This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an ostrich-neck casserole of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Senators walk Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts into the Senate Chamber to begin the festivities. Photographer: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images Impeachment Heat Rises on RepublicansOne way to win a staring contest is to do increasingly crazy things with your face until your opponent can't ignore you and has to crack. Senate Republicans are in a staring contest with President Donald Trump's impeachment, and it keeps getting more painful for them not to blink. The trial continued its Kabuki-like opening ceremonies today, amid a week that's brought a flurry of ever-more-damning evidence for Trump. On Tuesday came several documents tying the president to efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into trashing his potential Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Last night Lev Parnas — a Rudy Giuliani associate frequently photographed with the president and his inner circle — said Trump knew all the gory details. Parnas may not be the must trustworthy fellow; he did run a company called Fraud Guarantee. But the relatively credible Government Accountability Office today said Trump and his budget office broke the law in withholding funds from Ukraine, ostensibly until it coughed up some sweet Biden dirt. Each new revelation makes it that much less comfortable for Senate Republicans of conscience to hold their noses and vote to acquit Trump, writes Frank Wilkinson. Many of them think he's unfit, but they're also terrified of a GOP electorate increasingly divorced from reality, to whom all evidence is just Fake News. The risk for these lawmakers is that even more damning evidence comes out, writes Jonathan Bernstein. Some Republicans would gladly overlook it all, up to and including video of Trump announcing, "My name is Donald John Trump and I love doing high crimes and misdemeanors. In fact, I'm doing some to Ukraine right now." But if they treat this whole proceeding as a farce, then they'll make the very idea of impeachment a joke, forever trashing the only constitutional remedy for an out-of-control president. Further Impeachment Reading: The White House counsel shouldn't represent Trump in the trial. — Noah Feldman Where Boeing Went WrongBoeing Co.'s troubles may seem of fairly recent vintage; its 737 Max was grounded after two deadly crashes, the earliest of which happened in November 2018. But then you have to think about how long it took to design, build and test the 737 Max, a process so flawed the company's employees called the plane a "turd" that was "designed by clowns." In fact, you can trace Boeing's decline much further back, writes Joe Nocera, to its 2001 decision to move its headquarters to Chicago, far from its engineers in Seattle. From then on, Boeing's focus has been on shareholder value, at the expense of engineering or keeping an experienced, motivated workforce, Joe argues. The 737 Max tragedy is the inevitable result. Read the whole thing. Trade Deal to Lead to Brisk Business in Chicken Feet, Toxic DebtThere's been plenty of parsing of the more-obvious winners and losers in the 24 hours since Trump announced his phase-one trade deal with China. So now it's time for some less-obvious ones. For example, if you're an American farmer that produces a lot of chicken feet and pig offal you don't know what to do with, then this is your lucky day, writes David Fickling. And if you're an American financial institution looking to buy some toxic Chinese debt, then you're in business, writes Anjani Trivedi. Why on Earth you'd want to do this is a whole other question. Chinese technology remains very much not in the winner's circle, with telecom giant Huawei Technologies still a target of U.S. wrath. Far more troublesome for China are Trump administration efforts to keep it from getting its hands on cutting-edge chip-making equipment from the Netherlands, writes Alex Webb. This would help China save hundreds of billions of dollars in annual chip imports. Further Trade-War Reading: Savvy European CEOs have mollified Trump by building American plants. They may soon find that wasn't enough. — Lionel Laurent Rethinking FinkBlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink this week said his company, the world's biggest money manager, would start considering the climate impact of its investments. Environmentalists cheered, but Nir Kaissar suggests Fink blurs the difference between "socially responsible investing" and taking "environmental, social and governance" factors into consideration. SRI is about values, ESG is about minimizing financial risks. By leaning toward SRI, Fink has opened the door to BlackRock being asked to weigh in on all sorts of social ills, whether they pose financial risks to companies or not, Nir writes. But enough of all this do-gooding; vice stocks are overdue for a bounce, writes John Authers. Telltale ChartsThe job market's headline numbers may be the strongest in decades, but they're built on a weak foundation, writes Karl Smith.  Trump's FDA may be weakening standards in its rush to get new drugs to market, writes Max Nisen. Further ReadingDon't worry about federal debt owed to taxpayers. It's easy to offset. — Narayana Kocherlakota "Electronification" of bond trading is boosting bank profits even as volatility and spreads fall. — Brian Chappatta Boris Johnson sets a dangerous precedent rescuing regional airline Flybe. — Therese Raphael Some want Trump and other presidents to have too much power to wage war. — Ramesh Ponnuru Libya is the latest example of how Turkey has alienated its neighbors. — Kori Schake Massachusetts just found a bipartisan solution to better schools. — Andrea Gabor Online dating is terrible, and AI-generated people won't help. — Scott Duke Kominers ICYMIChina agrees to buy stuff the U.S. doesn't actually have. Trump's tax cuts have given $32 billion to the biggest banks. Trump wants a thank-you from JPMorgan. KickersA hacker used a Windows 10 vulnerability to Rickroll the NSA. Man arrested in Peru with 20 live birds in his suitcase. (h/t Scott Kominers for the first two kickers) Potential super-Earth found around Proxima Centauri. How technology corrupts education. Note: Please send thanks and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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