Headlines

Dick Durbin: Senators have ‘gone too far’ in stating impeachment positions

Chip stocks are the top performers of the decade as the industry’s products infiltrate everything

Shock poll: 43% of evangelicals want Trump removed ...

Judicial Watch sues Adam Schiff for phone snooping records

Debbie Dingell says Trump’s remarks [about her husband] were a gut punch

Here’s why investors should shift emphasis to international opportunities

Trump has installed 187 judges to federal benches ... and counting!

President Trump signs defense bill creating Space Force

France’s Macron gives up presidential pension, asks for Christmas truce on strikes

Pete Buttigieg unveils his immigration agenda, pledging ‘path to citizenship’

Biden plays to 98 in Iowa ...

WSJ op-ed: ‘American Democracy depends on “Deep State”’

The Hammer

No, this blog post is not written to refer to Elizabeth Warren’s continual reference to “poor Americans being hammered.” It is meant to reinforce a point I have previously made about the economic competition between the United States and China. President Trump is making slow progress in his attempt to level the playing field in this economic arm-wrestling match between Xi Jinping and himself.

It appears the Phase 1 trade deal is done and now comes Phase 2, the harder one,. Trump has one tool for this phase besides tariffs, a huge hammer, he has yet to use in this competition ... and that is to force Chinese companies listed on American stock exchanges to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAPs) and to undergo annual audits by a reputable accounting firms.

Why our SEC has allowed Chinese companies to slide on these restrictions is beyond me? This has permitted its companies access to American capital that they shouldn’t have had ... and given them an unfair advantage against those American companies who have had to comply. And this capital has also indirectly funded much of China’s worldwide mischief.

At the very least, Trump should make such compliance a requirement for Xi to get a Phase 2 trade deal ... a hammer that finally would make the Chinese economic competition a far fairer match.

Starr Power

Ken Starr has a studied legal view on impeachment. Yes, he is conservative, but he also has gone through the Clinton impeachment and Senate trial process, so he knows a lot of detail about what might and might not happen when Trump’s trial opens in the Se nate. (If it opens.)

So, if you want to know what is to come, watch: Levin Interview. If need be, use the bottom slide to reset it to the beginning.

Mariah Carey

From Powerline blog

Or maybe it was Willie Nelson’s Christmas album?

Headlines

Judge delays Roger Stone’s sentencing until Feb, 20

Trump signs bills to avoid government shutdown, scrap Obamacare taxes and raise tobacco buying age

Millions sickened across America as flu season heats up ...

Franklin Graham: My father Billy Graham ‘voted for Donald Trump’

Pelosi invites Trump to deliver State of the Union on Feb. 4

Trump and Xi sparked a year-end rally that should extend into new year

EXODUS: California population growth slowest since 1900 ...

Sen. Rick Scott: If Pelosi doesn’t send articles, we won’t deal with impeachment

Gabbard lays low after voting ‘present’ on impeachment

Why we don’t have electric planes yet

Massive M-13 bust: 96 members charges in Long Island takedown ...

Harvard Law Professor: Trump not impeached until articles transferred

Never Mind

I have previously posted that Biden announced for president on Aug. 25th. Mea culpa ... it was April 25th. Another blunder due to my failing eyesight. Never mind.

Obvious Truth

Dementia is the mind shutting down first to soften the realization that the body is soon to follow. — Anon.

Headlines

‘Family Feud’: Trump still grumbling about witness-free impeachment trial

Elizabeth Warren releases $10.7 trillion plan to create 10.6 million green jobs

NOONAN: Crazy won’t beat Trump ...

Iceland’s 30 feet of snow: ‘We’ve never had on this scale’ ...

Democrat legal expert: Trump isn’t impeached until articles go to Senate

Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill passes Commons vote

Boeing Starliner fails key NASA mission as autonomous flight system malfunctions

Apple wants to bypass mobile carriers ... Beam Internet right to your iPhone ...

Federal funding bill gives Democrats $25M for gun violence research

Trump lashes out as Christian magazine calls for his removal

Trump says he had a ‘very good talk with President Xi’ about China trade deal

GDP unrevised at 2.1% ... Record 9,300 stores closed in ‘19 ...

