Happy Impeachment! Next step is removal. (Trump thread 98)

[TheClaws]

In the last thread, Trump was impeached by Congress. Now the question is when the articles will be sent to the Senate for Trial, as - at this stage - there is no guarantee from Mitch McConnell of a fair trial. Trump clings to his belief that his call to Zelensky was “perfect”.

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3732056-Trump-and-the-Giant-Impeachment-Trump-thread-97

I made it until 9pm PST (midnight Eastern) before I just fell asleep.

Back watching today, but more for the 'history' of the thing rather than because of any sense of hope.

"A journey that must be taken", indeed.

Dh refuses to watch. He says he can just feel his blood pressure rising at the duplicity of the GOP.

So, he's gone out target shooting. lol

Is there a reason they start the day’s proceedings so late if they then have to stay there until 2am? No decisions made at 2am when everybody is knackered are going to be sensible. Why not start at 9 or 10am and finish those few hours earlier?

Yes, Emmelina. It's because Chief Justice Roberts must still do his duties at the Supreme Court. He's not 'available' for the trial until 1pm.

Under the normal course of things, a 'trial day' would be from 1pm to probably 6-8pm and would last for weeks.

But Midnight Moscow Mitch wants to 1-get this over with and 2-get whatever revelations he can 'hidden from view' in the late hours. Instead we're looking at 12 hour days (longer with interruptions and breaks) over (probably) 1 week. It's criminal. It really is.

Schiff has now been speaking for close to 2 1/2 hours straight.

It's actually quite distressing to watch the destruction of a democracy and overturning of principles of governance and justice played out in this way.

I can see your DH has a point Across.

I'm not sure if it's a distillation of the past few years of Trumpism or the peak ... An optimistic view would say it's the last hurrah.

I'm hopeful that those people who haven't noted every line crossed and norm broken will realise (even from watching endless crime and police dramas), that witnesses and evidence are pretty essential to the justice process and will be somewhat .

The people who voted for him as a ‘protest’ will be watching with their jaws on the floor.

I just hope they've learnt their lesson Lordfrontpaw. And those who didn't vote at because Bernie didn't get the nomination.

Voting is a precious right. And it must be exercised to remain strong.

Trump says that traumatic brain injuries suffered by troops are just a headache and no big deal
m.youtube.com/watch?v=apTQY5zu_O4
😳😲😳

rhino FFS! (not you, him)

I saw that Rhino. Disgusting! But not surprising.

This throwaway comment could turn back on Trump as it implies he has all the evidence locked away - as we suspect - and is openly and brazenly obstructing Congress.

Rep. Val Demings @RepValDemings 7hrs

The second article of impeachment was for obstruction of Congress: covering up witnesses and documents from the American people.

This morning the President not only confessed to it, he bragged about it:

"Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material."

twitter.com/repvaldemings/status/1220017702011535364?s=21

Another day done. I really have so much admiration for eloquence (and the stamina) of the House Managers. I hope their words are as convincing to some of the GOP Senators as they are to me. Not that I needed to be convinced.

Roberts however ...

www.rawstory.com/2020/01/wheres-justice-roberts-internet-explodes-after-gop-senator-flouts-trial-rules-to-give-interview-to-fox-news-while-in-session/

The comment just won’t make a dent - it’s not the worst he’s said is it?

I must admit I thought the first rule for any POTUS was "dont diss the veterans". Still rules are for little people...

He dodged the draft - isn’t that a huge insult to veterans?

I've got DH keeping me updated on proceedings as I'm supposed to be busy with work. He's very impressed with Schiff's presentation but doubts the Repugs are even listening.

Surely no leader can afford to piss off the military, he needs them to be loyal to him and trivialising traumatic brain injury which has been incurred whilst in-service to him.... is that really a way to inspire loyalty?
Maybe he is just clumsily trying to make the point that if he can do his job with compromised cognitive capacity so can they?
Perhaps he is trying to say that they are so tough that traumatic brain injury is water off a duck's back, but he just doesn't have the intelligence or the the linguistic dexterity to express himself?
Of course we have to then ignore the preposterous of having this intellectually inferior person in such a position of power.

He also said that noone was hurt in the Iranian missile strike (just the 11 who were later admitted to have been injured - just a scratch I’m sure).

So true.

"trivialising traumatic brain injury which has been incurred whilst in-service to him"

They were really in service to the United States of America, not to just Potus, whatever Trump may think.

"I, ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

(Trump is a domestic enemy of the Constitution of the United States, but let that pass...)

They have to obey his orders, but it is not the same thing as being in service to him.

After another year please God or five if the worst happens, this Potus will be gone, and unless he is really successful in his efforts to destroy it, the Constitution of the United States will still be there.

I was quite sad when Obama couldn’t run again. Now I’m very happy you can’t do more than 2 terms. Because (god help me for saying this) I fear he may win again (mostly because the competition is woeful and the electorate is bonkers).

Wait and see.

There was a very interesting segment after last night's session on MSNBC (Rachel hosting) regarding whether or not the senators are even paying attention. Seems to be a range from rapt attention to every word to (WTF??) sleeping.

Schumer seemed to indicate that the senators (GOP included) were spellbound by Schiff's words. He didn't address the whole day, just Schiff's words. Schumer mentioned that at this point it's about getting 4 GOP to cross the aisle in the matter of calling witnesses. They only need a simple majority on that issue. I guess he's hoping that Schiff will be able to convince 4 of his fellow legislators.

Warren indicated that during the (long) session there were senators walking around at times, even talking to each other. I guess that's not unusual behaviour in the day to day business of the Senate, but you'd hope they'd be taking the potential removal of a president more seriously. Speaks to me of minds already made up. Who cares what anyone's saying if I already know what I'm going to do, right?

Todays's session starts in a bit. It's almost 10 here now, 1 on the East Coast.