Don’t Count On Romney

The American Conservative

In order to take a principled stand, it helps if the politician in question has principles. Romney doesn’t, and it is strange that so many journalists and columnists keep pretending otherwise. Romney was in so many respects Trump’s forerunner as the shameless panderer and political contortionist who told Republican voters whatever they wanted to hear in order to get their support. Romney does not “speak for principle” because he has no principles to speak of.

"David Ignatius must be kidding:

Who might deliver us from this national train wreck? Who could restore a sense of balance to the Senate trial so that, whatever its outcome, it doesn’t feed Trump’s false narrative of victimization and populist rage? There’s one obvious answer: Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and custodian of what remains of his party’s moral and political balance.

"Counting on Mitt Romney for political courage and moral leadership is always a bad bet. Romney has a very safe seat in Utah, so in theory he could afford to take risks, but taking political risks is exactly what Romney never does. He is a consummate opportunist, and he has spent the last decade and a half pandering to anyone and everyone to advance his political career. Romney is not the politician you’re looking for if you want someone who will take a principled stand on, well, anything. If he is the “custodian” of the GOP’s “moral and political balance,” they are truly lost.

"Ignatius continues:

History is knocking on Romney’s door. This is his moment to step away from a president who holds him in contempt and to speak for principle — by insisting that the Senate conduct an actual trial and weigh the House’s allegations that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress.

"It should tell us a lot about Romney that he has not done much of anything to “step away” from Trump before now. Despite a half-hearted op-ed that expressed his willingness to dissent from the administration’s line, he has been a reliable yes vote for the president’s agenda. Support the war on Yemen? Romney was all for it. Send more weapons to the Saudis and the UAE? Romney was on board. " . . .

"A well-oiled weather vane"

NYT: Impeachment rightfully gives losers tyranny over winners

Bookworm Room

At the NYT, hard Leftist Michelle Goldberg explains that impeachment offsets the tyranny of the Electoral College, giving losers their rightful victory.

. . . "Before I get to the opinion piece, though, do I need to remind you that presidential elections in America are governed by the Electoral College? Since I know that my readers have a high level of intelligence and knowledge, I almost certainly don’t need to offer that reminder. Nevertheless, I think it’s easier to understand how horrific the NYT opinion piece is if you remind yourself about the constitutional background.
"If you want to read about it at the source, the Electoral College is right there in the Constitution, at Article II, Section 1, Clause. The whole point of the Electoral College is to ensure that America is not a direct democracy but is, in fact, a representative democracy, including representative votes for the president. The Founders deliberately put all sorts of layers between voters and their government.
"For starters, we don’t run the country on a giant town hall basis, which would be the most direct democracy of all, with every single action of the United States being put to all the voters. Instead, we elect representatives who carry out the will of the people who placed them in office." . . .

Free enterprise: Trump lets us choose our light bulbs

OK, NOW we have grounds to impeach this guy!

Trump Admin to End War on Incandescent Light Bulbs

 . . ."Trump Administration Blocks Energy Efficiency Rule for Light Bulbs

"In announcing the move, the secretary of energy, Dan Brouillette, who is a former auto lobbyist, said the administration had chosen “to protect consumer choice by ensuring that the American people do not pay the price for unnecessary overregulation from the federal government.” The new rule was unnecessary, he said, because innovation and technology are already “increasing the efficiency and affordability of light bulbs without federal government intervention.”

"The rule, which would have gone into effect on Jan. 1, was required under a law passed in 2007 during the administration of President George W. Bush.

"Noah Horowitz, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s center for energy efficiency standards, assailed the move, saying the administration had “just thumbed its nose at Congress, America’s families and businesses, and the environment.”…

"The light bulb rollback is part of a multipronged effort by the Trump administration to weaken a broad array of rules designed to fight climate change, many of which were passed under the Obama administration."

"Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette talked about the change on Twitter:

Innovation and technology are driving progress and increasing the efficiency and affordability of lightbulbs, without federal government intervention. The American people will continue to have a choice on how they light their home.

Trump rewriting the “Impeachment” script; , , , "the political dogfight of his life"

Legal Insurrection

"I do not believe the impeachment vote against President Donald Trump is going to harm him historically or politically. In fact, the move by the Democrats plays into a script Americans seem to love.

"Early in 2016, I predicted Trump was likely to win because he was an entertainer; therefore, he didn’t have to spend much time introducing himself to the American public. He could, instead, focus on his policies.

