December 31, 2019, Party like it's 1979
As I am writing this, late afternoon New Year's Eve, I understand that various Iraqi militias allegedly linked to Iran have stormed the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, a $750 million behemoth. I understand that embassy personnel are trapped in a so called safe room there, and 100 US Marines are on their way.
The President used the occasion of this crisis (which he caused through ill advised bombings of these militias in the first place and his withdrawal from Obama's nuclear deal with Iran for no reason other than Obama is Black) to send hateful tweets about Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and liberals in general, and to play golf in Florida.
Is the President wagging the dog? He might want to distract from his slow motion impeachment, which hasn't formally been referred to the Senate because Majority Leader McConnell gave away his plans to rig the 'trial' to be devoid of witnesses or written evidence, presumably as demanded by the President, but opposed by over 70% of the American public. Or are we just flailing: the worst fear of the inexperienced TV businessman coming to a frightening realization, with only his unnatural relationship with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin keeping the world from blowing apart, although the US standing in the world will be dramatically reduced.
I will just say this looks awful. The polarized America will not let the corrupt and incompetent President be removed one minute before 20 January 2021. So we have to survive another year, and a real crisis is here.
I look back and wish I had worked harder to get Hillary elected. Just to avoid what we are now staring at. Next time, we don't have the luxury of distaste for the Dem candidate.
I said at the beginning of the year I had a number of projects planned, and I managed to publish Donald J. Putin on American Exceptionalism on the Amazon platform. You can even get it there. I will try the same for GTMO at 18... as insane as that thought is. Maybe my 59th marathon will finally be a Boston qualifier. Or an urban gardening book. Or not.
Idle thoughts for suddenly serious times. Best wishes for the coming year and the coming decade.