With several Republicans apparently succumbing on impeachment witnesses, Mitch McConnell may need to go ‘nuclear’

Legal Insurrection

McConnell needs to go nuclear. Mutually Assured Destruction nuclear on witnesses — the Bidens or bust.

"The Wall Street Journal reports that Mitch McConnell has told Republican Senators that he does not have the votes to block witnesses:

… at a meeting of all Republican senators late Tuesday, GOP leaders told their conference that they don’t currently have the votes to prevent witnesses from being called, people familiar with the matter said. Republicans had hoped to wrap up the trial with an acquittal of the president by this week, but Democrats have said he should appear under oath to offer a firsthand account of the president’s motivations for freezing aid to Ukraine—a matter at the heart of the impeachment case.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the vote total wasn’t where it needed to be on blocking witnesses or documents, these people said. He had a card with “yes,” “no,” and “maybes” marked on it, apparently a whip count, but he didn’t show it to senators.

"As detailed many times, the entire Democrat strategy has been to Kavanaugh the hearings, to call witnesses the House never called in order to turn the trial into a circus in which the process becomes the punishment.

"The House impeachment was in bad faith, and the Kavanaughing of the hearings also is bad faith. That four Republican Senators may succumb to these tactics speaks volumes about the weakness of Republicans.

"We knew it would be close, but it looks like there may be only one choice for McConnell.

Even Mitt Romney, the first link to break, has said that he thinks calling witnesses should be reciprocal. That means Joe and Hunter Biden, at minimum. But calling the Bidens in exchange for calling John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney has been rejected by Democrats.

"So McConnell’s way out it to force Democrats to reject a witness deal. That way, "Democrats are the ones responsible for no new witnesses. It provides cover to people like Susan Collins who may be concerned how voting against witnesses my impact their reelection chances.

"McConnell needs to go nuclear. Mutually Assured Destruction nuclear on witnesses — the Bidens or bust."

 

White House Counsel Concludes Argument By Playing Video of Democrats Attacking Impeachment

Breitbart  White House Counsel Pat Cipollone concluded opening arguments in the president’s defense in the Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday afternoon by playing video clips of Democrats arguing against President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.
"Some of those Democrats — such as Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — are among the House managers urging the Senate to remove Trump from office. Others — such as then-Rep. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) — are now in the Senate themselves.
"Cipollone focused on excerpts from congressional speeches in which Democrats denounced the idea of a partisan impeachment, likening it to a “coup d’état,” and warning that it would lead them to impeach a Republican president when they were in office.

"The White House counsel concluded: “You were right.” The Senators laughed. He then continued: “[B]ut I’m sorry to say you were also prophetic.”
"Cipollone concluded:
“ 'I have every confidence in your wisdom, you will do the only thing you can do, what you must do, what the Constitution compels you to do: Reject these articles of impeachment.”
"The White House then ended its opening arguments — having only used half of its allotted time, with 12 hours to spare.
"The next two days will involve eight hours of written questions submitted by Senators to the Chief Justice, with oral answers by lawyers for both sides, restricted to five minutes each."

Undoing the Dis-Education of Millennials

 Boston Post

"I teach in a law school. For several years now my students have been mostly Millennials. Contrary to stereotype, I have found that the vast majority of them want to learn. But true to stereotype, I increasingly find that most of them cannot think, don’t know very much, and are enslaved to their appetites and feelings. Their minds are held hostage in a prison fashioned by elite culture and their undergraduate professors.
"They cannot learn until their minds are freed from that prison. This year in my Foundations of Law course for first-year law students, I found my students especially impervious to the ancient wisdom of foundational texts, such as Plato’s Crito and the Code of Hammurabi. Many of them were quick to dismiss unfamiliar ideas as “classist” and “racist,” and thus unable to engage with those ideas on the merits. So, a couple of weeks into the semester, I decided to lay down some ground rules. I gave them these rules just before beginning our annual unit on legal reasoning.
"Here is the speech I gave them.
********************************
"Before I can teach you how to reason, I must first teach you how to rid yourself of unreason. For many of you have not yet been educated. You have been dis-educated. To put it bluntly, you have been indoctrinated. Before you learn how to think you must first learn how to stop unthinking.
"Reasoning requires you to understand truth claims, even truth claims that you think are false or bad or just icky. Most of you have been taught to label things with various “isms” which prevent you from understanding claims you find uncomfortable or difficult.
"Reasoning requires correct judgment. Judgment involves making distinctions, discriminating. Most of you have been taught how to avoid critical, evaluative judgments by appealing to simplistic terms such as “diversity” and “equality.' ” . . .

