Thursday, September 3, 2020

Katie Hill of Throuple Fame Goes on Deranged Rant About ‘Dictator’ Trump and a COVID Vaccine



 Article by Bonchie in RedState

Katie Hill of Throuple Fame Goes on Deranged Rant About ‘Dictator’ Trump and a COVID Vaccine

Just in case you were waiting on pins and needles for Katie Hill’s take on a possible COVID vaccine, wait no more. The disgraced former House member, who resigned after getting caught in a “throuple” with one of her staffers, has chimed in to let it be known that she’s extremely concerned. This came via a deranged Twitter rant in which she fretted about the re-election of “dictator” Donald Trump and the possibility that a vaccine is being rushed.

(For all the background on Hill’s previous fall from grace, click here, here, and here)

 

 

To be clear, it’s unlikely there’s a vaccine finished by November. Tentative estimates are saying the end of the year. Even then, it’ll take months to deploy it. This idea that Trump is somehow pulling strings here to benefit his re-election has no basis in fact. It’s the kind of silly conspiracy theory the left routinely assures us is dangerous, yet they’ve had no problem trafficking in this one, among many others. 

 

 

In reality, even if Trump wanted to, the bureaucracy is far too entrenched to be used as his puppet. We are talking about agencies that are staffed by 90+% Democrats. They’d blow the whistle in a heartbeat if anything was really being rushed in an unsafe manner. Not to mention that the vaccines are being mostly developed by private companies anyway. Of course, Trump isn’t trying to rush the vaccine. He’s simply removed the red tape and increased resources in pursuit of one.

But the orange man is bad so that means spreading wild anti-vax conspiracy theories is suddenly good. So much for the party of science, right? But be sure and tell me more about how important QAnon is or something. Don’t expect the media, who have been doing their best to rehabilitate Hill, to call this out either.

There’s also the more serious issue of politicizing a possibly life-saving vaccine. People need to have confidence that what will be developed will have gone through the same thorough testing any other vaccine would have gone through. Giving the impression to gullible Democrats that Trump is cooking up something in his shed is disruptive and dangerous. It’s also plainly untrue.

https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/09/03/katie-hill-goes-on-deranged-rant-about-trump-and-a-possible-covid-vaccine/ 





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W³P Meme Dump - 3 Sep 20




Out of nowhere we have a surprise meme dump that was found under the rubble of a burned out building after a peaceful protest.






















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We are The People We Have Been Waiting For


From the heart….  recent events have highlighted the great conflict within this election year.  On one hand we can exhaust ourselves revealing every granular detail from years of institutional corruption – and to what end?  On the other hand we can focus intently on transmitting the winning uplifting message to re-elect President Trump.

We cannot, effectively, do both; here’s why.


First, we must accept the DOJ and FBI blind spot and tone-deafness toward the fourth amendment.  No single proposition has so brutally outlined the intent of the Bill Barr DOJ than an institutional agreement to carve the fourth amendment into two parts; with two different standards for a FISA application.  One standard for DC elites, the second standard for everyone else.  There is no excusing this.  The institution is an echo-chamber.

Second, I have no doubt the recent article by Sara Carter outlining how the Wood’s File for the Carter Page application was “lost” two years ago and reconstructed by the special counsel for Michael Horowitz FISA report.  Everything about Carter’s source information, including the exact timeline, aligns with my own research and discussion with quiet insiders about the purpose of the Weissmann/Mueller special counsel.  Considering what they did with the Brian Dugan file in 2018 why wouldn’t they do the same thing with the Woods File for the Page application?… Both actions have the same corrupt purpose.

There is no evidence to suggest the United States Attorney General has any intent to  expose severe corrupt activity; the special counsel is a great example.  However, there is ample evidence DOJ leadership intent is to preserve the institution(s).  Nothing can be forced upon them from the outside to change that dynamic; so we have decisions to make.


Every day we highlight the unaddressed corruption is another day we lose people to emotional fatigue and mental exhaustion.  To the extent the severity of the corruption is outlined, it becomes completely understandable how people would throw up their arms and walk away disgusted and disenfranchised.  We cannot lose people like this.

We cannot afford to lose a single voter…. we need everyone in this fight.

I have spoken to many patriotic people familiar to many of you, and without question when you direct the conversation to the subject of this dynamic eventually everyone concedes: we must drop emphasis on the scale of government corruption and urgently shift focus to winning 2020.  If we achieve the latter we can return to the former.

