Flailing

The Hill: "Warren vows to 'attack corruption in Washington' in New Year's Eve address."

Warren has become the "Poochie" of American politics: screaming escalating platitudes about those darn billionaires, while everybody wishes she would just go away.

Hahaha....no.

Victory Girls: "Full-of-Malarkey Tour: Biden Open to GOP Running Mate."

Yes, the Democrat party is going to allow a Republican in the Vice President spot to the oldest President ever.  That's gonna happen.

In case you missed it: "Joe Biden basically just said that miners should ‘learn to code’."

A defect in the indictment

American Greatness: "Can the Senate Dismiss the Impeachment Without a Trial?" - "It can and it should."  These are invented crimes and should be dispatched, post haste.

Fake but accurate

Babylon Bee: "Media Disappointed To Learn Armed Citizen Stopped Mass Shooting."

How goes the faux-peachment?

Gotta admit, this guy totally called it:

Check out the date of my tweet/prediction. pic.twitter.com/R4dElLQLzI

— Rich Weinstein (@phillyrich1) December 30, 2019

Add Chuck Todd's misinformation show to this list

Fox News: "Dan Gainor: 2019 was American journalism’s worst year ever – Here are 7 reasons why." 

We know, we know

Hot Air: "Just A Reminder That Democrats Can Get Away With Anything (And The Media Will Praise Them)."  "The Washington Post editorial board spelled out Friday what most conservatives already know to be true: Democrats can get away with anything. Not only that, they can be applauded for getting away with it by their friends in the media."

Jussie said he was attacked by this list

Victory Girls: "Media Year-in-Review: The Fail is Real."

Look who's obstructing now

Des Moines Register: "Biden says he would not comply with a Senate subpoena in the impeachment trial of President Trump."

I doubt it will come to that since the Democrats aren't impeaching Trump.  Still, it's always fun to watch Biden's inscrutable, sputtering reaction whenever this topic comes up:

“What are you going to cover?” Biden said to Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter in response to a question. “You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it’s about. It's all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off. This guy violated the Constitution. He said it in the driveway of the White House. He acknowledged he asked for help.”

Dude's losing it.  Not a joke.  I mean, c'mon!  (Watch the video).

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "Think about this. Biden is saying he will obstruct Congress by not complying with a subpoena. Isn’t that supposedly why Trump is being impeached? At least Trump has the legal defense of separation of powers, Biden has nothing." 

Fauxcahontas needs wampum

CNBC: "Elizabeth Warren’s campaign sounds the alarm as fundraising pace slows about 30% in fourth quarter."

Excitement!

American Greatness: "The Front-Runner’s Big Iowa Rally - "A guy who can barely get 90 people to come listen to him talk is up against a guy who can fill sports arenas."

Like all the other Democrats, Joe Mushmouth has to parrot the Andrew Sullivan complaint of Bad Man Destroying our very Civilization because it's all he has. 

Chuck Todd is a clown

Twitchy: "‘You lied to people’: @redsteeze drops Chuck Todd for lamenting conservatives’ ‘attacks’ on the mainstream media."

Related - Daily Caller: "WaPo Columnist Rips Rachel Maddow For Hyping Steele Dossier."

Merry Christmas!

It must be all that glowing press coverage he's getting

Breitbart: "Donald Trump approval rating surpasses Barack Obama at same point in Presidency."

And impeachment has been a real windfall for the Republicans.  Thanks, Nancy!

Constitutionally shaky and inherently stupid

Victory Girls: "Welcome To Impeachment Limbo For The Holidays."  There is exactly zero chance that Mitch McConnell will debate the Senate trial until the articles arrive at the Senate.

Domo arigato, Mr. Robot

Last night was the series finale for Mr. Robot and what a ride.  Creator Sam Esmail has been waiting four years to use this theme song.

P.S. - Is there's any justice in this simulated world, Carly Chaikin would win the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

Stop me if you've heard this before

Andrew Sullivan travels down the well-worn road of "Orange Man Bad":

It [impeachment] is about the character of one man: his decision to forgo any outreach, poison domestic politics, marinate it in deranged invective, betray his followers by enriching the plutocracy, destroy the dignity of the office of president, and turn his position into a means of self-enrichment. 

Sullivan is really wearing out his thesaurus here.  We get it: Trump is a blowhard who doesn't play well with others.  The fact that he doesn't act the way you think he should act is in no way disqualifying to the point of overturning a national election.

Also: in what way is any of this news that we have to be reminded again?  We've literally heard nothing but this message since Hillary's flame-out campaign.  It's sheer foolishness to think this will resonate with voters anymore but, hey, that's life in the bubble.

Here's where Sullivan, realizing there's no meat on the bones, tries to conjure up substance

It’s about the personal abuse of public office: using the presidency’s powers to blackmail a foreign entity into interfering in a domestic election on his behalf, 

Wrong: there's no blackmail.  The Ukrainians said there wasn't, there are exactly zero fact witnesses that testified to it, and the Democrats dropped bribery from their articles.  After all the money spent on focus groups, too!

turning the Department of Justice into an instrument of personal vengeance and political defense,

This one is especially risible.  It's like we didn't just see the Horowitz report where the Obama DOJ actively spied on Trump's campaign using the bogus Steele dossier as a pretext.  But not to worry: Susan Rice sent an email to herself reminding herself that Obama insisted the investigation into a political rival would be "by the book."  Nothing to see here!

The "personal vengeance" and "political defense" Sullivan cites is related to Attorney General Bob Barr stating that FISA warrants were an abuse of the Obama DOJ.  Maybe he doesn't read newspapers.

openly obstructing investigations into his own campaign, 

Fake news.  "Mueller: Investigation was “not at any time curtailed, stopped, or hindered”  But after three years of one witch hunt, Trump was supposed to gather the pitchforks for another?  Go get a court order, losers, and brush up on the meaning of co-equal branches of government.

and treating the grave matter of impeachment as a “hoax” while barring any testimony from his own people.

It was, and is, a hoax and nobody's buying it, despite this overwrought rhetoric.  But I understand: the Democrats and their media have few arrows in their quiver so they have to resort to this moldy-oldie about Trump's character and trying to gaslight everybody about the economy. 

Driven to madness

Red State: "Even People Who Like NY Times Columnist Paul Krugman Are Telling Him to Cool It With the Extreme TDS."

It's been a tough time for Mr. "Markets will never recover."

Snooze fest

NY Post: "Latest Democratic debate had lowest viewership yet."

Powerline: "Are voters tuning out the Democrats?"

I don't blame the candidates.  It's the media/moderators fault for serving up lame questions that are merely setups for a long, boring recitation of talking points.  How is such a thing as this allowed in a debate: Elizabeth Warren is confronted with economic truth and she simply declares "they're wrong!"  Oh, is that how it works?

I didn't watch the debate.  I wonder if Bernie said "I wrote the damn bill."