Dan Gainor: CNN panel mocks Trump supporters – Anchor who whines about 'toxicity' delivers just that

Dan Gainor  "Three years into President Donald Trump’s first term and the news media still don’t understand how we got here.

"Saturday, CNN Anchor Don Lemon show blasted Trump, his administration and his supporters. It was almost like CNN was trying its best to create a clip Trump could use in an ad to win his second term.
"That meant Lemon, who last June said he might have to leave TV because of “toxicity,” laughed uproariously at his own toxic TV show. And the network that regularly complains about “hateful speech” by the administration, actually promoted the incident.

CNN Don Lemon panel faces intense backlash for mocking Trump supporters as illiterate 'credulous rubes'

Don Lemon's assault accuser says CNN anchor a 'liar and hypocrite' with #MeToo coverage  . . . " '[Lemon] put his hand down the front of his own shorts, and vigorously rubbed his genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers into Plaintiff's mustache and under Plaintiff's nose," according to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11, 2019 in Suffolk County Court.
"Lemon offered a six-figure settlement before talks broke down and the formal complaint was filed, according to Hice." . . .

Dana Perino: CNN segment mocking Trump supporters was 'really offensive'

Where would Communists be without their gulags

Sanders Staffer Calls for 'F**king Revolution'    . . . "the undercover video captures paid Sanders staffer Martin Weissgerber saying: "I'll straight up get armed ... I'm ready for the "f**king revolution"; "Guillotine the rich"; "Send Republicans to re-education camps," adding, "Can you imagine [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell? [South Carolina Senator] Lindsey Graham [in the camps]?" 

"This is the second Sanders campaign staffer Project Veritas has exposed in the last week calling for violence against Sanders' political enemies." . . .

This is a dangerous time for this Republic, with Communist clones on one side and Democrats establishing impeachment as a recurring "vote of confidence" on the other.

Image by Dianny of Patriot Retort

Bombshell! After two days of defense, Schiff's impeachment ploy is becoming clear

Is anyone beside me sick of years spent daily watching Chuck Schumer glowering over his little glasses, faux anger dripping from his lips? The Tunnel Dweller

Rich Terrell

Patricia McCarthy  "The President's lawyers finally got the chance to present their case in defense of him on Saturday.  They did not take much time, but their first few hours virtually destroyed the Schiff/Nadler/Pelosi fiction on which they have based their articles of impeachment.  After a second, longer and more intense day of the defense delivering their side of the story, what actually has transpired has become clearer and clearer.  

"The irrationally obsessed Schiff had a plan, as surely as the Crossfire Hurricane cabal had a plan, to take Trump down by hook or by crook.  The Mueller Report failed to deliver so he sought a new and fabricated reason to impeach. 

"Now that we see and hear Schiff's case be completely devastated by Trump's defense team, one has to wonder how the House managers had the gall to stand up and spew the lies each of them put forth over twenty-three hours.   It is probably safe to assume that they did none of their own research nor did they write their own presentations.  Most likely Schiff directed his own staff to prepare their carefully constructed speeches which they came to the podium to read. " . . .  

"To be known to history as the "Walk of Shame"?"

. . . "They, the left media, speak with one voice, same words, same phrases. "Bombshell" is the word of the day... again.  It's as though they are all ventriloquist dummies.  Someone sends them a list of words and they all dutifully repeat them ad nauseam.  This will all soon be over.  Schiff and his cohorts will have well and truly demeaned themselves for all time. " . . .

Shut Down This Tiring Farce

Democrats want to change the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College and turn it into a "woke" document, then make impeachment into a regular political tactic where the President becomes subject to the will of the legislature. Can we keep this republic? TD

Conrad Black

The high court of the whole enfranchised nation will determine whether the president retains his office, in nine months, and this kind of unfounded assault must be discouraged, lest it become routine.

"The next step in the impeachment of the president needs to be considered in both its legal and political aspects.

"The legal issue is easily determined, is evident from the first few days of proceedings, and remains a foregone conclusion. It was obvious from the endlessly repetitive and absurdly overstated arguments of the House managers, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in particular, that they had no legal case. There was no evidence that the president committed a high crime or misdemeanor as the Constitution requires for a president to be removed from office in such a proceeding. 
"What was alleged was not anything that could be so described, and they fell far short of proof that what they alleged even occurred. They tried to mislead the Senate and the public by splicing quotes, quoting previous witnesses out of context, and immersing their turgid presentation in a vast, confected odium that they try to spread over the president and his reputation like a lethal gas.     
"Underscoring their incandescent hatred of the president, Schiff acknowledged that Trump must be removed now to prevent his reelection, that an unnamed source had been cited by CBS who alleged Trump had told Republican senators that if they deserted him their heads would be put on pikes. Nadler accused any Republican voting to acquit the president of “treachery” and of participation in the (inevitable) “cover-up” of Trump’s crimes: again, no evidence of any probative value was adduced that he had committed the acts objected to, which were, in any case, not illegal. 
"Chief Justice John Roberts reminded Nadler of where he was, though dutifully equivocal as he is, he addressed the admonition to both sides. In two hours on Saturday morning, the president’s counsel, Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, reduced the interminable malign verbosity of Schiff and Nadler to rubble. " . . .