"But beyond that, I believe he prepared himself by presenting himself as the rebellious anti-hero type who upends the “norms,” overcomes huge obstacles, wins a significant victory for the country he loves, and gets the girl. Therefore, his “norm” is challenging “the norms.” . . .

. . . "The Iceman role in this analogy is clearly taken by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He gave a rebuke of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat caucus that was so chilling that the next Congress will be worried about global cooling.

"In the Trump campaign sequel, Pelosi may have given the Republican Party a national issue to tie all the congressional races together. As House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy notes, a new Congress can expunge the impeachment that just occurred." . . .

How to conduct a successful climate change strike

Thomas J. Piccone  "Recent efforts to organize a climate change "strike" have brought together countless thousands of young people, supposedly across 4,500 locations in 150 countries, to demand that action be taken to address climate change.  The total number of people involved has been estimated to be several million.  After all of the protesting, it has been admitted that the entire activity has accomplished essentially nothing.  There is a better way to conduct a climate change strike so that it is more successful, even if it does not produce the same level of media coverage.

The genuine way to conduct a climate strike is to do nothing.  This sounds like a surrender and an attitude of apathy.  However, what I mean is not that everyone simply continue their daily life and routine as though there were no problem to be faced.  That is never what is meant by a strike.  What I mean is that the way to conduct a serious climate strike is really to do absolutely nothing.  Let me give some details to help the climate change striker to have a measurable effect on reducing fossil fuel usage and the production of carbon dioxide during the strike, and also to have a real impact on the world.

"On the day(s) of the climate strike, it is best not to get out of bed at all.  Any physical activity by humans results in the emission of more carbon dioxide anyway, which is counterproductive.  It is best not to eat or drink anything, because large amounts of energy are used in the production of food and water, and these must be kept to a minimum.  In this case, zero is probably an unattainable goal, but it is necessary to aim low.

"Next, the climate change striker should not turn on any lights or use a phone or computer or television or any other electrical device or appliance." . . .

ACLU calls for tampons in men's rooms in order to achieve 'menstrual equity'

Fox News  "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling for men's restrooms to include tampons in order to prevent discrimination against "every person who menstruates."
" 'While free menstrual products are not uniformly provided in women’s restrooms, they are almost never available in men’s restrooms, even for pay," the group said in a statement Tuesday.
" 'Men’s restrooms are also less likely to have a place to dispose of these products conveniently, privately, and hygienically."
The left-leaning legal group argued that it wasn't a "full or accurate portrayal" to say that women are the only ones who "menstruate, get pregnant, or breast feed [sic]."

"ACLU CLAIMS 'MEN WHO GET PREGNANT AND GIVE BIRTH ARE MEN'

" 'Menstrual stigma and period poverty can hit trans and non-binary people particularly hard," the post read.
"The group linked to a legislative toolkit in which it advocated for regulation of menstrual products in public restrooms. The group also favors menstrual products in public shelters and schools.
" 'Menstrual equity is a basic equity issue," the report read. "Just as we have regulated the provision of toilet paper and paper towels in public restrooms, so too should we do the same for menstrual products.' " . . .
"This wasn't the first time the ACLU made a head-turning comment about gender. On "International Men's Day," the group declared that men could both get their periods and give birth." . . .

Yahoo

Do-Nothing Dems: Mitch McConnell Pushes 11 Federal Judge Nominees Amid Democrat Impeachment

Elections matter, both bad and good. The bad is these elected politicians laughing as their party tries to destroy a man and his family.

Analyzing America  "Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, continued to show support and deliver on President Trump’s behalf and pushed 11 federal judge nominees, while House Democrats were focused on impeaching President Trump.

"McConnell “forced a deal with Democrats to expedite 11 federal district judge nominations,” on Wednesday, while the country as a whole was focused on the partisan impeachment push in the House.
via CNN:

McConnell’s thrust is emblematic of what he sees as his crowning achievement. So far, he has led the charge changing the landscape of the federal courts across the country with a record number of appellate court judges — currently at 50 — and Supreme Court nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

. . .

McConnell had scheduled procedural votes on nominees coming roughly every two hours. Two votes were held Wednesday before the agreement was reached to speed things along with 11 consecutive votes in the late afternoon. Final votes to confirm the nominees have not yet been scheduled.

“ 'In less than three years, President Trump has appointed and the Republican Senate has confirmed 50 circuit judges,” McConnell tweeted last week. “That is already the most in any president’s whole first term since 1980”:" . . .


