1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Senate Trial today
 
What is expected to be the final day of President Trump’s second impeachment trial will begin at 10 am et today. We anticipate a final vote on the guilt or innocence of the former President as early as midday.

(THREAD) Independent journalists have already created a comprehensive list of impeachment trial witnesses who can *confirm* Team Trump helped plan the insurrection. Those witnesses can now be called. This thread lists the proof. Please RETWEET this widely.

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Last month, the @HouseDemocrats impeached Donald John #Trump. When they did so, they adopted a resolution proclaiming that their impeachment was done in the name of the #HouseofRepresentatives and in the name of, and for, the United States of America.

That formula, explaining that the House impeached someone and did so in the name of the House and in the name of the United States, is common. Yet the assertion is troubling.

Half or more of the country disapproves of the House’s impeachment, and of the Senate’s trial.

But politicians will still claim they are doing it for us.

They aren’t.

And it is particularly urgent that we repudiate the idea that the House’s 2021 #impeachment of #DonaldTrump was in our name.

Why?

Because the @HouseDemocrats and their #HouseManagers have crossed a clearly drawn line that risks the impression that we, the People of the United States, approve of the #prosecutors in a #courtofimpeachment using #falsified #evidence to #inflame #passions and to convict.

Can there be a clearer component of the constitutional right to #DueProcessofLaw than that a conviction obtained on the strength of falsified evidence is no conviction at all. Falsifying evidence is a a crime.

🇺🇸It's on. Day 3. The Trial of Donald Trump 2.0 continues at 12:04 p.m. on February 11, 2021

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Rep. Raskin invited Colorado Congresswoman @RepDianaDeGette to talk about how the mob believed they were following President Trump's orders.

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DeGette begins with her own experience under attack. Here's what she saw when she left the chambers. She looked at the mob and thought "Who sent them here?"

Her response. Donald Trump sent them there.

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"The president told the to be there, so they thought there would be no punishment."

She disputes that the intruders acted for their own reason. Wrong, they said they came there because the president instructed them to do so.

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The insurrectionists came at his invitation. And when there the crowd followed his words that he spoke at the rally and chanted them as they breached the building.

Trump led the crowd in a "Stop the Steal" chant. @RepDianaDeGette showed a video from the crowd

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When you boil Trump (& the consequent Trumpism) down to its essentials at root it is Lying.
Trump has made a life of being a liar.
It is "Trump Rule#1" expressed years ago "Trump is a liar. He does not simply tell lies, he IS a liar. Thus what he does is quintessentially a lie".

Now we are embroiled in an impeachment trial, the consequence of the ultimate Donald Trump lie.
That he won the election.

This is so fundamental a lie, that when pressed, as Trump has done, & married to a demagoguery, as he had utilized to enflame his believers, you get

what we got. A mob. Playing at an insurrection.

All because of a Lie. Propounded by a liar.

Here then is the first brick in the edifice that is the newly submerged & subjugated Republican Party:

Renounce the Founding Lie.

If they will not, then nothing else matters.

The impeachment trial itself is become a farce, not for the lack of an impenetrable prosecution case.
But by the dint and opportunity allowed the structure of the impeachment process, to avoid all and any facts by the simple tactic of embracing, and advancing, a lie.

The Republicans as a Party have subordinated themselves to a Lie.
The Republicans as a Party have accepted as their functional premise for governance and leadership a Liar.

Until these cornerstones of what unifies the Republicans, devoted to their party, and not the country,

The Thursday installment of Trump's #ImpeachmentTrial begins with a Baked Alaska clip

Rep. Diana DeGette is using quotes like this to try and establish that rioters were taking orders from Trump

"We were invited here! ... We were invited by the president of the United States"

I would like to see Democrats produce even one shred of evidence or just one example of President Donald Trump calling for violence. Just one. That's all.

Meanwhile, they can enjoy their own words calling for violence repeated back to them ...

“There will be blood in the streets” — USAG Loretta Lynch (D)

“Show me where it says that protests must be polite and peaceful.” — CNN's Chris Cuomo

“There needs to be unrest in the streets” — US Rep Ayanna Pressley (D)

“Protesters should not let up” — Sen. Kamala Harris (D)

“I just don't know why there aren't uprisings all over this country. Maybe there should be.” — US House Spkr Nancy Pelosi (D)

“You get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere!” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“I will go and take Trump out tonight.” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“When they go low, we kick 'em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” — USAG Eric Holder (D)

“How do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?” — MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on WH Press Sec. Sarah Sanders

“I'd like to punch him in the face.” — Robert De Niro on President Trump

The media issue a scathing, well-documented look at how much money US Catholic dioceses raked in under Trump's pandemic relief initiative, and watch the response in Catholic circles, Catholic media, among many Catholic laity. /1

It's a variant of the VERY SAME response used repeatedly by Catholic leaders to exonerate top-level responsibility for priests abusing minors and going unpunished.

