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.

Pompeo is in Italy with discredited Sebastion Gorka doing God-knows-what.  Bill Barr has been jetting around the world and talking to international leaders.  Rudy Giuliani has been engaged with the Ukrainians for months.  Now we know Pompeo lied on national television on Sunday feigning ignorance of the Zelensky call when, in fact, he was ON THE GODDAM call with Trump.

WTF is going on with all this globe trotting and mysterious meetings with world leaders?  Here’s what I think – Trump’s number one order from Putin was to get the international sanctions lifted from Russia that were imposed after it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014.  Trump floated lifting sanctions early on, after he infested the WH in 2017, but was slapped down pretty definitively.  Since then, his pandering to Putin is well documented, including trying to tweet Russia back into the G7 to make it the G8 again.  So far, that hasn’t worked either.

Trump’s goal, since dumping Jeff Sessions and gaining Bill Barr as his attorney general personal defender, has been to discredit the investigations that concluded Russia helped get him elected with their hacking and social media meddling.  He’s so obsessed with this mission that he’s ignored the vast majority of his duties as president, focusing only on watching Fox Noise, tweeting insults at enemies in a continuous stream, and trying to help Russia.  His primary effort has been to get Ukraine to dig dirt on Biden AND promoting the ridiculous theory that it wasn’t Russian meddling, but actually Ukraine doing the hacking of the DNC. It’s stupid, but Trump and Giuliani are pushing it hard, since they’ve got nothing else.

Trump sees the end coming, especially as his numbers for reelection have sunk even lower and the impeachment inquiry started heating up.  Lord only knows what kompromat Putin has on Trump, but you know the list is long, including money laundering and financial fraud.  Trump is clearly a Russian asset, and he’s desperately trying to get Russian sanctions lifted before he’s ousted, one way or the other.  The only way he can do that (in his fevered mind) is to discredit the Mueller report and the conclusions of every major intelligence agency in the developed world.  It’s simply not going to happen, but Trump in his addled state is trying to make that happen, and he doesn’t give a good Goddam who or what he burns down trying to accomplish this goal.

Call me crazy, call me conspiratorial, but nothing else, at least to me, explains this nuclear powered three ring circus Trump is orchestrating.

There’s a good article in the Huffington Post today about the case.  If you enjoy reading depositions, this is a fun one.

There is also a hearing in Austin on Thursday that’s important to the progress of the case.  I cannot be there but I imagine I’ll get a report on it.

Thelma just decided that the coolest thing to ever happen would be if the whistleblower got the Nobel Prize and was named Time Magazine’s Person of the year.

I agree.

Just in case you were wondering what Vladimir Putin thinks about his liability in all this impeachment business, Reuters has come to your rescue.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Yeah, Vlad, what you gonna do if we ignore your thoughts on this subject and publish the transcripts anyway?  Go shirtless to the Bolshoi Ballet?  Quit being Donald Trump’s love interest? I mean, what do you think we have to lose – fair and free elections?

On the list of permissions we need, Putin’s permission ranks right below Lindsey Graham’s.

Thanks to Epp for the heads up.

Today:

Mike Pompeo was in on the mob boss call with Zelensky and Trump.  Also, McConnell said if the House impeaches, there will be a trial.

Rudy Giuliani has been subpoenaed to disgorge all of his documents pertaining to his involvement with Ukraine.f

Another Republican, Chris Collins, has resigned from Congress, this time just before pleading guilty to insider trading.

Trump asked Australian prime minister to help determine origins of Mueller investigation.

Trump suggests civil war if he’s impeached.  Harvard law professors says that by itself is impeachable.

Whistle blower’s attorney says Trump is endangering his client’s life.

RNC sent fake census forms to solicit money for Trump reelection campaign.

BREAKING: Bill Barr solicited foreign governments in an effort to discredit US intelligence agencies’ findings that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election.

Whew…