Thread by @saradannerdukic

Just as with newsrooms, Congress is also a finite resource. There are only so many staffers, so many man hours, so many funds that can be dedicated to serving this country.

Trump knows this, and exploits it - along with basic human decency.

Doing something like - say, sending sick children to their death - will of course cause any decent person to drop everything and triage. Any decent person, including our lawmakers, would do anything in their power to stop it.

And in doing so, the finite resources are taken away from:

investigations of Trump and Giuliani’s Ukraine scheme
foreignaffairs.house.gov/2019/9/three-h…

obtaining Trump’s financials from Mazars
slate.com/news-and-polit…

getting Ivanka and Jared’s emails
nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/…

finding out why the f*ck we’re spending so much money at Turnberry
oversight.house.gov/sites/democrat…

finding out why Mike Pence went 180 miles out of his way to Doonberg
oversight.house.gov/news/press-rel…

criminal probes involving Ryan Zinke
oversight.house.gov/news/press-rel…

This is all just from one committee (a key committee, as you’ve likely noticed). House leadership must also take time and energy away from overall strategy to deal with overtly cruel, egregious actions by Trump.

I might add that this is all happening while they’re continually bashed for “not doing anything.”

Of course, when the diversion starts to become a liability, don’t tell anyone how it started. Because if it were an actual policy for an actual reason, you wouldn’t have any problem saying who set the policy, and why.

Then, when its usefulness has run out, end the diversion.
politico.com/story/2019/09/…

Because we are decent, love each other, and love our children, we’ve spent the last several weeks worrying about these kids, these moms, these fellow humans. That’s what a decent human being does.

Because we are decent humans who love one another, it’s very difficult to pay attention to subpoenas that could sink Trump, criminal probes, and otherwise boring (to some), democratic processes when children might be sent to their death.

👆 this tactic also: provides cover in the media, instills fear (look at how cruel they are - I wonder what they'll do to my family one day), and demoralizes us (everything is terrible).

It can also create extreme trauma, making it physically very difficult - if not impossible - to think straight. health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/…

It’s hard. It is so hard. It is exhausting. But we gotta keep going. We can do this. We can, and we will.

Being able to spot patterns, and to compartmentalize helps. In fact, you have to compartmentalize. Feel when you need to; but also take breaks.

Take time to be with others, be outside, do things with your hands.

Then take a deep breath, and jump back in.
terikanefield-blog.com/category/solut…