Climate crisis solutions starring (potty-mouth) Jonathan Pie ...
Friday, January 31, 2020
Mixed Motives
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz has quit President Trump’s defense team in a huff ... I think because he felt that they didn’t come to his rescue when he got attacked for his extra-refined legal argument against impeachment. Basically, Dershowitz felt, if the president was doing something in the public interest ... even though in the back of his mind he might feel that this would help him get re-elected, that this was not impeachable. In other words, even if the president had mixed motives, this was OK.
Of course, the Democrat House managers jumped on this subtle distinction by saying, if the president felt that his re-election was in the public interest, that this was OK too ... crowing that Dershowitz felt that the president could do anything to get re-elected. (This, unfortunately for Dershowitz, did fit the perception of many that this fits Trump’s personality.) Then the spittle-flecked media attacked him like the pack of wild viewer-rating-dogs that they are.
Dershowitz’s law school peer, Elizabeth Warren, even said she couldn’t follow his logic. (Of course she could, but this was easy punishment for jumping ship in the name of scholarship.) And, his new friends, Trump’s defense team, chose not to walk this no-win plank with him ... so, now he left his new buddies in a huff.
He, of course, was logically right in his legal arguments. But, for once in his illustrious career, Dershowitz has found that being right does not necessarily prevail.
Headlines
Senators pelt Trump’s lawyers and impeachment managers with questions
Coronavirus live updates: Outbreak is ‘grave concern’ as infections spread beyond China
Bernie internals: Set for big Iowa win ...
WH tells Bolton not to publish book until classified info removed ...
Pomp, tears and bagpipes as European Parliament ratifies Brexit treary
Fed holds rates steady, affirms commitment to higher inflation
Anything Trump does to get re-elected is UNIMPEACHABLE, says Dershowitz ...
Actress tells jury: Weinstein teased film roles in exchange for threesome
New poll: Biden and Sanders running neck-and-neck in Iowa
‘In truth, I never lied’ — ex-Trump aide Flynn claims innocence as he seeks to undo guilty plea
Bust: Congressional Budget Office projects trillion-dollar deficits indefinitely ...
Poll: Michael Bloomberg leaps to second place in Florida
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Lawyers
In a Nutshell
Maybe this is a foolish errand ... but nonetheless allow me to try to summarize President Trump’s foreign policy ... in a nutshell.
Keep ‘em guessing. Get close to your enemies and call out your friends when appropriate ... and speak harshly ... at least initially ... and then use a big stick, when required, to show you are not spineless. But avoid war and nation-building at all costs. Practice pragmatism and, most importantly, always put American interests first.
Check Mate
Kim after Soleimani ... where is Trump’s Christmas present? Is Trump’s foreign policy working?
War
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| A pic from reddit |
“‘We would be in World War Six by now’ if Bolton were still in the WH, says Trump in scathing tweets”
From what he has said and done, this image seems a close approximation of Trump’s view of war.
Headlines
Lobbyist bought tropical land from Biden’s brother
Coronavirus live update: Outbreak has killed 106 and infected nearly 4,700
MAG: All the president’s turncoats ...
Trump denies New York Times report on John Bolton book
Pompeo’s clash with NPR grows as journalist is barred from plane
Trump says Fed should cut rates so the US could pay down its $23 trillion debt
AG Barr worried about president’s conversations with leaders of Turkey, China ...
Prof. Dershowitz gives lecture of his life ... changes mind on non-criminal impeachment
Senate Democrats’ super PAC raises record $61M in 2019
Consumer confidence jumps as job market outlook improves
Republican leader warns party on fundraising, ‘Getting our asses kicked’
Poll: Bernie takes commanding lead in California
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Poll Rigging
In my politically active days, I could get supermarket go-ers to sign a petition that required them to sell their children into slavery.
Polls are a popular way of measuring ... and swaying ... public opinion. There are at least three ways that polls can be manipulated unfairly:
* Sampling — one generally finds when one can view the sampling profiles of a particular poll, that the left is disproportionally represented among the polling respondents.
