Caucus Clown Car at Senate Impeachment Trial
Senate impeachment trial hostages Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar face a dilemma. Closing arguments are tomorrow, but so are the Iowa Caucuses. And the final vote on whether to toss Trump is Wednesday.
More Caucus Chaos
And the Des Moines Register further complicated things by canceling the release of its “gold standard” poll Saturday night. Somebody left Pete Buttigieg out as a possible preferred candidate.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the president delivers his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
And, since the Senate voted 51-49 to block more impeachment trial witness testimony on Friday, Republicans now say they have the votes to acquit on Wednesday.
Chinese Virus Emergency
The World Health Organization wants to ban Chinese virus exports. So this week it officially designated the coronavirus outbreak a public-health emergency.
But also this week, Boris Johnson gave the official o.k. for the U.K. to import Huawei G5 networking technology.
And that doesn’t sit well with Boris’s best buddy Donald Trump. Last May Trump issued his own national emergency, essentially banning Huawei in America.
Another Chinese Virus?
Secretary of State Pompeo believes China spies through Huawei networks. He’s in London to welcome Brexit but “warned that the Chinese Communist party did not have “a technical back door to Huawei. They have the front door.”
Ballot Box Can’t be Trusted, Says Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff made the case against democracy at the Senate impeachment trial last week.
A rigged election? In that case we have to impeach Trump before he wins again.
It takes a Village
Reminded me of the Vietnam quote, “It became necessary to destroy the village to save it.“
Jeff Bezos iPhone Hack by Saudi Prince Mystery
The WSJ (paywall) reports that an outfit named FTI Consulting thinks Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hacked Jeff Bezos iPhone. The firm has “medium to high confidense” that the prince did the deed through a WhatsApp account.
Saudi officials call the allegation absurd.
Peacenik Gun Law March in Virginia
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is defending the state senate’s Red Flag gun law. He was last seen defending late term abortions and apologizing for wearing blackface.
But many Virginians seem to think Northam has his ban impulse backwards. And about 20,000 of them marched in protest of the gun law.
That set off a minor media hysteria about white supremacist gun violence. But the armed marchers behaved and even cleaned up their trash.
Which didn’t stop the senate from passing the bill anyway.
