Speaker Pelosi, end government-by-secret-caucus

"Daily phone calls are held in secret with the Democratic caucus, and representatives press “star 3” to request a chance to speak. Some committees have similar one-party meetings, while others include Republicans — none of it in public. A single-caucus meeting in private was never meant to be the Congress of the United States."

The Hill  "Our Constitution set up three branches of government. And yet, in this crisis, only two branches are fully operational. In particular, the House of Representatives is no longer functioning as a legislative body at all but as an executive committee run by just one representative: the Speaker of the House. There are no open debates, no televised committee hearings, no minority rights. “The People’s House” is not open to the people. 
"Somehow, the executive branch managed to keep the White House open — from the Office of the President to the Situation Room, from the Department of Justice to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they are all fully operational; some people even complain they see too much of the president with his coronavirus task force daily briefings for hours on end. There is no doubt, however, that the executive branch is open for business 24/7. It has put in place all the protocols and procedures to operate safely and to keep the country safe at the same time from others who would seek to take advantage of a vulnerable nation going through a pandemic.
"Over at the Supreme Court, the justices were faced with some tough choices, and they decided that they would continue to carry out their full responsibilities. Until further notice, oral arguments are being conducted by phone so that the cases before the court will continue to move forward. For the first time in history, the public will be able to listen to Supreme Court arguments live, without any delay. Despite the advanced age of some of the justices, they have figured out how to adapt and to stay open for business." . . .

Mark Penn is a managing partner of the Stagwell Group, a global organization of digital-first marketing companies, as well as chairman of the Harris Poll and author of “Microtrends Squared.” He also is CEO of MDC Partners, an advertising and marketing firm. He served as pollster and adviser to former President Clinton from 1995 to 2000, including during Clinton’s impeachment.

From a comment to this post: 

I suggest that the Dem reps meet in Nancy Antoinette's double-wide freezer. If we lock them in there, not only will that create some of the largest Tutti-Fruiti popsicles and fudgesicles ever, but would also save the country. 

Trump says he's instructed Navy to 'destroy' any Iranian gunboats harassing US ships

Fox News  Trump warns Iran against 'sneak attack' on US troops in Iraq: 'Don't do  "President Trump said Wednesday that he's instructed the U.S. Navy to "shoot down and destroy" any Iranian gunboats harassing American ships, in the wake of a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf. 
"I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," Trump tweeted." . . .

CNN's Don Lemon: This is Who the Hell They Are

VeggieTales Reboot To Include Sanctimonious, Elitist Lemon Named Don

Lemonade from Parody. . . "One new character confirmed to appear in the show is a sanctimonious, elitest lemon named Don. A news anchor and cultured elite, Don the Lemon anchors a news show on Veggie News Network, popular in airports and hotel lobbies in the VeggieTales universe.
"Don the Lemon will lecture all the other vegetables on how they're not as cultured as he is on his show and laugh at them for being dumb, hick vegetables.
" 'Have you ever seen the Grape family?" he says, laughing, in one upcoming episode. "They're like the Beverly Hillbillies but they're grapes instead of humans!"

Mark Landsbaum  "God bless the media. Without it, I wouldn’t have known that CNN’s Don Lemon indignantly demands to know, “Who the hell do you think you are?!”

"Yours truly has only a vague sense of who Don Lemon is and has never in my memory seen his program on TV or him in the supermarket or anywhere else. But I can answer his question.

"Mr. Lemon reportedly directed his question to armed protesters who, despite the nation’s lockdown and stay-at-home orders, had gone public to demand their constitutional rights to assemble, to lodge their grievances with their government and to arm themselves. That would be the First and Second Amendments, respectively." . . .

. . . "That, Mr. Lemon, is who those protesters are. They are the people who have seen the government over-react and assume authority and power both unnecessary and highly questionable. They are the people who as a result are mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore.

Dimwit Politics

"When people reach that point with their government -- or with their media -- they exercise their constitutional rights to assemble, to express their grievances and to protect themselves from those who would deny them those rights.

"It would be good for Mr. Lemon to use his free time, confined to his home by government like the rest of us, to brush up on the Constitution, how it was arrived at and the price paid to provide it.

"Those rights, the Founders who put them in writing knew, aren’t permissions granted by governments or by rulers. Or even by nightly newscasters. They are rights of all people endowed by their Creator.

"Contrary to the current “progressive” understanding, the First Amendment wasn’t intended to protect obscenity. The right to speak and to protest government is the heart of the First Amendment. And, as the revolutionaries who gave us our Constitution intended, the Second Amendment wasn’t written to protect the right to shoot squirrels. It was written to protect the right to self-defense from tyrants who would deny the people’s rights.