* Question construction — Obviously the way a question is phrased can have a large impact on the results. Subtle biases can be introduced into any question through the clever use of adjectives and adverbs. “Do you approve of Trump’s tweeting?” is clearly different from “Does Trump’s persistent tweeting bother you?”
* Reporting — polling agencies usually do not provide access to all their polling data. Therefore, they can cherry-pick what cross tabs that they report. By rights news reporters should be able to request cross tabs of their own choosing.
Parlor Games
The Democrat’s primary jockeying and the Trump Senate impeachment trial are very entertaining games with their intrigues and counter-intrigues. The Dems are already planning their transition in taking over the White House when they don’t even know who this winner will be. All enough to tax one’s brain with decision-tree tracings over all too many possible branches.
As I have suggested, this parlor game is all very entertaining until one is brought up short ... realizing that all this is playing for keeps ... and too many of these possible outcomes will be good for no one.
Headlines
Bolton upends Republican fight against witnesses
Coronavirus prompts automakers to evacuate workers from China, weigh production delays
USA warns against China travel
Report: FBI reviewing allegations that Ilhan Omar married her brother
Supreme Court allows Trump to enforce ‘public charge’ immigration rule
Hunter Biden agrees to pay child support to Arkansas woman, avoids contempt charges
Romney, Collins signal [impeachment trial] was witness support ...
NYT: Draft Bolton book says Trumps wanted to withhold aid for inquiries
Trump predicts Palestinians will buy into his Middle East peace plan
US Air Force plane crashes in central Afghanistan
FoxNews poll: 50% want Trump conviction and removal ...
Report: Alexander Vindman’s brother clears books by NSC officials
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Obvious Truth
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| Source: My lovely wife |
“Dems’ modus operandi” ... aided with the help of the crooked media
192 Questons
The Senate begins questions in the impeachment trial on Wednesday and Thursday. These 16 hours of questions are expected to be answered in 5 minutes or less as per Chief Justice Roberts‘ instructions. By my calculations, this would allow possibly 192 questions toggled back and forth between the political parties. And, since there are 100 senators, this would allow at least one question per senator. This is a lot of political pontification ... but, I suspect, it can not and will not all be expended.
At most, I have predicted, only one day of queries, no witnesses (because the Dems won’t allow reciprocity) and this whole sordid affair to be concluded by Friday.
Not with a bang but with a whimper ...
Sunshine Laws
Sunlight is the best disinfective. — Louis Brandeis
Politicians have evolved innovative ways of raising money for campaign and personal benefit: book advances, speaking fees, foundation donations, etc. Since this clearly political larg.ess often escapes public reporting, these shadowy fundings need to be disclosed by sunshine laws ... at least once a quarter ... or more often.
Bolton
In the current impeachment kerfuffle about witnesses, were I a senator, I might be tempted to call the Democrats’ bluff and vote for witnesses’ testimony ... for four reasons:
- The major damage from Bolton’s allegations has already been done to Trump. It is doubtful that a whole lot more could bee gleaned from Bolton’s actual testmony ... and it is even possible that the expected impact might be diminished by Bolton’s careful phrasings and sour-puss demeanor.
- The Republicans would clearly get at least one reciprocal witnesses ... maybe more. The miasma surrounding the Bidens likely would overwhelm any new allegations by Bolton or others.
- A witness calling tit-for-tat would extend this Senate trial for weeks, maybe months ... severely damaging Senators Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar ... the Dem frontrunners ... because of their curtailed campaigning. This combined with the likely damage to Biden would cripple the top four Dem presidential candidates. Only Buttigieg and Bloomberg would escape.
- Such a revelation and testimony from Bolton might even cut into his book sales ... a just reward for his disloyalty and money grubbing.
Headlines
Schiff: Trump lawyers ‘definitely afraid’ of impeachment witnesses
How coronavirus is beginning to hit China’s economy
Virus strengthening ... Death toll rise ... 56 million quarantined
Confusion: Joe [Biden] contradicts Dem witnesses on Ukrainian scandal ...
