DON JONES INDEX…
	GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED
	2/12/21… 13,841.94 2/5/21… 13,847.97 6/27/13… 15,000.00

DOW JONES INDEX: 2/19/21…31,458.40; 2/12/21…30,982.22; 6/27/13…15,000.00)

LESSON for February 12, 2021 – “PEACH TWO’s the PITS!”

SPECIAL UPDATE: TRUMP ACQUITTED, 53-47

There is an old saying (by nobody other than that filthy Commie Karl Marx) as goes: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” The aphorister obviously had no notion, nor should he or she have had, as to how to confront a farce which re-occurs as yet another farce.

Impeachment Two, the Sequel, was as bad as they come… a fiasco that, were it cinematic, would have put a sequel to “Cats” or “Gigli” to shame. Ed Wood would have wiped his crying sleeve on his angora sweater. Freddy, Jason and Leatherface would have bent over and vomited in their masks. Norman Bates would have run, screaming, to his Mama.

It was that bad.

Our story begins with the impetus for the second impeachment was the Capitol riot of January 6^th when a mob stormed the building as the electoral votes were being tallied… a tally we knew in advance would redound to the defeat of President Donald Trump and the elevation of former Vice President Joe Biden. Having announced, well in advance, that he would be holding his own rally in the streets, Trump wound up the crowd with a blistering condemnation of the “stolen” election… lo and behold, the crowd became a mob.

Or perhaps it began two months earlier, with the aforesaid and purported electoral fraud – or a few months before that when Impeach One sank to a watery grave like a waterlogged Titanic… or in November, 2016 when the Electoral College appointed the meat salesman, hotelier and golf course developer with no political experience as President of the United States. The ultimate Outsider, to a tired nation hungering for an Outsider; a tall, lean (well maybe not that) gunslinger who would set America right again and, although QAnon was scarcely a gleam in the eyes of a few widely scattered madmen, vanquish creepy lizard people, the deep state and the scour the stink of that damned Kenyan out of the people’s house…

No matter. Just what did Trump say on that fateful January 6^th?

He told his flock that Joe Biden and persons nefarious had stolen his election. That they were special. And that they should follow him down to the Capitol where the votes were being counted because if they weren’t ready to “fight like hell”, they wouldn’t have a country anymore. (See Attachment Four)

So they did. (But he didn’t, he scuttled back to 1600 Pennsylvania to watch the mayhem on television. An old man fighting the cops and Congresscreatures – somebody could get hurt. Not Djonald.)

Seven people died in the uprising, including the post-traumatic suicides.

The rest of the world mocked and taunted America, as if the proud sons of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln and FDR were a bunch of Burmese – or Myanmartians, if you will.

The mob occupied the Capitol, marched around some with their Confederate flags, and then they went home (or else back to their hotel suites to get drunk). Hardly anybody got arrested, even given tickets for unlawful assembly. A splendid day in all, except for the quickly departing politicians, and the dead. And… after the Senators slunk back under a now-heavy guard to tally the electoral votes… except for Djonald Unprecedented, (now UnPresidented).

The lying liberal media reveled in its ratings; some probably raised their advertising rates. Innumerable great and not-so-great voices spoke of destiny and tragedy; momentous days gone by… the French and American Revolutions, the fall of Greece and Rome, the War of 1812.

It was, on the whole, a wholesome distraction from the plague, the sputtering, stuttering economy, the stalled Stim Three remedies, not to mention the ghostly legions of administrations past quietly creeping into positions of power formerly held by the likes of BilBarr the Barbarian, Betsy deVos and Mike Pompeo.

And then, for Trump and for his MAGAmob, it would get worse.

A fortnight intervened between the vote counting and the inauguration of Uncle Joe as 46^th President of the U.S.A. With the Chinese Year of the Rat coming to a close, Trump’s bureau-rats were fleeing the White House as if it were a Carnival cruise ship – all the more lethal for remaining afloat with its cargo of coughing humans. Mardi Gras and Coachella fell to the cancel culture as the plague started to mutate, as if to defy the doctors and the researchers still brewing their vaccines.

Hank Aaron, Larry King and Larry Flynt died.

And, on January 13^th, the now-Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach Trump one week after the siege. 10 Republican representatives voted to impeach him, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history.

Prosecutors placed the blame for the violence squarely on the former president. Five died, two more would follow, hundreds were injured, members of Congress and staff were terrorized and the seat of US government building was left with “bullet marks in the walls, looted art, smeared faeces in hallways” – all in a bid to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of 6 January is unmistakable,” the prosecutors charged in their 80-page memorandum – although the actual impeachment, boiled down to its particulars, specified only “incitement to insurrection”.

The WashPost of the following Sunday, Jan. 17^th (now under the even firmer grip of Trump-hating Jeff Bezos, who, still slightly short of $200 billion net worth, stepped down as jefe maxima of Amazon in order to devote more time to the Post… i.e.Trump bashing… and to “philanthropy”) alleged that “an array of established conservative insiders and activists” (not necessarily including President Trump himself, but… hey Fido, whistle whistle!) had planned and promoted the insurrection. (See Attachment Five A) The mastermind of the debacle was identified as one Ali Alexander, a former “fellow” of the Council for National Policy (CNP), “an influential group that for decades has served as a hub for conservative and Christian activists as described by the Southern Policy Law Center, a liberal pressure group, over five years earlier.” (See Attachment Five C) This group was abetted by a “dark money” conduit, The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), according to documented.net (Attachment Five B) and essentially planned, organized and mobilized the Capitol siege, with or without the President’s active participation.

