Anyone remember Benghazi? Republicans held 33 hearings on the attack on Benghazi and came up empty handed.

Republicans made no secret of the fact that the Benghazi hearings if nothing else, would put a stain on Hillary Clinton’s white house bid. The real purpose of the hearings was even confirmed publibly by republican leadership at the time. And it didn’t stop there either as republicans were only too happy to be faux outraged over the handling of classified information and Hillary’s e-mail server.

Vanity Fair published an article in May that the democratic strategy is to “Benghazi” Trump. That is to say, hold high profile hearings in long succession to uncover dirty laundry for the world to see.

It’s working.

Democrats would be only too happy to compare laundry baskets with the Trump administration. Game on.

There is going to be a lively debate about what constitutes an impeachable offense and what does not. In the meantime, week after week of hearings exposing just how corrupt this administration is promises to be an entertaining reminder that what goes around comes around.

The Benghazi-ing of Trump brings with it more risk to the entire republican party however. Democrats may lose the impeachment battle, but they are playing the long game here. If senate seats go blue in the fallout, dems ultimately win this game. The plan appears to be to not only expose Trump’s dirty underwear, but to publicly humiliate every republican senator who claims the stains on the underwear are due to shadows from faulty lighting when the images in exhibit A were taken.

Sucks to be held accountable.

The WSJ says small family farms may not make it much longer. Despite the republican bailout (twice the size of the Obama bailout that wasn’t necessary in the first place because this is a self inflicted tariff wound), farmers will be lacking a critical piece of their business: markets.

If you’re a small farmer, lose your land and STILL vote republican, my sympathy level is low.

Why this ain’t even ‘Merica no more

I watched parts of the debate in between doing important things like my laundry. Medicare for all is a non starter. Not going to happen in my lifetime. Sorry Elizabeth Warren. I guess Beto bombed but I didn’t see it. The sooner he decides to run against Cornyn for the Texas Senate seat the better. I don’t think the nominee is getting to come from this group.

My favorite moments were when two candidates switched to Spanish for extended periods. I didn’t understand a word they said but loved every minute.

The reason I’m pleased about this is because it infuriates republicans to hear a language other than English in the homeland. This emphasizes the stupidity emanating from these people. They are racist and don’t have any idea they are being racist.

Multiple languages are spoken in every developed nation in Europe. People adjust to it by learning more than one language, not by shaming individuals for speaking their native tongue.

Youtube is filled with flag waving republicans yelling at our fellow Americans for speaking a second language. For some reason it’s usually at a Walmart checkout stand. They are petrified that the Ward Cleaver family model may be on its last leg.

So here’s my takeaway: It is. Deal with it.

Here’s a random analysis of the Wings catalogue of songs from 1971-1979 (I’m including some songs from Ram which is technically pre-Wings era). Three categories: pop syrup, classic rock, really sophisticated. The pop syrup had a lot of top 40 success but I recall being into the lesser known classic rock tunes with simple, sometimes nonsensical lyrics because, that’s the point isn’t it? I’m taking a break here, amuse me with some innovative licks and catchy phrases.

The sophisticated tunes show the genius of McCartney as a songwriter and performer. I always wondered if Linda’s influence led him towards some of the pop syrup. I’ll ask him next time he stops by.

I saw McCartney live at the Rose Garden about 15 years ago or so. The band (which talent wise was an order of magnitude better than Wings) started out with Paul playing classic rock with his Hofner bass killing it on vocals. Next he switches to acoustic guitar and flawlessly played and sang sometimes solo where you are completely vulnerable and exposed. This was followed by an edgier set with Paul on electronic guitar playing some killer leads. I’m thinking to myself this guy’s versatility is incredible.

At that point a grand piano rose from the stage floor like in a broadway play and he had the audacity to play an unbelievable version of Maybe I’m Amazed. For a minute I was angry that one man was hogging all the talent in the world.

Arguably I’ve seen better concerts though that was a special night. It’s not up for debate that there are better guitar, bass, or piano players out there. What the legacy will be is the combination of versatility in musicianship plus songwriting genius packaged into one set of molecules. He’s up there near the top.

——-

Pop Syrup

Band on the run

Let ‘em in

Listen to what the man said

Magneto and titanium man

My love

Silly love songs

Venus and Mars

With a little luck

Cassic rock

Go Now

Heart of the country

Hi, hi, hi

Jet

Junior’s farm

Let me roll it

Letting go

Medicine jar

Rock show

Soily

Too many people

Really Sophisticated

Live and let die

The long and winding road

Maybe I’m amazed

Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey

Cable bundle, Dish, Hulu, Roku, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Direct TV, Netflix, DVR, YouTube Channel, streaming services, Chromecast, fire sticks, antenna, … it’s a hot mess out there.

