Jazz Shaw: Virginia State Supreme Court Rules On Governor’s Gun Ban For Rally – “What these rulings do is codify the idea that any Democratic governor, mayor or other officials can suspend the Second Amendment any time they feel like it simply by declaring a state of emergency.”

J. Frank Bullitt: America Is Deeply Divided Because The Left Has Become So Shallow – “the hostility toward Trump, and the inevitable division that it has created, is not based on political differences. It’s based on caricatures of the man, lies that have become accepted truth to many, and, of course, a media whose dishonest reporting drives a false narrative.”

Steven Hayward: Why People Hate the Media, Chapter 12,186 – “there are lots of other daily examples you can point to, such as this pairing of Politico headlines for the same story. Politico clearly changed the headline because the first one made Trump look too good:”

sundance: Whistleblower Provides Attkisson New Details to Name Rod Rosenstein and Shawn Henry (Crowdstrike) as Defendants in Lawsuit… “A very interesting development in the ongoing effort of former CBS investigative journalist, Sharyl Attkisson, to resolve the issue of who spied on her, planted spyware and infiltrated her computer systems for illegal surveillance.”

Gary Gindler: Trump Is Masterfully Using Democrats’ Opposition against Them – “Not a single U.S. president has been exposed to attempts by such outright micromanagement by the Democrats as Trump.”

neo: Susan Hennessey: caught in the crossfire crossfire – “And since the starting point is chosen not because it’s the actual starting point but because it’s the way to blame that side, it’s an almost infinitely flexible way to mount an argument. Or it might seem that way, as long as you don’t stretch it so far that it breaks, as Susan Hennessey did here.” This sort of dishonesty is also quite prominent in climate change arguments. Distorting the meanings of words, selecting the starting point for a series to suit a narrative, and similar tactics are all used for deception.

John Hinderaker: Law and Order? Yes, Please [with comment by Paul] – “Another way to put it is that trying to deny obvious realities isn’t a good electoral strategy.” … “Ardent Democrats may be surprised that voters care about crime and the problems associated with homelessness, but no one else is. And the reference to Spiro Agnew and “demoniz[ing] racial minorities” is the kind of irrelevant cheap shot without which we wouldn’t recognize a liberal opinion piece.”

Roger Kimball: An Antidote to the Iran Hysterics – “Trump has always shown that he prefers diplomacy to military action. At the same time, he understands, as did Ronald Reagan, that diplomacy only works when it is backed up by military strength and a willingness to exercise it.”

Clarice Feldman: Double Exposure: The Dems Coddling of Criminals and Iranian Terrorists – “This week, the Democrats have been revealed as the party that exposes us to (1) criminal mayhem (often anti-Semitic) on the streets of New York and (2) terrorism everywhere as they consistently ignored it, indeed, paid off the perpetrators with pallets of airlifted unmarked bills and praised the worst of its perpetrators.” … “Hocus Pocus — once again Trump gets the Democrats to strip and expose their naked idiocy, hypocrisy, cupidity, and fecklessness.”

James Jeffery: Bushfires and Climate Change: No Link Whatsoever – “Whilst the cataclysmic nature of the inferno is unanimously acknowledged, a chorus of Australians has hastened to the conclusion that global warming is the cause, and CO2 emissions the culprit. Sadly, this is exactly the sort of behaviour to expect in our post-Christian nation.”

“Since we have abandoned God, we are constantly trying to find someone — some thing — to blame for the disasters that naturally and tragically occur. It is almost unbearable that we accept the reality that we live in a broken world in which nature is often hostile, and that this truth is more apparent at particular times in history. …

The truth is that the climate is,— and has always been — changing. Likewise, bushfires have always been part of Australia’s history, and the recent bushfires are not an historical anomaly. Long before the era of modern industrialisation, bushfires occurred sporadically due to factors beyond the control of humans
…
We live in an age when earnest debate is often exchanged for superficial slogans, and the climate change movement is a clear example of this. … let us not sacrifice our brains on the altar of a hysterical political movement. What the victims of these fires really need is not social commentators blaming ‘climate change’ for their suffering, but rather a helping hand to restore their lives.

Frank Watt: Two Possibilities in Trump Wiretapping, and Neither Is Good – “Either scenario should anger and frighten every fair minded citizen who takes the time to read the report and understand its implications. To comprehend the magnitude of the wrongdoing, consider the following”

Richard Fernandez: Death of Privacy and the Curse of Secret Investigations – “The reason why public business should be conducted in the open, according to Cheryl Chumley of the Washington Times, is that abuse and conspiracy thrive in the dark.”

Tyler Durden: House Impeaches Trump For Abuse Of Power & Obstruction Of Congress – “Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins delivered the darkest, most ominous speech of the day.”

“I have descended into the belly of the beast. I have witnessed the terror within, and I rise committed to oppose the insidious forces which threaten our Republic,” Higgins opened.

“America’s being severely injured by this betrayal, by this unjust and weaponized impeachment, brought upon us by the same socialists who threaten unborn life in the womb, who threaten First Amendment rights of Conservatives, who threaten Second Amendment protections of every American patriot, and who have long ago determined that they would organize and conspire to overthrow President Trump.”

“We don’t face this horror because the Democrats have all of a sudden become constitutionalists. We are not being devoured from within because of some surreal assertion of the socialists’ newfound love for the very flag that they trod upon.”

“They are deep established D.C.,” he continued.

“They call this Republican map flyover country. They call us deplorables. They fear our faith. They fear our strength. They fear our unity. They fear our vote, and they fear our president.”

“We will never surrender our nation to career establishment D.C. politicians and bureaucrats,” Higgins closed. “Our republic shall survive this threat from within. American patriots shall prevail.”

Thomas Lifson: Hilarious: Dems’ fake ‘solemnity’ exposed as Pelosi silences applause about impeachment vote with her evil eye and hand gesture – “It was an absolutely perfect crystallization of the phoniness of the Democrats’ impeachment rhetoric when Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to silence the spontaneous applause that started to break out as she announced the results of the vote on the first article of impeachment of President Trump.”

Paul Mirengoff: Impeachment Without A Crime – “The House has voted to impeach President Trump. The historical significance of this event lies mainly in the fact that, until now, no president has been impeached without some allegation in an article of impeachment that he committed a crime. This was also the first impeachment proceeding that had no support in the House from a single member of the president’s party.

“This means that you should learn from your mistakes and not allow people to take advantage of you repeatedly.” [UsingEnglish.com or also see Know Your Phrase] Balance that with “You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time” often attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

John Solomon Drops 28 Uncomfortable Facts Crushing The ‘Debunked Conspiracy Theory’ Narrative – “I think all the key elements were false,” Vindman testified. Maligning a reporter with vagueness and innuendo, even if done by a military hero showing the colors, is not a good idea if that reporter is an ‘old school’ type with solid research behind his reports.

“Lt. Col. Vindman, if you have information that contradicts any of these 28 factual elements in my columns I ask that you make it publicly available. Your testimony did not.

If you don’t have evidence these 28 facts are wrong, I ask that you correct your testimony because any effort to call factually accurate reporting false only misleads America and chills the free debate our Constitutional framers so cherished to protect.

The real problem is the contrast between the ‘witness’ of Vindeman and Solomon. The Left provides innuendo and ad hominem while the Right offers hard evidence and supported inference.

Michael Barone: The Impeachment Pseudo-Event – “Real events involve independent actors and have unpredictable outcomes. Pseudo-events are shows.” … “Yet on the front pages and cable news breaking-news bulletins, this pseudo-event is crowding out two genuine events of potentially world-shaking importance and uncertain outcome.”

“”The executive power,” Article II of the Constitution states, “shall be vested in a president of the United States of America,” and Trump, as the career diplomats testifying have acknowledged, has no obligation to follow “interagency consensus.” It’s hard to avoid concluding that Democrats who detest Trump seized on this weak pretext for impeachment when the charges of Russian collusion they brandished for three years turned out to be baseless.