The typical gambit now being used to justify the lavish feeding at the Trump trough: /2

Well, maybe dioceses were grabby and did not need all that money — look at the assets they're sitting on already — but poor, struggling parishes needed that money.

As if a parish is somehow disconnected from a diocese …. As if a parish is not integrally tied to a diocese. /3

As I say, this is a variant of the argument often advanced by Catholic leaders to justify doing nothing when a priest is known to be abusing minors: Well, he's only a hired employee on a contract. What does he have to do with us, with the bishop, with the chancellor? /4

The whole Catholic governing system is set up in a way that totally integrates parishes with dioceses. No parish and no parish priest can possibly function with independence from diocesan structures. Let a parish/parish priest try that, and see how quick the reprisal is. /5

Trumps Amtsenthebung II: Auch dieses Mal wird der abgewählte Präsident nicht seines Amtes enthoben, so wie genau vor einem Jahr. Und zwar schon heute. Aber was ist da heute passiert?

1) Offene Fragen: Immer mehr Details zur Kommunikation zwischen Trump & im Kapitol befindlichen

RepublikanerInnen während des Kapitol-Sturms werden bekannt. So soll Trump in einem Telefonat mit engen Verbündeten die Bitte aktiv verneint haben, den Mob über Social Media zurückzupfeifen - "die Leute sind offenbar wütender als ihr über das, was da passiert ist", soll er laut

einer Republikanerin gesagt worden, der vom Anruf erzählt wurde. Und in den heutigen späten Nachmittagsstunden sind Gerüchte über weitere Kommunikation zwischen Trump und im Kapitol befindlichen RepublikanerInnen laut geworden. Das alles genau nachzuforschen, war auch der Plan

der demokratischen AnklägerInnen aus dem RepräsentantInnenhaus, die dafür für viele überraschend eine kurzfristige Abstimmung anberaumten und die ebenso überraschend deutlich mit 55:45 gewannen.

2) Der Deal: Dann muss es zwischen demokratischer und republikanischer Führung des

Senats zu einem Deal gekommen sein, der viele Trump-GegnerInnen erzürnt: Anstatt ZeugInnen vorzuladen und damit den Prozess gegen Trump zu intensivieren und zu verlängern, wurde vereinbart, die mediale Aussage der Republikanerin über das Telefonat einfach zu Protokoll zu nehmen

☀️ This morning’s newsy @PunchbowlNews AM

"Trump's role in the riot"

Here’s a challenge: Make the argument that Donald Trump had nothing to do with the riot at the Capitol after the first few days of the impeachment trial.

It’s damn tough.
The Democratic impeachment managers did something Wednesday that desperately needed to be done: They laid out in a thorough, comprehensive and digestible manner what Trump said and did in the months and days leading up to the bloody Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

They covered all aspects of Trump’s shocking behavior -- his provocative tweets, TV interviews and speeches claiming the election was being stolen; his months-long campaign to undermine the American public’s faith in the election results;

his efforts, both public and private, to overturn those results once it was clear he lost, especially his attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence;

his repeated appeals to his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6, the same day Congress was set to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory;

This defense of Trump is like the upside down world.

Good lawyers refrain from absurd statements, understanding this undermines one’s credibility. This person is refraining from any non-absurd statements.

Phew. I was worried we’d go 10 minutes before hearing #BothSides.

How this guy thinks the protestors last summer are anything like the President of the US inciting an insurrection against a coordinate branch of govt on a sacred day of their performing their most impt duties is beyond me.

This guy says "you can't incite what was already going to happen." What kind of defense is that? For 1 thing, House saying Trump gave instructions to make it happen. For another,if Trump thought it was inevitable, why didn’t he have Natl Guard in advance ready to stop it on 1/6?

Oh huh. Trump's defense isn't going to address the impeachment case (and seems to ignore his demands of Mike Pence again).

Michael Van der Veen pretending that 61 losses is normal.

And, again, note that he didn't address Trump's unconstitutional request of Mike Pence.

Van der Veen lies about who asked for recounts in 2016.

And lies about Hillary's claims about Russia.

Trump's video is made in the style of propaganda, taken out of context.

Van der Veen now trying to make much of tweets Trump didn't send until hours too late.