PrairiePundit

The Hill: New polls from several 2020 battlegrounds show more people oppose than support using impeachment to remove President Trump from office, a potential danger sign for Democrats. Support for impeachment is underwater in new surveys of Wisconsin and Florida, two key states in next year’s fight for the White House. Trump won both in 2016, turning Wisconsin red for the first time in decades and returning Florida to the GOP column after former President Obama carried it twice. In New Hampshire and Arizona, two more swing states, most voters oppose impeachment. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton narrowly won the Granite State in 2016, and Democrats believe they have a chance to win Arizona after securing a Senate race last year. A New York Times–Siena College battlegrounds poll released Wednesday found that majorities in Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Florida oppose removing the president from office through impeachment. Majorities or pluralit...

Washington Post: Is Trump’s base wavering over impeachment? The tale of one congressman’s defiance suggests not. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) dared to step out of line. The president’s supporters struck back fast. If anything this coup attempt has made Trump supporters more angry with those pushing yet another hoax as an excuse to overturn the results of an election.    The Democrats are likely to never get the benefit of a split ticket again by Republicans.

NY Times: ‘Walmart Feels Like Home Now’ for These Fire Evacuees As the Kincade fire blazes on, dozens of evacuees have taken refuge in a shopping center in Rohnert Park, Calif. I suspect the store has an auxiliary power supply too.  With California utilities having to cut power because they have been forced to waste so much money on wind and solar that they had little left for line maintenance making their system more vulnerable in the high winds.  Big Green is destroying the state's forest by preventing the clearing of deadwood and underbrush as well as fire breaks.  Califonia keeps voting for radical environmentalists who are responsible for this mess. BTW, goats have been used to clear the brush around the Reagan Library which may halt a fire in that area.

Chuck Devore: Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his political allies claim climate change is driving California’s increasingly intense and deadly wildfires. That’s nearly true. Climate change assumptions drive the state’s energy and environmental policies. This has resulted in people being killed in terrible wildfires, electrical blackouts to millions of people causing $5 billion so far in lost economic activity, all while diverting limited resources to a fool’s errand. For instance, California’s large and heavily regulated public utilities—PG&E, SDG&E, and SCE—prioritize wind and solar power, leaving little for powerline maintenance and upgrades. Simply put, the utilities are doing exactly what the regulators tell them to do. They make money for their investors on wind and solar; they don’t on powerline maintenance. Examining California’s determined push to decarbonize its economy shows a policy unsupported by logic, and shaky on fact. First is the matter o...

Breitbart: Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, who provided key testimony to the Democrats’ controversial impeachment inquiry last week, led an election observation delegation in Ukraine earlier this year for a George Soros-funded organization that at the time boasted Hunter Biden on its small chairman’s council. Two months before he came out of retirement to serve as the highest ranking U.S. official in Ukraine, Taylor led an election observer delegation to Ukraine’s April 21, 2019 second round presidential election for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) organization. The delegation’s mission, according to NDI literature, was to “accurately and impartially assess various aspects of the election process, and to offer recommendations to support peaceful, credible elections and public confidence in the process.” Taylor led the team along with former Director of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Ri...

Debra Heine: The anti-Trump “whistleblower,” whose complaint against President Trump spurred the Democrats’ impeachment inquisition, is a 33-year-old registered Democrat who worked under Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, RealClearInvestigation’s Paul Sperry reported Wednesday afternoon. Eric Ciaramella, the anti-Trump operative, also worked with Alexandra Chalupa, a Democratic National Committee opposition researcher who led the effort to link the Trump campaign to Russia during the 2016 election. Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American, “met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia,” according to Politico. The DNC paid Chalupa $412,000 from 2004 to June 2016. The DNC operative also reportedly partnered with a notorious convicted domestic terrorist-turned-activist known as the “Speedway Bomber” to dig up dirt on Trump. Chalupa in 2016 said she “felt th...

