• I was going over the general scene with a sage friend who pointed out that it is inevitable that the Democrats will impeach Trump. Not because Trump has committed an impeachable offense, but because the Democrats are in deep trouble if, as is highly possible, the forthcoming Justice Department’s inspector general’s report and U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI “monitoring” of the Trump campaign will be highly damaging to Democrats. They’ll need an impeachment circus, even if almost certainly unsuccessful, to deflect attacks attention and muddy up the scene. Sounds logical.
And then along comes Rep. James Clyburn, the Democrats’ House whip:
Clyburn says he thinks House will eventually impeach Trump
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday he believes President Trump will be impeached “at some point” but that Democrats must first build a case for impeachment.
Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in House leadership, offered the remarks in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
When Tapper asked Clyburn if he thought Democrats would launch impeachment proceedings against Trump, he said, “Yes, that’s exactly what I feel.”
• Memo to San Francisco and Los Angeles: you might want to think about doing this.
Venice to kick out visitors caught behaving badly
Visitors caught snacking, sunbathing or taking a dip in Venice’s canals risk being kicked out of the city and banned from returning, under the latest rules aimed at reining in disruptive tourists. The lagoon city reserves the right to punish ill-mannered visitors the same way that police tackle football hooligans: with an order that bans them from returning to the scene of their offence.
There will also be fines of up to €500 for anyone who “dirties public places in any way”.
• The current economic expansion is now the longest in postwar history. Knock on wood—there are lots of flashing yellow lights right now—but given the slowness of the early phase of it under Obama it may yet have a ways to run. Trump luck? Divine providence? We’ll see.
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