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.

Nancy Pelosi just announced a formal impeachment inquiry of the conduct of Donald Trump.  Here we go.  Let’s make some predictions…I would like to hear what others think.

My prediction: This is the beginning of the end for Trump.  As this proceeds and truth comes to light, I believe that the Republicans will FINALLY realize that the jig is up.  In order for them to have any chance at winning 2020, they need Trump out quickly so they can field some other candidate.  The veil will be lifted and everyone will run from him.  Wishful thinking?  I don’t think so.

What do you think?

Say what you will about Nancy Pelosi, but she is seldom wrong.  Yesterday, the Noise Machine went nuts when she said that Trump was trying to goad the Dems into impeaching him.  The Noise Machine went nuts for one reason, and one reason only:  she’s 100% correct.  Think about it:  The latest ABC News/WaPo poll found that 55% of voters definitely will not vote for Trump; further, 85% said they were going to vote in 2020.  High turnout is death for all politicians Republican.  Trump’s approval is hovering at 39% to 41%.  All these numbers are terrible for him. Terrible.  I would say that Trump’s chances of getting re-elected now are low, unless the Dems are stupid and run HRC again in 2016, which is not going to happen.  Biden, if he maintains his current intensity, will slaughter Trump, especially with a vibrant younger VP like Harris or Hickenlooper.

In short, the shine is off the fake gold plating, and Trump’s record as a fraudster and criminal is finally beginning to catch up with him, especially with those not in his drooling, Confederate flag wearing base.  Indictments on a number of state and federal charges once he leaves office are a virtual certainty; he will be legally and financially destroyed once he comes out from under his rock in the WH.  His only hope to fight off the wolves at the door is to stay in office as long as possible, and a new term will protect him until he’s too old to throw in jail for the rest of his life.

Because of these facts, Trump’s only chance of survival is to gain sympathy and support from low information voters by fighting off a huge threat.  That huge threat is impeachment by the Big, Bad, Democrats in the House.  So let’s consider what would happen if articles of impeachment were drawn up in the House. First, it takes a majority vote in the House on Articles of Impeachment, and that is not a certainty, especially if Pelosi continues to oppose.  If Trump is charged by a majority of the House, he must undergo trial in the Senate, which requires a 2/3 supermajority to convict.  With current Senate membership and leaders, Trump’s conviction has a zero chance of happening.  Zero.

So, impeachment is exactly what Trump wants.  He wants to play victim on Twitter and national television over a “witch hunt” and “coup attempt”.  That’s why he’s begging for impeachment by blocking disclosure of the unredacted Mueller report, claiming executive privilege.  That’s why he’s preventing Barr and McGhan from testifying.  That’s why he’s ignoring every single subpoena and request for information.  Since beating an impeachment charge is his only chance of winning another term, expect him to continue escalating his attacks on the House, Dems, and all things that are considered good and decent.

Though no other president has deserved impeachment more than Trump, the Dems must not take the bait.  They need to continue bombarding him and his cronies with subpoenas, demands,  requests for information and admonishments, but Pelosi is right.  Impeaching this son of a bitch is the last thing the Dems should do.

One of our readers suggested this piece in the Washington Post yesterday, and it’s a good one. Entitled What’s so wrong with motherf—er?, writer Molly Roberts points out the silliness of the Republicans’ outrage over freshman member of Congress Rashida Tlaib’s use of the word during remarks at a private celebration the evening of her swearing in.  I don’t know if Tlaib is involved, but a movement started very early on in Trump’s term called ITMFA, or Impeach the MotherF—er Already, has nationally grown in strength as he has assaulted everything that is decent about our country.  The organization’s logo is this, and seen regularly at gatherings of progressives and never-Trumpers:

When the video of Tlaib surfaced yesterday, the rightwing noise machine went into Full Snowflake, suddenly regaining its sense of hearing after years of total deafness to Trump’s continuous stream of childish insults and profanity.  Not only were they shocked, shocked, I tell you over the notion of even mentioning the word impeachment, they were really shocked that Tlaib would use the word mother—er to describe him.  Many Americans, including me, regularly use this descriptor for Trump.

When I heard serial liar Kevin McCarthy feigning insult over the incident yesterday, I actually burst out laughing.  Being one of the leading Invertebrates in Congress who have dismissed concerns over Trump’s actual conduct, it’s hilarious that now he’s worried about decorum.  Here’s my position of this issue – First, anyone who still supports His Orangeness has forfeited any right to be insulted by profanity and lack of decorum for life. Second, the Dems need to stop worrying about motivating his base of angry, old white people.  They can’t get any more angry since they are teeth gnashing, drooling, pissed off 24/7 fed a red meat diet of Fox Noise bullshit in a continuous stream.  Third, I agree with Roberts that suburban middle of the roaders are not going to base their votes on some bad word uttered by a freshman Dem at a private event, but on Trump’s actual record of ripping children from their parents and caging them in “tender age” detention facilities.  It insults the intelligence of those suburbanites for Dems to be so fearful of backlash over an insult that doesn’t even approach Trump’s egregious and illegal behavior.

Lastly,  I also agree with this:

“‘Motherf—er,’ in short, is about civility. ‘Shithole countries’ is about character. Democrats who conflate the two weaken themselves. They minimize the abuses of the Trump administration, and they invite the president to go on committing them without expecting anything more than an anemic reprimand. Democrats, he understands, won’t ever really fight back.”

It’s long past time to start fighting back, Dems.  The real snowflakes are on the OTHER side.

It’s just getting worse for Trump.  As his Trumpist base calcifies into fact-free paralysis, normal Americans have grown weary of the reality show that has played 24/7 since His Orangeness rode down the escalator at Individual 1 Tower alongside his third wife, the nude model from Slovenia.  Are we finally reaching the point where America has had enough of this train wreck?  Perhaps.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 62% of respondents believe that Trump is not telling the truth about Russian interference in the 2016 elections.  Additionally, they also want congressional Dems to take control to correct the course our country is taking.  Only 10% believe Trump got the message in the 2018 election, and 56% believe the US is on the wrong track.

We’re finally seeing cracks in Trump’s big beautiful wall of bullshit.  While his base remains sycophantic, normal people are turning against him.  This presidency will end badly, and insiders acknowledge that, besides all of Trump’s bloviating and bluster, he now fears impeachment.

Good.

Ooo.  Pop some popcorn and chill the beer.  Trump is apoplectic and turns on Kushner, Stone tries to get Trump to trump up (no pun intended) a BS federal investigation of the Uranium One deal.  Beginning of the end?