It was a good day for staying inside today - cold (40s) and rainy, hardly fit for stepping outside at all, a perfect day for staying on the sofa. The Retired Old Man did just that today and watched all six interrupted hours of the impeachment hearings, this time the testimony of former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
The ROM watched all six hours of Wednesday's hearings too, but was so exhausted afterwards that he didn't want to talk much about it. He has nothing much to say today either, certainly nothing more to add than is already being said all over the media elsewhere, but it was such a dramatic day that he wants to go over it and record it for posterity here in this web log.
The hearings were barely underway when Ms. Yovanovitch testified that she had felt personally threatened, both physically and professionally, by the President's statements and tweets that she was "bad news" and would "go through some things." A mere few minutes later, it was learned that the so-called President responded by tweeting even more negative comments on her, bizarrely blaming her for the decline of Somalia (where she had once served in her long and distinguished career). Chairman Adam Schiff rightly pointed out that such comments constituted intimidation of a witness (a crime and certainly an impeachable offense in its own right). That pretty much shut Trump up for the day - bullies usually back off when confronted by someone stronger.
During a break in the proceedings, it was announced that Trump's long-time ally and mentor, Roger Stone, was found guilty in his trial for obstruction of justice and lying to Congress. Stone, Nixon's former "dirty trickster," who has a large portrait of Nixon tattooed on his back, at least fulfilled one of progressive America's wishes - finally, Nixon will face some jail time.
In cross-examination, the Republicans kept pretending the hearings were about something, anything, other than Trump's actions with regard to Ukraine. "Have you ever met Hunter Biden?," they'd ask, or "Did you ever investigate Burisma?" (as if criminal investigations were a part of an ambassador's job description).
The ROM believes that Trump should have been impeached on the day he took the oath of office. He rents a former Post Office building from the U.S. Government and operates it as Trump Hotel, Washington. Since he's now the head of the government from which he leases the property, that's a clear conflict of interest. That he encourages foreign governments to stay there while in D.C. and receives an economic benefit from their visit, he receives something of value, in this case cash money, from foreign nations. That's a clear violation of the emoluments clause and an impeachable offense right there, and it's gone on unpunished for some three years now.
The Mueller report lays out clear evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice, but Congress lost the political will to pursue that matter further after less-than-exciting testimony by Mueller. Trump University and the Trump Foundation have both been exposed in courts as basically criminal sham operations. Campaign funds were misappropriated to pay off porn stars after sexual escapades. The list goes on and on, and you should know all this and more if you pay any attention to news other than what's offered on the Fox channel.
There are historic times, my friends. Pay attention - no matter what happens next, people will be talking about these times for years to come.
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