The conspirators and their stooges alike, however, forgot that one consistency common to successful revolutions… guns. The government went gaga over video of a MAGott planting two! …one, two, TWO!... pipe bombs and the insurgents had had to make do like the Ethiopian Army ‘gainst Mussolini.

Fortunately they had the numbers. And if it meant having to take the Capitol with fire extinguishers and bear spray and American flags on flagpoles, well… so be it.

Events organized by Alexander, the CNP and assorted “well-funded nonprofit groups and individuals that figure prominently in the machinery of conservative activism in Washington” included a “Patriot Caravan” of buses to Washington, a “Save the Republic” rally on Jan. 5 and a “Freedom Rally” on the morning of Jan. 6. A little-known nonprofit called Women for America First, a group run by Trump supporters and former tea party activists, got approval to use space on the Ellipse for what they called a “March for Trump,” according to the “public gathering permit” issued on Jan. 5.

Using social media, robocalls and good ol’ networking to mobilize the mob, the organizers recruited the zesty pardonee Roger Stone and a deathsomely visaged Rudy Giuliani. Whether the President himself was one of the conspirators, or gallantly allowed his own preplanned rally to be melded into the collective conservative mindset went unanswered by the Post, but, once the pro-Trump New York Post reported that Democratic members of the House impeachment team had walked (their) single article of impeachment through the halls of the Capitol to the upper chamber on Monday evening, Jan. 25^th, the path was cleared for the trial to begin.

Nancy, wicked Nancy, raised her index finger and fingered nine members of the slender Democratic majority to serve as “House Managers” – a term for the prosecutors, attorneys or not, and not the harried and fiscally unsecure graduate students serving as factotums for a sorority house. Reuters U.K. fairly swooned over the diversity of those House Managers.

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose the nine for their expertise, which includes backgrounds in criminal prosecution and defense, constitutional law, and federal and state legislation.

“Among the nine, Stacey Plaskett and Joe Neguse are Black, Joaquin Castro is Latino, Ted Lieu is Asian and David Cicilline is openly gay. Cicilline is also Jewish, as is lead manager Jamie Raskin.

“‘It’s a group of members of Congress who really reflect the face of the country,’ said Castro. He said he has spent the past two years ‘taking on Donald Trump and his administration as they demonized immigrants and brown-skinned people in our country.’

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Brits that the contrast between Trump’s supporters and the House managers presents Senate Republicans with a symbolic choice between “today’s America and a vision of the past that their party has often held up as an ideal.”

“‘An awful lot of this was about what is happening to the demographics of the country. All of the managers are Americans, duly elected by other Americans,” Kamarck said.

“Are (Republicans) going to hold onto this notion that they can roll back time to a different America, or are they going to try to make themselves appealing to the America that we are in the 21st century?”

February swept across America like the crazy train of storms howling from Pacific Coast states to the halls of New York and Washington D.C. Punxsatawny Phil the groundhog, dragged from his burrow like the mob had hoped to drag the Congresspersons, saw no shadow save that of the shadow of death for the Trump regime.

Not helping matters along was a fundamental difference of policy between the President and the five attorneys he had fingered to save him from the wrath of the people – attorneys who wanted to focus on sissy stuff like the Constitution and some old British asshole crook instead of getting with the program that the election had indeed been stolen, therefore the incitement was justified. He fired them, and with only hours to find replacements, found Bruce Castor, the former prosecutor who attempted, unsuccessfully, to absolve Bill Cosby of his sex crimes, and David Schoen, formerly the attorney for Nixon-tattooed jester in the Court of Trump Roger Stone, and for Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile panderer whose influence extended from Trump to Democrats like Bill Clinton and even the British Royal Family. (See Lesson of Jan. 15^th DJI, Attachment Seven for more)

He also picked out a couple of Philadelphia lawyers – Michael van der Veen and William J. Brennan, to do the actual work of litigation.

And now we have arrived at the timeline of this Lesson and its first happenstance, of note, the Superbowl in which… obviously to the dismay of Biden-haters… the old guys won.

While the Chiefs were being (warning, potentially offensive metaphor alert!) scalped in Tampa, the New York Times announced what was termed “a fast-paced, cinematic case” arguing that Mr. Trump was “singularly responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack and a broader attack on democracy that showed he would do anything to “reassert his grip on power” if he were allowed to seek election again.

And, to complicate EPOTUS’ problems, New York state legislators began grinding the wheels on a bill to allow the state to move ahead with a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for the state to prosecute a President for up to four years after he leaves office.

Said bill introduced by Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and Assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) will “toll” the statute of limitations in order to bring a case — meaning freezing or stopping the clock on the limitations period for the years a president is in office. It’s four years in Trump’s case.

