All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

– William Shakespeare, As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play and catalogues the seven stages of a man’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man.

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

The sunrise is a no show over the Smokies Saturday morning. Grey fog obscures the view out the east-facing window along with the low lying stratus clouds, like the shroud over the truth on the stage in Washington, D.C.

If Punxsutawney Phil had come out of his groundhog burrow on this day, instead of Tuesday, Feb. 2, he would not have seen his shadow, and maybe we wouldn’t be facing four more weeks of winter weather. (This is a joke. No groundhog can determine the weather. Why fully grownup humans still pay attention to this is a mystery, like all show business, including the myths of Christmas and Easter).

In spite of the hot java, I’m about as melancholy as Jaques this morning, watching the show play out on the stage in Washington as all the players fail to do what it would take to actually save democracy and keep life livable for people on planet Earth.

I read the morning papers online, and see only hints or shadows of the truth.

Politico comes closest on this morning, hinting that the House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection “are on the cusp of a major decision: whether to call witnesses to bolster their case.”

“Though many Senate Democrats have indicated they don’t believe witnesses are necessary to prove that Trump incited the deadly riots that overran the Capitol, new developments have hinted at startling details that could be unearthed if the Senate trial pauses and House impeachment managers are allowed to depose several witnesses,” Politico reports. “And a handful of Senate Republicans weighing Trump’s conviction have indicated that these details could be decisive.”

The small group of Senate Republicans considering voting to convict want to know what Trump did while the violence overtook the Capitol.

Trump’s defense team argued that he was immediately “horrified” by what unfolded and took swift action to send aid to Congress. But that account conflicts with those of Trump’s closest allies and news reports citing his top aides. House prosecutors underscored that Trump did virtually nothing to quell the riots as the violence mounted.

On Wednesday night, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama revealed that he had called Trump and informed him a little after 2 p.m. on Jan. 6 that insurrectionists had forced the evacuation of Vice President Mike Pence from the Capitol.

That is being reported as “the first indication of precisely when Trump was told about the danger facing Pence — and it came just minutes before Trump, who had yet to issue any public comment on the widely televised violence, tweeted an attack on Pence for his refusal to unilaterally try to overturn the 2020 election results.”

So the House impeachment managers could call Tuberville to testify about this, along with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Another potential witness could be House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State — one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment — has pleaded with Pence and others close to Trump to reveal what they know. He revealed an account of a conversation that McCarthy had with Trump while rioters were ransacking the Capitol.

In McCarthy’s telling, he pleaded with Trump to call off his supporters. Trump initially responded by denying they were his backers and attributing the breach to left-wing extremists. McCarthy, per Herrera Beutler, rejected Trump’s claim, to which Trump purportedly responded “I guess these people are just more angry about the election and upset than you are.”

Both Tuberville and Herrera Beutler’s anecdotes have revived the witness debate, prompting one Senate Democrat — who just hours earlier on Friday said calling witnesses would be unnecessary — to suggest pausing the trial to depose McCarthy ad Tuberville.

“One way to clear it up? Suspend trial to depose McCarthy and Tuberville under oath and get facts,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Road Island, on Twitter. “Ask Secret Service to produce for review comms back to White House re VP Pence safety during siege. What did Trump know, and when did he know it?”

On Saturday morning, Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, endorsed Whitehouse’s call, saying his colleague “nailed it” in making the case for a pause in the trial.

On Saturday morning, Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, described Trump’s Tuberville call as the “most shocking revelation from trial thus far.” Rather than confront the ensuing violence, Trump “asks Tuberville for help to delay—or stop—calling the election.”

Republicans like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana pressed Trump’s trial team about the Tuberville episode during a question-and-answer session on Friday, but they walked away unsatisfied with the response.

Ad 1: At the last minute, the Senate voted to go into recess and consider calling witnesses. But soon came back into session and simply allowed Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler’s statement into the record.

A Show? Or the Truth?

If they really wanted to get to the truth — and not just put on a show — they would also call to testify Republican Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, who was on the stage with Trump inciting the violent insurrection and clearly in on the advance planning, along with other Republicans in Congress.

They would also call acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, and Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. They need to come clean on Trump’s tacit “stand down” order that led to the lack of an adequate law enforcement and National Guard force to repel the invasion of the Capitol.

But they won’t do it, because they are putting on a show for the American people, obscuring the real, horrible truth of what actually happened. We reported it first as an “inside job.”

Related: Inside Job: Were the U.S. Military and Capitol Police Ordered to ‘Stand Down’ to Allow Trump’s Mob to Storm the Capitol?

If Democrats and Trump’s team choose not to call witnesses on Saturday, the trial will predictably move to lame, incomplete closing arguments, expected to last no more than four hours. That would set up a vote on the charge against Trump in the early afternoon, with Trump’s acquittal as the most likely outcome.

As many as eight Senate Republicans have signaled openness to conviction, but it would take 17 to join Democrats to prevent Trump from ever being able to hold public office again. Six Republicans voted in favor of a motion that an impeachment trial of a former president was constitutional, allowing the trial to proceed: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

If Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is keeping his powder dry and not saying how he plans to vote and advised other Senators to vote their “conscience” rather than telling them how to vote, were to turn and vote to convict, he could being other votes with him.

If Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, who recently announced his retirement and said he would not seek reelection in 2022, would find the courage to vote to convict Trump for inciting a violent insurrection — which is clear from the evidence — he too could bring courage to other Republicans to vote to convict Trump.

Will it happen? Watch the show unfold.