Kavanaugh

The following commentary is to make the time I spent on the still on-going Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process worth the while.

If you already know what I'm going to write,  and don't want to hear any more,  I know the feeling.  Maybe my cathartic moment can help in some measure, but it will probably be a little judgmental, but based on some of the meme's and comments I've seen, I think we'll live.

I got a few fragmentary thoughts, maybe I'll get to voice them all, or just a few, but I begin with the introduction of the very real aspect of government called law making.

I can get into the kooky conspiratorial theories later, but yes,  there are parts of the government that can actually make a law, and if the other part of the government, the courts, rule a current law is wrong, then a new law can be written.

Over and over and over again.

Makes all the fuss about one judge a little bit dramatic, in my opinion anyways.

By the way, this understanding of government attracts me to the idea of sticking with judges who only feel compelled to do that one little thing...decide if a law is wrong.   Not that a law is wrong, and it should be {left blank;  to be filled in by judges}.

That's conservatism in jurisprudence.  Which is not synonymous with big corporation or oligarchy, yet. I naively hope.

But that doesn't condone a Christian cause(r), like the pro-life movement is,  to mutely stand by when a woman is threatened out of her home and otherwise slandered beyond reason.

For her cathartic moment?

Seems sinful to me, on these Christians,   but I'm not moralizing here.  Just reading their law,  the bible, and doing a little deciding myself.  And if I missed the memes full of christian charity, I apologize up front.  I can't see everything.

Don't get me wrong,  I don't think a Supreme Court nominee should be shielded from this moment, or tactic. Though I do expect the  FBI to investigate.    Look it,  you can have the FBI do it, or you can only have the news' journalists do it.

So yes,  lets get the FBI to do it.

(Just realizing that I got a slew of opinions I could note, but for the time and sake of brevity.)

Wouldn't the smart play, all around, be to just chill out and let this play out?

If the blue wave is coming,  law and politics will sway back before too long,  wouldn't prudence suggest be the wiser and cooler head,  win over with your patience and understanding.

Conversely, it doesn't look good to run a lady from her home either.

But its not always the means that are given thought to.  Playing within the structure of good faith and ethics is sorely lacking from both sides.  I don't understand why certain voices who have been giving pass to historic unethical and bad faith behaviors, would now have their moment.  But they are.

What would be more destabilizing than what is going on in this forum right now?

Oh I know,  civil war!   I get the idea from some of the memes being shared around that use those words in various agitations  -- "civil war."

Do me a favor and don't count me in, in this war between tribes.

Someone who is not an ancestors of mine, because mine came over in a boat about 125 years ago, secured me rights and freedoms and established a government over 200 years ago that is better than its citizens of today grasp, and I don't want to mess that up because Democrats and Republicans, opposing tribes, can't be civil to each other.

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"Fear" Bob Woodward

This would be the space where I write my review of "Fear" by legendary Washington Post investigative journalist Bob Woodward.  If there was only one thing I could look forward to after the swearing in, it would be what Woodward would write.  He's been at this longer than I've been alive, he's covered every era since Nixon.

But the value of this book to me maybe different than another reader's, because  this book went beyond an expose of the President's managerial skill,  it also aligned the players within the administration in ways that would be unremarkable, if it were not for the non-conformist in charge.

What this book revealed, beyond the dysfunction and dishonesty, which everyone should know by now, is how Trump's cabinet and administration barely resembled a team of advisers who were believers akin to the believers who voted for Trump in the first place.

For a man revered due to the perception that his competence and judgement  allow him to recognize our nations flaws like no other has, therefore a singular hope to fix them,   one could argue his first round of selections to join his team were anything but confirmation of this skill set.

His cabinet would look like my cabinet if I were making selections based on the greatness I already knew this country was basking in, and I wanted to continue that tract.

SPOILER ALERT:  Most of those cabinet members are gone now.  Which actually is a condemnation in and of itself...what kind of genius would select so many at odds with himself in the first place anyways? 

Perversely,  and why not perversely, the revelation that many members of Trump's administration and Cabinet were so proactively against their boss, it has forced me to temper a certain criticism I have had with Trump!

I just haven't decided if I'm happy with that or not.

The criticism that I have to amend is over the timing of the tariffs.   I admit,  I used the timing of the tariffs as evidence that trump was not that great negotiator that he would have me believe he is.  I argued that he promised these tariffs during the campaign, but it took him well over a year to enact them.  Long enough a delay to allow China, for example, to pin point reciprocal tariffs where they would hurt the most  --  the American farmer.   As well as make other arrangements for their agriculture goods, to our long term detriment.

Turns out that Trump wanted to slap tariffs on from the get go, but the newly revealed 'Steady State' kept him from doing so.  But like I said,  many of those actors are gone, with the ultimate affect that Trump is now getting his own way.

Is that good or bad?   It's a deeper question than that,  ask yourself is it good or bad that Trump had this sabotage, is that treasonous?

Again, what kind of genius would hire these type of people in the first place?

Aside from that personal revelation, this book was a tremendous and quick read.   A real page turner,  a look inside the Trump White House, and the perceptions that the closest people to him, have of him.

Those perceptions too are closer to what I had in mind, than say your average Trump supporter.  I'll let the words of his cabinet speak for themselves.  But I won't put them in print here,  too much vulgarity and besides,  most of those descriptions  were revealed already in the press.

Evidently Rex Tillerson did call Trump a,  'f*&^%$# moron' but he wasn't alone.

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