Posts on Saturday, November 2, 2019
A thoroughbred named after one of President Trump's signature Twitter lines came home a winner Saturday at the Breeders' Cup in Southern California.
Covfefe, a 3-year-old filly, won the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint by three-quarters of a length under jockey Joel Rosario at Santa Anita Park.
Sent off as the 3-2 favorite with a late surge of money by bettors, Covfefe paid $5 to win. She ran seven furlongs in 1:22.40. Bellafina was second and Dawn the Destroyer took third. Covfefe's unusual name was bestowed on her by co-owner Jamie Roth, who runs the LNJ Foxwoods stable, after she saw a Trump tweet in May 2017
Office workers bemoan driving home in the dark. Night owls relish the chance to sleep in. As clocks tick toward the end of daylight saving time, many sleep scientists and circadian biologists are pushing for a permanent ban because of potential ill effects on human health. (Snip) Research shows the springtime start of daylight saving time may be more harmful, linking it with more car accidents, heart attacks in vulnerable people and other health problems that may persist throughout the time change.
Inside Beto O’Rourke’s collapse
replies
DES MOINES, Iowa — As night fell and his staffers led him through the drizzle to his rented Dodge Grand Caravan for the last time, Beto O’Rourke was asked Friday by a reporter, “What do you think went wrong for you?” He didn’t answer, allowing the question, over cross-talk from reporters, to hang briefly in the air. (Snip) Former President Barack Obama was publicly drawing comparisons between the former Texas congressman and himself, while former Obama aides were privately encouraging young operatives to move to O’Rourke’s hometown, El Paso, to get in early on the campaign. The media would soon
"California," argues Victor Davis Hanson, is "becoming pre-modern" despite ballooning government solutions. Like fictional pre-modern societies, it is becoming a two-tier society; a landscape of fantastical castles amid a sea of peasants. It is as if the technologically sophisticated components of the Golden State were creating its shadow of poor, homeless, drug-addicted and unskilled populations. (Snip) Yet in some respects, not only California but the whole global world is morphing into a similar two-tier arrangement. This may be driven by something called knowledge inequality. The processes by which a society produced its goods and governed itself were once common knowledge to a large percentage of the population.
Joe Biden claimed on Friday he was unaware his youngest son, Hunter, was serving on the board of directors of a Ukrainian oil and gas giant while Biden was responsible for Obama administration policy towards the country.The former vice president made the claim during an interview with PBS News Hour in which he was asked why a recent campaign pledge to not have children “involved” with foreign countries did not apply to his eight year tenure in the Obama White House. Biden responded to the question by asserting “no one” had established either he or his son has done “anything wrong” in their professional and business dealings in Ukraine,
Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director of European Affairs on the National Security Council, reportedly told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to get entangled in U.S. domestic politics after Ukraine officials asked him about how to handle Rudy Giuliani, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reported:
[Vindman] told House investigators that Ukrainian government officials had repeatedly asked him about the role of Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and whether he speaks for the U.S. government. Mr. Giuliani had been “making demands,” this person said, in summarizing Col. Vindman’s testimony, and the Ukrainian government wanted to know how to handle him.
A yearlong investigation by U.S. authorities in Kansas led to the arrest of a methamphetamine distribution cell tied to Mexico’s Los Viagras faction of the Familia Michoacana Cartel. The cartel cell is considered to be part of the violent cartel’s drug distribution operation which also has cells in Washington State and Georgia.
Court documents filed at the federal court in Wichita Kansas revealed that for more than a year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Kansas City Police targeted 57-year-old Luis Martinez Carrango and 13 of his associates tied to the widespread distribution of methamphetamine throughout the Midwest. (Snip) during a recent raid targeting the cartel cell, agents seized 220 pounds
Dem who wrote unfair impeachment rules
has girlfriend working on staff, in violation
of House rules replies
has girlfriend working on staff, in violation
of House rules replies
One of the cocky Democrats responsible for writing the party’s widely-criticized, “unfair” impeachment rules that were voted on this week is reportedly a habitual rule breaker who’s been caught employing his own girlfriend in his congressional office.
That Democrat is House Rules Committee vice-chair Alcee Hastings of Florida, who this week joined his fellow equally cocky Democrats in stonewalling efforts by Republicans to install just a modicum of fairness in their otherwise unfair and unjust impeachment rules. [Tweet]
According to an investigation by The Palm Beach Post, this top-ranking Democrat rule-maker has himself been violating House rules by allegedly maintaining a relationship
An Antifa domestic terrorist was sentenced to almost six years in prison, after taking a deal and pleading guilty to second-degree assault during violent demonstrations June 29 in Portland, Oregon.
A masked Gage Halupowski brutally attacked a man, Adam Kelly, who was coming to the aid of another who was being assaulted by a group of Antifa rioters.
