Law? Who needs the law?

Byron York: "In Trump impeachment, 'no one is above the law' could backfire on Democrats" because no Democrat can define what law has been broken:

The bottom line is, it will be very, very hard for House Democrats to show that Trump committed a crime in the Ukraine affair. Which is why some Democrats seem to be moving toward accusing Trump of engaging in misconduct that is more difficult to define, such as violating his oath of office or betraying his country. Those are charges that seem solemn and weighty but are also fuzzy enough to use without getting into any detailed — and losing — legal argument.

The Constitution says a president "shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." There has been a very long debate on what that means. To lay ears, it sounds like the president must be shown to have committed a crime to be impeached and removed from office. But the Framers did not define "high crimes and misdemeanors," and it is up to Congress to decide whether a president should be impeached, and, if so, on what grounds.

So far, Democrats have not helped their cause by accusing Trump of criminal behavior. "No man is above the law" sounds good, but it requires the impeachers to make a case that the president did, indeed, break the law.

Yes, the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" is ill-defined but by placing it on equal footing as treason, it implies a serious charge.

Parody time!

American Thinker: "Adam Schiff's Impeachment Fun Playhouse."

The hearsay campaign

"We're still doing this?"

Twitchy: "Elizabeth Warren tries to reignite the Kavanaugh smear campaigns, burns herself (and Dems) in the process."  The girl can't help it.  The pandering, that is.

A dying institution

Washington Examiner: "Just 13% trust media ‘a great deal,’ Democrats only majority with ‘confidence’."

If you look at the graph in the story, Democrats' love for the media soared sky-high in 2017 as the press set itself up to bash Trump 24/7.

Must read by VDH

Victor Davis Hanson: "Why the Impeachment Frenzy May Only Strengthen Trump."  A good overview of the whole mess: "Not just Trump supporters but the public is baffled by the apparent asymmetry in the application of the law, or at least the intention to apply the law. The Biden-Obama experience between 2009 and 2017 apparently had set a de facto precedent of what does and what does not constitute collusion."

Crayon Pop

I've been getting into K-Pop lately, but the videos are maddening with the split-second edits.  So I've been enjoying the dance studio videos with a single shot:

Worst extortion ever

Ace: "No Big Deal, But Ukraine Wasn't Even Aware Their Aid Was Being Delayed/Reviewed Until More Than a Month After Trump Supposedly Threatened to Withhold Aid."

It's just a New York Times reporter so, you know, probably fake news.

So, how'd the hearing go today?

PJ Media: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Democrats: The MSM-DNC's Worst Week Ever."

Extra - Ben Shapiro: "‘That’s pretty weak tea’."

Drip drip drip

Legal Insurrection: "Joe Biden and Ukraine is “Hillary’s Emails” all over again." 

The mainstream media is gonna mainstream media

Red State: "Trump Says He Feels Pelosi Is “No Longer Speaker Of The House”, Media Opens Up A Can Of Dumb In Response." 

And Charlie Cook said "meh"

Hot Air: "Morning Consult Warns Dems: Americans Just Aren’t Into Impeachment."

This airball won't make it out of the House.  At least it kneecapped Biden, so it wasn't a total loss.

Pelosi puts Trump on "double secret probation."

I'm watching "Country Music" on PBS so here's a shot and chaser for ya.

Ace: "Impeachment Failure Theater? Democrats Wonder What Nancy Pelosi's Rhetoric Actually Accomplished."  It's utterly meaningless kabuki theater to fool AOC.

Politico: "White House preparing to release whistleblower complaint to Congress."  Prepare to move those goalposts!

Twitchy: "RNC calls on Joe Biden to release transcripts of his calls with Ukraine and Russia."

Child abuse

Vodkapundit: "It's Disgusting What the Climate Panic Brigade Is Doing to Greta Thunberg."

Inject this clip into my veins

Another day with Joe:

Why did anyone think he would be a good candidate the THIRD time? https://t.co/cEE10QDUbc

— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) September 23, 2019

How can this guy be so lucky?

A little correction: I was wrong last month when I said that Liz Warren's nomination was "not going to happen."  Last night the best poll in Iowa now shows Fauxcahontas pulling ahead of Sleepy Joe.  Hot Air: "Warren Pulling Ahead, At Least In Iowa."