Hurry up and wait

RedState: "What’s the Real Reason Why House Democrats Will Wait ‘As Long as it Takes’ to Send Articles of Impeachment to Senate? Eric Ciaramella."

I was on record for a long time predicting that the Democrats wouldn't go through with impeachment because it meant turning control over to Mitch McConnell's Senate.  And I was right!

Joe did *not* ask for Obama's endorsement

But, man, he really didn't ask for Obama's doctor's endorsement.  Ace: "Obama's Former Doctor: No, Joe Biden Isn't a "Healthy" Guy. He's a Stroke Risk."  In addition to his irregular heartbeat, let's remember that Joe has literally had brain surgery.  For his multiple aneurysms.

When Biden's eye filled up with blood and his staff said it was a contact lens problem, the media said "sounds good to us!"

Trump is not impeached

Noah Feldman: "Trump Isn’t Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate" - "According to the Constitution, impeachment is a process, not a vote."

Feldman is one of the four law professors who testified in Congress for the Judiciary hearings.  As David Burge, we're in Schrodinger's Cat area now.

Cocaine Mitch is done

Shorter McConnell: The House is full of children and the adults of the Senate will not oblige their behavior

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) December 19, 2019

Did you have to pre-empt Jeopardy for this?

David Harsanyi: "Impeach Him If You Like, but for the Love of God, Stop Pretending You Care about the Constitution." 

Wow...that was unexpected

Volokh Conspiracy: "Fifth Circuit Declares Individual Mandate Unconstitutional, Punts on Whether Rest of ACA Must Fall" - "As if there wasn't enough going on this week, a federal appellate court issues a significant (and significantly flawed) ruling in the latest Obamacare challenge."

In the simplest terms, this dispute stems from the original Obamacare decision where the individual mandate was struck down as a penalty but still existed (according to Justice Roberts) within Congress's power of taxation.  But when the Republican Congress zeroed out the tax, the mandate "disappeared."  Now the question is whether the whole law can exist ("severability") without the mandate.

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "While everyone was focused on impeachment, 5th Circuit cut the legs out from under Obamacare."  "So perhaps the headline today is not that the 5th Circuit killed Obamacare, but rather, the 5th Circuit cut the legs out from under Obamacare. Whether the entire legless law falls is yet to be determined." 

The road to ruin runs through King County

City Journal: "Progressives Gone Wild" - "In Seattle, municipal employees increasingly see identity politics and fighting “oppression” as part of their jobs."

Have you heard the news?

Stuff around the net.  Axios: "Focus group: These Obama/Trump voters are just Trump voters now."  They spoke with a bunch of Obama-to-Trump voters and it reads like a Trump War Room press release: they love Trump, hate impeachment, and have "zero trust" in the media.

In case you missed it.  Quinnipiac: "Trump Job Approval And Economy Rating Hit Highs, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds."  Meanwhile, support for impeachment is collapsing like a souffle. 

The stock market hit yet another record high today.  Paul Krugman hardest hit.

And here's your fun trivia for tonight:

Since World War II, no president has lost reelection when unemployment was below 7.4% https://t.co/BQwEFif0Uq

— Eddy Elfenbein (@EddyElfenbein) December 16, 2019

The "meh" impeachment

Last night, Byron York wrote an article called "The get-it-over-with impeachment."

This morning on "Meet the Press" they had a panel of six everyday voters from a swing county in Michigan.  They could not care less about impeachment: they say it's not a topic of interest or discussion and it was pretty clear that nobody's mind was changed one way or another.

A glitch in the playlist

I was listening to classic Christmas carols on my Google Home speaker and they played "Shotgun" by Junior Walker & the All Stars.  Ho ho ho.

The new normal

Andrew McCarthy: "The Costs of Trivializing Impeachment."  "Trivializing impeachment gives us the worst of all worlds: Impeachment will become a less credible check on presidential misconduct, but it will still poison our politics and compromise our government’s effectiveness."

Making stuff up

Federalist: "Democrats Are Passing The Weakest Impeachment In American History."

I've been told that nobody is above the law

Washington Examiner: "Revealed: Hunter Biden 'possession of controlled substance' charge kept under wraps while father led drug war from Senate."  "Joe Biden’s son Hunter was arrested on Jersey Shore drug charges in 1988 and had his record expunged at a time when his father was pushing for the incarceration of drug offenders drawn disproportionately from minority groups."

This kind of hypocrisy kneecapped Kamala Harris.  Let's see how Joe handles it.  He's very calm and rational when asked about Hunter.

Presumption of guilt

The Atlantic: "Democrats Have Failed to Prove Their Case Against Trump" - "Republicans are still waiting for a convincing case that the president was acting to advance his own personal interests."

The sham articles

Alan Dershowitz in The Hill: "Two House articles of impeachment fail to meet constitutional standards."

House Democrats have announced the grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on which they plan to seek the impeachment of President Trump. Neither of these proposed articles satisfy the express constitutional criteria for an impeachment, which are limited to “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Neither are high or low crimes or misdemeanors. Neither are mentioned within the Constitution.

Both are so vague and open ended that they could be applied in partisan fashion by a majority of the House against almost any president from the opposing party. Both are precisely what the Framers had rejected at their Constitutional Convention. Both raise the “greatest danger,” in the words of Alexander Hamilton, that the decision to impeach will be based on the “comparative strength of parties,” rather than on “innocence or guilt.”

You can tell they're a farce because the Democrats struggled mightily to push quid pro quo until the focus groups told them to shift to bribery.  In the end, they had to settle on "abuse of power" which is a completely meaningless talking point that could have been used a dozen times on the previous resident of the Oval Office.

Move along, nothing to see here

Hot Air: "Cruz To Horowitz: Did An FBI Attorney Defraud The FISA Court? Horowitz: Yup." "Hey, here’s the FBI’s lawyer cooking a FISA warrant to surveil someone who they knew to be a confidential source for “another agency,” but … Republicans pounce! or something."

Extra - Let's take a stroll down memory lane where the mainstream media insisted the Steele dossier was real and not the source of the FISA application because they really wanted it to be true.

The House can impeach for any reason...

...and they sure did with these weak sauce so-called "articles of impeachment."  Joel Pollak has provided a real service with a loooong article debunking the entire silly document: "Line by line, a complete debunking of the Democrats' articles of impeachment"

Democrats released their two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and they are a complete joke.

Not only did the Democrats back away from charging Trump with bribery, obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation, campaign finance violations, treason, or any of the other wild claims they floated, but the two articles themselves are fraudulent, based on blatantly false claims of law and fact.

No quid pro quo or bribery?  All that focus group money down the drain! 

For the record the articles were "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress"; both of these are so vague that "being bad" wouldn't be far off target either.  Ricochet nails it: "House Democrats admit they never had an impeachment case anyway":

This morning we are graced with “news” that House Democrats will present two articles of impeachment to the full House. The two “charges” are probably the two most vague, unspecific, unconstitutional things they could manage to throw out without dropping the whole thing altogether, proving that at this point mostly about the 2020 election and doing as little damage to their brand as possible.

