

We soon found out it was a commercial jet and was no accident.  Like millions of others the day unfolded with a lot of uncertainty about the extent of the attacks.

It is something that we should celebrate but clearly we should remember the victims and the heroes from that day.

It changed America in many ways which still impact us now.

It also led to our wars in the Middle East which we are still fighting.

While we clearly need to make sure such an event never happens again, we also need to remember that America is a land of freedom and promise.

Some people are willing to limit that in exchange for promised safety.  The promise is most likely false and if we destroy American values, well then the terrorists have won.

We can't let them.

Meeting with the Taliban?

Can you imagine the uproar if President Obama had proposed a secret meeting with the Taliban?

The current inhabitant of the White House is apparently calling off a secret meeting he had planned because he discovered they are not friends of America.

Really?

They allowed terrorist groups opposed to Israel and the US to operate freely in their country when they were in charge.

After 9-11 we invaded and effectively drove them from power.

They are among the most extreme Islamic fundamentalist that exist, and while they obviously have the right to believe whatever they want, they impose those beliefs and Sharia law in the harshest way possible.

This dontard likes to befriend tyrants and dictators of all stripes.

He calls American citizens disloyal to Israel yet plans to meet with a group that would be happy to drive the Jewish state into the sea.

Of course he is simply an opportunist and like all opportunists his schemes are not based on policy or beliefs, just what he think will benefit him.

Time for a change.

Incompetenter, Oh My!

I recently went through a process which is unfortunately pretty common nowadays, working with totally incompetent people over the phone.

I was adding a technological sort of device to my network and in order to get it to work, this company had to send an activation code to the equipment.

It involved adding two rather large numbers to a profile to verify my ownership and then generating the activation signal.

Now some of you may have already decided this is too technological for you, but it really isn't and certainly shouldn't be for the company that does this.

However, after going through a long process with some robotic answering system that kept trying to tell me common solutions to problems (I didn't have a problem) I finally got through to a person, who I'm quite sure was doing this from home and following a script.

In fairness, activations for these add on devices are probably a very small percentage of the calls they get since it only happens once while problems happen constantly

Still my happiness with getting through was misplaced as the person, clearly following a script was unable to enter the information correctly eventually deciding the item must be defective (I'm sure it wasn't) and authorized a replacement.

By the time I had that I had read the on-line forums and knew what they had to do, but when I finally got through to the next customer rep, he wouldn't listen to me, I was a stupid customer after all and said they needed to send a technician to make sure the problem wasn't being caused by my setup.

I agreed to that, but since they have a 24 hour help line called back at a time when it wasn't so busy and found a person working the night shift who was willing to listen to what I said he had to do.

Like magic everything worked and I thanked this guy, who may actually have been more technically capable than the daytime script followers.

However, we hire people and give them scripts to follow, and of course the script is always right, which it probably is, if they do what they have to do correctly.

I imagine this is an attractive job since you can apparently do it from home and if you have a problem can let the customer wait while you consult remotely with a more senior tech, who has to rely on you version of the issue which is likely distorted.

We have achieve a level of incompetent support that is simply amazing and I don't see it getting better.

Individual Decisions

When talking about the environment and climate change it is important to think about the little things as well as the big things.

Most o the emissions are related to big industries and revolve largely around the burning of fossil fuels.

These issues need to be addressed if we are going to make real progress.

However, it doesn't make sense to do thing in our individual lives, when we have good alternatives, that also contribute.

Yes the issues related to things like light bulbs and plastic straws are not the solution.  But if you use an inefficient bulb or straw, you are in a small measure contributing to the problem.

In our everyday life we should make decisions that are good, not bad.

Not just related to the environment, better to walk up a flight of stairs then take the elevator, but these decisions are yours to make.  Some things that are known to hurt the environment or people should probably be banned, but those decisions should be carefully considered.

Just make good decisions about what you are doing, why make it worse?

Biting the Bullet

In general, Hurricane Dorian could have been much worse.