"So, when Don Lemon asks, “Who the hell do you think you are?” there is an obvious and correct answer: they are Americans who know when their rights have been violated and “are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

No, Don Lemon, Who The Hell Do You Think YOU Are? . . . "Where do you get off telling them they somehow don’t have the right to protest with a firearm, especially in a time when they’re concerned–legitimately or not–that elected officials are becoming downright tyrannical. Those guns are a stark reminder that we will not stand for oppression and have the means to fight back.

"Again, they were complying with local gun laws. They weren’t carrying them in places where they were illegal.

"No, Don, your problem is that you just don’t like guns. You don’t understand them and you don’t understand those of us who support the right to keep and bear arms. That’s fine because we damn sure don’t understand you or how you managed to keep your job after speculating on air that a black hole swallowed a missing jetliner. I guess that makes us even."

De Blasio’s social distancing tip line flooded with penis photos, Hitler memes

Amy Noelle

NY Post

New Yorkers rag on the mayor  "Mayor Bill de Blasio’s critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to  for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints including “dick pics” and people flipping the bird, The Post has learned.

"Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter.

"One user sent the message “We will fight this tyrannical overreach!” to the service and got an automated message that in part said, “Hello, and thank you for texting NYC311.” 

“F–k you!” replied @MorganLSchmidt1, along with a meme showing Adolf Hitler and the words “TO THOSE TURNING IN YOUR NEIGHBORS AND LOCAL BUSINESSES — YOU DID THE REICH THING.”
Target on the mayor's back

Washington State, is Governor Jay Inslee the best you have in your state?

National Review: Yes, But Where Did She Go to Law School?

From Slate:  Washington State Now Has the Most Diverse Supreme Court In History
"Donald Trump’s presidency has been a disaster for judicial diversity. His judges are overwhelmingly straight, white, and male. Many are wealthy corporate attorneys born into privileged American families whose connections guided them along a path to power. In other words, Trump judges do not look like the country they serve.
"While the federal bench grows more homogeneous by the day, Democratic governors are diversifying their state judiciaries to an unprecedented degree. On Monday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, elevated Grace Helen Whitener to the state Supreme Court. Whitener is a disabled black lesbian who immigrated from Trinidad. She joins Inslee’s two other appointees: Raquel Montoya-Lewis, a Jewish Native American who previously served on tribal courts, and Mary Yu, an Asian-American Latina lesbian who officiated the first same-sex marriages in the state." . . .

Washington Supreme Court Justices Mary Yu, Grace Helen Whitener,
and  Raquel Montoya-Lewis.

. . . "The Washington Supreme Court is notably liberal; in recent years, it has issued decisions abolishing capital punishment and juvenile life without parole while upholding LGBTQ non-discrimination laws and progressive public financing of elections. It represents a vision of a different kind of jurisprudence from a radically diverse bench—what the federal judiciary might look like if a Democratic president and Senate controlled the judicial confirmation process. Joe Biden has already pledged to name a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court if elected, but he’ll have scores of lower court vacancies to fill, as well. He should look to states like Washington to learn how to reshape a judiciary to look more like the country it serves." . . .

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe will be secretary of state if Jay Inslee has any say

“My first act will be to ask Megan Rapinoe to be my secretary of state. I haven’t asked her yet so this could be a surprise to her,” Inslee said at the progressive Netroots Nation conference in Philadelphia. The governor explained that he wanted a secretary of state that leads with “love rather than hate.”

. . . “ 'I actually believe this, because what I think what she has said that has inspired us so much is such an antithesis of the president’s foreign policies,” said Inslee, who isn’t the first politician to throw Rapinoe’s jersey in the political ring. When Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) dropped out of the 2020 presidential race last week, he joked that Rapinoe would have his support if she chose to run for the White House. “I think she turns 35 next July,” Swalwell quipped." . . .

Some of that RapinoeLove:

•  “I’m not going to the f-ing White House,” Rapinoe told Eight by Eight." . . .
• “ 'New York City, you’re the motherf—ing best!” she yelled out to the crowd" . . .
• In addition, Rapinoe disrespected the presidency, saying that ignoring the anthem served as a “[expletive] you” to Trump, later saying she’s “not going to the [expletive] White House” if her team wins the Cup.

Gov Inslee's choice to represent our nation around the world. Including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Power of Media Ignorance

Victor Davis Hanson  "Almost two weeks ago I offered at NRO a few synopses of various theories about why California — which, for a variety of reasons, had seemed so ripe for a New York–style epidemic — had nonetheless strangely been exempt at least for a while from the virus’s spread. I included the pedestrian possibility of some previously acquired “herd immunity,” given the state’s singular exposure from November to January 31 to direct flights from China, including those from Wuhan, and initial CDC and media reports last year of an unusually early and severe assumed flu hitting the state.
"Within a few days, I was hit by media inquiries and private calls asking about my ongoing “coronavirus antibody testing studies.”
"Despite ad nauseam corrections that I had never claimed in the NRO article or elsewhere to be a doctor, much less an epidemiologist or a conductor of any such study, and that the Hoover Institution is not a medical school, the fake news still spread.
"I got dozens more calls and emails from private citizens who thought they had the virus and wanted confirmation of that supposed fact, in order to venture out and help others with antibodies. Some said they wanted “in” immediately.

