snafu

I'd use the three Saturday hours to revv up the Sunday talk shows. There are so many ways to go with this defense it makes it hard to choose a straight path.

Yep, I keep hearing that the President's team won't use their full allotted time, but they sure can if they want to -- and they won't need to repeat themselves, like the House Managers did for two and a half days. There's so much meat on that bone. I really wonder how much they want to belly up and let rip. They never had the full open opportunity to summarize what happened during 2016 and beyond. This 24 hour rebuttal comes at a ripe time. After Mueller fizzled, after Horowitz, after FISA nullifying the Page warrants, with Flynn on the offensive. Oh, and the fact that all of the Democrats' impeachment case is based upon hearsay and opinion -- and is a political game to influence 2020. I always think that the less said, the better. But you don't want to leave money on the table.

I hope you're not asking about the 19 hours part. Sekulow was blasting Schiff about Trump "soliciting a foreign power" to assist him in his election. He (forcefully) reminded everyone that Chris Steele is a foreigner, and that Steele used Russians for his dossier, and that Clinton used the dossier for her election purposes. He also mentioned how the FBI used the dossier to investigate Trump, etc., etc., etc.

Yes, I know. They have spent 19 hours gaslighting on Article 1. Sekulow is on fire right now. Holy Moses. He's intemperate right now. If he uses that tone in Session the admonishments are going to come from Roberts.

Still yammering on about first Article? Are they going to completely ignore the second Article?

Holy crap! Was this a drone strike? What happened?

The President did have a choice. At least one process is called impoundment. I'm not sure if that was invoked in this case. There have been cases in the past where Trump held up aid to get a further explanation for it, or to place conditions on it. If I remember right, the Senate was getting ready to sue him to release the aid. In any event, there are legit reasons and mechanisms to hold up aid. But according to the Rep. from Colorado, the only reason why the aid was released was because the President "got caught".

How many "points" are there? Seems to me — and I'm listening to precious little of the proceedings — that the Democrats have been repeating themselves quite a bit. You can respond on every point in MUCH less time the Democrats have consumed laying out their case, and I think it's better to be confident and pithy, not to pad and elongate. It makes me think of all the exams I have graded in my life. I usually had a page limit, but students who wrote to the page limit usually seemed to have less to say and to be trying to cover that up by making it LOOK like they had material. I was MUCH happier to see something shorter, where every sentence had strong material and there was no repetition. Less is more. . At a very minimum, they should prepare a mash-up of every Dem Congressperson who voted for impeachment telling us that there's overwhelming evidence and that the evidence is undisputed.

Honestly, this is feeling more and more like Schiff and "Angry" Nadler just giving the middle finger to the Senate because they know the Senate isn't going to convict. Plus, I think they don't want the WH defense to start on a weekday.

Oh geez, here we go again. Schiff and the Managers on Loop. How many clips of Fiona Hill will we see today ? This is like the old Flintstones cartoons where Fred is running forever and the same trees and rocks keep looping by in the background.

Optics. "The optics of it" "The optics aren't good."

That idiot just showed a chart of Biden vs. Trump poll numbers. It showed that Biden's "lead" WIDENED between August through November. Worst election influencer EVER!!! IMPEACH!!!

Day three.

He's very well spoken for a deranged lunatic.

Bad idea, bigly.

??

^^^^^^ Big loud farting sound.^^^^^^^

I believe this is a smear job and nothing more. I believe that the Democrats in the House are doing exactly the thing that they want to remove Trump over. They are using their own high office for purely political gain. This whole dog an pony show is a hypocritical abuse of power in and of itself. I believe that since the House drafted the Articles then the House should read their own charges and stick to what they alleged. I don't mind evidence if it is limited to the charges they passed. But they should have done that "gather evidence" thing when they had the chance. Therefore, I believe they screwed up. But why do we need more evidence? I was told by no fewer than 230 members of Congress that the facts are (1) not in dispute, and (2) overwhelmingly in support of impeachment. It's B.S. Stop pretending otherwise.

While Val Demings was speaking about an Oval Office Meeting, I was reading the first Article of Impeachment. The abuse of office alleged in the First Article of Impeachment ONLY references withholding Ukrainian aid. It doesn't mention anything at all about an Oval Office visit. Such a B.S. waste of time. Don't these people know that just because they have 24 hours to speak, they don't need to use 24 hours to speak? They're just going round and round and repeating the same allegations over and over.

Holy crap, Schiff just quoted George Washington about how over reliance party politics can ruin our democracy.

Just imagine how Trump will behave AFTER he gets acquitted. Seriously, good luck keeping your head from exploding. Maybe you should strap on a bucket to contain the inevitable mess of scalp, hair and brains.

Oh hell, this is nothing. I do that all the time before I sit down on the subway.

Isn't NOW the time that Schiff reveals his evidence that Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election? NOW would be the perfect time for the big reveal. He said he's got it. He repeated that he's seen it.