Posts on Thursday, November 21, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard trashed the Democratic Party as “not the party that is of, by and for the people,” accused Kamala Harris of trafficking in “lies and smears and innuendo” and attacked Pete Buttigieg as naive. Her performance at Wednesday’s debate earned an attaboy from the Trump War Room. And some rank-and-file Democrats are at wit's end with the congresswoman who Hillary Clinton called “the favorite of the Russians.” (Snip) The Hawaii congresswoman’s presence on the debate stage is becoming a headache for the party as she uses the platform to appeal to isolationists, dissatisfied liberals and even conservatives. She has
RUSH: I’m gonna pat myself on the back. I rarely do this. Other people do. I rarely do it. You know what I’ve been striving to do? I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to put all this Ukraine stuff in the context of Donald Trump’s understanding of it and his relationship to it. I did it throughout the program yesterday and one time I did it in an intense way. (Snip) Even Devin Nunes yesterday in his questioning attempted to explain the context, which makes everything Trump did totally common-sensical.
President Trump has opted against pressuring Senate Republicans to immediately dismiss articles of impeachment, sparing the party the prospect of a clash at the outset of an election year. White House counsel Pat Cipollone signaled during a Thursday meeting with key Senate Republicans that Trump has concluded he has more to gain politically from presenting a detailed defense at trial than from no trial at all, said GOP sources familiar with the discussion. That decision should shield Senate Republicans from the damaging backlash from the conservative base that might ensue — at the onset of GOP primary season —
U.S. sends warships near islands in
South China Sea after Beijing's
demands it halt muscle-flexing replies
South China Sea after Beijing's
demands it halt muscle-flexing replies
The U.S. Navy has sent warships on two separate occasions in recent days near islands claimed by Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, the military told The Japan Times on Friday.
The so-called freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) on Wednesday and Thursday came amid rising tensions between the two powers, and just days after China demanded the U.S. military “stop flexing muscles” in the strategic waterway. (Snip) The U.S. Navy has angered China by regularly conducting FONOPs by ships close to some of the islands China occupies, including man-made islets, in the waterway, asserting freedom of access to crucial international waterways.
White House officials will soon present President Trump with a plan to crack down on homelessness in California, days after ousting a top federal official appointed during the Obama administration, according to two senior administration officials.
The plan is expected to be shown to Trump in coming weeks, officials said, perhaps as soon as next week. Trump will be able to select ideas for how to address the growing homeless problem in several major cities. (Snip) The push comes amid an intensifying effort by the Trump administration, spurred by the president’s directive months ago, to target homelessness in California.
LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif. — Former President Barack Obama urged Democrats on Thursday to “chill out” about the party’s 2020 field and to avoid putting candidates through “purity tests,” and warned that average voters are “nervous about changes that might take away what little they have.” Speaking to party donors a day after the latest Democratic primary debate, Mr. Obama added to a series of recent remarks about American politics and the presidential race, including his warning on Friday that the candidates not move too far to the left in their policy proposals and his observation that the average American
Salt Lake City—A Utah woman charged with a crime after her stepchildren saw her topless in her own home is fighting the case that could force her to register as a sex offender, pointing to a court ruling that overturned a topless ban in Colorado and helped fuel a movement. Tilli Buchanan’s attorneys argue that Utah’s law on lewdness involving a child is unfair because it treats men and women differently for baring their chests.(Snip) When her husband’s three children, ages 9 through 13, walked in, she “explained she considers herself a feminist and wanted to make a point that everybody
Former Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday compared the seriousness of climate change to battles fought during WWII and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “This is Pearl Harbor. This is Midway. This is the Battle of Bulge. This is 9/11. We have to rise to this challenge. We have to change,” Mr. Gore said during a speech in New Jersey after Gov. Phil Murphy laid out his plan to transition the Garden State to clean energy sources, a local CBS affiliate reported. Mr. Gore made the same comparison on Wednesday during a speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville promoting his Climate Reality Project.
‘Bull-Schiff’: Trump Campaign Releases
New T-Shirts Mocking the House
Intelligence Committee Chairman replies
New T-Shirts Mocking the House
Intelligence Committee Chairman replies
The Trump reelection campaign has released hilarious new t-shirts taking aim at House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff. The shirt features the word “bull” before a pencil-necked caricature of Rep. Schiff. (Tweet/Photo) The description for the shirt, which is made in the USA, states “Our bull-schiff-o-meter is off the charts! Shifty-Schiff pushed the FAKE Russian collusion story for three years and now he’s on to another sham. Don’t let Adam Schiff get away with the bull-Schiff Ukrainian investigation.”
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Colombia’s ambassador in Washington was embarrassed Wednesday by publication of a recording in which he trashes the State Department as a feckless institution subjugated to the whims of the White House.
The Colombian newspaper Publimetro posted the recording of a 24-minute conversation between Ambassador Francisco Santos and Colombia’s foreign minister-designate, Claudia Blum. The paper said the private conversation took place last week at a Washington cafe and was recorded by a third person it did not identify.