Halupowski was just one of many black-clothed protesters who were recorded hitting and pepper-spraying Kelly. Halupowski and two other attackers delivered vicious blows to the head of Kelly with expandable batons that resulted in a concussion and opened up severe gashes to his scalp, requiring 25 staples, according to The Oregonian.
Democrats and their media allies, not to mention “Never Trump” Republicans like Ana Navarro, are beside themselves after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to get a single Republican lawmaker to back her play, which would have allowed her to call their maneuver to unseat President Trump a “bipartisan” effort.
In passing an official impeachment inquiry resolution on Thursday, the Democrat Party may have outsmarted themselves as they effectively confirmed that this effort is a partisan maneuver.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, appeared CNN Friday to say he felt good about the day’s turn of events, only to have anchor Alisyn Camerota push back on the definition of “high crimes.”
State lawmaker calls miscarriage ‘mess on
a napkin,’ scoffs at bill protecting aborted
fetus bodies replies
a napkin,’ scoffs at bill protecting aborted
fetus bodies replies
Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Wendy Ullman bashed a bill protecting the bodies of aborted babies Tuesday, calling an early miscarriage “just some mess on a napkin.”
Ullman spoke out against H.B. 1890 Tuesday, a bill that would “establish requirements for the final disposition of the remains of unborn children after their demise,” brought forward by Republican Pennsylvania state Rep. Francis Ryan. Ullman previously voted against a May bill prohibiting discriminatory abortions based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
A video the Pennsylvania Family Council originally posted shows Ullman protesting against the bill, saying, “It refers specifically to the product of conception after fertilization which covers an awful lot of territory.”
Paul Manafort was pushing the unfounded conspiracy theory — now part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — that Ukraine hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails as early as 2016.
(Snip)
Top Trump campaign aide Rick Gates said the campaign was “very happy” when a foreign government helped release the hacked DNC emails.
These are some of the revelations that BuzzFeed News pried loose after pursuing five separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits for all the subpoenas and search warrants that then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s team executed, as well as all the emails, memos, letters, talking points, legal opinions, and interview transcripts it generated.
A new book claims to shed light on President Trump's relationship with North Korea and what former President Obama said that Trump could expect when he entered office. Author Doug Wead interviewed Trump on the issue and was able to read some of the personal letters exchanged between the president and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un.
"Kim is fascinated by Donald Trump. He sees him as a unique figure on the stage of world history. And he wants to make history with him," Wead claims
Tehran, Iran - His revolutionary fervor diminished by the years that have also turned his dark brown hair white, one of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover says he now regrets the seizure of the diplomatic compound and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed. (Snip) Asgharzadeh cautioned others against following in his footsteps, despite the takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology. He also disputed a revisionist history now being offered by supporters of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that they directed the attack, insisting all the blame rested with the Islamist students who let the crisis spin out of control.
Former first lady Michelle Obama suggested that former President Barack Obama could build his presidential library anywhere around the world because people in foreign countries feel like he is their president.Michelle Obama explained at Tuesday's Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology that Chicago's Jackson Park was selected as the location for the Obama Presidential Center because it is close to the couple's old home and near her childhood home.“There’s power in the selection of Jackson Park,” the former first lady said. “Barack and I don’t do things incidentally. There’s a strategy.”
Washington Post: Border agents
say smugglers in Mexico are sawing
through parts of Trump's border wall replies
say smugglers in Mexico are sawing
through parts of Trump's border wall replies
Smuggling gangs in Mexico have been able to breach new sections of President Donald Trump's border wall in recent months, according to a new report from The Washington Post.
Citing US agents and officials with knowledge of the damage, the Post reported that smugglers have been using reciprocating saws to cut through the steel and concrete portions of the wall, creating openings wide enough for people and drugs to be smuggled through.
The agents told the Post the saws can cut through the bollards in a matter of minutes.
The Trump administration has always been an advocate for religious liberty, and on Friday they reaffirmed that commitment by proposing rolling back an Obama-era rule that denied federal funding to foster care and adoption groups that exclude LGBT parents—which would be a huge win for faith-based organizations and the First Amendment. The White House says the rule from the Department of Health and Human Services is needed to remove barriers that prevent some nonprofits from helping vulnerable people in their communities. It would apply to a broad range of organizations
Some fans of rap megastar Kanye West are showing an increased interest in the Holy Bible following his conversion to Christianity and his hit gospel-rap album Jesus is King. And now one organization is handing out hundreds free Bibles to those who wish to learn more.Google searches for “Jesus” and the query, “What do Christians believe?” spiked significantly following the release of West’s album last week, which includes a plethora of biblical references.Amid renewed interest, the American Bible Society (ABS) plans to use the opportunity to hand out free Bibles to those interested in Christianity
Key point: Expensive R&D can go nowhere in the development of new hardware.