Dershowitz: Democrats ‘completely failed’ to make case for Trump’s impeachment
Sanders leads New Hampshire Democrat primary less than three weeks out
Romney: ‘It’s very likely I’ll be in favor of witnesses’ ...
VA House committee passes gun control measures
Trump moves to gut Obama housing discrimination rules
The market’s valuation, momentum and speculative activity is nowhere near as extreme as in 1999
USA warns: Can’t evacuate all Americans from coronavirus epicenter ...
Macron begs USA to keep troops in Africa
Monday, January 27, 2020
Today’s Poser
Apparently the National Security Council has had a copy of John Bolton’s book for security review since the end of December. How come that Bolton’s comments about the Trump linkage between Ukrainian aid and its investigating of the Burisma/Biden scandal was leaked to the New York Times and not to Trump’s legal defense team? Is this a perfect validation of the Deep State?
Afterthought: And was this Deep State created when Obama made hundreds of his political appointments into protected civil servants right before he left office?
Too Much News
Baghdad embassy attack, Kobe’s tragic death, Trump’s Senate trial, Bezos’ iPhone hack, China’s coronavirus global spread, Grammys, swooning stock markets, Bolton book disclosure, Iowa caucuses, March for Life
Headlines
Mnuchin: U.S. ‘focused’ on cinching U.K. trade deal this year
Hong Kong confirms virus emergency for coronavirus; first cases appear in Australia
Turley: Neither side really trying to win ...
Molten: Impeachment ratings collapse as Trump job approval hits highs
Poll: Sanders leads field in Iowa
US to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China report says
At March for Life, Trump gets an enthusiastic reception ...
Maher: Media was ‘disappointed’ Civil War didn’t break out at VA gun rally
China coronavirus: Death toll rises to 41; more than 1,000 cases of infection confirmed in mainland
Trump impeachment trial: White House argues Democrats want to remove president from 2020 ballot
Doctor at Wuhan hospital dies ... Medic claims 100,000 infected ...
Grahan: ‘I want oversight of the Bidens ’
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Trial Predictions
- Republicans will move for a summary judgment on Impeachment Article 2 (Obstruction of Congress) ... and will succeed
- Trump lawyers will conclude their defense on Monday
- Senate will take only one day for questions
- Only two Republican Senators will vote to call witnesses ... Roberts will not interfere
- Three Democrat Senators will join all Republicans voting to acquit Trump on Article 1 (Abuse of Power)
- Senate impeachment trial will be over by Friday
- Schiff and Schumer will embrace in crocodile tears while Nadler eats a hot dog ...
Today’s Poser
Mayor Pete, in order to ingratiate himself with black voters, is now calling for reparations. This obviously opens up a can of night crawlers. Viz: If a black person has DNA proving that he/she is only 1/4 African-American, does this person get only a 25% reparations share? And, moreover, does his/her 75% non-black DNA owe reparations to the remaining portion?
Obvious Truth
Although the Democrats are vociferous about keeping Russia from interfering in our elections ... they seem perfectly contented with allowing illegal aliens to vote here in droves. This, once again, exhibits the stunning hypocrisy of the Left.
Headlines
Trump officials warn senators more Wuhan virus cases likely
The stock market just set another record, this one going back to 1972
Outbreak overwhelms ... 40 million quarantined ... ‘spreads through eyes’
Ammo sales surge as Virginians anticipate Democrat gun control
Trump threatens to cut California funding over abortion coverage
CDC confirms second US case of coronavirus and is monitoring dozens of other potential cases
Noonan: Impeachment needs witnesses on both sides ...
Between 500K and 1M non-citizens may get voting rights in New York City
Trump complains about his defense team’s ‘Death Valley’ impeachment time slot
Oil drops the most since May on fears coronavirus will hit growth
Update: 34 troops diagnoses with tram traumatic brain injuries after Iran strike
Record-high knife crime in ‘gun free’ Britain
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Today’s Poser
What’s more frightening ... the rabid-dog Trump impeachment mob ... or the prospect of being governed by one of the current Democrat candidates?
