Flailing

The Hill: "Warren vows to 'attack corruption in Washington' in New Year's Eve address."

Warren has become the "Poochie" of American politics: screaming escalating platitudes about those darn billionaires, while everybody wishes she would just go away.

Hahaha....no.

Victory Girls: "Full-of-Malarkey Tour: Biden Open to GOP Running Mate."

Yes, the Democrat party is going to allow a Republican in the Vice President spot to the oldest President ever.  That's gonna happen.

In case you missed it: "Joe Biden basically just said that miners should ‘learn to code’."

A defect in the indictment

American Greatness: "Can the Senate Dismiss the Impeachment Without a Trial?" - "It can and it should."  These are invented crimes and should be dispatched, post haste.

Fake but accurate

Babylon Bee: "Media Disappointed To Learn Armed Citizen Stopped Mass Shooting."

How goes the faux-peachment?

Gotta admit, this guy totally called it:

Check out the date of my tweet/prediction. pic.twitter.com/R4dElLQLzI

— Rich Weinstein (@phillyrich1) December 30, 2019

Add Chuck Todd's misinformation show to this list

Fox News: "Dan Gainor: 2019 was American journalism’s worst year ever – Here are 7 reasons why." 

We know, we know

Hot Air: "Just A Reminder That Democrats Can Get Away With Anything (And The Media Will Praise Them)."  "The Washington Post editorial board spelled out Friday what most conservatives already know to be true: Democrats can get away with anything. Not only that, they can be applauded for getting away with it by their friends in the media."

Jussie said he was attacked by this list

Victory Girls: "Media Year-in-Review: The Fail is Real."

Look who's obstructing now

Des Moines Register: "Biden says he would not comply with a Senate subpoena in the impeachment trial of President Trump."

I doubt it will come to that since the Democrats aren't impeaching Trump.  Still, it's always fun to watch Biden's inscrutable, sputtering reaction whenever this topic comes up:

“What are you going to cover?” Biden said to Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter in response to a question. “You guys are going to cover for three weeks anything that I said. And (Trump’s) going to get away. You guys buy into it all the time. Not a joke … Think what it’s about. It's all about what he does all the time, his entire career. Take the focus off. This guy violated the Constitution. He said it in the driveway of the White House. He acknowledged he asked for help.”

Dude's losing it.  Not a joke.  I mean, c'mon!  (Watch the video).

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "Think about this. Biden is saying he will obstruct Congress by not complying with a subpoena. Isn’t that supposedly why Trump is being impeached? At least Trump has the legal defense of separation of powers, Biden has nothing." 

Fauxcahontas needs wampum

CNBC: "Elizabeth Warren’s campaign sounds the alarm as fundraising pace slows about 30% in fourth quarter."

Excitement!

American Greatness: "The Front-Runner’s Big Iowa Rally - "A guy who can barely get 90 people to come listen to him talk is up against a guy who can fill sports arenas."

Like all the other Democrats, Joe Mushmouth has to parrot the Andrew Sullivan complaint of Bad Man Destroying our very Civilization because it's all he has. 

Chuck Todd is a clown

Twitchy: "‘You lied to people’: @redsteeze drops Chuck Todd for lamenting conservatives’ ‘attacks’ on the mainstream media."

Related - Daily Caller: "WaPo Columnist Rips Rachel Maddow For Hyping Steele Dossier."

Merry Christmas!

It must be all that glowing press coverage he's getting

Breitbart: "Donald Trump approval rating surpasses Barack Obama at same point in Presidency."

And impeachment has been a real windfall for the Republicans.  Thanks, Nancy!

Constitutionally shaky and inherently stupid

Victory Girls: "Welcome To Impeachment Limbo For The Holidays."  There is exactly zero chance that Mitch McConnell will debate the Senate trial until the articles arrive at the Senate.

Domo arigato, Mr. Robot

Last night was the series finale for Mr. Robot and what a ride.  Creator Sam Esmail has been waiting four years to use this theme song.

