I am confident that any bill of impeachment passed by the House will not only fail in the Senate – it will never go to trial in the Senate. Senate boss McConnell has shown that he is perfectly willing to simply ignore House-passed bills, so they never get a hearing, never get a vote, never…
He has had a chance to demonstrate his ability to lead, his ability to negotiate, his ability to command, his ability to help. And he has demonstrated weakness, ignorance, and arrogance instead.
It is not about giving him a chance. It’s about honestly assessing what he has said and done, how he has behaved, over these past 2 years. He has been weighed, he has been measured, and he has been found wanting.
Burke’s book was a great introduction, for me, to the central tenets of the Deadhead community – that sense of sharing, of helping one another, of finding your place within the world around you, and of keeping that place intact against the familiar pressures of everyday living.
More than just a story – though certainly an interesting and entertaining story – F.T. Burke’s “The Bohemian Adventure” shows us how we can grow, even in middle age, to re-center ourselves into a sense of purpose and value. That value isn’t found in ourselves as solitary individuals, but in the community of like-minded people, sharing among that community.
Give 30 minutes to walk out and return, then give an hour to study of these basic tenets of being a citizen in the US, their history, the difficulties of conflicts between rights and safety, how bills become law, and how protests change (or don’t change) law, how courts decide conflicts.
Basic civics education.
“The West Wing”, Season 3, Episode 12: “100,000 Airplanes” (January 16, 2002) SCENE: The team is gathered in the Oval Office. President Bartlett has told them that he wants to include something in his State of the Union speech to say that we will cure cancer. His advisers explain, one by one, why he can’t…
We designate one historic day each year to serve as our “Independence Day” holiday, but what about the rest of the year? Perhaps, in today’s America, we need to designate one day per week, not one day per year, as a day to reflect on and celebrate the origins of our country.
That day should be designated as “Declaration of Independence Day” – a day set aside to revisit the document that expresses why we assumed a “separate and equal station” among other nations.
One day each week to be a citizen-hero, to look carefully at what our government is doing and measure it against the ideals of those 56 heroes who dared be traitors so our rights were protected.
If the impeachment managers hope to win this persuasion argument, they must speak to how Republican senators can stay in power – or recover their lost power – or protect themselves from the loss of power. They need to demonstrate that the actions of the defendant threaten the ruling authority of these Republican senators.
Listen to what we are being told:
Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – the are rapists and murderers and drug lords.
Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – the are rapists and murderers and drug lords.
Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – they are rapists and murderers and drug lords.
Fear those who run from brutality and death in Syria – they are terrorists who hate our freedom.
We elect people to do one thing only – to make decisions.
But we never ask them the fundamental question: ”How do you make a decision?”
Everybody on one side says everybody on the other side hates Donald Trump.
No, I don’t hate him.
To be most charitable, I don’t care about him enough to hate him. I know other people who are crude or selfish or conceited or overbearing or loud or crass or ignorant. I’ve responded by ignoring them.
No, I don’t hate Trump. But I do hate – wait, let me think… yes, I do hate what he has been doing.