The next election: Biden: ‘Yes’ Willing To Sacrifice 100,000s Of Blue-Collar Jobs For Green New Deal Policies

Robert De Niro Says He Wants to 'See a Bag of S--t' In Trump's Face

PJ Media  "Trump-hater Robert De Niro has struck again. In a conversation with Michael Moore -- another radical-leftist hack -- the once-respected actor said that Trump needs to be "confronted and humiliated." And worse.
" 'They have to stand up to him," De Niro said about the Democratic presidential candidates, and more specifically about the person who ends up being that party's nominee. "They don't have to do it in an obvious physical way, but they have to have the formidability to confront him and to put him in his place because the people have to see that, to see him be humiliated."

"According to The Hill, De Niro then added that he wants to "see a bag of sh*t right in [Trump's] face.' " . . .

De Niro: The religions and political views of the influentials.  . . . "His mother was raised Presbyterian but quickly confirmed that she was an atheist upon adulthood. De Niro’s parents did not want him baptized into the Catholic Church, but during their divorce, he stayed with his devoutly Catholic grandparents who had him baptized in secret. It’s safe to say that if De Niro is anything, he’s a Catholic, but he doesn’t seem to practice and he doesn’t want to talk about it." . . .

De Niro fmr. assistant’s shocking claim: He harassed, made sexist comments  "Hollywood actor Robert De Niro isn’t just a foulmouthed anti-Trump zealot — he’s also allegedly a sexist, misogynist, and abusive pig who privately refers to women as “b*****s” and “c**ts” and who spent over a decade harassing, berating, and bullying his former female assistant.
"These and other stunning allegations were laid out in a counter-lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court by the actor’s former female assistant, Chase Robinson.
"Included with the suit was the following shocking, profanity-laced voicemail from 2012 that De Niro left for Robinson in which he called her a “spoiled f**king brat” and threatened to fire her."   Well...was she? 
. . . "De Niro isn’t the only vehemently anti-Trump actor with a habit of leaving bad-tempered voicemails.
“ 'De Niro communicated in a hostile, abusive, and intimidating manner with Ms. Robinson,” the lawsuit reads, according to the New York Daily News.
“ 'He attacked her in gender terms, calling her a ‘b***h’ and a ‘brat.’ In speaking to Ms. Robinson, he called his female business partner a ‘c**t’ and referred to his executive assistants as ‘the girls.’ De Niro would unleash tirades against Ms. Robinson — often while he was intoxicated — in which he denigrated, berated, bullied, and hurled expletives at her.' ” . . .

Of course! California Governor Gavin Newsom Blames Homelessness On President Trump

Years back, when Obama was President and Jerry Brown was governor we travelled to the flower district in LA and saw homeless campers lined up together, covering blocks. I observed that they remained there uncommented on, having heard no public issues with the problem. I told my companions that if a Republican was mayor or governor the issue would be covered critically nationwide. Now, true to form here is the very example. The Tunnel Dweller

Daily Wire  "California Governor Gavin Newsom says that California’s failure to curb rising homelessness in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco is the fault of President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration, not a stalemate in the California legislature or failed progressive efforts to curb the rise of tent cities and transient populations.
"Speaking in Sacramento, California, last week, Newsom claimed that Trump is deliberately withholding “key information” that California needs in order to properly address the homelessness problem, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“ 'California is making historic investments now to help our communities fight homelessness,” Newsom said. “But we have work to do and we need the federal government to do its part.”
"He repeated the claims, adding the GOP as a partner villain, in remarks made this week, again claiming that the federal government is standing in the way of California’s ability to enact meaningful reforms to help the homeless.
"But while Newsom is quick to place the blame, he isn’t quick to give details on precisely why Trump is to blame for the California homelessness crisis — and that’s probably by design. The “very important material” California is waiting on from the federal government is nothing more than an official Housing and Urban Development count of precisely how many homeless people live in the state of California. Newsom claims that, without those numbers, he can’t release more than $500 million earmarked to abate the systemic problem." . . .

What incentive has the local government to handle these problems when they can simply blame Republicans? TD

Evangelical Leaders Close Ranks With Trump After Scathing Editorial

MSN  "The publication is small, reaching just a fraction of the evangelical movement.

"But when Christianity Today called for President Trump’s removal in a blistering editorial on Thursday, it met the full force and fury of the president and his most prominent allies in the Christian conservative world. If the response seemed disproportionate, it vividly reflected the fact that white evangelicals are the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s political base and their leaders are among his most visible and influential supporters." . . .   But...

Being the NY Times, you knew there would be a "but", didn't you? After all, they are the closest kin to CNN that you can use to line your bird cage. TD

Christianity Today Betrays the Truth  . . . "Unless you just accept the Democrat talking points line for line, these two statements make no sense. The Mueller investigation revealed nothing because there was nothing to reveal. The impeachment hearings revealed moral deficiencies, but not of the president." . . .

