McCain and the Russian Dossier

McCain’s Key Role in Fueling Post-Election Trump-Russia Hysteria  . . . "It is true that McCain was an outspoken critic of Putin. But the big problem with McCain’s defense is that by the time he wrote those words—presumably the end of 2017, since the book was published in late May 2018—it already was public knowledge that the dossier had been authored and distributed by political pimps funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. When McCain was writing his book, many of the culprits were in serious legal jeopardy.

"Christopher Steele, the dossier’s author, was being sued for defamation and was under congressional scrutiny in 2017. (McCain had sent his close associate, David Kramer, to meet Steele in London shortly after the 2016 election to track down gossip about the president-elect.) Steele also remains the subject of a criminal referral at the Justice Department for lying to federal officials." . . .

As Russia collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges  "After nearly three years and millions of tax dollars, the Trump-Russia collusion probe is about to be resolved. Emerging in its place is newly unearthed evidence suggesting another foreign effort to influence the 2016 election — this time, in favor of the Democrats."
. . . 
We now have strong evidence that retired British spy Christopher Steele began his quest in what ultimately became the infamous Russia collusion dossier with a series of conversations with top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr between December 2015 and February 2016 about securing evidence against Manafort.

"We know the FBI set up shop in the U.S. embassy in Kiev to assist its Ukraine–Manafort inquiry — a common practice on foreign-based probes — while using Steele as an informant at the start of its Russia probe. And we know Clinton’s campaign was using a law firm to pay an opposition research firm for Steele’s work in an effort to stop Trump from winning the presidency, at the same time Steele was aiding the FBI. 

"Those intersections, coupled with the new allegations by Ukraine’s top prosecutor, are reason enough to warrant a serious, thorough investigation." . . .

Here's a List of Democrat Presidential Candidates Who Want to Abolish the Electoral College

Townhall

. . . "Other candidates haven't been directly asked about the issue, but when they are, this list will be updated."

Beto: 'I Think There’s a Lot of Wisdom' in Abolishing Electoral College   "Former Rep. [Robert Francis] O’Rourke believes abolishing the Electoral College is a wise idea—apparently knowing better than the founding fathers.

"Responding to a question posed by MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake about getting rid of the Electoral College, O’Rourke said he “sees a lot of wisdom in that" idea. 
“ 'I think there’s a lot to that. Because you had an election in 2016 where the loser got 3 million more votes than the victor,” O’Rourke said. “It puts some states out of play altogether, they don’t feel like their votes really count.' " . . .

Bobby O'Rourke Refuses To Support Law Protecting Babies Who Survive Abortion

Daily Wire  "Democratic presidential candidate [Bob] O'Rourke refused to voice support on Wednesday for a law that would protect babies who are born alive after surviving an abortion."
. . . 
"Thank you for being here," the student began. "You gave me a good excuse to be out of school. I wanted to ask you about a recent bill that just went through the Senate about two weeks ago and the bill was that if an abortion was performed on a viable fetus and the fetus survived the abortion the doctor would then be compelled to give that living baby the same care as any other pregnancy baby that came out and put that baby through the care."
"Would you support this bill that does not in any way limit abortion, it simply seeks to keep babies alive that have been born alive?" the student asked.
"The student was referring to the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which Fox News notes would require that "any health care practitioner present" at the time that the baby is born alive following an attempted abortion "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."

"The way that I would approach your question and this issue generally is to trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies," . . . 

Watch: Feminist Caught Stealing Crosses From Pro-Life Display. Then The Cops Show Up.  O'Rourke voter?

"On Friday, a feminist tried to steal crosses from a pro-life display organized by Students for Life at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before police officers stepped in.
"The unidentified female abortion activist (it’s unclear if she is a student), is seen picking up pink crosses in a display known as the Cemetery of the Innocents; the crosses commemorate the lives of babies killed by abortion.
"Is there a reason why you're doing this?" she asked the purple-haired feminist holding a white garbage bag full of their crosses.
"We disagree with it," the abortion activist answered." . . .

Who needs Fox News?

"Feisty" no longer; Charles Krauthammer is even more sorely missed by this writer.

