A procedural vote in the Senate on the constitutionality of "removing from office" someone who is not in office revealed that nowhere near enough Republicans were willing to join their Democrat counterparts in voting to convict.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is required by the Constitution to preside, has by refusing to participate made it clear that he does not consider the upcoming action in the Senate to be a legitimate impeachment trial.

So if it is not a legitimate trial, what is it, then? Judging from the House impeachment resolution, it looks more like a banana republic "show trial" than a careful case detailing Trump's "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Trump was impeached by the Democrat-controlled US House for "incitement of insurrection" over the January 6th melee at the US Capitol. Telling his supporters they must fight or they're "not going to have a country any more" was cited in the impeachment resolution as evidence that Trump "gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government" and has "demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office."

Trump also told them to march to the Capitol "peacefully and patriotically" to encourage Congress to consider his claims of election fraud, but Democrats in the House say that he didn't really mean it.