In the conversation, Santos complains that the State Department has lost the muscle as a driver of U.S. policy
Adam Schiff’s closing witness Thursday in the Democrat impeachment show trials was Fiona Hill. Fiona Hill is a Deep State-Soros hack who admitted she was shown the phony, Hillary-funded Steele dossier one day before BuzzFeed published it in January of 2017.Adam Schiff’s circus impeachment was reduced to Fiona Hill talking about her pigtails she wore as a schoolgirl.Democrat hack Rep. Jackie Speier (CA), in an attempt to make Fiona Hill look tough, brought up a story about a schoolboy setting Hill’s pigtails on fire when she was 11 years old.“I understand when you were 11 years old, there was a schoolboy who set your pigtails on fire…
The final hearing on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump is happening as we speak. Career diplomats and foreign affairs specialists Fiona Hill and David Holmes are testifying in what has been a week of hot air. We’ve had a lot of Democratic hyperbole and a lot of witnesses saying they don’t possess direct evidence of the so-called quid pro quo allegations that have been hurled at the Trump White House. It all stems from a whistleblower report that in July, President Trump threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine unless they opened a corruption probe into Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma, an energy company, despite having zero experience.
Sacramento, CA - California officials say they will sue the Trump administration over its rules governing water in the fragile San Joaquin Delta.
The federal government released the new rules last month, which would govern the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. The new rules committed to sending more water to farmers despite warnings from environmental groups that it would imperil endangered species in the state’s rivers.
The California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday the state plans to sue to change those rules because they are not scientifically adequate and “fall short of protecting species and the state’s interests.”
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tore into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for attending a previously undisclosed meeting with President Trump at the White House in October, accusing the tech billionaire of intentionally cozying up to the administration as his company faces increased scrutiny from regulators and Democratic lawmakers. "Amid antitrust scrutiny, Facebook is going on a charm offensive with Republican lawmakers," Warren wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday. "And now, Mark Zuckerberg and one of Facebook's board members—a major Trump donor—had a secret dinner with Trump. This is corruption, plain and simple." If elected next year
Sen. Cory Booker got the easiest question of the evening at last night's Democratic debate in Atlanta, a whiff, a puff ball, an easy opportunity to sound grand in the invitation to say a nice thing about Hong Kong. He blew it.
Here's the NBC transcript:
MADDOW: On the issue of China, Senator Booker, China is now using force against demonstrators in Hong Kong where millions have taken to the streets advocating for democratic reforms. Many of the demonstrators are asking the United States for help. If you were president, would the U.S. help their movement, and how?
BOOKER: Well, first of all, this is president who seems
Sen. Cory Booker got the easiest question of the evening at last night's Democratic debate in Atlanta, a whiff, a puff ball, an easy opportunity to sound grand in the invitation to say a nice thing about Hong Kong. He blew it.
Here's the NBC transcript:
MADDOW: On the issue of China, Senator Booker, China is now using force against demonstrators in Hong Kong where millions have taken to the streets advocating for democratic reforms. Many of the demonstrators are asking the United States for help. If you were president, would the U.S. help their movement, and how?
BOOKER: Well, first of all, this is president who seems
CNN host Don Lemon declared he’s not “some liberal Democrat” and claimed he isn’t partisan on Tuesday when discussing the ongoing impeachment hearings. “I think on this one, the Republicans are on the wrong side of history, and they are the most hypocritical. I’m not a partisan. I know people think that I’m some liberal Democrat. I’m not. They used to think I was a conservative Republican. I’m not,” Lemon said during his nightly handoff with fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo. “But I don’t think the Republicans are serving themselves well.”
State Department official David Holmes admitted in closed-door testimony last week that he had not taken notes about the conversation he claims to have overheard between President Donald Trump and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland.
Holmes testified in a public hearing at the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning that he heard Trump speaking to Sondland on a mobile phone while sitting at an outdoor restaurant table on July 26th — the day after Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He said that he heard Trump say “investigations,” and that in a subsequent conversation, Sondland said Trump wanted to investigate the “Bidens.” Sondland disputed that in his
During a Nov. 21 press conference at the U.S. Capitol, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the reason why the impeachment inquiry does not have bipartisan support is that “Republicans are in denial about the facts.”“The Republicans are in denial about the facts,” she said. “If the Republicans do not want to honor their oath of office, then I don’t think we should be characterized as partisan in that way because we are patriotic.”On the other side of the issue, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the facts arising from the hearings are in favor of President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General indicted Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky.
The claim alleges that Hunter Biden and his partners received $16.5 million over several years for their ‘services’ in Ukraine.
(Snip)
New memos released earlier this month revealed Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian natural gas company, pressured the Obama State Department to help end the corruption investigation during the 2016 election cycle just one month before then-Vice President Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor probing his son Hunter.
(Snip)
Now this…
Democrat Adam Schiff is linked to both US corporations named in the $7.4 BILLION corruption case.