A sitting president is immune from arrest or prosecution while in office, according to a pair of Justice Department memos — one from 1973 and another from 2000 — which interpret the US Constitution. But the US Supreme Court has never made a determination on the issue.

Gianaris and Perry say a president shouldn’t use the time they serve in office to avoid prosecution by having the statute of limitations expire.

“Any President who breaks the law should be held accountable without regard to the time they spend in office. As our nation prepares for an unprecedented second impeachment trial, we must close the loophole that allows Presidents to escape culpability by exploiting statutes of limitations due to Presidential immunity,” Gianaris said.

Republican lawmakers speaking to the Trump-friendly New York Post accused Gianaris and Perry of political grandstanding.

“This is just a pointless political headline-grab that’s out of their jurisdiction and ignores more pressing concerns happening right in front of their faces,” said Assemblyman Will Barclay (R-Syracuse).

“It’s unfortunate they’ve spent far less energy reining-in executive powers or issuing a subpoena to the sitting governor,” added Barclay, referring to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the plague, including the nursing home death reporting scandal

Which brings us up to Peach (Bowl) Week… Monday kicking off with Team Trump depositing that 78 page legal brief upon the House Managers; a rather strange and often rambling document that confused many, and angered the President.

"Contrary to the false narrative set forth by the House Managers, Mr. Trump's speech was never directed to inciting or producing any imminent lawless action," they wrote. "It is important to read the speech in its entirety, because the House Managers played shamefully fast and loose with the truth as they cherry-picked its content along with content from other speeches made to other audiences."

The attorneys say Trump "did not direct anyone to commit lawless actions."

"[House impeachment managers] claim that he could be responsible if a small group of criminals (who had come to the capitol of their own accord armed and ready for a fight) completely misunderstood him, were so enamored with him and inspired by his words that they left his speech early, and then walked a mile and a half away to 'imminently' do the opposite of what he had just asked for, is simply absurd," they said in their brief.

The lawyers argued that when Trump told the crowd near the White House on Jan. 6 that, "We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" was not a call to arms.

Eventually, the legal scholars and pointy-head intellectuals averred, the crux of Peach Two would rotate on the literality of “fight”. (Don Jones would reply that the fix was in inasmuch as both partisan factions either defended or abhorred President Trump based on their factionality.)

During a Monday morning news conference in Queens, as reported by the pro-Trump New York Post, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said both sides were “finalizing a resolution…that will ensure a fair, honest, bipartisan Senate impeachment trial.”

“Truth and accountability are essential,” Schumer said.

“Some people say, ‘Oh, let this go away.’ Oh, no. Something as horrible, as dastardly [as what] happened on Jan. 6, you cannot sweep it under the rug. You must have all the truth come out, and then the accountability once the truth comes out. That’s what we aim to do at this trial.”

Schumer also said that “each side will have ample time to make arguments” and that that “there will be a vote” if the House managers want to present testimony from witnesses.

“That’s what they requested. They weren’t sure they wanted witnesses. They wanted to preserve the option. That’s just what we do.” he said.

In attempting to forestall the first of two inevitable on Constitutional grounds, the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump was an unconstitutional act of “political theater” by Democrats, the (New York) Post proclaimed, who’d ignored key facts about the Capitol riot in their rush to judgment, his lawyers argued in a lengthy, written defense on Monday.

“The 75-page trial memorandum says the “incitement to insurrection” charge against Trump is belied by the words he actually spoke to his supporters before they stormed the halls of Congress — as well as evidence showing the attack was actually pre-planned.

“One might have been excused for thinking that the Democrats’ fevered hatred for Citizen Trump and their ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ would have broken by now, seeing as he is no longer the President, and yet for the second time in just over a year the United States Senate is preparing to sit as a Court of Impeachment, but this time over a private citizen who is a former President,” his lawyers posited.

The lawyers, Bruce Castor Jr., David Schoen and Michael van der Veen (fifth wheel William J. Brennan sat in his chair, shuffling papers throughout), alleged that the Democratic-led effort to impeach and convict the former president is driven by said "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"Through this latest Article of Impeachment now before the Senate, Democrat politicians seek to carve out a mechanism by which they can silence a political opponent and a minority party," they write. "The Senate must summarily reject this brazen political act."

Castor/Schoen’s spear carriers, van der Veen and Brennan don’t exactly have lengthy records supporting Republican causes in court or offering full-throated public defenses of the former president, either, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. But no matter. They had been called… and maybe would even be paid pending Djonald’s mood after his “victory” is assured next Lesson… and they served despite, as recently as two years ago, according to a former client, van der Veen described Trump as a “f—ing crook” — a statement the lawyer has since denied making

The tiny twin terrors sharing first chair before the Senate judges, jury and presumed exonerators also argued that Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech is begin infringed upon by the trial and that the proceedings violate the Constitution because Trump is now an ex-president.

And the lawyers addressed a contention by Democrats that the trial is permissible under the 1876 precedent. The House impeached and the Senate tried a former cabinet member, William Belknap, for taking bribes as secretary of war.

Trump’s lawyers wrote, “While historical accounts suggest that few senators believed Belknap was innocent, the majority of those voting to acquit him did so because they did not think the Senate had jurisdiction to convict someone who was no longer in office.”