"Why I haven’t said anything about Holocaust Remembrance Day", Bookworm

Bookworm Room

Holocaust Remembrance Day has become a meaningless ritual that the Western world engages in to cover for its virulent and rising anti-Semitism.

"I remember the Holocaust every day. It’s written into my DNA. 

"Every morning, when I put on my glasses or creak out of bed on my arthritic knees, I know that I would have been at the front of the line for the gas chambers.

"Every day that I whine about this little thing or that little thing, I feel guilty because I was lucky enough to be born in America and to have been born after the Holocaust.

"I am always aware of the dozens of family members who died in the camps, whether because they were Jewish or because (on the Christian side) they suffered from mental illness or were homosexuals.

"For me, every day is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"As for the world, it’s like that line about the weather: Everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it. The same is true for the Holocaust in 2020.

"In too many parts of the Muslim world, for too many people, every day is Holocaust Rejoicing Day.

"In Europe, the grim binding together of socialism and Islam is recreating that 1930s mindset of Hitler: a socialist country with a deep, passionate, and overwhelming Jew-hatred.

"It feels as if, when many Europeans say “Never again,” they’re thinking, “If we play our cards right, never again will we have to live in a world with Jews, either in Europe or on land that the Palestinians should occupy, not the Jews.”

"The fact that the Jews have had a continuous, provable connection to the land for 3,000 years, and the fact that the so-called Palestinians are carpetbaggers and squatters with a connection to the land going back 150 years or so is irrelevant to those steeped in anti-Semitism.

"Here in America, our Democrat party is becoming a home for virulent anti-Semitism. The most celebrated women in Congress are open anti-Semites and open about their hatred for Israel. In the face of Ilhan Omar’s awful words, the most that the House could come up with was a weak statement that it hates hate. The scourge of anti-Semitism has moved from hard-left American campuses to Congress.

"So no, I don’t want to write about Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s becoming more farcical by the minute. Talk, talk, talk, while the hatred flows in like a relentless tide."

Is the Bolton book bombshell a boom or a bust?

Ian Macfarlane

Rep. Meadows Says NYT Bolton Leak Was 'Coordinated' in Order to 'Change the Narrative'  . . . "Meadows is one of the president's staunchest allies in Congress, and on Monday he took a few shots at the suspicious timing of all of this, both on social media and directly to the press. Meadows rallied the Trump faithful with this exhortation: "Don’t buy the spin. Don’t buy the misinformed leaks. Don’t buy the predetermined narrative.' "
. . . "Later, during a press conference after the trial proceedings in the Senate had wrapped for the day, Meadows said, "This leak was designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to try to manipulate the thinking of my Republican colleagues in the Senate to encourage them to open it up and provide for more witnesses...." and then went on to talk about the recent history of Democrats leaking to the press. Meadows added, "My hypothesis is that this is part of a coordinated leak in order to change the narrative.' "

Where the Moderate Senators Stand on Bolton Testimony After the Book Leak
"The Senate needs to make a decision on whether or not former national security adviser John Bolton should testify in the impeachment trial against President Trump. In his new book, Bolton reportedly claims that Trump did tie the withholding of military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of the Bidens. The book leak has especially alarmed some of the more moderate Republican jurors." . . .

Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler Goes Off On Romney For Being Open To Witnesses, Says He ‘Wants To Appease The Left’  "Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s recent comments on the impeachment trial in which he expressed that he’s open to calling Bolton to testify in front of the Senate.

"Loeffler sounded off on Romney, saying that he “wants to appease the left by calling witnesses,” while adding,”The circus is over. It’s time to move on!' ” . . .

Having read the report, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) believes that the jurors should be given the chance to hear from Bolton himself.   . . . "Before she was sworn in to the Senate, President Trump shared his concerns about Loeffler and reportedly wanted Rep. Doug Collins to fill the vacant seat instead. Yet, Loeffler has been squarely on the president's side during the trial, telling the Democrats last week that they already lost their case in the House." . . .

