Tag: politics

Remember that impeachment thing? You know, because the fate of the republic was at stake due to the high crimes of the president? Yeah, well, forget about that:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday she will not stage a vote on the House floor to officially launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The decision came after Democratic leaders, returning to Washington following a two-week recess, had reached out to members of their diverse caucus to gauge the party’s support for such a vote.

After back-to-back meetings with party leaders and then the full caucus, Pelosi announced that no such vote would take place. Democratic aides emphasized, however, that the process remains fluid and that Pelosi may reverse course and stage such a vote at any point in the future.

“There’s no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote,” Pelosi told reporters during a last-minute press briefing in the Capitol.

President Trump is using their emotional projection as bait. It’s one of the more brilliant political tactics I’ve ever observed; it’s worthy of an entire chapter by Machiavelli. What he’s doing is accusing himself of things that he knows they are doing. So they demand the very investigations that he wants, thereby forcing the media to extensively cover the very topics it wants to bury.

Creepy Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is all but finished, thanks to the information now coming out of Ukraine. It is now being reported that it wasn’t just his son who was being paid by the Ukrainians, but Creepy Joe himself as well:

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden received $900,000 for lobbying activities from Burisma Group, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada member Andriy Derkach said citing investigation materials.

Derkach publicized documents which, as he said, “describe the mechanism of getting money by Biden Sr.” at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine’s press center in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“This was the transfer of Burisma Group’s funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, personally to Joe Biden through a lobbying company. Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners, which according to open sources, in particular, the New York Times, is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was payment for consultative services,” Derkach said.

He also publicized sums that were transferred to Burisma Group representatives, in particular Hunter Biden, a son of the former U.S. vice president.

“According to the documents, Burisma paid no less than $16.5 million to [former Polish President, who became an independent director at Burisma Holdings in 2014] Aleksander Kwasniewski, [chairman of the Burisma board of independent directors] Alan Apter, [Burisma independent director] Devon Archer and Hunter Biden [who joined the Burisma board of directors in 2014],” Derkach said.

“Using political and economic levelers of influencing Ukrainian authorities and manipulating the issue of providing financial aid to Ukraine, Joe Biden actively assisted closing criminal cases into the activity of former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who is the founder and owner of Burisma Group,” he said.

“Biden’s fifth visit to Kyiv on December 7-8, 2015 was devoted to making a decision on the resignation of [then Ukrainian Prosecutor General] Viktor Shokin over the case of Zlochevsky and Burisma. Loan guarantees worth $1 billion that the United States was to give to Ukraine was the point of pressure. Biden himself admitted exerting pressure in his speech at the Council of Foreign Relations in January 2018, calling Shokin ‘son of a bitch who was fired’,” Derkach said.

That so-called “impeachment” drive by Democrats is increasingly looking like a well-laid trap for them.

The God-Emperor has finally stopped trying to negotiate with the evil and the insane:

President Donald Trump has set his strategy for the impeachment fight with House Democrats — minimum cooperation, maximum confrontation. Whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have learned how to counter him is the big question.

Trump dramatically upped the political ante on Tuesday, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone blasting the Democrasts’ impeachment inquiry as “illegal” and “dangerous,” and insisting the administration won’t cooperate with a probe it considers constitutionally improper.

Democrats now have to work quickly to determine how to contest Trump’s broadside as they push ahead with an investigation into whether the president abused his power in pressuring Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election and investigate Joe Biden.

But Trump’s anti-impeachment offensive — a mix of legal, political and personal attacks, some logical and some simply bombastic — poses a real challenge for Democrats. Nearly three years into Trump’s presidency, lawmakers are still trying to figure out how to respond to a president who knows few, if any, limits on his behavior or rhetoric.

They really don’t know what to do when you simply refuse to tuck your tail, wave the white flag, and surrender.

Although frankly, I doubt that proof of the suspected affair will make any difference whatsoever to the Brexit political math given that it was seven years ago, neither Johnson nor Arcuri have directly denied an affair, and Boris Johnson’s lack of marital fidelity over the years has not exactly been a secret:

The businesswoman at the centre of a storm about her links to Boris Johnson ‘bragged’ about having sex with him and proudly showed off what she called her ‘Boris bruises’, her former friend Milo Yiannopoulos has claimed.

Jennifer Arcuri’s alleged fling with Mr Johnson when he was Mayor of London was an ‘open secret’, according to Mr Yiannopoulos, a controversial right-wing activist who also worked on the London tech scene at the time.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Yiannopoulos claimed that Miss Arcuri had ‘loudly and proudly’ displayed evidence of the romance and said he had tried to warn her off it. He stressed she was not alleging the bruises were the result of any ‘anything abusive’, but instead were ‘trophies’ from ‘enthusiastic, consensual lovemaking’.

Yesterday Miss Arcuri repeatedly refused to deny a romance with Mr Johnson, who is facing a City Hall probe over alleged conflict of interest.

Then again, I have no doubt that the EU and the Remain forces in the UK will attempt to cite this as conclusive evidence that Britain should stay in the EU. Facts and reason have never had anything to do with their nonsensical arguments.

