Today, in barely less than two hours, we'll see the political bout of the still (sigh😞) young millennium. In one corner, the current champion, only-once defeated, Don "The Cro-Magnon Demagogue" Trump. In this corner are eight Democratic Pencil Necks. The biased referee is the once-greatest legislative body in the world, the US Senate, trying to redeem itself after a decade of Turtle rule. The judge is old enough to be your grandfather's grandfather, bringing wisdom to spare, but with the acuity of a houseplant.
What this means to me personally is I'm not going to get any work done this afternoon, and probably not for the week.
Trump's actions need to be given public trial. It's overdue. The country needs that much.
The consequences of the Senate ratifying the charges? He'll be barred from office, but more immediately, he'll lose his Secret Service protection. This is important because an attempt to arrest Trump will conflict with the Secret Service's mission to protect him. I think the AG of New York is waiting to see if he has to deal with that in his arrest warrant. Straightening out that inter-agency conflict is going to literally take a court-case on its own, or an Act of Congress and then a court case.
If he's not found guilty, Congress will then vote on invoking the 14th Amendment against Trump, which would prevent him from ever holding office. The constitutionality of that move isn't in question, and it only takes a simple majority of both Houses.
As important as it is for the country to face Trump's guilt in the insurrection, it's as important that he be barred from office.
UPDATE: Turns out I figured the time zone wrong. The impeachment already started by the time I posted this. The senate did do something very important: it decided that you can impeach someone who's out of office to keep them from taking office ever again, just like the Constitution obviously says.
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