1. As JJ pointed out, Roger Stone got the book thrown at him today, convicted of all seven felony charges of lying and obstruction.  Those convictions were critical to bring the the forefront of our nation’s conscience that lying to the congress and the FBI is a CRIME; a serious CRIME.
2. Add to that the virtually flawless testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, the former Ambassador to Ukraine who had been recalled and smeared by Trump because she got in the way of his drug deal Giuliani was trying to pull off.  She was very straightforward, non-partisan, and professional, and even acknowledged the appearance of conflict with Hunter Biden’s board seat on Burisma’s board.
3. The big news of the day, though, is when Trump committed another felony (and added another article to his impeachment) LIVE on Twitter and national television when he tweeted a personal attack against Yovanovitch.  When the tweet came out, Schiff halted the questioning, and read the tweet to her, soliciting her immediate response.  Her response was muted, but talked about her career as a professional being stationed in troubled places around the world whose troubles didn’t start with her.  The backlash against Trump was swift and loud, and even Fox Noise talking heads spoke out against Trump’s actions.  When the Trump National Network is speaking out, you know it’s bad.

All of this adds up to a bad day for Trump, a very bad day.  I found it immensely entertaining.

One of our readers suggested an edit to the name, and with a little modification to that, I agree.  So, read on, dear friends.

More reports have emerged of more abuse of athletes at Ohio State by a sports doctor Richard Strauss, and those reports now total a staggering 1,429.  A wrestling referee has stated that he reported 300 cases of this abuse to Jim Jordan, (R)-Ohio, who was then an assistant wrestling coach at the university.  Jordan, of course, “has no recollection” of this hailstorm of reports over 17 years.  His lack of knowledge of such a pervasive case of sexual abuse doesn’t pass the straight faced test, not even close.

So, in these days of labeling and name calling fostered by Trump, it seems a label for Jordan might fit.  One who allows, and even fosters sexual abuse of innocent people is often called a pimp.  So, Jimmy the Pimp seems an appropriate label for Jordan, and it rolls off the tongue almost as easily as Moscow Mitch, the name for Mitch McConnell coined by none other than Nancy Pelosi.  So, it could be a good label for our friend Jim Jordan, who loves attacking anyone and everyone who is trying to hold Donald Trump to account.  Maybe some of his own medicine is appropriate.

Bill Oakley, former writer and show runner for the Simpsons wrote a piece in the Washington Post pointing out that the GOP’s defense of Trump is actually taken from one of the episodes of the famous animated series that’s been on televisions for 31 seasons.  Called the “Sideshow Bob” defense, it’s about a character in the show who mounts his own grass roots campaign to get himself released from prison so he can get elected mayor of Springfield, USA and continue his crime spree.  In his campaign, he argues on a Rush Limbaugh style show that being convicted of attempted murder is the same as being convicted of “attempted chemistry”, and therefor not a crime.  He succeeds, and installs himself as mayor, claiming that any white man in a tie and speaking with authority will convince 55% of the people. Long story short, he continues his crime spree as mayor and is eventually undone by Lisa and Bart Simpson.  During his trial, when asked why he did it, Sideshow Bob erupts into a confession claiming, “Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a coldhearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a king. That’s why I did this: to protect you from yourselves.”

Actual history is imitating animated comedy.  Such is the state of our country today.

I’m fighting off a case of caught-on-an-airliner-wintertime-creeping-crud, so spent most of the day consuming bourbon and lemon and watching the impeachment hearing.  I’m actually glad I did.  Some takeaways:

1. My faith in loyal, non-partisan, professional career public servants was restored.  Ambassador Taylor and Secretary Kent were pitch perfect.  They showed deep knowledge and experience, took no sides, resisted efforts by both sides to do that, and simply stated cold hard facts.  With impeccable credentials and reputations, their testimony was powerful and, pardon the pun, unimpeachable.  It was refreshing to witness that.
2. Ambassador Taylor dropped a bombshell of new evidence testifying that since his testimony, it has been reported to him that one of his staff overhear a cell phone conversation between Sondland and Trump (in a Kiev restaurant, no less) where Sondland told Trump that Zelensky was going to play ball.
3. Schiff did a reasonably good job laying out the case.  He has said that his goal is to get all the major news in during the first hour, and he did that, taking into account frivolous interruptions from the other side.
4. The Republicans have nothing.  NOTHING; zip, nada, zilch, zero.  Nunes and Jordan, the Trump’s chief ass lickers, only repeated the same threadbare tropes, and it seemed their ONLY strategy was to confuse.  It was pitiful, and he even floated one those ridiculous conspiracy theories that the Ukrainians were “out to get Trump”.
5. The Republicans demanded their be a vote on subpoenaing the Whistleblower, even though that’s against Federal law.  They also wailed about how the Whistleblower “started all this” and should be forced to appear.
6. We know how this is going to go…Schiff could show  body cam footage of Trump clubbing a person to death on fifth avenue and Nunedan would say “What? That happens every day.”  The only thing that will swing this is getting a secret ballot in the Senate when it comes to the vote so Republican senators would do their goddam jobs without paying a price.

Oh, and one last detail. One of the best moments of the day was after one of Jordan’s diatribe’s about “the most important witness” not being produced, Peter Welch, Dem from Vermont retorted, “I’d be glad to have the person who started it all come in and testify. President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there.”  Have a look:

I’ll be following along again tomorrow.  Should be interesting.  It’s certainly historic.

Just moments ago, Trump brazenly asked China to open an investigation of the Bidens for supposed corruption.  That’s right, he’s just opened another front in the impeachment inquiry that started last week caused by his call to Ukranian president Zelensky as him to did dirt on the Bidens.  The corruption is breathtaking, and it’s clear that Trump truly believes that he can violate any law and smear any person with impunity simply because he is president.  This is beyond Nixon.  Even though Nixon also believed that by definition US presidents can’t commit crimes he clearly had some modicum of shame and when the reality of an actual removal vote being taken, he resigned.  Trump has no shame and has convinced himself that he is truly above the law and can essentially do anything he wants to cheat his way into another term.  If he’s willing to do that, who’s to say that he would actually leave office if defeated, or even at the end of a second term?

We’re now beyond the tipping point and Trump MUST be removed from office with great haste.  That’s going to require invertebrates in the Senate, including our own John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to change their spots from cowards to courageous.  And having witnessed both of them will to permanently damage their own legacies to support this criminal, that is by no means a certainty.

This morning at a press conference in Rome, Mike Pompeo admitted that he HAD been on the call when Trump extorted Ukraine’s president Zelensky to get dirt on Joe Biden and his son.  Mike Pompeo has now officially disqualified himself as the US Secretary of State and should immediately resign.  It’s also time for him to comply with all subpoenas from the Congress.  To be clear – Mike Pompeo has been intentionally misleading the public and the press about this call, acting like he didn’t know anything about it when, in fact, he knew everything about it.  He allowed the President of the United States use his position of power for personal gain which is an impeachable offense.

Pompeo must go now.