No-one is going to come to our nation’s rescue.  We are the people we have been waiting for.  This is our task, and there are only sixty days left to expand our ranks.

We have the best message.  We have the best candidate; and both represent the pride, values and patriotism of this nation.  Our opposition is weak and their message is based on fear and trepidation.  We cannot afford to fuel their preferred narrative of dark inevitability by focusing on a system that has become completely rigged and corrupted.

Every disenfranchised voter becomes a win for the anti-American opposition.  We must intensely provide an alternative message of faith, fellowship and patriotism.  This is so critical it cannot be overemphasized.  Optimism will win this cultural war; and the winner of the culture war will win the political battle.

Hate and anger are toxic to the spirit, we must avoid that sense at all costs.   Believe me if I thought we could hate our way to success I would admit it; but we can’t – and we shouldn’t.

Let anger, bitterness and hatred be the message of the intolerant left… it will consume them and it will diminish their tribe.  You cannot live amid a culture of envy without eventually losing all hope… that is the Democrats current reality; that reality is what they are trying to get away from right now because they see their voters headed to the exits.

Right now those who wish to “fundamentally change” our nation are waging a full frontal assault against our constitutional republic.  The bombardment seems overwhelming.

Leftist city and state leaders have abandoned rule of law in favor of supporting the mob effort to destroy our sense of national unity.  Political activists, left-wing ideologues under the guise of democrats, and a host of media allies are conducting an information war on behalf of their objective.  Big tech social media companies are attempting to remove the voices of those who are fighting back.

There is a great deal of purposefully driven anxiety and fear amid our nation as this multi-faceted internal war takes place.  However, there is a primary element to this effort that each person can shield themselves from, and act to counter.  Do not let your sense of self succumb to this assault.  Do not let them win the battle for your peace of mind.

It might, heck, -check that- it does seem overwhelming at times.  But that is the nature of this collectivist strategy.  That is the purpose of this bombardment.  We must hold strong and push back against their lies and manipulations.  If you look closely at their attack, it is weak and much of it is psychological bait.  Do not fall into the trap of despair.

When I share the message “live your best life”, it is not without purpose.  Every moment that we allow the onslaught to deter us from living our dreams, is a moment those who oppose our nation view as us taking a knee.  Do not allow this effort to succeed.

You might ask yourself how can I, one person, a flea looking into a furnace, retain an optimistic disposition while all around me seems chaotic and mad.

That’s the point; it ‘seems’ chaotic and mad because it has been created to appear that way.  There are more of us than them; they just control the systems that allow us to connect, share messages and recognize the scale of our assembly.

Every second that you live your life with thankfulness for the abundance within it; every moment that we CHOOSE to engage with fellowship; every day that we accept guidance from God – however you define him to be; and every moment we cherish this time to be a beacon of optimism; is a moment that we withstand that barrage and hold the flag in place.   It is a genuinely patriotic position not to succumb to the attack.

If you allow yourself to be drawn into crisis and despair, you allow them to win.  If your center of normal is based around this overwhelming onslaught, you will eventually concede liberty in favor of peace.  Once we stop living in liberty, we no longer have peace.

It took me a while to fully understand just how damaging empty streets, soulless eyes, the lack of smiles, shuttered businesses and the absence of joy would become.  But as I travel around I now recognize just how much damage is being done; not just to our nation as a whole, but also to every individual within it – personally.

We must shake this mindset.  We must withstand this onslaught and rally to the origin of our true national spirit.  We must rally to a standard of Americanism and accept this is not that.

In essence, we must individually take a stand.

Purposefully, deliberately and with forethought, we must engage those around us to get rid of this sense of foreboding.

This approach is how we win the larger battle.

All around us, in every tribe and region, there are people who need you to show them the strength that you have.  Strength of spirit. Strength of fellowship that you will not relent from expressing.  No matter what noise is shouting from the loudspeakers we must withstand it; we must make eye contact and remain joyful.  We cannot allow despair to be the status quo.

Our nation needs more people like you, right now.  Don’t wait… engage life, get optimistic however you need to do it. Then let that part of you shine right now… This is how we fight.  Hold up that flag; give the starter smile… rally to the standard you create and spread fellowship again.

God knows we need it; and that is how we will win.


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Joe Biden Finally Takes Questions from Media, It Doesn’t Go Well



Joe Biden has been hiding in his basement for months.

He managed to struggle through a speech at the Democratic convention with the help of a teleprompter.

