Interesting things are happening in Iran following Soleimani’s death

Andrea Widburg  When President Trump ordered the military to strike Qassem Soleimani, a legitimate military target responsible for the deaths of hundreds of troops, Democrats were up in arms. How dare Trump bait the Iranians by striking someone so close to Ayatollah Khamenei? They were certain that Trump had just ignited World War III.

"Republicans were more confident that the strike would, at the very least, remove a dangerous character from the Iranians' forty-year-long war against America and, at the best, topple the regime. This last belief was based upon the fact that the Iranian regime is fragile now that Trump walked away from Obama’s terrible Iran Plan and reinstated sanctions. The economy is collapsing and people all over Iran are coming out in protest. After forty years of a repressive theocracy, the Persian people, a people accustomed to beauty and life, have had their fill of Islam's cruel puritanism.

"Michael Ledeen, an experienced foreign policy observer, thinks that the Republicans may have been correct because there are strange doings in Iran – all good if one wants to see that abysmal regime collapse: . . .

Soleimani, despite being truly evil, was also a very gifted general. This means that the vacuum his death creates forces Iran to retrench, rather than continuing its push into the greater Middle East. This retrenchment matters because the Iranian people, according to Banafsheh Zand and Harold Rhode, two Iran experts, are very sensitive to trends. If they see that the Mullahs are weak, they will push harder against the regime: . . .

Trump team’s Iran strategy – Pompeo lays out ‘confront and contain’ vs underwrite and appease

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave new insight on Tuesday morning on what’s been sorely missing in the US-Iran confrontation: the US strategy.

“ 'We put Iran in a place it’s never been before,” Pompeo said.

The Obama administration chose to underwrite and appease. “We chose to confront and contain,” Pompeo said. What a contrast.

"Confront and contain. Seen in this light, the strike on Soleimani marks a new tactical step. Both the strike and the recent military deployments fit a much bigger, active U.S. strategy. That strategy is now using military forces to put the lid on Iran’s terror “Axis of Resistance” across the Middle East and to counter Iran’s escalations.

"The goal is to box in Iran. Striking Soleimani was a huge part of this move. Iran had trained between 75,000 and 145,000 Iraqi paramilitary forces for Soleimani to use at will. Removing Soleimani’s leadership sets back those plans.

"Pompeo’s remarks Tuesday further indicated the U.S. is willing to constrain Iran in other ways.

“ 'Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,” Pompeo pledged. …

"Pompeo also revealed that economic pressure is working. Iran has a bad budget shortfall and is struggling to figure out how to make it through 2020, according to Pompeo." . . .

Unhappy campers on the left want to put a stop to this and bring back an Obama foreign policy.

‘American Hero’: Hollywood Sold On ‘Rockstar’ Schiff’s Impeachment Screenplay

Gabriel Hays  "Impeachment circus ringleader Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) may find his Hollywood screenwriting aspirations fulfilled after all.

"Many of tinseltown’s leading players have been so enamored with Schiff’s fictional impeachment arguments in the Senate trial that they are calling him a “rockstar,” an “American Hero,” and the key man for such an “historic moment.”

"Rabid Bernie supporter and once-relevant actor John Cusack revealed he’d drank the entire kool-aid punch bowl, heaping lavish praise on Schiff for taking a stand against GOP corruption. He tweeted, “@RepAdamSchiff I applaud you - the tremor in your voice matches the historic moment your describing - he’s angry - and rightfully so - We need to make the gop afraid of us - they are trying to coronate a king while killing the rule of law.”

"He added, “go straight to hell gop.” Whatever, John. Maybe you should worry about the establishment Dems who want to tank your guy for a more electable candidate. By the way, put your money where your mouth is. Use some of your $50 million net worth to pay off some student loans.

"Pro-abort activist and Charmed actress Alyssa Milano couldn’t resist some emotional leftwing grandstanding. She provided a resounding declaration on how well Dem Impeachment managers are presenting the farce. She tweeted, “This trial is a ‘great’ campaign ad for the 2020 Democratic ticket. If the @SenateGOP were smart, they would allow evidence and witnesses. Trump’s defense team can’t compete with what’s going down on record.' ” . . .

