Nurse the Hate: Strange Days Have Found Us

The Comey testimony reminded me of Watergate.  I was a really little kid when that happened.  Watergate testimony was suddenly all that was on TV.  I can say with clarity I remember thinking that the hearings droning on and on was nowhere near as good as a Gilligan’s Island repeat.  I always equate Watergate with one woman.  We had a babysitter that we were instructed to call “Grandma” despite her having no relation to us.  She was a 90 year old Greek woman that spoke almost no English.  I never knew what the fuck she was saying to me.  She was shrunken, leathery, and smelled weird.  In any situation that required medical care such as but not limited to a scrape, sunburn, bruise, fever, or cold, she applied massive amounts of Vick’s Vapor Rub.  Other kids could smell me a mile away from my signature menthol aroma.

Every afternoon “grandma” would sit in a rocking chair and knit while watching the Watergate hearings.  As she spoke almost no English, it seems unlikely she knew what was going on.  She was engaged with it though, and I remember her shaking her head making a “tsk tsk tsk” noise whenever Nixon would come on the TV.  It was a different age then.  There was an expectation that regardless of one’s political leanings that the basic rules of the democracy would be observed.  We were all on the “American” team then and expected a higher standard from our leaders.  The entire nation turned on Nixon after he was shown having a tie to the break in at the Democratic HQ.  Trump makes Nixon seem quaint by comparison.  Yet, almost half of our population refuses to admit what has been and is going on in the executive branch.

Something happened to the American character in the last couple of decades.  At some point “win at all costs” was decided to be not only OK but admirable.  There is so much noise coming from around the Trump White House, it’s hard to focus on a clear vision.  As far as I can see our president has shown no interest in even looking into how Russia interfered with our election process.  He also attempted to stop the FBI from pursuing the facts involving Russian involvement and the links to people in his administration.  He went on national TV and said he fired Comey because of Russia.  We don’t have to figure out his rationale for firing Comey.  He told us.  (In third person too, which was awesome.)  I can’t understand how any rational human being can look at this situation and not think “This might not be in our national best interests.  Something is going on.  Maybe we should take a real close look here.”.

I saw the Trump apologists out in force in mainstream media today.  There are a few talking points they are attempting to rally behind.  These are:

·         “Trump is an outsider.  He doesn’t know how politics works.”- Yes, but as a wealthy NY real estate developer he knows how intimidation works.  That’s why he cleared the room to tell Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.  If we have to pretend that he is some sort of Man Boy that doesn’t know the simplest ethical lines, then our problems are much bigger than we can imagine.

·         “Comey is a leaker!  That’s the real story.  He’s undermining the president!”- So if someone goes public regarding a crime, that’s the issue and not the crime?  I’m sorry.  That’s absurd.  The reason he went public was he knew that the normal channels would squash a real investigation.  Was Jeff Sessions going to investigate himself?  His boy Donald?  That talking point is geared to get people away from the real issue.   

·         “The President doesn’t lie.”- This is perhaps my favorite.  I don’t know how they found White House personnel to say that publicly without laughing.  The one thing Trump does well is lie.  About everything.  All the time.  That’s not even worth debating. 

·         “Comey is out to get Trump.  It’s why he wrote memos only with Trump and no other president!”-  There is no logical reason to suggest Comey was out to get Trump, especially after he harpooned Clinton in the election.  As Comey explained, quite rationally, he took detailed notes as he assumed Trump would lie about their meetings as that’s what Trump does.  Lie.  All the time.

·         “But Trump never specifically said to drop the investigation!”- When the Godfather said “make him an offer he can’t refuse” he wasn’t saying specifically “kill him if he doesn’t do what I want”.  He didn’t have to as his stature and power said it for him.  If your boss says “I hope you do this” and “I need loyalty”, I think we all know it means “you better do this, or else”.  Hence, when Comey didn’t do what Trump asked, Trump fired him and hoped this messy Russia business would go away (like he said on TV). 

This thing will drag on forever.  The one thing we will all learn is that the wheels of Washington turn unbelievably slowly.  I have no idea how our country gets anything done.  We are entering month six with our country being run by someone that appears to have been involved with our largest global adversary and has already provided The Kremlin with one of their biggest goals, putting the NATO alliance in question.  The guy stood on a pulpit and said "I pray the Russians hack Hillary", they then hacked Hillary, and now six months later we are thinking about maybe looking into it.  Hopefully by 2019 we will have a better idea what exactly all those unexplained Trump campaign official meetings were about with Russian officials.  No hurry though.  Let’s set up another hearing around 4^th of July.  Whenever is good with Congress.

It's the way government works I suppose.  Watergate took forever too.  I think by the time it resolved Grandma was no longer our baby sitter.  I remember seeing Nixon make his awkward wave from the helicopter.  I don’t recall smelling like Vick’s, so I think like the Nixon Era, the Grandma Era was over.  Grandma sent me a Xmas card in 1996.  By my calculations she must have been 146 years old.  I never got a Christmas card from Nixon.