Lipstick
Quite a while back, my wife’s mother was asked why she always wore her lipstick to bed. Her reply: “In case I dream of Clark Gable.”
Headlines
Trump EPA curbs water protections
Coronavirus cases rise to more than 650 worldwide as infection spreads to new countries
Poll: 72% want witnesses ...
Boris says UK has crossed the ‘Brexit finished line’ as bill passes
China quarantines major city in attempt to contain coronavirus outbreak
Junk debt hit new record, posing elevated default risks, Moody says
Giuliani claims he has goods on Biden, threatens to go public ...
Donald Trump to become first U.S. president to speak at March for Life
Judge: No keeping Trump out of Avenatti trial
White House has started work on a second round of tax cuts to boost growth, Mnuchin says
Trump’s re-election looks more like long shot than slam dunk?
Al Gore gushes about Greta Thunberg: ‘Nobody speaks truth to power as she does’
Friday, January 24, 2020
Today’s Poser
The arrogance of the left: Why is it that those on the left automatically assume that you are of like politics ... whereas those on the right generally walk on partisan eggshells?
Survival
Some biologics have evolved very effective strategies to survive and propagate ... an example being tulips which, by their beauty, have enticed man to insure their bountiful future.
The Mole
Vladamir Putin cut his teeth in the KGB, the sinister and very effective Russian spy agency. And so Putin is very effective in the black arts of intelligence operations — espionage, moles, election meddling, counter spying, sewing division in a hostile government, fulminating insurrections, even killing dissidents, etc.
Russia has been very persistent in these spook activities. It runs circles around most Western governments who seem to spend most of their intelligence efforts on domestic political intrigue. The United States in particular has allowed Russian interests to supersede many of its own self interests ... particularly when it comes to weapons systems. For years, under Democrat administrations, the US under-funded anti-missile defense systems, deferred upgrading our nuclear arsenal, ignored Russian and Chinese territorial expansion and stopped safeguarding our uranium supplies.
How come? The answer is simple: sellouts for personal benefit. The Clintons, Bidens and even likely the Obamas have gotten enormously wealthy by trading off US national security for dirty Russian and Chinese money. And who is pushing back against this corruption? Answer: our current president, Donald J. Trump.
So why in God’s name would the Russians help the Orangeman get elected and then re-elected? It is clearly against its national interests. And one can rationally assume that, if the Russians had a mole in the US, that it would activate it to help defeat this foe. They might even, in a classic case of double switch, accuse Trump of colluding with the Russians! He would then be defeated at the polls ... and this would neuter this enemy and return the US to a more accommodating posture.
Therefore, my candidate for this perfect Russian mole (other than the above-ground Clintons, Bidens and even Obamas), would be a deep-cover Adam Schiff. It could be ... he certainly is shifty enough.
Afterward: I realize that some of you, kind readers, may think this post a bridge too far. But, this is no more radical than Hillary Clinton saying that Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset ... or a three year witch-hunt claiming that Trump colluded with Putin to get elected ... which, if you remember, came up empty.
Headlines
McConnell makes strategic retreat to keep firm grip on Trump trial
Trump says GDP would be near 4% and the Dow would be soaring if it weren’t for the Fed
Witness swap: Biden for Bolton?
Trump: Northam putting VIrginia ‘in play’ with gun control push
Bloomberg rises to 4th place in new national poll
China says coronavirus deaths rise to 17, heightening global alarm
Paper: Saudi prince hacked Bezos’ phone?
POTUS at Davos: E.U more difficult to do business with than China ...
Poll: Voters still support Trump removal, but support has slipped
Jamie Dimon says his one big worry is negative interest rates
Standoff: American troops block Russian forces from capturing Syrian oil field ...
Leaked intelligence report: 150 French areas ‘held’ by Islamists
Tulsi Gabbard sues Hillary Clinton for defamation
Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Defense
I here imagine myself the lead Trump defense lawyer, Jay Sekulow, and would lay out his defense in the Senate impeachment trial as follows:
First, I would set up what Biden had been up to after Obama put him in charge of the Ukraine portfolio. And then how his son, Hunter, was appointed to the Burisma board of directors at $83,000 per month. And then how the Ukraine attorney general was starting to look into this Burisma corruption.
