Elise Stefanik Stood Out on Day One of the Impeachment Hearings

National Review
The New York congresswoman was clearly the strongest Republican questioner of the day.

"Representative Elise Stefanik of New York earned high marks for her questioning of U.S. diplomats on Wednesday, the first day of public impeachment hearings.

"Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake called Stefanik’s questioning “very impressive.” Fox News anchor Bret Baier agreed, as did former Obama administration official Michael McFaul and CNBC’s John Harwood. “None of them has much to work with, but Elise Stefanik is most effective GOP questioner by a wide margin,” Harwood tweeted.

"Stefanik opened her remarks by making two simple points: “Number one, Ukraine received the aid,” and “number two, there was in fact no investigation into Biden.” It was a concise, coherent “no harm, no foul” defense stronger than other arguments Trump’s allies have made, even if Democrats responded by pointing out that attempted murder and attempted robbery are still crimes. Then Stefanik emerged as the committee’s most effective anti-impeachment messenger in questioning U.S. diplomat George Kent about corruption at Burisma, the gas company that paid Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, $50,000 a month to sit on its board." . . .

Media criticizes Elise Stefanik during hearing after praising Warren's 'Nevertheless, she persisted' moment " 'This is the fifth time you have interrupted a duly-elected member of Congress," Stefanik told Schiff, who repeatedly told her she was "not recognized" to speak. 
"But as the sole GOP congresswoman on the committee continued to speak, Schiff slammed down the gavel: "The gentlewoman will suspend.' " . . .

Republican Rep. Stefanik Finally Allowed To Question Yovanovitch, And It’s Highly Effective "Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik was finally able to get her questioning in of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch on Friday afternoon, after being repeatedly shut down from speaking by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
"The effective questioning from Ms. Stefanik acted to underscore the fact that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, to emphasize the Biden family’s shady business dealings within Ukraine, and finally, to highlight President Donald Trump’s support of Ukraine, particularly in relation to the lack of support provided under the Obama administration.
“Stefanik asked Yovanovitch to confirm that she believes she ‘serves at the pleasure of the president’ and that she is still an employee of the State Department on leave as a fellow at Georgetown. Yovanovitch did,” The Washington Post outlined." . . .

Ian Macfarlane

Colbert Writer Who Said ‘I’m Just Glad We Ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s Life’ Promoted to ‘Late Show’ Head Writer

KTRH  740AM

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor

. . . “ 'Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life,” (Ariel) Dumas said in a now deleted tweet, amid a contentious Supreme Court confirmation process that saw Kavanaugh face unsubstantiated accusations of sexual misconduct, most notably, from Christine Blasey Ford.

“ 'The last couple of weeks have been hard for the country and for me personally,” Ariel Dumas said a day after her initial screed. “The complexity of frustration, anger and sadness can’t be accurately conveyed on twitter, and I regret my tone-deaf attempt at sarcasm in the wake of it.”

"I am thrilled that someone as funny and dedicated as Ariel will be my new head writer,” said Stephen Colbert of Dumas, who was also a joke writer on The Colbert Report at Comedy Central.

"The one-liners Dumas and her colleagues create often see Stephen Colbert smearing President Donald Trump, which has resulted in ratings success for the late-night host. In a particularly vulgar monologue last July, Colbert called President Trump a “racist, horny old burger-goblin who literally steals children from poor people.” A year earlier, the CBS show displayed an image of White House adviser Stephen Miller with his head on a spike.

"This week, Colbert celebrated the partisan impeachment inquiry against President Trump, saying this week’s House impeachment hearings marked “what we’ve been praying for since the beginning of the Trump presidency: the end of the Trump presidency.' ”

Ann Coulter: How to Get into Harvard Without Good S.A.T. Scores!

 After decades of recounting her sufferings since the robbery that left Brown dead, Kathy was told that Brown’s son still attended the memorial service held for his father and Sgt. O’Grady at 4 p.m. every Oct. 20. “Really?” Kathy said. “I never knew the guy had a son.”  According to our betters, that’s an “idealist.”

