There is one thing I value in a president above all else; judgment. My ideal president will get the facts and make a thoughtful decision. That is the exact opposite of President Trump’s modus operandi. He makes snap judgments based on his gut. That has gotten him in trouble many times, most notably the infamous phone call with the Ukrainian president.

Democrats have been in a frenzy to impeach him since he took the oath of office. There are many in the intelligence services who are out to get him. Given that, I cannot conceive how he thought using a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a potential rival was a good idea.

This entire impeachment process has been totally unfair. The Schiff hearings were little more than a kangaroo court. Among the things they impeached him for was choosing to go to court. They deserve to be roundly criticized and I have done so many times. In the end, it’s his own damn fault. He should have known better.
​
Whether or not there are witnesses, this farce will soon be over. I hope he has learned something from it but I doubt it.

I have been away getting a new hip. Now I am back for my usual ranting and raving.

The trial has begun. This is a more structured procedure than those we saw in the House but still is full of silliness. The big question is whether or not there will be witnesses. It is a crisis wholly manufactured by the Democrats.

There has been a long-standing rule called executive privilege. The president may choose not to have his advisors working in the White House testify before Congress. It does not apply to those working in a cabinet. For example, the Secretary of Defense can testify but not the National Security Advisor.

Several subpoenas were challenged in court. Rather than waiting for the case to be heard, they dropped them. Apparently, their testimony wasn’t all that important. Now, all of a sudden, it is extremely vital. While they were in a big rush to impeach President Trump before Christmas, now they want to slow things down. They seem to be doubling down on their strategy to make this their one and only issue. Telling the voters they have done nothing but harass President Trump doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.
​
Some claim he needs to be removed from office to ensure a fair election in November. I guess their definition of a fair election is one in which Democrats win.

Whether or not you agree with her politically, Nancy Pelosi is a very shrewd politician. Deciding to hold up the Senate trial of President Trump was an unbelievably bad decision. There was absolutely no chance of her pressuring Senate Republicans. She finally bowed to the inevitable and caved in.

Last month the House was moving at warp speed to get the impeachment done. Refusing to submit it to the Senate has no constitutional basis. The House could have called the witnesses she wanted but didn’t want to take the time to go to court.

We will soon have the trial. Everybody knows how it will turn out. My expectation is that it will quickly disappear from the headlines and will have little effect on the election.
​
If House Democrats want to come out ahead in November, they ought to start talking about what they are for. Telling voters they did nothing but harass Trump is not a good strategy.

We have to recognize that there are those in the world that wish to do us harm. The Obama foreign policy of weakness and apology was a disaster.

The misapplication of strength can also lead to disaster. We are seeing a perfect example of that right now. Iranian-backed forces killed an American. We retaliated and killed twenty-five of them. Protestors took over part of our embassy in Iraq and we booted them out.

That should have been the end of it. Instead, we launched a kinetic (euphemism for assassination) attack against General Soleimani. He was a top general who reported directly to the Supreme Leader. He had been mentioned as a presidential candidate.

There seem to be two justifications. The first is that he is a bad actor. That is without dispute. Apparently anytime an American is killed, we are entitled to kill everyone up the chain of command. The second reason is that there was an imminent attack. How is killing the equivalent of the head of the Joint Chiefs or Secretary of Defense going to help avert an attack.

This accomplished nothing. His replacement is already on the job. We have made a martyr out of Soleimani.

To make matters worse, we did it in Iraq. We now have lost whatever influence we had. It is possible that Iraq will turn into Iran 2.0.
​
We need to respond to any provocation. It should be proportional. Apparently, President Trump believe in a disproportional action that will escalate the situation.
An Iranian general is dead. Who knows how many Americans will die before this is over?