I thought the opening segments were intriguing

Recounting the history of how senior republican senator Howard Baker came to take the Watergate hearings seriously. Showed a clip from his 2005 interview.

Then, she proceeded to review documents received via FOIA requests by American Oversight that show a range of republican congressmen requesting from the OMB answers about compliance of payments to Ukraine and support for the security assistance. Letters sent from republicans include: Sen Portman, Sen Inhofe, Sen. Ron Johnson, rep thornberry, rep paul cook, and rep mccaul.

https://www.americanoversight.org/omb-releases-ukraine-documents-to-american-oversight



Also, she highlighted a CBS news article from Sept 12:

Updated: (not) LIVE NOW: House Managers are holding a press conference

At 4:55 CT the link to the press conference works!

https://www.c-span.org/video/?468671-1/house-impeachment-managers-news-conference


_____
Schiff is speaking.

I have not found a CSPAN link, yet. Am watching on MSNBC.*


Just prior to this press conference, Schumer spoke to reporters on the way out of the Senate:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4850188/senate-democratic-leader-schumer-demands-bolton-testimony

___

*Eta: The link to the House Manager's presser for the CSPAN video clip. Seems there’s some technical difficulty, but will likely point here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?468671-1/house-impeachment-managers-news-conference&live

But kavanaugh?! Is their cover for their dereliction of duty?

No, no, no, no. This is BUT BOLTON - the republican warhawk.

Their feigning alarm is gross. They are using Democrats to excuse their irresponsibility whilst reminding their base that through the selection of kavanaugh they are the party of increased abortion rates and subjugation of women. What is a little slide towards dictatorship when they can whistle to the base of their base that they have little regard for the females of the human race? Gah. Bleh.

...
Abortion rates go down where made legal and safe, in addition to contraception:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/abortion-rates-go-down-when-countries-make-it-legal-report-n858476

https://time.com/4327211/abortion-rates-developing-developed-countries/

Thank you, TheFerret!

Been needing to read one of your pieces. Helps me somehow loosen up in the face of it all - kinda like a good roller coaster ride. Is good stuff.

Once presidents across this nation start leveraging congressional funds

against foreign governments for political gain then common law may resolve to federal statutes.

Til then, the Senate can start with our one pResident and say that the pResident can’t misuse military aid to help his reelection prospects, and can further say his actions functionally arise to a form of attempted bribery (aka the abuses of power) only achievable at the presidential level. There is no referring to the statutes, because they don’t apply presidentially.

And no, dersh, I’m not going through the looking glass with you and I’m not smoking what you’re pushing. I disagree that the only way to save our democratic ways is to turn the country into a de facto dictatorship. So, iow, he can just EAT ME.

Cool.

Thanks for bringing that in. Am sharing it around.

Journaling the House Intel’s realtime debunking of the WH ‘defense’.

Eta: Link to the House Managers press conference after the ‘defense’ team’s appearance. Is another great round of debunking: https://www.c-span.org/video/?468583-1/house-impeachment-managers-hold-news-conference&live

******* Senate Impeachment Live Thread 2 - 1/25 *******

******* Impeachment Live Thread 1 - 1/25 *******

Rachel is about to play the tRump Yovanovitch tape. Right Now!

Parnas’s attorney has been on discussing how they’ve turned the tape over to the House.

Is less of a trial and more of a triathlon of injustice

*If* mcconnell gets his way, the trial will be grueling and rushed:

At 1:00pm on Wednesday 1/22 the senate will commence hearing dispositions and votes to arrive at the voting on the resolution for the rules of the trial.

After which he thinks the following constitutes an impeachment trial:

1. The 24 hour sprint: each side to layout their case for a total of 24 hours over two session days. That’s two twelve hour days starting at 1:00 pm ET on Wednesday 1/22. This means each day will adjourn in the middle of the night.

2. The 16 hour essay writing: time to write up questions for the final round or to submit into the ether for historians to wring out muzzled statesmanship.

3. The 2x4 hours of jabbing: each side gets 4 hours to deliberate at the other

Once this brown acid test of a trial peaks in all its awfulness, mcconnell expects Senators to beg for it to end, and move to foreclose calling for witnesses. He wants tRump to be able to claim exoneration at the State of the Union on Feb. 4.

Is cruel and unusual punishment for Senators with the temerity to be in office during the tRump pResidency. Is unreasonable and a disgrace to this country. It will be a painful display to witness IF he gets his way.

Oh, and he’s not allowing the House’s record to be automatically submitted into the proceedings. Gonna have to have a vote on that, because mcconnell is a terrible person.

These are my rapid takeaways. Please comment if I got something wrong. Am gonna have to clear my schedule for the week.


(Edited to correct the date/timing and emphasize that this is Moscow Mitch’s conception of how this should go. See onenote’s very helpful corrections below.)