ON TO MARS

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump started today in the Senate.  

• He is the first president to be impeached twice.  
• Richard Nixon never did get impeached.  He resigned.  
• Will Trump get convicted this time?  No.  There is no sign that two-thirds of the Senate would vote to do so.  
• But that is not why Democrats are holding this trial.  What they hope to do is weaken Republican senators when they run for re-election.
• As of today, betting odds show only a 4.4% chance of this occurring.  That is, the percentage betting on the Senate trial failing is 95.6%.
• If not convicted, the Senate won't vote on whether to bar him from running for office, which only needs a majority vote.

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  So, then, what?
• Joe Biden will turn 80 later this year.
• Donald Trump will only be 78 in 2024.
• With all his other legal and financial problems, odds are that he won't run again anyway.

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  However, he will continue to command the attention of at least half those voting in the Republican primary of most states in 2022 and 2024.
• Thus, those Republicans currently in office cannot afford to alienate this group.  One reason why he won't be convicted.

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  Some time this year he will gain a prominent slot for Newsmax or some other conservative cable channel.  While he will continue to lie exaggerate and insult, his show will draw a commanding audience, and only because of that.

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  FOX News last year was #1, with CNN a distant second and MSNBC third.  Lou Dobbs was fired from another channel, Fox Business, and I guess he was the sacrificial lamb to strengthen their legal defense of impending suits.
• However, last month, January, according to Nielsen numbers, both CNN and MSNBC edged out Fox News.

Changing subjects, for the first time ever, something boring in DC politics has become a pleasure and relief.  Have you watched Jen Psaki's daily news conference?  She says nothing much, and responds so predictably to questions as to make the hour cloyingly mundane.  Here....yesterday....even the set-up activity might be more interesting.  She comes in at the 27-minute mark.  Mind you, she's nice, attractive, wearing a different color (got to get her into a patterned muumuu on Fridays) each day, and maybe even angelic.  Probably drinks 8 glasses of water daily and eats mostly vegetables.  She mouths only truths.  Never insults reporters. At worst, she should select one day/week to play Melissa McCarthy reruns.

Here is a series of travel expense records released by the Office of Management and Budget:

• Barack Obama, $ 12.33 Million a year on an Average
• George W Bush  $ 16.57 Million a year 
• Bill Clinton  $ 9.41 Million a year 
• Donald Trump  $ 38.65 Million a year

International travel:

• Obama  $ 437.2 Million over the entire 8 years
• George W Bush  $ 213.7 Million for 8 years
• Clinton  $ 254 Million for 8 years
• Trump  $ 411 Million in just 4 Years!!!!!

Changing subjects, today, the United Arab Emirates spacecraft Hope successfully attained orbit around Mars.  

• Historically, half of such flights to Mars have failed.  Just around fifty of them total.
• Hope will study the Mars atmosphere for a full year, which there is 687 Earth days.
• Another venture will occur in 2024 to land a craft on the Red Planet.
• Their goal?  Mars 2117.

On Wednesday, China's Tianwen-1 mission will attempt to orbit Mars.  Then in May, that same spacecraft will try a landing.

In the meantime NASA's Perseverance rover is scheduled to arrive on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18.  Then, the helicopter, Ingenuity, will deploy to explore.

Why so many so close to each other?  Earth and Mars optimally aligned towards the end of July last year to maximize success.  Over the next few years India, Russia and Japan will join the above.

About humans on Mars, the current thinking is to first get established on the Moon.  Then, launch from there to Mars in the 2030s.  However, Elon Musk has long had more ambitious plans.  His current goal is Starship with humans to Mars in 2026.

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