But since then, he wasn’t even able to get it together for a simple 12 minute speech in Pittsburgh, again with no audience and reading off a teleprompter, not even taking any questions.

Today they made a big mistake and let him answer questions and it was a complete mess.

First, he had his staff filter what questions to take.




Could it be scripted questions and answers?

That’s clearly what was going on in an interview that he had earlier, as my colleague Bonchie reported. 

So it’s perfectly reasonable that could be going on here.

But then it went down hill from that opening.

He didn’t take that many questions. But even the ones that his staff took, he had difficulty with. 

There was this word salad which I guess was about President Donald Trump but it was garbled at best.



Then there was this one where he’s asked if he thinks that the officers who shot Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor should be charged. He actually says Taylor should be charged. 



No, no president or Vice President should be interfering in the investigation by saying they should or shouldn’t be charged. Candidates used to know that. 

Then his description of the shooting of Trump supporter Aaron Danielson is indefensibly wrong and slanderous, seemingly blaming him for shooting at people when no such thing happened. 

But as he was leaving, he made a mistake and took a real question from Fox’s Peter Doocy, who asked that if he claimed he was warning Trump about the pandemic in January why was he still holding crowded events in March? Biden then went into a deflection rant non-answer.



He claimed he was telling Trump to invoke the DPA, but actually Trump invoked it before Biden ever talked about it and Biden didn’t seem to ever understand that, he just kept repeating Trump should invoke it, despite the fact that Trump had. 

“Don’t wait” to talk about the need for masks? In March, Biden was still staging events where people weren’t practicing any social distancing or wearing any masks. 

Remember when Joe threatened this autoworker, called him a horse’s ass, said her was full of sh*t and wanted to take him outside?



That was March 10. 

“I can’t remember” when it was that he talked to Trump, Biden said. It wasn’t March, it was April, after Trump had already come up with the guidance on stopping the spread. Once again, he was late, talking about things that Trump was already doing. 

The bottom line was Democrats including Biden in January were downplaying the virus way into March, he even termed Trump’s reaction to China which included cutting off travel as “hysterical xenophobia.” Biden couldn’t even agree publicly that travel should be cut with China until April 2. Trump did it in January. Trump declared a public health emergency in January and created the task force in January. 

Biden then went on to say that the Trump policies were “reducing the number of people who are in real trouble economically”. Yes, that’s right! Thanks, Joe!





HT: Twitchy

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Brennan Transmits His Durham Briefing to the Crew


When you know the process, you know the methods and purposes.  Remember: CIA messaging is transmitted through the Washington Post; FBI messaging is transmitted through the New York Times; and State Dept. messaging is transmitted through CNN. This flow is the one constant in the narrative engineering process.


Ten days ago former CIA Director John Brennan was interviewed by the investigative unit led by John Durham.

Two days ago Brennan told the “small group” of politicians and corrupt Obama officials what his official line to those Durham investigators was.

Brennan tells his allies this through an Op-Ed published in the Washington Post.

The motive, intent and purpose is the same as Dianne Feinstein’s leak of the Glenn Simpson testimony… get all messaging on the same page.

Here’s the Brennan narrative to assist the “by the book” justification:

[Washington Post – John Brennan] – […] President Barack Obama already knew the Russians were hacking into the networks of U.S. presidential campaigns, but on the afternoon of July 28, 2016, I informed him in a hurriedly scheduled meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin had authorized his intelligence services to carry out activities to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost the election prospects of Donald Trump.
“Mr. President,” I said, “it appears that the Russian effort to undermine the integrity of the November election is much more intense, determined, and insidious than any we have seen before.”
My reference to the unprecedented scale and scope of Moscow’s efforts to harm the integrity of the election quickly riveted the president’s attention. It also triggered the immediate concern of the others in the room — including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, who asked, after I was done speaking, “What are you planning to do on the congressional front?”
I thought for a brief moment and then recommended that the most sensitive intelligence be limited initially only to the “Gang of Eight” — the bipartisan leadership of both houses of Congress as well as the chairs and ranking minority-party members of the Intelligence Committees. I was concerned that briefing Congress more broadly on fragile intelligence sources and methods could lead to damaging leaks, harming our ability to learn more about Russian plans and capabilities.
Moreover, some U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump campaign appeared to be caught up, wittingly or unwittingly, in the Russian scheme, and I knew that the politically volatile nature of such information could have been used by Democrats to harm the Trump campaign.
In my more than 30 years of government service, I had witnessed some members of both political parties engage in unethical behavior by misusing intelligence, and I wanted to avoid that happening on the eve of a closely contested presidential election. Obama understood my concerns, but he said he wanted Congress briefed as appropriate and as required.
Congress was already on summer recess at the time, but three members of the Gang of Eight — Democrats Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) and Sen. Harry M. Reid (Nev.) — made arrangements to receive the briefing in August in person or by secure phone. The other five — one Democrat and four Republicans — were briefed individually in secure congressional conference rooms on Sept. 6.
To underscore the sensitivity of the intelligence, I personally conducted all the briefings. Most of the eight immediately recognized the gravity of Russian efforts. A notable exception was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who insinuated that the CIA was working with the Obama administration to prevent Trump from getting elected.
We conducted many subsequent briefings for members and staff in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election.  (more)