P.S. - Is there's any justice in this simulated world, Carly Chaikin would win the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

Stop me if you've heard this before

Andrew Sullivan travels down the well-worn road of "Orange Man Bad":

It [impeachment] is about the character of one man: his decision to forgo any outreach, poison domestic politics, marinate it in deranged invective, betray his followers by enriching the plutocracy, destroy the dignity of the office of president, and turn his position into a means of self-enrichment. 

Sullivan is really wearing out his thesaurus here.  We get it: Trump is a blowhard who doesn't play well with others.  The fact that he doesn't act the way you think he should act is in no way disqualifying to the point of overturning a national election.

Also: in what way is any of this news that we have to be reminded again?  We've literally heard nothing but this message since Hillary's flame-out campaign.  It's sheer foolishness to think this will resonate with voters anymore but, hey, that's life in the bubble.

Here's where Sullivan, realizing there's no meat on the bones, tries to conjure up substance

It’s about the personal abuse of public office: using the presidency’s powers to blackmail a foreign entity into interfering in a domestic election on his behalf, 

Wrong: there's no blackmail.  The Ukrainians said there wasn't, there are exactly zero fact witnesses that testified to it, and the Democrats dropped bribery from their articles.  After all the money spent on focus groups, too!

turning the Department of Justice into an instrument of personal vengeance and political defense,

This one is especially risible.  It's like we didn't just see the Horowitz report where the Obama DOJ actively spied on Trump's campaign using the bogus Steele dossier as a pretext.  But not to worry: Susan Rice sent an email to herself reminding herself that Obama insisted the investigation into a political rival would be "by the book."  Nothing to see here!

The "personal vengeance" and "political defense" Sullivan cites is related to Attorney General Bob Barr stating that FISA warrants were an abuse of the Obama DOJ.  Maybe he doesn't read newspapers.

openly obstructing investigations into his own campaign, 

Fake news.  "Mueller: Investigation was “not at any time curtailed, stopped, or hindered”  But after three years of one witch hunt, Trump was supposed to gather the pitchforks for another?  Go get a court order, losers, and brush up on the meaning of co-equal branches of government.

and treating the grave matter of impeachment as a “hoax” while barring any testimony from his own people.

It was, and is, a hoax and nobody's buying it, despite this overwrought rhetoric.  But I understand: the Democrats and their media have few arrows in their quiver so they have to resort to this moldy-oldie about Trump's character and trying to gaslight everybody about the economy. 

Driven to madness

Red State: "Even People Who Like NY Times Columnist Paul Krugman Are Telling Him to Cool It With the Extreme TDS."

It's been a tough time for Mr. "Markets will never recover."

Snooze fest

NY Post: "Latest Democratic debate had lowest viewership yet."

Powerline: "Are voters tuning out the Democrats?"

I don't blame the candidates.  It's the media/moderators fault for serving up lame questions that are merely setups for a long, boring recitation of talking points.  How is such a thing as this allowed in a debate: Elizabeth Warren is confronted with economic truth and she simply declares "they're wrong!"  Oh, is that how it works?

I didn't watch the debate.  I wonder if Bernie said "I wrote the damn bill."

Hurry up and wait

RedState: "What’s the Real Reason Why House Democrats Will Wait ‘As Long as it Takes’ to Send Articles of Impeachment to Senate? Eric Ciaramella."

I was on record for a long time predicting that the Democrats wouldn't go through with impeachment because it meant turning control over to Mitch McConnell's Senate.  And I was right!

Joe did *not* ask for Obama's endorsement

But, man, he really didn't ask for Obama's doctor's endorsement.  Ace: "Obama's Former Doctor: No, Joe Biden Isn't a "Healthy" Guy. He's a Stroke Risk."  In addition to his irregular heartbeat, let's remember that Joe has literally had brain surgery.  For his multiple aneurysms.