Next I would play the above Joe Biden video where he brags about how he withheld $1 billion of US loan guarantees to the Ukraine unless and until this attorney general was fired ... which he, “son of a bitch,” promptly was.
Next, I would offer, on video, a professional actors’ re-enactment of the two phone calls between Trump and the Ukraine’s new president, Zelensky
Then, as a contrast, I would play Schiff’s reading of this famous July 25th call which was a blatant misrepresentation.
Then I would offer the videos from Schiff’s Intelligence Committee hearings ... in particular the embarrassing queries to the no-fact witnesses who were asked if they knew of any Trump crimes or impeachable offenses ... and no one replied in the affirmative. To be followed by the only fact-witness, Ambassador Sondland, relating Trump’s response when he was asked what he wanted, “I want nothing, no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do what he promised to do to get elected.” And that the US aid was shortly forthcoming.
Then, I would show what the Constitution writers wanted impeachment to be ... using Dershowitz’s explanation why maladministration was not impeachable. Followed by excerpts of the Ken Starr interview on impeachment with Mark Levin. And then, Professor Jonathan Turley s House Judiciary Committee’s testimony pointing out that the Democrats’ impeachment process was the real abuse of power.
Finally, I would present 10 to 20 videos of the House managers calling for Trump’s impeachment ... all before his famous July 25th phone call with Zelensky.
All told, this defense could be wrapped up in just one 8-hour day.
Headlines
First case of deadly China virus identified in U.S.
Boeing doesn’t expect regulators to sign off on 737 Max until June or July ...
2A activists: Media smearing VA protesters as ‘white rednecks’
Chaos as rock-throwing caravan migrants push into Mexico
Voters giveTrump’s job performance low marks
Housing market falling short by nearly 4 million house as demand grows
[Hillary] Torches Bernie: ‘Nobody likes him’ ...
Breaking bombshell: Warren’s son-in-law produced film fund by Iran
Supreme Court won’t fast-track Obamacare case
Swiss police believe Russian spies posed as plumbers to bug Davos
Fed pumps $90 billion more ...
Black Guns Matter Founder blasts ‘Governor Blackface’
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
House Managers
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I am increasingly convinced that the Democrats’ imperial House managers for Trump’s Senate impeachment trial are exhibiting inflamed exhortations against President Trump in a rather repetitious and disingenuous way. Add soporific, staged and self-serving. Maybe also monotonous, misdirecting, melodramatic, mean, mendacious and malevolent. Bodacious, blatant and bilious. Droning, diabolical and dubious. Unconstitutional, unruly and unctuous. Treacherous and tedious. Rapacious and reptilian.
Today’s Poser
How can the House impeachment-trial managers talk for 24 hours about a 30-minute phone call between Trump and Zelensky?
Trump in Davos
Trump’s impeachment trial has pushed real news out of the public square. However, President Trump yesterday lectured the elite world on US ecological and economic successes in Davos, Switzerland and showed the world that there is another way to deal with the doomsayers ... see: Trump in Davos.
Some of these tree-hugging plutocrats might have just been listening.
First Impressions
You never have a second chance to make a first impression. — Old Adage
The opening round of the impeachment trial goes to the Democrats. They may be liars ... but they are cleaver liars. On the first day they offered a series of amendments to McConnell’s procedural schedule calling for witnesses and documents. And then used their time in support of these amendments to make their opening arguments to the entire case ... during the time when the most Americans would be watching and when the president’s lawyers were not prepared to jump into this fray with their strongest arguments ... nor could they refute the opposition’s half-truths.
So, the Dems, even though they lost the votes on all these amendments, scored a minor victory which, depending on how the rest of the trial goes, may mean that witnesses and documents may have to be allowed in the end. And then, if the Dems can get their witnesses and deny the Republicans theirs, this might damage the president and the Senate Republicans enough to cause some setbacks this coming November. Unlikely, but possible.
Is this the Dem’s hidden agenda for this disruptive political theater?
