Magically immune to any consequences from kowtowing to Trump

The nasty guy defense team in the impeachment trial had their chance yesterday. Laura Clawason and Mark Sumner of Daily Kos liveblogged about it in two parts. The defense team had a video of every Democrat using the word “fight” to prove that when the nasty guy said it the word was just as harmless. Beyond showing that video and a couple others repeatedly, releasing verbal wanderings that make little sense, and outright lying (Washington Post has a tally), there isn’t a lot to say. Thankfully, they kept it to three hours instead of the allotted sixteen. A third part of the liveblogging was the Q&A. Senators could ask a question of either team. Many of those asked of the prosecution seemed to be gotcha questions. Those asked of the defense were not answered. A few Dem senators asked good questions to allow the prosecution to make more good points. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, surveyed late night commentary:

The impeachment trial of President Trump opened with footage of the January 6th assault on the Capitol, and the room fell so silent you could practically hear Ted Cruz eating his popcorn. —Seth Meyers Usually presidents age because of the stress of the job. Obama went gray. George W shrunk like three inches. It's a hard job if you do it. Not Trump—he looks the same. But, good lord, he put a beatin' on us. We're all older. Even the Statue of Liberty got crow's feet. —Wanda Sykes on Jimmy Kimmel Live

This morning Sumner posted that since the Senate has nothing scheduled for next week they have plenty of time to call witnesses. So no excuses about needing to get back to pandemic relief or approving Biden’s cabinet. On to today’s livestream, starting with the morning session. Surprisingly, the vote to call witnesses is 55-45 in favor! There is discussion on how to go about doing this. By video? How many? Vote on them one-by-one? Midday Moscow Mitch tweeted he would vote for acquittal. So much for the tease he might vote for conviction he dangled in January. That gave several GOP senators more cover to also vote for acquittal. In the afternoon session … Democrats cave. They secured a major victory, then were satisfied with a token witness – reading into the proceedings an already public statement. That’s leaving a lot of people puzzled over this missed opportunity. Andrea Chalupa tweeted:

We need new leadership in the Democratic Party. This makes no sense unless you're easily intimidated or bought off.

A.R. Moxon tweeted (and the all caps shouting is his):

The Democrats in charge of calling these shots didn't ever want to call witnesses, is the clear takeaway. I love to surrender to a terrorist's threats, and if the threat is an empty threat? even better. GIVEN REPUBLICAN COMPLICITY, THE JOB WASN'T TRYING AND CONVICTING THE PRESIDENT, THE JOB WAS TRYING AND CONVICTING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR THEIR COMPLICITY IN HIS CRIMES AND MAKING THEIR VOTE AS DAMNING AS POSSIBLE, GODAMNIT HOW DOES EVERYBODY NOT SEE THIS ARGGGGGGG If the Democrats wanted to lose all branches of government in two years, they are off to a great start. And yes, all branches in two years, because if D's lose enough of the senate then Republicans' will just impeach and remove Democratic presidents until they hit Republican. I can't believe this is who we've got to fight for us. Maddening.

Southpaw tweeted:

I don’t understand how Democrats can look at the panicked reaction of their opponents to the witnesses vote and decide that capitulation is the best course. Just don’t get it.

Bandy Lee, forensic psychiatrist, tweeted:

Those in charge would have you believe witnesses were called off “because there was no chance” of a vote of conviction. I would like to set the record straight: psychologically speaking, they were called off BECAUSE THERE WAS a chance. We can tell from the level of threats. Mental health experts who understand how criminal minds work will know what I mean. All I can say is, this is a sad day for our nation and a tragic day for democracies everywhere. Now, we have officially put violent criminals in charge. That this cannot be seen as the emergency that it is will be the peril of any other agenda one believes is more important.

Manu Raju of CNN tweeted a thread about the decisions behind not calling witnesses. It was a last minute decision to try for witnesses. They were concerned it would backfire if a witness gave an account with holes in it. They thought they had a rock-solid case and a witness could undermine it, especially witnesses the GOP might request. Since there had to be an equal number of witnesses on both sides, the trial could continue for weeks. That delay could threaten the virus relief package. And … this was a Senate vote and the prosecutors from the House had not planned for witnesses. On to closing arguments. The prosecutors laid it all out again. The defense attacked the prosecution. The final vote, infuriating if not surprising, is 57-43 to convict. But 67 are needed. The nasty guy had a bragging statement ready to go. A thank you to the seven GOP senators who put country over the nasty guy. Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed (again) the political forces that could seriously harm the GOP. Then Eleveld got into a paradox:

All of those factors make the posture of Republicans, whatever they might tell themselves, just so blatantly bogus. In fact, even they are arguing House managers presented such a compelling case that Trump would never be electable again. But somehow those same GOP lawmakers stopped short of making the logical leap that acquitting Trump of such a manifest betrayal might also turn them into political pariahs among a meaningful portion of the electorate (which notably in today’s terms could comprise a very small slice of voters). On the one hand, Trump's transgressions were so egregious that he has been rendered unelectable, they say; on the other, they deem themselves magically immune to any consequences from kowtowing to Trump at the expense of the country.

Brittney Cooper, a professor (though her bio doesn’t say of what), tweeted:

Also to the liberal white people frustrated as the House Managers presented an air tight case against a white supremacist insurrection to no avail, I say, ‘welcome.’ This is what it feels like to scream into the wind. Black folks know it well. As you can see, it truly sucks.

Meteor Blades of Kos, in an article written before the actual impeachment vote, wrote that the GOP is demolishing impeachment. This is a time when the crime was so obvious and so critical that it demanded conviction. And they didn’t. Which means there is never a time when impeachment and conviction is appropriate. Jamison Foser tweeted:

If you can’t get 10 Republican votes to convict Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection in the damn Capitol, you aren’t going to get 10 Republican votes for much of anything worth doing and you should get rid of the filibuster immediately. If Donald Trump was a Democrat the vote to convict would be 100-0 and every reporter in DC knows that. The ones whose coverage — not just of this trial but of politics in general — doesn’t reflect that reality are liars who helped get us here.

I checked Michigan’s coronavirus stats today. The downward trend in new cases per day continues. That number is near 1500, quite a bit lower than the peak above 9500 three months ago. Deaths per day is hovering around 35, down from a peak of 160 two months ago. I previously reported the peak in cases per day was about 10500. That number has been revised downward and some of those cases reassigned to different days. There is now a spike in late September as Michigan Department of Corrections data was updated. Later in his post Bill in Portland added an image with text:

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