We See What we Want to See

Since my famous departure from social media last year, I have been doing more reading than writing.  I had to confront the unpleasant truth that virtually no one was reading my blog, and Facebook was becoming little more than an enormous waste of time.   No one else was writing anything but shrill partisan politics, bad haiku, or cute pet pics.

After being off Facebook for almost a year - I deleted my account  March 2018 -  I have lost the  need/will to connect with others by constant updates.   Now when I want to talk to others, I send an email, or rarely, call them on the telephone. (I don't use my mobile device for phone calls except when I am in the car where Bluetooth handles calls via verbal commands.)

So, today, I return to the fold to a new beginning.  I am hopeful that I will be soon reporting the ongoing end of the Trump presidency, and the foolishness his election in 2016 mean't for this country.

Watched the Cohen hearing last week.  The hearing was not about Russia collusion. Cohen stated early on that he had "no direct evidence" of collusion with Russia. But he suspected that there was indeed some questionable contact beyond the hush money payoff that may have affected the outcome of the election. 

He was as credible as an inveterate liar and crook can be.
He is guilty of serious crimes and so his motives are suspect.  Is he making stuff up to get a more lenient sentence?  Is he seeking revenge for not getting a white house office?  We don't know for sure whether his claim to seek redemption is sincere or just another pack of lies.

Whatever his motive, Cohen's testimony sure seems aimed at taking Trump down.  There were several allusions to the ongoing grand jury investigations in the Southern District of NY.   Apparently they are looking into pre-election goings-on.

I don't think those investigations are relevant to any future impeachment efforts -- at least in my opinion.  Stuff that happened before the election should not be considered grounds for impeachment.  I always felt that way about Al Franken.  No one ever accused him of acting inappropriately as a Senator, and I was mystified that he resigned over some comparatively minor  #metoo infractions which occurred during his career when he was an entertainer.  (My spidey sense thinks that there were may have been a threat of more embarrassing revelations that he wished to squelch.  Perhaps we'll never know...)

Back to the Cohen House Committee hearing, each Republican member seemed solely interested in discrediting the witness. (The Repubicans behaved just as crassly partisan as the Democrats did at the Kavanaugh hearings. A pox on both!)  Not one of them was interested in the allegations against Trump and his cadre.  No one tried to defended Trump either,  except one white dude who said he had never heard the President use the "N- word."