In the Franken Scandal, Be Careful What You Wish For

Peter Barry Chowka . . . Thomas Lifson had a summary of his similar concerns about the Franken story and what it might lead to, in the November 17 American Thinker, “Al Franken’s career is collateral damage for the Dems on the way to getting Trump:”

That sinking feeling Al Franken is experiencing is the realization that his career is now a pawn in the fanatical efforts of Democrats to get President Trump out of office. . . The logical steps for getting Trump are clear.

Step one: Establish that sexual harassment before taking office is sufficient grounds to remove someone from office. This is the necessary predicate. Franken’s departure from office will establish the purported sincerity of the Democrats in establishing this brand-new principle. . .

Step two: Apply this doctrine to Roy Moore if he should win the Senate seat for which he is running. If he loses, triumphantly announce that even the reddest of red states agrees that previous misbehavior is dispositive in removing an incumbent.

Step three: Throw Bill Clinton under the bus. . . .

Step four: As the hysteria mounts, following the blood sacrifices, demand that President Trump be impeached for actions before he took office. Failing that, tell voters that by hanging onto office, he is disgracing the nation and telling little boys to grope their little girl classmates in first grade.

. . . 

Hillary Clinton Says Bill Wouldn't Have Survived 1992 If Fox News Had Been Around

Townhall

"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared with her husband President Bill Clinton on Saturday evening, and made some surprising admissions regarding the news media, specifically Fox News.

"The political duo appeared together on stage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bill’s 1992 presidential election victory over incumbent George H.W. Bush.

"As reported by the Daily Caller, Hillary had harsh criticisms of conservative media outlets.

“Unfortunately our body politic’s immune system has been impaired because there has been a concerted effort starting with the creation of the Fox network — it wasn’t there when Bill first ran, it was one of the reasons he probably survived, it was there when he ran the second time — it and all of its associated media outlets who are by no means delivering news. They are delivering partisan advocacy positions irrespective of the truth, the facts, the evidence,” Clinton said. (Emphasis Added) . . .

 

The NY Times comments on "The Hillary Effect".  Good luck reading it.

Emergency! Soros, Pelosi handing out new Resistance playbooks in Calif.

Canada Free Press

Michelle Malkin  **Written by Doug Powers

Is there a certain billionaire Dem Party puppet master out there who isn’t happy with his return on investment in recent years? It sounds like updated “Resistance” playbooks are being handed out in California this weekend:

Liberal billionaire George Soros and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were listed as the main attractions Friday at a California gathering of the anti-Trump elite.

The four-day event in Carlsbad, titled “Beyond #Resistance: Reclaiming our Progressive Future,” asked that guests refrain from contacting the media or posting to social media, the agenda shows.

Other speakers appearing in person or via video were expected to include U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-Minn.; and Democrats Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and governor-elect Ralph Northam of Virginia.

Special guest speakers were listed as CNN contributor Van Jones and Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden.

The conference, which began Wednesday and runs through Saturday at La Costa Resort, was organized by the Democracy Alliance, a network of liberal donors

"The Washington Free Beacon obtained the conference agenda (at least one progressive conference attendee possesses sensitive party material about as responsibly as Hillary Clinton handled classified emails):" . . .

Trump Brought Back A Great Deal From China, But No One’s Talking About It; Too Favorable To Trump And Must Not Be Seen

President Trump represents this nation well, unlike feckless Democrats. Maxine Waters herself could not have done better.

Weasel Zippers

Glen Dale, W. Va. — Bad news travels fast. Good news, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to travel at all.

Last weekend in Beijing, as part of his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump announced that the US and China had signed an $83.7 billion deal to create a number of petrochemical projects in West Virginia over the next 20 years.

If the agreement holds tight, it is an economic game changer for the state.

And yet, speaking to the locals here, you wouldn’t even know it had happened.

