A SHAM, THEN SUPERMAN — The Weekly Opine

Republicans complete their grand cover-up. A great Super Bowl provides welcome tonic. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Not a shred of doubt.

Like, everybody knows Trump is guilty. (And everybody knew the Kansas City Chiefs, of Missouri, would stage a comeback. More on that later).

GOP senators know. GOP members of Congress know. MAGAs know. Democrats and independents know. Everyone who testified during the House impeachment inquiry knows. John Bolton knows. Chief Justice Roberts knows but apparently couldn’t do much about it. Trump has always known.

Everybody knows blocking witnesses, blocking and ignoring subpoenas, and hiding and destroying evidentiary documents is tantamount to pleading guilty. So is intimidating witnesses and senators. Trump committed all these actions.

But scaredy-cat Republicans just paved the way for the incendiary Trump to finish his term. Even California (D) Sen. Diane Feinstein offered what has become standard fare from politicians. Amazingly, Feinstein said she initially favored acquitting Trump. Then she did the moonwalk, parsing words, which is so typical of spineless “leaders” occupying the Capitol Building.

Right now, we appear stuck with the Trump administration for another year, maybe longer if the fumbling and stumbling in Iowa is indicative of Democrats ability to function.

What to do next?

Democrats, whose House managers were stellar during the Senate trial - especially Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries - must compete more vigorously during the 2020 campaign. Too often Dems fire rifles while Republicans lob hand grenades. Maybe Dems could at least bring Tommy guns to the fight?

Why did (D) Sen. Chuck Schumer pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hand over the articles of impeachment to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, without a guarantee of witnesses and evidentiary documents? A severe miscalculation by Schumer.

Used to be, placing your left hand on the Bible meant a solemn oath of truth and honesty. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Beyond learning modern political warfare, Dems should ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both of whom energize the other side as much, if not more, than their own team, to take a lesser role.

Clinton, who very competently served her country as First Lady, senator and secretary of state, perpetually re-litigates the 2016 election. But she rarely acknowledges her own missteps in losing to the worst presidential candidate in history.

Now we learn former Clinton staffers launched Shadow, the app company secretly chosen by the Iowa Democratic Party, in consultation with the Democratic National Committee, to tabulate Iowa caucus results. A disaster. And the husband of the woman who owns Shadow’s parent company is chief strategist for Buttigieg’s campaign. Optically, and possibly ethically, not a good look.

Obama is often reluctant, using innuendo when specificity is needed. For four years he has danced around calling Trump out by name. Recently, Obama cautioned Dem voters about far-left progressive candidates (specifically, he meant Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren).

In August 2016, Obama had the opportunity to provide voters with critically relevant, unclassified intelligence before Election Day. Regrettably, he declined. It was, in retrospect, Obama’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’ moment. There is little doubt that, if Obama had been forthright with voters about Trump and Russia, Trump would not have been elected. Obama’s decision not to inform Americans that Trump was/is compromised by Vladimir Putin and Russia was a magnanimous failure.

The DNC should request that Hillary and Barack quietly fundraise, in the background.

It is also puzzling to see otherwise competent media members still paddy-caking candidates who are not long-shot, but no shot. The other day, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed Sen. Michael Bennet. Technically, Bennet is a presidential candidate. Realistically, he has not been on the debate stage since July. And he will miss the next debate.

Yet O’Donnell, following decorum from yesteryear, asked Bennet how he was managing his campaign in Iowa while stuck in D.C. at the Senate trial. Ludicrous. If you haven’t been on the debate stage in six months, what you have is not a campaign. What you have is an exercise in delusional feeding of your ego. (Look at me! I’m a presidential candidate!)

The DNC should stop the everybody-gets-a-trophy guise and approach this with the desperate intensity required to save America from a second Trump term. It should be down to – alphabetically – Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren. With raised eyebrows toward Mayor Pete, given his dotted-line connection to Shadow, the app company launched by the wife of his chief strategist.