Hypocritical ‘News’ Media Have Done a Complete Flip-Flop on Impeachment
. . . "Do we really need more witnesses?" . . .

FLASHBACK: Today’s Impeachment Cheerleaders Hated It Back in ’98

Texas women’s program lost funding for kicking out Planned Parenthood. The Trump administration just restored it.

The Statesman  "The Trump administration Wednesday restored federal funding to the state’s women’s health program. A previous version of the program lost the money seven years ago after Texas officials had excluded Planned Parenthood.
" The $350 million boost to Healthy Texas Women, which provides certain health services, including family planning to low-income women at no cost, will be distributed over five years. The Obama administration withheld funding in 2013.
"State officials had said taxpayer money shouldn’t go to abortion providers or affiliates. Planned Parenthood at the time was the largest provider of women’s health services in the program, and it did not provide abortions in the program.
"The program has relied on state money in the meantime. 
"Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the restoration of the federal funding, which comes from Medicaid. 
“ 'The Lone Star State is once again in partnership with the federal government to provide meaningful family planning and health services while fostering a culture of life,” Abbott said in a statement. “I am grateful to President Trump and his administration for approving this waiver, and for his commitment to protecting the unborn while providing much-needed health resources to Texas women.”  . . .Keep Reading

On the Bidens, Schiff Opened the Door

Andrew C. McCarthy: If they have to testify, they have the Democrats’ chief impeachment manager to thank.

"You opened the door"
"Trial lawyers live in fear of that phrase.
"When a trial starts, both sides know what the allegations are. Both have had enough "discovery to know what the adversary will try to prove. Just as significantly, both know what their own vulnerabilities are. A litigator spends his pretrial time not just laying the groundwork for getting his own evidence admitted by the court; each side works just as hard on motions to exclude embarrassing or incriminating testimony — evidence that would be damaging to that side’s position but that a court may be persuaded to exclude because it is not clearly relevant.

Do you care to make a statement, Mr. Biden?

""For an advocate, it is a coup when the judge rules that harmful testimony is excluded. But such rulings always come with a warning label: Don’t open the door. That is, don’t do anything that makes the otherwise irrelevant evidence relevant."President Trump’s impeachment trial has a Biden door. Adam Schiff has thrown it wide open.
"Not content to quote from President Trump’s actual call with President Zelensky of Ukraine, Schiff insisted on presenting a “parody” that, he maintained, conveyed the unspoken essence of Trump’s message: “I want you make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it.”
"In sum, the House’s chief prosecutor represented to the American people that President Trump had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to fabricate a false case against Biden. In any court in America, that would open the door to the Trump defense team to show that this was not the president’s intention at all; he was simply asking Zelensky to look into a situation that cried out for an inquiry." . . .  Full article here.
Toons added by TD

A Year Ago, the Media Mangled the Covington Catholic Story. What Happened Next Was Even Worse.

Reason, via The Volokh Conspiracy

Journalists and pundits who frantically doubled down on their initial bad takes deserve more criticism.

"On the weekend of January 18, 2019, a short video appeared on Twitter that purported to show a group of Catholic high school boys—one young man, Nicholas Sandmann, in particular—harassing a Native American elder named Nathan Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
"One year later, the media's reckless mishandling of the story stands as an important warning against the kind of agenda-driven, outrage-mongering clickbait that unfortunately thrives in the world of online journalism.
"But no less noteworthy was the news cycle that followed the initial flawed coverage, which featured a host of ideologically-motivated partisans doubling down on their initial assumption, digging for new information to justify it, and reassuring themselves that they were right all along. Sandmann and his MAGA hat-wearing friends had identified themselves as members of Team Trump, and thus the national shaming they endured was deserved, this thinking went. Indeed, those who had defended the boys by disputing some aspects of the encounter—including me, in an article for Reason that changed many people's minds about what had happened—were engaged in "gaslighting": trying to make people think that something they saw hadn't really happened.
"Sandmann's subsequent lawsuits have kept the Covington-sympathetic public focused on several of the outlets that misreported the initial story: CNN, The Washington Post, and others. Indeed, these publications certainly deserve criticism, independent of the merits of the individual lawsuits. But these outlets' Covington-related sins pale in comparison to those who continued to malign the teens long after the additional video footage was available." . . .