If they fail to add to these two, they will be left with “charges” that not only have nothing to do with law or the Constitution but are flaming examples of exactly what the Founders/Framers were trying to prevent.

Speaking of trying to salvage their "brand," Nancy Pelosi waited all of a couple minutes to call a press conference announcing a USMCA deal with Trump.  See!  We're not all about impeachment!  Nancy is trying to get this train wreck over as possible which is why the impeachment hearings lasted a whole two days whereas Nixon's impeachment hearings stretched over months.  The whole thing is spinning out of control, the most recent polling shows more opposition to impeachment, and some red state Democrats are looking for a censure motion to avoid an impeachment vote. 

Now they're going to turn this over to the tender mercies of Mitch McConnell and the GOP-controlled Senate?  Well, things can only get better from here!

Mistakes were made

All in the same direction, for some unknown reason.  Hit and Run: "The IG Report Is a Huge Blow to the FBI's Credibility. Why Is It Being Treated Like Vindication?"

Sean Davis knows why:

Don't be surprised when media ignore or distort what the IG report says about rampant FISA abuses and the officials who perpetrated them. Democrat-affiliated media are deeply implicated in the Russia collusion hoax and desperate to avoid any accountability for it.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 9, 2019

Impeachment 4ever

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Legacy of Low-Bar Impeachment."  "From now on, impeachment can be used against any first-term president with a record of success. It will be used solely as a political strategy by the opposition party that controls the House to weaken a president’s reelection chances. That’s the Democratic Party’s legacy and Democrats will live to rue it."

Democrats never think the standards they set for others will boomerang back on them.

Fast and furious impeachment

Jonathan Turley in The Hill: "'Fast and Furious' impeachment looks like a rush to a failed case." - "Of course, none of this matters. Pelosi will get a fast impeachment, and there is no shortage of fury. Ultimately, “Fast and Furious” amounts to little more than a rush to a failed impeachment."

Turley notes that the most discussed charge is Obstruction of Congress which does not address whatever underlying crime there might be and only exists because of the investigation.  Just like Obamacare, we have to pass the articles of impeachment to find out what high crime has been committed.

Look, fat

Bookworm Room: "Call me callous, but I’m enjoying watching Joe Biden decompensate." - "Some people deserve what the Fates throw at them. The fates knew what they were doing when they visited incipient dementia on Joe Biden, a man whose distinguished himself for the last 40 years by being incredibly mean, wrong, racist, and destructive." 

Oh no, they're on to us!

Hot Air link to NY Times article: "GOP Impeachment Tactic: Turn Ukraine Allegations Against Biden."

There is no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden, while serving as vice president, improperly intervened in Ukraine to benefit his son. But the president’s advisers are betting that many voters will ignore the complexities of the allegations and absorb a simple message about a father using his influence to help his son, a senior Trump campaign official said…

There's two things I suspect about the Biden story: 1) a lot of Americans aren't aware of the whole story behind Hunter and 2) they're going to react badly to the gaslighting that there's "no evidence" that the sitting Vice President did nothing to help his recently-discharged cocaine-addled son get a sweet no-show job.

It's going to be "those 30,000 emails were all yoga routines" all over again.

Colin Kaepernick unavailable for comment

Breitbart: "More black men have jobs than ever before, unemployment rate holds at lowest level ever."

Dude's never gonna make it

He can't stand the heat of an Iowan farmer.  He'll never be able to withstand a Senate subpoena: "Impeachment's Next Phase Could Hit Biden Worst of All."

Extra - "Biden can't stand the heat."  That's what I said.

Death Spiral 2: Healthcare Boogaloo

Hot Air (linking to paywalled Washington Post): "Biden And Buttigieg Say You Can Keep Your Health-Care Plan. They’re Lying — Just Like Obama." 

Hahaha...what?

It's early in the night and I just got home from work so there's stuff to catch up on.  But this caused a spit-take already: "Adam Schiff's report cites no bribery or high crimes - only tweets."

Notably, though Schiff and others attempted to argue that the president had possibly committed “bribery” by allegedly asking the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for U.S. aid, there is no discussion of bribery whatsoever in the report — other than references to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s claims that Biden might be guilty of bribery because his son was on the payroll of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma.

Emphasis mine.  I can't believe this clown show is going to go on much longer.  As I've predicted many times before, Nancy Pelosi is going to look for an escape with a censure resolution and put this political time bomb behind her.  Sending this to the Senate would be unthinkable.

As I tweeted a few weeks ago, impeachment ain't gonna happen. I just don't think Pelosi is dumb enough to hand the Republican Senate that gift while heading into an election. https://t.co/111LOgA6S8

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) December 3, 2019

Made it through day 2!

Whamageddon! It helps that I listen to classic rock most of the time.

Waiting for the rich to do their "fair share" of shoveling

Today's sham-peachment news

Twitchy: "Rep. Ratcliffe explains WHY Schiff is withholding ICIG Michael Atkinson’s closed-door 8+ hour testimony."  It's all about the whistleblower.

Then there's this: "Rep. Doug Collins: Schiff will be first witness called by House Judiciary GOP." 

Schiff has racked up Four Pinocchios and Three Pinocchios for his various lies about the whistleblower, the latter about Schiff's false claim that the whistleblower has the "statutory right" to anonymity.  He does not.

Learn to code

Legal Insurrection: "Newsweek Reporter Fired for Inaccurate Report About Trump Spending Thanksgiving “Tweeting and Golfing”."

Republicans have been complaining about media bias forever and this incident is yet another example how easily the press can be duped into stories that support their bias.

Extra - Babylon Bee: "Nation Looking For Right Phrase To Describe Media That Behaves Like Some Kind Of Adversary Of The Populace."

Spin that narrative, AP

Twitchy: "AP performs ‘Olympic-level mental gymnastics’ for report on how Republicans are weaponizing impeachment." 

Planning is the key to any endeavor

Law and Crime: "Convenience Store Clerk Allegedly Staged Robbery with Boyfriend Hours Before Getting Engaged."  Here's my favorite part of the story:

Investigators found money from the store in Moore vehicle, as well as a handwritten list of stuff required to stage the robbery, according to the public safety department. A search of the couple’s home turned up the weapon and clothes Moore wore during the staged robbery, officials said.

They purchased engagement rings at Walmart a couple of hours after the "robbery." 

Lies he wanted to believe

Issues and Insights: "China Proves It: Obama Really Was A Sap."  "Remember when President Barack Obama was running around telling everyone how he’d convinced China to get serious about cutting its carbon dioxide emissions? A new report shows that Obama was easily duped."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Living rent-free in DeNiro's head

OMG, can we get this guy to commit to moving to another country in the event of Trump's re-election? 

Dude, we get it.

Why did they delete this scene?

Today I Learned: Creed Bratton on "The Office" is played by Creed Bratton, who really was in the band The Grass Roots.