“I am surprised I heard nothing about it on the national news, nor in my local paper and newscasts,” said Jerald Stephens, 67, a West Virginia native and union rep, who has been a keen observer of local politics for as long as he can remember.

The BBC and CNN covered the news in their business sections, while The New York Times picked up a short story by The Associated Press on the deal. The stories’ headlines were muted; their placement low-key.

Keep reading…

Stunning evidence of the power of the MSM to kill news favorable to Trump

. . . "As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to “make deals” that would benefit America. He is precisely delivering on this promise. In addition to the project in West Virginia, deals amounting to a quarter trillion dollars were announced in the wake of the visit to China.

"[media crickets]

"In addition, the deal reveals that President Trump has gotten the Chinese to consider becoming dependent on America for important energy supplies. That makes them far less likely to be antagonistic toward us, and addresses the chronic huge balance of payemnts deficit we suffer with China, keeping two more promises: to keep us safe and to keep us from digging that trade deficit hole deper.

"But this is news too helpful to Trump to be reported."  Thomas Lifson

Obama's 'unaccompanied children' turn up big in latest MS13 gang sweep

Monica Showalter   . . . "The "unaccompanied minors" who were encouraged and let into the country by Obama back in 2014 and up until his last day in office are worth a look, because Democrats did so much to browbeat Republicans and neighborhood groups who tried to stop it. such as the multiracial (this fact was never noted) people of Murrieta, Calif., who protested the dumping of these 'unaccompanied minors' in their community, unwilling to turn their small city of 100,000 into 'another Pomona' as one told me.

Here's what got the press narrative on CNN:

"It is deplorable that people espousing anti-immigrant hate language created unnecessary tension and fear for immigrant mothers and their children," Pedro Rios, a community representative of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, said in a statement. "Even more concerning is that elected officials in the City of Murrieta instigated this tension. Mothers and their children on these buses have suffered through enough trauma."

"Here are the kinds of pictures that got printed:

"Here's what came along with them as they were all lumped in one big group we owed our 'compassion' and 'justice' to:

Full article 

Obama wanted these guys to get to know you better:

Obama’s ‘Fair Housing’ executive order to force ‘diversity’ in neighborhoods across the US  " . . . President Barack Obama is pressing forward with new Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations that will withhold block grants to communities if they don’t build enough “affordable housing in wealthy neighborhoods.” The executive order, known as the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act,” was issued by the president last year and will be used to promote racial quotas in white suburban neighborhoods. It will also force thousands of communities to house the nation’s burgeoning population of new immigrants." . . . From 2015

Poor Kathy Griffin!

American Spectator

She exposes the ‘conspiracy’ to damage her career

 "When last we saw her, Donald Trump had broken her after she held up a prop that looked like Trump’s decapitated head. It was just a misunderstood publicity stunt that everyone blew out of proportion. Poor Ms. Griffin had to apologize for it, but a lot of mean people wouldn’t forgive her and her wonderful career took a nosedive. Perhaps that is why Griffin is now taking back her apology.

"Now it turns out that there was a conspiracy to derail Griffin’s career. And who is exposing this conspiracy? Why, the brave little girl herself:" . . .

The Perpetual Outrage Machine

American Greatness

"The media’s 10-month panic attack triggered by Donald Trump’s inauguration shows no signs of abating. Every news cycle is filled with breathless reports of yet another “scandal” that could lead to Trump’s removal from office.

"News of a federal grand jury’s indictments of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate, Richard W. Gates, is yet another hook upon which the media have hung their hopes for impeachment. But it is to no avail.

The 12 counts against Manafort and Gates have nothing to do with Trump’s campaign. Instead, they involve a money-laundering scheme and a conspiracy to conceal $75 million that Manafort and Gates received when they worked as unregistered foreign agents of Ukraine from 2006-2014. This is just one more nothing burger. Yet the media’s crusade continues.

