Thursday, October 31, 2019

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.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

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!

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

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."

Monday, October 28, 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."

Sunday, October 27, 2019

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!"

Saturday, October 26, 2019

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:

Friday, October 25, 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.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

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.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

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.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

It's for your own good, citizen

Monday, 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.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

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."

Saturday, October 19, 2019

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.

Friday, October 18, 2019

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.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

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?

Wednesday, October 16, 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."

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

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

Sunday, October 13, 2019

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." 

Saturday, October 12, 2019

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!


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.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Just a show

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

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

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.

Tuesday, October 08, 2019

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!

Monday, October 07, 2019

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!"

Sunday, October 06, 2019

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?

Saturday, October 05, 2019

Oh, that's "opposition research"

NY Post: "Sorry, Dems: It’s OK to ask for foreign help in a criminal justice investigation."
As George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley explains, “It is not uncommon for an attorney general, or even a president, to ask foreign leaders to assist with ongoing investigations. Such calls can shortcut bureaucratic red tape, particularly if the evidence is held, as in this case, by national security or justice officials.”
But what about the DNC's own actions in Ukraine or Hillary literally hiring Russian agents to dig up dirt on Trump?
But keep in mind, it was the Democrats who told us there is nothing wrong or illegal with a presidential candidate hiring a private lawyer to conduct opposition research in a foreign country on their political opponents. After it emerged that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had paid Christopher Steele to dig up dirt in Russia on Trump, the Democrats’ defense was: That’s just opposition research. Everyone does it.
Kimberly Strassel calls the Democrats' actions "mystifying" given the double standard present:
"They don’t understand how Democrats can say this is an impeachable offense when Democrats seem to have no problem with Hillary Clinton’s campaign directing Russian disinformation to the FBI against the Trump campaign,” Strassel told “Fox & Friends," calling it "mystifying" that Democrats have chosen this phone call as the basis for an impeachment.
I'll wager that not a lot of Americans even know about the origin of the Steele dossier, but they're about to.

Thursday, October 03, 2019

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

Not a brave whistleblower, just a partisan leaker

Hot Air: "Adam Schiff Learned About The Whistleblower Complaint In Advance."

And here's Ace confirming what we suspected:
Remember when Fred Fleitz and others reported that, based on their long experience in national security and with whistleblowers, the "whistleblower" complaint did not read like any real whistleblower's complaint, but like something written by a Democrat lawyer for political impact?

Well, there you go. It reads like it was written by a partisan Democrat legislative aide because it was written by a partisan Democrat legislative aide.
Adam Schiff then lied about meeting with the whistleblower because he knew how it would look.

Extra - Commentary: "Impeachment #2 May Have Jumped the Shark."  Including the now-confirmed detail that the Ukrainians were unaware that there was any delay in foreign aid.

Tuesday, October 01, 2019

Assassination humor is: horrifying / hilarious

Depends on your political party.  Remember this?  NBC News: "Rodeo clown who mocked Obama at Missouri State Fair banned from performing."  This was a national outrage found at a State Fair rodeo.

Compare and contrast.  Hollywood in Toto: "How one 'SNL' joke brutally exposes cancel culture."
“It’s gonna take another year or so [impeachment], and I was like, ‘well, damn, that sucks. Let’s get drunk.’

“It’s frustrating. You know, I bet somebody explained how long impeachment takes to John Wilkes Booth, and he was like, ‘O.K., well, where’s [Lincoln] at right now?'”

Chuckles ensue. Pearls … weren’t clutched by the usual suspects. WaPo. Slate. Salon. Vox. BuzzFeed. HuffPo.
That's different because Trump.

It's not over until we say it is!

Politico: "Trump may have lied to Mueller, House Democrats say."  It's all in the grand jury redactions, you know.

Here's exclusive footage of the Adam Schiff urging Congress to restart the Mueller investigation:

Low calorie

Conrad Black: "Bring On the Biggest Nothingburger of Them All."