Dispatches From the Fortress – Day 334

I'm not watching or even really following the impeachment trial. First of all, I don't like sequels. Secondly, I think we all know how it will end and it won't be what a majority of Americans want according to one recent poll

Compared to public attitudes in the early days of his first impeachment trial, support for the Senate convicting Trump is higher now. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll published in late January 2020, when the first trial was ongoing but before senators had voted, 47% of Americans said the Senate should vote to remove Trump from office and 49% said he should not be removed.

But in this latest poll, 56% of Americans say Trump should be convicted and barred from holding office again, and 43% say he should not be. The new poll was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.

Yeah…but there are a lot of Congressfolks and Senators from areas that love Donald J. and they know what it'll take to win re-election.


Various comic conventions and similar gatherings are starting to announce dates for in-person — as opposed to virtual — gatherings. I understand the financial needs at stake but I think it's too soon…perhaps way too soon. Even with everyone on the premises KN95-masked and full of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, I think it's too soon.

When will it not be too soon? I dunno. But I think we need to go through a gradual, impossible-to-predict process and that no one can say where we'll be in June or August or October. What scares me a bit is that I know a number of folks who, out of monetary necessity or a bad case of shpilkes (if you don't know the word, look it up) will rush to take risks that I wouldn't take. They might turn out for some events in sufficient quantity to make people think, "I guess everyone has decided it's over" when wiser/more prudent folks haven't decided that.

Err on the side of survival…and of not triggering yet another wave of this damned thing. Please.