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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."