DNC plots to kneecap Bernie...again

Politico: "DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention." 

The hero we need

Regrettably he's over in England.  Hot Air: "Students Demanded Divestment From Fossil Fuels, A Professor Offered To Turn Off The Gas Heating."

Two students at St John’s College wrote to Andrew Parker, the principal bursar, this week requesting a meeting to discuss the protesters’ demands, which are that the college “declares a climate emergency and immediately divests from fossil fuels”. They say that the college, the richest in Oxford, has £8 million of its £551 million endowment fund invested in BP and Shell.

Professor Parker responded with a provocative offer. “I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice,” he wrote. “But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off with immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”

Unsurprisingly, the students at Oxford failed to see the irony and instead were indignant that they weren't being taken seriously.  Don't worry: it's not just you.  We have Hollywood phonies on this side of the pond.

Don Lemon hardest hit

Volokh Conspiracy: "Trump Supporters Score Higher on Verbal Ability Tests - And they do better on most science knowledge questions, too."

Looks like a full exoneration on Friday

The Hill: "GOP senators believe they have the votes to block witnesses."

Hot Air: "Schumer: It Looks Unlikely That We’ll Have Enough Republican Votes To Call Witnesses."

The other day I wasn't sure if there would be witnesses but I was quite sure that - if there were - the Republicans would insist on their own list.  That might have been enough to torpedo Democrats' enthusiasm.

On the other side, the Republicans surely realize that it would never be enough.  There was always going to be another shoe to drop or new outrage or whining about a "fair trial" after the House ran that sham kangaroo court.  This was shaping up to be Kavanaugh 2.0 but the Republicans are wise to that ploy now.

The laughter at the end

Pat Cipollone plays videos of Democrats warning of partisan, weak impeachment: “you were right” pic.twitter.com/YzgEq0xqLP

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 28, 2020

Hawaiian judge syndrome slammed

Ace: "Supreme Court Knocks Down Hawaiian Judge's Injunction Against Trump's "Public Charge" Rule Change; Neil Gorsuch Slams Penny-Ante District Judges for Issuing Nationwide Injunctions, Legislating from the Bench."

Extra - From Powerline.

Warren? Never heard of her

The Lowell Sun (Massachusetts): "Editorial Endorsement: Andrew Yang the best choice for Democrats" - "A uniter is needed in 2020."

I live in Western Mass and have a lengthy daily commute.  Over the past couple months, the one bumper sticker I've seen more than others is...Andrew Yang.

Joe and Hunter Biden starring in the Ukraine shakdown

Uh-oh, Jeff Toobin is going to be standing before the Man tomorrow:

CNN’s Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin: Pam Bondi “did an effective job of showing how sleazy the hiring of Hunter Biden was.”

“The only reason he got” the job “is because he was the Vice President’s son”

pic.twitter.com/YgFSJYaWrX

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 28, 2020

ICYMI, here is Pam Bondi laying out the corruption:

As it was predicted

Red State: "The Democrats Are Trying to Run a Kavanaugh Strategy at President Trump’s Impeachment Trial."  As it was foreseen.

It's anybody's guess where we go from here: it looks like Romney and Collins are prepared to vote for witnesses but Murkowski is not committing one way or the other.  It's a near-certainty that if the Senate does extend this farce with witnesses, that Hunter and Joe Biden will be on the list.

Ladies choice

A week after the NY Times picked both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar for their endorsement, Iowa's largest newspaper has endorsed Warren and New Hampshire's has picked Klobuchar. 

You had one job

Schiff and Nadler's immediate goal in their presentation to the Senate was to peel off enough moderate Republicans to call witnesses.  Instead: "Schiff Blows Up GOP Support With “Head On A Pike” Reference." 

Matthew Continetti has it right: "Impeachment's target audience isn't moderate Republicans. It's left-wing Democrats." 