House impeachment managers filed their response to former President Donald Trump's initial pretrial brief shortly after 12 p.m. ET on Monday, their last opportunity to push back ahead of the impeachment trial on the claims that both Trump and most Senate Republicans are making that the trial itself is unconstitutional.

CNN also bestowed a bouquet of pre-trial treacle, some of which are below as Attachment Six.

Read the full briefing here.

And the left-wing Guardian U.K. (see Attachment Seven) declared that the President and his second team of attorneys had “fallen out”… thus Castro and Schoen… but also that the trial would “be much shorter than the three-week trial the last time Trump was impeached over his actions over Ukraine”, a prospect to gladden the harried plague, confirmation and Stim Three bedazzled Senators.

And President Joe reiterated that he would not be watching much, if any, of Peach Two on TV. He wouldn’t have time to watch his predecessor’s second impeachment trial, the White House said Monday afternoon.

“The President himself would tell you that we keep him pretty busy, and he has a full schedule this week,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told CNN

Biden refused to weigh-in on former President Donald Trump’s looming impeachment trial on Monday — telling the New York Post he’d leave the matter to the Senate.

When asked by a reporter on the White House South Lawn if Trump should lose his “political rights,” Biden responded: “He got an offer to come and testify. He decided not to. We’ll let the Senate work that out.”

Tuesday dawned icy cold in the citadel of authority, and the majoritarians… howsoever slim and tiebroken… were ready to rock and roll. At issue was not the conduct of the impeachee, nor even the ethos of the conduct accused, the matter was simply one of whether or not a President, being no longer President, could be tried for malfeasances occurring while he was in office.

Twenty days a civilian, Mister Trump… through his attorneys (the Cosby guy, the Epstein guy and that other one)… pronounced himself blameless, as to the law, by virtue of being no longer President. Hence, any crimes he may have committed while in office, before the November election or after it, and until the purported transfer of power on January 20^th, were simply disappeared – like dissidents in a dictatorship, or footprints in the snow.

Speaking for the prosecution were the nine so-called House Managers, appointed from among the ranks of Congresspersons by the wicked witch herself, Nancy Pelosi. And the task of presenting to the one hundred Senators as comprised judge and jury, also witnesses and… perhaps… a few unindicted co-conspirators as well… fell to one Jamie Raskin, the Representative of Maryland’s Eighth District, just a stone’s throw away from the Capitol.

“Thank you very much, Mr. President,” the High Manager began “…distinguished members of the Senate. Good afternoon. My name is Jamie Raskin,” and, he added after thanking the usual suspects, “...I’ve been a professor of constitutional law for three decades.” And, presumably, an amateur comedian, gaslighting into the Tuesday afternoon open mic lineup at the local comedy club, presumably open despite the plague. “I know there are a lot of people who are dreading endless lectures about the Federalist Papers here. Please breathe easy. Okay? I remember well, W. H. Auden’s line that a professor is someone who speaks while other people are sleeping.”

Applause (or groans) being discouraged, Rep. Raskin plowed on, turning serious and channeling Porter Wagoner (or maybe Dr. Fauci). “You will not be hearing extended lectures from me because our case is based on cold, hard facts. It’s all about the facts.”

Calling Trump’s lawyers’ argument of, essentially, an instantaneous statute of limitations on high crimes and misdemeanors committed in office, Raskin termed the ex-President’s excuse “a January exception.” He might also have termed it “a January exemption” but, be that as it may, he asked the Senators that they find the excuse warrantless and, as time tolled on, provided a little history lesson along with his Presidential precedent setting. Except, however, he did not hold up some former President to the buglight of scrutiny; instead, he resurrected the life and career of one Warren Hastings, the former Governor General of the British colony of Bengal, “and a corrupt guy.” And not even an American at the time of his impeachment, after the Revolution and during the time that the Founding Fathers were gathered in Philadelphia, still working on the Constitution… Hastings, by that time, was essentially a foreigner, but the case was applicable, Raskin argued, “because as Hamilton wrote England provided the model from which the idea of this institution has been borrowed.” (See Attachment Eight)

The Brits had tried and, like the Americans of Peach One, failed to convict Hastings and “…(e)ven though everyone there surely knew that Hastings had left office two years before his impeachment trial began, not a single framer, not one,” Raskin declared, “raised a concern when Virginia and George Mason held up the Hastings impeachment as a model for us in the writing of our Constitution.”

Raskin would press on, relating a personal story on how the Capitol riot affected him, and also his daughter Tabitha, who had had the ill-fortune to be present at the debacle on “the day after we buried her brother, our son, Tommy. The saddest day of our lives.” More upon that anon.

The next speaker, Joe Neguse of Colorado’s Second District, provided an all-American template for the impeachment… (remember, Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump himself had all been impeached, but subsequently acquitted… partisans might say exonerated… by the Senate) of shady officeholders: William Belknap, Secretary of War during the infamously corrupt administration of Ulysses S. Grant. In 1876, Belknap, “involved in a massive kickback scheme” hastened to President Grant to tender his resignation and thus avoid the most onerous legal consequence of impeachment and conviction… prohibition of ever holding Federal office again.