Sounds like obstruction!

Breitbart: "Schiff refuses to commit to testifying in Senate impeachment trial."

Apparently I'm the only person who thinks the House won't vote on Articles of Impeachment.  If the polls are to believed, the Soviet-era show trial was a flop and now the Democrats want to turn over control of the narrative to Mitch McConnell and the Senate?

Not only will the Republicans call Adam Schiff, they'll also have on deck the whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, Hunter Biden, and Alexandra Chalupa.  Maybe they can call the President of Ukraine who has consistently said that there was "no pressure" and that he didn't even know the military aid was delayed.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans will be getting a first look at Hunter Biden's sweetheart deal with Burisma while Pop was influencing Ukraine policy; an arrangement so obviously corrupt that the State Department tried to warn then-VP Biden.

Nancy Pelosi seems to think that, to borrow a phrase, since they can't go back the only way out is through.

Update - Hmmm: "WaPo Reporter: We’re Hearing Behind The Scenes That More House Dems Are Getting “Cold Feet” About Impeachment."

Joe Biden gives advice: "You should vote for Trump"

OK, Joe!  Brietbart: "Biden mocks immigrant activist asking about Obama-era deportations: 'You should vote for Trump'."

I don't know if "mocking" is the word I would use for this video but Joe definitely gets testy every time somebody asks him about the three million people deported under the Obama Administration.

Bookmark this

A really comprehensive review of the whole Ukraine hoax and the impeachment farce: "The Empire Strikes Back."

Michael Anton pictures the reaction of the deplorables in flyover land who are being told 1) you voted wrong in 2016 and 2) we can't allow you to make the same mistake in 2020.

Just making stuff up

George Washington law school professor Jonathan Turley: "Democrats seek to redefine crimes to reframe the Trump impeachment."

Those “clear established crimes” are absent in this impeachment. Instead, the same experts and House members now claim three new crimes with equal certainty, but even less support under case law. If Democrats continue on this course, it will combine the narrowest impeachment in history with the most dubious claims of criminal conduct.

If there's any consolation, it looks like the Democrats aren't fooling anyone with this clown show.

Then everybody at the gas station clapped

Twitchy: "This totally believable overheard conversation proves that Trump’s support is disappearing."

I'm trying to imagine how this guy expected us to picture this scene.  Two guys were on opposite sides of a gas pump and a third person overheard it from a distant pump?  Or that two guys were using the same gas pump?  That's just crazy.

I didn't watch the debate last night

I hear it was a snoozer and they all lied about Stacey Abrams again.  Anyway, "Morning Joe: It’s Time For Dems To Have A Talk About Biden." 

Today's Sham-peachment: Presumption theater

This is huge. @RepMikeTurner: "Nobody else on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying aid to these investigations, is that correct?"

Ambassador Sondland: "Yes."

It’s time to end this madness. #ImpeachmentSham #CaseClosed
pic.twitter.com/HcXKhZvbd0

— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) November 20, 2019

How funny would it be if...

...somebody at tonight's debate congratulated Joe Biden for his new grandchild? 

Down the memory hole

The media will be more than happy to promote the cherished narrative.  John Hayward:

Rarely has there been a more dramatic example of epistemic closure than Democrats refusing to admit Obama put kids in cages. Confronted with iron-clad evidence, they respond by deleting the evidence and pretending nobody saw it. They simply cannot admit it happened.

Will our brave firefighter media confront Joe Biden with this ugly history of ripping tots from their parents and throwing them in cages?  Nahhh. 

The mainstream media is trash

Ace: "AP Publishes Story Noting That 100,000 Migrant Children are In Detention, Pinning This on Trump; Then They "Retract" The Story When They Learn This Figure is from 2015, and Therefore Not "News" Because It's Not Helpful to Democrats."

Down into the memory hole.  Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.

Driving home this evening, NPR decided that the moment to highlight was the applause that Alexander Vindman received when he made some vague statement about "doing right."  Somewhere lost in the story was that he clearly lied about his contact with the whistleblower and he couldn't identify a crime Trump had committed.  It's my understanding that every witness today said they didn't see evidence of a crime and Rep. John Ratcliffe noted that nowhere in the voluminous transcripts collected by Schiff does anybody mention bribery.  

Oh, that's not news.  Let's talk about feelings some more.

Extra - Dude was busy, yo:

.@Jim_Jordan asks Col. Vindman why he didn’t go to his boss, Tim Morrison, and instead went to a lawyer. Vindman says it was a busy week... and that eventually, the lawyer told him not to go to anyone else.

To say this impeachment case is collapsing is an understatement.

— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) November 19, 2019

Verdict: true

Byron York: "Democrats don't want public to know origins of Ukraine investigation like they didn't want public to know origins of Russia investigation."

Shut up, they explained.

Convene the focus groups

Michael Goodwin: "Pelosi has gone full coup coup in Trump impeachment push."  "The search for buzzwords proves the entire enterprise is 100% political. If impeachment were justified by facts, the right words would be obvious to the vast majority of Americans."

Interesting in IA

Des Moines Register: "Iowa Poll: Pete Buttigieg rockets to the top of the 2020 field as a clear front-runner."

Mayor Pete acquitted himself well at the last debate where he came across as lucid (unlike Biden) and reasonable (unlike Warren).  I've always thought he and Kamala Harris were credible threats to Trump unlike the geriatric trio.  Clearly, I was wrong about Kamala.

It's all they got

The New Neo: "The Democrats want to define Trump being president as a high crime and misdemeanor."

Yes, it was a stunt

Both times.  Fox News: "Media criticizes Elise Stefanik during hearing after praising Warren's 'Nevertheless, she persisted' moment." 

Not impressed

Hot Air: "Turley, Starr: House Dems Not Making A Case For Impeachment So Far — Or Even A Crime."  They join CNN's Jeffrey Toobin in this respect.

The Masked Singer + Triumph

Honest to gravy, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is the best guest host ever on "The Masked Singer."  So far he's guessed Lou Dobbs, the Olsen Twins, and David Hasselhoff because "he has to appear on this show at some point."

Make Triumph a permanent host!

Feelings...nothing more than feelings

I had to work today so I could only catch snippets of the news, but it sure sounds like Impeachment Inquiry! was a huge bust.  Which was predicted because - ahem - the witnesses...weren't.

Practically every question on the point of the hearing assumed facts not in evidence, because not one witness had any direct contact with Trump himself. Not one of them could point to an overt direction for a quid pro quo from the White House. They assumed that was the policy, they worried that was the policy, and they certainly didn’t like the direction the Trump administration was taking Ukraine. But as far as the quid pro quo issue, it’s entirely assumed on facts not in evidence, because none of these witnesses can testify to such orders, let alone from Donald Trump — with whom they had no contact.

How bad was it?  Even CNN had to admit it: "Even CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin thinks it’s a problem for Dems that neither witness had direct contact with the president."