Breitbart  "If you’re looking for a shortcut to get your kid into a prestigious college, but your little one doesn’t have high enough cheekbones to claim to be an Indian, consider the petal-strewn path of the newly elected San Francisco district attorney, Chesa Boudin.

"Chesa’s sparkling credentials are: He is the son of celebrated cop-killers Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert!  That was enough to win him admission to Yale, Oxford, and Yale Law School.

"His mother consciously parlayed her way to success by becoming a violent revolutionary after realizing that she wasn’t going to set the world on fire with her SAT and LSAT scores.

"Poor Kathy couldn’t get into Oberlin — and then she couldn’t get into Yale Law. She was terrified of “losing her place” as her father Leonard Boudin’s “most cherished offspring,” as Susan Braudy put it in her book, Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left. (All this is covered in lascivious detail in my book, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.)

"By contrast, Kathy’s brother, Michael — the Republican — had nearly perfect board scores, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, went on to Harvard Law School, worked for a white-shoe law firm, then took a top position in the Reagan administration. Today, he is a federal appeals court judge, appointed by the first President Bush.

"The only thing Kathy could do to impress her father — and our nation’s elite institutions — was to become a domestic terrorist." . . .

Boudin was named Chesa by his parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, to honor convicted murderer Joanne Chesimard. She led the Black Liberation Army when it was a cop-hunting group that assassinated at least six police officers in the early 1970s. Now renamed Assata Shakur, she escaped from prison in 1979 and lives in Cuba, which refuses to extradite her. Kathy Boudin assisted in the armed robbery that funded Chesimard’s jail break.

Convicted killer Kathy Boudin accorded celebrity treatment at NYU Law School
Kathy Boudin in police custody after 1981 killings of guard and two cops  during Rockland County Brinks robbery.

The Lonely, Delusional World of Feminist Literature

"Why are women, who have the whole male world at their mercy, not funny?" Christopher Hitchens once famously asked.  Hitchens was not around to the see a day when morbidly obese women would hold signs that read, "No, you make me a sandwich."  Hitchens could never have imagined how unintentionally hilarious an entire women's movement could become. 

Elise Ehrhard  A few years ago, as the country entered into all-out post-election warfare, I decided to distract myself with non-political interests.  I loved literature and longed to encounter wonderful writers exploring the complex terrain of love, life, and art.  Instead, as I perused literary magazines online, I fell down another rabbit hole: the gender politics–obsessed world of mostly female MFA graduates who edit and publish on these sites. 

"Their essays are so bad that they are good.  The writings emanate from young women inspired by a movement sporting vagina-shaped hats and vulva costumes.  The authors themselves often sound lonely, miserable, and endlessly fixated on unhealed childhood wounds.  But no worries: They have a scapegoat.  Trump and the patriarchy are all to blame.  

"Here is a sampling of a classic tour-de-force by a creative writing professor from a liberal university.  A year after Trump's inauguration, she moaned about how even left-wing men could not take her or her friends anymore: 

" 'To a certain extent," she writes, "we expected it from the men who wear lobster-printed pants, the men from Connecticut, the Young Republicans of America with their gelled and parted hair, their summers in Nantucket, their LL Bean slippers worn on the porches of fraternities, 2pm on a Monday.  But when my friend pulls me aside in a hotel bar and tells me it's happening to her husband — a man who donates annually to NPR and voted twice for Barack Obama, who has a degree in Art History and works for a non-profit — neither one of us knows what to say." 

"When she and her friends all went nuts post-Trump, her boyfriend dumped her.  "All of you women with your labia hats, he said.  All of you with your clitoris signs."  This feminist writer concludes that the problem is the men.  She never wonders if her sisterhood has become insufferable.  She never asks how she would feel if her boyfriend walked around in public wearing a giant penis costume and then berated his beloved for being an insufficient ally. But modern feminists lack the self-awareness to see the comedy of their actions." . . . 