When Biden's eye filled up with blood and his staff said it was a contact lens problem, the media said "sounds good to us!"

Trump is not impeached

Noah Feldman: "Trump Isn’t Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate" - "According to the Constitution, impeachment is a process, not a vote."

Feldman is one of the four law professors who testified in Congress for the Judiciary hearings.  As David Burge, we're in Schrodinger's Cat area now.

Cocaine Mitch is done

Shorter McConnell: The House is full of children and the adults of the Senate will not oblige their behavior

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) December 19, 2019

Did you have to pre-empt Jeopardy for this?

David Harsanyi: "Impeach Him If You Like, but for the Love of God, Stop Pretending You Care about the Constitution." 

Wow...that was unexpected

Volokh Conspiracy: "Fifth Circuit Declares Individual Mandate Unconstitutional, Punts on Whether Rest of ACA Must Fall" - "As if there wasn't enough going on this week, a federal appellate court issues a significant (and significantly flawed) ruling in the latest Obamacare challenge."

In the simplest terms, this dispute stems from the original Obamacare decision where the individual mandate was struck down as a penalty but still existed (according to Justice Roberts) within Congress's power of taxation.  But when the Republican Congress zeroed out the tax, the mandate "disappeared."  Now the question is whether the whole law can exist ("severability") without the mandate.

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "While everyone was focused on impeachment, 5th Circuit cut the legs out from under Obamacare."  "So perhaps the headline today is not that the 5th Circuit killed Obamacare, but rather, the 5th Circuit cut the legs out from under Obamacare. Whether the entire legless law falls is yet to be determined." 

The road to ruin runs through King County

City Journal: "Progressives Gone Wild" - "In Seattle, municipal employees increasingly see identity politics and fighting “oppression” as part of their jobs."

Have you heard the news?

Stuff around the net.  Axios: "Focus group: These Obama/Trump voters are just Trump voters now."  They spoke with a bunch of Obama-to-Trump voters and it reads like a Trump War Room press release: they love Trump, hate impeachment, and have "zero trust" in the media.

In case you missed it.  Quinnipiac: "Trump Job Approval And Economy Rating Hit Highs, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds."  Meanwhile, support for impeachment is collapsing like a souffle. 

The stock market hit yet another record high today.  Paul Krugman hardest hit.

And here's your fun trivia for tonight:

Since World War II, no president has lost reelection when unemployment was below 7.4% https://t.co/BQwEFif0Uq

— Eddy Elfenbein (@EddyElfenbein) December 16, 2019

The "meh" impeachment

Last night, Byron York wrote an article called "The get-it-over-with impeachment."

This morning on "Meet the Press" they had a panel of six everyday voters from a swing county in Michigan.  They could not care less about impeachment: they say it's not a topic of interest or discussion and it was pretty clear that nobody's mind was changed one way or another.

A glitch in the playlist

I was listening to classic Christmas carols on my Google Home speaker and they played "Shotgun" by Junior Walker & the All Stars.  Ho ho ho.

The new normal

Andrew McCarthy: "The Costs of Trivializing Impeachment."  "Trivializing impeachment gives us the worst of all worlds: Impeachment will become a less credible check on presidential misconduct, but it will still poison our politics and compromise our government’s effectiveness."

Making stuff up

Federalist: "Democrats Are Passing The Weakest Impeachment In American History."

I've been told that nobody is above the law

Washington Examiner: "Revealed: Hunter Biden 'possession of controlled substance' charge kept under wraps while father led drug war from Senate."  "Joe Biden’s son Hunter was arrested on Jersey Shore drug charges in 1988 and had his record expunged at a time when his father was pushing for the incarceration of drug offenders drawn disproportionately from minority groups."

This kind of hypocrisy kneecapped Kamala Harris.  Let's see how Joe handles it.  He's very calm and rational when asked about Hunter.

Presumption of guilt

The Atlantic: "Democrats Have Failed to Prove Their Case Against Trump" - "Republicans are still waiting for a convincing case that the president was acting to advance his own personal interests."