This is my favorite part: Adam Schiff warns the witness not to answer a question based on "facts not in evidence" and incredulous Republicans want to know if that's the standard since they just spent half a day listening to facts not in evidence.

Adam Schiff called out for interrupting GOP questions: “are you seriously interrupting our time here” #StopTheMadness pic.twitter.com/K8mjS6tBp6

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 13, 2019

Speak not his name in the Star Chamber

Hot Air: "Schiff: The First Rule Of Whistleblower Club Is That You Don’t Talk About Whistleblower Club."

Somebody has been working the focus groups

Twitchy: "Rep. Lee Zeldin: Democrats’ new word of the day is ‘extortion,’ replacing quid pro quo."

Good luck with all that:

Volker said the problem with Schiff's scenario was that events did not unfold as he said. During the time in question, Ukrainian officials did not know that the U.S. aid was being withheld, Volker said; they learned that in late August, while the notorious Trump phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in late July. In addition, Volker explained, relations with the U.S. seemed to be good even though the Ukrainians did nothing that Trump mentioned in that call — no investigation and no public statement announcing an inquiry.

It will be interesting to see how Democrats pin extortion on Trump while excusing Joe Biden's very public threat to withhold $1 billion in aid to the Ukrainians until they fired their prosecutor.

When you're polling below Tulsi

Amy Klobuchar says that Democrats are sexist.

Kamala Harris says that Democrats are sexist and racist.

And, yes, I know they're not polling below Tulsi but her on-air evisceration of Harris was the greatest.

Oh that's different

John Kass: "Jeffrey Epstein and Brett Kavanaugh, for ABC News, a tale of double standards."  "There is just no responsible way to discuss ABC’s alleged spiking of the Epstein story — or NBC’s spiking of the Harvey Weinstein story — without dealing with how those news networks, and other media outlets, worked frantically to destroy Kavanaugh."

It was 30 years ago today

Nice little mini-gallery on the Berlin Wall which came down 30 years ago today.

I was a junior in college then.  I'm older now.

Star Chamber follies

I was away on business and missed a lot of news this past week.  I was hoping that, by the time I returned, the Democrats would - finally - articulate exactly what high crime President Trump committed to warrant overturning a national election.  Alas, it was not to be.

American Thinker: "Schiff goes Full Stalin"  Let the show trial begin:

These questions ask, essentially, if the witnesses believe President Trump is guilty of pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Bidens in exchange for military aid. The GOP, it seems, will not be allowed to call witnesses who have testimony or evidence to the contrary, that there was no pressure and no quid pro quo. Nor will the GOP be allowed to present witnesses or evidence that confirms that the “dirt” is accurate, that the crime of threatening to withhold aid for a personal and political favor, a crime Biden has already confessed to, was committed by Biden, not Trump, on behalf of Biden’s son Hunter. Nor will the GOP be allowed to make the case that any Trump inquiry of the Ukrainians was mandated by a treaty signed by President Bill Clinton. This is, dare I use the term Democrats used during the impeachment of Bill Clinton for a real crime, a phrase used by Joe Biden himself,  a political lynching. 

The "crimes" of Trump are yet to be determined:

Now it seems you don’t even need real crimes defined by statute. You can invent them, as Dershowitz charged Democrats with doing in an appearance with former U.S. Atty Guy Lewis on the November 7 edition of “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News.

One of the proposed Schiff articles of impeachment is something called “Obstruction of Congress.” As Dershowitz asks, just where is the statute defining this? Congress and the President are co-equal branches of government. If a Trump administration official refuses to comply with a subpoena based on executive privilege of other grounds, you take them to court. You don’t impeach the President and charge him with an invented crime.

There is no crime: there is only the continuation of the now three-year temper-tantrum that Hillary was denied her spot behind the Resolute desk.  Andrew Sullivan pretty much admitted as much in this thumb-sucker article full of ambiguities masquerading as serious thought.  We're in mortal danger from "regime cleavage", you see, and Trump has committed "abuses" such as correctly calling the Mueller investigation a witch hunt and mean tweets.  In Sullivan's world, Trump is a "shabby tyrant" because he talks bad and advances policies with which Sullivan disagrees.

And this is where we are: they really hate Trump and that's enough to cancel 2016, through whatever Stalinesque means necessary.

Short hiatus

See you soon.

Then the unicorns appeared with the M4A money

Politico: "The issue that Obama alums think could doom Elizabeth Warren" - "The candidate has dug herself in a hole on a top-of-mind concern for voters."

Philip Klein: "Here's a list of $20.35 trillion of Elizabeth Warren tax hikes."

The reviews are in: "‘This is going to cause down-ballot damage’: Warren's $20 trillion health plan fails to quiet critics" - "The Massachusetts senator’s Medicare for All proposal is new ammunition for her rivals."

Because it's sheer fantasy:

For comparison, CBO says that increasing IRS enforcement by 35% would generate.... $55 billion in revenue over a decade.

Warren is counting on getting 40 times that. https://t.co/cAc2nWHDea https://t.co/TJZVa8r7VT

— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) November 1, 2019

Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown

NY Post: "What, exactly, is President Trump’s ‘high crime’ here?"  Beating Hillary.

Warren will raise taxes on the middle class

According to people who understand simple math.  Breitbart: "Fact check: Warren's Medicare for All plan raises taxes on the middle class."

Honestly, can anybody believe we can nearly double the entire federal budget and the tax burden will only fall on Jeff Bezos?

Extra - "Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All fantasy."

Historical analogue: "TIL many famous British artists, including Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, left the UK in the early 70s to avoid an 83% tax on the top bracket of their income."

Exactly what the Ukrainian president said

Quid pro no.  Federalist: "NSC Official Tim Morrison To Schiff: ‘I Was Not Concerned That Anything Illegal Was Discussed’ In Trump-Ukraine Phone Call"

Morrison testified that Ukrainian officials were not even aware that certain military funding had been delayed by the Trump administration until late August 2019, more than a month after the Trump-Zelensky call, casting doubt on allegations that Trump somehow conveyed an illegal quid pro quo demand during the July 25 call.

Which is exactly what Ukrainian President Zelensky said in an October 10th press conference.

The NY Times is trash

Twitchy: "Media hardest hit: The hero Photoshopped out of that doctored photo ‘was not offended and laughed’."

Extra - Jim Acosta is a clown.

Of all the drama queens, this is the drama queeniest

Poor Dahlia Lithwick just can't.  "Why I Haven’t Gone Back to SCOTUS Since Kavanaugh."

The enduring memory, a year later, is that my 15-year-old son texted—he was watching it in school—to ask if I was “perfectly safe” in the Senate chamber. He was afraid for the judge’s mental health and my physical health. I had to patiently explain that I was in no physical danger of any kind, that there were dozens of people in the room, and that I was at the very back, with the phalanx of reporters.

Good lord.  Passing it on to the next generation is a form of child abuse.

