Epitaph for America

It's even worse than it appears.

Friday January 31, 2020; 10:21 AM EST

• It looks like the impeachment trial will be over tonight. I've been trying to come to grips with how the Repubs, confronted with such clear evidence of the corruption of the president, could go along with it. #
• I figured it had to be blackmail or a threat of force. We now have a Russian-style government, and this is a rite of passage. Like the confirmation or bar mitzvah of the new autocracy. #
• In Russia, the parliament has no power. That seems to be the message bouncing around the twittersphere. Congress isn't going to do anything about this. What comes next? It's new territory for Americans, really for everyone, because the last time a great power went down this path was before the internet. #
• I've been reading the epitaphs of the thinkers I respect most on Twitter, and there do seem to be some conclusions. One tweet in particular makes a tremendous amount of sense, a perspective that I had not considered. The terror isn't coming from the state or oligarchs, it's coming from the net. #
• Sadly, I think he just wants to go home to TN and retire and not be harassed and doxed by Trump followers. Profile in courage? Obviously not, but Alexander has always seemed like a basically decent guy. He’s just out of his depth in Trump’s America #
• He got some pushback over "basically decent guy." It was deserved. We shouldn't judge people as if we're god. We don't know if he's decent. But the first part sounds right, it has to be the reason they didn't go forward with the trial. #
• First, Alexander went out of his way to say that the Dems made their case. He doesn't want anyone to blame them, though they will certainly get doxed or worse. The Dems most definitely did make their case, because they were thorough and courageous, and because the president made little effort to cover his tracks. Only some of the people who work for him did. Turns out they didn't need to. Unlike with the Nixon White House, they won't be going on trial or to jail. #
• If you were writing this as a Game of Thrones type novel, you'd be able tie up the loose-ends by saying that it was technology that did in the US. It wasn't nuclear weapons, or star wars, robots or chemical or biological weapons or even better encryption. No, it was the fact that everyone has the power to publish now, and we have these incredible machines for sharing private information, and we're just beginning to learn how to use them, and we have no idea how to contain them. #
• This is just the beginning of the first chapter of what comes after America. #