(Illustration: M.C. Escher’s ‘Relativity‘ (1953), found here).

Sunshine and deep-blue clouds this late-afternoon Friday here in California’s Central Valley, but a bit windy and brisk — been chilly all day in a cross between lingering winter and early spring.
Out in the small backyard of my daughter’s apartment just now finishing my daily B&M, I noticed on occasion an odd flute feel to the wind — the breeze would vanish and the air would become way-still for a second or two, then resume its rustling through the trees.
Peculiar our environment in myriad styles.

Odd and peculiar, too, is America right now. As the T-Rump’s impeachment trial in the Senate winds down — defense lawyers finished their dumb-ass shit this afternoon — and we could possibly have a vote by tomorrow afternoon, there’s a massive disconnect between actuality and fantasy, The entire four-day episode so far has been a skewed circus with facts and reality on one side facing irrational/laughable arguments that spin off into naked lies on the other. However, the ‘other’ side likes to get huffy and throw tantrums.
And the Big Lie is strongly continued — T-Rump’s motive is his blathering about a stolen election. This the core of the propelling of an insurrection. Democratic House impeachment managers explained the scenario in plain language and video on Tuesday, but Republicans waved it off. They can’t afford to admit the truth.
They’ve fucked themselves into a corner. Despite the truth/reality — T-Rump incited an insurrection, not just on Jan. 6, but starting weeks, months ahead — GOPers will way-most-likely vote to acquit.

Even without a conscience/spine, Republican Senators are also scared themselvces: ‘NBC News’ Kasie Hunt reports that Republican senators are “worried that if they vote to convict Donald Trump that there may be people that would come after them.”‘
Hence, an absurdity (h/t tweet Daily Kos):

A central paradox of the trial:

(1) Trump’s lawyers will argue that Trump’s supporters on Jan 6 were not controlled by Trump.

(2) Republican Senators will vote to acquit because they believe that Trump’s supporters are highly controlled by Trump.

(h/t: Prof. Stephen Holmes)

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) February 11, 2021

Probably the best nutshell of T-Rump’s defense and the facts of the case came during a late-morning-break:

Senator Richard J. Blumenthal said the Trump defense team is “trying to draw a false, dangerous and distorted equivalence”, the Post reported.

“And I think it is plainly a distraction from Donald Trump’s inviting the mob to Washington, knowing it was armed; changing the route and the timing so as to incite them to march on the Capitol; and then reveling, without remorse, without doing anything to protect his own vice president and all of us,” Blumenthal said.

“I think that the case is even more powerful after this very distorted and false argument.”

Boils down the essence. So does the wondrous Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post this morning with a barbed-truthful jab at a paradoxial truth:

You mean to sit here and tell me that when President Donald Trump spent months fueling the lie that only fraud and theft could make him lose the election, pressuring elected officials to overturn the results of the vote, cheering and encouraging people who undertook acts of violence in his name … he should not have done that?
That was … bad?
The kind of thing that, if someone did it, you might want to be able to bar them from ever holding office again?
Deeply, deeply inappropriate and furthermore anti-democratic in a fundamental and terrifying way?
…
You’re really going to hold Donald Trump responsible for the acts of the people who were responding to his call to “stop the steal”? Woof! I mean, golly!
I mean, it seems like we’re really throwing out some babies with all this bathwater.
If you start condemning Trump for the consequences of his words — well, yikes!
Next, you’ll probably be sweeping up the other people whose words also contributed to the same consequence!

Exactly —  Republicans are hoist with their own petard, a shit-faced Shakespearean ironic reversal…

(Illustration by illustrator and portrait painter, Tim O’Brien, and can be found here).