Pam Key: FNC’s Napolitano: ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence to Justify 3 or 4 Articles of Impeachment Against Trump but his case is underwhelming and highly selective in what is included to support it.

Joel B. Pollak: Peggy Noonan: ‘Trump’s Defenders Have No Defense’ – “Noonan does not discuss the actual evidence presented, or the Constitution’s criteria for impeachment, but dwells on her impressions of the character of the witnesses — all of whom were selected or approved by Democrats.”

Lynne Lechter: Hearsay and the Trump impeachment hearings – “Hearsay is usually inadmissible in a court of law because the person who made the original statement cannot be confronted through cross-examination.” … “The defendant’s right to cross-examine negative testimony or accusations at trial is rooted in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, contained in the Bill of Rights.”

Mollie Hemingway: How Republicans Won Phase One Of Impeachment – “The first phase of impeachment did not go well for Democrats. It needed to be a time when support for the inquiry and impeachment grew. Instead, it shrank.” There are a lot of folks that see things Napolitano and Noonan don’t see.

“Republicans, by contrast, needed to aim for bipartisan opposition to the impeachment proceedings, keep their members in line, make the case that the impeachment proceedings lacked fairness, and that concern about Ukrainian corruption was legitimate. They managed to do all that.

Here’s why things went well for Republicans in phase one of impeachment.

It was completely unclear what crime, much less what high crime, Trump was accused of committing.
…
Reporters kept deleting their tweets because they were getting facts about the hearings wrong.
…
Democrats’ witnesses kept making Trump’s case for him. … At no time did any witness make an effective case for anything other than, at best, a trip to the ballot box.

In part because Schiff and his team seemed confused about what case they were prosecuting, questions to witnesses were almost always leading, but never focused on a particular or consistent goal. Conversely, Republicans kept focused during their questions, always pointing out that the witnesses didn’t actually have first-hand information, or were basing their views on their own conjecture, a shaky basis for impeachment.
…
GOP members stayed on message about the unfairness of the proceedings.
…
The media generally overpromised and underachieved.

Don Surber: Noonan and the vapid response team – “Noonan at the Wall Street Journal is useless as George Will, Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin and the rest of the Washington Post” … “They are relics of 20th century commentary in which newspaper columnists regularly got away with leaving out major portions of story to make their case.” … “In the 21st century, columnists must offer actual proof to make their case because the truth seeps out online.”

neo: Charges against Netanyahu: another coup? – “A fundamental question in any democracy is whether a single individual — in this case an appointed attorney general — should be empowered to make decisions that may thwart the will of the voters.”

Seth Barrett Tillman: What the Democrats have Learned from their Failure in Connection with the Kavanaugh Hearings – “Don’t allege crimes which, if true, would leave physical evidence; rather, allege crimes which only exist in men’s hearts and minds. Should we go down that road, our next destination will be a world where men deny they have hearts and minds, and our final destination may be a world where that denial reflects the actual truth—a world where men have no hearts and minds at all.”

William A. Jacobson: All three Nicholas Sandmann lawsuits to go forward — WaPo, CNN, NBC – “statements that plaintiff ‘blocked’ Phillips or did not allow him to retreat, if false, meet the test of being libelous per se”

The Babylon Bee: Chick-Fil-A Replaces Cow Mascot With Golden Calf – This is about the notorious Christian fast food chain kowtowing to LGBQ activists …

Leslie Eastman: Pope Francis Ponders Adding ‘Sins Against Ecology’ to Catholic Catechism – “Are they mortal or venial sins?” Gaia is a false god and the Bible warns of that temptation …

Thomas McArdleSondland’s Presumptions, And All The Presidents’ Powers – “When these presidential powers, and the obvious threat to them, are understood, the weakness of basing any case for the impeachment of Trump on what was just served up by Sondland and other presidential servants before Schiff’s committee becomes clear.”

“The question of whether this or that private presidential conversation – listened in on at remote locations by a veritable army of bureaucrats – contains untoward assertions or requests is secondary to another question: How can any president possibly act effectively as “the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations” not requiring “as a basis for its exercise an act of Congress” if those listening can run to a politically hostile Congress with their accusations of impropriety?

Ed Timperlake Chief Justice Roberts now dragged into Democrat impeachment process – “He and he alone “owns” the FISC court so he must be held accountable for any court actions. However, even if he has acted to clear up the egregious frauds, so far only a few publically reported with probably more to come, he has a significant problem if the Democrat Leaders of the House vote out Articles of Impeachment for a senate trial of our President. … The Chief Justice has just become a fact witness in the Impeachment process because of Fiona Hill’s testimony.” re Walter Scott: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.”

John Daniel Davidson The Most Important News Story Right Now Isn’t Impeachment, It’s The Crisis In Mexico – “Cartels in Mexico aren’t just fighting over drugs, they’re fighting over industries, and it might well trigger a new and much bigger migrant crisis on the U.S. border.”

Fletch Daniels The Hate and Anti-Intellectualism of the Modern Democratic Party – “Should President Donald Trump win re-election, everyone believes that this will serve as a triggering event that will result in a serious spasm of violence.” … “A hate-filled moron is always going to be a hate-filled moron. Maher just proves that point in his world-class exercise in projection.”

“Leftists are motivated almost exclusively by hate. It is almost always liberals who sever family relations over politics. It is leftists who hate their country and despise its flag. Almost all political violence is emanating from the Left. Considering the slanderous demonization of all Republicans as racist, misogynist, imperialist, homophobic supremacists, this is not terribly surprising. Hate springs quite naturally from liberals’ noxious, racist, and anti-Christian worldview.

Projectionist Maher and his ilk naturally believe that hate is a conservative phenomenon.

But the anti-intellectual charge is even more laughable, even if it is a statement of faith on the Left. Maher didn’t think he was saying anything particularly controversial. But he has it backwards.

Janice Shaw Crouse After the Impeachment – “There’s rough road ahead no matter which of the opponents wins. The two sides of the deepening conflict are very different in their composition and hot-button issues, but also especially in responses to losing.”

Elliot Hannon Lindsey Graham Is Now Investigating the Bidens Anyway, Cementing Ukraine’s Role as Hapless Fall Guy – A Slate headline illustrates the points made above. The impeachment finality at this media outlet is just as definitive and in denial of reality at this site as Hannon’s headline.

Babylon Bee Impeachment Inquiry Canceled After 5 Episodes Due To Low Ratings

sundance Horowitz Leaks Begin – FBI Official Caught Altering FISA Documents, Now Under Criminal Investigation… “Here we go. Today is the day the inspector general closed the “Principal Review” phase of the upcoming IG report. Now is when the small group of corrupt DOJ and FBI officials -spotlighted by the IG investigation- begin trying to shape the narrative; and the leaks start with a whopper:”

William Walker: Machiavelli, Calumny and Free Speech on Campus – “On Machiavelli’s view, the Romans rightly saw Capitolinus as a “calumniator”. A calumniator is a person who makes serious accusations against other citizens without providing sufficient evidence or witnesses to support those accusations.” This goes with AG Barr’s TLDR must read last week…

“Above all, the Romans understood how destructive calumny can be to the republic: they knew that calumnies not only exasperate those against whom they are made, but also incite them and their allies to hate the calumniators. They understood that if you permit calumniators to go unpunished, that hatred will result in a divided society that will curtail civil liberties and ultimately disintegrate.
…
First of all, I think that one of the main features of “discussion” of moral and political issues on campus and beyond is the high incidence of a certain kind of accusation (calling people names, attaching labels to them) as distinct from argumentation (asserting claims, providing evidence for them, reasoning about them and their relations to other claims).
…
The main accusations documented in studies such as these, and the ones I have observed over three decades of teaching at universities in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, are accusations of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, imperialism and Eurocentrism.
…
So one of the dimensions of campus life and our society at large now is that people are free to make, informally, a certain kind of accusation against fellow students, teachers and others without being obliged to provide good evidence for it.

see also Mike LaChance: FIRE on Binghamton Protest of Art Laffer: “Latest in a Disturbing Trend of Protesters Silencing Others” – “The biggest threat to free speech at Binghamton Monday evening wasn’t the police or Art Laffer — but the vigilante censors” 

J. Frank Bullitt: Sycophants Who Flatter Child Climate ‘Oracles’ Deserve Unrelenting Ridicule – “The Nobel Prize. Australian prime minister. The rapt attention of the United Nations. What has happened to Western civilization? How have we reached a place in which children, so clearly unlearned, are hailed as oracles who must be heeded?” Calumniators take many forms? “obliged to provide good evidence” is the key question.

