Aware of All Movements: While President Trump was signing and congratulating himself on a partial trade deal with China, the House voted to send two articles of impeachment over to the Senate, and newly-revealed evidence offered further proof of Trump’s involvement in the effort to get Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.

  Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night that President Trump “knew exactly what was going on.” Parnas said, the President “was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the President.”

  He went on, “Why would President Zelensky’s inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all these people, or President Poroshenko, meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me.”

  Despite having his picture taken with Parnas and fellow indicted operator Igor Fruman, Trump has claimed he doesn’t know the two men.

  In addition, a cache of documents Parnas turned over to the House suggests there was an effort to track the movements of then US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who Giuliani was trying to get fired.

  Some of the text traffic reveals a new player named Robert Hyde, a Trump donor now running for Congress in Connecticut. Hyde says in one message, “Wow. Can’t believe Trumo (sic) hasn’t fired this bitch. I’ll get right on that.”

  Another message from Hyde says, “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” and still another says, “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money.”

In Other News: It’s hard to believe that anything could cast a news shadow over the actual impeachment proceedings, but there you have it.

  The House voted and attempted to deliver the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate late yesterday, but majority Leader Mitch McConnell put off the formal reception until noon today. 

  Earlier, the House debated and voted on the articles before Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed them. Pelosi named seven “managers” to act as prosecutors to be led by Representatives Adam Schiff of California and Jerrold Nadler of New York.

  The managers are scheduled to show the articles in the Senate at noon today and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would be sworn in as the judge at 2pm. The President would then be formally notified that trial begins next Tuesday.

  Incredibly, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said he is working with the President’s defense, said on the open floor, “I’m confident this body can rise above short termism and factional fever and serve the long term best interests of our nation. We can do this, and we must.”

  What he means is that he intends to acquit the President.

Total Act: A new book about President Trump written by two Washington Post reporters portrays him as a woefully ignorant man unbound by any rules or expectations of presidential behavior. The book is titled “A Very Stable Genius,” using Trump’s own description of himself. 

  “He’s ruined that magic,” the book quotes one anonymous aide. “The disdain he shows for our country’s foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate.”

  Based on about 200 interviews, the book details the absurdities of the Trump reign in the White House. It describes a moment during a discussion about China’s danger to India, Trump tells  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” China and India have 2,500 miles of common border.

  The book says Trump railed on about the 1977 law that forbids US companies from paying bribes to do business overseas. It quotes the President as saying, “It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” and, “We’re going to change that.” 

President for Life: Forget Donald Trump for a moment. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is angling to be President for the rest of his life. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev resigned, fueling speculation that Putin is angling to stay in power when his term ends in 2024.

Getting Warmer: The last 10 years have been the warmest on record around the globe and 2019 was the second hottest year on record, two government agencies reported yesterday.

  NASA and NOAA say the average global temperature was nearly 1.8 degrees warmer than the average for the middle of the 1900s. Although he works under an administration that denies human-caused global warming and climate change, Gavin Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said, “These trends are the footprints of human activity stomping on the atmosphere. We know that this has been driven by human activities.”

Liar, Liar: CNN has released the audio of the testy exchange presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had after Tuesday night’s debate in which Sanders denied ever saying a woman couldn’t be elected president. It reveals a serious rift in a long friendship.

EW: “I think you called me a liar on national TV.” Warren can be heard saying.

BS: “What?” 

EW: “I think you called me a liar on national TV,” she repeated.

BS: “You know, let’s not do it right now. If you want to have that discussion, we’ll have that discussion.” 

EW: “Anytime.”

BS: “You called me a liar,” Sanders continued. “You told me — all right, let’s not do it now.”

Pentimento: When you visit the offices of legislators, frequently you’ll see framed pens on the wall. In keeping with the custom of signing historic documents, Speaker Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment one letter at a time, using a different pen for each scratch of her signature, then handing the pens as souvenirs to leaders huddled around her. It’s like the Franklin Mint creating “valuable” coins, and hardly appropriate for such a moment.