PrairiePundit

Weasel Zipper: ... Sekulow: "After 31 or 32 times you said you proved every aspect of your case... [pauses for response] That's what you said." Schiff: "We did." Sekulow: "Well then I don't think we need any witnesses." Sekulow: ... It looks like Schiff walked right into that one.

Patricia McCarthy: By now, nearly every citizen near a television or computer has seen the clip of Don Lemon,  Rick Wilson , and Wajahat Ali mocking and degrading Trump and his supporters in a particularly poisonous way.   Andrea Widburg  today points out what a gift this is to the Trump campaign, and the GOP has already released  an ad  using it.  Don Lemon is actually the stupidest man on television, as Mark Levin often remarks, so no one expects anything other than rank infantile behavior from him.  He is a child in an adult body and fortunately has no children. ... Thanks to President Donald Trump, we now all know who the phony conservatives were and are.  Their objections to Trump are to him personally, the fact that he is not one of them.  This club of self-appointed super-elite elites simply cannot abide a clever fox in their henhouse.  They are a pathetic bunch of whiners, but not all o...

Hamid  Enayat: The disqualification of 90 incumbent members of parliament (Majlis) for the next parliamentary elections to be held on February 22 in Iran indicates the intention of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to consolidate his regime so he can thwart the crises that have been plaguing it. The disqualified parliamentarians belong to groups other than Khamenei's inner circle and were disqualified by the unelected Guardian Council, which is entirely and exclusively under the direct control of Khamenei.  The supreme leader, however, knows better than anyone else what kind of risks such purging of current M.P.s and other candidates poses. But what other option is left for Iran's religious dictatorship?  In a country rich in natural resources, where more than two thirds of the population is  living below the poverty line, unemployment is raging among the younger generation, especially the most educated, who cry freedom and democracy and a decent life...

Mark Hemingway: Over the weekend, Washington Post columnist Max Boot had a novel take on President Trump’s impeachment. According to Boot, what Trump said on the phone call with Ukraine’s president was in some ways worse than Andrew Jackson’s forced relocation of Native Americans or FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. “Other presidents — from Andrew Jackson with the Trail of Tears during the 1830s, to Franklin D. Roosevelt with the internment of U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II — have trampled our values, but they always had a public purpose and usually had congressional support,” Boot wrote. Either Boot or someone at the Post came to their senses, because the sentence was later amended (stealth-edited) to clarify that Native American genocide and racist imprisonment were “far worse things” than Donald Trump’s alleged misdeeds. But by then, Boot was already being roasted on social media. There are many more examples o...

Sharyl Attkisson: The Department of Justice Coverup of its Spying on Me Continues It looks like there was a culture in the Obama administration that it was OK to spy on people they saw as a danger to the political agenda of that administration.  That culture was not restricted to just reporters digging up stories but was also used to spy on the Trump campaign through illegal FISA warrants that used Carter Page as an excuse to get their nose under the Trump campaign's tent. When will the Obama administration and its minions still in the DOJ be held to account?

John Podhoretz: Palestinians must wake up to new reality in Mideast Podhoretz makes a good argument for why the Palestinians should take the deal being offered by the Trump administration.  It does not look like the current leadership of the Palestinians is smart enough to realize they are never going to get a better deal.  They also appear to be oblivious to the threat that Iran poses to them as well as Israel.  Do they really believe that Iran nukes would not wipe the Palestinians out too?

Margot Cleveland: Last week, President Trump triggered the left when he tweeted a Photoshopped picture that portrayed former President Barack Obama perched midair outside Trump Tower, binoculars and listening device in hand. The liberal outlet Vox condemned the president for his “increasingly bad tweets,” before declaring “there’s no evidence the Obama administration spied on Trump.” Vox then regurgitated the false narrative that, while the FBI did surveil former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page, “that didn’t happen until after Page left the campaign.” For years, conservatives tried to correct the record, noting that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order gave the government access to Page’s past emails and other electronic communications with members of the Trump campaign, but the mainstream media ignored this reality. That the liberal and legacy press continue to push this narrative now, following the release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s r...