Rich Terrell

Don Surber  "Paul Ryan cashed in on his congressional career by joining the board of directors of Fox News.
"The channel also hired Donna Brazile, whom CNN fired for giving Hillary questions in advance of a debate. CNN never said how a commentator like Brazile got the questions.
"Finally, Fox News suspended commentator Judge Jeanine Pirro for calling out Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's anti-Semitic comments.
Well, that is three more reasons why I skip Fox News.
"Its strength was neoconservatism.
. . . 
"The once feisty channel that rebeled against the establishment has become establishment. Suspending a commentator for giving an opinion is as stupid as firing a comedian for telling a bad joke.
"And yet Judge Pirro was suspended, and Roseanne Barr fired.
"The moves by Fox News make no sense unless its purpose is to drive viewers away." . . . 

If Fox becomes CNN, then what will we do?

Donna Brazile's debut on Bret Baier's Special Report

She who must be respected by Fox News

Pollak: Donna Brazile Trashed John McCain While He Was Alive; Now She’s His Biggest Fan  "Former interim Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile was full of posthumous praise for the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Wednesday’s edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier.
"The context was President Trump’s renewed criticism of McCain after a newly-released deposition showed how deeply McCain was involved in the fraudulent “Russia dossier” that has been used to attack the administration and divide the nation.
"Brazile, who Fox News recently hired as a contributor, began by criticizing the president for speaking ill of the dead. She then continued: “John McCain leaves a legacy. He leaves a legacy of sacrifice. … John McCain should be honored for his service.”
"It is heart-warming to read tributes to McCain from people who ignored his heroism and sacrifice and smeared his character when he ran against Barack Obama and, later, criticized him as president.
"In 2014, for example, Brazile tweeted a hit piece on McCain, “The Vacant Soul of Senator John McCain.” She added: “Interesting article.”
"The article was a response to McCain’s criticism of Obama for the Bowe Berghdal prisoner swap, in which the U.S. freed five major Taliban terrorists from Guantanamo Bay. McCain, a prisoner-of-war himself in Vietnam for five-and-a-half years, nevertheless criticized the deal. (Berghdal was later convicted of desertion.)
"What Brazile called an “interesting article” was a mean-spirited personal attack, with lines such as: “McCain had so much sunshine blown up his ass that his colon must have looked like Cabo San Lucas.” It referred to the war hero as a “small boy,” and accused him of handing U.S. foreign policy to corrupt “spooks and crooks.”
"When McCain was alive, and — as it happens — in the right, Brazile said he had a “vacant soul.” Now she is his number-one fan." . . .

Goofy, Albeit Predictable, Decision: Fox News Hires Donna “Debate-Gate” Brazile…

. . . "Ms. Brazile’s integrity and credibility was shredded and even the far-left ideologues at CNN HQ were forced to fire her.  In short, she’s a liar, a proven manipulator and an unapologetic fraud.  Yes, this cloud has now transferred over the head of all Fox media voices, pundits and contributors; Sara Carter and Dan Bongino,
 who will be contractually obligated to defend her or lose their paychecks." . . . (Emphasis mine, TD)


My Wednesday letter to Fox News Special Report regarding Donna Brazile's presence on the panel:
I'm appalled at the presence of Donna Brazile on special report today. For years we have appreciated the wise discussions on the panel, even when I did not agree with them. But your decision to add Brazile to the panel lowered the level of discourse and replaced an informed member with a political hack.
I thought Bret might have been somewhat disappointed over the low level of Ms. Brazile's contributions but instead he made her the favored guest.
One has to go back years to the presence of Sally Kohn  to find such a poor quality panel member.
I beg you as our news source of choice to be done with Brazile and those who made the choice for her.
Shame on the decision makers at Fox News.
(He that tooteth not his own horn, his horn don't get tooted. TD)

Free Felicity Huffman!

