“Monday morning you sure look fine, but Friday I got travelin’ on my mind,” sang Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Happy Monday everyone.
Of course, if I wanted to be downcast with the morning drizzle, I could have focused on Karen Carpenter’s “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” So, let’s conclude a double negative is s positive and make it a great day.
Here are a few random thoughts for the week:
– Whether you love or hate Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she is a worthy nemesis of the US president. She issued an open invitation to the president saying if you think you are being unfairly treated in the impeachment hearings, come testify. Inviting someone who has a hard time with the truth, would be sight to behold under oath.
– Speaking of the untruthful one, after intimidating in real time one witness while sending a message to others on Friday, the president called one of Mike Pence staff members a “never Trumper” for testifying behind closed doors that the phone call with Ukraine president (which she listened on) was very concerning. So, as is his want, Trump labeled her as enemy of him, even though she works for his VP.
– Please check out the yesterday’s interview between Chris Wallace, the best journalist at Fox, and GOP Congressman Steve Scalise. Wallace grills Scalise for the purposeful white washing of the impeachment hearings being done by Republicans. Wallace has noted like other viewers that these witnesses are honorable and credible public servants.
– This week will be even more telling as others testify. Whitewashing will continue, but we need to get back to that “oath” thing. Both Michael Cohen (Trump’s attorney fixer) and Roger Stone (self-professed dirty trickster) have been convicted of lying under oath to Congress.
Let me close with this question. If someone is a self-professed dirty trickster, is that a public confession of “trust me at your own peril?”
musingsofanoldfart 
Hard to trust anyone who would try to whitewash the current state of affairs.
VJ, so true. William Barr was a major disappointment when he was hired, throwing his integrity out the window. Congressman Nunes is just acting true to form given his history of sycophancy. We should not forget he had to step down from the role Adam Schiff had as he was leaking what was being investigated to the White House in 2017. Keith
It’s such chaos. I am grateful for your words to help keep some perspective.
Thanks VJ. I write, in part, for my own sanity. Keith
The ‘untruthful’ one, as you so humorously call him Keith, responded to Pelosi on Twitter with a few of his usual insults. But he then through it in there that he’d seriously consider testifying. I call B.S. You and I both know he would never do such a thing, because every other word out of his mouth is a lie. His attorneys would throw a roadblock in front of him, literally, before he did something like that. He continues to amaze us with his delusion.
Jeff, he said he wanted to testify live to Mueller until his attorneys demonstrated the error in that thinking. He once was deposed and attorney made him change 30 lies.
The Washington Post has counted 45 lies with the Ukraine issue. Here is an easy one. He said he did not know Gordon Sondland that well, but Tim Morrison said Sondland talked to Trump five times. By the way, seeing Stone found guilty will alter Sondland’s thinking. He will come clean this week. Keith
You’re spot on Keith. Sondland better come clean. He’d be a total fool if he doesn’t.
Jeff, I read that Trump has also turned his ire on Pompeo for hiring people that are not beholden to Trump. What Trump continuously fails to realize his modus operandi of untruthfulness, corruption and bullying makes his worst enemy the person who stares back when he shaves. We are witnessing an unraveling, whether his Republican sycophants choose to recognize it. Keith
Anyone who speaks ill of Trump is someone I would at least nod to in approval of their comments.
Unity at these trying times for both our nations is essential to remove the stains from our political histories.
Here I go again with this quote which is the Gold Standard in pragmatism
Churchill (a hater of communism) : WWII commenting on the alliance with USSR.
‘If Hitler were to march into hell, I would at least make a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons’
Roger, well said. You may want to check out my current post. When defenders of the president have to lie or be loose with the truth, that is a signal. It also frustrates me further that these folks feel impunity in passing along misinformation and disinformation.
Maybe we need to get elected officials to take an oath as well before these hearings or interviews. Keith
Whereas he was not a man you could call ‘nice’ nor a fellow whose overall character was upstanding…
Right now the USA could do with an LBJ on top form. A hard-nosed shrewd operator who would have taken this crew of the opportunistic and the vain bumblers to the proverbial cleaners, then thrown them out only to serve as the bar-room jokes they are.
Roger, LBJ was a horse trader. He knew how to get things passed. Keith