Over the prior decade, Russia’s foray into fifth-generation jet fighter development has become synonymous with the upcoming Su-57. But the Su-57 was only Russia’s second attempt at developing a fifth-generation aircraft, preceded by several decades with an altogether different project.
This is the story of the ill-fated MiG 1.44. (Snip) There is no reliable information as to the quality of the MiG-1.44’s “integrated” avionics and stealth capabilities, two of its most crucial design criteria.
Business records accessed Friday show that Hunter Biden remains listed as a board member of a Chinese private equity firm, a position the son of former Vice President Joe Biden said he’d relinquish by the end of October.Hunter Biden’s lawyer said he had resigned his seat on the board of BHR Partners; however, the lawyer did not provide the Daily Caller News Foundation any evidence of his departure.Hunter Biden was listed as an active director of BHR Partners in the firm’s file on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System when accessed on Nov. 1 by the DCNF.
Republicans prank Dems with special
delivery tied with bows. Battleground
state lawmakers not amused. replies
delivery tied with bows. Battleground
state lawmakers not amused. replies
Democrats in key battleground districts were not amused by the Halloween “trick” played by the National Republican Congressional Committee.Congressional districts that the GOP is hoping to claim in 2020 were targeted by the NRCC which pranked Democratic lawmakers soon after a divided House vote to formalize procedures for the impeachment inquiry. (Tweet) Predicting that the party-line vote will have dire consequences for Democrats at the ballot box in November 2020, Republicans delivered empty boxes with notes reading, “Get Packing” to multiple Democrats including
Tehran - Iran on Saturday unveiled new anti-American murals on the walls of the former US embassy as Tehran prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the storming of what it labels the “den of spies.”
The accusatory message of the paintings was one of a violent US that is thirsty for war and bent on tightening its grip on the world, yet weakening despite its military might.
The new murals — mainly painted in white, red and blue, the colors of the US flag — were unveiled by Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, at the former mission turned museum.
Average rent in the U.S. recently dropped for the first time in two years, with prices waning in more than half of the country’s largest renter hubs.
The declines aren't uniform, though, and for people trying to stick to a tight budget, some areas are still significantly more affordable than others.
AdvisorSmith, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, ranked 827 counties based on the cost of rent and the ability of households to make enough money to pay for housing. The most affordable places were the ones in which it was possible
Let me skip to the end: The Democratic-majority US House of Representatives, in partisan fashion, is all but certain to impeach President Donald Trump. The Republican-majority Senate, in partisan fashion, will almost certainly acquit him. And the net result will be that Democrats will have abused the US Constitution to satisfy political passions instead of approaching impeachment as the solemn act the framers intended.Let's be honest. The Democrats were always going to do this. From the minute we realized on election night that Donald Trump had won, they began fantasizing about nullifying the election results. Indeed, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election,
The Halloween vote for impeachment was an enormous strategic defeat for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.She admitted seven months ago, in a March 6 interview with The Washington Post, that a purely partisan impeachment vote was wrong and dangerous. She was right. Here are her own words:
“I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this, impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan,
Close to a thousand anti-police protesters descended on Downtown Brooklyn Friday night, blocking traffic, vandalizing a city bus and shouting obscene insults at NYPD cops. The demonstration formed soon after 7 p.m. on the streets near the Barclays Center, with protesters unfurling large banners that read “F—k the police” and “Don’t let these pigs touch us.” The crowd began dispersing by 9 p.m. The demonstration was in response to a planned crackdown on fare evasion by the NYPD—and two controversial police actions in Brooklyn subway stations in recent weeks. In one of the incidents, an NYPD cop sent straphangers scrambling
Rosie O’Donnell and fiancée Elizabeth Rooney have reportedly broken up after two years together. According to RadarOnline, O’Donnell, 57, hasn’t mentioned Rooney, 34, “in a while,” and scrubbed the Boston police officer from her Instagram. Rooney also deleted O’Donnell from her social media, including a photo from Oct. 2018 showing off her engagement ring. Reps for the former “View” co-host did not return our request for comment. O’Donnell opened up about the pair’s relationship on “The Howard Stern Show” in November 2017. “I am in love,” she told Stern. “It’s the first time I’ve dated someone younger than me and
Lori Loughlin was considering entering a guilty plea after being slapped with a new bribery charge in the Operation Varsity Blues Scandal, a source close to the actress alleges.
The insider made the claims to Us Weekly on Friday, asserting that the former Full House star was eventually persuaded out of the idea by her designer husband Mossimo Giannulli.
The couple have now formally pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, after being indicted on the offense on October 22.
Loughlin and Giannulli have previously plead not guilty to two other charges in relation to claims they paid $500,000 to get their two daughters,
Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Wednesday in Iowa that he thinks he's still current Vice President Joe Biden, telling an Iowa reporter about environmental tax credits that 'the president and I' jointly want to put in place.