Today's charges: The Schiff Show Shifts Shamelessly

https://www.americanthinker.com/cartoons/

Hilarious takedown of Dems’ shifting accusations… ‘collusion’ to ‘quid pro quo’ to ‘extortion’ to ‘bribery’ "The Trump campaign rapid response team is on its toes. They just emailed a hilarious response to the start of hearings today:

"High Crimes (and Focus Groups!)

"Impeachment “is about patriotism. It’s not about politics,” a very sad and somber Nancy Pelosi insisted again yesterday. “It’s not about anything political. It’s about patriotism.”

"Actually, it’s about polling.

"The Washington Post reports today that “Democrats have stopped using the term ‘quid pro quo,’ instead describing ‘bribery’ as a more direct summation of Trump’s alleged conduct.” Why?

“The shift came after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee conducted focus groups in key House battlegrounds in recent weeks, testing messages related to impeachment. Among the questions put to participants was whether ‘quid pro quo,’ ‘extortion’ or ‘bribery’ was a more compelling description of Trump’s conduct. According to two people familiar with the results, which circulated among Democrats this week, the focus groups found ‘bribery’ to be most damning.”

"Got that? The impeachment of the President will be determined by testing various accusations on focus groups in key House battlegrounds. (Just as our nation’s Founders intended!)

"Democrats aren’t “following the facts”—they’re using polls to figure out what crimes to accuse the President of. What a joke.

- Matt Wolking, Deputy Communications Director - Rapid Response

The Seven Deadly Sins of California’s Political Establishment

American Greatness
In a world where truth, justice, and the American Way still exist—an America that still believes in some sort of ultimate accountability—what the Golden State’s elites are doing is literally sinful.

"California’s politicians are hardly alone in their quest to destroy America’s rights, freedoms, prosperity, culture, traditions, and pride. They just happen to be more advanced in their quest. But since what happens in California often ends up happening later in the rest of the country, it’s vital to highlight just how bad it’s gotten in the Golden State.
"Just as a theologian might argue there are more than seven deadly sins fatal to spiritual progress, there are more than seven policy areas where California’s political leadership has fatally undermined the aspirations of ordinary Californians. But in the interests of brevity and clarity, here are what might be the most damning seven deadly sins of California’s political establishment.

Law and Order: Californians have prided themselves on being trendsetters in human rights, but the pendulum has swung too far. Thanks to Proposition 47, the “Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative” which voters approved in 2014, it is nearly impossible to arrest and hold anyone for possession of hard drugs, so long as they claim the drugs are for personal use. Prop. 47 also downgraded the punishment for property crimes if the value of the stolen goods are under $950 per offense." . . .
The writer then discusses these issues: Environment,  Energy and Water, Transportation, Housing, Education
"In a world where truth, justice, and the American Way still exist, an America that believes in God, or at least believes in good, evil, and some sort of ultimate accountability, what California’s elites are doing is literally sinful. Their path to redemption is simple:
"Enforce common sense drug laws and punish thieves. Quit using environmentalism as a punitive religious faith and start logging the forests, building roads, drilling for oil and gas, and approving nuclear power plants instead of shutting them down. Stop extorting more money in permitting costs than it costs to construct homes, and start building them again on open land. Get vagrants off the streets, build cost-effective shelter for the truly needy, and put the mentally ill back into institutions. Fire incompetent teachers and hold our students to immutable, objective academic standards instead of filling their heads with divisive nonsense."

To sum up: "Americans would do well to look to California today, and whatever they’re doing, do the opposite."

Kellyanne Conway Is Having None of Wolf Blitzer’s Catty Commentary

The CNN pattern has always been to take a once-proud profession and once-dedicated journalists and turn them into far less than they should aspire to. TD

RedState  "Kellyanne Conway was on CNN this morning with Wolf Blitzer. At the end of the interview, Columbo Blitzer noted he had one last question:

“It’s a political question, it’s a substantive question and I don’t want to talk about your marriage because I know that there are issues there….”