Support for Donald Trump’s economic policies rose to the highest level of his presidency in November, according to the latest Gallup opinion poll.Fifty-seven percent of Americans approved of President Trump’s handling of the economy, up from 53 percent in August and 50 percent in May. Approval is dramatically improved from the early days of his presidency, when just 48 percent said they approved.The share of Americans who say they disapprove of Trump’s economic policies fell to just 42 percent, the lowest level on record. This was as high as 48 percent when Trump took office, nearly tied with his 47 percent approval rating
California lawmakers’ attempt to require President Trump to release his tax returns in order to run in next year’s primary came to an abrupt end Thursday when the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the legislation, sponsored by Democrats, violated a state constitutional requirement to include all “recognized” presidential candidates on the primary ballot.
The state law, the first of its kind in the nation, “is in conflict with the Constitution’s specification of an inclusive open presidential primary ballot,” said Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. The ruling came just 15 days after the court heard arguments in the case.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo mocked after
attempt to disprove Trump’s phone
theory with call to mom fails replies
attempt to disprove Trump’s phone
theory with call to mom fails replies
CNN host Chris Cuomo was mocked Thursday after his attempt to disprove President Trump’s theory about how phones work backfired on live television.
David Holmes, the political counsel at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, testified during Thursday’s impeachment hearing that he overheard a would-be damming phone call between Trump and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Holmes said he “could hear the president’s voice through the earpiece of the phone,” which was not on speakerphone.
Trump, in real-time, tweeted his skepticism.
“I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life. My hearing is, and has been, great. Never have I been watching a person making a call, which was not on speakerphone,
Myles Garrett’s appeal of his indefinite suspension included a claim that Mason Rudolph used a racial slur before their brawl, ESPN.com reported. Garrett is trying to have his ban reduced after he swung his helmet wildly at the Steelers quarterback in the final seconds of the Browns’ 21-7 win over Pittsburgh last Thursday. Rudolph strongly denied the accusation, both through the team and his attorney. “This is a lie. This false allegation was never asserted by Garrett in the aftermath of the game, never suggested prior to the hearing, and conspicuously absent in the apology published by the Browns and adopted by Garrett
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) officially ended his boycott of the hotel chain owned by U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland after he testified against President Donald Trump in Wedesday’s impeachment inquiry.
Blumenauer had encouraged the public to boycott Sondland’s Provenance Hotels until he testified. As Wilamette Week reported: “In October, Blumenauer called for a boycott of Provenance Hotels, where Sondland served as CEO. Blumenauer said Americans should boycott Provenance properties—including six hotels in downtown Portland—until Sondland testified in a congressional impeachment inquiry.”
Sondland had originally defended the president robustly, but seemed to become less adamant in his arguments over time.
The fake news media are still trying to pretend Gordon Sondland’s train-wreck impeachment testimony Wednesday spells doom for President Trump.
It doesn’t.
Quite the opposite.
In fact, yesterday was a disaster for the media and Democrats, the worst day so far for an impeachment inquiry that is quickly exhausting the patience of the American people.
All the media got out of our ambassador to the European Union Wednesday was the soundbite they so desperately desired, a soundbite where a witness (who, like all the other impeachment “witnesses,” has witnessed nothing) said, “There was quid pro quo.”
Unfortunately for our media coup plotters, a soundbite is not evidence.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday that the country is widening its investigation into the founder of Burisma Holdings, the natural gas firm where Hunter Biden held a lucrative role on the board while his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, was leading Ukraine policy and “anti-corruption” efforts for the Obama administration.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky—whose whereabouts are currently unknown—is suspected of “theft of government funds on an especially large scale,” according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.(Snip)Andriy Derkach, one of the lawmakers at the press conference, alleged that the $16.5 million Hunter Biden received as payment from Burisma was stolen from Ukrainian citizens.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka has said that he has not met or discussed the investigations into the energy company Burisma with representatives of other countries.
"I haven't met or discussed this with representatives of the administration of any foreign state... I haven't been asked any questions, haven't been pressured or given any requests," Riaboshapka said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday upon being asked whether he had met with members of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration in recent months to discuss the Burisma case.
Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council (NSC) official who is testifying in Thursday’s impeachment inquiry, admitted in her closed-door deposition to having worked with Russia “dossier” author Christopher Steele.
Steele, a former British spy, was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to find dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. The firm was paid by Trump’s political opponents, particularly the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. His “dossier” produced a slew of unsubstantiated, salacious accusations, some of them were proven false outright. But the FBI used it to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign associates.
Hill was asked directly about her work with Steele.
Dr. Fiona Hill told the impeachment inquiry Thursday that she was concerned that a hold on aid might endanger Ukraine’s security. But in a 2015 Washington Post op-ed, Hill argued against giving Ukraine any lethal weapons.Hill was testifying in the seventh public hearing in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry. As she had in her closed-door deposition last month, Hill said she was concerned about Ukraine’s security and stability as it defended itself against Russia. In that context, she — and others — were worried about a hold on security.But Hill also had to admit that she co-authored an op-ed in 2015,
Lee Smith’s new book, The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History, lays out a compelling case of abuse against the United States’ major intelligence agencies. In great detail, he explains how the FBI and the Department of Justice not only abused their power in going after Donald Trump, his campaign, and later his administration, but how they sought to cover it up.