Barbie and Ken's life under socialism

The People's Cube  "Teach your kids socialist values with this play kit. Includes Barbie and Ken in the kitchen of a Soviet communal apartment, with a realistic look and feel of the era, circa 1970s or 1980s.
"Guaranteed to turn all children into Bernie-voting socialists when they grow up.
"Just tell them that in Soviet Russia, dolls play you!"

. . . "Yekaterinburg-based artist and photographer Lara Vychuzhanina takes Barbie and Ken on a trip through time, back to the U.S.S.R.
"A stern Ken never stands up from the table. Barbie hangs laundry, sips coffee and daydreams. The young couple’s cat keeps a laser focus on the wall. Each scene reveals a new detail of Barbie’s journey overseas — even the food is Soviet."
Much more here.
Via The Moscow Times;  created by Lara Vychuzhanina, doll photographer

Bernie's Iowa team on lockdown after embarrassing video goes viral

WND  "Several of Bernie Sanders' Iowa state directors locked their Twitter accounts after the conservative activist organization Project Veritas leaked a video of a Sanders campaign field organizer named Kyle Jurek making threats of political violence.

"Some have unlocked their accounts since then."
From the Project Veritas site.

BREAKING: Iowa  @BernieSanders State Directors ALL LOCKING THEIR ACCOUNTS:

An Iranian Comments On The Rage of the Democrats

In short, America is on a precarious path to lose its freedom and our Constitution we have cherished for over 200 years.  We must accept that the current Democrat Party is no longer the party of Kennedy.  It has become the greatest threat to our national security and our survival as a nation.

Amil Imani  "What underlies the rage of the Democrat Party and of the leftist Democrat Establishment vis-à-vis President Donald Trump?

"Over forty years ago, during my high school years in Iran, my father and I had a conversation.  He was an avid Republican, even though he lived on the other side of the world.  Right before I prepared to leave Iran for the U.S., he gave me some fatherly advice.  He explained why the Democrat Party was bad for America, bad for Iran, and bad for the world.  He advised me that if I ever became a US citizen, I should never vote for Democrats.  After all these years, I now understand what he meant by those words of wisdom.

"For over twenty years, I did not vote simply because I was not a U.S. citizen.  Even after I became one, I was not fully aware of the depth of this party's evil ideology, although eight long years of Obama's presidency was enough to make me realize where America was headed and what brand of Democrats were in charge.  But it was not until the election of President Trump that exposed just how corrupt the Democrats and every government institution were.  Now that that genie is out of the bottle, they cannot put it back in.  Public trust is out the door — all because it was Hillary's turn to be president." . . .

The centerpiece of the impeachment circus: Adam Schiff

Rush Limbaugh gets it. In the first hour of his show Wednesday, he advocated making Schiff “the center of this so-called trial.”Thomas Lifson

Rich Terrell

The Top Seven Lies Adam Schiff Has Told to Boost Impeachment
"Adam Schiff is a liar.
     "Like most Democrats, he cares more about ousting Trump than the facts—so much, in fact, he’s repeatedly turned a blind eye to the facts to smear Trump in the hopes of swaying public opinion against the man who dared to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
     "It’s already been proven that Democrats have plotted the impeachment of Donald Trump since he first took office. For over three years they threw anything they could at him, and Schiff was doing his part to advance the narrative that Trump should be impeached by pushing bogus information and outright lying to the public. Below are seven examples of Schiff’s lies designed to boost the impeachment of President Trump." . . .

CNN Analyst Fabricates Quotes From GOP Senators to Smear Trump, Fox News
"On Wednesday afternoon, a CNN analyst cooked up a "conversation" between two Republican senators in order to smear President Donald Trump, his party, and Fox News. He later admitted to having completely fabricated the quotes, but only after The Washington Post's self-described conservative Jennifer Rubin retweeted his "report."
" 'Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News. 'is this stuff real? I haven't heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server. If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we're up s**t's creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence,'" Joe Lockhart, the CNN analyst and the former White House press secretary for Bill Clinton, tweeted. His message received 5,600 retweets and 20,600 "likes.' " . . More...