Tyler Durden: Ukrainian MP Claims $7.4 Billion Obama-Linked Laundering, Puts Biden Group Take At $16.5 Million – “A Ukrainian MP says a document leaked from the Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General contains claims against Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, as well as Hunter Biden and his partners ” – good evidence usually has legs.

Harry S Truman: “All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

Scott Johnson: The sound of Sondland – “Sondland’s presumptions gave the Democrats what they wanted in the form of his “presumptions.” Sondland’s presented his presumptions in the form of a quid pro quo. The Democrats of course celebrated Sondland’s presumptions as the facts of the case. What a way to run a railroad (so to speak).” good evidence here ….

Mackubin Owens: President can’t ‘subvert’ foreign policy but not the way the Left proclaims as heroic – “There’s a major problem with this argument. It ignores Article II of the Constitution, which grants to the president, in conjunction with Congress — not unelected bureaucrats — the power to make U.S. foreign policy. Unelected bureaucrats do not have a right to undermine the policy of a duly elected president, simply because they disagree with it. But the denizens of the deep state think they do.”

Jenny Beth Martin: American Bar Association’s evaluation of judicial nominees tarnished by liberal bias – “By engaging in partisan politics rather than providing accurate assessments of conservative-leaning nominees, the ABA raises questions about the need for its rating system. The ABA’s latest political hit job is Lawrence VanDyke” – It’s the case for the ABA as a “calumniator”.

OC: Trump’s Denials Turned into a Ramones Song: “I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO.” – “denial”? What a strange use of the term. It is distortion and deceit at OpenCulture. The AP had to squish an item like this because it was a direct quote of policy given to Sondland who had been badgering the president for a simplified expression of Trump’s position. It illustrates just how deep the calumniator ethos goes.

neo: “Shakespeare who?” ask Canadian students – “So instead of learning the pearls of the Western canon, students in these districts are to remain ignorant of those achievements in favor of the study of literature that I think we can safely predict will not stand the test of time but will nevertheless serve the new overriding pedagogical goal of making the majority of students feel guilty about themselves and their culture.”

J. Frank Bullitt: FedEx Paid No 2018 Federal Corporate Taxes — A Reminder That The Tax Rate Should Be Zero – “The greediest people on Earth are not those who earn wages, salaries, and profits and wish to keep what they made — it’s the lawmakers who want to forcibly take what belongs to others and use it for their own purposes. Even a criminal sometimes sleeps, said C.S. Lewis, and “his cupidity may at some point be satiated.” But the politicians’ lust for other people’s money never rests.”

Julie Kelly: The Swamp’s Swingline Stapler – “We are to believe that crying EPA employees, out-of-the-loop ambassadors, holier-than-thou law enforcement chiefs, and jobless assistant deputy undersecretaries for blah-blah affairs are the victims of a rogue president who must be removed from office for hurting their feelings and challenging their authority.”

“But now in the Trump era, as Obama-era somnambulists awake every day to a new outrage that heretofore had been considered standard operating procedure inside the Beltway, a dismissed ambassador is given hours to vent her thoughts and feelz in front of one of Capitol Hill’s most powerful committees. If you weren’t moved by the sad tale of former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch—an Obama appointee—getting the ax by Donald Trump, according to Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, you don’t have a pulse.
…
We’ve seen this bureaucratic temper tantrum over and over since November 2016.
…
Chumps in Congress and in the White House—not to mention the folks paying for it all—are subservient to their demands. And in the end, if they don’t get their way, they’ll torch the place. What we are watching now is the slow burn of our democracy, not at the hands of Donald Trump, but by the Left and its eager servants in the swamp. If only it was as amusing, and fictional, as “Office Space.”

Christopher Roach: Neglect of Foreign Policy Led to the Deep State – “Implicit in the recent impeachment inquiry is whether the president may make policy contrary to the wishes of the deep state. Of course, any notion of constitutionally limited government requires that he has such power. The real “high crime” is the idea that it could be otherwise.”

“Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? What are our goals? These are not settled issues or technical questions that are easily divorced from broader political concerns. Indeed, the American people tend to be less interventionist than the elites of the foreign policy establishment. While the current impeachment proceedings are based on Trump’s deviations from foreign policy conventional wisdom, most Americans are less concerned about protecting Ukraine’s borders than they are about policing our own. In a healthier, more participatory form of self-government, politicians other than Donald Trump would have opinions on these matters too.
…
A large “blob” of analysts, senior policymakers, think tankers, senior military leaders, and career civil servants have created a foreign policy almost completely immune from political influence and defined by a broad consensus that spans both political parties. Their consensus commands liberal hegemony secured by America’s status as a “sole superpower.”
…
Of course, the military is part of the same deep state as those in “suits and silk ties.” It seeks more power and larger budgets. Its senior leaders tend to absorb the same cultural habits of the rest of Washington, D.C., where many such leaders spend the latter parts of their careers.
…
While much pious talk of “democracy” and “the rule of law” has been levied against President Trump by his critics, one would search in vain for a discussion of the powers of unelected bureaucrats or the importance of an “interagency consensus” in the Constitution. …

This is why the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. The benefit of civilian control of our military does not rest in the fact that the president is an outsider or does not wear a uniform, but rather because he, unlike the military’s career officers, is subject to democratic control. He is influenced by and accountable to popular opinion and is thereby entitled to preeminent authority over foreign policy.

Scott Johnson: Barr’s preview – “What I am talking about today are fundamental constitutional precepts. The fact is that this Administration’s policy initiatives and proposed rules, including the Travel Ban, have transgressed neither constitutional, nor traditional, norms, and have been amply supported by the law and patiently litigated through the Court system to vindication.”

“One of the ironies of today is that those who oppose this President constantly accuse this Administration of “shredding” constitutional norms and waging a war on the rule of law. When I ask my friends on the other side, “what exactly are you referring to?,” I get vacuous stares, followed by sputtering about the Travel Ban or some such thing. While the President has certainly thrown out the traditional Beltway playbook, he was upfront about that beforehand, and the people voted for him. … Indeed, measures undertaken by this Administration seem a bit tame when compared to some of the unprecedented steps taken by the Obama Administration’s aggressive exercises of Executive power – such as, under its DACA program, refusing to enforce broad swathes of immigration law.

The fact of the matter is that, in waging a scorched earth, no-holds-barred war of “Resistance” against this Administration, it is the Left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and the undermining of the rule of law. This highlights a basic disadvantage that conservatives have always had in contesting the political issues of the day. It was adverted to by the old, curmudgeonly Federalist, Fisher Ames, in an essay during the early years of the Republic.

Byron York: Democrats don’t want public to know origins of Ukraine investigation like they didn’t want public to know origins of Russia investigation – “In both cases, they fought hard to keep secret the origins of investigations that have shaken the nation, deeply divided the electorate, and affected the future of the presidency.”

“But so far, at least, the investigation seems to have established that Trump’s alleged misconduct exists in the eye of the beholder. Some officials heard the Zelensky call as it happened and saw no wrongdoing. Vindman, on the other hand, saw wrongdoing and got in touch with an unknown number of people about it. After that, the story grew and grew. How did one man’s impression turn into the impeachment investigation of today?

And that is what Chairman Schiff does not want the nation to know.

Jazz Shaw: Why You’re Not Hearing More About That Mass Shooting In Fresno – “there’s no real underlying lesson here that we didn’t already know about. I only bring it up as a useful data point for future reference.”