"Kellyanne — never one to mince her words — stopped him in his tracks.

“What did you just say? Did you just say there are issues there? You don’t want to talk about… why did you say that?”

 "I don’t know if it qualifies as “sexist,” but it’s certainly condescending, catty, and unprofessional.

"During the ensuing back-and-forth, Blitzer tried to justify the question’s relevance, while carefully side-stepping Conway’s pointed question regarding his offhanded reference to “issues” in the marriage. Conway slyly parried with references to CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin’s analysis and continued to hammer Blitzer on the need to bring her husband into the equation.

“But you wanted to put it in my husband’s voice, because you think somehow that it will help your ratings or that you’re really sticking it to Kellyanne Conway. Let me be very clear, you didn’t stick it to Kellyanne Conway….I think you embarrassed yourself.”

"And for the coup de grâce:

“I’m embarrassed for you because this is CNN now. I looked up to you when I was in college and law school. I would turn on CNN to see what Wolf Blitzer had to say about war, famine, disruption abroad, I really respected you for all those years as somebody who would give us the news. Now the news is what somebody’s husband says on a different network.” . . .

The sound is bad no matter where the source for this video is from: 

Where does Schiff go from here?

Nancy Pelosi: They're afraid of the truth. They're afraid of competence, I'm so proud of the work of Chairman Adam Schiff.

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

The Schiff Has Hit the Fan, says Rush Limbaugh   . . . "Now, you would think that after the opening day of the impeachment of the president of the United States, which is so rare it practically never happens — it has happened once in our lifetimes, Bill Clinton. Nixon was not impeached — you would think that after three years of all of the alleged crimes that Donald Trump has committed, all the alleged scams, the collusion with the Russians to steal the election in 2016, all of this that we have been subjected to daily, seven days a week, 31 days a month, 365 days a year for three years and counting, you would think that after the first day of impeachment hearings that there would be overwhelming, shocking oh, my God, what’s happened to our country news.

"Ladies and gentlemen, they don’t have anything. I’m trying to be very reasoned here and very serious. This is a Schiff show, and Pelosi is committed to it. And I am telling you right now that if she could find a way out of this, she would. They don’t have anything. They didn’t have anything to start with. They never had collusion with Russia. They never had any of the things they told us that Donald Trump did.

"After the first day we had two witnesses and neither of the two witnesses at any time in their lives have ever had direct contact with the president of the United States. They are the star witnesses. They were the witnesses that were going to create the inertia that would lead to the public clamoring for the removal of Donald Trump.

"There is no clamoring today for the removal of Donald Trump. The media doesn’t even have anything to make a bombshell out of. There literally was nothing yesterday. And I’m telling you that Schiff and Pelosi know exactly how bad this show is playing.  . . ."

Impeachment hearings! Is that all they've got?  . . . "Trump gave Ukraine weapons to repel the Russians.  Taylor and Kent, the two Wednesday "witnesses" surely know this.  One of them admitted that Ukraine is in much better shape under Trump than it was under Obama!

"Still, Schiff insists Trump is guilty of something, anything.  He is like a drowning man grasping for a life raft.  There is no life raft for Schiff.  He has become a joke, and his own Democrat colleagues know it.  He is an embarrassment.  If she were wise, which she is not, Pelosi would shut this faux inquiry down now.  But wisdom is not her strong point."

The Schiff coup: Day one

J. Marsolo  "These facts cannot be disputed:

1. Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted and bragged on TV that he threatened to withhold one billion dollars in American foreign aid to Ukraine if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma.  Burisma was paying Hunter Biden, son of the Joe Biden, over $50,000 per month as a board member of Burisma.  There is no dirt to dig up.  Joe Biden admitted to the dirt.

2. The Obama-Biden administration did not supply military aid to Ukraine when Ukraine needed the aid against Russia. This was admitted by the acting ambassador to the Ukraine, William Taylor, in his testimony.Trump in December 2017 announced that the United States would send military aid to Ukraine that then–Ukraine president Poroshenko requested from the USA.  Obama and Biden had refused the sale of $47 million's worth of Javelin antitank missiles.