Nothing to See Here: Public Radio, TV Networks Ignore Adam Schiff's Fake Quotes From Trump Transcript from 2019:  . . . "Outside of Fox News, Schiff's fake quotes seemed to go unnoticed by the mainstream media. In fact, taxpayer-funded NPR and PBS interviewed the congressman on Thursday night, and neither interview included questions about the fake quotes." . . . More...

The Gateway Pundit

Two hours of dog barking: Adam Schiff tries to bore us into Getting Trump "Adam Schiff is a man of very peculiar reasoning. Like a dolt shouting louder at a foreign-language speaker to make him 'understand,' Schiff's decided that if he just keeps talking enough with his long, long, long speeches, we will all suddenly turn into anti-Trumpsters and throw Trump from office." . . 

. . . "The boredom set in on the first day, Tuesday, and carried on in to Wednesday as Lead House Manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) droned on for hours." . . .

          Buck Sexton 

Starting to worry that Republican Senators forced to sit through hours and hours of Schiff’s sanctimonious BS marathon may get desperate and offer to vote for anything just to make the pain stop

The impeachment show’s third act will focus on Schiff’s lies and evil plans

. . . "But Democrats forget at their own peril that President Trump is the most successful reality television producer in the history of the medium. He not only understands how drama is played out in a way that satisfies mass audiences, he is a practitioner of the dramatic form of reality TV in which real people react to structured situations, and act out their roles without following an actual script.   . . .

. . . Students of drama realize that successful shows generally follow a three-act structure, with the first act introducing the characters and an ”inciting incident” leading to a dramatic situation, usually a confrontation. Trump’s election and the immediate move to impeach him constitute the first act of this drama.

"Students of drama realize that successful shows generally follow a three-act structure, with the first act introducing the characters and an ”inciting incident” leading to a dramatic situation, usually a confrontation. Trump’s election and the immediate move to impeach him constitute the first act of this drama." . . .

. . . "Chris Wallace of Fox News, no fan of President Trump, yesterday confronted Schiff for totally misrepresenting what Mick Mulvaney said in his now infamous press conference. This video lasts 94 seconds, but The Right Scoop summarizes:" . . .

Even the Australians notice the bored senators

Sky News Australia

✔

Sky News Contributor Cameron Stewart says "even the senators are bored" of the impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump. https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6125637529001?fbclid=IwAR2r8G-4tB5FUd2hiiIxsKxrF79__yovX4ihR_g6pAD2IPWA1PFnIfbskx0 …

Trump Team Takes Aim at Adam Schiff

The Black Sphere

. . . "As Fox News reports:

Trump lawyers Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow repeatedly ripped into Democrats, especially Schiff, on the first day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial, as the House Intelligence Committee chairman — who is serving as the top Democratic impeachment manager — sat up straight in his chair and didn’t take his eyes off his accusers.The lawyers invoked Schiff’s name over and over again, accusing him of hiding documents, conducting an unfair impeachment inquiry and fabricating the text of the July 25 phone call between Trump and the president of UkraineJust as Schiff sat down from making a lengthy opening case for new witnesses and documents, Sekulow took over and with a booming voice accused Schiff of telling falsehoods and “put[ting] words into transcripts that did not exist.”Schiff kept his eyes wide open and glued on Sekulow, possibly aghast that Trump’s lawyers were putting him on trial.Then it was Cipollone’s turn. He said it was “difficult” to hear Schiff tell his “tale.” He laid into Schiff even more and accused his staff of working with the Ukraine whistleblower, “contrary to his prior statements.”“Will Mr. Schiff give documents,” Cipollone pressed.Schiff stared down Cipollone and didn’t flinch.Trump’s lawyer then blasted Schiff for taking dramatic liberties with the phone call Trump had with the president of Ukraine, rather than reading the call transcript exactly during an impeaching hearing.

"Sadly, Schiff isn’t even bothered by his outrageous lies. "
He's probably looking forward to being a guest on Stephen Colbert's show next day.