Ralph Reed: Evangelical magazine that slammed Trump should change name to 'Christianity Yesterday'

Christianity Today Was 'Never Trumper' Before Impeachment
. . . "A survey of the magazine’s Twitter posts suggest its opposition to Trump is hardly new:" . . . "The publication also has published several articles that urge Christians to respond to climate change reports based on the biblical paradigm of stewardship." . . .

That baleful presence of Hillary Clinton in the last two impeachments

Monica Showalter  "Remember all the flak Rep. Tulsi Gabbard got for this one?

“Thank you @HillaryClinton,” tweeted Gabbard, who is vying to win the Democratic primary.

“You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.”

"Someone on Twitter, some chick* who likes to show her boobs (with a gargantuan 264,000 Twitter following), not the person you'd expect to show brain-depth, has pointed out a pretty significant fact: 

The United States now has two Presidents impeached for embarrassing Hillary Clinton.

. . .  Her ambition only extended after that, with her amazing lunges toward power and the presidency after that. It was her fury at losing the election to President Trump that led to the phony Russia collusion narrative, debunked by the Mueller report, and then its sequel, the phony Ukraine quid-pro-quo, which of course was rooted in the climate of corruption that festered at the State Department, the U.S. diplomatic corps, and the rest of the Obama administration foreign policy establishment, ending with Hunter Biden turning foreign aid into his own personal money trough. That's the basis of the impeachment of President Trump now, who rightly wanted to get to the bottom of it.

"What a baleful presence this woman has been in American politics. Devoid of political talent to get the electoral results she wanted or even sex appeal to keep Bill busy, all she has ever wanted was power. And she's corrupted everything she's touched to get it, including the damage to our democracy that the impeachment precedent has set (don't think Republicans won't try for payback on the next Democrat elected).

"Tulsi was right. The sooner this person is gone from politics, the better. " . . .

This came to mind somehow:

Oliver Cromwell: 'In the name of God, go!' speech dismissing Rump Parliament - 1653

. . . "Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.
"Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
"I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.
"Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
"In the name of God, go!"

Much more at The Tunnel Wall

West Point cadets vindicated on ridiculous charge of ‘white supremacist’ hand gesture at Army-Navy Game

Thomas Lifson  "Some people are so hysterical with fever-crazed hallucinations of omnipresent racism that they throw out reckless charges and cause people who should know better to launch official “investigations.”  Such was the case a week ago when, during the telecast of the Army-Navy Game,  a West Paint cadet played a common trick among adolescent and post-adolescent males, known to generations as “The Circle Game.”

. . . "On these pages, Trevor Thomas drew on his 27 years of teaching high school to debunk the charges.

"Of all the ridiculous, baseless charges of racism taken seriously by people who ought to know better, the claim that cadets used a racist hand gesture at the Army-Navy Game last weekend is among the worst, because it slimes the best among us, who are part of the least racist institution in the United States (and the world). (snip)
"In case you're unfamiliar, in this game, a person makes a circle with his thumb and forefinger, exactly as if you're making the "okay" sign, except this finger circle is usually held low, near one's waist, or off to the side, or wherever is needed.  The circle-maker then attempts to get their target, usually a friend, to look at the finger circle.  If one looks, then one gets punched in the arm.
"Don't just take my word for it.  According to KnowYourMeme.com
"After 6 days of wasting the time of our military leaders and putting cadets through hell, the United States Military Academy officially rejected the charge." . . . 

The silliness even penetrated the Kavanaugh hearings. Imagine the torment inflicted on the judge and his family by such silly people as these.

Read it here: True racist hand signal guide for you wanna-be racists:

The Bee Explains: Common Racist Hand Signals "If there’s one thing you’ve noticed about white nationalists, it’s that they have hands. And something they’ve been doing a lot with their hands lately is sending out secret messages in support of white supremacy. If you see anyone doing any of these hand gestures, you can be certain they are a racist and should report them to the nearest racism reporting facility (usually Twitter)."

See the list of hand signals here. You need to recognise racism when you see it eveywhere.

Cool-Guy Finger Guns

. . . "This is the one hand gesture you can be sure is not meant to symbolize white supremacy as it is only used by cool people. Anyone doing double finger guns is definitely too cool to be a racist. (They might, however, be an NRA member and thus a domestic terrorist. Oh well. At least they are not racist).

"What’s your favorite racist hand sign? Form it now!"