“Well, later that day, aware of the resignation, what did the House do?” asked Neguse. “The House moved forward and unanimously impeached him making clear its power to impeach a former official. And when his case reached the Senate, this body, Belknap made the exact same argument that President Trump is making today. That you all lack jurisdiction, any power to try him because he’s a former official.”

The charges against Hastings and Belknap were matters of money, rather nearer the purported offences of Impeach One which involved “favors” to and from the Ukraine. The justification for Andrew Johnson’s indictment was a policy and personnel matter (he had fired a Cabinet poobah) as follows...

By mid-1867, Johnson's enemies in Congress were repeatedly promoting impeachment. The precipitant event that resulted in a third and successful impeachment action was the firing of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a Lincoln appointee and ally of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Stanton had strongly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction policies and the president hoped to replace him with Ulysses S. Grant, whom Johnson believed to be more in line with his own political thinking. In August of 1867, while Congress was in recess, Johnson suspended Stanton and appointed Grant as secretary of war ad interim. When the Senate opposed Johnson's actions and reinstated Stanton in the fall, Grant resigned, fearing punitive action and possible consequences for his own presidential ambitions. Furious with his congressional opponents, Johnson fired Stanton and informed Congress of this action, then named Major General Lorenzo Thomas, a long-time foe of Stanton, as interim secretary. Stanton promptly had Thomas arrested for illegally seizing his office.

This musical chair debacle amounted to a presidential challenge to the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act. In response, having again reinstated Stanton to office, Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives, backed by key allies in the Senate, pursued impeachment.

Led by an aging and ailing Thaddeus Stevens, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction rapidly drafted a resolution of impeachment, which passed the House on February 24, 1868, by a vote of 126 to 47. Immediately, the House proceeded to establish an impeachment committee, appoint managers, and draft articles of impeachment.

The committee quickly produced charges that eventually became eleven articles of impeachment. Some of the charges were petty, but most centered on the president's alleged violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Article 1 stated that Johnson ordered Stanton removed with the intent to violate the act. Articles 2, 3 and 8 alleged that the appointment of Thomas, to replace Stanton, without the advice and consent of the Senate was a further violation of the Constitution.

Fast forward a century and more… the Clinton mess was more personal (he had, as the comedian Bill Maher subsequently said, “had sex in the White House with a Jew on Easter Sunday.”) Never had an American politician been tried, let alone convicted, of conspiracy to violently overthrow the government – said intent was not necessarily at issue on Tuesday, but Raskin and Neguse were not above dropping a few nuggets of treason into the impeachable pie, notably, the reproduction of (much of which derived from selfies taken by protesters who were subsequently shocked and offended to be arrested as criminals, rather than hailed as heroes) and, then, the editing and production of same into a mob violence video that prefaced the Managers’ remarks… a wholly professional job that would even earn plaudits from lead Trump attorney Castor (resulting, unnamed sources would say, that had given the voter-deposed Trump such a fit of apoplexy that some even feared for his life – the cessation of which would have rendered the proceedings in Washington, a thousand miles north of Mar-a-Lago, moot.

Belknap was, in fact and like Johnson, Clinton and Trump One, not convicted which, Neguse informed the Senators, created “…a thorough public inquiry into his misconduct, which created a record of his wrongdoing.” Perhaps anticipating the almost-inevitable failure of Peach Two to convict and with an eye to the future… say, 2022… Neguse added that the proceedings had “ensured his accountability and deterred anyone else from considering such corruption by making clear that it was intolerable. The trial served important constitutional purposes.”

And, because it was only the issue of constitutionality of the proceedings… the actual trial on the issues would wait until the morrow… this prelude, requiring only a majority rather than a two-thirds vote, served its purpose in allowing the trial to march onwards, rather as the mob marched from the Ellipse to the Capitol on January sixth.

On Tuesday, the eve of the march, a couple thousand people gathered at Freedom Plaza in Washington for “The Rally to Save America” event, permitted as “The Rally to Revival.” The disparate interests of those attending were reflected by the speakers: well-known evangelists, alt-right celebrities (Alex Jones of Infowars) and Trump loyalists, including his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and the self-described Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone, both of whom he had pardoned.

But before the final vote on constitutionality could be taken, America, and the Senators were treated to a Barnum and Bailey performance by Djonald UnPresidented’s dynamic duo of attorneys… the Coz-man (Castor initially referring to himself as a prosecuting, not defense attorney) and the P’stein-man, along with their hapless third and fourth wheels

Unlike Rep. Raskin, Bruce Castor promptly waded into the thicket of the Federalist Papers, invoking the hallowed memories of John Jay, little “Jemmy” Madison and the modern-day martyr Hamilton, evoking patriotic sentiments about “why the Constitution is a good thing.”

His performance lost the defense one vote – GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy said that he voted in favor of holding an impeachment trial because former President Donald Trump’s defense team did “a terrible job.”

“Trump’s team was disorganized, they did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments,” Cassidy told reporters at the Capitol.

“Now if I’m an impartial juror and one side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did the good job,” he said.