Smart move by Brennan to bring in President Obama; although this is the first time Brennan admits to briefing the White House on the Steele Dossier information specifically on July 28th 2016.  Not accidentally three days before the official opening of FBI operation Crossfire Hurricane.

Yes, that timeline contradicts with other information provided by Lisa Page and various FBI officials in their depositions, but that can be reconciled internally, safely, based on obtuse distinctions around the actual content of the briefing itself.

Start by remembering the sworn testimony of John Brennan to congress on May 23rd, 2017.  Listen carefully to the opening statement from former the former CIA director and pay close attention to the segment at 13:35 of this video [transcribed below]:




Brennan: [13:35] “Third, through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept congress apprised of these issues as we identified them.”
“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”…

Notice a few things from this testimony.  First, where Brennan says “in consultation with the White House“.  This was the first direct connection between Brennan’s activity and President Obama, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Chief-of-Staff Denis McDonough, each of whom would have held knowledge of what Brennan was briefing to the Go8; Brennan confirms this in his August 31, 2020, Op-ed.

Secondly, Brennan is describing raw intelligence (obviously gathered prior to the Carter Page FISA Application/Warrant – October 21st, 2016) that he went on to brief the Gang-of-Eight (pictured below).  Notice Brennan said he did briefings “individually”.


Brennan also says in his testimony that he began the briefings on August 11th, 2016.  This is a key point because former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to James Comey on August 27th, 2016, as an outcome of his briefing by John Brennan. But it is the content of Reid’s letter that really matters.

In the last paragraph of Reid’s letter to Comey he notes something that is only cited within the Christopher Steele Dossier [full letter pdf here]:

This letter is August 27th, 2016.  The Trump advisor in the letter is Carter Page. The source of the information is Christopher Steele in his dossier. Two months later (October 21st, 2016) the FBI filed a FISA application against Carter Page using the Steele Dossier.

So what we are seeing here is CIA Director John Brennan briefing Harry Reid on the Steele dossier in August 2016, even before the dossier reached the FBI.  However, John Brennan has denied seeing the dossier until December of 2016.  A transparent lie.

Listen from 03:00 to 04:36:



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Progressivism, Money, Gender...


I mentioned this briefly a few weeks ago and was surprised that so many had never heard about this. So now let me give you the slightly more expanded story of John Money, the man who invented left wing gender theory.

John Money was a psychologist in the mid 20th century. A pioneer of the idea that “gender” is something distinct from sex and it’s determined by your environment. 
This is taught now as fact in most schools and universities. But Money himself accidentally disproved his own theory

 David and Brian Reimer were twin boys. During a botched circumcision David’s penis was burned off. His parents learned about Money and his gender theories so they consulted him. Money told them to raise David as a girl and never tell him about his true identity.

 The idea was that gender is a construct so if you construct a female identity for him, it should solve the problem. But David was a boy, and his boyishness came across very early. The female identity wasn’t taking. So Money tried to force the issue.

 Money had regular sessions with the boys where he tried to reinforce David’s female identity. This included forcing them to simulate sex acts on each other. He also photographed the children nude. Money believed pedophilia could be a legitimate sexual orientation, by the way.

 But David was still a boy. Eventually his parents had no choice but to tell him the truth. The harm was already done. Both boys went on to lead sad and damaged lives. David’s brother killed himself first. A few years later David followed. But really it was Money who killed them

 This is the man who came up with many of the concepts the left wing gender crusaders go around preaching today. He’s also the man who disproved those very concepts. Though he never would admit it, because he was an evil degenerate.

 Money’s theories destroyed two children. And they have destroyed many since. We keep marching down this path. We pretend not to notice the carnage.