“this mass shooting is uninteresting to much of the media because it fails all the normal tests and doesn’t fit in with the narrative. Had the men at least been using “assault rifles” they might have merited a bit more coverage. But those events are vanishingly rare because most gang members are well aware that it’s tough to hide a long gun when walking down the street to attack someone or while fleeing the scene afterward.

Further, if initial reports prove accurate, this was an incident of adult Asian people shooting other adult Asian people.

The great unwashed … perhaps it has something to do with the windows they use to see what’s happening in the ‘hood?

Garrett Ward Sheldon: How Would You Feel if You Were Treated Like Trump? “What the Democrat-controlled House is doing now to Trump sets a dangerous precedent for violating the due-process rights of all Americans. When hearsay, prejudice, emotional appeals, and dishonest motives replace cool, objective examination of facts in an impartial manner by opposing sides, we are headed for disaster.”

Thomas McArdle: Impeachment: The New Front In The War On Free Speech – “Democrats simply cannot win a war of competing ideas, so they must change the conflict to one of competing communication strategies.”

“Suppressing free speech constitutes the heart of today’s left-dominated Democratic Party. These days it’s being used to destroy a Republican president, but it’s perhaps most often used to prevent voters from being exposed to conservative ideas, because such concepts are the key to keeping Democrats out of power and preventing the left’s agenda of socialist economics and continued social revolution from being implemented.

An assortment of examples from the expression suppression battlefields:

Victor Davis Hanson: The Wages of Trump Fixation – “The strange case of a reborn Max Boot and the folly of impeachment.” … “his commentary over the last three years has become sadly unhinged.”

“But note that if Boot truly believes Trump’s conduct has proved serially illegal and there have been many “legitimate investigations” into his alleged criminal conduct, why then has not a single act resulted in a criminal referral? What is now the fate of all those who swore to us that Trump was a Russian asset, traitor, treasonous, or pervert such as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan, and Christopher Steele?
…
Piereson then notes that, unlike Republicans, current Democrats almost never vote to confirm noncontroversial Republican appointed federal judges, Supreme Court picks, or Cabinet appointees. Boot should compare the Senate confirmation vote of Elena Kagan (63-47) with Neal Gorsuch (54-45) or Attorney General Eric Holder (75-21) with Jeff Sessions (52-47) and William Barr (54-45).

neo: Victor Davis Hanson on the impeachment inquiry/coup – “it seems to have become common when Trump’s opposition talks about him. Mind-reading has substituted for evidence, and not just during the impeachment inquiry. Courts have now institutionalized it,”

“Now we have an entire impeachment drive predicated on the idea that Trump committed another thoughtcrime. He didn’t tie the withholding of financial aid to the investigation of Hunter Biden, Ukrainian officials didn’t even know aid was being withheld at the time, and in fact the aid was given without the investigation occurring. But the Democrats get around the obvious flaws there but saying what they think Trump meant to do or wanted to do whether he actually did it or not.

Dangerous, dangerous high-stakes game the Democrats are playing.

Brian C. Joondeph: Enough Calm, Where’s the Storm? – “For the past several years, most of us who have been following the seditious Deep State activities against President Trump and many of his close associates have been eagerly awaiting a reckoning.”

Patricia McCarthy: Could it be that Trump has been setting up the Left all along? – “It is beginning to feel like our hate-filled, intolerant Left is being set-up with a long-game play. If so, the denouement will be delicious.”

“The swamp is much, much muddier and more corrupt than any of us knew. That Trump has withstood their three-plus year calculated attack on him, his family, his friends and his presidency is a testament to his phenomenal strength of character. That is why he was elected and will be re-elected if the Left can’t cheat enough. The Left always cheats, as they did to elect JFK.

David Catron: Impeachment by Focus Group – “The Democrats try to get traction by dumbing down the narrative.” … “That the new Democratic messaging strategy originated with their low regard for the intelligence of the electorate was made plain by Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) on NBC’s Meet the Press.”

Rbradley: Energy Progress: Trump Remarks at the New York Economic Club (November 12, 2019) – “Last week, President Trump delivered a pro-energy speech at the Economic Club of New York in New York City. There was a lot of applause and laughter from the well-heeled, left-of-center audience. The anti-industrial Left has certainly met its match with Donald J. Trump. … Some excerpts from Trump’s address follow:”

John Merline: Trump Just Made His Case For Reelection, While Dems Play Impeachment – “if he tells the same story to the nation over the next 12 months that he told to the members of the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday, whoever the Democratic nominee is will be left holding aces and eights.”

Tyler Durden: Paul Craig Roberts Rages At The Latest ‘False’ Trump Impeachment News – “We all need to ask ourselves why it is Trump who is under investigation and not Biden and Obama. We already know the reason. The American media is corrupt beyond the meaning of the word.”

Jack Cashill: How Journalists Became Fahrenheit 451–Style ‘Firemen’ – “Not too long ago, ambitious journalists, local and national, prided themselves on gathering information, and their editors prided themselves on publishing it. About 50 or so years ago, however, progressives started to seize control of universities, J-schools included, and newsrooms shifted leftwards with each new graduating class.”

“By 2016, even major newsrooms had become firehouses. Their goal was not to report information but to manage it. In February 2017, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski unwittingly admitted as much. Said Brzezinski of President Trump, “He could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.” Yes, sadly, that is their job.

Bryce Buchanan: The War on Trump Represents Fear, Not Hatred – “They fear that their many criminal actions will be exposed, so their nonstop campaign against Trump represents self-love more than anything else.” … “The following is a brief list of some of the Deep State’s actions that its denizens are fighting to keep hidden.”

Karin McQuillan: Democrats Are Failing the Reality Test – “Democrats push fake impeachment, fake issues, fake candidates, and fake solutions.”

“Fake is fine with their voters. “Fauxcahontas” is a leading candidate. Fake news is all the news they’ll read.

Something has gone terribly wrong with previously normal Democratic Party voters. They have abandoned common sense and reality testing. They even claim to believe human beings are not divided into male and female.
…
Real impeachment has one basic requirement: evidence of a high crime comparable to treason or bribery. The only crimes in President Trump’s Ukraine phone call were those he is rightfully investigating: the attempted coup by the Obama Administration and Vice President Biden’s corruption.
…
The question that haunts me is why aren’t Democrats revolted at this assault on their liberal values and love of America?
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“It is not only the road to hell that is paved with good intentions,” Alan Dershowitz ominously concludes. “It is also the road to tyranny.”

Victor Davis Hanson: What Happened to California Republicans? – “[Prop 187] In effect, two judges nullified the wishes of more than 5 million California voters.”

“This tripartite demographic revolution proved disastrous for the Republican Party. The GOP lost much of its base to other states. Many conservative voters left for small-government, low-tax alternatives. Republican efforts to reduce taxes, limit some abortions and fund additional roads and dams had little appeal to the new gentry classes on the coast.
…
Those most hurt — and growing the most angry — are the immigrants who once fled to a different California that now no longer exists.

Tony Thomas: Climate Science Proves Scams Don’t Die of Exposure – “Call me an optimist, but I see warming extremists alienating voters with a panoply of far-left “social justice” issues attached to their climate narrative — causes that make Greenpeace seem traditionalist.” Ten year on since the East Anglia communications exposure and yet the conspiracy continues. Thomas lists events yet still has optimism?

Ronald Bailey: Is Trump’s EPA Seeking To Gut Good Science? – “Congress wants to know if the agency is strengthening transparency or silencing science.” … “Surely everyone can agree that open science should be the default for research plans, data, materials, code, and outcomes for all science, not just science used by Federal regulatory agencies.” But Democrats are having problems with this idea.

Michael Kowalik: The Reason the World Owes the West – “The defining features of the West are rationalism—the commitment to reason as the ultimate cultural norm; humanism—the idea that humanity is intrinsically valuable; and secularism—the only known instance of systematic secularism that has ever existed.” A key struggle in this piece is secularism as in the 1^st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in contrast to a rejection of religion.

