Drama continies, though, not the classy type, more of a production from the theater of the absurd — a maddening absurdity. In just more than a year, the T-Rump has been impeached twice, this last one the result of an insurrection/riot plainly played out in front of the world.
A scenario painfully-close to a screwball black-comedy gone totally bananas.

The T-Rump was impeached a second time this afternoon — a first for any impeached anyone, especially president — and the House debate was idiotic. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz was booed during his speech after declaring Denocrats burned buildings last summer; Ann Wagner (R-MO) voted against impeachment, explaining in nearly the same breath, T-Rump shouldn’t “…escape accountability for his role in the violence…” and didn’t catch the, huh? And others carried on in similar fashion.
Only 10 Republicans voted for impeachment.
GOPers on the whole, suck — via the Guardian‘s live blog this evening:

After several Republican members of Congress protested the metal detectors installed after the deadly attack on the US Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a rule change to fine members who evade the detectors.

The House will vote on the fines when Congress returns to session on 21 January.

“On behalf of the House, I express my deepest gratitude to the US Capitol police for the valor that they showed during the deadly insurrection on the Capitol, as they protected the lives of the staff and the Congress,” Pelosi said. “Sadly, just days later, many House Republicans have disrespected our heroes by verbally abusing them and refusing to adhere to basic precautions keeping members of our congressional community, including the Capitol police, safe.”

Members, including QAnon conspiracy theory supporter Lauren Boebert, refused to comply with new safety protocols yesterday, clashing with officers.
The newly-elected congresswoman of Colorado has drawn criticism for tweeting Pelosi’s location during the violent riot last week.

So here we stand, and the tweet of the day

The bottom line is that after everything, ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, two Cabinet officers quit, Twitter banned Trump, Lindsey Graham got off the train and back on again, and Trump is staying in office.

For a week.

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 13, 2021

Of course, it’s good the T-Rump was impeached, but there’s too many tricks ahead with Republicans for the asshole to actually stand trial in the Senate, most-likely the impeachment process might be sidelined with the new Joe Biden adminstration coming to power, and the ugly fact of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic that needs to be directly addressed by Biden’s people. And the Cabinet needs to be confirmed fairly quick, too. Time is of an essence, but there’s just too little use of Republicans in actual governing.

Walter Shapiro at The New Republic today comments straight to the heart of the matter — some snips:

As the House voted to impeach Donald Trump for a second time, the Capitol was ringed by more American troops than are on duty in Kabul or Baghdad.
While not visible in the TV footage of the House chamber, members of the National Guard were everywhere in the Capitol making the building look like the front lines of a civil war in a beleaguered fledgling democracy.

Despite the brave independence of Liz Cheney, who holds the number three GOP leadership post in the House, only nine other Republicans joined her in voting for impeachment.
That’s right: The Republicans could not even muster a full soccer team of members who believed that Trump should be removed from office for fomenting last week’s assault on the Capitol.

Then, faster than you can say, “Lucy and the football,” Mitch McConnell dashed Democratic hopes yet again.
Leaks that the soon-to-be Senate minority leader might vote to convict Trump gave rise to the hope that we would soon see the GOP uprising that believers in the two-party system have been fantasizing about for four years.
Instead, McConnell issued a letter Wednesday afternoon making clear that, while he was undecided on conviction, there would be no Senate trial until Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
The Democrats would be hard pressed to find satisfaction in anything related to the latest impeachment vote.
…
McConnell’s choice to delay a Senate trial until after January 20 means that Trump can still hand out pardons to himself and every co-conspirator and enabler from Ivanka on down.
It still leaves Trump in charge of the nuclear codes for six long days.
And, even without Twitter, Trump still possesses many other ways to weaponize the presidency to punish his enemies and poison the incoming Biden presidency.

Nancy Pelosi, taking the unusual step of speaking on the floor at the start of the impeachment debate, declared, “The president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country. He must go—he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”
That is sadly true, but thanks to McConnell, the “clear and present danger” will nonetheless continue until the final seconds of Trump’s four-year term of office.

Although Shapiro believes the impeachmet today was a Pyrrhic victory, I disagree. The actions of the T-Rump is out there in an official capacity, he can’t run if there’s nowhere to hide.

(Illustration: ‘A Break in Reality’ by Xetobyte, found here).