"Others called saying they were scared that they had an unknown illness and wanted confirmation of what it had been." . . .

Trump campaign goes for the jugular with new ad: 'Let them eat ice cream — Nancy Antoinette'

I'm concerned that this video may have a negative impact on the Trump-Pelosi relationship. TD

Thomas Lifson  "No doubt, NeverTrumps are clutching their pearls over the visceral new campaign ad released under President Trump's imprimatur.  It certainly isn't gentlemanly the way George W. Bush was; it's primal in its attack on Nancy Pelosi and its appeal to class resentments.  It's not the sort of lose-with-dignity approach favored the last generation of the GOP establishment.

"But in an era of phony impeachment efforts and special counsel investigations and "blood on his hands" accusations, it is giving back to the Democrats exactly what they have been hurling Trump's way.
"It will require only 75 seconds of your life to savor it:"

"Best of all, it is entirely factual. Clueless Pelosi doesn't understand the way the lockdown is strangling the livelihood of Americans who don't live in $8-million mansions with $24,000 refrigerators.
"The  Democrats have been playing class warfare games for a century, even as the plutocracy has become their funders and puppet masters.  They think they have immunity.  They are very wrong."

The NFL Drops New Guidelines for Thursday’s Draft, and They Aren’t Colin Kaepernick-Friendly

RedState  "The NFL has issued new guidelines for 2020’s draft, and a kibosh is being put on politics.

"As reported by the New York Post, for Thursday’s virtual draft, aspiring athletes should “show up” to the selection ceremony sans-inappropriate-message. That is to say, the new rules prohibit shirts with sexual or violent content, garb that promotes non-NFL-affiliated brands, and clothing serving up political statements.

"From the Post:

Commissioner Roger Goodell will finally be able to announce picks this year without getting booed, but anyone thinking of still dissing him, the league or anyone else in it is out of luck. Prospects cannot wear anything that includes “disparaging depictions of the NFL” or “derogatory statements regarding the NFL, its owners, employees and/or NFL partners,” according to the memo.

"And they’re keepin’ it clean:

No racial, religious or ethnic slurs, explicit language, or libel or hate speech. And even more specifically, no “obscene, pornographic (or escort services), violent (including firearms or other weapons), or sexual imagery.” . . .

Below: which is more offensive to you?

Che and Democrats

"I just looked up the Wikipedia article on Che," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted while she was supposed to be working. "I don't see anything about him addressing climate change and wanting to destroy an entire economy based on wild-eyed apocalyptic predictions. I might have to throw away my Guevara T-shirts, to be honest."  Babylon Bee (below)

RedState*

Really, Ethel?  "We recently saw a photo of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, with an image of Che Guevara in the background.  

"At first, I thought that the lady was photographed in the wrong place.  I tried very hard to give her the benefit of the doubt.  After all, she is the widow of a former attorney general and U.S. senator plus sister in law of a president who almost went to nuclear war over Cuba.

"We were later told that Mrs. Kennedy is a big fan of Che because she has a "subversive streak."

"With all due respect to Ethel Kennedy, who just turned 92 this month, Che was not exactly nice to subversives.  He usually locked or executed them.

"The lady's love affair with Che reminds me of what Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor wrote a few years ago entitled "Bush and Che: different concepts of freedom."

"My favorite line is this:

"The admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology, certainly not to his Marxism," says Martin Krause, dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires and a longtime analyst of Argentine society. "It's a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he's a Quixote.

"In other words, they don't have a clue of who this man was. They love the image on the T-shirt or that he rode a motorcycle up and down the countryside.  

"Che was about tyranny and repression. There is nothing romantic about Che, unless you believe in political prisons or you don't know anything about this man's life.

"It is not fun to start an argument with a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.  However, watching people who live in freedom sharing the stage with Che is hard on the eye."  Silvio Canto, Jr.

Che even made a Babylon Bee parody that hits close to home, I'd say:
Resurrected Che Guevara Announces 2020 Run, Democrats Quickly Criticize As 'Too Moderate'

Such a sweet smile

. . . Guevara announced his run but was quickly denounced by many of his fellow candidates and other prominent Democrats."I'm just not sure Guevara is far enough left to be a viable Democratic candidate this election," said one political pundit on CNN. "He's really a centrist in the midst of this field of radical leftists, and we just don't think he's going to stand out this time."Democrats pointed out that while Guevara was a mass murderer, he really needs to specifically come out as allowing murder up to and including the moment of birth if he's going to be accepted as a mainstream Democratic candidate. . . .

