FEATURING VICKI CERVANTES – Mexican police have thwarted the hopes of thousands of Central American migrants who were headed to the US-Mexico border through Guatemala. Mexican national police used tear gas and other violent means to prevent migrants from countries like Honduras to travel from Guatemala through Mexico in line with President Donald Trump’s demands. Migrants and refugees seeking asylum had traditionally been allowed to transit through Mexico but now that policy has been upended, throwing into disarray the plans of those desperately fleeing violence in their home countries.

Vicki Cervantes, North America Coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network, and a member of La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago.

Just one day after President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team claimed to the Senate that no witnesses with direct knowledge of the Ukraine scandal testified about his involvement, former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book draft contradicts the story. The draft of a manuscript that Bolton has been circulating privately includes an account of his direct knowledge that the President withheld US military aid to Ukraine in order to force an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden. According to the New York Times, “Over dozens of pages, Mr. Bolton described how the Ukraine affair unfolded over several months until he departed the White House in September. He described not only the president’s private disparagement of Ukraine but also new details about senior cabinet officials who have publicly tried to sidestep involvement.” Those key officials include State Secretary Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Democratic Party leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying, “There can be no doubt now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the president’s defense.” The report of the book draft has prompted renewed calls for Mr. Bolton to testify to Congress even as the White House is busy doing damage control. President Trump and his team have indicated that they would exercise executive privilege over Bolton’s testimony. There are also reports that the White House review process of Bolton’s book, titled, “The Room Where It Happened; A White House Memoir,” would result in censorship of the most damning parts. Bolton’s lawyer is accusing the White House of leaking the draft to press. Republican Senator Mitt Romney on Monday morning spoke to reporters indicating that he was willing to push for Bolton’s testimony in a Senate vote later this week. A number of law professors on Monday wrote an op-ed in the New York Times suggesting that Chief Justice John Roberts who is presiding over the Senate impeachment trial, could call witnesses himself, undercutting the need for a vote. 

Before the news of Bolton’s book, came a secret audio recording of Trump provided by Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas. A lengthy 80-minute recording of a meeting between Trump and Parnas – who Trump claims to not know – included a damning reference to then-US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Trump is heard saying about the veteran diplomat, “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.” Trump is also heard asking how long Ukraine would last against Russian aggression without US military help to which Parnas said, “30 seconds.” Parnas’ attorney Joe Bondy has said his client has more recordings.  

President Trump and his colleagues are getting increasingly testy and vocal about the impeachment. Representative

FEATURING IMANI GANDY – Donald Trump on Friday became the first sitting President to attend the annual March for Life in Washington DC. The march is a massive gathering of anti-abortion activists and with Trump actively courting evangelicals in exchange for political support he addressed rally-goers saying, “Together, we must protect, cherish and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.” Marchers carried signs praising Trump, calling him the most “pro-life” president ever. 

Imani Gandy, senior legal analyst for Rewire.News, where she covers law and courts and co-hosts Rewire.News’ podcast Boom! Lawyered.

FEATURING CAROLINE HENDERSON – This year’s global gathering of world elites in Davos, Switzerland brought new and urgent attention to climate change. The World Economic Forum attracts heads of state and corporate leaders each January to discuss the state of the world economy. This year hopes were high as the WEF annual Global Risks Report prioritized the impacts of climate change. But, with moneyed interests dominating the gathering, there was little action behind the rhetoric. 

To read the report ‘It’s the Finance Sector, Stupid,’ visit www.worldeconomicfailure.com and stopthemoneypipeline.com.

Caroline Henderson, Senior Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace.

House impeachment managers are using their 24 hours of opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald J Trump through Friday. On Thursday, which was the second day of arguments, House Democrats laid out their case for Trump’s abuse of power – which was the basis of one of the two articles of impeachment that Representatives passed last year. Congressman Adam Schiff who is leading the impeachment team pleaded with Senators near the end of the day on Thursday to find the President guilty and to remove him from office.

Among the tactics that Democrats employed earlier in the day was to reflect back the words of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in 1999 arguing on the floor of the Senate during the Clinton impeachment trial that a President did not need to have committed an actual crime in order to be removed from office. Today Mr. Graham appears to have changed his mind on the standards for removal. Speaking to reporters he said, “All I can tell you is from the president’s point of view, he did nothing wrong in his mind,” adding, “If I thought he was doing something wrong, he would probably shut up about it.” The Senator’s words appear to imply that Trump did indeed do all the things that Democrats are proving he did but did not realize he was violating laws and abusing his power or he would have kept his mouth shut. 

Friday is the final day for House impeachment managers to make their case to all 100 Senators who remain seated silently through the proceedings. The focus has been Obstruction of Congress which is the basis of the second article of impeachment that the House passed last year and translates into how Trump took pains to hide his wrongdoing once Congress took notice. Then on Saturday President Trump’s legal defense team will have a chance to begin making their case. Millions of Americans have been tuning in to watch the historic proceedings although viewership dropped from about 11 million on Wednesday to 8.9 million on Thursday. The Pew Research Center released a study on Friday examining the correlation between which media outlet people consume and their view of the President. According to AP, “Roughly two-thirds of Republicans who got their news exclusively from outlets with a primarily conservative audience … believed Trump withheld aid from the Ukraine to advance a U.S. policy to reduce corruption there.” Additionally, “Republicans who avoided media with right-leaning audiences were more likely to say Trump was acting for his own political gain.”