Jeff Dunetz and Alicia Luke: House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan shredded Adam Schiff over his censorship of their questions to witnesses, the continuation of the Soviet-style scheme he’s been running for weeks and the one-sided leaks by Adam Schiff crafted to attack President Trump. Still no actual due process for the President. Scalise and Jordan “When we asked [Vindman] who he spoke to after important events in July — Adam Schiff says, ‘no, no, no, we’re not going to let him answer that question,”‘ Jordan said. Jordan went on to say that Schiff seemed to be breaking his own rules for the hearings, implying the chairman was acting almost like a “lawyer” for Vindman. “This stinks to high heaven. This shouldn’t be allowed, not in the United States of America.” ... There is more. Schiff acts as if he is afraid of allowing the truth to come out.

Elizabeth Vaughn: Rep. Debbie Lesko Absolutely SHREDS Adam Schiff And His New Resolution In Rules Committee Meeting ... As the clip begins, Lesko is studying a copy of the new resolution which she has marked up and she’s in the middle of a slow monologue. She’s in disbelief over the unfairness of it all. “…On page 4, it says basically that Rep. Nunes, the ranking member on Intelligence needs the permission of Chairman Schiff to subpoena witnesses…unlike what happened in the Nixon and Clinton hearings.” A gentle male voice is heard saying, “Will the gentlelady yield?” Lesko ignores him momentarily. Looks up for a moment, says, “I will when I’m done. Thank you.” She continues. “Um, and then on page 5, line 3 forward. Chairman Schiff is not required to make public all transcripts. He can pick and choose or he can choose not to make any transcripts public.” Peruses the transcript. Continues. “Adam Schiff determines what he deems appropriate to include in his report. If you...

Red States: Whenever you think that there’s no bottom to how silly the liberal media can be in their effort to go after President Donald Trump, just remember, they can always be more ridiculous. Today’s controversy definitely has to be one of the stupidest media jacked-up controversies ever. One of the details Americans found out about the raid to get Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was the heroic actions of a Special Forces dog who chased Baghdadi down the tunnel and was injured when the ISIS leader detonated a explosive device killing himself and three of his children. ... Then the Daily Wire created a cute meme about the dog. The Daily Wire ✔ @realDailyWire Please, @ realDonaldTrump . 9,955 1:04 PM - Oct 29, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,534 people are talking about this The president used it, calling the dog an “American hero!”... The media went crazy and not in a good way.  Check out the link to s...

Mollie Hemingway: Legacy media outlets responded to President Trump’s announcement of the U.S. military’s successful mission against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with their trademark hostility and anger. That’s because the inarguably good news threatens corporate media goals for shaping foreign policy, impeaching the president, and defeating Trump in 2020. “Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated — he will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child,” Trump told the nation on Sunday. “He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.” Yet the media reacted not with the praise and excitement that greeted President Obama’s announcement of a similar successful operation against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but with anger and rage. Many media outlets soiled their beds, but the Washington Post is representative of ...

Washington Post: White House lawyer moved transcript of Trump call to classified server after Ukraine adviser raised alarm John Eisenberg restricted access to the document after Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman relayed concerns about the president’s statements on the call with the Ukrainian president, according to people familiar with Vindman's testimony. There was really no logical basis for concern about the call.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with requesting help from a  foreign government in an investigation of corruption by US officials.  The fact that Biden might be a candidate opposing Trump is immaterial.  It does not give him a pass on his past conduct.  It is alleged that Vindman was advising the Ukraine government at the same time he was supposedly working for the US.  If that was true it raises questions of dual loyalty and conflicts of interests.  Who was responsible for putting this guy in this position? There is also the sho...

Breitbart: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday slammed the House Democrats’ impeachment proceedings resolution, stating it “falls way short” and effectively elevates House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to a “de facto special prosecutor.” ... As Breitbart News’ senior editor Joel Pollak writes, the measure’s proposed rules raise red flags about the probe’s fairness: 1. The resolution gives authority to the House Intelligence Committee that it has never had before. 2. The resolution does not provide the minority with equal subpoena power, as in the past. 3. The resolution waters down minority powers over the release of Intelligence transcripts. 4. The resolution does not compel the release of past testimony. 5. The resolution restricts the president’s right to be represented. Following the text’s release, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement unloading on House Democrats, branding their impeachment probe a “sh...