Wonder How the NYT Got the Leak From Bolton's Unpublished Book? Look Who's Reportedly Vetting It.  . . . "But now a Breitbart News report may shed some light on where the leak from the unpublished book came from.
"A source in the White House told Breitbart that Lt. Colonel Yevgeny Vindman is a senior ethics lawyer who vets materials for classified information, such as books and articles, before they're allowed to be published. Breitbart reports that Vindman vetted Bolton's book in December."
"Vindman ... Vindman... why does that name seem so familiar?
"The last time you heard of a guy named Vindman he was testifying against the president of the United States at the House impeachment inquiry. His beef? He didn't like President Trump's Ukraine policy." . . .

Biden, in his Walter Mitty Dreams,Threatens To ‘Punch’ Trump…

Joe's Walter Mitty dreams:

Joe Biden's Walter Mitty fantasy life; . . . "Yet he keeps repeating these vivid products of a nonexistent fantasy life, one that requires courage, courage he's never had, sort of like Walter Mitty, who as I recall from the story I read in high school was a bored man who led a humdrum life and imagined himself acting in heroic roles in his vivid fantasies.  That's Joe Biden, apparently, a really bored political hack who livens up his own world by repeating lies about his feats of heroism." . . .

Weasel Zippers  BIDEN: “So, folks — but you know, as much as he’s trying to destroy me and my family, I hope I demonstrated I can take a punch. And if I’m the nominee, he’s going to understand what punches mean.”

Here is Joe again; he can't threaten the man outright, but the pushup challenge is close enough for Joe:

Joy Behar Asks Holocaust Survivor Millie Baran About Kids In Cages At The US-Mexico Border

Daily Caller  . . . “ 'Millie, we just heard in the video that you had to wait over four years before you could come into this country,” Behar began.

“ 'Four and a half years,” Baran corrected. “Four and a half years. In a displaced persons camp.”
“ 'You know, some people are experiencing that right now in our country,” Behar continued, mentioning the children who were waiting either in detention facilities or in camps on the Mexican side of the border. “They’re not letting people in and it’s just tragic to me and to you I’m sure. Would you like to speak to that at all?” she asked.
“ 'Naturally,” Baran nodded. “When I saw it on television, I couldn’t believe it and my heart was aching, as a mother seeing the children were separated from their parents,” she said.
“ 'I realized who doesn’t want to come to America?” Baran continued. “The best land in the world. The lucky ones who can come here, a land of opportunity, of freedom. To us it was a dream to get here. Naturally, it was worth it to wait because when we came here I practically kissed the earth.”

Is Bolton going all Romney on us?

However, up to this point, Romney has hung in there, defying expectations of many. TD

What's Bolton up to with that new move to play Schiff's game?  . . . "I'm not inclined to be negative about Bolton, neocon as he is, because President Trump is not the easiest guy to work for and getting fired by him is no disgrace, but this has a rather bad look.
"Bolton earlier had said he didn't want to play Adam Schiff's game to Get Trump, and told the later that he'd testify as a witness for him only with a subpoena.
"Now he's practically asking to testify, just as he's got a book out with the very claims Democrats wanted to hear. What changed? He's still opting to play Adam Schiff's game with this. 
"Book timing? Publication schedule? You decide." . . .
. . . "One wants to think better of Bolton than this, but if things are as they appear, maybe it's time to put him in the #NeverTrump dustbin along with Bill Kristol and Max Boot. The money-grubbing aspect of the whole thing is ample reason all by itself is reason enough not to call witnesses as Adam Schiff slavers, because there's some funny stuff going on right now. Schiff had his chance to call Bolton and he blew it. Let Schiff stew about that." . . .

Democrats demand Bolton testify after report his book says Trump tied Ukraine aid to Biden probe  . . . "Trump addressed the report in a series of tweets Sunday night. "I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Trump said.
"Hill Democrats said Sunday that the new report highlighted the urgency of a Senate request for Bolton's testimony — a move that would require several GOP votes.
" 'It's up to four Senate Republicans to ensure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trump's actions testify in the Senate trial," Schumer tweeted. Mulvaney is Trump's acting chief of staff.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted that because of the report that Bolton had firsthand knowledge of Trump's decision that ran counter to the White House's account, the "refusal of the Senate to call for him, other relevant witnesses, and documents is now even more indefensible.' " . . .Did the Vindman brothers release this information?


Trump fights to stop John Bolton giving evidence to the Senate after fired national security adviser wrote in his upcoming memoir that President did link Ukraine aid to Biden probe  . . .  " 'With that being said, the transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems,' he continued.

" 'Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations.....(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration,' the President wrote in a series of tweets." . . .