Ann Coulter   "Poor Felicity Huffman is being raked over the coals for paying a lousy $15,000 to get her daughter extra time to take the SAT. "

     "Jared Kushner's father paid $2.5 million to get him into Harvard -- and arranged for two of his beneficiary politicians, Sens. Ted Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg, to make calls on his offspring's behalf.
     "'His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it," a former administrator at Jared's private high school told Daniel Golden, author of the 2006 book, The Price of Admission. "There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard."
      "Welcome to the baby boom's remaking of college admissions!
      "For decades, going to college was a matter of social class, not IQ, talent or merit. From 1900 to 1960, only a tiny percentage of Americans even went to college, about 2 to 5 percent until well after World War II.
     "It wasn't until the '60s that admission to college first began to be based on a universal standardized test, the Scholastic Aptitude Test. This fulfilled the dream of Harvard president James Conant, who believed that SAT-based admissions would redeem America's promise of a classless society.
     "Recall that England's law of primogeniture was one of the best things that ever happened to this country. If you are a small island nation and want to keep land from being chopped up every generation, it makes sense to mandate that entire estates be bequeathed to the first-born son. But that left a lot of smart second-, third- and fourth-born sons -- not to mention daughters -- out in the cold.

     "The talented, but screwed, Brits responded by hopping on boats, sailing across the ocean and creating America! In this country, status would be earned, not inherited." . . . 

Walter E. Williams: College Cheating Scandal  . . . "One gross example of administrative dishonesty surfaced at the University of North Carolina. A learning specialist hired to help UNC athletes found that 60 percent of the 183 members of the football and basketball teams read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. About 10 percent read below a third-grade level. These athletes both graduated from high school and were admitted to UNC. More than likely, UNC is not alone in these practices because sports are the money-making center of many colleges." . . .

Ivy-League Schools Wither

Question the doctrine of radical policy changes meant to accommodate global warming, doubt that sexuality is socially rather biologically constructed, abhor partial-birth abortion and infanticide, or object that race-based admissions violate the spirit of equality under the law — and you are likely to face disruptions, protests, and verbal or even physical violence, with the wink and nod or appeasement of a terrified college administration.

Victor Davis Hanson. . . "A Yale and a Stanford, or Facebook and Google, assume — for the most part rightly — that each is so loudly progressive that the public, federal and state regulators, and politicians would of course turn a blind eye to anything questionable that these social-justice institutions did.

"And they have done a lot of quite questionable things — cynically (and in medieval fashion) using their progressive veneer to exempt themselves from the consequences of their actions, so that they may do what otherwise would earn scrutiny and worse for most other American institutions.

"Our nation’s marquee universities, such as Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown — with dozens more no doubt to be named — recently got caught selling admittances." . . . 
. . .
"The irony is rich. The offenders were not the children in Dayton or Great Falls of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” and “irredeemables,” or of the late John McCain’s “crazies,” or of Barack Obama’s “clingers” — it was not they who were using their “white privilege” to break the law as they virtue-signaled their racialist disdain of the working classes (who were without white privilege). What a strange psychological mechanism: Wealthy white liberals apparently squared the circle of their own private and insider privilege by fobbing “white privilege” off on those who don’t have it — as they used their privilege cynically for their own children." . . .

No Rowing Experience? No Problem. Here’s a College Scholarship  "The press is ignoring the role that universities and Title IX played in the Varsity Blues scandal."

Whistleblower exposes Google’s religious bias in labeling Christian videos ‘homophobic’

LifeSite  "Whistleblower and Google software engineer Mike Wacker revealed evidence that the human resources department of the giant corporation exhibits bias against Christians, labeling Christian YouTube ads “homophobic.”

"Wacker tweeted Wednesday, "Let me give an example related to religion this time, one where HR is involved in describing sincere religious beliefs as 'homophobic.’" He referred to two videos that LGBT advocates regarded as objectionable, thus complaining to Google, which owns YouTube.

"Wacker included in his tweet a video by Christian radio host Dr. Michael Brown “Can You Be Gay and Christian?" and one by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) titled "Barronelle Stutzman's Story." Homosexualist objections stemmed from a 2018 story in PinkNews about LGBT activist and author Gaby Dunn, who had asked fans whether they had seen any “anti-LGBT” ads on her YouTube videos." . . .

"In the ADF video, florist Barronelle Stutzman explained that she was sued by the State of Washington and the ACLU when she refused to make a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding even while she otherwise has LGBT clients in her shop.

