High Crimes, Misdemeanors,
And Other Stuff

Sure, there are a lot of other things going on here – even this this phone call. There are a lot of other issues. It seems like the entire focus of some of the people being sent to Ukraine to represent you and I were there to make Big Bucks Money for themselves. There are all kinds of issues of public corruption, poor governance in getting rid of the actual government experts and throwing in fellow travelers in crime. Sure. All of that seemed to have happened too. And if you aren’t feeling sick at the very thought, I question your ability to keep your stomach in check. I wanted to throw up every day reading about this.

And if you have managed to avoid knowing about the completely idiotic conspiracy theories swirling around some phantom server that is NOT IN UKRAINE and DOES NOT EXIST – I’m so impressed! To be fair, I’ve never seen this server personally, I’ve never NOT seen it either. But when every intelligence agency in our country, and around the world, says Russia interfered in our 2016 election, and I can see it in front of me, so this is silly conspiracy fantasy idiocy – I would feel pretty dumb disbelieving all of that reality. But for today, none of that matters.

All of that can be sorted out, testimony reviewed, documents examined, and everything else that happens in a trial – even a trial in the Senate. And certainly I’d toss it all into that catch-all category: “other high crimes and misdemeanors.” If I was prosecuting this case, I’d nail every single one of these crooks to the wall. Because I heard enough of about it all to make me ill.

But today, we’re not talking about any of that. Though we could. For hours. For days. And still not make sense of this disaster.

And, so?

Today, we are just looking at the question: are there grounds for an impeachment? We are only trying to understand one small corner of this very large event. And we are trying to work through the facts as they exist – not the facts we wish we had.

So, yes. There is no question here.

Remember: gather the facts in a difficult situation for yourself. Don’t just rely on what some intermediary tells you. (*gives a wave here, as an intermediary today*) Know what matters – look at the definitions. Look at policies, procedures, and laws.

You can’t fully blame all the people who get paid in money or influence or publicity to fling their hands, squall, and throw up distractions. It’s their job. When Jim Jordan squalls nonsense – he knows it’s nonsense. (We’ve never met, but I’m assuming he’s reasonably intelligent.) He’s throwing distractions, squalling, and shrieking as hard as he can because he’s getting something in return for that behavior. When newscasters breathlessly relay facts that have no relation to reality, or make completely implausible guesses – they know what they are doing. And it’s a trade they want to make.

All of that is our fault, collectively. We, as a group, pay attention to people who behave like over-tired toddlers. We are rewarding them with attention, with campaign donations, with ratings, with our votes.

Pay attention to the facts. Ignore the squalling.

Definitely give no rewards to people who lie to our faces. If you hear someone saying impeachment is wrong because it’s not giving Trump a chance to defend himself – understand that that person almost certainly KNOWS that’s a lie. (Or may be too uneducated to be in public office.) But if s/he can make YOU think it’s true, well – yay! More votes and more money for the squall-er!

Remember: at the end of the day, this is easy.

Was a crime committed?

We’ve look at the information available, looked at the situation, and there is no doubt. Yes.

What happens from here? I am just a lowly librarian, without power and prestige, so I have no idea. But – now we know. Hold onto that knowledge, remember that reality. Facts are their own kind of power.

What will your federal Representative do? What will happen in the Senate? Will we, the people who are supposed to run the country, just see a bunch of distractions thrown all over us? We will reward squall-ers with more money and more attention and more votes?

I hope not. I hate every second of this. I hate politicians who lie, cheat, steal, and enrich themselves at our expense.

Despite what you may hear, or think, I can tell you from having spent my early life in politics – most politicians are generally pretty good. Most of them run for office because they want to do good things. We all might not agree with their definition of “good things” but I have to respect their efforts.

But sometimes we get a bad one.

I really enjoyed rooting for Lance Armstrong, and I’m not sorry I did it. But when I found out – really found out, not just heard rumors swirling around – what he had done, that was it. I still admire the work he did, and am still impressed by the accomplishments he and his team achieved.

But Lance is a bad person. He did bad things. He lied, he cheated, he stole, and he was deliberate in ruining a lot of people’s lives. I’m disgusted. But I cheered for him.

It’s a conflict, and it feels uncomfortable and weird, but…there it is.

Cycling is just fun. It’s not even a huge business round the world.

I would ask everyone to demand a government that is better than a Lance-level of corruption.

Let’s see what happens next.