On thresholds of collusion, corruption, and ethical behavior: What we tolerate

Well, I’ve been bouncing back and forth with some friends on Facebook asking for substantive retorts to Congressman Adam Schiff’s comments (see link below for Schiff’s statement after his GOP colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee called for his resignation) on March 28th.

Basically, I really want to know if anything that Congressman Schiff said that day was incorrect, not factual, a lie, wrong, whatever.   Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, no one provided the requested refutation, other than some standard and quite disappointing remarks like, “Oh, it’s just partisan B.S.” or “It’s no different than what Congressman Goudy says” or “Stop wearing that tin foil cone on your head,” among other less than hoped for responses.

So, instead of continuing to waste my time and others on Facebook in seeking some really good and reliable counter to Shiff’s statement, I decided to post Schiff’s remarks here and let it lie.  I hope someone with some really good reliable stuff replies, ’cause now I got nothing.  And that really sucks, cause here’s how I see it.

I am pretty sure that everything Schiff said is true.  Yet, some folks just dismiss it out of hand as if … wait … oh shit, I’m gonna use Schiff’s words here … it’s all OK.  Or, they say things that reflect deep reflection (not) like, “Oh, everyone does it, you are so naive, Geno.”  Or, maybe even better, “What about what Clinton did?  What about what Obama did?  What about what Thomas Jefferson did?”  OK, I added that last part, ’cause frankly, none of that shit has any relevance ’cause it’s our now president that has my attention.

But, I confess to flabbergast ’cause, in my view, it’s not OK.  At best, what these minions from Trump Jr on down pulled before the election was at best unethical and corrupt.

Schiff has been very clear in all of his statements, even those he made before the March 28th exchange, that there are standards of evidence for criminal conspiracy (i.e., beyond a reasonable doubt, how evidence is collected as part of a criminal investigation, etc.) and then there are ethical standards that we, as Americans, expect of our elected officials, and it’s the latter that really concern me.  I don’t know where our demands for ethical standards (and outrage when we don’t get them) went but many of us certainly seem to have adopted “the ends justify the means” mentality in all of this, damn those ethical torpedoes.

To think that what Trump Jr, Manafort, Flynn, and others did does not matter … I’ll give folks the benefit and assume at least some don’t think it’s OK … I just shake my head, maybe even hard enough to loosen that tin foil wrapped above my brain.  Besides, that tin cone makes my head look too big anyways.

Of course, I could be wrong …