I May Have To Sit This One Out

      These days, I follow the news fairly closely.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the kind of thing that can spin up a World War, I'm not entirely convinced that COVID-19 doesn't have nasty Fall surprise up its sleeve, U.S. national politics are deeply screwed up and state governments seem to be more and more about scoring ideological points for whatever party has hold of the majority rather than actually trying to run their states responsibly.

      The whole thing operates at "chimp with a machine gun" levels of unpredictable danger.

      So when word came yesterday that DOJ had accepted Raymond Dearie, one of the choices for Special Master that Mr. Trump's attorney's had proposed and the various news outlets started running stories on his impressive experience and stature as an intelligent and even-handed judge with a good background in high-security jurisprudence, I didn't miss it.

      But instead of being reassured that the guy would keep an eye on the facts and disregard politics, my first thought was, "Huh.  I wonder what Donald Trump's got on him?"

      That's unfair.  We don't even know who among the former President's attorneys and other confidants suggested the man and there's every reason to believe he will be impartial.

      I dislike Donald Trump.  I disliked him long before he ever ran for President; the few times I watched parts of The Apprentice, he came across to me as an overbearing, ill-informed, arrogant jerk, the distilled essence of every bad boss I have ever had with none of their redeeming qualities.  In 2016, unhappy with the choices, I voted third party.  When Mr. Trump won that election, I figured Constitutional checks, balances and the overwhelming responsibility of the office would keep him between the guardrails, and surely the GOP -- then with a reputation for being the sober, responsible party of conservative adults -- would rein in his worst excesses.  Subsequent events proved me wrong in every part of that assumption.  Nevertheless, I have tried to be fair and to judge him only on the facts.

      Can't do it any more.  Sorry.  Mr. Trump and his associates have operated on flimflam, humbug, puffery and grift, using inside influence, special pleading, intimidation, veiled threats and what Steve Bannon has called a "firehose of bullshit" so much that I no longer trust anything they touch, including their picks for Special Master in the seized documents.  So I think I will mostly just watch this from the sidelines and see what happens.