"Then came the story the wait staff of the Democratic Party thought they had been waiting for. News broke that George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old Trump campaign volunteer, was arrested by the FBI in July and has been cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigative team ever since. But Papadopoulos was a low-level, unpaid foreign policy advisor to the campaign, and though he met in London with an intermediary who promised information from the Russian government, nothing ever came of it.

"The FBI’s Statement of Offense notes that Papadopoulos emailed Trump campaign officials about having a higher up or even Trump himself meet with his contact overseas. A campaign official wrote in an email conversation that “DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” The trip, however, “did not take place.” And as Paul Mirengoff of Power Line writes, Papadopoulos “pleaded guilty to making false statements, not to trying to arrange a meeting with Russian government officials. The latter is not, to my knowledge, a crime.”

"Quite simply, getting dirt on Hillary Clinton—even from foreign sources—is not a violation of federal law, whatever the DNC and its epigones in the press contend. Instead, it’s the Clinton campaign and the DNC that look to have broken the law with their machinations with Fusion GPS. The available evidence, or lack thereof, so far suggests that the entire Trump-Russia collusion “scandal” is a complete fabrication by individuals who seem to have projected on Trump and his team their own inclinations to countenanceunethical actions." . . .

The 11 Nations Of The United States

Zero Hedge

"In his fourth book, “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America,” award-winning author Colin Woodard identifies 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US."

. . . 

"Woodard says that among these 11 nations, Yankeedom and the Deep South exert the most influence and are constantly competing with each other for the hearts and minds of the other nations.

“We are trapped in brinkmanship because there is not a lot of wiggle room between Yankee and Southern Culture,” Woodard says.

“Those two nations would never see eye to eye on anything besides an external threat.”

"Woodard also believes the nation is likely to become more polarized, even though America is becoming a more diverse place every day.

"He says this is because people are “self-sorting.”

“ 'People choose to move to places where they identify with  the values,”  Woodard says. “Red minorities go south and blue minorities go north to be in the majority. This is why blue states are getting bluer and red states are getting redder and the middle is getting smaller.' ”

I do not see that as happening in Texas, which is becoming more liberal, that is, blue (a color arrangement I cannot abide).

 So who chose those two colors anyway? Red has been the major color of communist flags and when attached to the State Department, we dared not have any clothing or accessories that were red. Where can you find Soviet flags and Che T-shirts being exhibited? At Democrat gatherings, the "blue" party!

This song is for you, Kaepernick

Weasel Zippers

I did not edit the language in order that I don't change this song into what it is not

"Well played."  "Via Washington Examiner:

Country music singer Neal McCoy takes a jab at former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others who protested the national anthem by taking a knee in his newest single he debuted last week.

The song, “Take a Knee, My Ass (I Won’t Take a Knee),” was performed in front of a small audience on Oct. 8th and shared online as a Facebook Live video, which has since gone viral.

“When I see someone on TV take their stand by bending their knee, whether it be on astro turf or grass,” the lyrics say. “I think of those whose freedom was not free, and I say: ‘Take a knee – my ass!’”

The song, which McCoy notes was written by a friend of his, cites the armed forces as a reason why he proudly stands for the national anthem.

“I’ve been on 15 USO tours,” McCoy explained to reporters. “I’ve entertained our troops in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the world.”

Keep reading…

It Did Happen Here—How Fascism Came to America

Ken Masugi

. . . "What Leftists today don’t see in It Can’t Happened Here is that fascism has come to America through the Progressives, in particular the Democratic Party. Jonah Goldberg wrote a daring book making this argument, Liberal Fascism, which astutely describes the fascistic elements of Progressivism. Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural is replete with examples: his comparison of himself with Jesus, his call for moving populations from city to country, and the disturbing military allusions, with citizens to obey as privates in an army with FDR as the commander-in-chief.

"What befell ethnic Japanese during World War II could happen to any group, without the excuse of wartime exigency. Such Progressive arrogance also shines through in campaign references to “experimentation” and to the era of enlightened administration." . . .