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President Trump’s Stupid Tweets Are A Heck Of A Lot Better Than Joe Biden’s Evil Policies


Trump kept his word on abortion, religious liberty, and the rule of law. The radicals running the Democratic Party have shown they'll do anything for power.



I don’t like President Trump. I don’t think he is a good man, and I didn’t think he was the best choice for Republicans in 2016. I certainly don’t like everything he does, says, or tweets. But I am still going to vote for him, and I don’t think I’m the only one.

Unlike four years ago, Trump is now a known political quantity. He has fought to keep his promises on the issues I care most about: abortion, religious liberty, and the rule of law. Meanwhile, the radicals running the Democratic Party have demonstrated that they will do anything for power — and that they view people like me as enemies to be punished and destroyed.

My tipping point was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation fight. After Trump’s election, the Democrats tried to claim the moral high ground; in the Kavanaugh battle, they shelled that position into oblivion. The Democrats not only tried to defeat the nomination, but they also promoted even the most grotesque and lurid smears — accusing a respected, mainstream judge of having been a high school gang-rape mastermind.

Democrats profess alarm over Trump’s prevarications, only to match him lie for lie. Most egregious was the Russian collusion hoax that they and their media allies invented. Supposedly serious people argued that the president was a Russian agent who had colluded with Putin to steal the election.

Other, more reasonable, criticisms of the president are undermined by Democrats’ hypocrisy. It was foolish for Trump to downplay the dangers of the Chinese coronavirus. But Democrats would be more persuasive on the point if they had not praised mass protests and feted the disastrous efforts of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered infected patients into nursing homes.

Likewise, Trump’s flattery of foreign dictators has been unseemly, and it does not seem to help his negotiations. But as vice president, Joe Biden did worse by endorsing China’s murderous one-child policy. Nothing Trump has said is as obscene and wicked as that. Indeed, established elites such as Biden are more like Trump than they care to admit.

Of course, there is more to the case for President Trump than the flaws of his enemies. Trump broke open a Republican orthodoxy that had become staidand unwilling to adjust to the tasks of conservatism today.

He has also compiled a strong foreign policy record, being less belligerent than his predecessors while still using American might when necessary, as demonstrated by the strike on Iran’s terrorist mastermind, Qassem Soleimani. Most of Trump’s judicial selections have been excellent, and our legal setbacks have resulted not from his mistakes but from members of the conservative legal establishment betraying their originalist principles and promises.

It is nonetheless important to acknowledge the compromises of supporting Trump, especially for Christians whose idea of good character is very far from that the president often exhibits. But this does not require us to follow Never Trump writer David French, who recently scolded Christians who support Trump — how dare we vote for such a bad man!

French highlighted the civil rights movement as an ideal example of Christian political engagement. But the civil rights movement worked with and voted for some of the wickedest men to ever inhabit the White House. If the goal of civil rights for black Americans was worth working with Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (whose respective adulteries, election fraud, and vulgarity, among other sins, are well known), civil rights for those in utero is worth working with President Trump.

As French put it in 2012:

Your vote can help determine whether we have a fighting chance at overturning a constitutional atrocity or whether you secure the right to kill yet another generation of unborn Americans. The lines are crystal clear. Where will you stand?

Even if French now refuses to see them, the lines on abortion and many other issues have not become blurrier since 2012. The moderate Democrats who voted for Biden in the primary won the battle but lost the war as Biden shifted left and chose Kamala Harris as his successor. A Biden administration will force Democrats’ cultural radicalism on the entire country, and Harris will be even worse when she succeeds him. Don’t expect moderation from her: Harris has fundraised for a group that bails out accused rioters, murderers, and sex criminals.

On everything from abortion to energy to health care, Biden is more radical than he was in 2008. The supposed moderation of the Biden-Harris ticket consists mostly of being friendlier to Wall Street and big business than the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. But left-wing corporatism is not centrism, it is just oligarchy with a veneer of social justice buzzwords.

Biden is the candidate of the rich and famous who incessantly criticize the United States but won’t say a word against the genocide being committed by the Chinese communists. He is the candidate for those who use the idea of free trade to require American workers to compete with Chinese slave labor.

The blue-collar Democratic Party of yore is long gone. Biden is an empty vessel whose administration will be filled by the radical left. He will not return the country to normalcy, nor will he unite us, because the identity politics his party has embraced preclude unity. If you want a preview of Joe Biden’s America, look at what Democrats say; even more, look at what is happening in Democrat-controlled areas.

