THREAD. I had to take a little break from political Twitter to gather my thoughts on how the GOP is responding to impeachment. I find that in the face of gaslighting, it is useful to repeat things that we know to be true, and then assess the choices from there. To wit:

2. TRUTH #1: Donald Trump did not win the 2020 election. He could not accept this outcome. Because of his inability to accept this outcome, he manufactured a Big Lie that he *did* win the election, and put all of the official powers at his disposal to force this to be the case
3. TRUTH #2: As part of this effort, he attempted to 1) shakedown the Secretary of State of Georgia to manufacture 11,780 "extra" votes that would give him a victory in that state; 2) conspired with officials at DOJ to manufacture false cases of voter fraud in Georgia
4. and 3) rallied his supporters using the Big Lie to convene in Washington, D.C. to "fight" against Congress' Electoral College certification. When this became a violent insurrection at the Capitol, he refused to use his power to either verbally disavow that insurrection or
5. use his official authority to permit the National Guard and other reinforcement mechanisms to protect the official and constitutional functions of a coequal branch of government. In so doing, he violated his oath of office.
6. TRUTH #3: His words and actions, in addition to his failure to act, resulted in the death of 5 people, including law enforcement officials, and the threat to the lives of members of Congress and his own Vice President.
7. TRUTH #4: If he had succeeded, it is unclear what state of functioning our democracy would be in at this moment.
8. TRUTH #5: There are members of Congress who subscribe to the Big Lie, and are effectively representing the interests of the domestic terrorists who invaded our Capitol in our democratic processes.
9. Reasonable people cannot disagree on the above Truths. The question is how whether and how Trump should be held accountable for #1-5. Impeachment is one option through which he can be held accountable, and specifically whether he should be barred from holding office again.
10. If Senators hide behind procedural arguments for why Trump's actions cannot be adjudicated in an impeachment trial (on which the weight of experts agree is permitted), then they are avoiding, but not answering, the question of accountability
11. So the only questions to ask these people is: 1) Do you believe Trump should be held accountable for his actions? (yes or no) and 2) If not an impeachment, then how? (i.e., do they go on record as conceding that criminal prosecution is OK?)

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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.