This can only be explained by Biden's slow-motion implosion.  My belief in that Warren could not be the Democrats' nominee is because she's a stone-cold Hillary 2.0 loser to Trump:

From the beginning of this mess, I’d never imagined that Donald Trump could be lucky enough to draw Warren as an opponent, but at this point, it’s impossible to deny that she looks like she has a real chance. That’s kind of amazing because she really is a dud of a candidate. She’s terrible on the stump and leaves people with the impression that she’s lecturing them more than relating to them. And she’s already gone on the record with a bunch of policies that will ruin people’s financial situations while driving the country in an extreme leftward tilt.

If Trump is running even a modestly competent campaign next year he should be able to tear her to shreds.

Since it's confession time, I was also very wrong about Kamala Harris.  Sweet mercy, she's a terrible candidate. 

So much for that

It was all hearsay.  Washington Examiner: "Whistleblower 'didn’t have direct knowledge of the communications' between Trump and Ukraine."

And Ukraine says there was no pressure.  Fox News: "Ukraine foreign minister defends Trump's call with Zelenskiy: 'I think there was no pressure'." 

Ju-jitsu

Bookworm Room: "Aiming At Trump, Shooting Biden" - "As I said, this is one the left is going to rue.  They have given Trump a platform to publicize the corruption surrounding Biden."

"You're not getting the billion" - Biden

Twitchy: "NYT reporter says the Ukraine story is a ‘significant liability for Joe Biden’."

Oh, cool.  Cool cool cool.  Suddenly the story about a sitting Vice President literally threatening to withhold a billion dollars in aid in exchange for laying off his coke-addled son will see the light of day.

Extra - Ace: "Joe Biden Bragged That, With Barack Obama's Permission, He Threatened To Withhold Billions in Aid to Ukraine Unless They Fired a Prosecutor Investigating His Son's Company."  This will be the end of Biden.  Time to switch attention to Fauxcahontas.

More - Via Instapundit.

This is not going to happen

Hot Air: "Report: House Dems Weighing Contempt Charge Against Corey Lewandowski Over Tuesday’s Hearing."

C'mon, man, this is all posturing.  The Democrats want to bury the memory of that hearing in a shallow grave.

Faux-conomics

ABC News: "Buttigieg calls Warren 'extremely evasive' on health taxes."

Warren is terrible when she's pushed off her well-rehearsed talking points.  The media is going to protect her all the way up until her first debate with Trump and then it's all going to fall apart once that bubble is popped.

Yes, it's amazing she hasn't been pressed on this

Since the media won't do its job, it took Stephen Colbert to finally at least try to pin Elizabeth Warren down on the inevitable middle class tax hikes that would necessarily come with Medicare for All.  (Spoiler alert: he failed)

Hot Air: "Elizabeth Warren Won’t Tell The Truth About Middle-Class Taxes Despite Stephen Colbert Pleading With Her To Do So."

Federalist: "Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan—For Avoiding Your Health Care Questions" - "Telling people they will lose their coverage, and figuring out how to pay for this $30 trillion-plus system? Elizabeth Warren doesn’t want to bother answering questions about those minor details."

Amazing she is only starting to get pushed on this now. She's been slipping past this question for months.
https://t.co/kZcudK5eNA #FoxNews

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 18, 2019

Americans have steadily lost faith in the press

New York Times: "Hold my beer."

To summarize, the Times had information that Ford’s account was essentially nuked and discredited. Instead of running that as the lead story delved from this garbage book, they reran old allegations and included a new one which lacked any credibility at all, to the point where even the alleged victim has no recollection of it.

“Journalism.”

Are we supposed to believe that was just an honest editorial decision? Come on. The authors of this book were so partisan, so wrapped up in their own narrative that they did everything they could to frame things in a way to hurt Kavanaugh. It just so happens that they did such an awful job at it that their claims fell apart within hours.

Trump has driven the lamestream media absolutely insane and this latest hit job against Kavanaugh is just more of the same. 

Gee, why is there a housing shortage?

Reason Online: "Minneapolis Doesn't Want Landlords to Check Tenants' Criminal History, Credit Score, Past Evictions" - "The Minneapolis city council just made the rental business a lot riskier for property owners."