"Obviously, I'm a top-tier candidate"

Not anymore sister: "Kamala Harris Falls to 3% and Is In Danger of Not Making November Debate, While Tulsi Gabbard Needs One More Good Poll to Make It."

Let's all enjoy this flashback where Kamala dismissed Tulsi because of her poll numbers.  How the turntables have turned!

I'm calling it now

Prediction: Joe Biden will finish in third place in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

There is just zero enthusiasm for this guy.

Sham impeachment roundup

Hot Air: "Draft Resolution Authorizing Impeachment Inquiry Will Let Republicans Call Witnesses — Subject To Adam Schiff’s Approval." 

What could go wrong with that plan?  "Schiff Directing Witnesses Not To Answer GOP Questions."

Twitchy: "Nancy Pelosi and House Dems are playing games."  They can't authorize a real investigation now because that would be a tacit acknowledgment of the current clown show.

But here comes the groundswell "meh": "Poll: only 36% say House should impeach Trump"
And this: "Impeaching Trump not popular in swing states."
Which is why: "Don’t have the votes? House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer won’t commit to a floor vote Thursday."

This Pelosi non-impeachment resolution is hilarious. It goes out of its way to avoid authorizing a specific investigation and delegation of authority and instead repeatedly references an "investigation" that under the rules of the House doesn't even exist. https://t.co/KYIoKkL31J

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 29, 2019

The sham impeachment continues apace

Really good article in the WSJ: "This Impeachment Subverts the Constitution" - "It’s nakedly political and procedurally defective, and so far there’s no public evidence of high crimes."

But wait, Nancy Pelosi is here to remedy this: "Finally: House Dems To Vote On Resolution Formalizing Impeachment Proceedings."

Except this is not an impeachment vote: it's merely an ass-covering resolution by the Democrats saying they're allowed to run their Star Chamber.  The jig was up when a reporter committed an act of journalism and tracked down Nancy Pelosi who admitted: "‘It’s Not An Impeachment Resolution’."

Extra - The Last Refuge: "Pelosi is not delivering a House “Resolution on Impeachment” for a vote, because if she did hold a vote on an impeachment resolution, the minority and the Executive branch would gain rights therein."  We can't have that.

More - Althouse: "The vote will take place on Thursday, and it will be presented as whether to “affirm” the inquiry... which seems to say that they don't want to admit that they were doing it wrong, just asking for an affirmation."

ISIS leader dead

This is a breaking story: "Trump describes al-Baghdadi as 'whimpering and crying' before dying in U.S. operation: 'He died like a coward'."

I heard on NPR that the only American casualty was a dog.

Reminder - Trump is scheduled to attend the World Series game tonight.  Should be interesting.  (Whoops: original post said he was going to throw out the first pitch)

Extra - Let's watch the mainstream media spin.  Red State: "CNBC Hack John Harwood Is Really, Really Upset That Al-Baghdadi Was Killed."  "The tweets you are about to see are an absolute clown show."

And this - Glenn Greenwald tweet: "It's genuinely fascinating watching Democrats in real time struggle to figure out what to say about this. They want to be patriotic and anti-ISIS, but also need a way to malign Trump without contradicting their gushing Obama praise over OBL: not an easy balancing act. Good luck!"

Let's never forget the pain of this actual hate crime

Western Massachusetts update: there was a horrible hate crime at (checks notes) Smith College.

NORTHAMPTON - Smith College announced Friday an investigation is underway to find those responsible for drawing swastikas on multiple buildings on the Northampton campus.

Yes, some Nazi sympathizers broke into the elite all-female college deep in the Berkeley of the eastern seaboard.  Most assuredly, this was the work of Massachusetts rednecks and not a Jussie Smolett-style cry for attention.  We shall not rest until these very real perpetrators are brought to justice.

Here comes Hillary 2.0

This quip from Andrew Sullivan made me laugh:

For what it’s worth, I suspect Warren will win the nomination and dutifully lose the election just like Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, and the second Clinton. She has that quintessential perfume of smug, well-meaning, mediocre doom that Democrats simply cannot resist.

If I've learned anything from 2016, it's that Americans love a shrill, supercilious, East Coast liberal who lies constantly about things large and small.

Where have I heard this before?

Let's flashback to 1988:

Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr., a U.S. senator from Delaware, was driven from the nomination battle after delivering, without attribution, passages from a speech by British Labor party leader Neil Kinnock. A barrage of subsidiary revelations by the press also contributed to Biden's withdrawal: a serious plagiarism incident involving Biden during his law school years; the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record at a New Hampshire campaign event; and the discovery of other quotations in Biden's speeches pilfered from past Democratic politicians.

The old boy is still at it:

Dude can't even come up with his own lies. https://t.co/r6AbrhbURd

— Dwayne Schneider 🛠 (@DwaynesStache) October 24, 2019

That news isn't fit to print

Victory Girls: "Russia Probe Is Now A Criminal Investigation And New York Times Is Not A Fan."

Never go full Mondale

The Bulwark: "Why Elizabeth Warren Is Never Going to Do Medicare For All."

She's backed herself into a corner where she can't possibly go into the next debate (November 20th) repeating that exhausted mendacity about costs, but she also can't be honest and admit that the middle class will be taxed back into the Stone Age.

How depressing

Hot Air: "Poll: 51% Think The First Amendment Goes Too Far By Allowing Hate Speech And Should Be “Updated” To Reflect Cultural Norms." 

Worst quid pro quo ever

And they tell me that Trump is a master deal maker.  Deroy Murdock: "Pelosi’s Impeachment Express"

Zelensky repeatedly insists that he felt no such pressure to investigate alleged Biden-family corruption in Ukraine. At a joint September 25 news conference with President Trump at the United Nations, Zelensky said, “nobody pushed me.” Zelensky said on October 10, “There was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S.” He spoke during a 14-hour “press marathon” in Kiev, in which he answered unscripted questions from some 300 journalists who interviewed him in 20- to 30-minute sessions, in seven- to ten-member squads. “This call influenced only one thing. We needed to secure a meeting, that it was necessary to meet with the president,” Zelensky added, referring to Trump. “I wanted to show him our team, our young team. I wanted to get him into Ukraine.”

Likewise, Trump did not threaten to withhold U.S. military aid, absent a Ukrainian probe of the Bidens. Though such assets were being withheld at the time, Ukrainian officials were reportedly unaware of this during the July 25 Trump/Zelensky phone call. Zelensky told journalists in Kiev on October 10: “I had no idea the military aid was held up.” These weapons — which Obama never even offered — arrived not long after Trump and Zelensky conversed. Specifically, Zelensky and Vice President Mike Pence spoke in Warsaw on September 1. Zelensky explained: “And after this meeting, the U.S. unlocked the aid and added $140 million. That’s why there was no blackmail.”

So over and over, the Ukrainian President said there was no pressure, he didn't know the aid was delayed, the aid was released, and Trump never got the "quo" to this alleged "quid."  No wonder Adam Schiff has to put on parody shows.