Peter Skurkiss: The chaos that the Obama-Clinton diplomacy unleashed in Libya continues to grow.  It started when U.S.-French-NATO-led military intervention toppled Col. Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.  After his government fell, Gaddafi was then beaten and sodomized with a bayonet by an irate mob of Libyans before being shot to death.  This prompted our illustrious  secretary of state Hillary Clinton  to show the class she is noted for by crowing, "We came, we saw, he died." Yes — Gaddafi, who was no threat to America, died.  So did any semblance of stability in Libya, and the ensuing chaos reverberates to this day.  Due to the power vacuum created by Gaddafi's abrupt removal, Libya has now become a battleground for proxies motivated by Libya's oil wealth and fighting for geopolitical influence and over ideological differences.  The country is a confusing mess.  Here is a thumbnail sketch to sort out the...

AP: Republicans won handily a closely watched special election Tuesday to keep hold of a suburban Houston district that President Donald Trump won easily four years ago, fending off a national blitz by Democrats in a Texas legislative race. The victory by Republican Gary Gates, who put more than $1.5 million of his own money into his run for state House District 28, is sure to bring a sigh of relief for the GOP in a race that was being tracked far beyond Texas. By the final weeks, the race had escalated into the first big special election of 2020. In final unofficial results, Gates polled 58% of the vote to 42% for Democrat Eliz Markowitz. Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren had endorsed Markowitz, and outside groups flooded the race with six-figure checks and television ads. Beto O'Rourke practically made the district a second home after ending his own presidential campaign in November, spending weekends knocking on doors in Katy's affluent neighborh...

Washington Examiner: Ashley Biden organization received $166K federal grant while father was vice president Ashley Biden is Joe Biden's daughter.

Jeff Dunetz: Oh boy, this is going to upset the liberal snowflakes. Per a new Gallup poll, satisfaction with race relations and the “position” of minorities under Trump are far higher than they were under President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. Let me put it a different way, race relations are perceived to be better under Trump than Obama. Please stop crying liberals. According to Gallup, the areas were Americans’ satisfaction grew in the past three years include the obvious, the economy, security from terrorists, and military preparedness. But under those are race relations which advanced 14 points, from 22% at the end of the Obama administration to 36% this month, and two below that the position of blacks and other racial minorities in the nation” jumped 9 points, from 37% in January 2017 to 46% today. There are areas where Americans are less satisfied, thanks to the liberal propaganda. Americans have grown less satisfied with three issues: abortion (down ...

Washington Post: Trump officials frustrate senators with Iran briefing as House readies votes to restrain further hostilities Senators blasted State Department officials for holding a closed-door session when none of the information they shared was classified. The House is expected to vote this week on two measures limiting the president’s ability to engage in hostilities against Iran. Why are members of the Senate trying to protect a regime that goes by the mantra of Death to America?  The President made the world a safer place by taking action against a guy responsible for killing thousands including Americans.  The reaction on the left in this country to that victory for common sense shows how deep the anti-Trump fever is within the left.  Polls show that the majority of Americans approve of the President's actions against a sworn enemy.  President Trump has shown no inclination to go to war with Iran, but he is putting pressure on that evil regime to c...

NY Times: The Day I Realized I Would Never Find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq As an intelligence officer assigned to the Iraq Survey Group, I stumbled into the most revealing truth of the conflict. While the US did find some traces of WMD in Iraq they never located the mass quantities that the CIA and other intelligence agencies thought were there.  Because the CIA believed it and told President Bush it was a threat the US went to war in Iraq.  Too many on the left and in the media blamed the President for doing so and Bush never blamed the CIA where some in the Deep State turned on him for following their intelligence. The CIA still sometimes appears to be a rogue agency.  It looks like that under Brennan it was one of the primary movers of the Russian collusion hoax that was weaponized by Democrats and the media to make false attacks on the Trump campaign and the President. Rather than pursuing a bogus impeachment effort against the President, the count...