Real Clear Politics: " The Plot Against The President " author Lee Smith discusses the Democratic plan to impeach President Trump with FBN's Maria Bartiromo and says the "cult" trying to "protect the swamp" is behind it. "I see it as a secret ritual conducted by a cult," he said. "I mean, they are doing most of this in secret, I think it’s worthwhile thinking of Speaker Pelosi as the high priestess of the cult and Adam Schiff as high priest of the cult and the purpose of the cult is to protect the swamp and what the swamp has done." "President Trump was sent to the American voter to drain the swamp and yet it’s the role of Madame Pelosi and Mr. Schiff to protect the swamp. What they are talking about impeachment is ridiculous, it bears no connection to reality just as Russiagate bears no connection to reality," he explained. Check out the video at the link above. I have read excerpts from Smith's books and he ...

Schiff has tried to stifle evidence on the names of those he shared it with.

Fuel Fix: San Diego has the most residential solar density in the United States with 10.2 percent of homes with solar panels, according to a study of 21 major metropolitan areas. The other cities that round out the top five solar communities are also in California, including San Francisco, Riverside, San Jose and Los Angeles, according to Cape Analytics of California which uses aerial images to analyze property risk and value for insurers. Houston barely registers at No. 18 on the list, according to the study. Only .001 percent of Houstonians have solar panels on their roofs, reflecting the lack of state-wide incentives to install solar systems that California and other states offer to their residents. ... Texas tends to have more reasonably priced electric rates because the grid is not dominated by solar panels.  Texas tends to use more reliable natural gas supplemented by wind energy. Houston voters should be wary of campaign promises by Democrats running for president w...

PJ Media: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is reportedly telling witnesses testifying in the impeachment inquiry not to answer questions by certain Republicans. While speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise slammed the secretive process, pointing out that Schiff gets to choose all the witnesses, but that he's also "directing witnesses not to answer questions that he doesn’t want the witness to answer if they’re asked by Republicans.” If true, this is, by definition, witness tampering . According to U.S. Code § 1512, anyone who "knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to cause or induce any person to withhold testimony," has tampered with a witness. If Schiff is directing witnesses not to answer questions, he's effectively trying to get them to withhold testimony. ... Schiff has also...

Fox News: A new study has found that the majority of coverage dedicated to the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump is based on reports from anonymous sources. The Media Research Center revealed on Tuesday that in the month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., formally announced the launch of the impeachment inquiry, 322 minutes of air-time was tallied between ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News with 140 individual news segments. Among those segments, roughly 57 percent "relied at least in part on information from anonymous sources." Comparing the evening news programs, both "CBS Nightly News" and "NBC Nightly News" tied with approximately 60 percent of their coverage relying on anonymous sources while "ABC's World News Tonight" came in at 54 percent. "Every source who talks to a reporter is promoting the facts and spin that best reflects their agenda," MRC research analyst Bill D'Agostino wrote in his st...

Washington Free Beacon: The State Department has opened an investigation into a campaign of leaks targeting the Trump administration's top Iran official, including leaks of a non-public inspector general report, according to multiple sources inside the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on the investigation and the report. Brian Hook, the special representative for Iran and one of the longest-serving Trump appointees in the administration, has been a focus of an inspector general investigation alleging he engaged in politically motivated staffing decisions involving a career State Department official who worked closely on the Obama administration's landmark nuclear deal with Iran and other diplomacy with the Islamic Republic. Details of the IG report centering on Hook were given to the Daily Beast in September, just as Hook was being considered as the White House's next national security adviser. The timing of this leak has amplified concer...

