Firstly, the crook was acquitted, as expected. Not exonerated by any means. "Acquittal" means dismissal of charges. It does not mean innocence. Despite many in the GOP agreeing that he was guilty as charged, a roomful of poltroons acquitted him anyway. These cowards not only acquitted him, they put the stamp of approval on his behavior.
My last post, written after the vote to deny witnesses and documents into the trial, said most of what I wanted to say, as acquittal was all but certain after all was said and done.
Patriot Adam Schiff gave a powerful final argument. He conducted the whole trial with elegance and energy. His name will be remembered by history. Here is the full 25-minute final argument. I've started the video below at the last few minutes, which I thought was especially moving.
"Truth matters to you. You are decent. He is not. He is not who you are."
Fifty-two Republicans voted to acquit on all charges, many more than the supermajority needed to convict. But there was one true patriot among them, one who bravely stepped forward to convict IMPOTUS on article one, abuse of power. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the only GOP senator brave enough to follow his truth. History will remember his name, too.
Much, much respect to Mitt Romney, who gave a powerful explanation for his decision:
We know that many more of them privately felt the same truth as Romney. But as Sen. Sherrod Brown writes, they ran scared. Nancy Pelosi wrote a scathing op/ed in the Washington Post calling the Republican senators to the carpet.
Private feelings do not count. They failed in their duty to the nation.
Some publicly stated that they felt he was guilty. But this proclamation only cements their label of coward. Incomprehensibly, more than one Senator tsk-tsked about what a shame it was that he did what he did, but they hoped and expected that DJT, as Sen. Susan Collins said, "learned his lesson." WTF? Has she not been paying attention to anything for the last three years? What about him makes her think this man is capable of learning or of contrition? He is a psychopath. This man does not learn lessons. He does not have a sense of right and wrong or shame.
Indeed, on Thursday after the State of the Union speech (which I didn't watch -- I went to happy hour with friends instead!), he did a victory lap. Well, two laps.
He displayed his usual outrageous, disgusting self. But we must not normalize his usual outrageous disgusting self. So let's face it.
SCROTUS spoke at the National Prayer breakfast (which, by the way, is a topic in the fascinating and frightening Netflix documentary, "The Family"), where he was again unhinged and unchristian-like. Later he blabbered for over an hour at the Whitewash House while his synchophants licked his boots.
Here is an ABC News story, and below are the Mango Mussolini's full remarks at both events, for history's sake. Don't watch them. I don't want anyone to get sick on account of me.
Don't turn completely away. Small doses are enough:
National Prayer Breakfast speech, not only unchristian-like, but authoritarian to the core:
Remarks from the East Room:
And the week didn't end with that. On Friday, he summarily fired two patriots who bravely stepped forward, defying his order not to cooperate, and went before Congress and told the truth. Lt. Col. Alex Vindman and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland were shown to the door. Literally. Vindman was escorted from the Whitewash House, as was his twin brother Yevgeny, an unfortunate victim of collateral damage.
Despicable. It's what dictators do.
Vindman is a singular patriot. He has given so much to this country for so long. He is a hero, plain and simple. I wrote about this Purple Heart recipient after his impeachment testimony. We owe him a debt of gratitude.
Gordon Sondland, though a big part of the cluster that was the Ukraine scheme, turned his back on his patron status and stood up to give powerful testimony. He, too, was shown the door.
Ironically, some Repug senators tried to talk 45 out of firing Sondland. Hey, senators! You could have stopped him from doing bad things a few days ago by voting to convict. He won't stop. HE. WON'T. STOP.
Marie Yavonovitch, former Ambassador to Ukraine, and another American patriot, offered these words of hope in her essay in the Washington Post: "We will endure, we will persist and we will prevail." She notes, "Every citizen doesn’t need to do everything, but each one of us can do one thing." Thank you, Ms. Yavonovich. It's my mission to do the one thing I can do.
Thankfully, the State of the Union address was before the acquittal, and he managed to keep impeachment out of his speech. As is his usual, he was able to read the words put before him decently, and as usual they were full of lies.
A couple tidbits from the STFU speech.
I won't go through the many and myriad untruths throughout the speech (I'll leave that for the fact-checkers), but here are just a couple.
He sprung a surprise scholarship for "a school of her choice" to Janiyah Davis, a little girl who he claimed was attending "a failing government school" ("government school" – who came up with that gross term? So demeaning!). The thing is, this 4th-grader was already attending an elite charter school (a government school, by the way), one that she wouldn't dream of leaving.
Her mother wasn't told ahead of time the role they would play in SCROTUS's spectacle and it was obvious that Jeniyah and her mom were confused when they were asked to stand and the "scholarship" was announced.
It turns out that what was to be gifted to the girl was not really an official scholarship from Philadelphia's scholarship programs. No. Betsy DeVos was to pay for the child's education personally. But it's moot. Janiyah gets nothing, and she stays in her taxpayer-funded charter school.
It's unclear how the Whitewash House found this child to honor, but one thing is obvious. This family was just another black prop for the Racist-in-Chief.
Another gift during the speech: Rush Limbaugh, darling of the far right, unabashedly racist and misogynistic to his core, was given the freaking Presidential Medal of Honor, right there during the speech. There is no one less deserving of this honor.
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| Steve Sack |
The best part of the evening, though, was Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of the speech at the end. She did it in full view of the cameras, very matter of factly. Love her or hate her, she is a political force to be reckoned with. Me? I love her.
Other news last week:
Monday was the Iowa Cauc-Up. So much went wrong in the much-anticipated first primary event of the 2020 election season. Now, after a week, it is still unclear who won, but Mayor Pete and Bernie are closely in the lead – both are claiming victory – with Liz right behind. Uncle Joe was 4th, which is nearly a death knell for his campaign.
Interesting, exciting race! New Hampshire is next, on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to California being part of Super Tuesday for the first time. We moved our primary from June to March this year. It'll be cool to be part of the conversation for once.
The Tan Lines Scandal. This photo was tweeted. Twitterers mocked; the president* proclaimed "fake news!" But in the end, it seems legit.
I've noticed the line becoming more apparent. In fact, during the prayer breakfast, you can see it. It's not as stark as in this photo, but I noticed. I believe that he does his make up himself. I don't think it's a tanning bed, because his hands are a starkly different shade (see below). I believe that this more-obvious tan line is more evidence of his deterioration. He's losing it.
But please let us put all that behind. Let us champion the patriots. Remember at the beginning of these backwards days, when we wrote postcards galore? I invite you to pick up some postcards and some stamps and please join me in writing a note of thanks to the patriots who have done the right thing.
And then, we gear up for the finalization of the impeachment in November.
Thanks for reading. #Resist!
Lt. Col. Alex Vindman
c/o David Pressman, Attorney
55 Hudson Yards
20th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Gordon Sondland
c/o Robert Luskin, Attorney
875 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Marie Yavonovitch
c/o Lawrence S. Robbins, Attorney
2000 K Street North West
4th Floor
Washington, DC 20006
Sen. Mitt Romney
124 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Rep. Adam Schiff
2269 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Val Demings
217 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Jerry Nadler
2109 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Jason Crow
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Zoe Lofgren
1401 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Hakeem Jefferies
2433 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Sylvia Garcia
1620 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
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