Unlike some of the other recent books on this topic, Smith’s epic has a hero. Smith makes a compelling case that California Rep. Devin Nunes and his steadfast team
After traveling across the United States and parts of Canada, Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist, has set sail back to Europe. This time, she's hitching a ride with an Australian couple sailing around the world in a 48-foot catamaran called La Vagabonde, chronicling their travels on YouTube. La Vagabonde will take roughly three weeks to reach Spain, where Thunberg hopes to arrive in time for the next round of United Nations–sponsored climate talks. Without a doubt, Thunberg's travels across North America, which included angrily lecturing world leaders at the United Nations, have gained her fame and notoriety.
For most of the last three years, Donald Trump's critics have scoffed at supposed "conspiracy theories" that claimed a "deep state" of bureaucrats were aborting the Trump presidency. We have been told the word "coup" is hyperbole that reveals the paranoid minds of Trump supporters.Yet oddly, many people brag that they are proud members of a deep state and occasionally boast about the idea of a coup.Recently, former acting CIA chief John McLaughlin proclaimed in a public forum, "Thank God for the deep state."
Pete-mentum is real. Two polls within four days certified the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as the new front-runner in Iowa. Which is good news for the Buttigieg campaign, coming less than three months before the caucuses, even if the pool of undecideds remains large. “There’s a ton of folks who haven’t made up their minds,” says Charlie Wishman, an Iowa labor union official. “Check the [Des Moines] *Register&’s poll the weekend before the caucus, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s really happening.”
Mayor Pete’s rise also comes with a more immediate downside.
First lady Melania Trump and second lady Karen Pence assembled comfort kits for U.S. troops deployed overseas during the holidays at the American Red Cross' Washington, D.C., headquarters on Wednesday. The pair were joined by a dozen Cabinet secretaries' spouses as they constructed the holiday care packages for troops stationed in Romania, Poland, Djibouti, Iraq and Kuwait."While most Americans are able to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families, we have thousands of American troops deployed overseas separated from their loved ones," Trump said. "It is important as Americans to do all we can to support our troops and their nation's freedoms."
The Army’s answer to Seinfeld’s George Costanza, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, made quite the statement Tuesday when admitting under oath that he was offered the position of Minister of Defense of Ukraine — three times. Vindman and the Ukrainian official extending the offer now both insist it was a joke, which may be true or not. But it’s irrelevant.
Trump declares Navy will not take
away Eddie Gallagher's SEAL Trident,
as attorney blasts admiral replies
away Eddie Gallagher's SEAL Trident,
as attorney blasts admiral replies
The attorney for Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday that the Navy is trying to humiliate his client by potentially taking away his SEAL Trident, as President Trump reaffirmed his support for the embattled soldier. "This is an action that they could have taken at any time from July right after the verdict, until today," his lawyer Tim Parlatore said. "President Trump takes action on a Friday afternoon — Monday morning, the admiral [Adm. Collin Green] comes in and brings everybody together and says 'I disagree with the president, we're going to take his Trident.'"
New York Times columnist and CBS News political analyst Jamelle Bouie addressed what has been described as a “secretive” group of the Democratic Party’s top donors last week in potential violation of the paper’s ethical guidelines.
Bouie was invited last week to speak behind closed doors to Democracy Alliance, which according to its website described itself as the “largest network of donors dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States,” although not formally affiliated with the party.
Bouie’s appearance may be in violation of The New York Times’ ethical guidelines, which prohibit paid speeches to political groups and urge staff members to be “especially sensitive to the appearance of partiality
The raging Democrats seem totally unaware that there’s no cure for stupid
Infamy will forever define all members of the ‘Coup Klutz Clan’, depicted here in the cartoon caricatures of Canada Free Press cartoonist, Dag Barkley.
In the end, it will not be their crazed impeachment demands that will define the ‘Coup Klutz Clan’ but INFAMY—‘The Pistol-toting Gang That Just Can’t Shoot Straight’. After all the
SEATTLE — King County Council approved $100,000 in funding Wednesday for a program that would bus the homeless outside the county.
Council members earmarked the money as part of $450 million in supplemental funding for the 2019-2021 biennial budget. Other items in the supplemental budget included money for more electric vehicle chargers ...
We're supposed to refer to the endless slew of bureaucrats testifying in the impeachment proceeding as "patriots" and "public servants." But are we allowed to wonder whether they're stupid? Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill apparently doesn't understand that it's possible more than one country interfered in the 2016 election. In fact, we know that at least two did. In her opening statement Thursday, Hill denied that Ukraine had inserted itself in that election with the explicit purpose of harming President Trump's campaign.