“Western rationalism and humanism have nowadays been internalised, to various degrees, by all nations. Apart from the natural world and the content of museums, everything of secular value that we see around us, our capacity to openly deliberate and question established ideas, to offend and be tolerated nonetheless, the sense that people of other races should have moral status, that slavery is repugnant … this is the West, and uniquely so. The post-Enlightenment West has given aboriginal people everywhere the greatest gift one can imagine: it has endowed them with objective humanity. The Western idea of humanity is a secular, non-contingent moral status that extends beyond tribal, cultural and religious boundaries. Until the Age of Enlightenment this status did not exist, and yet today we take it for granted, as if it always had meaning.

At the Quadrant today, the insight is Journalism’s ashes. It cites news stories of 2002 that describe the brush fire problem ‘down under’ that is similar in nature and cause to the California brushfires. That is used to excoriate current ‘news’ that blames climate change as hypocritical and Fake.

Thomas McArdle: Democrats’ 2020 Credo: USA, Worst Country In The World – “The precept at the heart of the candidacies of all the leading Democrats running for president in 2020 is that this country is morally bankrupt, socially dysfunctional, economically oppressive, and has racial bigotry weaved into the very fabric of its national soul.” … “The era of Big Government, far from being over, hasn’t even really begun as far as today’s Democrats are concerned. Because it will take a state bigger and more intrusive than any ever known to flush the U.S.A. down the toilet.”

Tyler Durden: Will Durham Investigation Tank Impeachment Efforts? – “However, if Durham’s investigation results in indictments of prominent individuals who targeted the president during the 2016 campaign season, it might be yet another demonstration that Democrats are motivated by politics when it comes to removing Trump, not a sense of duty or altruism.”

Tyler Durden: How The Deep State “Justifies” Itself In America – “I agree with the statement that “Endorsing The Deep State Endangers Democracy”, but I am more concerned here to explain how that endorsement — that deceit — is being done.”

“In other words: the Deep State, in America, are not perpetrators of corrupt government (such as in “countries like Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, where authoritarian elements band together to undercut democratically elected leaders”), but are instead courageous enemies of corrupt government; and they are instituted by the aristocracy here (today’s American billionaires), in order to reduce, if not eliminate, corruption in government (which, the Times now alleges, originates amongst, or serves, the lower classes).

The lessons about Big Brother, which were taught by George Orwell in his merely metaphorical masterpiece 1984, were apparently never learned, because even now — as his “Newspeak” is being further refined so that black is white, and good is bad, and truth is falsehood — there still are people who subscribe to the propagandists and cannot get enough of their ridiculous con-games. Though in some poor countries, a corrupt Deep State rules; a Deep State rules in America so as to reduce if not prevent corruption, the New York Times now concludes.

You can see how it’s done, in those nine NYT articles. Isn’t it simply amazing there?!

Paul Mirengoff: Let’s hear from the whistleblower – “Democrats say they can prove their case against Trump without the whistleblower’s testimony. That’s probably true.” This is a reputable lawyer who should be aware of the nature of evidence and the issues with bias yet he so clearly illustrates a major problem in society right now in his own dereliction of his profession’s standards as well as in his observations. His animus towards the President drips an ugly slime. He is a part of the problem he sees.

“It’s true in theory that the “whistleblower” who set the process in motion might suffer adverse consequences from having his identity revealed. I say “in theory,” because the main consequence of revealing the identity of the anti-Trump whistleblower in this impeachment process is that he will never again have to pay for a drink or a dinner in Washington, D.C. He can dine out on his effort to take down President Trump from now until kingdom come.

And Hinderaker and Instapundit both note the sorry state of Education as a propaganda tool of the left today as well.

sundance: The “Coup” Against a Sitting U.S. President Became Official on October 29th, 2019… “The word “coup” shifted to a new level of formalized meaning last week when members of the political resistance showed up to remove President Trump wearing military uniforms.”

“ot only did U.S. military leadership remain silent to the optics and purpose, but in the testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman he admits to giving instructions to ignore the instructions from a sitting United States President.

In the absence of push-back from the Joint Chiefs, from this moment forth, the impression is tacit U.S. military support for the Vindman objective.

Susan Ferrechio: Schiff signals he will reject GOP ‘sham’ witness requests – “Democrats are building an impeachment case that accuses Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.” The only allowable testimony is that which supports this narrative. All else is ridiculed and smeared if not censored, censured, and ignored.

Adam Mill: Schiff’s Dishonesty Is Certain to Morph Again – “This Ukraine farce will end the way all supposed Trump scandals end: with Democrats finding “evidence” of another scandal. Perhaps this explains why the House resolution retroactively endorsing the “impeachment inquiry” doesn’t actually establish a crime to be investigated or a scope for the investigation.”

“If Adam Schiff were a prosecutor, his November 5 contribution to USA Today would violate rule 3.8(f) when he claimed (again) that he had secret evidence of a secret crime committed by the president. Our system of due process (as codified by this rule) recognizes that it’s unfair for an accuser to use newspapers to claim access to secret evidence of a target’s criminal conduct. …

What crime? Schiff doesn’t name the crime anywhere in his 940-word vanity piece. Instead, he aggrandizes himself and these hearings that give witch hunts a bad name.

Jay Whig: Adam Schiff’s Outhouse Politics – “The California Democrat has assembled new procedures, a sewer of secrecy and lopsided partisan rules, against which the winds of deliberative government may not prevail.”

“Schiff has taken the basics of Anglo-American process, long developed from the time of medieval trial by ordeal into the adversary system rooted in time-honored rules framed around the protection of the innocent from malicious prosecution, and given it an upper decker that it will take a long time and at least two plumbers to fix.

Clarice Feldman: Impeachment Mashup – “Democrats have tried to impeach every elected Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. … They’ve never succeeded and there’s no reason to believe this time is different.”

“Why this practice persists is that they are continually reluctant to accept political outcomes they don’t like. David Hirsanyi argues this point well as well as illustrating perfectly the left’s projection of their actions onto their opponents:

Cristina Laila: HERE WE GO: Dem Senators Seek Docs on Trump’s Alleged Request For Bill Barr to Hold Press Conference About Ukraine – “The Democrats believe that Trump, who is the president of the executive branch, is not allowed to discuss anything with the US Attorney General without their permission.”

Roger Kimball: Move Washington Out of Washington – “Anything that can be done to dismantle the Leviathan of administrative overreach should be done. A plan by Senators Marcia Blackburn and Josh Hawley to move federal departments to the states is not the end of the story. But it might mark the beginning of a sunny new chapter.”

Thomas Lifson: What the University of Alabama’s football stadiums tells us about Trump’s popularity – “that temple to football tells us something else, too: regional political differences are at the highest level since the end of the Civil War.”

“America is dividing into two nations, one based in coastal and a few inland urban areas, full of hatred for President Trump and his supporters, and the rest of the country that largely supports him and cheers “USA, USA!” when he enters an arena.

It’s sad, but that’s where we are right now.

Peter Michael Bleyer, MD: Redefining Medicine, Redefining Family – “Today, largely due to government policy, doctor’s offices have been transformed into a big government-controlled business … As older doctors like me leave the field, young idealistic physicians bypass Family Medicine; they are neither interested in working for a business nor motivated by a stifling code of political correctness which fails to recognize the dignity of every human being.” This is the rant of a fundamentalist Christian but his point is illustrated on the door of nearly all medical clinics in an entirely different irrational wokeness.

Ace of Spades: OMG: Judge in Covington Suit Makes It Official That The Politico-Media Class Has Greater Rights Than The Plebians, Ruling That Elizabeth Warren Cannot be Sued for Slandering a Child Because of “Sovereign Immunity” – “Anything necessary to protect the Ruling Class from the dirty commoners.”

“Given that this guy willfully misread the basic black-letter law on defamation to toss this suit the first time, does anyone doubt he’ll likewise soon find that Ana Navarro has a special Media People Are Special dispensation to defame children and implicitly direct antifa violence towards them?