The Louisiana senator was one of six Republicans to vote alongside all 50 Democrats on the question of whether the Senate has jurisdiction to try a former president for impeachable offenses.

Cassidy was the only senator to change his vote from the last time the question had been posed to the chamber weeks earlier.

In a statement sent shortly after the vote, Cassidy said, “If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump’s lawyers.”

“The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president’s team did not,” he said.

The five other Republicans who voted to hold the trial are Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, Mitt Romney of Utah, Maine’s Susan Collins and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Cassidy’s statement noted that his vote on the question of constitutionality “is not a prejudgment on the final vote to convict.”

House managers and counsel for defendant Trump kicked off their arguments on Wednesday – continuing through the end of the week. Democrats may have cheered when Sen. Cassidy turned on his potentate, but that still means eleven more defectors have to rise up in order to convict the President

Testimony continued, and will continue through next week. The week after, however, Congress is supposed to be on vacation for a week, so if an unforeseen event arises (like either party succumbing to the temptation to call a witness, or hundreds of witnesses). Such would prolong the trial for weeks, during which the business of America… the economy, Stimulus relief, foreign policy and, of course, the plague… remains unattended.

Neither the House Managers nor lawyers want that.

Or do they?

In a related First Amendment issue, the NY Times reported that Fox Business canceled its highest-rated show, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” on Friday after its host was sued as part of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic, a voting systems company. On Tuesday, the pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax cut off a guest’s rant about rigged voting machines and, devolving from the sublime to the ridiculous, Duchess Meghan has won a judgment against the Daily Mail tabloid, a snippet of more tabloid trivia that did, however, raise the fact that other nations have less an appreciation for free speech than do Americans, despite the newly observed initiatives by social media to silence the (mostly right wing) ranters.

The use of defamation suits has also raised questions about how to police a news media that counts on First Amendment protections. But one liberal lawyer said, “It’s gotten to the point where the problem is so bad right now there’s virtually no other way to do it.”

