News outbreak! Harris drops out, House Intel releases its report

In the past hour, major news has broken in American politics.

First, California Senator Kamala Harris has dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

To say this came as a shock would be an understatement. No, she wasn't polling well. But that was mostly an effect of having such a crowded field running for the ring, half of them who should have dropped out months ago. One would have hoped that after the field winnowed post-Iowa and New Hampshire, she would have had more of a shot in the more-diverse states. But she decided to call it a day, as both money and attention dried up.

Now, let me be frank: the fact that billionaires like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg are running vanity campaigns while Harris has had to bow out is beyond infuriating. Those two bring nothing to the discussion besides their unlimited wealth. What do they stand for? What policies have they proposed? Agree or disagree with her, but Harris set out a series of proposals. It's no surprise it's come to this, after she was painted as the angry black woman after her debate sparring with Joe Biden.

But, there's no crying in politics, and she has done herself a world of good by running. Her name is now on people's lips, and she has a political base. Discussion will now turn to what she will do in a putative Democratic administration. Vice president? Attorney general? Although she didn't make it this time, this will not be the last we see of her.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee has released its impeachment report. You can read the report here. The opening paragraph is devastating:

The impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election.  As described in this executive summary and the report that follows, President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign.  The President demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.  To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations:  a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.

Any political party faced with its leader engaging in such a brazen act would walk hat in hand to the Oval Office and tell him that the game was up. But Trump has turned the GOP into a cult, and when Mitt Romney stands out as a voice of courage, you know that this will go down to the bitter end.

Impeachment testimony starts up again tomorrow in the Judiciary committee. Strap in, everyone; this Christmas will be more Die Hard than Frosty the Snowman.

UPDATE: OH, DEVIN!

Well, now that people have dug into the House Intel report, lookie what we found! Devin Nunes, cow litigator and Ranking Member of the committee, was mentioned dozens of times in the report. Not as a co-author, but as a co-conspirator. Phone records show him contacting Lev Parnas numerous times.

Imagine this: Chair Adam Schiff sitting next to Devin, knowing he was going to drop Maxwell's Silver Hammer on him in a few weeks, and not even cracking a grin of delight.

Here's the thing: All of these people are morons. If you wanted to plan a putsch, you couldn't come up with a worse cabal of crypto-fascists with which to do it. Devin Nunes? The guy who slaps out frivolous lawsuits against fictitious cows? This is the guy who's your spy in the house of love? My God, the fascist right has had decades to plot its takeover, and this is the best it's come up with.

If I were more sure of God's existence, I'd say that She just wanted to give us a scare, not screw up everything and usher in the post-nuclear wasteland.

Oh, Devin.