Yesterday I talked about how Trump's defenders had done a reasonably good job on day 3 of the impeachment hearings. Day 4 was not so kind, in fact, it has horrible. Sondland, one of the key figures in this whole inquiry and the ambassador to the EU, testified that he had a clear understanding from the President that a quid pro quo was on the line if the Ukrainian President was hoping to get a meeting in Washington. This is the very notion Trump and his defenders have...

I have been watching the impeachment procedures through the eyes of Trump defenders. I know the democrats want to impeach Trump. There is very little I can learn by listening or watching their questioning. Instead, I have been purposely fast-forwarding to the points in the hearings where Trump's defenders question the witnesses. I want to see if I'm missing something. Perhaps, like Devin Nunez claims, this is all a hoax. On a separate note, Nunez cannot, even if he tried, make himself more into a caricature of a...

The second day of the public impeachment hearings happened on Friday and as you can expect, it was much of the same show. The democrats talked positively about the former ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, and questioned her on basic points around Trump's motives behind her firing. While the republicans focused mainly on whether or not the chairman of the committee, Adam Schiff, would have the whistle-blower testify in public. The rational of the people defending Trump is that without the whistle-blower, we would have never found out about any...

I watched the entire impeachment procedure from the first day of public hearings and what the diplomats described, Bill Taylor and George Kent, is the very definition of what Trump has claimed it was not, a quid pro quo. The case for a quid pro quo could not be more transparent, as Ambassador Sondland continued to make it a point that it wasn't a quid pro quo even while confirming to Taylor that unless Ukraine's President complied and agreed to begin an investigation into Burisma and the Bidens,...

News broke yesterday, that European Ambassador Gordon Sondland updated his testimony after having his "memory refreshed", and that in fact there was an understanding of quid pro quo. Many think this is the smoking gun that will get Trump thrown out of office. While it will certainly get him impeached, the most important part will probably not happen; getting him thrown out. Already, his supporters in the Senate, the jury that would get him thrown out, have switched the narrative from there was no quid pro quo, to...

Recently I was listening to a podcast where two intellectuals were arguing with each other about the finer points of intention and the meaning of what people say. You can find the podcast here. The podcast was an interview between Sam Harris and Andrew Marantz and began well and good. Marantz is promoting a book in which he documents his experiences while embedded with social media creators and the anti-social people that use those platforms. This post is not about the contents of the book. It is about...

Time travel is the stuff of fiction, of dreams. We all want to be able to either travel into the past to fix a wrong, or into the future to see what things would be. It comes as no surprise that scientists have also wondered if traveling through time is indeed possible according to our current understanding of the laws of physics. In this video from PBS spacetime, host Matt O'Dowd, explains the various ways in which theory allows us to travel through time. The most intuitive is...

I am having such a hard time understanding how one group of seemingly similar people can look at an issue so differently. I am not talking about nuanced issues like immigration, or healthcare for all. I'm taking about an issue that to me, seems simple. The issue is the law and whether or not it was broken. I recall being a teenager and trying to get my driver's license and one of the main takeaways from that experience was "ignorance of the law is not an excuse". When...

Hillary Clinton, and her daughter, Chelsea, are out promoting a new book they co-wrote, The Book of Gutsy Women. Last night they were on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert is one of my favorite late-night hosts. He's very witty and generally well informed. https://youtu.be/UzhArb7gVhU While the Madam Secretary was there promoting the book, Colbert jumped at the opportunity to inquire about the inquiry of impeachment. She gave her thoughts and you can image what they were, however, what surprised me the most were not what she...

#election2020 #trump #democratichopeful For all of his faults, and there are many, Trump does one thing very well, that is to make people feel as if they are part of the team. This should come as no surprise, just look at his rhetoric; America first, America against China, America against immigrants, Nationalism above globalism, us against them. Trump's opponents, myself included, often fail to appreciate the power of inclusion. I think part of it is because we are not seeking inclusion ourselves, we live it everyday, and therefore...