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Rudy Giuliani on his involvement in the Ukraine scandal: These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero!!”
Rudy Giuliani on his involvement in the Ukraine scandal: “These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero!!” Courtesy Mattel/Classic Media/Dreamworks

GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! You can cry tough baby, it’s all right. You can let me down easy, but not tonight. LET’S GO TO PRESS.

The ever-corrupt Donald Trump’s impeachment problems are growing worse by the second: Now we’ve learned that aides who were in the room while Trump tried to coerce the Ukrainian president into manufacturing dirt on his political opponent were extremely alarmed by the president’s behavior, and immediately leapt into action to cover it up. One method was to take the electronic transcript of the president’s call, and instead of logging it into the regular server, they hid it in a server used for extremely confidential information usually used for national security secrets. The also deeply corrupt Attorney General William Barr has involved the Justice Department in this scandal by dismissing and trying to downplay the whistle blower’s alarming concerns, and sending the complaint to the White House instead of Congress. Even now Barr refuses to recuse himself from the investigation. For those who scoffed at our concerns when he was nominated… WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO.

More impeachment fallout:
• Nancy Pelosi accuses William Barr of “going rogue,” while Trump (who is falling back on his usual crazy methods of dealing with controversy) says that, actually, Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff is the one that should be resigning! (That’s some high-level desperation right there, peeps.)
• More than 300 former national security officials and others have signed a statement rightly claiming that Trump’s actions in the Ukraine are a “profound national security concern.”
• Here’s a fascinating account of how the whistle blower gathered facts behind the scenes to deliver this damning account.
• According to a new national poll, more people than ever support impeachment.
• Meanwhile Twitter went NUTZ yesterday, condemning the New York Times for exposing too much information about the identity of the anonymous whistle blower—though not everyone thinks they were wrong.

In other news: At least 18 transgender people have been killed this year, raising rational fears that it’s quickly becoming an epidemic.

Infuriating headline of the day (so far): “Three boys accused of assaulting girl, cutting her dreadlocks at private Virginia school.” Oh, and did I mention it was a CHRISTIAN school?

Mark your calendars:

IN LOCAL NEWS: Vapers are being encouraged by state officials to stop vaping immediately following the the death of a second Oregonian.

One person was hurt in a police shooting just outside Portland International Airport this morning; details are scant, but the victim is expected to survive.

There’s lots of local union news regarding Fred Meyer, PSU, and Kaiser, and our Blair Stenvick has all the updates for those wanting to keep up.

By the way… ARE YOU HUNGRY? Then may I interest you in the Portland Mercury‘s Chili Jamboree WHICH IS THIS WEEKEND, as well as the upcoming Nacho Week? OH! AND YES, YOU DO LOOK SEXY! Tickets for HUMP! 2019 are right here.

Now let’s peep upward at the WEATHER: Cloudy today with showers developing tonight into tomorrow—but Sunday is looking pretty nice!

And finally, this is how I plan on spending my weekend. How about you?

Bang bang, choo-choo train, let me see you shake that thang. Wm. Steven Humphrey is the editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury and has held the job since 2000. (So don’t get any funny ideas.)