Friday, February 5, 2021 Infected: 26,691,738 Dead: 455,881 Dow: 31,148.24	FEBRUARY 5 – 11 Record 5,077 (or, by other accounts, 5,084) deaths in a single day. J&J boosts vax efficiency up to 86%, aiming for March 1^st rollout. TV Doctor Ashish Jah calls it a “game changer”. President Joe gets to work. Congress passes most of Stim Three after an all-nighter, split between Peach Two duties. Sacrificed: $15 minwage. Biden says that $1,400 payout is fixed, but qualifying income levels are negotiable. Unemployment falls to 6.3% but leftists say that doesn’t count reduced hours and 19M are still wholly out of work. Peach Two House managers ponder calling witness, which would prolong trial. New video shows Djonald’s lawyer’s old client Roger Stone colluding with Oath Keepers on the Capitol steps (but he vanished when the violence started). Viking King/QAnon Shaman backstabs Fearless Leader – his lawyers contend that he was just following Trump’s orders to “fight like hell”. Wyoming legislature censures Rep. Lynn Cheney for disloyalty to EPOTUS. “The best is yet to come. “So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. “The Democrats are hopeless — they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. “So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. “I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America. “Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.” (Now Ex- ) President Donald Trump, Jan. 6th
Saturday, February 6, 2021 Infected: 26,815,321 Dead: 438,708	Dr. Jah praises J&J but warns that new plague variants may overwhelm hospitals. Feds reverse course, send vaxxes to big pharmacies and stores like WalMart. Doctors warn of Super Spreader madness… New Orleans even closes bars! NFL adapts 30 stadiums as mass vaxx sites; Mariano Rivera dedicates Yankee Stadium and NBA’s Kevin Durant gets it. “The more vaccines we have, the more we can distribute,” proclaims President Joe. Biden flies back to Delaware “to get the rest of my stuff”. Republicans crawl from their bunkers to attack Stim Three – Pat Toomey (R-Pa) snarls the Democrats only want to “spend more of our money” as state taxes on stimulus benefits become an issue. “Now it doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to recognize that (the “aid and comfort” provision of the 14^th Amendment, was) written for people who fought for the Confederacy. Who were previous military officers or were in the governance and of the Confederacy. And it does take a constitutional scholar to require that they be convicted first in a court with due process of law. So that question can never be ripe (sic) until those things have happened.” Bruce Castor, Jr.: (22:09)
Sunday, February 7, 2021 Infected: 26,990,685 Dead: 463,212	Old guys win! Old guys win! Bucs skewer Chiefs. It’s Super Sunday!... and the first anniversary of the first coronavirus death in America. Mixed plague news… hospitalizations are down in 39 states, but deaths are up. TV Doctor Offitt downgrades J&J inasmuch as the FDA is investigating its racial bias. More talking heads and talking medicos warn that Superbowl 55 will be a Super Spreader. Others call it the CovidBowl. The Sporting News hails M&Ms and Uber’s Wayne’s World as the game’s best commercials, Chipotle as the worst. Viewers hailed poet Amanda Gorman’s hailing of healthcare heroes – halftime’s The Weeknd gets lost in a hall of mirrors Politicians busy themselves with Peach Two and Stim Three. Former Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs Larry Summers opposes the latter as “locking up” fifteen percent of America’s GDP. “And if we go down (that road) Mr. Raskin, asks you to go down, the flood gates will open. I was going to say it will, instead of flood gates, I was going to say originally it will release the whirlwind, which is a biblical reference. But I subsequently learned since I got here that that particular phrase has already been taken, so I figured I’d better change it to flood gates.” Bruce Castor, Jr.: (09:51)
Monday, February 8, 2021 Infected: 27,094,014 Dead: 464,941 Dow: 31,385.76	Maskless mayhem in Tampa and elsewhere; asked the usual postgame question, Gronk and Brady say they’re be going to Disneyworld (despite its cancelled parade) Cases of UK plague variant doubling every ten days – and South African variant lurks in the shadows. Chastened J&J pushes back release to March first. With Peach Two commencing tomorrow, IPSOS pollers find 56% of Joneses support it, 43% oppose and 1% still sleeping off yesterday’s debauch. Trump’s Coz and Epstein lawyers say that, while Djonald said “fight” a few times, he really didn’t mean it, but more and more of the mob turn snitch under prosecution… saying “I thought I was following my President.” Dems cite 1876 trial of corrupt Secretary of War William Belknap while Georgia SecState Raffensperger opens investigation of Trump’s threatening phone calls and solicitation of electoral fraud. President Joe, citing the possibility that the Ex “might slip and reveal something,” orders Trump cut off from receiving intelligence briefings. EPOTUS spokesman Jason Miller, however, says that Djonald seems happier without the burden of having to tweet so many tweets. “A Senator like the gentlemen from Nebraska whose Supreme Court history is ever present in his mind, and rightfully so, he faces the whirlwind even though he knows what the judiciary in his state thinks. People back home will demand their House members continue the cycle as political fortunes rise and fall.” Bruce Castor, Jr.: (16:28)
Tuesday, February 9, 2021 U.S. Infected: 27,200,718 U.S. Vaxxed: 32.8M Dead: 465,072 Dow: 31,375.83	Peach Two trial begins. Republican traitor Adam Kinziger says convicting Djonald is the way to save America. Two thirds of Republicans say Djonald dissenters are disloyal, one third call them “principled” (the same % as want a third party). Sen. Graham goes on Hannity saying he’s “tired of this crap”; President Joe says he’s not going to watch Peach Two on television… speaking of which, John Dickerson of liberal CBS says some Republicans tolerate lies and the Senate, as a whole, is comprised of “witnesses, victims and enablers”. Trump’s lawyers blame the riots on “other people”. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wi) says Nancy masterminded the whole insurrection as a ploy to discredit His President. WHO concurs with a bat origin of plague? W.H.O., that’s who. New plague cases slightly down – first day below 100K since November, but new CDC director warns against rolling back regulations. Counterfeit N-95 masks being sold in Washington State. “Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We’re investigating. There’s always a possibility. I get it and you have the rights to go through the courts. What you don’t have the ability to do, and you need to step up and say this is, stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed.” Gabriel Sterling, recorded, replayed by House Manager Madeleine Dean. (D-Pa): (13:54)
Wednesday, February 10, 2021 U.S. Infected: 27,392,512 Dead: 475,444 Dow: 31,437.80	Constitutionality of Peach Two approved 56-44… Lou’siana Sen. Cassidy joins the Fickle Five dissenters, meaning that only eleven more needed to convict. Even Trump lawyer Bruce (Coz) Castro admires the Democrats’ video and earns a bouquet of expletives from the Ex. More U.K. variants surfacing result in ten year jail terms for quarantine breakers while S. Africa is now so desperate, they’re using the unapproved J&J vaxxes. J&J admits everybody will have to be revaxxed yearly, probably for decades. More icons toppled. RFK Jr.’s Instagram account is yanked for anti-vaxxing sentiments. Bruce Springsteen arrested for drunk driving… horrors! A former “Game of Thrones” actress accuses Marilyn Manson of creepy, nasty sex… but what did she expect from… Marilyn… Manson? “I was struck. I thought that the House Managers who spoke earlier were brilliant speakers, and I made some notes and they’ll hear about what I think about some of the things they said later, when I’m closing the case, but I thought they were brilliant speakers and I loved listening to them. They’re smart fellows…” Bruce Castor, Jr.: (22:59)
Thursday, February 11, 2021 Infected: 27,492,023 Dead: 480,887 Dow: 31,430.70	Two cases of deadlier, more communicable South African plague hit California (159 U.K. variants now in U.S.) and Dodger Stadium runs out of vax after the military is deployed and left holding empty needles. 200 are shot daily at Mets’ Stadium where 5,000 were promised. Maskless Tampa boat parade augurs another spike. CDC touts double masking – which also stops transmission only, not reception… the valid N95 masks subject to even more endemic fraud. More House Managers give more reasons for Peach Two (see above) but some also demur: “The prosecution of a former President is not something prosecutors should take lightly.” Sen. Klobuchar (D-Mn) points an accusing finger at colleague Lindsay Graham (R-SC), for calling the Peach “offensive” when “…a lot of us weren’t as scared as we should have been.” New video shows already-heroic Officer Goldman saving Mitt from a grisly end. More cancel culture heads on pikes: “Mandalorian” star Gina Carano and the Japanese Olympics Czar… they said bad words. “If my colleagues on this side of the chamber actually think that President Trump committed a criminal offense, and let’s understand, a high crime is a felony, and a misdemeanor is a misdemeanor. The words haven’t changed that much over time. After he’s out of office, you go and arrest him.” Bruce Castor, Jr.: (30:49)

Not only the political but the personal was volatile for Don Jones this week… a solid improvement on the supply side (higher wages, a favorable trade balance and a higher Dow) overtaken by inflation (particularly the price at the pump).

