I tell you what, friends, a trial in a culture where the people inhabit two separate realities is the best idea Lewis Carroll never had. It would be fascinating if it weren’t for the whole Hey Maybe We Don’t Have a Functioning Constitution Anymore aspect of it, which really shits in my beer, y’know? Well, Happy Monday anyway, let’s chronicle this garbage.

In a bit of laughably disingenuous pre-coordinated bullshit the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Brooks Brothers Riot or the Bowling Green Massacre, Senate Republicans engaged in a little theatrical whinging, sort of the political equivalent of every over-serious audition-room rendering of On My Own. The idea seems to be that Adam Schiff, in referencing last week’s widely-reported “head on a pike” story during his closing statement, hurt their senatorial fee-fees so much that they’re now basically allowed to ignore the House’s entire flawlessly-constructed case, and also have their moms take them out for ice cream.

Oklahoma’s Jaggy Jim Lankford practically tripped over his own feet in search of the first available television personality to somberly inform that he was indeed “visibly upset,” by Schiff’s line, a totally normal bit of human speech to describe a totally normal bit of human behavior. I myself was audibly repulsed by Lankford’s phony posturing, by which I mean it led me to release an unusually exuberant fart. My cat, it must be stated, was forced to briefly leave the room.

Did any of these mortally offended Senators express the slightest bit of outrage and indignation when news of Pikegate initially broke? Oddly, not one of them uttered a peep. Weird that the story only became offensive once they found a context to weaponize it against Dems and impeachment, isn’t it?

Almost as weird as the sudden swell of senatorial silence when Hairplug Himmler used his Twitter platform to insult, and indeed, threaten America’s Handsomest Patriot Man, Mr. Adam Schiff. Decorum, it seems, is for play-acting in front of the teevee cameras, not for the real world, with all its messy stochastic terrorism and whatnot.

You could be forgiven for missing Team Treasonweasel’s opening arguments in the impeachment trial. Basically the lawyers belched up a few tired, half-hearted, lies, and then Jay Sekulow took a dump on the floor and Pat Cipollone sculpted the turd into a little poo snowman, stuck some googly eyes on it and proclaimed it the God of Exoneration, and bellowed that it told them Littlefinger was innocent, and then Sekulow and Cipollone sacrificed their dignity and their reputations to the Turd God in thanks.

Truly there is no better messenger for Trumpism than Paula “Give me your January salary, no really, just give it to me, no, you won’t get anything back, I would just like a pile of free money please” White, Tangerine Idi Amin’s “spiritual advisor.” (By the way, you are super-shitty at that job, Paula. The old bastard’s spirit is a cancer-ridden cockroach marinating in hooker piss) White made the extremely Christian prayer for God to terminate any and all “satanic pregnancies” whatever those are. Now, I’m sure Paula spends no small amount of her time fantasizing about wielding the power to choose precisely which pregnancies are sufficiently godly as to be allowed to come to term, but yeah, we’re at the “evangelicals praying for mass abortion” stage of the ride, and I would very much like to be let off now, thank you.

While we’re on the subject of religious loons, Demented Faux Christian Hate-Monger Rick Wiles’ “TruNews,” a nutjob site famous for its anti-Semitism and also its further anti-Semitism, got press credentials from the Shart House itself to “cover” President Crotchrot’s annual Embarrass the Fuck Out of America trip to Davos. Y’see, the Grand Wizard Grifter wasn’t making an offhand remark when he referred to the white nationalist Charlottesville marchers as “very fine people;” it is in fact one of his few deeply-held core beliefs.

Malicious, Manic, Moody, Mobster Mike Pompeo apparently felt America had paid insufficient attention to the juvenile tirade he unleashed on NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly, and so he doubled down (presumably Pompeo’s duties as Secretary of State are being handled by a ficus while he focuses on this tantrum), releasing a childish little follow-up statement, accusing Kelly of lying (she had receipts, of course) and even going so far as to suggest she had failed his famous Point At This Unlabeled Map I Keep Around at All Times to Pick Fights With Because I’m Emotionally Stunted test, and confused Ukraine with Bangladesh. Yes, this is same Mary Louise Kelly with a degree in European Studies. From Cambridge. And the same Mike Pompeo who believes in the rapture. If we’re having an intellectual pissing contest, that is.

Lordy, Pompeo has now gone so far as to kick a different NPR reporter off the flight for his upcoming Europe trip, as well as rescinding all NPR staff’s invitations to his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s, where there’s gonna be Skee-ball and three different kinds of cake. Gettin’ sick of loser fascism, here. Anyway, what does the Bible say about being a petty, vindictive, lying, brat, Mikey?

