The Witness Chronicles, September 27, 2023
Shaming the Democrats on Menendez, the rise of the moderates, maybe, and optimism in America
Well my friends, yesterday you got a message from me that was personal and not the typical kind of writing found here or even in The Grasshopper. And your support is appreciated more than you can know. Thank you.
But the world keeps spinning and politicians also keep spinning their BS on both sides of the fence. This week I had to take shots at my fellow moderates for not calling out Senator Menendez (D-NJ) as crazy evidence piled up that he was not only sitting on piles of cash and gold bars from alleged bribes, but is accused of giving confidential information to Egyptian government officials.
That’s even more disturbing than his ridiculous reasoning for why he had wads of cash, something like $400k+, in various clothing pockets and big gold bars.
Not condemning him is hypocrisy and offers cover for Republicans making excuses for their guys.
On the positive side, I wrote about the opportunity for moderates on both sides to rise up and claim the budget crisis, while showing extremists how governing can be done. And now it seems some are getting that message, finally.
Maybe that led to the piece on finding optimism in America these days, my hopeful diatribe that says we can still be change-makers in good ways. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but it has gotten us through a lot of bad times.
It’s possible my personal optimism is affecting my cynicism regarding politics in particular. I’m ok with that. I’m learning daily just how fast humans are capable of positive change if we go after it.
The Shame of the Senate Democrats
Menedez is an opportunity they are throwing away
Former Senator Al Franken was forced out of congress on dubious MeToo charges and his colleagues piled on, fearful of being seen as weak on women’s issues. Many of them called for his ouster and he eventually resigned as Senator, despite the accusations being flimsy at best.
Those calls for his ouster, which took place before the facts were evaluated, came back to haunt those who wanted him out, when it became obvious that he had been railroaded prematurely. Because he left, we lost a good congressman who may or may not have deserved his fate.
So now, faced with incredibly blatant and questionable behavior by another fellow Democrat, Senator Menendez, his colleagues are devastatingly silent. The charges are extremely serious and the evidence damning. $150k in gold bars, over $450k in cash lying around, and a convertible Mercedes, all traceable to known criminal operators, should be enough.
But he apparently was sharing secrets with Egyptian authorities, which moves his actions into treasonous territory, if true. Yet only a small handful of his colleagues have said anything. From the rest, a deafening silence as the wagons circle.
It should be noted that Menendez has aggressively denied wrongdoing by claiming a conspiracy against Latinos (really?) and that the cash was because he has stashed it for years because of a poor upbringing. A weak defense at best.
No mention of those gold bars by the Senator.
Senate Democrats need to call for his resignation pending trial now, and there are reasons beyond basic outrage at his alleged actions, especially his contacts with Egypt, a country we cannot call an ally.
The Republican Right has spent years claiming the Department of Justice has been politicized as it pursues charges against former President Trump, despite overwhelming evidence in his cases justifying the charges.
Now the DOJ is going after a prominent Democratic Senator based on more damning evidence and his fellow Dems are glaringly silent. If for nothing else, this is a huge lost opportunity to refute the Right’s claims about bias in the DOJ.
I realize Menendez is under no obligation to step down and it is obvious he will not. Nevertheless he should be closely scrutinized by his colleagues if for no other reason than to prove we on the liberal side are willing to question our own.
We cannot claim purity in our intentions if we are not willing to question possible criminal actions of a fellow Democrat. It is nothing more than a double standard and it gives those Republican screamers more to yell about.
Frankly, this just makes the Democrats in the Senate look like a bunch of weak idiots, and there is no reason why this should have happened. Our guy seems to have screwed up big time and our other guys are closing ranks with their silence.
It’s shameful.
The Egypt thing is what should bother everyone. Having piles of cash and gold bars lying around the house is evidence of incredibly arrogant greed and stupidity, but selling out our country for money is beyond the beyond.
If these accusations are not enough to break unthinking party unity, we are no different than those loons on the right.
Moderate Republicans and Moderate Democrats Have To Work Together
There is no other way to save the nation
The government will be shut down eight working days from now as I write this. Kevin McCarthy gave up and sent his House home for two reasons: first because they couldn’t agree on anything and were sharpening knives for each other. Two, he was about to lose his position as House Speaker, an inevitable act, like the shutdown.
Things are out of control and there is no Republican leadership in the House. It is pure mayhem and that is entirely intentional. The Freedom Caucus is nothing more than a bunch of spoiled dysfunctional children all trying to get their way and throwing temper tantrums.
This is not an exaggeration. The problems our government and nation face are real and terrifying and no one seems to have any idea how to change this, how to break the gridlock. But there is a way, and it is one the Freedom Caucus and their leader Donald Trump fear beyond anything.
We can fix this thing but it would require enormous bravery on the part of the quiet members of Congress, the moderates on both sides who have the numbers but not the will. They need to wake up now.
But a leader is needed and I’m not seeing one no matter how hard I look. That’s not surprising as bucking the system these days is political suicide. Defy Trump or Party leadership and you will be sacrificed by your own party members because defying Trump is widely considered crazy.
But is his power really that unbeatable? How would we know if a group of bipartisan saviors were to conspire to undo this insanity, testing and defying his supposed power. Just what exactly would he do to them?
The key to making this work would be a powerful communication plan designed to call out every single member blocking the function of the government, and labeling them for what they are: treasonous.
Extreme? Definitely, and it would only work if it is completely bipartisan, 50/50 and only focused on starting the government up again and doing its job governing the nation.
True bipartisanship means putting the nation first and not attaching pet projects to the goal, a nearly impossible project in our childish Congress. It would require incredible bravery and discipline from both parties.
A reminder, young men and women in our military demonstrate that kind of bravery and discipline every day, but our elected officials cannot imagine it, and if they do, they are jeered down by Trump and his lackeys.