Of course the Bahamas saw the worst of it and it is still battering some areas but it had the potential to be destructive over large population centers, although not in Alabama.

For those of us who live in an area vulnerable to hurricanes, it is sort of like the sword of Damocles each season.

It seems like it is not a question of if as much as a question of when.

There have been strong hurricanes and while they seem to be more common, it is unlikely anything we do can change that in the short term.

However, failure to address climate change means they will continue to get worse and worse in the future.

The hurricane season isn't over so still a lot of risk, but its time we tried to reverse the trend of increasing ocean waters we have caused.

Its time to bite the bullet and take action.

More Lies and Misdemeanors

Perhaps one of the silliest lies told by our current chief executive regards hurricane Dorian and Alabama.

I can imagine him looking at some early forecasts and drawing a line in his head that led to Alabama.

This wasn't ever supported by the experts but after all he knows more than the experts, at least in his head.

Latter he included Alabama in a statement about what states could be impacted, probably an honest? mistake that meant nothing.

However it meant something to him and for whatever reason he decided to prove he was right by altering an old hurricane forecast.

This might have violated a federal statute, was unnecessary and simply the act of a toddler caught in a lie, deny reality.

Something that meant nothing now has been blown up into something else.

Why?

Well, he's the dontard.

Stealing From the Military

I suspect that this will become a court case as the dontard has made the Pentagon divert money to build border walls.

How much of an impact this might have on the military is difficult to say.  It will obviously have some sort of impact, but most likely it will add project to the unfunded list instead of cutting current projects.

Diverting funds to combat a real emergency would be one thing, but the situation on the border is not an emergency.  It is more of an emergency for those trying to get asylum than it is for Americans.

Even if a few of the people who cross the border illicitly end up committing crimes, it is not going to be a noticeable increase.

They aren't causing any particular disruptions or presenting any significant danger.

It just isn't an emergency.

Its just a situation that we should address with a sensible immigration policy.

Stop robbing the military.

Unexplained Items

Sometimes I do think that people are simply clueless.

I don't mean this in a bad way, just that we live in a Universe that hasn't revealed all of its secrets to us.

Now, watching shows about the origin of the Universe will generally start with the Big Bang, an event so mysterious but so accepted.

It pretty much seems like the same sort of certainty religions have when they explain God.

Math supports the Big Bang Theory, although of course it is possible there are other explanations for the behaviors we measure.

You can pretty much explain everything if you accept the idea that at the beginning of the universe there was this event that started an expansion of everything into what we observe today.

The theory may be correct.  It is supported by the math.  Still, where did the first singularity come from?

Labor Day

Labor day is a strange holiday.

Its supposed to celebrate the contribution of labor to our great country but very little is actually going on to do that.

There are some tweets and a few celebrations, but mostly it is more celebrated as marking the end of the summer season and in much of the country the start of the school year.

Labor has lost much of its cohesiveness as Unions have become less relevant to most.

American labor has changed significantly since labor day was first proposed.

It used to be primarily men doing what today would be considered back breaking work but which at one time was perfectly normal.

Long hours, dangerous conditions, injuries and even death were the risk many took working in the mines, the factories, construction and the farms.

If you read the works of Upton Sinclair or other reformers from the first half of the 20th century you get an idea of the conditions.

It was labor unions primarily that forced changes to the working conditions and increases in wages.

We are now in a world where manual labor and unions are not the norm they once were, and workers are living in the "gig" economy where they have to become entrepreneurs often.

Still, we celebrate labor day without much actually reminders of the labor we celebrate.

Enjoy the day and maybe reflect on how hard and dangerous many jobs used to be.

Another Mass Shooting

Well another shooting, this time in Texas.

This one seems like it originated with a traffic stop and escalated from there.

Whether the shooter was planning an attack or simply lost it and went on a rampage isn't clear right now.

The victims, including three state troopers probably don't much care.

People with guns can turn deadly quickly.

That's just a fact.