Areg Galstyan: Trump’s Triumph: On the Way to a Second Westphalia? – “Today, Donald Trump has restored the basis to American foreign policy: predominance of rational national interests.”

“In 1648, Westphalia was the place where — following the end of The Thirty Years’ War — the great powers agreed upon the concept of sovereignty, signing the Treaty of Münster. It was expressed in the strict principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. Other global great powers’ meetings led to the formation of certain superstructures upon this foundation.

The Vienna System (after the victory over Napoleonic France) introduced the concept of a balance of power; the Versailles-Washington System (after World War I) established the importance of multipolarity with regard to resolving international issues (The League of Nations). The Yalta-Potsdam System (after World War II) introduced the importance of separation of spheres of influence between the great powers.

Liberal forces have consistently destroyed these foundations of international order, imposing the failed experiments of globalism, corporatism, and multiculturalism.

Karl Bode: Too Many Streaming Exclusives Is Already Starting To Piss Users Off – “too many services, and too many exclusives, and too high a price point could drive users back to piracy. An ironic outcome for a sector that took years to learn the lesson that the best way to compete with piracy is to offer better, cheaper, simpler services. … It’s the simplicity that’s starting to unwind as every company on Earth rushes to capitalize on the streaming evolution and lock down their own content exclusives, fracturing availability.” Same thing happening in online media …

Patrick J. Buchanan: Where Are the ‘High Crimes’? – “Given last week’s party-line vote in the House, where all but two Democrats voted to proceed with the inquiry, the impeachment of President Donald Trump seems baked in the cake.”

“And in the end it will be about what it has been about since the beginning: An attempt by the deep state and its media, bureaucratic and political allies to overturn the democratic verdict of 2016 and to overthrow the elected president of the United States.

sundance: Biden Lied – “Emails Show Burisma Executives Leveraging Hunter Biden Membership as Pressure on U.S. State Dept. For Assistance in Removing Ukraine Corruption Probe… everything Joe Biden and the Obama administration previously denied taking place is now documented as having taken place … This is the evidence the media said didn’t exist:”

Conrad Black: Impeachment Drama Is Fraught with Traps for Sane Observers – “Sane partisans become insane and the most open-minded of commentators become white-washers of the unspeakable Schiff-Nadler outrages.” The stimulus is a Peggy Noonan WSJ column and it is ripped to shreds.

“In fact, there is no evidence that there was a direct connection between Ukraine investigating Biden and the assistance involved. There is no evidence that Trump was asking for more than the facts of Biden and his son’s exposure in Ukraine—if the Bidens’ conduct was unexceptionable that finding would have fully satisfied Trump’s request to know what happened. The entire United States should want to know if Biden’s son was influence-peddling in Ukraine, China, and Romania—as has been alleged—and it should equally wish to know if the charges are unfounded.

… The absence of evidence that information on Biden and aid were connected and that the president was directing President Zelensky to produce a condemnation of Biden and his son is precisely why this spurious Star Chamber conducted by the most chronically dishonest person in American public life (Adam Schiff, though only by a nose over House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, both Democratic congressmen), should not even get to the Senate.

Jazz Shaw: AOC Waves The White Flag In Twitter Blocking Suit – “Here’s a riddle for you. What do Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have in common? The answer is that they’ve both been sued by people that they blocked on Twitter. The difference between them is that the President is still fighting his accuser. AOC, on the other hand, has folded her hand, apologized, and promised to stop blocking (some) people. (Washington Times).” Just who is fighting for your rights?

“So AOC meekly apologized and left the battlefield. Fair enough. …

Here’s one of my main problems with this entire debate. Both the President and AOC seem to have run into a wall, saying that their use of a privately-owned social media network is subject to the dictates of the courts based on the free speech rights of other users. This seems to be a patently ridiculous proposition, but it’s now building a body of precedent in court decisions.
…
Stop and think about this for a moment. If blocking someone as an elected official violates their free speech rights in a forum owned and operated by a private company, how is the blocking of anyone by anyone else not a violation of said rights?

Delingpole: Attenborough Tacitly Admits Netflix Cock-up on ‘Walrusgate’ Tragedy Porn – “It was one of the most heart-rending animal tragedy episodes ever shown on TV: hundreds of walruses shown plunging over a cliff to their deaths out of “desperation” caused by climate change. … In reality, they were chased to their deaths by marauding polar bears — whose presence in the area the TV show’s producers initially denied.”

Trump-Ukraine Whistleblower Suddenly Won’t Testify; Lawyers Break Off Negotiations Amid New Revelations – “In other words, House Democrats are about to impeach President Trump over a second-hand whistleblower complaint by a partisan CIA officer, and neither he nor his source will actually testify about it (for now…).”

“Meanwhile, once the House impeaches Trump – which it most certainly will – the tables will turn in the Senate, which will hold a mandatory trial. Not only will the GOP-Senators controlling the proceedings be able to subpoena documents and other evidence, they’ll be able to compel Ciaramella, the Bidens, Chalupa and any other witnesses they desire as we head into the 2020 US election.

Nancy Pelosi saw this coming and caved to her party anyway. There isn’t enough popcorn in the world for what’s coming.

Sarah Lee: Strassel: Democrats Handling Of Impeachment Process May Have Already Given Republicans The Win – “Pelosi’s vote Thursday, on the heels of secret hearings with more scheduled for next week, may have been the equivalent of a child in the corner holding his breath until Republicans get on board with impeaching Donald Trump.”

Ray DiLorenzo: Wanted: Justice & The Rule of Law – “At some point in the last century, the rules changed. Somewhere along the highway the ruling class diverted on a dirt road. They became decadent, arrogant, selfish, even gluttonous.”

Adam Mill: Government Doesn’t Deny Editing Flynn’s Statement Before Charging Him – “Federal prosecutors’ response to Sidney Powell’s explosive filing leaves many unanswered questions.”

David Zukerman: Restraining an out-of-control House – “if the president accepted the unfair procedures adopted by the House Democrats, he would be approving an assault on the Constitution’s provision of separation of powers for the three branches of government, thus reducing the presidency to an arm of the House majority.”

Jeff Poor: GOP Rep. Aderholt on Impeachment: ‘We’re Seeing the Concerns the Founding Fathers Had over 200 Years Ago’ – “Clearly, Congress has the authority to impeach. That’s constitutional. However, it’s for actual crimes that are committed by the president … and quite honestly, the Founding Fathers write about the fact they were concerned about this could be politicized.”

neo: Trolls and the Times – “One of the most popular devices used by propagandists is the selected misleading quote. I’ve seen the method used so often that it can be called standard operating procedure. It’s not limited to the left – you can find it on the right, too – but it’s only on the left that it’s commonplace and becomes nearly constant.”

I & I Editorial Board: Now We Know Why The Media Won’t Expose Trump’s ‘Whistleblower’ – “This sounds like a whole lot more than an “indicia” or an “arguable” bias. In fact, it smacks of the very kind of Deep State that Trump has been talking about. … The press reaction to Sperry’s story? Complete and utter silence.”

“Even more bizarrely, Nelson claims to have found “at least one significant factual inaccuracy in the report,” but never reveals what it is. This is the sort of sloppy, biased journalism we expect from the New York Times or the Washington Post or CNN.

That aside, there’s another reason the mainstream press won’t touch Sperry’s story. If it did, it would have to admit that it’s known the “whistleblower’s” identity all along. And that it knows his biases. And that it’s under no obligation to protect his identity. And, finally, that it covered up his identity to keep the impeachment train rolling. …

It’s no surprise to us that the mainstream press is carrying water for Democrats on the impeachment story. But even we are sometimes surprised and dismayed by its cravenness.

John Lucas: Alex Vindman’s Impeachment Testimony Completely Rested On His Personal Opinions – “Alex Vindman’s testimony about the July 25 call between the two presidents does not add any new facts. So, what does he say? He offers his opinions about the wisdom of the call. That’s it.”