Rattling off a litany of green initiatives he wants to see rural America embrace, Biden said offering federal tax incentives would help nudge the nation toward a carbon-neutral future.
'It would also help people with housing, if you were able to continue to have what we propose, and I propose, what the president and I—' he said, before stopping himself.
(Snip)
'Poor Joe. He thinks he still has Mike Pence's job!
Up until now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had the goods on President Trump and impeachment would move expeditiously.
Until she didn't. Just the partisan lineup of her impeachment inquiry vote on Halloween signaled trouble, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
With that her hand of cards now, now she says she wants to expand the impeachment inquiry beyond Ukraine, raising the specter of mission creep as well as long, drawn out, impeachment hearings on every topic the Democrats can scare up.
According to the Hill:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday it's possible that controversies beyond Ukraine could be part of the impeachment case against President Trump.
Terminator: Dark Fate is not only tanking at the stateside box office, it’s also tanking overseas. If you have seen the movie, as I have, the fact that it cost $185 million to produce seems preposterous. There is no way all that money made it on the screen. But add another $100 million for promotion, and according to the formula, Dark Fate will have to make over $650 million worldwide just to break even.
That’s just not going to happen.
Dark Fate will be lucky to hit $75 million stateside, and the overseas grosses are already flaming out.
As of right now, despite endless publicity and the news
The whistleblower whose complaint launched impeachment proceedings against President Trump is unlikely to testify to Congress, as talks have ceased between his legal team and committee leaders.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who has overseen depositions in Democrats' impeachment proceeding, was initially eager for the whistleblower to testify before citing concern about the person being identified.
Republicans accuse Schiff, a California Democrat, of changing course to prevent inquiries into his staff's dealings with the whistleblower before he filed his Aug. 12 complaint to the Intelligence Community inspector general.
(Snip) there is no discussion of testimony from a second whistleblower, who supported the first's claims.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Bloomberg reporters during a roundtable discussion on Friday that she “would assume” that public impeachment hearings will take place this month but added that depositions – held in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) secret impeachment chamber – will continue as long as they remain “productive.”
Pelosi’s admission follows reports of additional secret meetings scheduled over the next several days, despite the Democrats’ claim that their partisan resolution addressed Republican demands for transparency.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Friday that Democrats would not recognize America if President Donald Trump was re-elected in 2020.
“This country cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump,” he said. “We will not recognize it if he gets reelected.”
Buttigieg spoke to Iowa Democrats at the Liberty and Justice Celebration dinner, a prominent event in the Democrat presidential nomination process.
He tried to seize the mantle of former President Barack Obama, hinting that they were both candidates with a “funny name.”
“The first time I came to this state was as a volunteer, to knock on doors for a presidential candidate – a young man with a funny name,” he said.
Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) campaign is laying off campaign staff and closing three offices in New Hampshire, a crucial early primary state, as part of its effort to go “all-in on Iowa,” according to reports.
Harris’s campaign will no longer have a heavy presence in New Hampshire, reportedly laying off campaign staff and closing offices in Nashua, Portsmouth, and Keene, in order to focus entirely on Iowa. While Harris’s office in Manchester will remain open, WMUR confirmed that it will be “scaled down.”
Per WMUR:
The Harris campaign also told WMUR that Harris has cancelled her scheduled visit to New Hampshire on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
A majority of Americans say Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company was the result of bad judgment, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said that Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma Holdings between 2014 and 2019 was a result of “bad judgment.” Twenty-seven percent of those polled said they thought it was illegal for former Vice President Joe Biden's son to serve on the board. Hunter Biden is not accused of any crimes for being a board member on Burisma. "When told about Hunter Biden’s financial deals in
Thousands of migrants sent back to
Mexico under Trump policy have given
up their asylum claims: DHS replies
Mexico under Trump policy have given
up their asylum claims: DHS replies
Thousands of migrants returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy have given up their asylum claims, with many of them returning home, according to statistics included in a new assessment of the policy released this week by the Department of Homeland Security.
The policy, known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols, sends migrants seeking asylum at the southern border back to Mexico for the duration of immigration proceedings. It is a cornerstone of the administration’s efforts to end “catch and release,” by which migrants are released into the U.S. while their cases are heard.(Snip)
So far, the administration has returned more than 55,000 migrants to Mexico.
The ideological divisions between the leading Democratic candidates for president were on clear display at the rowdy Iowa Liberty and Justice Celebration on Friday evening. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren took aim at her more moderate rivals during her remarks, slamming them for "vague ideas that are designed not to offend anyone." "If the most we can promise is business as usual after Donald Trump, then we Democrats will lose," Warren said, in a clear shot at both former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "We win when we offer solutions big enough to touch the
Representative John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox News to discuss the latest developments within the one-side, partisan, effort to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Having sat through all of the closed-door basement testimony so far, Ratcliffe outlines how Adam Schiff created the appearance of impropriety through an orchestrated effort with embedded political officials. “At the end of the day, the truth will defend itself.”