Then magically, the rich handed over their money

Reason Online: "Elizabeth Warren Is Running Out of Fake Money to Pay for Her Terrible Ideas" - "Warren says her wealth tax math "clearly" adds up. It doesn't."

Fauxcahontas was rising in the national polls before the last debate but she's dropped back down since then.  I think her slippery answer on middle-class taxes - if you can call it that - didn't help her.  Now she insists she's developing a plan to fill the $30 trillion hole in Medicare for All.

But, c'mon, she isn't.

It's for your own good, citizen

Your unelected betters are valiantly trying to save you from your choices, and you bumpkins don't even have the decency to say thank you. https://t.co/CRsvNixWi0

— The Partyman (@PartymanRandy) October 21, 2019

That emoluments clause

Volokh Conspiracy: "George Washington and the Emoluments Clauses" - "The Practices of our First President Suggest That President Trump is not violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses."

Can you feel the Joe-thusiasm?

Hot Air: "Inquirer Minds Want To Know: What If You Threw A Biden Debate Party And No One Came?"

He was hosting a presidential debate-watching party for Joe Biden supporters just blocks from the former vice president’s national campaign headquarters. He didn’t expect a big crowd, but in the end only one other person showed up.

The two men watched in silence and both left before the three-hour debate ended.

Many months ago, I thought that Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris were candidate who could beat Trump.  I was very, very wrong about the latter.  Mayor Pete?  He's on the rise.

Medicare for all!

Two from Peter Suderman: "Medicare for All Is All Democrats Want To Talk About" - "Health care policy has dominated the early 2020 debates, and Obamacare has few defenders left."

"On Medicare for All, Elizabeth Warren Is Fundamentally Dishonest" - "Her refusal to answer a question about taxes isn’t just dodgy; it’s designed to mislead."

The trivialization of impeachment

Really good article from Andrew McCarthy.  My emphasis in bold:

There will be deep, bitter public protest because impeachment, on the facts before us, is objectively foolhardy. Trump’s missteps do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses. If they did, Democrats would not fear voting to conduct the impeachment inquiry, and they would proudly hold their hearings in public with due process, rather than behind closed doors with selective leaking.

Moreover, we are just one year out from an election in which, if Trump is as bad as Democrats say, the voters will remove him. Yet, Trump’s approval rating hovers at around 43 percent, close to what Obama’s was a year before his reelection. Trump could certainly lose, but he stands a decent chance of being reelected. Hence far from a strong consensus for his removal, there will be zealous protest against impeachment by a significant segment of the public. Consequently, the Republican-controlled Senate will swiftly reject the House Democrats’ impeachment articles as a partisan stunt — as precisely the abuse of power the Framers feared. And woe betide the next Democratic president seeking the bipartisan cooperation needed to govern.

Our constitutional system will be damaged because impeachment will be discredited. That will not make it any less indispensable than Madison judged it to be. Yet its invocation will be even less likely in some grievous future instance, when a presidential abuse of power actually does imperil the nation. We will have a virtually omnipotent president. As a practical matter, there will be no viable congressional check — no impeachment, no power of the purse — to rein the president in. The powers of the competing political branches will be in gross imbalance, making functional separation of powers impossible.

As the Framers would tell us, that is not a prescription for the preservation of liberty.

The House of Representatives has already rejected moving forward on impeachment on three separate votes; the last one couldn't even get the majority of Democrats to support it.  But Nancy Pelosi has decided that she is the House now and Trump needs to be removed before the voters can be allowed to make such a monumental decision themselves.

The most explosive witness ev...oh, never mind

Federalist: "Adam Schiff Flip-Flopped On Whistleblower Testimony After Reports Of Coordination" - "After news broke that Schiff's staff had secretly worked with the whistleblower prior to the complaint being lodged, Schiff moved to prevent the whistleblower's testimony."

Sky is blue news

Mona Charen: "Elizabeth Warren Is Not Honest."  Yeah, that's because of all the lies.

Extra - Issues & Insights: "Who’s Going To Pay For Elizabeth Warren’s $43 Trillion Agenda?" - "Warren would have to raise middle-class taxes. Massively. And not just to pay for Medicare for All. She won’t say it. Reporters won’t pressure her to, or hold her accountable for her attempt to deceive the public. But there is no escaping it."  No kidding.

Senator Bennet has concerns

Politico: "Can any of these people beat Trump?"

This, Bennet fears, is how Trump might luck into a second term. Oh, sure, the president will continue to scare moderates and independents with his erratic behavior. But Bennet wonders if Democrats might scare them even more—what with talk of seizing guns, banning fracking, guaranteeing health coverage to undocumented immigrants, raising taxes across the board, imposing political litmus tests on churches, and of course, eliminating private insurance for more than 150 million people.

“Just listen to this debate,” Bennet says, motioning toward the television. “Medicare for All shouldn’t even have made it to the debate stage. I mean, we’re a free country, and that’s fine. But of the Democrats who won in 2018, in those suburban districts, all but one person won their primary running on the public option—against candidates who supported Medicare for All. I understand this has been Bernie’s thing forever. But for some of the leading candidates to sign on to his bill gave it legitimacy. It’s just…”

He drifts off, shaking his head.

As the article notes, Bennet isn't the only one exasperated with Liz Warren's non-answers.  And, to circle around to my debate complaint, the questions are always so predictable.  Why hasn't anybody asked these candidates why they're talking about health care reform less than 5 years after Obamacare was going to fix it all?  The media doesn't ask hard questions because they want to protect their favorites.  This will play well in flyover country.

No thanks

Hot Air: "Falling Ratings, Pointless Snark: Why Hold Televised Debates At All?"

I didn't watch the last debate mostly because I can't stand to hear the canned answers anymore, mostly from Fauxcahontas who simply refuses to answer any question directly.  The only thing that will save this tired format is 1) every question starts with a yes/no hand raise question followed by explication and 2) a series of oddball questions just to mix it up. 

How's that sham impeachment inquiry going?

🚨 BREAKING → I just asked the Democrat Majority a simple yes or no question: Has the House been authorized to conduct an impeachment inquiry into @realDonaldTrump?

They refused to even answer the question. The Dems literally cut my mic.

This process is a total sham. pic.twitter.com/GdCpoZ1iom

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) October 15, 2019

So there won't be leaks from this testimony

Now we know why the so-called impeachment inquiry is behind closed doors.  Gotta control that narrative.  Federalist: "Top Diplomat Testified That Obama Admin, Not International Community, Orchestrated Ukraine Prosecutor’s Firing" - "The Obama administration, not the international community, orchestrated the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a company connected to Joe Biden's son, a top diplomat testified to Congress yesterday."

Party like it's 1799

City Journal: "California Goes Dark" - "Multiple factors have led to planned electricity blackouts across the Golden State."