Thomas Lifson: Finally! A political figure, rising star Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, has challenged the false premise that there was anything wrong with President Trump asking for Ukrainian help in an investigation of corruption in the 2016 election undertaken by Joe Biden. Just because it would  potentially  help discredit a  potential  political opponent is no reason to override the public benefit from investigating corruption. For some reason, no other national politician has bothered making this point. Crenshaw did so yesterday on CNN, and faced intense opposition from CNN’s Chris Cuomo: Washington Examiner ✔ @dcexaminer Rep. @ DanCrenshawTX defends @ realDonaldTrump 's phone call with Ukraine. He argues that an investigation into Biden and his son is within public interest and within his scope to ask Ukraine to look into it. 580 9:05 PM - Oct 28, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 284 people a...

Breitbart: A newly-released poll found less than 40 percent of registered voters believe House Democrats should vote to impeach President Donald Trump. A USA TODAY/Suffolk poll states 36 percent of respondents support the House voting to remove the president, while 22 percent say Congress should continue with its impeachment inquiry but should not vote to remove him. Further, 37 percent say lawmakers should end their impeachment probe, while four percent remain undecided on the matter. When it comes to a Senate impeachment trial, 46 percent are in favor of convicting President Trump and 47 percent are against. The poll, conducted by telephone, is made up of 1,000 registered voters and was taken between October 23rd and 26th. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. ... Another poll shows the number at well below 50 percent . ... However, according to  Harry Enten , impeachment is not popular in key swing states like Wisconsin. He cites a new Mar...

Fox News: As Californians on Tuesday were forced to once again confront the dual threats of wildfires and forced blackouts, the apparent new normal is proving to be too much for some residents. The nation's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., will turn off the power for a third time this year to prevent powerful winds from damaging its equipment, which can lead to a blaze igniting. Up to 605,000 customers -- about 1.5 million people -- in 29 Northern California counties will be affected by this latest round of power cuts starting Tuesday. That means people who had the power go out Saturday and were still just getting the lights back on Monday are now faced with the prospect of being in the dark again for several days. The power cuts come as fire crews continue to battle the Kincade Fire in the state's wine country, a blaze that's destroyed 57 homes and damaged another dozen, with 90,000 homes and other buildings considered threatened. About 156,000 peop...

Salena Zito: ... You don't have to look any further than the sound bites from this past week's Democratic debate or the recent town halls. Confiscating guns, banning fracking, hiking taxes, providing free health care to illegal immigrants and stamping out religious liberty were the promises Democrats made to compete for primary votes. Here is what most of Trump's critics don't understand about why this new conservative populist coalition voted for Trump over not just Clinton but also 17 very qualified, distinguished, mostly establishment Republican candidates in the party's primary battle. It was never about Trump. It was always about their communities. Trump was the symptom, not the cause. These voters aren't going to budge. It's not that everyone who voted for him considers his first term a massive success that has improved America's economy and made us safer. It's that Democrats and never-TrumpRepublicans have done nothing to reflect on w...

NY Post Editorial: Between the raging wildfires and the blackouts, California is now offering an abject lesson in the perils of wishful thinking. The state’s leaders may blame climate change or big utility companies, but in reality it’s their own damn fault. By Monday morning, Pacific Gas and Electric had broken its record for households blacked out — the company’s effort to avoid the downed live power lines that can start fires. Yet high (but not record-setting) wind gusts are still triggering wildfires, and not just in PG&E’s service area. Why have 10 of the state’s 20 largest, most deadly fires ever occurred in the last decade? Because its forests are now twice as dense as they were 150 years ago — when the population was a fraction of today’s. Behind that unnatural density: state and federal rules that make it nearly impossible (and insanely expensive) to lay a finger on any of this precious overgrowth. Green sentiment has beaten back the timber industry, which might ...

CDN: Eric Ciaramella, Schiff’s ‘whistleblower” has ties to Susan Rice and Joe Biden The worst kept secret in Washington is that former NSC staffer and CIA employee Eric Ciaramella is Adam Schiff’s secret “whistleblower” in the ongoing Nancy Pelosi impeachment farce. More importantly, Ciaramella has a long history with Obama NSC advisor Susan Rice and former Vice President Joe Biden. Add that to the list of “witnesses” before Schiff ‘s Stassi East German secret police-style lack of intelligence committee. You have a succession of partisan Trump-haters with long pedigrees of either being Democrat operatives. Deep ties to Burisma holdings. Or active participants in the George Soros Open Societies Foundations. ... There is more. This could be the main reason Schiff has been trying to keep the identity of the 'whistleblower' secret.  It would show the real partisan impetus behind the coup attempt.