“I will close with one final observation: Vindman’s public volunteering of his personal opinions contrary to those of his commander-in-chief violates the fundamental rule that military officers should be publicly apolitical, in order to keep the armed forces out of political disputes. I respectfully submit that honoring that fundamental separation is more in line with an officer’s duty than what Vindman did in this case.

The fact that he elected to testify in uniform, thus attempting to add the imprimatur of the U.S. military to boost his credibility, makes it worse.

Erielle Davidson: House GOP Fed Up With Crooked Impeachment Inquiry: ‘It’s A Sham’ – “The House GOP delivered a much-needed, sharp rebuke of the increasingly partisan and opaque impeachment probe that has seized House Democrats.”

Thomas Lifson: A stunning confession from a Deep State member subverting the constitutional republic – “The arrogance and lack of self-awareness among the mandarins that inhabit the top levels of our government bureaucracies has led to a smoking gun-level confession.”

“Rather than respecting the will of the voters who elect a president, they proudly substitute their own policy preferences and think nothing of conspiring to drive from office the person who holds legitimate authority to make policy and conduct the affairs of government.

Steve Watson: “Thank God For The Deep State”: Intel Agents Admit They Want To “Take Out” Trump – “During an interview with Margaret Brennan of CSPAN, former CIA head John McLaughlin along with his successor John Brennan both basically admitted that there is a secretive cabal of people within US intelligence who are trying to ‘take Trump out’.” … “I mean I think everyone has seen this progression of diplomats and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now and saying these are people who are doing their duty or responding to a higher call.” he added.”

“There you have it. Two former CIA heads admitting that there is a plot to take out a duly-elected President.

Thomas Farnan: The Stupidest Impeachment Ever – “The deep state serves the president, and nobody cares if its unelected drones have different foreign policy objectives in Ukraine.”

Jonathon Moseley: Quid pro faux: Trump impeachment legally fails – “Impeaching President Donald Trump is legally flawed.”

There are two New York Post columns that are expressing dissonance. Rich Lowery thinks the only case to be made is that “nothing came of it.” He also thinks the House investigation resolution is a move towards “more regular proceedings.” John Podhoretz notes that “First, the foreign policy Trump chooses to advance shouldn’t be involved in any discussion of impeachment. He is the president. Executive-branch policy is his and his alone to decide, even if you think it’s just terrible — or if it contradicts decades of ideas on which both Republicans and Democrats have agreed.” But then spends most of his time equating the ‘witch hunt’ label with the ‘impeach no matter what’ ethos. Both sides equal, you see, even if the evidence predominately says otherwise.

Then there is Michael Goodwin: A tragedy for the nation – and democracy – “Either Nancy Pelosi has lost her mind or she really wants to dig America’s grave. … The vote to formalize the impeachment jihad is a great day for Trump haters and a tragedy for democracy and common sense.”

“The only thing that could be worse for Dems would be impeaching Trump with no evidence of a crime or a serious abuse of office

That’s what they’re doing — and four more years just got more likely.

Yet there is something bigger at stake than the next election. The effort to overturn the 2016 results is such a radical event that it raises the question of whether polarization has become fatal to our republic.

If so, then elections will never settle anything again. Each loser will simply look for a way to erase the outcome as if it never happened.

Scott Johnson: The impeachment Schiff show – cites Goodwin, Strassel, and McCarthy and provides a copy of what they are all talking about. McCarthy does provide a good summary but his column is flawed by accepting a false premise (and being posted on a nagware site). The dance is around the idea that there can be any legitimate investigation without any solid basis of a predicate event. Searching for a crime not in evidence makes any inquiry illegitimate and ignoring this weakens McCarthy’s arguments.

David Catron: Impeachment Vote Will Cost These Dems Their Seats – “They ran as moderates in swing districts yet voted like radicals.” The question is that, if Catron’s case is sound, why did only 2 Democrats vote with the Republicans?

“All of this brings us back to Thursday’s hyper-partisan vote and the resolution that purports to lay out the framework for the next phase of the “impeachment inquiry” launched by fiat during a news conference last month. This resolution, departing from 150 years of historical precedent, endows the House Intelligence Committee with extraordinary power over the inquiry, codifies Adam Schiff’s closed-door hearings, severely limits the powers of the Republican minority, and violates the president’s right to due process. The Democrats whose districts were won by Trump in 2016 have signed their own political death warrants by voting for this tawdry resolution. Execution day will be November 3, 2020.

Wolf Street Report: What Will Stocks Do When “Consensual Hallucination” Ends? – “I call this phenomenon “consensual hallucination” – “consensual” because everyone eagerly smokes the same stuff in order to be able to get the same hallucinations everyone else is having, and to be part of the movement” … this is not only a stock market ‘get rich’ behavior, it is also evident in the assault on the election of 2016.

“At some point, people do come out from under this consensual hallucination. This can happen very gradually and unevenly, or suddenly and all at once. History is full of both events. And often it’s a combination, at first gradually and then suddenly, or vice versa.
…
What’s astonishing is just how long consensual hallucination lasts, and how shocked and appalled people are when it ends.

AWR Hawkins Andrew Pollack: Guns Don’t Create School Shootings, Leftist Policies Do – “He noted that people who call for more background checks either ignore or do not know that the Parkland attacker passed a background check to get the gun he used.”

Monica Showalter: So now Peggy Noonan is offering tips to the Democrats? – “There’s a fine line between analyzing news and nakedly offering advice to one side and now Peggy Noonan has crossed it.” The question is why: Drudge has turned into a propaganda site; Wallace now channeling the other Chris (Matthews) with goose bumps and chills;

“Facts in fact are so damned, in fact, that these people are keeping their hearings secret, selectively leaking only the politically advantageous parts without context, silencing Republicans from calling witnesses, preventing Republicans from issuing subpoenas, or cripes, even allowing Republicans from attending, and for the ones who are attending, not allowing them to ask questions. As for the president’s rights to due process, he’s SOL. As Noonan argued earlier, it’s got to be fair to work, and this is still 6,000 miles from fair.

The idea of sedition is a limitation on free speech. That is why it is often ignored as a legal matter. When does criticizing the government rise to a level like shouting “fire” in a crowded theater? Maybe you need a smoke bomb to go with the shout? Do libel and deceit matter? What is ‘just sayin’ and what is incitement against orderly government? But then, how do you hold people accountable for their ideas and suggestions expressed in public? For lessons in how this is done, look at the efforts behind gun laws. Consider what happened to Kavenaugh or the recent 9th circuit nominee who broke down in tears at a hearing due to the scurrilous assault on his character. How much of this is enough and what can an individual citizen do about it?

Erielle Davidson: Trump Was Right To Keep The Baghdadi Raid Secret From Schiff – “Back in 2017, Gen. Tony Thomas made this very point at the Aspen Security Conference, where he discussed how a prior lead on Abu Bakr al Baghdadi “went dead” following a media leak.”

“Admittedly, Trump’s labeling of Washington as a “leaking machine” is a revealing and disappointing statement on the federal government, but the blame for this situation does not lie with Trump, and it would require cognitive dissonance of the highest order for the media to blame the president for his recalcitrance to share information with a congressional committee headed by Schiff.
…
If Democrats in the House are so concerned with the sharing of information between the executive branch and the House, perhaps when one of their members engages in inexcusable and unethical behavior, they should reprimand that individual, not celebrate him as some heroic figure worthy of emulation. It only suggests tacit support of the very behavior that every government official, right or left, should be condemning.

Robert Arvay: How America’s justice system is beginning to crumble – “just like a strong and magnificent bridge across a wide river, corrosion can set in.” … “Here are seven warning signs, present today, that we ignore at great peril.” … “In many cases, the remedy is suggested merely by identifying the problem and admitting that it is a serious defect in the system. This is the age of “see something, say something,” and more of us need to get involved.”

neo: Left vs. right: the rules of the game – “Much of the anger of the right at NeverTrumpers and others who have issues with Trump related to style, including his style of combat, need to (in the words of the commenter) “recognize reality for what it is – like it or not.” It’s a sad and sorrowful realization, but as time goes on it increasingly seems to be an inevitable realization.”