Schumer: Pelosi withholding impeachment articles is a ‘win-win’ for Democrats

Obama’s Piss Poor Presidency

A commenter asked on Presidential what I meant by Obama’s “piss poor” presidency. I gave it short shrift and it deserves better ... so here is more — the urine that the “chosen one” managed to spread around during his pampered eight years:

- His initial apology tour ... disparaging his country
- Gutting our military
- Significantly deepening the domestic racial divide
- Doubling our notional debt burden by $10 trillion
- Spending $1 trillion on [non] “shovel-ready jobs”
- Cash for clunkers
- Attempting to destroy our coal and oil industries
- Relying on monetary and not fiscal levers for economic recovery
- Tens of billions lost on Solyndra and other crony  “investments”
- The stupid Paris Climate Accord
- Oblivious to huge trade deficits with China, Mexico and the EU
- Frequently disrespecting Israel
- The Benghazi debacle
- Allowing Hillary’s private email server
- Politicizing our intelligence agencies
- Obamacare which is slowly being fixed by Congress and the courts
- The Iranian nuclear deal giving it $150 billion and  $1.6B in hard cash
- Giving lip service to defeating ISIS ... possibly even arming them
- Reneging US commitment to put missiles in Poland
- Colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood and Black Lives Matter
- Unconstitutional DACA executive order
- Pardoning spy Chelsea Manning
- Swapping deserter Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban bad guys
- “Fast and Furious” gun running to Mexico cartels
- IRS discrimination against Tea Party groups
- Spying on political opponents and the media
- Selling 20% of US uranium to the Russians
- Russian reset including allowing them to annex Crimea
- Not arming the Ukraine with anti-tank missiles against Russia
- Not making NATO countries meet their committed military spending
- The very expensive Afghanistan “surge” producing nothing
- Not confronting North Korea’s for its bad behavior

Enough? And I’m sure I forgot quite a few!

Quotable Quote

Regrets are the fervid dreams that rationalize miscues you made while you were awake. — Anon.

Greta and Mom

From Powerline blog

The price of dystopia ...

Presidential

What does being “presidential” mean? It suggests that the person in the White House is an appealing orator, is a conservative dresser, is respectful and empathetic ... and represents America well to the rest of the world. Barack Obama was very presidential but a piss-poor president. Whereas, Donald Trump is hardly presidential but one of the best presidents we’ve had in our lifetimes.

You choose ...

Powerline Pic

You saw this Thelma and Louise idea here first! See: Thelma and Louise.

Nancy’s Children

House Democrats

Would You?

From daily timewaster blog

Cross this bridge?

Headlines

Pelosi downplays threat to withhold impeachment articles from Senate

S&P rises to another record as investors shake off impeachment, hits 3,200

Reporters caught celebrating [impeachment]?

Pope Francis has migrant crucifix installed in Vatican

Democrats stockpile cash for state-by-state redistricting fight

Housing supply hits record low, igniting prices

Schiff claims that Trump made ‘veiled threat’ to him ...

Clyburn: I would delay transmitting articles ‘as long as it takes’

Putin says Trump won’t be removed on ‘trumped-up charges’

Investors bet on a Clinton-like rally with stocks up 7% since impeachment inquiry began

Senate trial in doubt ... McConnell threatens to cancel

Mitch McConnell: Pelosi ‘to afraid’ to send impeachment articles to Senate

Reconciliation

If Trump keeps winning ... on trade, on employment, on the economy, on immigration,  on NATO, on the climate, on Russia, on Hong Kong, on the stock market, on impeachment(?) ... then there will be an even greater divide ... between the never-Trumpers and those of sound mind.

The problem persists: How do we bring these two factions back together? I have a suggestion ... we need to have a month of reconciliation! Maybe it’ll take a year? Anyway, during this period, the progressives will be given a chance to confess their sins to AG Barr ... wire tapping, phony dossiers, cut-outs, pay-for-play foundations, voter fraud, political dirty tricks, set-ups of naive campaigners, perjury, spying on political opponents, destruction of incriminating evidence (like 33,000 emails), soliciting graft, selling 20% of US ‘s uranium to the Ruskies ... maybe some out-of-statute-of-limitations Arkancides.

Then, after all these reconciliation confessions have taken place, the DOJ can drop the hammer on all these reprobates.

Stilton’s Place

From Mostly Cajun blog

Such [what’s the word?]!

Quotable Quote

Analogies are much like robots taking the place of humans. — Anon.

Headlines

New York judge tosses state fraud charges against Manafort

The thing that freaked everyone out about a recession is now moving in the other direction

Dems ordered not to victory dance ...

Nancy Pelosi wears all black on ‘somber day’ of impeachment

Susan Collins will run for re-election in Maine

Uncertainty remains on Wall Street about China-US phase one agreement: ‘More trade truce than deal’

Secret Surveillance court demands answers from FBI for errors, omissions in campaign investigation ...

Schumer admits Trump impeached ‘without the facts coming out’

Pelosi: Unless we impeach Trump, ‘say hello to president-king’

Trump’s economic approval hits highest level in year as Americans remain split on impeachment

French strikers angry about pension reforms, cut power to homes, businesses

Lisa Page on Maddow show: ‘This is not how public servants should be treated’