Even (checks notes) Chicago Democrats don't care

Seen at Twitchy:

If I heard correctly, David Axelrod just said on CNN that he was at a focus group this morning that went for 80 minutes before anyone mentioned impeachment—in the midst of the trial

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) January 25, 2020

Here it comes

Shot: "On the Bidens, Schiff Opened the Door."  Thanks, Adam!

Chaser: "Trump’s legal team says it will target Biden family in impeach defense."

It was precisely for this moment that I never thought the Democrats would actually go through with passing the articles of impeachment to the Senate.  Now it's out of their hands and now the spotlight will shift to the Bidens and a scandal that Sundown Joe has never been able to explain. 

Wow, original stuff

This isn't hyperbolic crap at all.  Fox News: "Nadler calls Trump a 'dictator' as Dems wrap opening arguments in Senate impeachment trial." 

Nadal kiss

This is a cute story: a ball girl at the Australian Open took a shot to the cheek and Rafael Nadal stopped to give her a peck on the cheek.  At the end of the match, he gave her his headband as a souvenir.

Legal analysis of the clown show

Here's an extended Washington Post excerpt on Hot Air: "WaPo Columnist: Who Does Schiff Think He’s Kidding On Trial Analogies?"

The House’s articles have been analogized to an indictment, but indictments can only be brought if they are sanctioned by a neutral, disinterested party. A prosecutor must persuade either a judge or a grand jury that there is probable cause a defendant committed a crime to initiate a case. No serious person can call the House Democratic caucus a neutral, disinterested party.

Nor can a prosecutor obtain evidence under subpoena on their whim. Anyone with a subpoena to provide testimony or written evidence can challenge that in court, as many recipients of such subpoenas in investigations supervised by the office of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III did. That is exactly what the president has tried to do in many instances with respect to subpoenas issued by committees controlled by House Democrats. But Schiff and his colleagues not only chose not to permit the judicial process to play out with respect to those subpoenas; they chose to call the president’s attempt to avail himself of his rights “obstruction of Congress” and an impeachable offense itself. How Orwellian.

There's a lot here including how the GAO's dramatic announcement that Trump's action on Ukrainian aid was "illegal" is a non-expert opinion that is ultimately a civil action, not a criminal one.  The brave firefighters in the media failed to report that non-trivial distinction but why should we expect anything different at this point.

How's the clown show?

Hot Air: "Dems Must End This Sham Impeachment, Says … Former Clinton Adviser?"

Count Mark Penn among those unimpressed by the House Democrats’ impeachment of Donald Trump. Penn, who worked as Bill Clinton’s pollster during the 1998-9 impeachment and later on Hillary Clinton’s Senate and 2008 presidential campaigns, blasts Adam Schiff as a political hitman for Democrats angry over Donald Trump’s win in 2016. Americans may not like Trump or even the phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky, but Penn argues that it doesn’t come close to a reason to reverse an election and remove a president.

I'm convinced the Democrats forced this double-quick through the House at the tail end of 2019 because once the calendar hit 2020, Americans would ask "can't we just vote him out in the election this year?"  Can't let that happen.

Another focus group-tested talking point, no doubt

Byron York: "Impeachment, Democrats, and those 90,000 documents." 

No, Chuck, no

Yahoo News: "Senate Republicans Block Schumer’s Attempt to Subpoena White House Witnesses, Docs."  Sucks to be in the minority, huh?  We remember.

Playing catch-up

I've literally been incommunicado (as in my cell phone was confiscated) all day.  So I'm getting caught up on the impeachment drama today.

All I know so far is that Chuck Schumer was on NPR Morning Edition this morning and he seemed taken aback when host Rachel Martin told him that Mitt Romney was backing Cocaine Mitch on the rules package.  Surprised by this revelation, Schumer accused Romney of either being ignorant or complicit in a coverup:

SCHUMER: Well, he either hasn't read it or he's gone along with this cover up, which I hope that isn't true.

Awww...sad trombone.