Ian Macfarlane

IMPEACHMENT WEEK: It's OK To Be Bored; Not OK To Be White

Ann Coulter  "It’s weeks like this that make me wish I had a job and didn’t have to stay home watching TV. With the impeachment nonsense dragging into its 56th month, I have some random observations, only a few of which have anything to do with impeachment.
"1) As tempting as it must be for Republican senators to make a headlong rush to the TV cameras at the conclusion of the day’s festivities, they would be well advised to say this, and only this, each night:

"Here are the vital issues the United States Congress did NOT address today:

-- Repairing our highways, bridges and border with a major infrastructure bill.
-- Ensuring that all Americans can get jobs by cutting off the deluge of cheap foreign labor.
-- Providing the public with quality services by not inviting the rest of the world to come partake of government benefits meant for Americans.
-- Fixing the disaster of Obamacare, so that all Americans have access to quality health care (by activating the same mechanisms that give them quality food, housing and iPhones: the free market, contract law and occasional government subsidies).
-- Passing a bill to defund all the pointless, expensive military deployments around the globe, so we can FINALLY address the hellfires in our own hemisphere.
-- Ending the opioid crisis by declaring war on Mexican drug cartels and building a wall.

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should attach electrodes to the testicles of every Republican and blast him the moment he (OR SHE!) diverges from the script.

"2) The person I really feel sorry for is Nancy Pelosi. I assume she’s weeping uncontrollably as she watches her chances of holding the speakership dwindle every time Jerry Nadler waddles to the mic. True, you “go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want,” as Donald Rumsfeld said, but surely there are more telegenic Democrats than Nadler and Adam Schiff.

"3) Every day since forever, The New York Times has run a column about how white people are getting on African Americans’ last nerve.
"On Monday of this week, it was “How Much Racism Do You Face Every Day?"
"Average for black teenager: 5x a day." . . .

Tulsi Gabbard Sues Hillary Clinton for Defamation over ‘Russian Asset’ Comments

National Review  "Tulsi Gabbard sued Hillary Clinton on Wednesday for defamation over the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate’s claim that the Hawaii congresswoman was a “Russian asset.”
“ 'With this action, Tulsi seeks to hold Clinton, and the political elites who enable her, accountable for distorting the truth in the middle of a critical Presidential election,” the suit explains. The move appears to be the next step after Gabbard’s lawyers demanded a retraction of Clinton’s “defamatory” comments in a November letter.
"Clinton made headlines in October after she called Gabbard “the favorite of the Russians” in an appearance on former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe’s podcast, and suggested she was being groomed as a potential third party candidate, despite Gabbard stating publicly she would not run a third-party campaign.
"While Clinton did not explicitly mention Gabbard’s name, her spokesman Nick Merrill said “if the nesting doll fits” when asked if the accusation was leveled at the Hawaii Congresswoman. After backlash, Merrill claimed that Clinton was referring to Republicans, not Russians, with the “grooming” comment." . . .

Fox News covers this here  . . . " 'Clinton was extremely angry—to put it mildly—that Tulsi endorsed Senator Sanders over her," the lawsuit says, citing communications Gabbard claims she received from Clinton's representatives saying that her team "no longer trust[s] [Tulsi's] judgment." Gabbard also alleges that she was told "that the Clinton team would never forget this slight.' " . . .

Then this from Babylon Bee:  

Hillary Clinton Asked To Leave Costco After Repeatedly Accusing Sample Lady Of Being A Russian Asset

. . . "It wasn't clear how Clinton had ended up in the Costco, as she usually has her servants' servants go to the market for her. Some suggested she wanted to disguise herself and go be among her subjects to see how the other 99% lives.
"Whatever the case, the sample lady had apparently offered the failed presidential candidate a small paper cup of orange juice and told her the packs were on sale for $9.49 when the incident occurred.
" 'Orange... orange like Trump!" Clinton screamed suddenly, frightening the poor food demonstration worker. "You're in league with him, aren't you!?" The failed presidential candidate lunged across the cart and attempted to pull off her face mask, certain the lady was actually Vladimir Putin in a skin suit.
"When that failed and the woman shooed her off with a plastic glove, Clinton turned for help and began screaming, "Security! Margaret in the frozen foods aisle is a Russian asset! Help, help, our elections are being meddled with!"
"Guards arrived but relaxed when they saw it was just Hillary Clinton. "OK, lady, let's go," they said, grabbing her by each arm.
" 'Thank goodness you're here!" Clinton cried. "Arrest that woman! Can't someone help me out!?"
" 'Oh yeah, sure, lady, we'll help you out," the guards said, snickering as they dragged her toward the front door."