The first day of the trial of the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump went into the early hours of the following day. The day after MLK, the senate returned from the holiday to begin the trial. The first step, after the swearing-in, which happened last week, was to agree on the rules of trial. These rules dictate everything, from the length of time each side can state their case, to the how long the jurors (senate members) have to ask questions, to whether or not witness can be...

After much anticipation, the articles of impeachment have been sent over to the senate for a trial. The house of representatives voted, last night, to send the articles of impeachment to the senate, and today they were delivered. Chief Justice will preside over the trial and will swear in the jurors, the senate, today. The trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday the 21st of January and will be prosecuted by the following 7 managers from the house of representatives: Adam Schiff, the lead manager, of CaliforniaJerry Nadler...

Today I was watching Frost/Nixon melodrama about the famous, or infamous, Nixon interviews from 1977. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNO4iEsFlNI The movie is a condensed portrayal of both, the circumstances that brought the two people together, and the actual interview. Watching the movie got me thinking about the similarities, and differences, between President Nixon and President Trump. At the expense of stating the obvious, both have been embroiled in polarizing impeachment proceedings and are either loved or hated. Both Nixon and Trump are people that seek the approval of other people. In...

The delay in sending the articles of impeachment by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the senate may not have actually paid off. Initially it was thought speaker Pelosi would be able to hold the sending of the articles to the senate until its leadership, namely McConnell, agreed to a more fairer set of rules for the trial. Earlier this week McConnell said he'd reached an agreement with his fellow republican majority which didn't include the requests from the democrats and that as such they were ready to begin...

As I am certain you have already read, or heard, two days ago, the US military killed one of Iran's most decorated generals, Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was one of the leaders of Iran's infamous Islamic revolutionary guards. The rationale for the killing of Solimani seems reasonable. According to US intelligence, he was involved in the recent attack on the US embassy in Iraq (its neighboring country) and had plans for further attacks against other US interests, both in Iraq and in other parts of the middle east. The...

The worst-kept surprise of the last three months is here, Trump is now the 3rd-ever President of the US to be impeached. There, he can add that to his list of titles. Impeachment, however, is not the end, only the beginning. I have been talking about this for a long time, and have said that most people think impeachment means removal. They fail understand that it's really only the beginning of a long, and dramatic process. Impeachment is akin to an indictment. It is a formal charge of...

The UK election, made up of 5 major parties, was largely won by the conservative party. With a majority, the leader of the party, Boris Johnson, will remain as PM and will now have the leverage and support to play hardball with the EU as they workout their divorce. Support for Brexit mimic the support for Trump in the US. The coasts and metropolitan areas were outnumbered by the rest of the nation. While places like London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles enjoy a relatively good...

The house of representatives released today a resolution "Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States". The full resolution can be found here. Congress settled on two articles of impeachment; Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. The former, stems 100% from the request by Trump, asking the Ukrainian government "for a favor". Most of the hearings regarding impeachment, both in the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee, revolved around this impeachable offence. The second article of impeachment is about Trump's direction to members, officials and offices...

Day 1 of the impeachment hearings took place today. Much like the hearings in the house intelligence committee, the hearings were split between both parties. There were 4 witnesses, all law scholars. 3 seem to be clear supporters of impeachment; Noah Feldman, Pamela Karlan and Micheal Gerhardt. The fourth law scholar was Jonathan Turley. The support was stark, the three were there for the democrats and the fourth was there for the republicans. So much so, that when it came time to question them, the democrats asked broad...

The house intelligence committee released its impeachment inquiry report today. The full report is here. The report's conclusions is what you would have expected if you followed and watched the inquiry. The report is broken down into two sections. Section 1 speaks to Trump's misconduct and section 2 speaks to his obstruction of the inquiry. The summarized conclusion of section 1 is: As described in this executive summary and the report that follows, President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in...