In Joe Biden’s America, taxpayers will fund abortion on demand until birth. In Joe Biden’s America, men will be allowed in every women-only sport, shelter, and locker room. In Joe Biden’s America, public school teachers will encourage students with gender identity issues to transition over parental objections (if they even tell the parents). In Joe Biden’s America, religious dissenters, even nuns, will be relentlessly harassed by the government.

In Joe Biden’s America, there will be blackouts as our energy infrastructure is intentionally crippled in the name of the environment. In Joe Biden’s America, the rioters, looters, and murderers who have taken over the streets in Democratic areas will have the tacit approval of the federal government. In Joe Biden’s America, the president will work to make China great again.

No, thank you. I’d rather have Trump.

Nathanael Blake is a Senior Contributor at The Federalist. 
He has a PhD in political theory. He lives in Missouri.

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AG Bill Barr Warns The National Mail-In Ballot Effort Will De-legitimize The U.S. Government


…and he is correct.  That is exactly why the leftists within the Democrat party are pushing for it.  The extreme left know they can destroy the republican form of government by forcing a fraudulent election result on the American people.  That is the purpose.




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Did Impeachment Happen, Or Did I Imagine It?



The House of Representatives initiated impeachment against President Donald Trump on Dec. 18, 2019. This came roughly three years after discussions about impeachment began, starting about the time Trump won the election. At least that’s what I remember.

Since Trump was elected, we’ve been regaled with increasingly fantastic stories involving Russia, Trump, and an ever-expanding cast of supporting characters. The stories, of course, did not stop when Trump was acquitted back in February, which was not that long ago, though time has become meaningless and February might as well be last century. Again, this is assuming I didn’t imagine the entire thing.

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) came and went, and with it went impeachment. Surely this wasn’t the case. After years of dominating the conversation and occupying the entirety of a large group of people’s headspace, suddenly it didn’t matter anymore? Has it really vanished, never to be seen again?

In explaining why impeachment wasn’t mentioned at the DNC, Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said — or maybe “said” — “Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.”

Sorry, that wasn’t Greenberg, but Verbal Kint in 1995’s “The Usual Suspects,” a much shorter and more entertaining film about shadowy figures manipulating people for power. What Greenberg actually said was, “Voters literally didn’t care about and forgot about impeachment the day after the vote. Democrats favored it but didn’t think it would accomplish anything.”

Goldberg also said people who don’t live and breathe politics “didn’t really understand why he was being impeached, and Republicans thought it was a ‘witch hunt.’” This might be why the Republicans did mention it at their convention, although maybe they’re just channeling their inner Kint. Or maybe a highly partisan issue buried in a more fantastical tale than the one Kint spun for detective Dave Kujan didn’t work out for the Democrats as much as they had hoped.

And now, like that, poof. It’s gone. Is this real life? Surely I have not had my imagination working overtime for these past three years, dreaming up stories of shady Russians and micturating prostitutes.

There was going to be a Trump Tower in Moscow. Emails were leaked from a time machine. Jumpin’ Jack Flash was born in a crossfire hurricane. James Comey dyed his hair jet-black and wrote poetry. The fabric of our republic was being torn asunder by memes and posts on social media written in broken English.

Does no one care? Where are the furious calls for more investigations, more accountability, more resistance? Not that I would mind if it’s gone. It’s a tiring situation to navigate, made all the more tiring by the fact that I apparently imagined it. Surely, I could have engaged in a more productive voyage through light and sound, or at least recreated a lackluster reboot of “St. Elsewhere” instead of this.

But here I am, wondering what happened. I’m wondering why I left that barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois, to go pick coffee beans in Guatemala. I’m wondering why I departed Guatemala and came back to America to engage in fever dreams about Donald Trump, Russia, the aforementioned micturating prostitutes, Emo Comey, and the rest of the gang.

America was facing an existential crisis, my imagination assured me. Without impeachment and a conviction, the country would cease to exist. Surely the Democrats didn’t forget that and whoever was rolling the videos during their convention failed to hit play on the ones covering the topic. There’s absolutely no way it was all a convoluted Rube Goldberg of an attempt to wrest power from the duly elected president, because that would be too insane even for fiction.

Yet the silence continues, so it must be that impeachment never happened. It was all a dream. The truth does not involve a vast conspiracy and democracy dying in darkness. It was all a figment of my imagination. It never existed. And poof, like that, it’s gone.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Agent Kujan has some more questions.

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