Patricia McCarthy: Trump vs. the barbarians at the gates – “The Left today stands for corruption, amorality, gender fluidity, anti-religiosity, injustice and open borders. They intend to flood the country with Democrat voters. They oppose the First and Second Amendments. They oppose due process.”

sundance: UPDATED: Pelosi Calls House Vote to Affirm Speaker Impeachment Inquiry The House Never Authorized… “On Thursday of this week Speaker Pelosi is bringing to the floor a resolution to affirm her previous declaration of an “Official House Inquiry”. Mrs. Pelosi is very purposefully and carefully telling reporters this is not a “House resolution on impeachment”. Read the wording carefully:” … “Pelosi and the Lawfare crew are playing games.”

Linda Tripp: Same Media that Silenced Me Now Glorifying Fake Whistleblowers – “I know a little something about writing a political expose. And, about whistleblowing. Except, my experience was diametrically opposed to that of any of the anonymous whistleblowers or to this coward called Anonymous.”

“The liberal elites in the media made it their business to destroy me, all in a coordinated effort to victimize, and thus save, a truly corrupt president.”
…
There was no hand holding for me. The intimidation factor, from not only the White House but from the press, was enormous. My credibility had to be decimated. They did that handily, and in so doing, ensured that anything I had to say about the corruption of the Clinton White House would be dismissed. The difference is staggering.

Nearly 22 years ago, I was effectively silenced. My story has never been told.

George Avery: What the New York Times Got Wrong About Slavery in America – “Like much else in the Times’ version of the role of slavery in American history, even the project name [1619] is rooted in distortion.” Learn some history; see the effects of bias and hate in the media.

“The New York Times does a disservice to its readers with the 1619 Project by presenting a simplistic and misleading story of the complex role that the institution of slavery played in the history of the United States, and it largely ignores the role that the underlying values of the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment that undergird the new nation played in ending slavery and the slave trade.

Greg Mankiw: “Too many Republicans in Congress are willing, in the interest of protecting their jobs, to overlook Trump’s misdeeds (just as too many Democrats were for Clinton during his impeachment).” … just what are these “misdeeds”? With Clinton, an investigation yielded a specific list of misdeeds sufficient to get him disbarred if not impeached. With Trump, a massive, hostile, and arguably corrupt investigation yielded no misdeeds sufficient to support impeachment or other action. None of his opposition, nor any such as Mankiw, offer any description of any actual ‘high crime or misdemeanor’ to support their assertions as anything other than sour grapes or political dissonance. Then there is the need to brag about going anti-Trump. That implies irrational involvements such as narcissism, moral preening, hate, or underlying emotional or intellectual dissonance. This is why it is the era of irrational argument and not reasoned debate.

An example can be seen in Alexander Vindman: Was not proper to demand that a foreign government… Vindman’s source for this claim is the transcript released by Trump which does not support his allegation. Why the distortion and deceit or gross misperception from a distinguished civil servant? Why does he refute both his President and the President of the Ukraine? Sour grapes and political dissonance? What makes Vindman arbiter of a Constitutionally delegated responsibility supported by a general election?

Babylon Bee: CNN Uncovers Evidence Hero Dog Sniffed Dozens Of Butts Back In College – “Everyone [else] praised the classified “Hero Dog” for taking down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” ALSO Nationals Disappointed To Learn Boos Don’t Count As Runs.

Because Random People Must Be Punished. David Thompson – “And at which point, what you’re seeing isn’t politics or protest. It’s sociopathy.”

New York Times Narrative Engineers Start Positioning DOJ/FBI “Small Group” Coup-Plotters as Victims of CIA and Intelligence Community Manipulation… sundance – “Apparently, this is the big picture defense they will use when the IG report drops.”

CIA Analysts Lawyer Up As Brennan, Clapper Ensnared In Expanding Russiagate Probe. Tyler Durden – “NBC learned of the ‘lawyering up’ from three former CIA officials “familiar with the matter,” while two more anonymous leakers claim there’s tension between the Justice Department and the CIA over what classified documents Durham has access to.” interesting, the owner of that information has provided carte blanche to the DOJ regarding its use. Does the CIA realize who it works for?

David Stockman: How The US Went From America First To Empire First. Fasten your seat belts before you get into this one … “The second thing is this whole Russia-gate issue from 2016. It has essentially neutered the Democratic Party as a rational voice in foreign affairs and the restraint that it historically had on the warfare state.” … “It’s all on behalf of a big, slick lobbying operation that’s created this pro-empire mentality. It got us in the middle of all of these conflicts in the Middle East, but also Ukraine.”

Escobar: Syria May Be The Biggest Defeat For The CIA Since Vietnam. A history lesson … “The first major game-changer was the spectacular Russian entrance in the summer of 2015.” … “The CIA will be after Trump’s scalp till Kingdom Come.” … “Talk about a cultural misunderstanding. As much as the Syrian Kurds believed U.S. protection amounted to an endorsement of their independence dreams, Americans never seemed to understand that throughout the “Greater Middle East” you cannot buy a tribe.”

“The reconstruction of Syria may cost as much as $200 billion. Damascus has already made it very clear that the U.S. and the EU are not welcome. China will be in the forefront, along with Russia and Iran; this will be a project strictly following the Eurasia integration playbook — with the Chinese aiming to revive Syria’s strategic positioning in the Ancient Silk Road.
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The war may not have been totally won, of course. But against all odds, it’s clear a unified, sovereign Syrian nation is bound to prevail over every perverted strand of geopolitical molotov cocktails concocted in sinister NATO/GCC labs. History will eventually tell us that, as an example to the whole Global South, this will remain the ultimate game-changer.

The Endgame in Syria. Matthew Continetti – “The pattern was established well before Donald Trump took office. It will persist after he departs. There is nothing so consistent as American ambivalence toward our superpower status. Most great powers covet hegemony. We hate it. The costs are too high, the demands too stressful.”

Trump didn’t sell out the Kurds by pulling out of Syria. Kenneth R. Timmerman – “let’s be clear about US goals, too. Our advisors were not in northern Syria to defend a Kurdish government but to fight ISIS. The fight to smash the ISIS caliphate is over, and we won.” … “The Kurds are paying a heavy price in this battle — not because of a US betrayal — but because they remain stateless and thus powerless.” … it’s tribes, again.

Democrats’ ‘Immigrants First’ Policy. Betsy McCaughey – “President Donald Trump’s key immigration rule change, to discourage immigrants from relying on public health programs, food stamps, housing assistance and other welfare, got derailed on Friday by three federal judges.” … “Judge Daniels has his facts wrong.”

“Democrats oppose any limits on immigration, tarring those who disagree as “racists.” That name-calling divides the nation. We need a civil debate over how to welcome migrants to keep our economy growing yet still put our own needy first.

Napolitano Wrong Again: Schiff Inquiry a Kangaroo Court. Daniel John Sobieski – “But, as Napolitano himself notes, the House has rules, and one of those rules says that in the absence of a clear legal guideline, House precedent should be honored. The House may not have trials, but it is capable of witch hunts and inquisitions.” … “The Founding Fathers intended impeachment for real high crimes and misdemeanors — not for policy differences or whatever the House says it is.”

Adam Schiff Flip-Flopped On Whistleblower Testimony After Reports Of Coordination. Mollie Hemingway – “After news broke that Schiff’s staff had secretly worked with the whistleblower prior to the complaint being lodged, Schiff moved to prevent the whistleblower’s testimony.”

Seeing Some Trees in the Forest of Babble. Clarice Feldman – “With candidates whose platform is socialism, unrestricted abortion, higher taxes, nationalized medicine, open borders, ridiculous restrictions on energy production and use and such, it’s questionable how this sideshow will serve them at all in 2020.”