DOJ Files Surreply Response to Flynn
Brady Motion – (With a valuable little
nugget of a mistake)…. replies
Brady Motion – (With a valuable little
nugget of a mistake)…. replies
Today the DOJ files their surreply to the game-changing Flynn motion to compel Brady material filed by defense attorney Sidney Powell (full pdf below). Within the DOJ filing the prosecution generally makes four arguments: 1. The government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material prior to the plea (Snip)
2. After the plea agreement the government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material that was not directly related to the evidence about the charge of Flynn lying (Snip)
4. The government severely understates the conflict of interest created by the DOJ using the leverage of an incorrectly completed FARA submission to pressure the
The Peoples’ Republic of China is, arguably, the most serious, long-term, foreign threat to the United States of America. The greatest domestic threat to the nation today is the on-going, unrestricted warfare against the U.S. Constitution led by the Democratic Party, and aided by a cadre of fellow travelers in the Republican Party. America is experiencing a non-violent war of aggression pushed by an increasingly belligerent Left, that aims to progress the nation toward full-blown socialism.
WASHINGTON — Even as House Democrats on Thursday ratified an impeachment resolution against President Trump, a federal judge has potentially slowed the brisk pace of the inquiry by declining to rule on whether a key witness needed to testify before the House of Representatives.
Instead, he gave all relevant parties several more weeks to prepare their arguments. That raised the prospect that public hearings on the president’s conduct could drag on into the Christmas holiday season, a scenario many in the Democratic leadership had once hoped to avoid.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sought to make impeachment a quick, tightly controlled affair.
Strassel: Democrats Handling Of
Impeachment Process May Have
Already Given Republicans The Win replies
Impeachment Process May Have
Already Given Republicans The Win replies
There’s been a great deal of discussion of late that Democrats’ threats to impeach Trump are not simply idle ones; that they, in fact, really mean to do it. They promise.
It’s been like watching a child threaten to hold his breath indefinitely if he doesn’t get his way. (snip) Strassel points out that now that Dems have handed Republicans a safe reason not to support impeachment should they manage to get it to the Senate, there’s actually precedent that gives them further cover should they decide to do what it seems more and more likely: immediately pass a motion to dismiss.
WASHINGTON - Democrats in the U.S. Congress took a major step toward impeaching President Donald Trump this week when they agreed on the rules for publicly televised hearings after weeks of testimony behind closed doors. But it is also a step onto more politically perilous terrain for a party seeking to persuade Americans that their cause to remove Republican Trump, who they accuse of abusing his power, is just. Leaders of the Democratic-run U.S. House of Representatives believe that putting the main witnesses on TV will convince independent voters and other doubters that Trump was wrong in asking the Ukrainian government
The election left the ruling class a human disarray of stammering and stuttering, a dribbling mass of political confusion and anger Justice and the Rule of Law (justice) within the ruling class in America is a scarce commodity. It’s at a point where justice is nowhere to be found when warranted and everywhere when it isn’t. The social divide between the ruling class and average Americans has never been as wide as it is now. By ruling class, I mean those in government, the political system, the Ivy League educated, the leaders of bureaucracies, universities, major corporations, newspapers, media, Hollywood.
Texans Susan Lynn, Ingrid Bond and Leslie Karpas had just snagged a double “Ranch Water” — vodka, soda and lemonade from a Wells Fargo Arena vendor — as they talked of feeling “gut punched” that Beto O’Rourke pulled from the presidential race Friday. Lynn said she was disappointed that O’Rourke, the former U.S. representative from Texas, dropped out so close to the Liberty and Justice Celebration. About 1,600 O’Rourke supporters from across the country were expected to come to the event. “I’m pretty frustrated,” said Lynn, who has been canvassing in Iowa for O’Rourke since Wednesday. Lynn, Karpas and other
President Donald Trump at a Friday rallyripped House Democrats for their vote to begin an impeachment inquiry on Thursday.
“Yesterday’s vote by the radical Democrats is an attack on democracy itself,” he said.
The president spoke to his cheering supporters at a rally in Mississippi on Friday night, denouncing the Democrats for their attempt to impeach him.
“Yesterday the Democrat voted to potentially nullify the votes of 63 million Americans, disgracing themselves and bringing shame upon the House of Representatives,” he said.
The president told his supporters that the Democrats were looking for a way to impeach him ever since he first took office, reminding them that the Russia “witch hunt” failed
Biden: Warren’s A Liar
replies
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) of making up the numbers for her recent Medicare for All cost estimate.
