Week in Review Discussion on The Critical Hour (12/13/2019)

House Dems Ready for Impeachment, While Senate GOP Commits to Knocking it Down

It’s Friday, so that means it's panel time.

"The House Judiciary Committee quickly approved two articles of impeachment Friday against President Trump on party-line votes accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress," the Washington Post reported. "The full House is expected to vote to impeach Trump next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said there is 'no chance' the Senate will vote to remove Trump from office." Trump is now on his way to becoming the third president in history to be impeached, after Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.
[Related articles: Defeat or Impeach? The (Il)Logic of Impeachment,  Dead Man’s Hand: The Impeachment Gambit]

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Friday for 'closure' over the Brexit divisions that have riven or split the United Kingdom, saying his election victory provided an overwhelming mandate to take Britain out of the European Union on January 31," Reuters reported. "Johnson, the face of the victorious 'Leave' campaign in the 2016 referendum, fought the election under the slogan of 'Get Brexit Done,' promising to end the deadlock and spend more on health, education and the police." Now that the votes have been tabulated, the die has been cast. What does this mean going forward?


"The United States and China cooled their trade war on Friday, announcing a 'Phase one' agreement that reduces some US tariffs in exchange for increased Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods," Reuters reported. "Beijing has agreed to buy $32 billion in additional agricultural goods over the next two years, US officials said, from a baseline of $24 billion purchased in 2017, before the trade war started. China would also ramp-up purchases of US manufactured goods, energy and services."

So, more than 180 House Democrats joined a nearly united Republican caucus Wednesday night in passing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, a $738 billion military budget that includes funding for the Space Force as a sixth armed service and increases the Pentagon's budget by $22 billion. On the House floor Wednesday night, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) excoriated the bill, saying, "The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Yemen: stripped by the White House. The bipartisan amendment to stop the war against Iran: stripped by the White House." Only 41 Democrats voted against the bill. What does all of this really mean?

"A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable," the Post reported Monday. Sounds like Iraq and Vietnam all over again.

GUESTS:
Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.
Dave Lindorff — Investigative reporter and founder of the news collective This Can't Be Happening!
Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.
Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War."
Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression."

Listen to "House Dems Ready for Impeachment, While Senate GOP Commits to Knocking it Down" on Spreaker.

The Critical Hour is a daily 60-minute news analysis and talk radio program on Radio Sputnik hosted by Dr. Wilmer Leon. Introduction above is theirs, with related articles of mine referenced in brackets.