Dude's never gonna make it

Twitchy: "Joe Biden says his child care tax credit would put 720 million women back into the workforce (video)."  Oh yeah, the video is very clear.

Salad fork Amy

I'm linking this post just for this line:

Meanwhile, Amy Klobuchar has assaulted more women in her senate office than Kavanaugh has.

Heh.

What we've come to expect from the media

National Review: "The New York Times Anti-Kavanaugh Bombshell Is Actually a Dud."

The book isn’t released until Tuesday, but Mollie Hemingway got a copy, and she writes on Twitter: “The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event.” Omitting this fact from the New York Times story is one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in recent memory.

And yet, it's all so familiar.  The "Democracy dies in darkness" crowd isn't even trying to cover up their advocacy anymore.

Extra - Mollie Hemingway's twitter reaction: "I'm actually kind of enjoying how bad this is."

The Paper of Record:

The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event. Seems, I don’t know, significant.

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 15, 2019

ICYMI

The Intercept: "Joe Biden's stunningly racist answer on the legacy of slavery has been overlooked."

I have predicted that Biden will lose both New Hampshire and Iowa and then his support in South Carolina will wither because of these early setbacks.  (When your entire argument is "electability" it's subverted when you can't get elected.)  These latest gaffes will not endear him to the very South Carolina voters he's depending on.

Which leaves, what, Warren?  There won't be an U-haul trucks at the White House anytime soon.

Drop out, Joe

Rolling Stone (!): "Why It’s Time for Joe to Go" - "Democrats need an antiracist nominee to run against a racist like Donald Trump. The third debate confirmed Biden isn’t up to the task"

When i saw this same article earlier in the day, the title was "Drop out, Joe Biden."  This revision drops the imperative tone.

The cringe

Kamala Harris' performance in the debate last night was cringier than "Scott's Tots."  It was full of uncomfortable laughing and dead-cat-bounce "zingers."

Legal Insurrection has it right: "Kamala Harris’ campaign should have ended tonight at #DemDebate."  I can't believe I once believed that she had a chance at the nomination.  She's all done now.

These plans suck

David French: "Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Plans for Everything’ Consistently Violate the Law."

Confirmed: Christine Blasey Ford lied

At least her own father thinks so.  How else to explain this story from the Federalist: "Christine Blasey Ford’s Father Supported Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation" - "After Christine Blasey Ford publicly alleged that Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her, her father repeatedly communicated to Kavanaugh's father that he supported Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court."

During the confirmation hearings, the media barely covered the very strange detail that nobody in her blood family would go on record supporting poor Christine. 

Not even bothering with the law anymore

Fox News: "Supreme Court allows Trump asylum restrictions to take effect, ending 9th Circuit injunctions."

Only Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

No kidding.  The only two who thought it was good law to force you to bake a cake also opposed this decision.  The cynic in me believes that these two don't even care about the law; they only care about their SJW credentials.

Extra - Hot Air: "The point is, she cast her vote based, in part, on tradition rather than law."

Some airplanes did something

PJ Media: "NYT: 'Airplanes Took Aim' on 9/11."

I'll never understand the mindset. They know Islamic terrorists did it. Yet their first impulse was to say that the "airplanes took aim." As if nobody would notice. They had to be publicly shamed into grudgingly admitting even a partial truth about what really happened.

In their defense, they were probably preoccupied with yet another breathless story about Trump drawing on a weather map.

Faux-conomics

Reason Online: "Elizabeth Warren's Plans Don't Add Up - The Warren worldview of ill-founded economic pessimism is both bloodless and moralizing."

Democracy dies if a Democrat is threatened

I think that's the new motto of the Washington Post.  What do you think, Ralph Northam?  Twitchy: "‘THIS is collusion’! WaPo’s fact check of Joe Biden’s Iraq War comments is outrageous even for them."

Everything Trump says: lie!
Everything Biden lies about: well...he misspoke.

Not a worry, Steve

Washington Free Beacon: "Kroft on Interviewing Obama: ‘I Don’t Think It Was a Matter of Pushing Hard’."

Sure, Soft-Serve: Obama met with you 16 times because of your hard-hitting questions.