Vindman lawyer sends letter to Fox,
demands retraction from Ingraham
guest who gave his opinion replies
demands retraction from Ingraham
guest who gave his opinion replies
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — the Soviet-born impeachment witness being championed by Democrats — is demanding that Fox News “retract and correct” an opinion that attorney/law professor John Yoo stated on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News opinion show. Vindman’s lawyer, David Pressman (a former Obama aide), slammed Yoo’s suggestion that some people might think that Vindman could have committed espionage when he advised Ukraine while undermining Trump’s policies while working in the Trump White House. In the letter, Vindman’s attorney wrote:
During her recent visit to Washington, DC, Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg was hailed by Barack Obama as “one of our planet’s greatest advocates.” When the two met prior to her speech before Congress, the former president assured her of his own environmental bona fides with this: “You and me, we’re a team.”
Cropped close-up from Obama Foundation YouTube
To demonstrate her passionate commitment to reducing fossil fuel emissions, Greta traveled from her country to the U.S. by a solar powered yacht, rather than a gas-guzzling private jet, the most planet-destructive mode of transportation. Her “carbon-free” trip to America was largely a symbolic gesture,
For most of the last three years, Donald Trump’s critics have scoffed at supposed “conspiracy theories” that claimed a “deep state” of bureaucrats were aborting the Trump presidency. We have been told the word “coup” is hyperbole that reveals the paranoid minds of Trump supporters.
Yet oddly, many people brag that they are proud members of a deep state and occasionally boast about the idea of a coup.
Recently, former acting CIA chief John McLaughlin proclaimed in a public forum, “Thank God for the deep state.” Former CIA director John Brennan agreed and praised the “deep state people” for their opposition to Trump.
The Democratic National Committee released its fundraising numbers during the presidential primary debate on Wednesday night, revealing that the committee lags far behind Republicans in funding for the 2020 elections.
The DNC has $8.7 million in cash on hand, but it is $7 million in debt, according to its October Federal Election Commission filing. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, had raised $156 million and had $61.4 million cash on hand as of the end of October.
However, it was noted that the DNC is competing for donations with a wide field of presidential candidates, ten of which participated in Wednesday night’s primary debate. At this point in 2011, when former
Yesterday’s Democratic debate in Atlanta played out in front of Americans already exhausted by two weeks of tumultuous House impeachment hearings. At times it felt like the candidates were doing their best to offer beleaguered viewers a much-needed break from the constant stream of combative news clips cascading from Capitol Hill.
For the most part, they succeeded.
What voters saw last night was a mostly forgettable affair unlikely to spur big changes in the wide-open campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. Former Vice President Joe Biden stumbled into gaffe after gaffe. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offered viewers another recitation of his “I wrote the damn bill” one-liner on “Medicare for All.”
Trump Dares Media to Report
Sondland Testimony that President Said,
‘I Want Nothing from Ukraine’ replies
Sondland Testimony that President Said,
‘I Want Nothing from Ukraine’ replies
“Ready? You have the cameras running?” President Donald Trump said, baiting the press on Wednesday.
While U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was testifying before the Democrats’ House Impeachment inquiry Wednesday, Trump dared media to report something Sondland told the committee that morning in his sworn testimony.
“Ready? You have the cameras running?” Trump asked reporters before quoting testimony from Sondland which, Trump says, “Means it’s all over” for Democrats’ impeachment efforts.
Trump, then, quoted Sondland testifying that, when asked, President Trump twice told him that he wanted “nothing” in exchange for giving U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“If you weren’t fake news, you’d cover it properly,”
In his opening statement to the House intelligence committee, Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland said "Yes," "there was a quid pro quo" with regard to the White House call and the White House meeting sought by the Ukrainians.
But Sondland only "presumed" that U.S. military aid was part of the quid pro quo.
No one ever told him that about the military aid, Sondland testified repeatedly. And that includes President Trump, who -- according to Sondland -- told Sondland directly, "I want nothing."
Recently, I asked a liberal friend whether Joe Biden would assert his Fifth Amendment rights in an eventual trial before the Senate. “That’s never going to happen,” my friend sniffed. He went on to mock the “conspiracy theory” that the Ukrainians interfered in the election and the “debunked” theory that Hunter Biden somehow broke a law by taking money from Burisma.“Yes it will,” I responded. “The whole theory for impeachment hinges on the assumption that the investigation of the Bidens was just a personal political hit job to help in 2020. If Trump can establish a legitimate law enforcement concern in looking into the Bidens and/or Ukrainian interference
Vice President Joe Biden claimed Wednesday that he came “out of the black community” when discussing his political support during the fifth Democrat presidential debate.
“I come out of the black community in terms of my support,” Biden said, noting that three former chairmen of the Congressional Black Caucus had endorsed his campaign as well as “the only African-American woman who’d ever been elected to the United States Senate.”
(That claim was incorrect, an obvious gaffe that was fact-checked in real-time by Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris on the debate stage)
Tucker Carlson said the impeachment saga is boring, difficult to understand, and never-ending in a monologue delivered Wednesday night. According to FOX News, Carlson said arguing that the push to remove the president represents the suppression of American democracy by the Washington establishment which "ought to make you nervous."
"From the beginning, Washington has had 'presumptions' about what the new president was like, about what policies voters we're allowed to choose," Carlson said. "Voters weren't allowed to end foreign wars by casting a ballot or putting America first, or secure America’s borders. That's not on the table. Those aren't menu options. This isn't a real democracy
Following are the prepared remarks of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to the American Principles Project Foundation on November 19, 2019. Or watch the speech at the link below.