In other news, President Trump is attempting to walk back comments he made about cuts to Social Security after Democrats called him out. While at the World Economic Forum in Davos he gave an interview to CNBC where he s...

FEATURING JULIE MILLICAN – As the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump continues this week there has been wall-to-wall media coverage of the historical event given that it is only the third time in the nation’s entire history that US Senators are being asked to consider removing a President from office. But one media outlet stands out in its coverage and that is of course the President’s favorite: Fox News. 

Fox News, which has a symbiotic relationship with the current White House, has not only mocked the case for impeachment as harshly as possible and claimed the President’s innocence, but has also seen its own talking points reflected back by the President’ legal defense team. 

Julie Millican, Vice President of Media Matters for America.

FEATURING CYNTHIA WILLETT – Comedians, like their predecessors the court jesters, are traditionally truth-tellers in our societies. They couch harsh truths within humor to soften the blow at those in power. But we’ve been told for years that men are the funny ones and that women just aren’t funny. 

That is of course changing thanks to the pioneering work of feminist comedians of color like Margaret Cho and Wanda Sykes who aren’t just funny – they’re engaging in subversive social commentary. Analyzing the changing landscape of comedy and what it means for social justice issues today is a new book titled Uproarious. 

Cynthia Willett, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. Her earlier books include Interspecies Ethics, Irony in the Age of Empire: Comic Perspectives on Freedom and Democracy. Her new book, with Julie Willett is ‘Uproarious: How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth.’

The Senate Impeachment trial of President Donald Trump continues this week as House impeachment managers roll out their arguments in front of Senators. The opening arguments presented by Representatives Adam Schiff, Hakeem Jeffries, Jerrold Nadler and others, summarized the damning evidence gathered during the House investigations into President Trump’s conduct and replayed clips of witness testimonies recorded during House hearings. Representative Schiff, who leads the House impeachment managers team, cited Alexander Hamilton in his statements on Wednesday and also warned Republican Senators determined to protect Trump of the perils to democracy.

Reports of a witness swap were swiftly shut down by Mr. Schiff. Republicans were rumored to be offering John Bolton’s testimony in exchange for that of Hunter Biden. Schiff responded, “This isn’t like some fantasy football trade…Trials aren’t trades for witnesses.” Hunter’s father, former Vice President Joe Biden also dismissed the idea saying, “This is a constitutional issue…We’re not going to turn it into a farce, into some kind of political theater.” Meanwhile President Trump who is still in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum broke yet another Twitter record posting 142 times in a single day, mostly insults against Democrats over impeachment. 

While House impeachment managers on Wednesday focused on the specifics of Trump’s withholding of US military aid to Ukraine in exchange for political dirt on Biden, the second day of arguments is centered on the President’s abuse of power. The Washington Post explained that, “the House impeachment managers used seven hours and 17 minutes of their 24 hours of allotted presentation time, leaving more than 16 hours to be spread across Thursday and Friday.” The President’s own legal team will get time to defend him starting on Saturday. It is not yet decided if witnesses will be allowed to address the Senate and there may be a possible debate and vote on the matter next Wednesday. 

Meanwhile a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that, “A bipartisan majority of Americans want to see new witnesses testify in the impeachment trial.” The number of voters critical of Trump versus supportive has not changed very much. However, the opening of the Senate impeachment trial drew about 11 million viewers, about 2.5 million fewer than the number that tuned in for the start of the House impeachment inquiry last year. And, Fox News’ website just ran a surprising op-ed by senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano making the case for Trump’s removal. Judge Napolitano concluded that the removal of a president needs, “A demonstration of presidential commission of high crimes and misdemeanors, of which in Trump’s case the evidence is ample and uncontradicted.”

In other news, the Trump administration this week formally ...

FEATURING RUKIA LUMUMBA – Inmates at the State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi have been turning up dead. State authorities announced that two prisoners were beaten to death this week just days after 5 inmates were killed in facilities across the state in a burst of violence. 

Governor Tate Reeves says his government is taking action but inmates have been using contraband cell phones from inside prisons to talk to reporters and send them photos of horrendous conditions inside the facilities.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/MsPRC/.

Rukia Lumumba, Executive Director of the People’s Advocacy Institute.

FEATURING ALAN HIRSCH – After a grueling 12 hours of debate over rules between House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump’s legal team on Tuesday, going into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Republicans by and large won. 

Exercising his tight grip on power, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the most modest of concessions to Democrats in order to appease some of the moderate Senators in his party. As of now there will be no new documents subpoenaed and possibly no witnesses called in for a Senate impeachment trial over Trump’s fitness to remain in office. 

If the most likely scenario is Trump’s eventual acquittal is it worth spending all this time going through the motions of impeachment?

Alan Hirsch, Instructor in the Humanities and Chair of the Justice and Law Studies program at Williams College, is the author of numerous works of legal scholarship and many books including Impeaching the President: Past, Present, and Future and For the People: What the Constitution Really Says About Your Rights.