Great State of .... Kansas?

Super Bowling: The impeachment trial is almost over and the 2020 Super Bowl game is behind us but Trump and his increasingly hateful rhetoric remain so it should come as no surprise that Trump peppered the traditional presidential super bowl interview with a mix of lies and insults:  he called out Sleepy Joe Biden for having a hard time;  he renamed Elizabeth Warren “Fairy Tale” for her “lying” ways, kind of like the pot calling the kettle black; falsely claimed that “Communist” Bernie had gotten married in Moscow, even interviewer Sean Hannity called that one out as untrue;  and went after “Mini” Mike Bloomberg, whose personally funded ads, huge wealth and appeal to moderate Republicans must be concerning him bigly.  As a side note, the DNC has changed the debate rules, the new ones focus on poll performance rather than the number of campaign contributors so Mayor Mike might actually show up in one or more of the upcoming Democratic debates and that seems to be bothering Trump who, while insisting that Mini Mike will need a milk carton to even show up on stage, asserts that the rule change is part of the DNC’s efforts to reduce the odds that Bernie, who he’d rather run against, gets the nomination.  As to the Stable Genius, after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Trump tweeted out “Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure. You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU.” Secretary of State Pompeo is misdirecting he efforts, instead of quizzing NPR reporters on world geography he should buy Trump one of those pre-school US puzzle maps. 

Impeach No More:  Getting back to the impeachment trial, the one without witnesses or documentation, although the outcome is inevitable, despite the White House’s efforts to ram the final vote through late Friday, it’s not over yet.  Each one of the Senators will be given a chance to give a speechlet explaining his or her decision before the final vote is held on Wednesday. Although none of the Republicans seem interested in learning anything new, a few really damning nuggets were dropped on Friday when we learned via another leaked segment from John Bolton’s upcoming book that White House Counsel/Trump impeachment lawyer Pat Cipollone participated in at least one of the conversations where Trump called for the hold up of Ukraine aid in exchange for an investigation into the Bidens.  That’s a problem for Cipollone who may actually suffer some consequences for that significant ethical violation but not for Teflon Don who seems to always emerge unscathed.  Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani’s sidekick who Trump claims he doesn’t know despite all their pictures together, sent Mitch McConnell a letter offering up information that his lawyer says is "directly relevant to the impeachment inquiry," specifically regarding Parnas's relationship with Trump and Giuliani as well as his "actions in Ukraine on behalf of the President, as directed by Mr. Giuliani," but no matter.  And then there’s that trove of White House emails documenting Trump’s direct involvement in the Ukraine mess that we’re not going to see.  Late Friday, in response to a court order related to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Center For Public Integrity, the Justice Department admitted that there are dozens that would be relevant, but that they have no interest in sharing any unredacted versions of them, for obvious reasons. Even if they did share them, they wouldn’t impact the outcome of the vote because as Lamar Alexander says, its obvious that Trump did all the bad things that he’s alleged to have done, it’s just that none of those things justify his removal because of all those new unqualified super young conservative judges, tax cuts and any way the election is coming up shortly.  No doubt some other Senators will go the Lisa Murkowski route, saying that the whole impeachment thing is just too polarizing to touch, code words for “my head would go on a pike if I voted with the Democrats besides maybe now I won’t be primaried from the right the next time I run.”  Personally, my not so favorite comments come from Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican up for reelection this fall, she’s now promising that if Joe Biden wins, she’ll vote to impeach him for his Ukraine crimes, the ones he didn’t commit.  Besides that being truly Trumpian, it also displays a total ignorance of process as impeachments begin in the House not the Senate.  Not to be out done, Lindsey Graham, also up for reelection this cycle, promises that he’s going to call one or more of the Biden’s and the Whistleblower in to testify in front of the Senate.  He’s been saying that for a while so who knows if he means it.  As to John Bolton, his book will be out right after Valentine’s Day.  

Iowa:  Today is caucus day in Iowa.  The Democratic race is either too close to call or Bernie Sanders is way out in front.  No one knows for sure in part because it may really be in a statistical tie and in part because the respected and influential Des Moines Register decided not to announce the results of their final poll after learning that at least one of their pollsters forgot to include Pete Buttigieg on the list of possible candidates on a phone call made to a discerning voter who just happened to be a Pete Buttigieg supporter.  While the Senators running for president were on jury duty in Washington last week, their surrogates were out in force in Iowa where some like Elizabeth Warren’s golden retriever Bailey, did a better job than others.  The lovable puppy is a charmer, Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the Bernie surrogate who led a cheer booing Hillary Clinton, not so much. She’s since walked back that jeer, but it’s kind of hard to unhear and anyway it was totally in character for a Berniac.  A large majority of Democratic voters say that they will line up behind the candidate whoever he or she might be with Warrens’s voters being the most willing to support anyone Blue, but only half of Bernie’s or Andrew Yang’s supporters saying that they will do so.  2016 Déjà vu?      

Et Cetera:  The Coronavirus pandemic remains a growing health concern, more morbidity,  travel restrictions and economic consequences.  Is now a good time to point out that Trump cut the CDC’s budget because who needs disease control anyway?  Brexit happened over the weekend.  My reporter/reader on the ground in the UK says it’s too early to report on how it’s going because of the one year transition period but that there’s a “kind of relief that it’s over” after three years of it dominating the news.   The same can probably be said about Megxit, a topic that I plan to never mention again.