Mollie Hemingway: Legacy media outlets responded to President Trump’s announcement of the U.S. military’s successful mission against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with their trademark hostility and anger. That’s because the inarguably good news threatens corporate media goals for shaping foreign policy, impeaching the president, and defeating Trump in 2020. “Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated — he will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child,” Trump told the nation on Sunday. “He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.” Yet the media reacted not with the praise and excitement that greeted President Obama’s announcement of a similar successful operation against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but with anger and rage. Many media outlets soiled their beds, but the Washington Post is representative of t...

Washington Free Beacon: Hunter Biden’s China Entanglements Spark Concern in Senate Investigators probing potential conflict of interest in Hunter Biden's ties to $600 million Chinese takeover It wasn't just Ukraine. A U.S. senator is now investigating whether Hunter Biden improperly benefited from his business ties to a Chinese investment firm that has partnered with a Chinese-backed aviation company keen on stealing U.S. national security secrets. Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) received a classified briefing about the foreign investment deal on Friday, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China had raised national security concern in the U.S. before. American national security officials and independent analysts strongly suspected that the company, a major supplier of military jets in China, had hacked U.S. networks to steal the design of the F-35 jet and used the design to build its own stealth jet fi...

Washington Examiner: Joe Biden asserted at a Florida fundraiser that a primary reason voters support President Trump is that he is a "racist." Americans who support Trump, the former vice president said on Monday, “like him because of the issues. They like him because of the tax cut, they like him because he’s a racist — whatever the reason is, they like him.” During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton drew criticism for calling "half" of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables." She also said many of Trump's backers were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.” Biden added that although many of the president's supporters are motivated by prejudice, there "are still a lot of people out there who are afraid" and even backed Barack Obama at one point. “And they tend to be people who work working-class jobs. We talk about them as if they must all be racist. But these same folks voted for a black g...

Corey DeAngelis: Families love school choice, but Elizabeth Warren loves taking it away She wants to keep kids locked into failing schools instead of encouraging competition which would force failing schools to get better to keep students.

Washington Examiner: The lawyer representing the anonymous CIA employee who blew the whistle on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine once assisted a whistleblower who worked with Joe Biden's staff to accuse the military of failing to provide armored vehicles to the troops in Iraq. Whistleblower Franz Gayl, a Marine Corps civilian ground combat advocate, went public in 2007 with a now-disputed claim that the military had ignored or slow-walked requests for life-saving equipment, such as mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles and nonlethal offensive gear, that would have saved Iraqi civilians. Gayl was assisted by Andrew Bakaj, a former CIA officer who specializes in supporting whistleblowers. Bakaj is now the principal attorney for the career CIA officer who worked on the National Security Council under Presidents Barack Obama and Trump before departing and filing a whistleblower complaint with the Intelligence Community inspector general. The claim from Gayl helped...

Red States: Sharyl Attkisson Notices Something Obama Photographer Reveals, In Relation To Benghazi ... Folks on the left tried to compare the picture Pete Souza took when they got Osama bin Laden. Souza noted that every picture he made was saved according to the Federal Records Act and would eventually be made public. But as Twitchy reported , journalist Sharyl Attkisson made a couple of important observations about Souza’s comments. Sharyl Attkisson ✔ @SharylAttkisson This is interesting ("all photos saved under the law"). When I asked for White House & situation room photos the nite of Benghazi, White House photo office said I could likely have them by day's end. But Josh Earnest blocked release -- and they've never been seen to this day. 2,247 9:39 AM - Oct 28, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,518 people are talking about this So why was her request for the Benghazi pictures blocked ...