The loss of community spans age & income & region & race. It is helping drive the epidemic of deaths of despair, as more people feel isolated & alone. Rebuilding genuine community is one of the urgent needs of our day. Full remarks here https://t.co/WUtmhoO8QJ
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 20, 2019
I am humbled tonight to accept an award named for a man who spent his life speaking for those without a voice, fighting for the weak, challenging the
Although the all ten Democratic presidential candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night spend much of the campaign trail arguing over why their policies are the country’s only chance at salvation, there is one area in which they all find common ground: an all-consuming passion for bloated government programs funded by taxpayer’s dollars. However, they all disagree vehemently on how to target the wealthy who pay those taxes.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts engaged in one of the first scuffles of the fifth Democratic debate in Atlanta, Georgie, when they argued over Warren’s proposed
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) handily dismantled the Democrats’ entire case for impeachment Wednesday, getting U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland to admit that “no one on this planet” told him that financial assistance to Ukraine was tied to corruption investigations.
“After you testified, Chairman [Adam] Schiff ran out and gave a press conference and said he gets to impeach the president of the United States because of your testimony and if you pull up CNN today, right now, their banner says ‘Sondland ties Trump to withholding aid,’” Turner said during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing. “Is that your testimony today, Ambassador Sondland?
We have lost the Democratic Party. And next, we could lose America. How? Very easily. Here’s how it will look.
The Democrats will continue to funnel huge sums of money into local races targeting swing districts using front organizations like Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org.
The Establishment Republican Party will resign itself to failure in those districts, fail to mobilize voters, or act too late to make a difference.
Republican voters will fail to go to the polls and vote.
Republicans will fail to volunteer to act as polling officers and be in a position to prevent election fraud.
Here's one the Beltway punditocracy didn't see coming: Trump is soaring against nearly all Democrats in head-to-head matchups in Wisconsin.
According to a Marquette University Law School Poll, which is a generally reliable barometer of voter sentiment in the Midwest, Trump is beating the daylights out of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Only Cory Booker has a measly one-point advantage over Trump and that's within the margin of error. The rest of the Democratic cavalcade of candidates have polling numbers so low it's unlikely their even worth asking about.
Correcting Voters' Mistakes
replies
Californians must no longer have recourse to the recall election. If Golden Staters still have the recall, surely they’d be using it to oust their useless mayors who have allowed their once-beautiful cities to degenerate into filth and ruin. They’d also be mounting a recall of their new governor, Gavin Newsom.
Back in 2003, before the mass exodus to Texas, there were still enough decent Californians remaining to recall and oust Gov. Gray Davis. Davis’s replacement, Arnold Schwarzenegger, might have become a terrific governor had he been paired with a decent legislature. But the Governator didn’t have a decent legislature; it was populated with progressives.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in Berkeley, broke into her campaign-trail southern accent for just one question during Wednesday’s 2020 Democrat presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia.
The odd moment occurred as Harris, who is polling in single digits nationally, explained how she would unite the “Obama coalition” to win the White House.
“Look, there’s a lot at stake in this election and I’ve said many times that justice is on the ballot in 2020,” Harris began. “It’s about economic justice, it’s about justice for children, it’s about justice for our teachers.”
Last night's Democratic presidential debate featured a slew of predictable boilerplate from the candidates advocating for abortion. First, Sen. Amy Klobuchar got asked about it, and she stated the usual stuff, and then Sen. Elizabeth Warren got asked a slightly different question by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow about whether there was any room left in the Democratic party for a pro-life Democrat, such as Louisiana's governor John Bel Edwards.
Warren was evasive, failing to answer the question directly, but she made it pretty clear there was no room. (snip) Bel Edwards belies that because the likely game changer for Bel Edwards is that he was pro-life.
How long has it been since the fake Indian represented her adopted state of Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate?
Many, many moons.
How long since Fauxchahontas cast-um last roll-call vote in Senate?
Since buffalo roamed the plains.
Actually, this isn’t such bad news for any taxpaying citizens of the Commonwealth, because she certainly wouldn’t be doing anything on our behalf. But still, she is making big wampum for doing nothing — $174,000 a year for what has become a no-show job.
Granted, this no-show m.o. of hers is nothing new, not since Lieawatha started checking the box, anyway, and began climbing out of the tank towns of academia into the Ivy League.
There's a bet to be placed that most people would want to hear more from former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential debates than any other candidate. I would take it, but the problem is that Biden is scared.
At the debate on Wednesday night, he didn't talk more than he was allowed. He never asked for more time. He never asked to respond to any particular candidate.
He's afraid.
Up until now, he's sat back comfortable that he's the rightful front-runner — he was the first black president's No. 2 — but we're about two months away from the first contest of the race.
Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick was forced to cancel a campaign event Wednesday night after only two people showed up.
Patrick, who entered the primary field too late to qualify for the MSNBC debate in Atlanta, was scheduled to speak across town at a campaign event at Morehouse College, a historically black university. He cancelled the event after only two students showed up, according to CNN reporter Annie Grayer.