NY Times: Biden Aides Weigh Pursuing an Iowa Caucus Alliance With Klobuchar Amy Klobuchar’s campaign signaled no interest in such a plan, under which each candidate would encourage supporters to back the other in certain precincts. Klobuchar appears to be the most moderate candidate still running and is not tainted by corruption like Biden.  The question is has the Democrat base become so kooky that they would prefer a commie like Sanders whose policies would be a disaster for the country or someone like Biden who monetized the office of the Vice Presidency to enrich his family? I realize that the media is not willing to look realistically at the problems faced by Democrat candidates.  It is still too focused on backing the latest coup attempt against President Trump.  From the Russian collusion hoax to the absurdity of impeachment for pursuing an investigation of Biden corruption, it looks like a hostile environment for sanity.

Daily Mail: German army is so short of armored vehicles, soldiers have to PRETEND they're driving tanks during training exercises The German defence ministry confirmed troops were deploying 'other vehicles to practise mounting and dismounting' because of the lack of Puma tanks. Only 20 percent of the German Puma tanks are operational.  This is a country that is resisting Troop's insistence that they modernize their forces.  This is a country that wants the US and the rest of NATO to defend it while by gas from the Russians instead of the US.

The Democrat candidates for President have said they would ban all fracking.  Such a move would have a devastating effect on the US economy and on national security. The Energy Information Administration says that: U.S. oil production from tight formations increased in 2019, accounting for 64% of total U.S. crude oil production. This share grew because of the increasing productivity of new wells that were brought online during 2019. Since 2007, the average first full month of oil production from new wells in regions tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) has increased. The growing initial production rates have helped oil production from tight formations to increase despite the slowdowns in drilling activity when oil prices fell between 2015 and 2016. Since 2017, recovering oil prices and more efficient production from new wells have helped producers cover costs of drilling, production, and the development of new technol...

Rassmussen Reports: Most voters think President Trump’s impeachment won’t hurt him at the polls in November and don’t share House Democrats’ concern that the upcoming election may be unfair if Trump is one of the candidates. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Trump’s impeachment by House Democrats will hurt him in his bid for reelection. Slightly more (31%) say the impeachment will help him, while just as many (31%) feel it will have no impact. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Even among Democrats, only 40% think Trump’s reelection effort will be hurt by his impeachment. Just 16% of Republicans and 25% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of all voters agree with Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of the House Democratic impeachment team, when he said last week, “The president’s misconduct cannot be decid...

Washington Post: Senate Republicans seize on Dershowitz argument, say Trump’s actions aren’t impeachable Senate Republicans said even if President Trump strong-armed Ukraine to help him politically, it is not an impeachable offense. I think they are right about it not being impeachable.  In fact, the Schiff premise that the President could not investigate Biden because he was a potential candidate is absurd.   And the argument that going to court is "obstruction of Congress" is equally absurd.  It is unfortunate that the mainstream media cut away from the President's lawyers in presenting his defense because it was significantly stronger than the mess Schiff and Nadler put out.  I suspect that the anti-Trump left will have no idea why the Senators did not buy what the Democrats were trying to sell.

Frank Miele: You can take your pick for the most famous liars in history — people who are willing to say anything for the sake of gaining and keeping power — but surely Rep. Adam Schiff has earned a place on that list. I won’t call Schiff a “congenital liar” — as Fox News personality Sean Hannity does nightly — but only because the term excuses Schiff of personal responsibility for his behavior. I don’t think it was his genes that made Schiff into a consummate liar but rather his narcissistic personality. Watching Schiff spin his yarns as chief House manager for the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump reminds me of the great dissemblers of Shakespeare, such as “Honest Iago,” who is only comfortable in his own skin when he is making the skin of others crawl. The “motiveless malignity” that poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge ascribed to Iago is writ large in the perfunctory perfidy that Schiff practices with unassuming ease. He would destroy a king, but he assures us he takes no pleasur...

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com The hypocrisy of Democrats exposed again.  I suspect there were other things Obama was responsible for that would have made for a stronger impeachment case.