*Red State: . . . "Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba at the time of the Revolution. “Guevara was jailer and executioner-in-chief of Castro’s dictatorship. As boss of the notorious La Cabaña prison in Havana, he supervised the detention, interrogation, summary trials and execution of hundreds of ‘class enemies.’”

"Hemingway once “witnessed the shooting of prisoners condemned by the tribunals under Guevara’s control. He watched as the men were trucked in, unloaded, shot, and taken away.”

"That was the real Ché Guevara.

"Yet, he became a hero in the counterculture of the 1960s. Guevara, or rather his famous photo, has become a symbol of rebellion for many in the West." . . .

Democrats Underestimate Trump at Their Own Peril

"Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, set up an emergency tent hospital, by invitation, in Central Park—and was accused by the mouthy Left (one faction for which, it really is “the city that never sleeps”) of trying to evangelize New York City. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was calling for absurd numbers of ventilators, and Trump responded at once and generously—to him and everyone else—as all conceded, including normally strident critics among the Democratic governors."

Conrad Black
The president’s enemies have not figured out how cunning he is, because he doesn’t seem cunning—at first.

"It is almost unbelievable that the Democrats have allowed themselves to be so completely out-maneuvered by President Trump in the coronavirus and economic crises. They are all calling for an indefinite protraction of the economic hemorrhage, with unemployment increasing by hundreds of thousands every day, even as the incidence of the virus declines.

"The Democrats started out with every advantage: the crisis came out of the blue and burst over the administration. As soon as there was any hint of how aggressive and dangerous the virus was, the anti-Trump press went wild—frightening the public with visions of a bubonic plague that threatened the life of everyone despite the fact that approximately 98 percent of people under 65 who get the coronavirus, survive it.

"At first, Trump was a bit blasé about “the flu.” But then, as he noted the potential scope of the problem and stopped direct flights from China on January 31, he was accused of “racism” and “xenophobia” by those pendants of the Democratic weltanschauung, likely presidential nominee Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

"As drastic forecasts of immense numbers of fatalities started tumbling out of ostensibly credible centers of epidemiology, the new refrain was that Trump was a moronic enemy of science. For a brief shining moment, his supposed complacency about the coronavirus was linked to his skepticism about the dire threat of climate change." . . . More...

John Durham investigation intensifies focus on John Brennan

Washington Examiner  "U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the Russia investigation is putting increased scrutiny on former CIA Director John Brennan, searching for any undue influence he may have had during 2017’s intelligence community assessment of Russian interference.
"Durham, selected by Attorney General William Barr last year to lead this inquiry, drove to Washington, D.C., in March to ensure the investigation stayed on track during the coronavirus outbreak. The top Connecticut federal prosecutor is looking into highly sensitive issues, including whether Brennan took politicized actions to pressure the rest of the intelligence community to match his conclusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.
"Officials said Durham has been interviewing CIA officials this year, zeroing in on those at the National Intelligence Council, a center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which oversaw the collaboration between the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency in putting together the 2017 assessment, and looking at how the work product was finalized.
"The 2017 assessment concluded with "high confidence" that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” and Russia worked to “undermine public faith" in U.S. democracy, "denigrate" former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and "harm her electability and potential presidency,” and “developed a clear preference" for Trump. The NSA diverged on one aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” that Putin actively tried to help Trump win and Clinton lose." . . .

Why would Russia want to hurt Clinton? She was their BFF!  . . . "As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.

"The Foundation wasn’t the only beneficiary:

And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.

"The speech was approved by- you guessed it- the Clinton State Department." . . .

Our Garbage Media

Power Line  "Want to know how you can tell when the lockdown became a new great depression? It’s when the media starts experiencing large layoffs. Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of media layoffs currently under way that makes for the feel good story of the week for sure.

"The New York Times reports that “Roughly 33,000 workers at news companies in the U.S. have been laid off, been furloughed or had their pay reduced. Some publications that rely on ads have shut down.” And it seldom gets better than this:

NPR Warns of Major Cuts Due to Coronavirus

NPR will be instituting severe cost-cutting measures as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Wednesday internal memo, with a budget deficit looming as high as $25 million through fiscal 2021. . .

"I suppose this will just free up a lot of media people to volunteer full time for Democrats, though of course they’re doing that already, so how could we tell?" . . .

"And then naturally the Huffington Post can’t help itself, because of the left’s Ahab fixation:

The White Male Is the Greatest Risk in Spreading the Virus . . .

. . . This White Male Effect will also almost certainly have played a part in how slowly the UK and the US responded to the emerging pandemic. Both the Johnson and Trump administrations have also turned to older white male experts for how to manage this crisis. . .
"This White Male Effect is caused primarily by the education system and society as a whole, which encourages white men to believe in their own superiority." . . .