Wild, and I do mean wild, card

It's hard to believe the Washington Nationals barely fought their way into a wild card spot, won the wild card game, won the division series and now are going to win the NLCS.

Bottom of the first inning: Washington 7 - St. Louis 0.

She lied about that too

Daily Caller: "Liz Warren Once Eulogized A Man By Accusing Him Of Sexual Harassment In Front Of His Children."  The guy who allegedly chased her around his desk had been stricken with polio. 

It's a debate

The Hill: "Progressives fume at Buttigieg, warn him not to attack Warren at debate."  Have the Democrats chosen Hillary 2.0 already? 

They're not lies, they're "bigger truths"

Townhall: "It's good to be a Democrat."  "The Democratic Party’s nominating process has devolved into the “Woke Olympics,” and no position on the left is more coveted than that of victim. It doesn’t matter of what. This rich white lady with a history of sweet, high-paying gigs needed to find some way to claim her “victim cred” with voters. So she made it up."

National Review: "Elizabeth Warren Is Jussie Smollett." 

The enemy within

"We're in a permanent coup" says...Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone fame.

My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.

The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped.

I didn't vote for Trump and often wish he would pull it back a bit.  But it wasn't so long ago that we were told it was "horrifying" to question the results of an election and since November 2016 there's been a non-stop temper-tantrum that the Queen was denied her tiara.  A month later, a coalition of Hollywood elites and their media buddies urged the electoral college to ignore their duty.  Then, as Taibbi notes, this led to a coordinated effort by intelligence agencies to undermine the duly-elected President with a series of leaks that led to the Russia hoax and now the Ukraine hoax.

Hard to believe but up until now Nancy Pelosi has been the voice of reason against impeachment.  But she's since succumbed to the AOCs and idiot Swalwells of the party and now she's backed herself into a zugzwang where she can't make a move that won't expose the inanity of the Democrats.

So here we are: the national election is just a year away but we couldn't possibly give the American people the opportunity to choose their President.  They might make the wrong choice again.

Crazy people, by which I mean the Dem candidates

Tom Nichols in USA Today: "Do we still agree on beating Trump? After your LGBTQ forum, I'm not sure."  The pandering was fabulous!

The lowlights can be found here: "Democrats Forced To Stand There And Pretend That BLT-123 Lunatics Are Normal Human Beings During Epic CNN Town Hall For Presidential Candidates."

A question not asked: "No one was asked the most important question though – should biological boys be allowed to beat up on high school girls in sports? Guarantee every single one of these pathetic pandering losers would say yes."

Oh yes they would.

Yeah, just imagined if that happened

Victor Davis Hanson: "On the Whistleblower Kerfuffle, Imagine a Different Scenario."

Imagine . . .

If in early 2015, some White House staffers transcribing confidential presidential calls were disturbed about one conversation that President Obama had with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. The two allegedly had confidentially discussed the staggered release of some $1.7 billion in withheld U.S. dollars to Iran — as an understood exchange for the release of 4 American hostages, $400 million of which was to be delivered, in an unmarked cargo plane at night, and in various currencies to Tehran.

Oh that's different because shut up.

Just a show

Kim Strassel: "Ukraine Smoke and Mirrors" - "There’s no substance behind the accusation Democrats claim is impeachable."

Babylon Bee: the *new* Paper of Record

Babylon Bee: "Survey Finds More People Would Support Impeachment If They Knew What Crime Trump Was Supposed To Have Committed." 

Oh, isn't that interesting?

The whistleblower's lawyer said that he had "never worked with a candidate" and several people noted that too-clever locution.

Washington Examiner: "Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice president, officials reveal."  

Off the grid

It's back to the 18th century for California: "PG&E Cut Power To Nearly 2 Million People In California To Prevent Wild Fires And People Are Upset."

Well at least you can run your portable generators: "Gas prices exceed $5 a gallon at some Los Angeles area stations."

This is why everybody should learn the basics of camping.

Nancy Pelosi: "l'état, c'est moi"

Yeah, about that: "Democrats face consequences of skipping floor impeachment vote."

And a federal judge, hearing arguments Tuesday about whether the House Judiciary Committee should get grand jury materials from the special counsel report from Robert S. Mueller III as part of an impeachment inquiry, questioned when she could know such an inquiry had begun if there wasn’t a floor vote.

“Where are you suggesting I should draw lines?” Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell asked House General Counsel Douglas Letter.

Are you telling me that the Speaker of the House can't just declare "impeachment!"?  What is this representative government coming to?

Hat tip: Instapundit. 

Yankees suck

NESN: "Twins’ Tyler Duffey Explains Simple Difference Between Red Sox, Yankees Fans."

“Boston’s fun, they’re baseball fans,” Duffey said. “Yankee fans, they just hate people.”

Verdict: true.

By popular demand

Here you go.  Powerline: "Trump refuses to participate in impeachment farce."

I can't believe Trump is resisting this Soviet-era Star Chamber of closed-door hearings orchestrated by spurious subpoenas triggered by an anonymous whistleblower with hearsay evidence.

Reminder from former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy:

Under federal law, the offense of obstructing Congress applies when “any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House.” Again, neither the House nor any of its committees has voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry. There is no formal impeachment proceeding to obstruct. Furthermore, the letters in question are not actually demands carrying the compulsory force of law; technically, they are just informal requests. No one is required to comply with a mere request, and refusing to do so is not evidence of anything, let alone obstruction.

There is no obstruction because there is nothing to obstruct, unless you count Nancy's foot stomping.

The frontrunner

Issues & Insights: "Greta Thunberg To Win The Nobel? The Madness Continues."

The Babylon Bee: "New Law Requires You To Listen To Greta Thunberg Lecture Before Purchasing Gasoline."

How dare you!

America's favorite Canadian

Fox News: "'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek may leave show over cancer battle."

As far as I can remember, there's only one time that somebody other than Alex Trebek hosted "Jeopardy."  It was the "April's Fool" episode in 1997 when Trebek hosted "Wheel of Fortune" and Pat Sajak hosted "Jeopardy!"

Nevertheless, she persisted with another lie

Legal Insurrection: "Elizabeth Warren’s Current Claim She Lost Teacher Job Over Pregnancy Contradicts Her Prior Statements."

Twitchy: "On video, Elizabeth Warren certainly doesn’t sound like she was fired for being pregnant."

But it's cool to be a victim nowadays.

No kidding

Conservative Treehouse: "Nancy Pelosi is “Grubering” The American Electorate on Impeachment – Committee Requests, aka “Subpoenas”, Constructed to Manufacture “Obstruction"

Speaker Pelosi, working through a carefully constructed political dynamic assembled by the hired staff from the Lawfare alliance, has sold her constituency on an impeachment process that structurally doesn’t exist.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi could never succeed in the scheme were she not assisted by a compliant media.

Andrew McCarthy has sounded the same alarm: "If the House Won’t Vote, Impeachment Inquiry Is Just a Democratic Stunt."  Where are the brave firemen in the media?