So, an unimaginable circumstance with no end in sight or even possible to imagine. Except in the scenario I have outlined here, and I’ll be the first to admit it is completely unimaginable.
Bravery and discipline in the name of the nation and the people, all the people, is incomprehensible to many of our elected officials. Defy the party? Defy the great wizard? Act like adults and make difficult choices?
That’s actually all it would take. Don’t hold your breath. And don’t plan on getting paid if you work for the government, serve in the military, or do business with that government.
The whole thing will be shut down in days and this time there is no visible path to opening it back up.
Except…
Note: since I wrote this earlier, it appears more voices are saying that a bipartisan effort could break this logjam. McCarthy could lead this effort but he seems frozen and afraid to risk his own existence by leading like a leader. If it happens without him, you can say goodbye to Speaker McCarthy. And good riddance.
How to Be An Optimist in America Right Now
It’s a challenge but we can do it
If you know my writing (if you don’t, just click on my name) you know I write about the dark side of American politics and climate issues, two big bad topics these days. As dark as though things are, and they are pretty seriously dark, I am not a doom and gloom pessimist and you shouldn’t be either.
There are several Americas out there, maybe dozens or more. There is DC and politics. The Midwest. The Northeast where I live. The places on the frontlines of the accelerating disastrous weather and things like water shortages. The liberal world, the old school conservative world, the MAGA world, and the worlds of those who choose to immerse themselves in manufactured reality, games and social media. And the world of those on the edges, the forgotten ones.
It’s a big country, physically and psychologically. There are places like Texas where many would like to be their own country and places like the woods of Oregon and Idaho where isolationists plot rebellion against the government they see as impinging on their rights.
There are blacks, whites, Jews, Muslims, evangelical Christians, other Christians, Latinos, Asians, LGBQT (I’ve lost track of all the new letters being added) folks, and everything else you can imagine in humanity. A real melting pot, which we were once taught was what made us strong.
Whether you like it or not, it is what made us strong. The land had a powerful people long before we arrived from all over the planet, facing huge obstacles to get here. The indigenous people, Native Americans, are the source of the pre-history of this place.
And we, every one of us an immigrant, many former refugees, form the America of the present. Part of my family came here in 1620 escaping religious persecution in Germany back when religious persecution might have meant burning at the stake.
Not all of that has changed much.
Immigrants still pour in, searching for the dream of America, a place they can live freely and earn a good life through hard work. Unfortunately they also face prejudice and hate, as they always have.
So, how to be an American optimist? My simple answer? Read what I just wrote and know: no other place on earth has this degree of diversity of race, ideology, history, civil rights, human rights, and still gazes towards the future, always.
We are a society of optimists. Not all of us, but even those who see society from the outside know it is possible to have a better life or have had a better life. If they no longer have optimism they are lost and we need to help them.
More optimism. Yes, there are the cynical, the ones who look down on others, the angry ones, the mentally ill, and the damaged ones, the fringe. That’s humanity. There are 330 million of us and some will always feel outside and unable to get in.
I have been writing about climate change for over thirty years. It is an existential threat, which means it literally threatens our existence as a civilization. It’s not coming, it is here and has been here for years, but it has reached critical mass, which means we cannot ignore it.
But Americans are remarkably good at downplaying threats while we work our asses off creating ways to fight them. A scan of our history shows example after example of this and a lot of them were really existential stuff like nuclear Armageddon and WWII.
We’re pretty good at this stuff, even when it is global. Nukes and warfare are global.
So, where do I get my optimism and where do you find it? I can’t help it, I see life as beautiful because it is. There is a reason those facing terrible things keep going. I think it is because they want to see a beautiful thing again, a face or something decent to eat, or a chance…a chance to move on and live.
This country offers more chances than any place I know. And I see the lost every day. I don’t fear them and you should not either. Dealing with irrational fear is a first step to being an optimist. A realist, but not paranoid. How do you deal with fear?
You face it. That does not means going out into the streets and naively pretending everything is roses and unicorns. But it does mean believing that the positive always is the best defense against the negative. It is said, by the Buddha, Christ, and the many quiet saints out there that you cannot fight hate with hate.
It always gets worse. Kindness is a start. Start there. Fake it if you need to, but you’ll soon find that you are not faking it anymore because being positive is the only path that changes things.
Have a nice day. Really.
My brain is on overdrive but I’m constantly drowsy, which may have something to do with shortening daylight and ideal sleeping weather. Events like the madness in the House of Representatives are starting to seem normal, which is just nuts.
As much as I want to, I can’t write another diatribe about Kevin McCarthy. It’s just too easy and it won’t change anything about his desperate flailing about like a fish off the hook, in the bottom of the boat. His flopping about is going to slow and then stop and he won’t be Speaker anymore.
He’ll just be the dead fish he always was.
I believe that the Republican Party is going to face a real crisis in 2024. It’s possible they will cease to exist as a major party, only to be replaced by a bunch of factions who will never work together. The signs are already there.
The problem with this is the huge gap it creates in a system that assumes at least two parties vying for leadership, and each serving as a check on the other. But now all we see is the right going after each other in a competition for who can be the least democratic.
They don’t seem to be paying much attention to the Dems at all.
We still have three months of 2023 left but they already feel like part of 2024. I really have no idea what is going to happen but it is almost certainly going to get uglier every day, at least for the GOP.
Meanwhile, I am exploring sobriety and Mother Nature is gifting me with a long series of perfect fall days. So I’m trying to get outside and not think at least part of the time, every day. I recommend it.
I hope those in hot dry places get a break and have a little of the weather up here. My AC was only on for a day or two this summer, which is fine with me.
Good writing weather. Did you write today?
Martin
2656 words
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