In the US, we have this idea there are two political parties. There are the democrats and republicans, liberal and conservatives, elites and working-class, socialists and capitalists, big government and small government, and on, and on. The 2016 election brought this to the foreground more than ever before. We had two choices, a long-time politician, full of dirty laundry, but with a lot of experience; and a new-comer, full of dirty laundry and with many new ideas and cavalierism. The good vs evil, or evil vs good. The...

What would happen if there were a meltdown in the 2020 election? Is the United States government prepared to handle this? And even if it were prepared, would the outcome be anything less than disastrous and more divisive? If the state of the union speech, and the subsequent crowing after his formal acquittal are any way to judge, I think we can expect a long-road ahead. Richard Hasen, a law professor at UC Irvine, proposes that we may be in more trouble than we can imagine if the...

Until the 2016 elections campaign, I knew very little about Trump. Yes, I was aware of his New York real estate business and his TV show (the Apprentice), but I didn't follow him on Twitter, much less read his books. To me, Trump was just another rich guy that sometimes promoted himself by making some odd claims, nothing more. However, with the launch of his campaign, in which he immediately began to assault Mexicans and immigrants alike, I began to take notice. At that point I began to...

There is absolutely no way that after the testimony by Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes Trump will not be impeached. If Ambassador Sondland massacred Trump's alibi and call for innocence yesterday, Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes came back to finish the job. Their testimony was so compelling and corroborated the whistle-blower's account so clearly, that during questioning by Trump's defenders, most chose to use their time to make statements rather than ask questions. The latter proposition proved too dangerous as Texas representative John Ratcliffe found out when he...

Yesterday I talked about how Trump's defenders had done a reasonably good job on day 3 of the impeachment hearings. Day 4 was not so kind, in fact, it has horrible. Sondland, one of the key figures in this whole inquiry and the ambassador to the EU, testified that he had a clear understanding from the President that a quid pro quo was on the line if the Ukrainian President was hoping to get a meeting in Washington. This is the very notion Trump and his defenders have...

I have been watching the impeachment procedures through the eyes of Trump defenders. I know the democrats want to impeach Trump. There is very little I can learn by listening or watching their questioning. Instead, I have been purposely fast-forwarding to the points in the hearings where Trump's defenders question the witnesses. I want to see if I'm missing something. Perhaps, like Devin Nunez claims, this is all a hoax. On a separate note, Nunez cannot, even if he tried, make himself more into a caricature of a...

The second day of the public impeachment hearings happened on Friday and as you can expect, it was much of the same show. The democrats talked positively about the former ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, and questioned her on basic points around Trump's motives behind her firing. While the republicans focused mainly on whether or not the chairman of the committee, Adam Schiff, would have the whistle-blower testify in public. The rational of the people defending Trump is that without the whistle-blower, we would have never found out about any...

I watched the entire impeachment procedure from the first day of public hearings and what the diplomats described, Bill Taylor and George Kent, is the very definition of what Trump has claimed it was not, a quid pro quo. The case for a quid pro quo could not be more transparent, as Ambassador Sondland continued to make it a point that it wasn't a quid pro quo even while confirming to Taylor that unless Ukraine's President complied and agreed to begin an investigation into Burisma and the Bidens,...

News broke yesterday, that European Ambassador Gordon Sondland updated his testimony after having his "memory refreshed", and that in fact there was an understanding of quid pro quo. Many think this is the smoking gun that will get Trump thrown out of office. While it will certainly get him impeached, the most important part will probably not happen; getting him thrown out. Already, his supporters in the Senate, the jury that would get him thrown out, have switched the narrative from there was no quid pro quo, to...

The drums of impeachment are getting louder and louder. Equally, are Trump's best strategies for misinformation and doubt. Trump has never shied away from less-than-truthful comments and even all-out lies. To him, all is fair. If you pay close attention, he began by relying on the oldest of his tricks; there was nothing wrong. He took it one step further by annotating it with "perfect". However, the basis of his strategy is the same one, there is nothing to see here folks. The other strategy is to demonize...