. . . "Fascist visions and military coups have ever been the fantasy of the Progressive Left. It is no surprise that Leftists denounce others for spoiling their dreams."

Ken Masugi, PhD, has been a speechwriter for two Cabinet members and for Clarence Thomas, when he was Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He is co-author, editor, or co-editor of seven books on American politics. He has taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he was Olin Distinguished Visiting Professor; James Madison College of Michigan State University; the Ashbrook Center of Ashland University; and Princeton University.

For instance:  SJWs Protesting 'Nazi' Ben Shapiro's Speech Are Confronted By Reporter. They're Totally Clueless.

What’s the real story behind Hillary Clinton, Russia, and uranium?

CS Monitor   "President Trump calls it the “real Russia story”: allegations that as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the sale of 20 percent of US uranium supplies to Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear company.

"The sale was greased by $145 million in contributions to the Clinton Foundation from Canadian executives who benefited from the sale, according to these allegations.

"Prosecutors at the Justice Department are now reportedly considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the transaction. Here is a look at some of the details of the case.

. . . 

"The Clinton Foundation received $145 million in pledges and donations from original investors in Uranium One, prior to its sale to Rosatom. Furthermore, these donations were not disclosed at the time they were made, according to a 2015 story in the New York Times. (The Times story was based in part on research by Peter Schweizer, a former fellow at a conservative think tank and author of the controversial 2015 book “Clinton Cash.”)

"Former President Bill Clinton also received $500,000 for speaking at a Moscow conference organized by a Russian investment bank after the Rosatom-Uranium One deal was announced, but before it passed muster with the US Committee on Foreign Investments, according to the Times story.ost of the $145 million in Clinton Foundation donations came from one person, a major Uranium One investor named Frank Giustra. Mr. Giustra has said that he sold all his shares in Uranium One about 1-1/2 years before Mrs. Clinton became secretary of State – and three years before Rosatom and its Russian cash came calling." . . .

Run, Joe, Run

The American Spectator

Biden sees an America waiting with bated breath for him to challenge Trump.

"Convinced of his own wonderfulness, Joe Biden trots around the talk shows as if on a perpetual victory lap. What has he won? Who knows? It speaks to the embarrassing emptiness of liberal culture that such a buffoon is accorded the status of a victorious statesman. Encouraged in this delusion, Biden allows himself such modest musings as: “I have regret that I am not president. Because I think there’s so much opportunity. I think America is incredibly well-positioned.”

"Still the blarney-ridden, puffed-chest phony with hair plugs of his empty senatorial days, Biden finds Trump very threatening to his manhood and likes to shadow-box him in the company of such tough questioners as Stephen Colbert. On the campaign trail last year, Biden said that he didn’t want to debate Trump but to beat him up: “I wish I were in high school, I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish.”

"Hey, that is not very presidential. No matter; talk show hosts find Biden’s juvenile bragging impressive and treat him like he is Churchill in retirement for the great accomplishment of having served as the gaffe-ridden veep to a disastrous 

president. Crowds roar as he passes off the most feeble platitudes as profundities. The New York Times declares his new memoir “impressive” high literature in a fawning interview, adorned with a photo of a seated Biden looking sage.

"One might have thought, given his creepy, handsy penchant for sidling up to women, young and old, and whispering in their ears, a feminist talk show host or two would give him a hard time. But they don’t. The Oprahs and Ellens treat him as impeccably avuncular. He is one of the good guys! No need to put his past under a microscope! Never mind the pictures of him cuddling up to female bikers 

(as other bikers glare at him angrily) and draping himself, Jimmy Savile-like, over the wives and children of senators and cabinet officials. In a nod to the tradition of immunity-through-politics, Biden proudly announced recently that he has teamed up with Lady Gaga to fight the scourge of male misbehavior. “Give me a break,” he says to his generation’s Don Drapers." . . .

Cartoons added by TD