Biden went on the attack after PBS host Judy Woodruff repeated the Warren campaign's estimate that government run health care would only cost about $20 trillion.
"She's making it up," Biden said. "She's making it up. Look, nobody thinks it's $20 trillion. It's between $30 and 40 trillion dollars. Every major independent study that's gone out there— that's taken a look at this, there's no way—even Bernie, who talks about the need to raise middle class taxes—
Impeachment Is Unpredictable
replies
Yes, it already seems like two eternities ago. But do you realize that, if we could turn back time just five weeks, no one would have heard of the “whistleblower”? Those of us who can find Ukraine on a map would be back to ignoring it — except to wonder when and why it stopped being the Ukraine. (It has to do with breaking free of Soviet tyranny, by the way.)
There is a lesson in there about unpredictability that the unpredictable Trump White House would do well to internalize.
See, nobody knows for sure how impeachment proceedings will go. Of course, we
Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades.
Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.
Under normal circumstances, the House Intelligence Committee would not have jurisdiction over the string of witnesses who have filed into the impeachment proceedings in the Capitol basement, or the subject matter they are talking about.
None of the material is classified, and those who have appeared before the panel are mostly diplomats whose testimony about a July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would more suitably be scrutinized by the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Considering the current state of our media class, cataloging a single newspaper’s patterns of journalistic malpractice is a seemingly pointless task. And yet, when a publication claims to be the purveyor of preventing our democracy from dying in darkness, the importance of cataloging its very dark week becomes imperative — you know, for democracy’s sake.
Here’s how the Washington Post’s banner week in bad journalism went down.
It started on Sunday with a bizarre obituary for the world’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Someone decided the original headline that labeled Baghdadi a “terrorist-in-chief” needed to be sugar-coated and changed to “austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State.”
The federal government’s response Friday to Michael Flynn and his attorney’s bombshell claims of prosecutorial misconduct raises three concerns. First, that the “false statement” Flynn is accused of making was revised and edited since his interview with the FBI. Second, that Flynn never received a copy of the transcript of the conversations he supposedly lied about. And third, that Flynn’s purported “lies” are, in some cases, disputes over the accuracy of vague characterizations about his calls with the Russian ambassador.
As I recently reported, the case has reached a dramatic crossroads as Flynn’s new attorney, Sidney Powell, has forced the prosecution team,
On October 24, fifty of the fifty-three Republicans in the United States Senate sponsored a resolution calling on the House of Representatives to initiate a formal impeachment proceeding that provided "due process" to the president and, among other things, provided equal subpoena power to the House minority. The resolution adopted by the House one week later, however, continues the Star Chamber-like hearings before its Intelligence Committee and treats House Republicans as supplicants with respect to the subpoena power.
Should the Senate respond, and, if so, how?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should hold a press conference, ASAP, to explain to the American people that the impeachment inquiry resolution
Who's Putting Who in Chains?
replies
It was in August, 2012, during the final months of the Obama reelection campaign, when then-Vice President Joe Biden made the ham-fisted statement to a Danville, Virginia crowd which included many black Americans, that Mitt Romney would, "put y’all back in chains,” by cutting regulations on Wall Street.
His gaffe was a clumsy attempt to slander Romney and all Republicans by intimating their desire to put Americans ‘back’ in chains, interpreted by the hypersensitive liberal Left as a twisted reference to slavery. But unfortunately many Americans, (especially blacks), believe this to be a truism -- that Republicans are oppressors and slavemasters to be eradicated from the American landscape.
What makes America win? Use any measuring stick and you will find the United States leads the way. We are number one in opportunity, quality of life, access to healthcare, academics, and diversity in intellectual and political thought -- we even lead the world in dog and cat ownership.
American competitiveness is a topic President Trump made a cornerstone of his campaign in 2016 and still talks about almost daily. How often do we hear him tout that under his leadership: “America is winning again!” It’s a message the President has stuck to, and we see evidence of regularly. There’s perhaps no better example of this than the President’s
During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” this week, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) acknowledged that Thursday’s vote by congressional Democrats to proceed with the impeachment of President Donald Trump was a “short-term win” for Democrats. However, he said it might be different for Democrats in the long run.
According to the Alabama Republican, what is unfolding in Congress regarding impeachment was a concern of the Founding Father when they were laying out the provisions for removing a sitting U.S. president from office.
“[I] think this is a short-term win for the Democrats,” Aderholt said.
On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball” during a discussion with former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, host Chris Matthews argued part of the reason Donald Trump was elected president was former President Barack Obama “was such a sterling character.”
According to Matthews, it drove “some people who don’t like the success of anybody that was a minority crazy.”