The sham articles

Alan Dershowitz in The Hill: "Two House articles of impeachment fail to meet constitutional standards."

House Democrats have announced the grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on which they plan to seek the impeachment of President Trump. Neither of these proposed articles satisfy the express constitutional criteria for an impeachment, which are limited to “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Neither are high or low crimes or misdemeanors. Neither are mentioned within the Constitution.

Both are so vague and open ended that they could be applied in partisan fashion by a majority of the House against almost any president from the opposing party. Both are precisely what the Framers had rejected at their Constitutional Convention. Both raise the “greatest danger,” in the words of Alexander Hamilton, that the decision to impeach will be based on the “comparative strength of parties,” rather than on “innocence or guilt.”

You can tell they're a farce because the Democrats struggled mightily to push quid pro quo until the focus groups told them to shift to bribery.  In the end, they had to settle on "abuse of power" which is a completely meaningless talking point that could have been used a dozen times on the previous resident of the Oval Office.

Move along, nothing to see here

Hot Air: "Cruz To Horowitz: Did An FBI Attorney Defraud The FISA Court? Horowitz: Yup." "Hey, here’s the FBI’s lawyer cooking a FISA warrant to surveil someone who they knew to be a confidential source for “another agency,” but … Republicans pounce! or something."

Extra - Let's take a stroll down memory lane where the mainstream media insisted the Steele dossier was real and not the source of the FISA application because they really wanted it to be true.

The House can impeach for any reason...

...and they sure did with these weak sauce so-called "articles of impeachment."  Joel Pollak has provided a real service with a loooong article debunking the entire silly document: "Line by line, a complete debunking of the Democrats' articles of impeachment"

Democrats released their two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and they are a complete joke.

Not only did the Democrats back away from charging Trump with bribery, obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation, campaign finance violations, treason, or any of the other wild claims they floated, but the two articles themselves are fraudulent, based on blatantly false claims of law and fact.

No quid pro quo or bribery?  All that focus group money down the drain! 

For the record the articles were "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress"; both of these are so vague that "being bad" wouldn't be far off target either.  Ricochet nails it: "House Democrats admit they never had an impeachment case anyway":

This morning we are graced with “news” that House Democrats will present two articles of impeachment to the full House. The two “charges” are probably the two most vague, unspecific, unconstitutional things they could manage to throw out without dropping the whole thing altogether, proving that at this point mostly about the 2020 election and doing as little damage to their brand as possible.

If they fail to add to these two, they will be left with “charges” that not only have nothing to do with law or the Constitution but are flaming examples of exactly what the Founders/Framers were trying to prevent.

Speaking of trying to salvage their "brand," Nancy Pelosi waited all of a couple minutes to call a press conference announcing a USMCA deal with Trump.  See!  We're not all about impeachment!  Nancy is trying to get this train wreck over as possible which is why the impeachment hearings lasted a whole two days whereas Nixon's impeachment hearings stretched over months.  The whole thing is spinning out of control, the most recent polling shows more opposition to impeachment, and some red state Democrats are looking for a censure motion to avoid an impeachment vote. 

Now they're going to turn this over to the tender mercies of Mitch McConnell and the GOP-controlled Senate?  Well, things can only get better from here!

Mistakes were made

All in the same direction, for some unknown reason.  Hit and Run: "The IG Report Is a Huge Blow to the FBI's Credibility. Why Is It Being Treated Like Vindication?"

Sean Davis knows why:

Don't be surprised when media ignore or distort what the IG report says about rampant FISA abuses and the officials who perpetrated them. Democrat-affiliated media are deeply implicated in the Russia collusion hoax and desperate to avoid any accountability for it.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 9, 2019

Impeachment 4ever

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Legacy of Low-Bar Impeachment."  "From now on, impeachment can be used against any first-term president with a record of success. It will be used solely as a political strategy by the opposition party that controls the House to weaken a president’s reelection chances. That’s the Democratic Party’s legacy and Democrats will live to rue it."

