The Beginning of the Next Phase...

I believe we've seen the end of the Beginning. Time that back to the indictment of the 13 Russians, or the Gates plea deal – something from late February. It seemed like it at the time, and the dribbles of information suggest that as well. More subpoenas to more orgs (including Trump's, which duh...)

I don't know what stage this will be that comes next, but it's unfolding. Still circulating that Mueller seeks an interview, and the OSC is negotiating that with the White House Staff. Trump has lost his shit this weekend. And the big shoe to drop next is that Trump moves to fire Mueller.

A lot of the "history will show ... " shit is coming out, so as a historian, let me set out a few of the questions that I will be interested in learning the answers to, and how I will be teaching them, FSM willing, that is still an option.

Both taken c. 3:50p

• RYAN and MCCONNELL: These guys will have to be two of the more odious shits (Odious Taints - h/t Rep. Schiff!) when all this unfolds. They sat and did nothing. How this came about is going to be really interesting. 

To wit: McConnell seemed awfully comfortable standing firm against Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland. He has seemed awfully smug. (And heavens I cannot wait for him to receive his. He's like #4 on the list.) When did he know about The Conspiracy?

Ditto Ryan: I expect for him it was more of a fait accompli. Someone said: "the Russians are going to help us win, the NRA is the conduit for laundering the cash, we'll build up a large enough majority in the victory to seal off investigations, and nobody will ever find out. Unless you open your big mouth, betray your party, your beliefs and ideological fantasies of sharing a warm post-coital moment with Ayn Rand. Now, Paulie, you wouldn't do that, would you, when you are [squeezes fingers down to a Strontium atom size] this close to getting everything you ever politically dreamed of, WOULD YOU?"

And Paul Ryan, that feckless tool, caved. 

• CHEETO Mussolini: Support for him now is confined to only these potential justifications; I refuse to accept anything else: 

1.  Authoritarianism
2. Racism
3. Misogyny
4. Avarice and cupidity
5. Stupidity

But there was something else I intended to speculate on, but now it escapes me. I know it dealt with Mueller, etc. but between the shower and here it slipped my mind.

Finally, not quite a Victory Lap, because I'm about to go on it and do some stupid shit, but ~~~VICTORY LAP~~~ \\ ~~~ `o– ~~~

The reason I quit posting on there with any frequency (aside from the several obvious ones) was because it harvesting user information to sell. That is ALL it ever did. It's kind of offensive that people are now Shocked – SHOCKED I tell you!! that Zuckerberg was in with Cambridge Anal*. Yeah, no shit, and anybody else willing to pay them.

 

He's on the list too, but way way down. Like #10. I need to post that soon. 


Now Go Get 'Em...

WOW

As an American History professor, last night I was really stunned, speechless, and THRILLED at the outcome of the election. Just remarkable. W O W .
And: my sister told me mother did get on board with Obama. I'm proud of both of them.

Know Hope!

Come on - this should have been a no-brainer. But I plan on bringing a book with me to the polling place tomorrow, and I'll wait all day if I have to to vote for Obama.

I do highly recommend the really excellent post from Andrew Sullivan over at The Atlantic about why he endorsed Obama. I forwarded parts of it to my mother, an undecided voter (?!?!) in Michigan, after she and I talked about the election for about 90 minutes the other night. A little taste from Sullivan:

We need to win the argument in the developing world; we need to reach out and persuade the Muslim middle - especially the next generation in Iran and Iraq and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Western Europe - about the virtues of democracy and constitutionalism. We cannot do that if we trash our own values ourselves. It is self-defeating. We cannot be a beacon to the world until we have reformed ourselves. In this war, we are also fighting for an America that does not lose its soul in fighting our enemy. Just because we are fighting evil does not mean we cannot ourselves succumb to it. That is what my Christian faith teaches me - that no nation has a monopoly on virtue, and that every generation has to earn its own integrity. I fear and believe we have given away far too much - and that, while this loss is permanent, it can nonetheless be mitigated by a new start, a new direction, a new statement that the America the world once knew and loved is back.

It will not be easy. The world will soon remember why it resents America as well as loves it. But until this unlikely fellow with the funny ears and strange name and exotic biography emerged on the scene, I had begun to wonder if it was possible at all. I had almost given up hope, and he helped restore it. That is what is stirring out there; and although you are welcome to mock me for it, I remain unashamed. As someone once said, in the unlikely story of America, there is never anything false about hope. Obama, moreover, seems to bring out the best in people, and the calmest, and the sanest. He seems to me to have a blend of Midwestern good sense, an intuitive understanding of the developing world that is as much our future now as theirs', an analyst's mind and a poet's tongue. He is human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. His passivity and ambiguity are sometimes weaknesses as well as strengths.

But there is something about his rise that is also supremely American, a reminder of why so many of us love this country so passionately and are filled with such grief at what has been done to it and in its name. I endorse Barack Obama because I will not give up on America, because I believe in America, and in her constitution and decency and character and strength.

I believe in America too, I believe in the, as Lincoln said, "better angels of our nature," and not the politics of division, mendacity (I'm being polite), and neo-McCarthyism.

On political wars

I have been struck lately by the intemperate rhetoric of the election - not only of the candidates (and I truly hope for some karmic retribution for the Republican candidates for their shameful incitements of mobs), but also of their supporters.

I say this as I heard the other day on Howie Carr (I think) someone criticizing and condemning McCain for uttering a friendly remark to Obama. The rationale was - "You can't do that, you don't play nice, you don't compliment your opponent. THIS IS WAR!" Then today I heard some retard named Justin saying that anyone who supported and voted for Obama should be deported and put on boats in the middle of the ocean and *killed*. Seriously. Voting for Obama, in his mind, was an act of treason, and as traitors, all Obama supporters should be put to death.

Now one thing I like about studying history is that you can see past elections and political interactions (1800, 1824 and 1860 come to mind, as does 1936. And I'm reminded of Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge's personal hatred for President Wilson), so this is nothing new. But it's never been directed at *me* before! I don't think I'm a traitor. I worry about how feasible reconciliation will be in the aftermath of the election.