In May 2018, after Ukraine tested its new Javelin missiles, Poroshenko thanked Trump for supporting Ukraine and providing the Javelin antitank missile systems.

3. On July 25, 2019 President Trump asked Ukraine's President Zelensky to investigate Ukraine's involvement in the 2016 election.  There is evidence that Ukraine helped Hillary in the 2016 election and tried to sabotage the Trump election.

4. The transcript of the phone call was released by President Trump.  The transcript speaks for itself.  There is no mention of conditioning American aid on any investigation of Biden.

5. There was no investigation by Ukraine into the 2016 election or any investigation of Joe Biden.

6. Ukraine received the American military aid that is the subject of the "impeachment inquiry" on September 11, 2019, six weeks after the July 25, 2019 phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky.

7. The Democrats have refused to produce the so-called "whistleblower" to testify.

"The Democrats, led by Adam Schiff, AKA Shifty Schiff, believe that these facts are enough to constitute "bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" to impeach and remove President Trump." . . .

Warren Promises to Divide Jerusalem, Fund Terrorists

American Greatness

The hostility of the American Left to Israel goes back to Soviet policy during the Cold War years. This is one more blast from the past we could do without.

Photo added by TD

 "Democrat presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were the star speakers at the national conference of J Street, a woke anti-Israel (verging on anti-Semitic) group, which met last week in Washington, D.C. Our two socialist candidates, sharing the podium with terrorists, are competing to see who can top the other in betraying our ally, Israel, and promoting Palestinian terrorism.

"Warren addressed the audience by a video, in which she promised to divide Jerusalem. “Both parties should be able to have their capitals in Jerusalem,” she declared. 
"For Warren to promise that as president she would carve out part of Israel’s capital city and hand it over to Israel’s mortal enemies is an ugly and dangerous plan. It wouldn’t be within her power or legal authority in any event. 
"But bullying Israel plays well with her woke audience, stewed in campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda for decades. It suits Warren’s Marxist anti-colonial voters to believe that as Caucasians, Israelis have no rights to their indigenous homeland, nor to its Jewish capital founded long before Christianity and Islam were born.
"Warren should know that dividing Jerusalem is terrible for American interests. She would create a terrorist enclave in the heart of Israel’s capital and destabilize our strongest ally in the fragile Middle East." . . .

Devin Nunes blows the Democrats' impeachment case out of the water

Andrew Thomas blogs at Dark Angel Politics

Monica Showalter    "If there's anything good about the Democrats' impeachment hearings, it can be summed up in two words: Devin Nunes.

The ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee made one hell of a brilliant speech in defense of President Trump, great from every possible way of looking at it.

"It was powerful, simple, straightforward, and substantial in content.  It was concise and tremendously well organized.  It was given with stunning delivery.  Nunes laid out the hardest and strongest points of defense, exposing the outrageous motives of the Democrats, the leaking and rigging, the bad faith all around, revealing a deep understanding of the political dynamic driving the spectacle.

"He began by bringing out the origins of the impeachment, coming as it did from the Russia hoax, which has since morphed into the "low rent" sequel of the Democrats' "theatrical" performance. 

He spoke of the extremely bad faith shown by the Democrats in their early secret depositions in the dank Capitol Hill basement, something Nunes said was done in "a cult-like atmosphere," which is creepier than previously reported, but he was actually there for it and saw it firsthand.  He spoke of the selective leaks that followed from it and the public hearings that followed, indicating that the whole thing was an "audition" for what we have now.  He blasted the Democrats for colluding with both the Russians and Ukrainians in the run-up to this, and then having the nerve to accuse the same of Trump himself.  He pointed out the three things Republicans still needed to know — whom the whistleblower spoke to before he made his complaint and whom else he colluded with, what Ukraine was doing to interfere in U.S. elections — a rich, unreported topic he must know something about, and what Hunter Biden's dealings with the corrupt Ukrainian energy company really amounted to and how they shaped U.S. policy to this day.  Nunes wrapped up by describing the damage done to public trust in democracy by this long list of Democrat and Deep State machinations.  It was all extremely powerful.