"Governor @DevalPatrick was supposed to have an event at Morehouse College tonight," Grayer reported. "An organizer with the college who planned the event told CNN that Patrick cancelled the event when he arrived and learned that he would
The Danger of Elizabeth Warren
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Under pressure, Elizabeth Warren has retreated from the idea of immediate implementation of Medicare for All, but she remains committed to the progressive core of her candidacy.
As she put it in a speech to Iowa Democrats on Nov. 1:
If we’re going to meet the challenges of our time, we need big ideas. Big ideas to inspire people and get them out to caucus and get them out to vote. Big ideas to be the lifeblood of our party and show the world who and what Democrats will fight for.
In rhetoric that drew enthusiastic applause from her supporters at the Liberty and Justice Dinner in Des Moines,
Dogpatch in D.C.
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I saw this tweet earlier today but didn’t immediately understand it:
The Dem who wishes Joe Biden congratulations on his newest grandchild at the debate tonight instantly wins this is the rule
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 20, 2019
This is what it’s all about:
Hunter Biden is the father of an Arkansas woman’s baby, according to a paternity test detailed in court papers filed Wednesday.
“DNA testing has established with scientific certainty defendant is the father of the plaintiff’s child,” said the lawsuit filed by Lunden Alexis Roberts, 28.
Hunter has been in the news a lot lately.
One thing that will quite possibly be achieved by the nonsensical impeachment investigation being conducted in the House of Representatives is the end of the extreme criminalization of policy differences. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 (an election year in which he would not be nominated) for firing the secretary of war for insubordination, because the majority in the Congress, with not all the Southerners reinstated and Johnson a Tennessean whom Abraham Lincoln had chosen to run with him to emphasize national unity, resented Johnson’s conciliatory approach to the South. Johnson survived the outrageous allegations against him by one Senate vote, and he became (again by one vote in Tennessee),
The Democrat Debate Drones
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Your fearless debate correspondent here, to tell you that once again, you missed nothing. And by nothing, I mean an empty cavernous negative space of dark matter where all intelligence, vitality, and humanity gets sucked into an endless void. You are smarter for missing this misery.
Who are these Democrats trying to appeal to? Who is the constituency for their insanity? I really want to know. These are not serious people. It might not be that they’re not people at all, just ten robots put on a stage and talking word salad as placeholders. None of them act like they can beat Trump. Do they even want to?
DNA test proves Hunter Biden
fathered child he denied was his,
mother wants Secret Service protection replies
fathered child he denied was his,
mother wants Secret Service protection replies
So you’re telling me Hunter Biden lied? That seems to be the only possible conclusion given that he previously denied having sex with the woman in question. Back in May, a 28-year-old woman named Lunden Roberts filed a paternity suit claiming Hunter Biden was the father of a child she’d given birth to in August 2018. Hunter Biden agreed to a DNA test and today the results became public: DNA testing has established, “with scientific certainty,” that Hunter Biden is the father of an Arkansas baby, according to a motion filed Wednesday in Independence County on behalf of the child’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts.
So the United States has “the world’s highest rate of children in detention.” Is this worth reporting? Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, Agence France-Presse, or AFP, and Reuters did report it, attributing the information to a “United Nations study” on migrant children detained at the US-Mexico border.
Then the two agencies retracted the story. Deleted, withdrew, demolished. If they could have used one of those Men in Black memory-zappers on us, they would have. Sheepishly, the two news organizations explained that, you see, the UN data was from 2015 — part of a border crackdown that had begun years earlier.
The House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearing Wednesday posed a conundrum. Better yet, let’s call it a riddle. When is a “quid pro quo” not a “quid pro quo?” The answer is … when it’s “presumed.”
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified that there was a “quid pro quo” between the U.S. and Ukraine, even though President Trump made it crystal clear to Sondland that there was no “quid pro quo.”
So, how did the ambassador arrive at his opinion that a “quid pro quo” must somehow exist? It turns out that he assumed or “presumed” it. At one point, he called it a mere “guess.”
GOP Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, hammered America's ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, during Wednesday's testimony, seizing on Sondland's admission that he never heard the president or anyone else in the White House explicitly link Ukrainian aid with the opening of an investigation into 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., applauded his colleague on producing "the real bombshell" of Sondland's long-anticipated testimony and marked the moment as "game over," for the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry. That inquiry is focusing on an alleged quid pro quo between President Trump and Ukraine linking military aid and White House access to Ukraine probes beneficial to Trump.
Support for impeachment has slipped in Wisconsin, according to Wednesday's Marquette University Law School Poll. And for the first time, President Donald Trump has surged ahead of all four top Democratic rivals in potential head-to-head matchups. Just 40% of Wisconsin registered voters believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 53% disagreed, according to the survey. The poll of 801 registered Wisconsin voters was conducted Nov. 13 through Sunday, during the opening week of public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry.
Iran is continuing construction on an army base along the Iraq-Syria border, according to satellite images taken Sunday and obtained by Fox News.
