The case for impeaching Donald Trump got an uptick last week when news emerged that Trump tried to get the Ukranian President to investigate Joe Biden as he was considering whether to provide the Ukraine with a military aid package.

CNN reports:

[I]f Trump used his power to try to coerce a foreign leader into influencing US elections, it could precipitate the worst political crisis of a presidency that has been mired in notoriety from its first hours.

It would amount to a situation in which Trump's team, which according to the Mueller report expected to benefit from Russian election meddling in 2016, is now using the power of the presidency to incite collusion ahead of the 2020 election.

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I really will be back blogging soon. The TL kid and his wife had their second daughter last week -- she is the second TL grandkid. Here is big sister Karter meeting Reece:

And here is newborn Reece just a few hours old:

Last night I watched Netflix's "original series" The Chosen One. It's a remake of a Spanish series I wrote about here in 2015 called, "El Nino Santo" aka "The Holy Child". [More...]

Update: Here is the transcript.

The third Democratic debate will take place tonight in Houston. CNN says this is what to watch for.

CNN pints out the three leading Democratic candidates are over 70 years old? So is Donald Trump.

If the choices are really down to Biden, Sanders and Warren, I'd recommend Elizabeth Warren. I think she does have a chance of beating Trump because he is so offensive to so many women. I think only wealthy Republican women and underinformed rural women will vote for Trump.

I'd be okay with an Elizabeth Warren-Julian Castro ticket. I might even get excited about it.

Who would you like to see with the nomination at this point? Here's a place for your thoughts on tonight's debate and the 2020 election.

Looks like Dorian will continue through Friday. It's moving close to the Carolinas.

In other news, ISIS is using cows as suicide bombers.

I finally got everything moved into my new place on Saturday (after another round of help from the movers and Got Junk people.) Now I'm starting to unpack it all and figure out what stays and what goes. And catch up with work.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I know it is hard to believe but I am still moving. Every day I go back and forth from the old place to the new place and bring more Jeep-filled loads of stuff. I had the movers just do the furniture and that took four of them seven hours even though the places are four blocks apart. They worked hard and were very good. I have decluttered and downsized but it never seems to end. I gave away a ton of pots, pans, cookware, utensils, appliances, sheets, towels and even some art. I'm moving the rest myself.

Tomorrow is the second to last day -- You've Got Junk will come and haul out the king size bed, a couch , an armoire/dresser, solid wood bookcases, the dishes and glassware and everything else that's left. Wednesday the move-out cleaners will come and make the old place look beautiful.

I absolutely love my new place, in the next open thread I'll write why and post photos of the really pretty mountain and downtown views.

I have not watched much tv, or heard any news, so it will be some more days before I'm up to speed. In the meantime, here is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I am completely immersed in moving and will be until early next week. It could be a week before I'm back here, but I'll try to check on the threads a few times if I have internet.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I am simply outraged that Jeffrey Epstein died at a federal detention center in New York.

I will have a lot more to say, but for now, I will just say:

1. Jeffrey Epstein should never have been detained without bond. He was not a flight risk. He had not posed a danger to the community in years. The wealthy do not deserve to be treated more harshly than the poor. The accusers' position on bond should have been taken with a great grain of salt. An indictment is merely an accusation, it is not evidence.

2. Jeffrey Epstein should have been on a 24 hour watch. I would like to see the unit and activity logs for the staff. I have not yet read enough to know if I believe he committed suicide or someone killed him. Either was entirely avoidable.

3. It will disgusting to watch his accusers and their lawyers fight over his carcass to obtain whatever funds he had left that they believe they are due even though almost all of them already collected as a result of the Florida state case. Epstein not only paid them damages, he paid their lawyers' fees.

4. Shame on the Bureau of Prisons. R.I.P. Jeffrey Epstein.

Jimmy Aldaoud was 41 years old. He lived in the U.S. since he was 6 months old. Last month ICE deported him from Detroit to Iraq, a country he never lived in. He did not speak Arabic. He was not a Muslim, but a Chaldean Catholic..

Chaldeans are an eastern branch of the Roman Catholic church who trace their roots to ancient Mesopotamia in present-day Iraq, where they are at high risk of being tortured or killed by the the terror group ISIS, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in a related legal case.

He had been put on a commercial flight to Iraq. A diabetic, he died on the streets, apparently from lack of insulin. [More...]

I'm about to start my residence move. I take possession of my new place on Monday, and have the old place until the 30th. I haven't been able to blog much so far during August, and expect that to continue until the last week in August.

I'm considering it a "hiatus" but I'll try to keep some open threads going.

Moving is very stressful.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. Please be civil.

Rep. Jerome Nadler says formal impeachment proceedings have begun. The House Judiciary Committee has initiated the inquiry, and will make a decision as to whether to forward the matter to the full house. He was on CNN yesterday explaining that they are not just considering whether to bring an impeachment proceeding, but one is already underway.

He also said it will the investigation will be broader than the Mueller Report and Russia. He said he expects witnesses who are not refusing to appear to testify in September or October.

San Antonio was a lot of criticism for Trump. As usual he reacted with a deflections. He said he is considering granting clemency to Rod Blagojevich who has done 7 of his 14 year sentence.

Mr. Trump disclosed his initial plans aboard Air Force One on Wednesday after a day of highly critical news coverage that focused on the reception toward the president as he traveled to the sites of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 dead.

The odd thing is that Blago's sentence was grossly excessive. I hope Trump does commute his sentence. Of course, since Blago is a Democrat, Republicans are pushing him not to commute the sentence.

The current official total of people killed in the El Paso shootings is 22. The names and nationalities of the deceased are here.

Donald Trump is going to visit El Paso on Wednesday. Not everyone is pleased:

“I call our governor, I call on our senators to send a message to our president and ask him not to set foot in El Paso,” David Stout, a Democratic commissioner in the border city, told VICE News. “It would just put salt on this wound.” He represents Precinct 2, where Trump spoke in February — and where the massacre took place.

The last time Trump was in El Paso was for a campaign rally and VICE News says he stuck the city for a $470k bill.

Donald Trump first blamed video games and "mentally ill monsters" for the El Paso and Dayton shootings. Via The Intercept, here's a breakdown of similarities between the El Paso shooter's manifesto and Trumpspeak and Fox News comments.

Trump is the most divisive and undeserving person ever to occupy a seat in the White House. Enough is enough. Trump needs to go.