Tuesday evening news mishmash: Impeachment, USMCA, and "Who tried to bribe Rick Gates??"

Well, today has been a welter of happenings! To the headlines!

The ball keeps rolling: Impeachment

As I was snoozing away, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference where she and her committee chairs announced two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.

The Democratic-controlled US House Judiciary Committee has unveiled charges against President Donald Trump, a key move in impeaching him.

The first article revealed by committee chief Jerry Nadler accuses Mr Trump of abuse of power and the second accuses him of obstructing Congress.

The Republican president is said to have withheld aid to Ukraine for domestic political reasons.

The Judiciary Committee will vote on the articles, which will then go to the full House for approval. Approval is a foregone conclusion. This sets up a trial in the Senate sometime in the new year.

Of course, some of the usual suspects are braying about the articles which will be tendered. What about Russia? What about bribery? What about what about?

If they stopped hyperventilating, they'd see that "abuse of power" is a nice vehicle for encompassing all sorts of criminality. The House impeachment managers will lay out in the Senate trial just how Trump abused his power. The fact that the likes of Rick Wilson are having what we used to call "shit-fits" is all I need to know that Nancy et al are on the right course. Hell, even Fredo #2's wife is grudgingly admiring:

Lara Trump: "I think you do have to admire Nancy Pelosi. She has tenacity and his willing to throw down when she needs to. Whether I agree with it is a different story." #womenrule

— Jane Recker (@janerecker) December 10, 2019

She brought us this far. I'm fancy with Nancy.

The ball keeps rolling: US(Y)MCA

Oh noes!!! Feckless House Democrats have given Mauron a win by coming to an agreement with him on a reworked NAFTA!!! How can they be so politically stupid??

Snap out of it! Here are some of the goodies which House negotiators extracted from Team Treason:

Among the biggest wins was an agreement to strip out intellectual property protections for the pharmaceutical industry, which Democrats warned could undermine efforts to make health care more affordable. Democrats also convinced the White House to strengthen the deal’s enforcement provisions, and obtained commitments to ensure Mexico is adhering to labor reforms it agreed to enact last year.

Those changes were critical to winning the support of labor unions, including the influential AFL-CIO, which endorsed the revised pact just moments before Ms. Pelosi’s announcement.

So, House Democrats took a flawed agreement, which was replacing an equally flawed agreement, and turned it into something... more Democratic? And this is a loss? Certainly, some on the other side of the aisle see the truth:

In fact, the revised deal addressed so many of the Democrats’ concerns that some Republicans appeared skeptical of the final agreement and suggested that Mr. Trump’s top trade adviser, Robert E. Lighthizer, had given away too much.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, voiced concern that Mr. Lighthizer had potentially spent more time talking with House Democrats than Republicans on the final product. And Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania and one of the most ardent critics of the deal, railed against both the original deal and the new changes, including removal of the pharmaceutical provision.

“It’s clearly moved way to the left,” Mr. Toomey told reporters. “It seemed to be just a one-way direction in the direction of Democrats.”

Yeah. I can do with more losses like this one.

Who tried to bribe Rick Gates?

Former Paul Manafort associate Rick Gates must have sung like a canary. Today, the government recommended no jail time for Gates, due to his full and productive cooperation.

However, this has more than a few of us scratching our heads:

Two interesting things from the government's sentencing memorandum for Rick Gates:
- He's providing info for "a number of different ongoing matters."
- He was pressured not to cooperate with the government, "including assurances of monetary assistance."

— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) December 10, 2019

What's this??

Now, obviously, the prosecutors know who tried to bribe Gates. They wouldn't have just mentioned it without knowing the miscreant's identity. And, in the normal run of things, that person would have been indicted and tried. But, as of yet, no one has been held to account for the attempted bribery.

This could mean a couple of things. 1) Prosecutors were just waiting for Gates' sentencing, and this person is about to be popped. Or, 2) this person is an individual who, according to Department of Justice guidelines, can't be indicted. Yet.

Needless to say, we need to know who was dangling a bribe before Gates, whether it was a Trump associate or He Who Cannot Be Indicted. This is far from over.

That's it, folks. Carry on!