"In retaliation for the perceived offense on the part of LGBT advocates, Google ruled that Brown's video violated its policies for advertisements on its platform. He was barred from paying YouTube to promote his video. Currently, his video does not appear as an advertisement before any other video on YouTube." . . .

Full article here.

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Electoral College: 'Democrats want rural America to go away'

The upshot of losing the Electoral College is that voters who chose the California legislature and NY Mayor De Blasio will choose your President. Every morning you will wake up, wondering what your government will do to you next. TD

Washington Times  "Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed progressives Tuesday for pushing to end the Electoral College system, suggesting they want to do away with middle America.

“ 'The desire to abolish the Electoral College is driven by the idea Democrats want rural America to go away politically,” the South Carolina Republican tweeted. 

"His comment comes in response to 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said in a town hall hosted by CNN Monday the system by which Americans have elected presidents for the past 230 years must come to an end.  

“ 'That means getting rid of the Electoral College,” the Massachusetts Democrat said.

“ 'Everybody ought to come here and ask for your vote,” she told the Mississippi crowd.

"President George W. Bush won the 2000 election against former Vice President Al Gore via the Electoral College, as did President Trump against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Both men lost the popular vote.

"Progressive voters, still sour over the 2016 upset, are pushing Democrats to eliminate the system laid out in the Constitution for electing the president and vice president." .  .  .

"Make every vote count", Elizabeth Warren says? If you live in a red state, don't even bother to vote; you'll never see a candidate in your area. TD

---

Democrats between O'Rourke and a hard place

Image by Mike Harris

Beto: 'I Think There’s a Lot of Wisdom' in Abolishing Electoral College   "Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke believes abolishing the Electoral College is a wise idea—apparently knowing better than the founding fathers.

"Responding to a question posed by MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake about getting rid of the Electoral College, O’Rourke said he “sees a lot of wisdom in that" idea." . . . 

Bobby Francis raised $6.1 Million in 1st 24 hours, slightly topping Bernie and leaving female candidates in the dust   . . . "Question is, how long will the Democrat Party have to tolerate O’Rourke? Politico noted that O’Rourke drew in large crowds, but it didn’t go smoothly:

Four days into his presidential campaign, O’Rourke’s supporters are still stuffing themselves into coffee shops and living rooms across the Midwest to see the Democratic sensation as he motors east from Iowa to New Hampshire in a Dodge Grand Caravan. And O’Rourke by the weekend was moving deliberately to speak more specifically about policy, to hold more organized events and to mend his relationship with the media.

. . . "O’Rourke couldn’t give many straight answers when it came to policy. He also offended some when he said that he sometimes helps his wife raise their three kids. That led to an apology and him admitting he has “white privilege.”

"It doesn’t help that O’Rourke’s website is filled with merchandise and lacks his position on issues. I looked it up this weekend and found his website bland. I had to navigate news websites in order to find where he stands on issues. Those in Iowa noticed his lack of answers:" . . .

Beto-mania and Our Cult of Personality Politics   "A charismatic candidate develops a cult of personality, then uses the party apparatus as a platform not for any ideas, but rather to promote a celebrity brand."

Giant Rock Sculpture of Beto's Face Appears in Austin   . . . "The press insisted it was no big deal that Beto livestreamed a trip to the dentist, and they're already racking their brains to excuse his habit of jumping up on restaurant countertops with his filthy feet. They're projecting all their hopes and dreams onto him, and they're not going to let reality spoil the party."  . . . Worshippers gather from around the world to touch it!

To use a stupid phrase: The Democrats’ favorite privileged white male has finally found himself.

"Friends of the young Bill Clinton and Barack Obama spoke of the special glow of promise they had about them, even back in their early twenties. Angels sat on their shoulders. History gave them a wink and said, “Hey, good lookin’, I’ll be back to pick you up later.”

"Robert O’Rourke? Not so much. He was just a weirdo. That isn’t my word, it’s how his friends saw him. “You’re supposed to make friends with future secretaries of state, not weirdo musicians,” one O’Rourke pal, Adam Mortimer, told the New York Times. “It’s like, wait, one of the weirdo musicians might run for president.”  . . .