Instead, the DNC altered their rules – eliminating the requirement that candidate’s show evidence of grassroots support – which now enables Michael Bloomberg to qualify for the next debate. Dang, if anyone should not get a free ride, it’s a billionaire.

As illustrated by the flag, America is in steep decline, courtesy of the Trump administration. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Another Operation Neptune

Nothing at stake on D-Day, June 6, 1944, held more gravity than what’s at stake on November 3, 2020.

Many generations in this country faced seemingly insurmountable, difficult times throughout the nation’s history. However, this feels different. Our foundation, the rule-of-law, is unravelling one ignored subpoena at a time, one blocked witness at a time, one bald-face lie at a time, one nod-and-wink from Republicans at a time. It is insidious and approaching permanence.

It may seem improbable this could happen to us, but the Roman Empire did eventually cease to exist.

Running short on time to save ourselves. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Gloom and doom

Coronavirus is a global emergency. The number of people affected and dying rises each day. Wuhan, China, with 11 million inhabitants, is quarantined, with airports and rail closed off. Non-Chinese corporations scramble to evacuate workers from China.

Climate change, like Trump’s impeachment trial, reveals skeptics and deniers, almost all Republicans or, globally, conservatives. Mother Nature leaves no doubt, with historically extreme temperatures and more frequent, ferocious storms than customary. Massive wildfires put water tables at risk.

Two weeks ago, the Doomsday Clock was adjusted forward, now sitting at only 100 seconds to midnight. This is the closest to midnight since the clock was introduced in 1947.

Why did members of the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences move the minute hand so close? Because of a heightened threat of nuclear war and climate change, compounded with cyber-enabled misinformation warfare. They point to the reversal of nuclear and climate change treaties as examples.

Members of the BAS say dangers are more dire because “world leaders have allowed the international political structure for managing (dangers) to erode.”

The move to 100 seconds occurred prior to Trump’s acquittal. Now that Republicans have emboldened Trump to run even wilder, I suggest moving the minute hand to 60 seconds to midnight.

Good guys Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid won the Super Bowl (Photo credit Fox Sports/NFL screenshot)

Super, duper, Sunday

Fortunately, the Super Bowl delivered a respite; an entertaining game that lived up to the hype.

At the tender age of 24, Patrick Mahomes just entered a room occupied by the names Starr, Namath, Bradshaw, Montana, Aikman, Brady, Manning, Brees, Wilson and Rodgers. It remains to be seen whether he pulls up a chair or exits the room.

What Mahomes and the Chiefs did last Sunday, scoring touchdowns on their final three possessions of the game, was otherworldly. It would be like a team scoring three runs, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, to win the World Series. There was no margin for error and Mahomes delivered.

When plays had to be made, Mahomes made plays. After performing like Clark Kent for three quarters, Mahomes took the glasses off, loosened his necktie, and saved Kansas City’s season.

The halftime show stirred up wide-ranging reactions.

Shakira, the “warm-up” act performing first, was better than J-Lo. Some folks were upset by their gyrating and skimpy outfits. On the other hand, Adam Levine performed shirtless at last year’s Super Bowl, eliciting hardly a complaint. But Shakira wags her tongue and it’s time to send the kids to bed. (Some are saying Shakira gave a nod to her Lebanese roots with her gesture, called a zaghrouta, which is done during celebrations).

Brand Olay was prescient with their #MakeSpaceForWomen ad during the broadcast. Beautiful.

Some of the same people upset with Shakira are still mad at Janet Jackson, for the time when Justin Timberlake aggressively ripped off her bra to expose Jackson’s nipple. Timberlake would not have gotten away with that in the #MeToo era.

TV ads were typical Super Bowl fare. The best were Hyundai, Olay, Amazon, Google, New York Life and Budweiser. Note to creative honchos; the winning recipe is, keep it simple and repeat your brand name and show the consumer benefit over and over, infused with humor.

Viewership was higher than last year, peaking during halftime. Which demonstrates you don’t need teams from big markets to persuade fans to watch.

Just Superman and some hip shaking.