Books with Polaroids

I recently acquired the two Tom Bianchi Polaroid photos books, Fire Island Pines & 63 E 9th Street. While I know these collections have been culled from a larger trove of pictures (but tell me whose camera or digital film roll doesn't have more lackluster than interesting photos), they are fun to look at, and the glimpse into pre-AIDS gay life is also really pretty cool.

Too bad about the impeachment inquiry

While it certainly can be said that I welcome the end of the Trump administration, it is unfortunate that it may end in impeachment.  Unlike Clinton with an intern or Johnson with his racism, Trump's impeachment inquiry is about determining whether Trump abused his power for political benefit, though the fact that even after Mueller if he chose to involve a foreign power, then he truly does deserve having the whole mess out in the open for the American public to see.  If it is ugly enough, perhaps the Senate will actually impeach and remove him from office, and if it isn't ugly enough, then at least Americans will see what is determined acceptable by Congress.  What really saddens me is that Trump has brought it to this point, because he certainly knew that requesting a foreign investigation into a specific person, who just happened to be the Democratic frontrunner, would echo a bit too close to his request that Russia break into his opponent's email and leak it for the world to see.  Trump knew better and if Congress didn't act, then they might as well have given him a golden ticket to do whatever he wanted.  Impeachment is the ultimate punishment for a public official, and while there are good arguments that it shouldn't have been used on Johnson and Clinton, there isn't a good argument that it was inappropriate to use it with Nixon, and I think history will show the same thing here, that it was a justified response to a President who refused to be constrained by law and the US Constitution.