Who do you believe?

I watch Sunday talk shows (and Saturday Night Live!) on youtube on Sunday late afternoon and evening.

Today I heard Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) say of the impeachment proceedings, "hopefully, it will be instructive" to the president and cause him to change his behavior.

He said that on the same day that the president tweeted this:

"Shifty Adam Shiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN and probably a very sick man. He has not payed the price, yet, for what he has done to this country."

After Sen. Braun was on Face the Nation, Adam Shiff was. He was asked if he took that tweet as a threat.

He said, "I think it was meant that way."

So, who do you believe?

Will the president change his ways, 'be instructed', or will he continue to attack all opponents like a Mafia don?

B*lls or no B*lls

The democratic members of the House, over three days, have laid out, in detail and tediously, why the president should be impeached.

Now it is getting close to seeing whether Republicans have the b*lls to call for documents or witnesses or not.

I may be incorrect in saying "Republicans" since that party has become the party of "He Who Will Not Be Named" in this blog.

I hear Republicans--real ones--on TV and radio every day saying they have no faith in this president and they are not part of his party any more.

The president has taken over the party and holds them in fear of him and his 40% or so base. For politicians, "election" is the key and this President has threatened them that if they defy him he will bring hell down on them.

No one, who supports the president, had put out any cogent defense against what the impeachment says. There is none.

So do they just dismiss what he did and vote to acquit or not.

Probably the former.

Though over 70% of Americans, in recent polls, want to have documents and witnesses.

Has the president cut off the Senators' b*lls?

I fear so.

A miracle!!!

I went to the DMV in Hamden today, normally a nightmare. But after telling the guy at the desk that I needed to turn in plates from the car we gave to Mimi and Tim and they registered in New York, I hadn't even sat down before my number was called!

I wasn't there even five minutes and got what I wanted.

I also went to the assessor's office and called our insurance agent.

All in a matter of minutes.

A miracle in my book!

A miracle!!!

Oncology

My urologist, Dr. Wong, who looks so much like my daughter-in-law, Cathy Ch
en, that having her touch me there is weird, sent me to an oncologist.

Another woman doctor who has a name with 11 letters in it but is an Episcopalian and goes to Trinity on the Green in New Haven.

The problem is this: I have no prostrate gland, it was removed by surgery because it was cancerous over 15 years ago. But in the last couple of years my PSA in my blood samples have risen as high as 5.2. It should be zero since the prostrate produces PSA.

I now understand that neither urologists or oncologists understand why someone without a prostrate has a PSA count.

They just don't know.

As much as they know, and they know multitudes more than me, they just don't know.

I've had a couple of scans from Dr. Wong and there was nothing there.

Friday next I'll have a pet scan with the oncologist that should say definitely if little pieces of my cancerous prostrate traveled elsewhere.

Hopefully that scan will mean Dr. Wong won't do the test where she sticks a camera down my penis into my bladder which is scheduled in mid-February.

If you've never had a camera put into your bladder, be thankful and I envy you.

But if you have, I hope it wasn't done by someone who looks like your daughter-in-law.

Weird beyond imagining.

"Show" and "Whoa" trial

It's all there in the Senate chamber--the chief justice, the house prosecutors, the president's defense team and 100 silent, supposedly listening senators.

But it's just "show" and "whoa".

The first amendment to the cooked up rules by Senator McConnell was defeated 53-47--straight party lines. And all that was being asked was for witnesses and evidence to be subpoenaed before the trial begins, not at the end.

In no other impeachment trial in the history of the United States--presidential or judicial or other--has the Senate not subpoenaed witnesses and documents.

But they probably won't in this one.

53-47 all the way.

Alas and Alack.

I think the President should be removed. But I would want to hear from everyone involved and see all the evidence available before voting.

Not here.

This is just a 'show'.

This is 'whoa let's stop."

My prayer

It's the prayer I say before every Eucharist with the participants before we go in.

I used it to end my sermon today at St. Andrews.

And I say it to myself several times a day.

It goes like this:

GOD, OPEN MY HEART TO RECEIVE YOUR LOVE.

OPEN MY MIND TO RECEIVE YOUR TRUTH.

OPEN MY LIFE TO DO YOUR WORK IN THE WORLD.

I'm not sure what else I would pray for.

So, I'm sticking with it.

I seldom suggest that you 'do something', but I do urge you to ponder using this as your prayer.

"God, open my heart to receive your love. Open my mind to receive your truth. Open my life to do your work in the world."

Give it a try. It works or me.

Winter is back

After a week of Autumn like (almost Spring like a couple of days) weather in Connecticut, Winter is back. It's 20 degrees at 8:30 with winds driving the wind chill into the single digits.

And Winter has come for our President. His trial in the Senate has begun and though I don't think there are enough Senate Republicans of Conscience (SRC from now on) to remove him from office the trove of documents just released to the House Intelligence Committee and from them to the media has significantly raised the wind chill.

The lawyers for Les Parnas (Giuliani associate with many photos with the President) reveal how Trump (and perhaps Pence) knew fair well what was going on in the Ukraine.

In a long interview with Rachel Maddow (Conservatives gasp in repulsion at her name) he said over and over that the President 'lied' and that Pence knew too.

Today a federal government watchdog organization (the Government Accountability Office) said, definitively, that withholding the military aid from Ukraine, that had been voted by Congress, 'broke the law'.

Hopefully there are enough SRC to have witnesses in the trial and hopefully, Chief Justice Roberts--who I respect but don't agree with--will make sure that happens if the vote is 50-50. Under impeachment rules, he can break ties.

So bundle up and stay tuned.

Things are getting interesting and tricky.

SRC, stand up and be counted.

For your country and the Constitution you took an oath to uphold.