A cease-fire will prolong the war by giving Hamas time to regroup and rearm. Hamas is a savage terrorist group and can only be eliminated militarily. Its founding documents call for the annihilation of Israel. There is nothing to negotiate.

War is ugly and brutal. It sucks. Deep, systemic problems (and hundreds of hostages) are driving the current conflict. Ceasing hostilities would ease some suffering short-term, but it would just be a temporary band-aid that tactically advantages Hamas.

Legal: Over 1,100 people have been charged for Jan. 6. 560 defendants have been sentenced, and over 330 have been sent to prison. This is not a novel theory. While it is unique to have a leading politician facing so many federal charges, it is also unique to have a politician involved in so many alleged crimes!

Political: independent voters hate what happened on Jan. 6. Sure, this guarantees Trump gets the Republican primary. But it also makes a Republic win that much more unlikely in the general. Biden won partly because of Trump fatigue; this reminds the public how disgusted they were during Trump’s tenure and why Biden, despite his many pitfalls, is at least not Trump.

As someone that despises Trump and sees him as a threat to democracy, Schiff’s censure makes sense – but not entirely for the reasons the Republicans claim. Schiff misrepresented (lied?) about confidential evidence he claimed proved that Trump colluded with Russia. Once it was revealed that there was no such collusion, Trump solidified his base and forever has the shield of calling any attack on his behavior as a “witch hunt.” The false claim also undermined faith in the intelligence communities. This is just like how the NY/Brag case undermined the records/Smith case. 

Trump must be impeached and removed from office immediately and barred from ever attempting to hold elected office again. There are two primary reasons for this. First, we are all at risk every day he remains in office. The shorter the time he has power, the more risk we have of him engaging in increasingly brazen and treasonous acts to maintain power. We simply cannot risk another minute of his presidency.

Second, it is the right thing to do. We do not want to set a precedent for ourselves -or the world - that Trump's behavior is fitting of the Presidency. We need to stake out this warning to all want-to-be despots that this behavior will result in public humiliation and historical vilification.

The Republicans' words provide the best argument:

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.

Mitch McConnell (R-KY), February 2016

I want you to use my words against me: If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, "Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination." And you could use my words against me, and you'd be absolutely right.

Now-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), March 2016

If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait to the next election.

Graham, October 2018

Trump does not care about Baltimore. How many times has he taken the 40-mile trip since he has been President? Zero. How many times ahs he visited his Golf Club in Virginia? 63 times. Unbiased Republicans agree: Conservative talk show host Ben Shapiro said that Trump's comments were "bad for the country"; Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said Trump's attacks were "outrageous and inappropriate"; former RNC chairman Michael Steele called Trump's comments "reprehensible."

No, Trump's attacks on Baltimore are purely about ducking accountability for his own misdeeds by way of ginning up racial animosity. It is no coincidence that on the heels of Representative Cummings investigating Trump's ethical lapses, Trump levies racist attacks against Cummings and, separately, a primarily black city. And while Baltimore of course has its share of problems, pinning them on the backs of the man who has done more to bring success to Baltimore residents (Cummings' district claims the second-highest median income among majority black districts and is in the 61st percentile nationwide in median household income) castrates any claim that Trump actually cares about accountability.

And to those that say Trump is doing this for the black community, have you bothered asking African Americans what they actually think? This week's Quinnipiac poll shows that only 6 percent of African Americans approve of Trump. 80% say he is a racist. Trump's playbook is a single page: when a minority levies legitimate criticism, discredit with an old racist trope.

Watching Biden desperately stumble for words to explain why he opposed busing in the 1970s is the only lasting impression that matters here. If Biden really is such a racial warrior, why couldn't he articulate that on the debate stage? There are two plausible answers: 1) Biden's progressiveness fifty years ago is downright backwards for the modern era; or 2) grandpa has aged past his prime and lost the mental acuity necessary to be Commander in Chief. Neither option is good. In Biden's flummoxing, Harris created the perfect foil: a young, smart, agressive, and progressive leader ready to take on Trump.