Democrats never think the standards they set for others will boomerang back on them.

Fast and furious impeachment

Jonathan Turley in The Hill: "'Fast and Furious' impeachment looks like a rush to a failed case." - "Of course, none of this matters. Pelosi will get a fast impeachment, and there is no shortage of fury. Ultimately, “Fast and Furious” amounts to little more than a rush to a failed impeachment."

Turley notes that the most discussed charge is Obstruction of Congress which does not address whatever underlying crime there might be and only exists because of the investigation.  Just like Obamacare, we have to pass the articles of impeachment to find out what high crime has been committed.

Look, fat

Bookworm Room: "Call me callous, but I’m enjoying watching Joe Biden decompensate." - "Some people deserve what the Fates throw at them. The fates knew what they were doing when they visited incipient dementia on Joe Biden, a man whose distinguished himself for the last 40 years by being incredibly mean, wrong, racist, and destructive." 

Oh no, they're on to us!

Hot Air link to NY Times article: "GOP Impeachment Tactic: Turn Ukraine Allegations Against Biden."

There is no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden, while serving as vice president, improperly intervened in Ukraine to benefit his son. But the president’s advisers are betting that many voters will ignore the complexities of the allegations and absorb a simple message about a father using his influence to help his son, a senior Trump campaign official said…

There's two things I suspect about the Biden story: 1) a lot of Americans aren't aware of the whole story behind Hunter and 2) they're going to react badly to the gaslighting that there's "no evidence" that the sitting Vice President did nothing to help his recently-discharged cocaine-addled son get a sweet no-show job.

It's going to be "those 30,000 emails were all yoga routines" all over again.

Colin Kaepernick unavailable for comment

Breitbart: "More black men have jobs than ever before, unemployment rate holds at lowest level ever."

Dude's never gonna make it

He can't stand the heat of an Iowan farmer.  He'll never be able to withstand a Senate subpoena: "Impeachment's Next Phase Could Hit Biden Worst of All."

Extra - "Biden can't stand the heat."  That's what I said.

Death Spiral 2: Healthcare Boogaloo

Hot Air (linking to paywalled Washington Post): "Biden And Buttigieg Say You Can Keep Your Health-Care Plan. They’re Lying — Just Like Obama." 

Hahaha...what?

It's early in the night and I just got home from work so there's stuff to catch up on.  But this caused a spit-take already: "Adam Schiff's report cites no bribery or high crimes - only tweets."

Notably, though Schiff and others attempted to argue that the president had possibly committed “bribery” by allegedly asking the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for U.S. aid, there is no discussion of bribery whatsoever in the report — other than references to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s claims that Biden might be guilty of bribery because his son was on the payroll of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma.

Emphasis mine.  I can't believe this clown show is going to go on much longer.  As I've predicted many times before, Nancy Pelosi is going to look for an escape with a censure resolution and put this political time bomb behind her.  Sending this to the Senate would be unthinkable.

As I tweeted a few weeks ago, impeachment ain't gonna happen. I just don't think Pelosi is dumb enough to hand the Republican Senate that gift while heading into an election. https://t.co/111LOgA6S8

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) December 3, 2019

Made it through day 2!

Whamageddon! It helps that I listen to classic rock most of the time.

Waiting for the rich to do their "fair share" of shoveling

Today's sham-peachment news

Twitchy: "Rep. Ratcliffe explains WHY Schiff is withholding ICIG Michael Atkinson’s closed-door 8+ hour testimony."  It's all about the whistleblower.

Then there's this: "Rep. Doug Collins: Schiff will be first witness called by House Judiciary GOP." 

Schiff has racked up Four Pinocchios and Three Pinocchios for his various lies about the whistleblower, the latter about Schiff's false claim that the whistleblower has the "statutory right" to anonymity.  He does not.