Diary, Politics
PM: I watched a couple of hours of debate on the first day of the Senate impeachment trial when the two parties fought over the rules. It was interesting to watch the arguments but the senate leader had counted the votes and all amendments to the rules were voted down 53 to 47. Every single Republican senator stayed with the “save our president” coalition. The most interesting questions is whether a few senators after the first 5 days will be willing to call witnesses. Peggy Noonan published the most interesting commentary I have read on the trial in the past couple of days. Impeachment Needs Witnesses on Both Sides Peggy Noonan gives an interesting rationale for why Bolton and Biden should be called as witnesses
Forget Democrats and Republicans. The interests of a third party, History, are more important.
Diary, Politics
I have two sentiments about impeachment. One the one hand, I am sad that Trump whose actions are clearly worse than what Nixon did and that he will not get removed from office and I pitty Republicans who have to defend actions that are indefensible. But I also acknowledge that congressmen and senators reflect accurately what their masters the voters want. 48 percent want Trump removed and 48 want him to be left in office and face voters judgments next November. Here is a very interesting graphic courtesy of the Walll Street Journal that shows that congressman vote largely reflecting what their constituency wants. Impeachment
Diary, Politics, Travel, Europe
PM: My own sense is that the likelihood of the UK breaking apart has increased substantially with Boris Johnson becoming the prime minister of the UK. Here is a good summary of we know about King Boris. The new PM’s rise to No 10 is the carefully managed product of three decades of a show stage-managed by and about himself.Will King Boris lead the the UK to fall apart
Boris Johnson can’t be found out: we all know he’s bluffing
by Fintan O’Toole in The Guardian
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