I'm old, and burdened with memories. I first got on here to save my sanity after John Kerry lost. I've never written a diary and I'm not sure this will qualify as long enough or sufficiently pithy.
Here goes: Whenever I hear the pundits say or imply that Trump's endless disdain and dismissal of critical intelligence findings by our various triple-initialled agencies is “unprecented”, I remember the pain and outrage of then Vice President Cheney’s unforgivable, arrogant interference before and during the Iraq War. I will now attempt to embed a link.
The Stovepipe
I had considered myself a pacifist since the 60s, but Dick Cheney was the first person I ever wanted to kill with my bare hands. Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell has joined him on the short list, as it were. Between then and now I developed high blood pressure. I know bad thoughts put me on some other bad list, but what the hell. In my admittedly weak defense, I haven't just fumed. I did my aging best to channel the idealism and courage of my teens when I was on the streets, up against Daley the First’s own Private Army of police. And I'm more hopeful than I have been in many years, thanks primarily to the invaluable guidance of Indivisible.
Listening to Rachel Maddow’s fascinating podcast about Spiro Agnew, (and I remember exactly where I was standing when that first got on the news) has just put me in mind that this stuff comes up again and again, and it's the same bunch for the same reasons every time. I felt so powerless when Cheney ran things, but I don't any more.