The Bowing and Scraping event at the 2020 Olympics is certainly going to be competitive, with all 53 GOP Senators looking like strong contenders, and that’s before factoring in dark horses like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions th’Third, desperately seeking his old job on a “Donald Trump fed me shit for two years before finally firing me, and I’m begging you for the opportunity to gorge myself on turds again, vote Sessions, spines are liberals!” platform.

But don’t sleep on Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, though, defenestrating his fellow veterans with nary a nanosecond’s hesitation, all to back up Strawberry Shartcake’s vile dismissal of service members’ traumatic brain injuries as Wuss Wounds. When Tom runs for president someday, and he will, make sure voters remember his cowardice and stoogery during this time when America desperately needed leaders.

And then there’s the Tale of John Bolton and the Smoking Stache. Yes, Bolton’s forthcoming book, which he desperately wants folks to buy but which we will not buy, because fuck you you genocidal maniac is why, reportedly contains a passage saying hell yeah, Pumpkin Spice Pol Pot told Bolton directly that he was withholding military aid from Ukraine until Zelensky and co. agreed to personally check both under the bed and inside the closet for the Big Bad Biden that frightens him so. And Republicans are frankly exhausted, because goalposts are big and heavy, and they really thought they’d get to leave them at “well, we haven’t heard from anyone who heard quid pro quo directly from Trump, so NOTHING MATTERS HAW HAW HAW,” at least for a while, and now they have to start spinning new bullshit excuses for betraying their oaths and their country.

…and suddenly the field for those Bowing and Scraping medals got even more crowded. Missouri’s Roy Blunt isn’t going to let a silly ol’ thing like Still More Damning Evidence Confirming All of the Previous Damning Evidence get in the way of his life’s work, which is now nothing more than Helping Donald Trump Get Away With Crimes, Mamma Blunt must be so proud of her boy. Even shiny new Senator-by-appointment Kelly Loeffler got into the obsequious disinformation game, popping her gaslighting cherry faster than any GOP official to date. And Joni Ernst couldn’t stop herself from giddily snickering that the impeachment trial gave Government Cheese Goebbels just what he wanted; a platform to spread malicious, debunked, propaganda about Smilin’ Joe.   

But the Bolton evidence remains, and the American public knows about it, so I’m not sure what the Senate GOP imagines it’s getting away with by blocking his testimony. Just another smoking gun to throw on the pile with all the other smoking guns, I suppose. Seems like I have to shovel smoking guns off of the driveway every six hours or so, just to get the car out.

Ken Starr stood on the floor of the Senate to rail against impeachment, and I’m starting to understand that while modern conservatism offers little in the way of policy solutions for any of America’s urgent problems, it does seem to promise freedom from shame, and I kinda get that; I probably would’ve signed right up if they’d recruited me with that pitch that one time in high school when I absentmindedly starting singing along, out loud, to “Sweet Transvestite” on the bus on the way to the bowling alley for gym class. Trumpian shamelessness sure would’ve come in handy that week.

Starr insists there’s just too dang much impeachment these days. It’s like Starbucks, you drive by a dozen different impeachments on the way to work. He’s right, too. I recently impeached an oatmeal raisin cookie I accidentally purchased, believing it to be a chocolate chip cookie, but I couldn’t get the votes for removal because Roger Wicker is a fucking puppet for Big Raisin.

And Pam Bondi, who is literally famous for taking a bribe from Donald Trump, used her time to push out-of-date conspiracy theories that even Pizzagaters would admit were beyond stale. I didn’t pay much attention, honestly, but I think the gist was that Hunter Biden killed Christ, or maybe JFK, whatever. Also, nepotism is apparently bad, except, as article 6.2 of section Q of the Constitution clearly states, when the president’s son-in-law sells state secrets to the Saudi government in order to pay off family debts.

Anyway, today, the legal team representing the President of the United States unashamedly parroted Russian propaganda, to Putin’s delight, in defense of that very President, in case you’re wondering why the Lincoln Memorial is weeping tears of blood.

What happens next? Trapped as we are in this Turd Circus, who the fuck knows? It’s looking more and more like there could actually be enough GOP votes to call Bolton as a witness, but the Cowed Accomplice Caucus keeps making noises about calling retaliatory witnesses of their own, a list which may or may not include Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Huey, Dewey, & Louie Biden, Adam Schiff, Barack Obama, Joe Biden But With a Goatee (from the Mirror Universe), A Honey-Baked Ham, Whoever It Was Who Told Ted Cruz He Looks Good With That Beard, Banana Fana Fo Fiden, Aquaman, and Oh Let’s Say Moe Biden.

And look, we even got an additional treacherous teaser for Bolton’s book, just as tonight’s draft was nearing completion.

But don’t buy Bolton’s book, BUY MINE. Yes, the Kickstarter for Cap’s very first comic is still live, and we’ve attracted quite a little audience of Resisters! Get in on it, friends, your support thus far has already been amazing, and I can’t wait to share the finished product with you!