Monthly Archives: December 2019
December 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
This is a big week in the impeachment farce. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sitting on the Democrats’ dearly beloved impeachment articles in the hope that she can pressure Senate Majority Mitch McConnell into bending to her will, the farce became farcical in a whole new way over the past two days. An impeachment story or two made it into the Star Tribune’s top 5 list this week. Below is
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December 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
When FISA court presiding judge Rosemary Collyer issued her order rebuking the FBI earlier this week, I wondered where the court had been. Don’t FISA judges read the newspapers? Like so many involved in the Russia hoax, Judge Collyer gave every appearance of having tumbled only lately to the misconduct committed before her court, courtesy of the Department of Justice Inspector General report issued last week. I embedded a copy
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December 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
My Somali friends took an intense interest in H.R. 1158 (“DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act of 2019”), sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul. The text of the bill is posted here; the Senate Appropriations Committee summary of key provisions is posted here. The bill has passed both houses of Congress and now awaits only the president’s signature. The Club for Growth scored the bill as a key vote
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December 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll been inspired to undertake THE NO POPPYCOCK TOUR. We fear she may soon find herself in demand as a speechwriter for a prominent Democratic presidential candidate. She writes: Though the behavior of the denizens of the Democrat Klown Kar and the entire wretched Party pretty much defies parody, periodically I like to give it my best shot. You couldn’t possibly make up that A.C. Green said we must
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December 19, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Why are the Democrats pursuing their futile impeachment charade? Obviously, it is partly out of sheer partisan hate that isn’t necessarily connected to any rational objective. Equally obviously, they hope that endless yammering about impeachment in the newspapers and on television will help one of their weak candidates be more competitive against President Trump next year. Mark Levin, as noted by Matt Margolis at PJ Media, offers a further explanation:
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December 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be in a “support mental health or I’ll kill you” state of mind. She may be in need of help of some kind or, perhaps, an intervention. In the tweeted video below, Pelosi clarifies the strategery behind her decision to sit on the articles of impeachment the Democrats passed last night against President Trump. We took a first pass exploring her “thinking” this morning.
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December 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Tulsi Gabbard didn’t vote to impeach President Trump. She also didn’t vote not to impeach him. Instead, taking a page from Barack Obama’s playbook, she voted “present.” During the Clinton impeachment trial, Arlen Specter invoked “Scottish law” and voted “not proved.” That was bizarre and perhaps gutless, but at least Specter’s vote conveyed a sense of how he viewed the evidence. Gabbard’s non-vote did not. Later, she explained that she
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December 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Democrats and many of their media allies are desperate to characterize the impeachment of Trump as “historic,” rather than as approaching par for the course in our modern, hyper-partisan politics. The fact that this is the third impeachment proceeding in the past 45 years, and that Trump is the third elected president of the past eight to endure one, undercuts the notion that this impeachment is momentous. However, Jonathan Allen
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December 19, 2019 — Steven Hayward
• Impeachment seems not to be impressing the stock market very much. The Dow is up around 80 – 100 points, again reaching new record territory. • Speaking of which, if the House Democrats don’t transmit their articles of impeachment to the Senate, or delay it for weeks (as is being reported today), it is going to make the whole thing appear to be even more a partisan political stunt
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December 19, 2019 — John Hinderaker
In western Massachusetts, a group of a dozen or so climate activists tried to stop a trainload of coal heading for a power plant in New Hampshire…by standing on the railroad tracks in front of the train. Evidently they thought the train could, and would, screech to a halt. This short video is dark and doesn’t show much, but it conveys some sense of why this was a poor idea:
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December 19, 2019 — Steven Hayward
You know how the climatistas are always saying we must “follow the science”? Let’s have a look at this call in the Financial Times to embrace nuclear power: Letter: EU must include nuclear power in its list of sustainable sources Nuclear power is the single biggest source of low carbon electricity in Europe today and is recognised in many of the scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the
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December 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
To some substantial extent, party politics is a team sport. It occasionally elicits and perhaps requires a tolerance for hypocrisy and double standards. The current impeachment farce presents a sort of case study insofar as some of the key performers persist, yet the song does not remain the same. To illustrate the point, the Free Beacon’s David Rutz has compiled SuperCUTS #728 (video below) and written the accompanying story. The
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December 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In a comic postscript to yesterday’s farce, Nancy Pelosi is threatening to withhold delivery of the House Democrats’ two impeachment articles to the Senate. Politico’s Kyle Cheney et al. have the story here. As of this morning, it is the top story at Politico. By withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate, Pelosi hopes to extract the terms of a trial procedure that she deems favorable to the Democrats.
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December 18, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I am tempted to say that the Democrats’ pre-ordained, 100% partisan impeachment vote is the bottom story in today’s news. But that might be a slight overstatement, so I am grateful to my Power Line partners who have the patience to delve into something so boring and insignificant. While impeachment might not be at the very bottom, there were any number of more important news stories today, like this one:
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December 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
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. Legal scholars disagree as to whether impeachment requires
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December 18, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Happy Impeachment Day everyone! As I settle down to my early evening cocktail out here on the left coast, the House is voting on the two impeachment resolutions, and there isn’t much doubt or drama about how it will turn out. Simultaneously Trump is speaking at a rally in Michigan, and mocking the impeachment vote in a lighthearted way. A few observations: I was living in Washington during the whole
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December 18, 2019 — John Hinderaker
At St. Olaf College in Minnesota, a set of dorm rooms occupied by a group of mostly-conservative students was raided on Sunday by Public Safety officers in search of firearms. The College Fix reports: Several conservative students at St. Olaf College had their lives turned upside down Sunday after a false report that alleged that they had guns and ammunition in their dorm prompted campus public safety officers to enter
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