I didn't watch the impeachment proceedings because I was away from my office.  Even if I'd been in my office, I wouldn't have watched.  What's happening in the Senate has nothing to do with anything Trump did.  Instead, it reflects the Deep State's desire to erase Trump from American history as surely as the Egyptians once erased Hatshepsut, a powerful female pharaoh who ruled 3,500 years ago and whose successor tried to destroy every image of or reference to her.  Still, a few newsworthy items emerged.

As promised, Trump's attorneys moved to have the impeachment proceedings dismissed because they are unconstitutional.  This motion was legally correct because impeachment exists to remove bad officials from office without waiting for an election.  I will never concede that Trump was a bad official, but no one can deny that he is no longer in office.

Nevertheless, all 50 Democrat senators voted against the motion to dismiss the case.  Additionally, and disgracefully, six Republicans joined in.  For future reference, they are Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), and Bill Cassidy (Louisiana).  I won't speculate as to their motives, but I will say I cannot imagine any decent, intelligent, or honest motives for them.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, apparently teared up when he gave his spiel.  He also lied.  The lie was the claim that seven people died because of events at the Capitol.  However, while it's not clear who died and why, the one thing that is clear is that seven people didn't die on January 6.  Here's the confusing stuff:

Video footage shows Ashli Babbitt getting shot.  However, we have yet to see a death certificate with an official cause of death on it.  The government also refuses to identify the government employee who killed her.  I'm not asserting that her death was faked or anything else conspiratorial.  It's just...strange.

We were told that rioters beat U.S. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick to death with a fire-extinguisher.  However, not only is it clear that this was not true, but there's a wall of silence about how, why, and when Officer Sicknick died, although he may have died from a stroke.  Again, it's very strange.

Ben Phillips was not at the Capitol and apparently suffered a stroke while in D.C.  That's terribly sad, but it has nothing to do with events on January 6.

Kevin Greeson suffered a heart attack while in D.C.  Again, this is a personal tragedy, but it cannot be blamed on anyone.

Roseanne Boyland got crushed in the crowd.  That is, no one deliberately attacked her.  Crushing deaths, sadly, are common when too many people are packed closely together and moving.  The Hajj in Saudi Arabia is famous for these tragic and pointless deaths.

In addition, two Capitol Police officers committed suicide later in January.  Again, while these deaths are personal tragedies, one cannot blame the events on January 6 for these men's decisions.

By the way, getting back to Jamie Raskin, who lied about the number of deaths, his father was Marcus Raskin, who founded the Institute for Policy Studies.  The IPS was the birthplace of many of the toxic policies that control leftists nowadays.  They went from the IPS to college campuses to American politics and corporations.

In addition to the lie about the people who died, there was another lie.  The video that the House Democrats played as part of their case presentation was deliberately misleading.  First, it failed to note that Trump was still speaking when people started entering the Capitol.  At that point, he hadn't even urged his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."  Second, that timing issue didn't matter to the Democrats, who cut Trump's statement that people act "peacefully."

Jason Chaffetz was not amused.  He pointed out that manipulated videos violate House Rules:

Go to page 34 of House Rules. Did the manipulated video violate the House Rules?https://t.co/v7eyPYVUNo

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) February 9, 2021

We know that rules are for the little people, not for the big Democrats, so we can assume that this violation of the rules, which is also an ethical disgrace, will go unaddressed.

On Trump's side, the report is that Bruce Castor gave a boring and pointless opening address.  Anonymous sources allegedly told Maggie Haberman of the New York Times that this angered Trump.  Should I believe Maggie Haberman reporting anonymous sources?  You tell me.

Trump's other attorney, David Schoen apparently did a better job, although he baffled people by covering his head with his hand and reciting a silent blessing whenever he took a drink.  You'd think the New Yorkers, at least, would have been more conversant with Orthodox Jewish behavior.

The Potemkin impeachment will resume tomorrow.  When it's finally over, Trump will (almost certainly) not be convicted; Democrats will have fed red meat to their base; and most Americans, watching the Biden administration hand America's wealth and power to China, will be rightly disgusted by it all.

Image: Jamie Raskin chokes up.  YouTube screen grab.