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

See a further explanation of categories here…

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)
DON JONES’ PERSONAL ECONOMIC INDEX (45% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE			RESULTS		SCORE				SCORE			OUR SOURCE(S) and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/27/13		LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	2/5/21				2/5/21			SOURCE
Wages (hourly, per capita)	9%	1350 pts.		2/5/21	+0.36%	2/19/21			1,423.50				1,428.61					https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 25.18
Median Income (yearly)	4%	600		2/5/21	+0.04%	2/19/21			667.35				667.62					http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 35,338
Unempl. (BLS – in millions	4%	600		12/1/20	+6.35%	2/19/21	318.35				318.35				http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 6.3%
Official (DC – in millions)	2%	300		2/5/21	-4.36%	2/19/21	367.03				383.03				http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 10,140
Total. (DC – in millions)	2%	300		2/5/21	-0.39%	2/19/21	311.25				312.46				http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 18,512
Workforce Participation Number (in millions) Percentage (DC)	2%	300		2/5/21	+0.04% -0.004%	2/19/21	311.51				311.50				In 150,064 Out 100,679 Total: 250,743 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 59.85
WP Percentage (ycharts)*	1%	150		12/1/20	-0.16%	2/19/21	151.99				151.74				http://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 61.40
OUTGO	(15%)
Total Inflation	7%	1050		1/8/21	+0.3%	2/19/21	1,021.38				1,018.32				http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3
Food	2%	300		1/8/21	+0.1%	2/19/21	284.12				283.84				http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.1
Gasoline	2%	300		1/8/21	+7.4%	2/19/21	342.69				317.33				http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +7.4
Medical Costs	2%	300		1/8/21	+0.5%	2/19/21	289.95				288.50				http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.5
Shelter	2%	300		1/8/21	+0.1%	2/19/21	295.21				294.91				http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.1
WEALTH	(6%)
Dow Jones Index	2%		300	2/5/21	+1.54%	2/19/21	340.05				345.28				https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/DJIA 31,458.40
Sales (homes) Valuation (homes)	1% 1%		150 150	12/23/20	+1.05% -0.42%	2/19/21	198.50 168.64				198.50 168.64				https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M): 6.76 Valuations (K): 309.8
Debt (Personal)	2%		300	2/5/21	+0.40%	2/19/21	280.61				279.49				http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 62,947
	AMERICAN ECONOMIC INDEX (15% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)
NATIONAL	(10%)
Revenues (in trillions)	2%	300		2/5/21	+0.06%	2/19/21		296.03			296.20			debtclock.org/ 3,462
Expenditures (in tr.)	2%	300		2/5/21	-0.12%	2/19/21		223.05			222.78			debtclock.org/ 6,674
National Debt (tr.)	3%	450		2/5/21	+0.11%	2/19/21		332.46			332.10			http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 27,903
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450		2/5/21	+0.08%	2/19/21		383.78			383.48			http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 82,421
GLOBAL	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300		2/5/21	-0.21%	2/19/21			291.72			292.34				http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,085
Exports (in billions – bl.)	1%	150		1/1/21	+3.15%	2/19/21				153.23			158.05				https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 190.0
Imports (bl.)	1%	150		1/1/21	-1.68%	2/19/21				139.15			136.82				https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 256.6
Trade Deficit (bl.)	1%	150		1/1/21	+2.25%	2/19/21				106.29			108.68				https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 66.6
SOCIAL INDICES (40%)
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Peace	3%	450		2/5/21	-0.1%	2/19/21		402.29				401.89		President Biden ends support for Saudi war against Yemen. Myanmar police massacre democracy supporters. Economist Mario Dragi becomes President of Italy. Other foreigners look at American Peach Two trial with fear and fascination.
Terrorism	2%	300		2/5/21	+0.2%	2/19/21		247.28				246.79		Another “Capitol riot” in Washington – the state this time; 6 cops injured. Hackers inject lye into Oldsmar, FL water supply… mass assassination plot? A day later, authorities blame “a foreign entity”.
Politics	3%	450		2/5/21	nc	2/19/21		435.56				435.56		Corporations shift with the winds as Trump withers; Fox fires Lou Dobbs. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Pa) accuses Stim Dems of demanding “my way of the highway.” Trump, hiding out in Florida, said to be enraged… adding incompetent lawyer Castor (above) to hit list heavy on disloyal Repubs, behind Mitchy, Mitt, Cheney and Pence.
Economics	3%	450		2/5/21	-0.3%	2/19/21		401.53