" IS A PUZZLEMENT!"

        Ever since I saw and heard Yul Brynner, the quintesssential King of Siam, exclaim that line, it has stayed in my head and believe me, that is for many a year. It is my go to line when something appears to be inexplicable and yet, there it is. The line and sentiment is perfect for today as it is National Puzzle Day. I kid you not. I now think there is a National Day of.... for anything under the sun; however, today's title is perfect for the times.
     "These are the times that try men's souls." Another great line of history and certainly befitting the times we are presently living in. In fact, today is a time of great puzzlement and the trying of souls as a numbers game continues to roll out. Look at some of the numbers that are being batted around.
      For an attack that wounded none, and was of no serious consequences, wow, but things have changed as there are now 50, yup, 50, soldiers suffering from TBI, traumatic brain injuries, harm that is not always understood or healed properly, a puzzling wound. So from zero to 50 - and who knows how many more, just one little not so inconsequential number for and from the Trump administration as the truth keeps coming out to prove their lies.
     Here's another and this one could cause something to go pfft! What these numbers will signify in the long run, at the end of it all, is anyone's guess and in these 'trying' times, double puzzlement! It has now been implied that there are no longer the numbers necessary to block witnesses from the impeachment trial. Whoopee! But seriously, is there any true meaning and consequence for and from this number fact?
     The GOP Senators went into this trial with a fake attitude, swore an oath to be impartial even as they boldly annnounced their foregone conclusions and vote for acquittal. No surprise there. The House managers struggled long and hard, spoke well, with passion and facts, even as we played a tautology game wherein the Republicans stated there were no first hand witnesses, thus declaring all those honorable people as wrong or confused or addled or part of some huge dark state conspiracy - out of the mouths who should know about that!! But witnesses who had first hand knowledge? Oh no!! Never would they be allowed to testify, hence the GOP had it any which way, a true tautology.
     Then lightning struck, even the public stirred and something finally hit these people: Americans truly wanted to hear from witnesses, in particular, from Bolton, re his statements in his book, a first hand witness account. The pressure has mounted,  continues to mount and there is the puzzling quandry so appropriate for today, National Puzzle Day. What are they to do? Can the fear and threats pressing down upon them from the WH stop them, stop the nefarious plans of that villain? The nation awaits.... 
     What one needs to realize is that the numbers in the Senate almost make no difference. The rigged conclusion is well known, as the spineless GOP will vote to acquit. The people know the truth. There are those who are accepting the truths revealed and if, a great big if, if, we can hold the shenanigans of the GOP to rig the election, to purge Democrats from the rolls, use all the help they can get or invite in even from foreign powers, then we have a chance at getting out from under the numbers of this man and his cohort.
     So flood Iowa as they will with the criminal, the incompetent, the challenged Cabinet personnel, from Rick Perry, to Ross, to Carson - what a roll call! It will not matter. Eventually, as so many have said and as I have long maintained, the truth will out and all those crazy books replete with lies and conspiracies that are now out there, well, they will disappear onto the remaindered Barnes & Noble shelves, historical curiousities.
     So what is this really all about? Alfie cannot answer that question, only we can. We must dig deep, find the core, find our honor and do the right thing. It is about this:  "It’s really about the character and ability and physical and mental fitness of the individual to serve the people, not themselves.” 
      The words and the numbers make it very clear.
     It is not about the inane rules of the Senate, whether one can drink chocolate milk in a glass or a bottle, or chew gum or whisper. It is about opening minds to the truth. It is about 100 men and women having the knowledge, the guts, the historical understanding of where they need to be , where they need to gather their numbers for truth, for the American people, They must heed the warning. Bolton's book is out there. The facts are out there. People will read and shout and vote!! And this vote will bite the GOP in their collective ass. The only way out for them is to be truthsayers, not truth naysayers. To have the courage of their honor, of the truth and its demands, of the historical necessity , the crux at which they stand.
     Numbers. Puzzles. It all comes down to the truth, how deeply people will go, how much self contortion they will subject themselves to, in avoiding that truth. Time for all to man up, become the people of history they need to be in the proper light of that history. If not, well, you fill in the rest. It ain't pretty.