The Imam Ali base had been partially destroyed during airstrikes in early September.
The new images, examined by analysts at ImageSat International (ISI), showed eight zones of construction or reconstruction. (3 Sat Images) Each zone had hangers big enough to conceal trucks and large quantities of equipment. There also was a checkpoint on both sides of the compound with fortified walls around the complex.
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have pleaded not guilty to expanded charges in the college admissions scandal.
Loughlin and Mossimo are among 11 parents additionally charged with bribery after initially pleading not guilty. Attorneys for the couple entered the not guilty pleas Tuesday after they waived their right to appear in the Boston federal court.
They have previously pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering. The “Full House” star and her husband are accused of paying $500,000 in an attempt to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California.
The Senate confirmed yet another of President Trump's picks to a federal circuit court seat Wednesday in a vote that tilts the balance of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to a GOP-appointed majority.
The 11th Circuit is now the third court to undergo such a transformation during Trump's presidency.
With an 80-15 vote, the Senate confirmed Barbara Lagoa to the seat formerly held by Judge Stanley Marcus, a Clinton appointee who sat on the appeals court that handles cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama since 1997. Lagoa, the first Cuban-American woman confirmed to the 11th Circuit, tilts that court, which was previously split between six Republican appointees
Joe Biden really put his fist in his mouth this time. The former vice president had a cringe-worthy moment late in Wednesday’s fifth Democratic presidential primary debate when he used the words “keep punching at it” to answer a question about violence against women. Asked what could be done to address sexual violence and harassment against women, Biden said he’s authored the original Violence Against Women Act and that its reauthorization needs to pass. He also talked about changing the culture on college campuses and touted the “It’s on Us” movement created in the Obama Administration.
Washington—It was a debate moment to remember for Cory Booker. Not so much for Joe Biden. With barely 15 minutes left in the two-plus hour Democratic presidential debate, the New Jersey senator brought the house down by saying he was incredulous the former vice president opposed legalizing marijuana.(Snip) “Marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people, and a war on drugs has been a war on African Americans," Booker said. During his tenure as mayor of Newark, police officers arrested far more blacks than whites for marijuana possession, FBI statistics show. In 2013, for example, 1,115 of the 1,315
The head of Burisma Holdings was indicted on November 14th, but it wasn’t reported until Wednesday.
The Office of the Prosecutor General in Ukraine indicted Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky.
The indictment was damning and revealed Hunter Biden’s income under his contract with Burisma is a “link that reveals how money is siphoned [from Ukraine].”
Via Tass.com:
The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General has drawn up an indictment against the owner of the Burisma Holdings energy company, ex-Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky, that contains information that the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter, as a Burisma board member along with his partners received $16.5 million for their services,
The head of Burisma Holdings was indicted this week in Ukraine!
Ukrainian Prosecutor General indicted Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky.
The claim alleges that Hunter Biden and his partners received $16.5 million for their ‘services’
Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden took a lucrative post on the Burisma Board in 2014.
Hunter Biden was making millions from the corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas company.
New memos released earlier this month reveal Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian natural gas company, pressured the Obama State Department to help end the corruption investigation during the 2016 election cycle just one month before then-Vice President Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin,
Hillary Clinton was a surprise presenter at the Child Mind Institute gala to honor co-founder Brooke Garber Neidich.
Also at the event were Mary-Kate Olsen, Jesse Eisenberg, Brooke Shields, Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz and Ruth Westheimer. Ali Wentworth was scheduled to co-host with anchor hubby George Stephanopoulos, but he had to miss it to cover the impeachment hearings.
Said Clinton, “The true test of any society is how we treat the most vulnerable among us, particularly children. Brooke shares that belief … Even more importantly, she acts on it every day.” The event raised $7 million.
“We have a criminal living in the White House” – and he’s running a “criminal enterprise” with the vice president, secretary of state, and the chief of staff, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said during Wednesday night’s Democrat presidential debate.Sen. Harris said that Wednesday’s testimony of U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland at the House impeachment inquiry exposed the criminal enterprise: “Well, first of all, we have a criminal living in the White House. And there is no question that in 2020 the biggest issue before us until we get to that tender moment [when Trump is out of office] is justice is on the ballot.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terror suspect — who came to the United States on the “Diversity Visa Lottery” — accused of murdering eight people in New York City, said in court he is “following orders of Allah.”
In October 2017, 31-year-old Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov allegedly mowed down eight individuals in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City after securing a visa in 2010 through the Diversity Visa Lottery, which President Trump has asked Congress to end.
The Diversity Visa Lottery randomly gives out about 55,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems –
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday celebrated what Republicans say has amounted to a dud of public impeachment hearings.
Clinton tweeted on Wednesday that the partisan impeachment inquiry would not have been possible if not for the individuals who worked to secure a House majority for Democrats in 2018 and encouraged left-wing activists to “keep working together in 2020 to hold power to account”: [tweet]
The former secretary of state’s tweet coincided with the hearing featuring Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who testified that Trump told him, “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.”
Sondland said:
I finally called the president…