You can Brexit any time you like, but you can never leave

Democracy in Europe only works if you vote the right way.  National Review: "The Brexit Saboteurs":

Christopher Caldwell pores over the anti-democratic European playbook in a superb essay in the Claremont Review of Books. In EU-land, it’s perfectly normal for referenda to be ignored. In 1992, voters in Denmark rejected the Maastricht Treaty, then they voted the proper way in 1993. Irish voters rejected the EU Treaty of Nice in 2001, then in 2002 were ushered back to the polls, when they voted in accordance with EU wishes. After Ireland rejected the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008, the voters returned to the polls to deliver the EU-desired result in 2009. “These do-overs had become a Europe-wide symbol of contempt for voters,” Caldwell writes. “And that is why Parliament voted overwhelmingly in March 2017 to validate the referendum, activate the E.U.’s Article 50, and fix the date for British withdrawal.” That date was March 29, 2019, which turned out not to be all that fixed after all. The currently mooted terms would delay Brexit at least another 90 days past October 31, pushing the saga into 2020.

Writing in City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple writes in "Endless Tantrum" that Brexit should not have been decided by a referendum vote but - once it was - the UK had an obligation to follow the voters' wishes.

In normal circumstances, Members of Parliament are not obliged to vote according to what the population wants. They are representatives, not delegates with a clearly laid-down mandate to fulfill, and governments have to make hundreds of decisions without reference to the electorate’s wishes, except in a general way. But, having canvassed public opinion in a supposedly binding referendum on a vital subject, to ignore the result can only strengthen the impression that the political class is a law unto itself.

It's weird (to me) that the once-proud Brits would allow this endless supplication to Brussels, along with billions of Euros, rather than just pull off the Band-aid.

Democrats with bylines

Republicans prepare to pounce.  Twitchy: "Politico’s spin on unhinged, ban-happy 2020 Dems could win ‘gold medal in the mental gymnastics’."

I love when we get these “we better keep our dumbass ideas quiet” articles after almost every Dem candidate lets their certifiable lunacy out of the bag. https://t.co/tGkqoVcI0a

— John Commodore Barry (@ShrinkGov) September 7, 2019

Wonder how they'll spin this

Breitbart: "Black unemployment hits record low, black-white unemployment gap shrinks to smallest ever."  "The unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to the lowest level ever recorded in August, dropping from 6 percent to 5.5 percent."

Satan couldn't keep him alive any longer

Fox News: "Robert Mugabe, longtime ruler of Zimbabwe, dead at 95."  Instapundit had it right when he said Mugabe should have been given the Mussolini treatment years ago.

I've referenced this a couple times over the years but the Atlantic had a great article in 2003 about how Mugabe destroyed Zimbabwe: "How to kill a country - Turning a breadbasket into a basket case in ten easy steps—the Robert Mugabe way."

Ban all the straws!

Reason Online: "4 Memorable Moments From CNN's Climate Town Hall."

I feel like any candidate who doesn't embrace nuclear power - a reliable power source that produces no carbon dioxide emissions - is just a poseur.  We are not going to run a modern America on windmills.

Extra - Doug Ross: "Top 10 things Democrats will ban."  Straws and cheeseburgers.  If you're Bernie Sanders: humans.

The chameleon

Ben Shapiro: "How the Quest for Power Corrupted Elizabeth Warren."

David Brooks basically had the same story in the NY Times today: Warren wrote a book that advocated conservative themes such as school vouchers, but utterly disavowed it to grab power.

Satire comes to life

Babylon Bee this morning: "Snopes Rates Biden's Claim That 2+2=5 As 'Mostly True'."

Ace: "Snopes: We Rate Joe Biden's War Story In Which He Got All But One Thing Wrong "Mostly True" (Because Democrat)."

As Instapundit quips, the Babylon Bee became the "paper of record" so gradually, I barely noticed.

Joe is either senile or a serial liar

So says Kevin Williamson: "We need to talk about Joe Biden."  "Joe Biden has exhausted whatever presumption of goodwill or benefit of the doubt we might have extended to him for the past 46 years. He has had his chance to show that he is a man capable of honor, integrity, and honesty — and he has failed that test at every turn. If there ever was a time for him, that time has passed. The last thing this country needs is another pathological liar in its highest office. He is unfit for the presidency in every way, and Democrats owe the country better than to nominate him in the pursuit of their own selfish partisan interests."