Matthews said, “I believe in it, that Barack Obama was such a sterling character, his family was such a sterling perfect family, they are perfect by any standards of traditional American values. They obeyed all the rules. They weren’t money-grubbers, public service from the beginning of his career.
On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Live,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) argued hurricanes, superstorms, and tornadoes were on the rise because of anthropogenic climate change.
While discussing the flooding in New York State, Cuomo said, “Anyone who questions extreme weather and climate change is just delusional at this point. We have seen in the state of New York what every one has seen. We see these weather patterns that we never had before. We didn’t have hurricanes. We didn’t have superstorms. We didn’t have tornadoes. This is a storm that came up just overnight, dropped about five inches of rain, and it was literally a matter of life or death for people.”
Mark Levin on Alleged ‘Whistleblower’:
National Security Council Was
Exposed as ‘A Rat’s Nest’ replies
National Security Council Was
Exposed as ‘A Rat’s Nest’ replies
Appearing Thursday on the Fox News Channel’s Hannity, conservative radio host Mark Levin slammed the alleged so-called “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella and called the National Security Council a “rat’s nest.”
SEAN HANNITY: You know this law backward and forwards. I’m turning this over to you because I talked to you before the show and I know you have a lot to say.
[…]
MARK LEVIN: We have found the rat’s nest. It’s in the National Security Council. The whistleblower, according to a number of reports, comes off the National Security Council. An Obama holdover. A Democrat. Somebody who worked with Biden.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant wanted to avoid talking about President Donald Trump as she courted voters this week on Ridgefield Green Way just outside Virginia's capital city. The middle-aged man at one door didn't want to talk about anything else.
"I've only got one question. Do you support Trump?" he asked.
"Yes," Dunnavant replied.
"Then you've got my vote," he said.
On the sidewalk a few minutes later, Dunnavant actively distanced herself from the Republican president, acknowledging he is deeply unpopular in her district — despite the doorway encounter. The 55-year-old OB-GYN said she'd prefer that Trump stay out of Virginia ahead of Tuesday's high-stakes elections.
Impervious as ever to the impact of centrally planned greenie socialism on the reliability of electricity in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is running scared.
He's threatening the Hugo Chavez solution to the new-normal of blackouts in his state, which is to say, nationalizing Pacific Gas & Electric. Nationalization? Boy is that a cop-out. (snip) PG&E has no money to put its electrical wires under the ground after all the "green mandates" the socialists in the California state assembly have foisted on them, forcing them to convert to pricey, unreliable and wire-transmitted solar and wind power instead of efficient, reliable, cheap fossil fuels.
Beto O’Rourke Calls It Quits
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We gather today to say a hearty RIP to the Beto O’Rourke political project, helmed by one Beto O’Rourke, who ran one of the most remarkable Senate campaigns and one of the most underwhelming presidential campaigns in modern American history—all in the space of about 31 months.
Late on a Friday afternoon, O’Rourke and his loved ones made the decision to pull the plug, releasing a Medium post explaining why. “Though it is difficult to accept, it is clear to me now that this campaign does not have the means to move forward successfully,” he wrote.
In The Atlantic, Sarah Longwell, executive director for something called Republicans for the Rule of Law, an advocacy group run by NeverTrumps still bitter that Jeb Bush was denied his designated shot to lose to Hillary, drafts a plan for Senate Republicans to finally oust Trump from office. Her man for the job: Senator Romney.
The piece reads like a screenwriter optioning a script. There's drama, scuttlebutt, the balancing of ambitions, character conflict, palace intrigue, a war of values. There's even artsy ambiguity, with Longwell unable to provide a satisfying conclusion to her fictional putsch.
The Reserve Army of the GOP
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At first glance, President Trump's reelection chances don't look good. Stories about impeachment and presidential misbehavior dominate the news. Trump's disapproval rating is high. Independent voters are against him. GOP congressmen are retiring from suburban districts that trend Democratic. The generic ballot is about where it was last cycle. Trump's win in 2016, when some 78,000 voters in three states gave him the Electoral College, was a close-run thing. Seems hard to repeat.
And yet liberals are filled with apprehension. They are coming to recognize the potential size of the president's pool of supporters. They fret over the capacities and liabilities of the eventual Democratic nominee. And their concerns are related:
Kentucky’s Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit against a print shop owner who refused to make an LGBT Pride T-shirt because doing so would violate his conscience.
The high court ruled that the plaintiff, Lexington’s Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, lacked standing in the case since the city’s gay rights law is meant to protect individuals rather than activist groups.
“While this result is no doubt disappointing to many interested in this case and its potential outcome, the fact that the wrong party filed the complaint makes the discrimination analysis almost impossible to conduct, including issues related to freedom of expression and religion,” the court’s decision read.
Sidney Powell, the Dallas defense lawyer who rode into Washington determined to exonerate retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, specializes in unearthing stashed evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.