"Far from being conspiracy theories, as some of the press have dismissed (they don't even deserve links), this was hard facts laid out strong and straightforward, a devastating takedown of the entire Democrat argument, in all of nine minutes.

"It's one of the great speeches given on the House floor.  The Democrats are left without a leg to stand on now.  Here's the video to see for yourself:

"If there's anything good about the Democrats' impeachment hearings, it can be summed up in two words: Devin Nunes.

"The ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee made one hell of a brilliant speech in defense of President Trump, great from every possible way of looking at it.

"It was powerful, simple, straightforward, and substantial in content.  It was concise and tremendously well organized.  It was given with stunning delivery.  Nunes laid out the hardest and strongest points of defense, exposing the outrageous motives of the Democrats, the leaking and rigging, the bad faith all around, revealing a deep understanding of the political dynamic driving the spectacle.

He began by bringing out the origins of the impeachment, coming as it did from the Russia hoax, which has since morphed into the "low rent" sequel of the Democrats' "theatrical" performance. 

"He spoke of the extremely bad faith shown by the Democrats in their early secret depositions in the dank Capitol Hill basement, something Nunes said was done in "a cult-like atmosphere," which is creepier than previously reported, but he was actually there for it and saw it firsthand.  He spoke of the selective leaks that followed from it and the public hearings that followed, indicating that the whole thing was an "audition" for what we have now.  He blasted the Democrats for colluding with both the Russians and Ukrainians in the run-up to this, and then having the nerve to accuse the same of Trump himself.  He pointed out the three things Republicans still needed to know — whom the whistleblower spoke to before he made his complaint and whom else he colluded with, what Ukraine was doing to interfere in U.S. elections — a rich, unreported topic he must know something about, and what Hunter Biden's dealings with the corrupt Ukrainian energy company really amounted to and how they shaped U.S. policy to this day.  Nunes wrapped up by describing the damage done to public trust in democracy by this long list of Democrat and Deep State machinations.  It was all extremely powerful.

"Far from being conspiracy theories, as some of the press have dismissed (they don't even deserve links), this was hard facts laid out strong and straightforward, a devastating takedown of the entire Democrat argument, in all of nine minutes.

"It's one of the great speeches given on the House floor.  The Democrats are left without a leg to stand on now.  Here's the video to see for yourself:" . . .

What Happened to California Republicans?

Victor Davis Hanson
After three decades of radical progressivism, California residents are tiring of one-party straitjacket rule.

"From 1967 to 2019, Republicans controlled the California governorship for 31 of 52 years. So why is there currently not a single statewide Republican officeholder? California also has a Democratic governor and Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. Only seven of California’s 53 congressional seats are held by Republicans.
"In 1994, then-governor Pete Wilson backed Proposition 187, which denied state social services to undocumented immigrants. The spin goes that it backfired and alienated the Hispanic community, and thus marked the road to Republican perdition.
"Not quite.
"Prop 187 passed with 59 percent support. Wilson’s endorsement of the bill helped its passage, and his support of it aided his landslide 1994 reelection. Among minority voters, 52 percent of Asian and African-American voters supported Proposition 187. Some 27 percent of Latinos voted for it.
"Liberal groups immediately sued in federal court. Just three days after the measure passed, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing Proposition 187 from going into effect. A month later, U.S. district judge Mariana Pfaelzer issued a permanent injunction. Prop 187 never became law."
. . . 

"Will there ever again be a viable California Republican party?
"After three decades of radical progressivism, California residents are tiring of one-party straitjacket rule. The hard-liberal order normalized massive power blackouts, the nation’s highest array of taxes, the forest mismanagement that fuels deadly fires, an epidemic of homelessness in major cities, eroding schools, ossified infrastructure, and soaring energy costs." . . .