I think streaming on demand will win. PayGo. Want to watch that Blazer game? That’ll be $1.29 please. For those of us who don’t consume a ton of TV anyway, it should be more economical and especially for millennials and genXers who aren’t afraid to break old norms if it suits their lifestyle.

Cable will be around for a long time but mostly consumed by retired people.

That’s my prediction for the day. I also provide assistance for help with filling out March Madness brackets as well as stock market investment tips for a small fee. (I recommend Virginia and AMZN).

Nine years ago today, this happened.  In case you’re wondering that’s Donna thinking to herself oh my God, what have I done?  During the cake cutting ceremony, I wasn’t sure of the exact sequence of events so I asked “Who goes first?”  They said “you do.”  So I said sure, and then fed myself a bite of cake.  My new bride was just a little amused at my faux pas as were the many members of our families.

But yeah, 9 years ago today we got hitched.  It’s been a ride!  A fun one too.  We made it through the great recession without losing our shorts.  Both of us had job changes.  We’ve traveled to Europe, the East and West coasts, Hawaii, and many other states all the while yucking it up.

We’ve developed close relationships with our friends and been active socialites around town — at least compared to what I was used to.

We’ve done the “in sickness and in health” bit and toughed it out through a few episodes of that stuff.

I’m looking forward to the next 9 and if I had the chance, I’d do the last 9 over again in a heartbeat.  It’s been living life to its fullest.

Happy Anniversary, Donna.  I love you.

Having read DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation letter in full, I’m struck by how the full scope of a very important job has been narrowed down to an internal dispute over not being cruel enough to brown skinned people at the southern border.

DHS covers protecting cyberspace, threats from real terrorists organizations, chemical and biological weapon threats, potential attacks on our networks, infrastructure and foreign interference in our election process.

Nielsen may have done a good job of keeping us safe from the long list of threats the homeland faces. But she was fired for not getting on board with a strong enough stance on family separation policy as a deterrent to families seeking asylum from Central America.

I can’t help but think our true enemies couldn’t be happier about this blatantly racist misguided focus. I’m not shedding any tears for Nielsen. While she’s the one who took the heat from congress by trying to deflect concern about family separation, children in cages and poor record keeping – it’s hard to argue she didn’t have it coming for basically defending a heartless change in policy towards asylum seekers as any good Trump soldier would. Take the bullet for the boss.

The final assessment? Thanks for taking the bullet on that but we don’t feel like you’re implemention is savage enough to meet the White House standards.

It’s not surprising #FireTuckerCarlson is trending on Twitter. He’s made no secret of his preference for white male dominance, falling just short of a formal endorsement of the KKK. It caught Fox News by surprise though that he has a history (on tape no less) of being so demeaning of women. He’s an unapologetic defender of Warren Jeffs and Roy Moore. What else do you need to know?

As someone who roots for Fox to die in controversy on a daily basis, I was interested in Tucker’s response to release of the tapes. Sure enough he followed the latest Republican trend in defending himself: double down.

We have pictures of you with a known child trafficker. So what?

We have tape of you using the C word in a live interview. So what?

We have records showing you neglected to pay taxes. So what?

We have checks showing you engaged in election fraud by paying off a porn star and a Playboy model. So what?

We have documents showing you took money from Russian oligarchs in exchange for political favors. So what? What are you gonna do about it?

It’s heartening to see establishment republicans attack the lunacy of CPAC on Twitter. I guess it’s true what they say about the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

I’ve always thought Bill Kristol’s writing leaned more conservative than what I would espouse but after following him on Twitter for the past couple of years, I’ve come to admire him a great deal. For one thing, as a champion of the Never Trump movement he gets credit for not being complicit while watching republicans and Trump completely trash the party of Reagan. He makes it very clear that he’s bothered by it. I appreciate the honesty here. There’s a lot to be said for that.

Same is true for quite a few notable establishment republicans like John Kasich, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, the Bush family, George Will, Steve Schmidt, Ana Navarro, Al Cardenas, David Brooks, Michael Gerson, Erick Erickson, and Margaret Hoover. These are some lifelong, once proud republicans who are bold enough to speak out against the current state of lunacy, amplified to 11 on the knob by the cult-like followers at CPAC. Make no mistake about it, these CPAC people are nuts.

I find the courage of the Never Trumpers admirable and hope that someday we can get back to minor disagreements on policy. In the meantime, I consider Kristol and the others close allies. There’s a lot we agree on, most notably, that we’re overdue for a serious conversation about invoking the 25th amendment.