Friday 31 January 2020

The Ten Failings of This Impeachment

1.  While on this hunt in most of 2018.....gazing in corners, and looking for the perfect event to impeach Trump....in the summer of 2019, the phone call to the Ukraine occurred, and the insider (maybe two to three of them) went to report the terrible thing that Trump did.  This became a four-piece puzzle (if there ever was a 3-year old kid puzzle....four pieces are enough to figure out and piece together). 

Sadly, they selected an event that really didn't have much 'meat on the bone', and for regular Americans....it was pretty sparse piece to 'chew upon'.

2.  Getting the TV audience interested.  Throughout the House 'event' and this Senate Impeachment hearing....the TV audience just never came through. 

For me....all total between the two hearings....I probably viewed around 80 man-hours, and will admit that bulk of that was wasted time, without much really learned.  I think most Americans felt that way, and just watched evening updates.

3.  Nadler and Schiff.  Nadler at age 72, is past prime age for lawyer-type work.  Schiff?  He demonstrated himself as a marginal lawyer (I know he came out of Harvard, but that doesn't mean that much).  Their skills in the House episode didn't impress me that much, and for the Senate part....they weren't the type that would have benefited the mission.

4.  The Mueller Expedition.  I think they were expecting some specially wrapped charge to come out of that, and Mueller failed to deliver.  All the insiders to Trump, who were supposed to bend over and cooperate in some way for Trump charges?  Either they didn't have much of anything, or they weren't going to cooperate.

5.  Pelosi.  At any point in the spring and summer of 2019.....she could have led the party onto more constructive accomplishments.  Nothing happened.  The Democratic Party chaotically waltzed around, and did most of nothing for all of 2019.  The public noticed this lack of accomplishment.

6.  Hunter Biden.  Who in the business world would go and put some idiot on a board, who knows literally nothing about the product or business?  Then you have this Ukraine investigation that falters, and Trump tries to revive it.....with no one from the House seeming to care about the chief star witness of the whole accusation against Trump.

7.  The lack of the 66 Senate votes.  There was never going to be 66, period.  Once you understood that, you knew this was not going to end well for the House members.

8.  The Sense of Timing.  Maybe there was no urgent need for timing, but you just continue to wonder about why now.

9.  All this Impeachment 'chatter' equaling more campaign donations to Trump?  Well....YEAH.  There's no doubt that he'll hit one-billion dollars shortly, and move on up to 1.5 billion by October.  Being helped by the Impeachment?  I hate to say it but yeah. 

10.  Finally, whether they like this or not.....the Democrats haven given well over 300 'clips' for campaign messages for this fall.  They've helped in ways that you cannot imagine. 

If I Ran the US Election Business

My ten suggestions:

1.  I'd eliminate all debates until February of the election year, and only allow each party a max of two debates.

2.  I'd start the primary season in April and limit the entire primary across the US to four weeks....ending by mid-May.

3.  The convention business would start in mid-June....with both political parties conducted during the same week. 

4.  The full-up election period would be 1 July to election day (early November).

5.  I'm eliminate national debates as they exist today, and simply pass ten questions to the two key candidates, allowing them to comment for five minutes to each.  They'd have the questions five days prior.

6.  I'd dismiss Congress from work as of the final six weeks of the campaign, and order all of them to return to their states.  Failure to comply....dock their pay. 

7.  I'd cut all TV political chatter for 24 hours prior to the election day.

8.  If I found anyone who'd voted twice or more in a single election....they'd lose their election capability for the remainder of their life, and I'd send them onto a state prison for a minimum of twelve months.

9.  I'd move election day to a Sunday.

10.  Finally, I'd mandate that no national TV coverage on election evening start until 10 PM (Eastern Standard Time). 

Is the Doomsday Clock 'Fake'?

Well....yeah.

I had a college professor years ago spend twenty minutes explaining the clock and the general hype behind it.  Some military guy in the class asked how you can whomp the clock to advance 10 seconds, or fall back 60 seconds.  The professor simply said that it wasn't a real clock, and was supposed to be some 'message'.  Then the student commented....what if people didn't get the message or didn't care to hear the message.  That was the general end of that discussion topic.

The problem here, in modern times....is that mullah from Iran, or nutcase from Pakistan....could interrupt the whole doomsday discussion, and announce that they had a message from God to move with a nuke bomb event. 

It's a total waste of time to pretend the clock has significance....if wild unplanned events are now possible.