She came to fame in the Enron scandal in Texas and then wrote a book about how corrupt she believes the U.S. Justice Department is.
Today, Ms. Powell is causing headlines in the conservative press and being cheered on by pro-Trump forces as she files motions in U.S. District Court depicting special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe as part of that corruption.
Over the course of her campaign for president, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed more than $20.35 trillion in tax increases. The taxes have been sweeping — hitting payrolls, investments, wealth, military contractors, and guns and ammo. They will hammer billionaires and middle-class families.
Below, I’ve compiled an itemized list of all the taxes we have a specific estimate for, as well as additional tax increases she has proposed for which there is no estimate, and other ways she anticipates raising revenues by an additional $3.7 trillion without explicit tax increases. This list will be updated as it grows over the course of the campaign. But to provide a sense of scale,
Bye-Bye Beto
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Beto O’Rourke announced today that he is ending his presidential campaign and will not be a candidate for any office in 2020.
Given O’Rourke’s inability to make headway in the polls, it is not surprising that he is dropping out. What is noteworthy, perhaps, is the fact that he was ever taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Beto was largely a creation of the media, which rooted unabashedly for him to defeat the despised Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race. That contest made O’Rourke a celebrity on the left. But evidence that he was in any way ready for prime time was entirely lacking, and once his usefulness
Hillary Clinton keeps flirting with running for president again, and the Democrat Party keeps rejecting her advances. You cannot blame Democrats for dismissing a candidacy the only rationale for which is hubris. And you cannot blame Republicans for desiring a candidacy that would take Democrats’ current chaos to another level.
Welcome to the Clinton conundrum. On one hand, Hillary’s ominous omnipresence would signal an impending run if she were anyone else. On the other, Hillary’s two national election losses would signal a permanent retirement if she were anyone else.
What does it mean after the House of Representatives — on an almost one-hundred-percent pure partisan vote, save for two Democrats who wisely demurred — decides to expand an impeachment investigation on what they claim to be serious charges when... the very next day... the stock market zooms to all-time highs, breaking records substantially on all major indexes, and black unemployment goes to all-time lows?
Well, the latter spells big trouble for the Democrats a year from now and the former means the investment world thinks impeachment is a bunch of horse hockey that will never happen (the Republican Senate will never convict Trump,
When Barack Obama talks, everyone listens.
That’s why I paid close attention to his remarks about young people and our activism on social media at a Tuesday Obama Foundation event, and why I gasped at what I heard: “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. And share certain things with you.”
He doubled down on his finger-wagging, criticizing college students in particular who, in his view, think,
An American cheese has been named world champion for the first time.
Rogue River Blue, from southern Oregon cheesemaker Rogue Creamery, was declared the world’s best cheese of 2019 at the World Cheese Awards in Italy in October, according to contest organizer the Guild of Fine Food
The organic blue cheese beat out a record 3,803 other cheeses in the competition, which is the world’s largest cheese-only contest. Contest judge Bruno Cabral described Rogue’s cheese as a “taste party” with “different sensations, balance, sweet and spicy notes.”
David Gremmels, the owner of Rogue Creamery, said he was “humbled and filled with gratitude” in a press release after the win.
"Catch and Kill" author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow took aim at former President Bill Clinton on Friday night, saying the nation's 42nd chief executive was "credibly" accused of rape and that alleged victim Juanita Broaddrick's claim was "overdue for revisiting."
Stemming from a panel discussion on "Real Time with Bill Maher" about the Katie Hill saga -- in which the California congresswoman resigned after allegations of inappropriate affairs -- host Maher posed a hypothetical about whether Clinton would have been treated differently -- for the Monica Lewinsky affair and other matters -- if he were president in today's political climate.
Dogs biting humans being naturally unremarkable, any attempt to convince us to regard accounts of their biting as noteworthy events leads one to ask whether the person advancing that position is ignorant of nature, or is toying with us. By nature, instances of bureaucrats speaking ill of their elected superiors are equally unremarkable and lead us to ask the same questions.For the past month, the Democratic Party and the media (excuse the redundancy) have demanded that the American people be shocked (shocked!) by stories of multiple bureaucrats who express (choose your weapon) “concern,” “dismay,” “abhorrence,” etc. at the mode and substance of President Trump’s communication with Ukraine’s president.
TUPELO, Miss.— President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at Democrats for a vote this week formalizing the House impeachment inquiry as he urged rallygoers in Mississippi to send a message to Washington by voting Republican in the state's upcoming gubernatorial race.
Democrats are "disgracing themselves and bringing shame upon the House of Representatives," Trump charged. "They've been plotting to overthrow the election since the moment I won."Trump was in Mississippi trying to shore up support for Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who is locked in a tight race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in next week's off-year election. The race between Reeves and Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood