Jan. 19, 2020
When I was a little kid growing up in Ferguson, Missouri in the late 1930’s to the late 40’s, I was very lucky to have enough boy neighbors to make up ‘teams’ for almost any sports game we wanted to play. Our favorite games were; softball, football, ice-hockey, soccer and cork-ball –the choice of which would be dependent on the season and the weather. We could have a two-person cork-ball team when as few as 4 players were available but, when we had 6 to 10 or more, which was most often, we played softball, tag-football or soccer on the small, open lot next to my home at 621 Darst Road. All the boys would come to the field after school in the fall, winter, and spring or immediately after breakfast and lunch in the summer when we were not in school. Every game started with a ‘Pick your Team’ selection. The two oldest guys in the gathering would immediately become ‘team-captains’ and they would flip a penny for first choice in team member selection. The captains then alternated picking members until the teams were equally divided. If we had an odd number of boys, the captains would ask a neighborhood girl if she would play to balance out the teams. Of course the captains would pick boys in the order of their presumed sports ability. At first, being one of the youngest members of the neighborhood, I was usually one of the last picked but, as I grew older, I moved up until I was finely one of the captains. Our grade school teams where about as simple to pick as we had only between 8 and 11 boys in the class of any year. Shortly after that point—being a kid was over. Once in High School, with about 180 boys in every grade, I had to compete for a position on any team.
So, now that the Impeachment Papers have officially been served on the Senate, Donald J. Trump, our 45th President, has officially, finally and really, been ‘Impeached’—and the official impeachment trial will begin, sooner or later, in the Senate. However, the actual trial can’t begin until both sides, i.e., parties, have picked their respective prosecuting and defending teams which will be comprised of lawyers and/or congressional members with appropriate judicial experience. Picking these teams will be nothing like picking the team members in our games when I was a kid. As I read the lists of the two team’s members, it looks to me like this trial will be a battle between CSNBC and Fox News— with no member of PBS anywhere to be seen, or heard. Put another way, it seems to me that the Democrats are trying for a comprehensive ‘legal’ trial and the Republicans want it to be a media circus. The only ‘clown’ missing from the Republican ‘circus’ team is our President’s favorite personal attorney, none other than (fanfare, please) infamous Rudy Giuliani! I suspect that the Trump legal team is happy to keep Rudy locked up somewhere in the Ukraine where he has spent the past several months hunting for evidence of a corrupt son of a possible Trump presidential campaign opponent. I’ll bet 10 to 1 that Rudy is really pissed about not being a member of the Trump defense team! I’d also make the same bet that Trump’s ‘management team’ had a very difficult job convincing Donald Trump that he shouldn’t have Rudy anywhere near that court chamber during the trial. Rudy is really a ‘Loose Cannon’—just like his favorite client—Donald J. Trump! ‘God forbid’ (the managers of these two ‘Loose Cannons’ were thinking) that either one of them should be allowed to start talking during the trial!
I’m willing to admit that I have just returned from a short week of sun without sand but visions of female loveliness, in bikinis, abounding on the Yucatan Peninsula. I also, am happy to admit that I never—in the days of my absence from the USA—watched even one minute of television or read any newspaper. I even left my cell-phone at home in Corrales, New Mexico. I did talk to a lot of Canadians and Mexicans but none of them even wanted to talk about the condition of our (United States) political mess. Maybe those folks were just being polite, -or wise? I’m afraid that the world, outside of the USA, looks in wonder at us and asks, “Just how did those folks ever let that happen?” If they did ask, I would have to tell them, “I’m sorry but, we have a totally corrupt and intellectually lazy, electorate”. The fact that we had two totally corrupt and dangerous people, one male and one female, both chosen by the electorate (or the management) of their political parties, running for President in2016 is all the evidence I need to make that statement. That’s the only excuse –or reason- I can determine. If hatred of the Obama administration caused the election of Donald J. Trump, I would know that my evaluation of our current electorate, and the reason for the election results, was also correct. It also is possible that I still have not figured out the ‘whole story’ behind the election of 2016. Or, God forbid, it may just be that simple. Our electorate is AOL, i., e., absent without leave.
Now that the prosecution and defense teams are firmed, they have a few days to plan their case(s) and who, among their team members will present which part of them. There will be some basic housekeeping chores to get out of the way (like taking an oath to base their decision about guilt or innocence on the evidence presented) and it looks like the real show will begin on Wednesday the 22nd of this month. I suspect we will know if this is going to be a real trial or just a Republican white-wash of Trump’s misconduct by the 24th. Stay tuned!
I found an article in the Sunday, January 19th edition of the New York Times, by Frank Bruni, which, I think, is the most eloquent expression of what is going on in our Capital, titled “Senate Republicans are Bathed in Shame” and sub-titled, “There’s no ‘impartial justice’, just protection of Trump at all costs”. In that article, Mr. Bruni takes the Republican Senators (Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who were shamed by Trump, to task. Bottom line, they are now a couple of gut-less cowards! Where are the forces of morality in the Republican Senate? Answer: They are non-existent!
And then, I remembered my manners. I asked Hubris for forgiveness. I had been away for almost a week and he had no-one to talk to. It is a bad world –when a person doesn’t even have time to ‘go and talk to his horse’!
Lou
Copyright, January 19, 2020, Louis J. Christen