This comment appears to be the most common reaction: I still don’t care. Just get us out of the EU. And this is why no one cares who or what Boris does in his off-hours:

Boris Johnson effectively killed off hopes of a Brexit deal today after turning down a demand from Angela Merkel for Northern Ireland to stay in the customs union.

In a crunch moment for negotiations, the PM and the German Chancellor clashed brutally in an early morning phone call.

No10 sources said Mrs Merkel told the premier that the province must remain within the EU’s customs union indefinitely. But Mr Johnson retorted that meant a deal was ‘essentially impossible, not just now but ever’.

Sometimes no deal is the best deal. This is obviously one of them.

Try, try again. The Democrats double down after their first “whistleblower” turned out to have no actual knowledge of the events he was describing:

The attorney representing the whistleblower who flagged President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine says a second whistleblower has now come forward.

Mark Zaid told ABC News on Sunday that he is now representing a second whistleblower who has first hand knowledge of events.

Zaid, a Washington lawyer, is already representing the whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry into Trump.

The first whistleblower, who said Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, is a CIA officer and at one point was assigned to work at the White House, sources said.

The second person who has come forward is also reportedly an intelligence official.

Of course, they said the first guy had first-hand knowledge of events too. Until he was asked to provide it. Interestingly enough, this is the same lawyer who is handling the lawsuit for the Marvel artist accused of tortious interference between Antarctic Press and Comics Matter.

An interesting and unexpected nexus. I wonder why they’re so desperate to stop the Trump administration from looking into Ukraine? I don’t suppose the massive donations to the Clinton Foundation have anything to do with it, do they?

I was wondering why all the sound and fury about impeachment didn’t seem to show any signs of leading to an actual vote on an impeachment inquiry. It’s because all the activity is just kabuki meant to stir up excitement and distract the electorate, not actually investigate anything concerning Ukraine.

It’s quite obvious what the Democrats are doing. They have not had a vote on the floor of the House to start a formal impeachment inquiry because if they were to have such a vote, under the House rules for impeachment, the Republicans would get subpoena power.

In order to avoid giving the Republicans subpoena power, they are doing impeachment lite with these six different committees who are claiming it’s an impeachment inquiry, and they are trying to subpoena people and get documents without having an impeachment vote on the floor. That is why the White House said we are not going to cooperate with this kangaroo court.

The reason they don’t dare give Republicans subpoena power is that the corruption of the Obama administration, particularly that which surrounded the then-Vice President and then-Secretary of State would be exposed and placed on the record.

Of course, Captain Underoos doesn’t get it, and with his impeccable sense of timing, has concluded that his big moment has finally arrived at last. At this point, I think we can all agree that despite his copious flaws, the stoner-in-chief Obama actually proved to be a less horrific president than either McCain or Romney would have been.

Well, he wasn’t wrong. President Trump needs to stop listening to his “aides”:

President Donald Trump erupted at aides in an F-bomb-laden rant a week before Christmas last year, fuming over headlines that announced he was giving up his campaign promise of making Mexico pay for a border wall – and instead handing the country a 10-figure check.

The administration had made a deal with America’s neighbors to the south, one that Trump hated, that would send $10.6 billion to four countries. More than half would go to Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. But Mexico would collect $4.8 billion.

The money was meant to help governments tackle poverty, drug trafficking and other violence – the root causes of the illegal immigration wave the president campaigned against. But on December 18, 2018, the national news media he loves to hate framed it as a surrender.

‘My f***ing friends are calling me,’ the president yelled at aides who had convinced him to make the deal. ‘This is the stupidest s**t you’ve ever done. Why the f**k would we do this?’

‘I’m not getting $5 billion for the wall, and instead I’m paying Mexico $5 billion? What the f**k am I getting out of this?’ he boomed.

It was incredibly stupid. But it’s ultimately Trump’s fault for caving constantly instead of following through on his threats. This is the problem with a negotiator. They never grasp that sometimes the best deal is no deal.

Giving up a major campaign promise “because Mexico won’t cooperate” is entirely retarded. The US has the largest military in the world. Mexico doesn’t need to cooperate; there are many other ways to keep invaders out than relying on the Mexicans to do it.

We haven’t seen the Democrats this publicly shook since they claimed Pizzagate was “debunked” about thirty seconds after news of it broke:

Democrats say the State Department watchdog used a closed-door briefing on Wednesday to give them “conspiracy theories” tied to Ukraine, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and former Vice President Joe Biden.

“It’s essentially a packet of propaganda and disinformation and spreading conspiracy theories. Those conspiracy theories have been widely debunked and discredited,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters after an hourlong briefing with State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.

The closed-door, hour-long briefing was part of a hastily assembled meeting requested by the State Department watchdog.

Ahead of the meeting, there had been speculation that it could be tied to a whistleblower complaint about President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president, which is at the forefront of the impeachment probe.

Instead, Democrats say the packet of documents handed over by the State Department watchdog mentions Biden and his son Hunter Biden, Yovanovitch and CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that investigated breaches at the DNC in the lead up to the 2016 election.

“They appear to contain long-debunked theories and false statements about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and one of President Trump’s political opponents,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), whose staff attended the briefing…. A Democratic source familiar with the briefing said that the documents came from the White House to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The paperwork was organized in multiple Trump Hotel folders and included together in an envelope labeled “White House.”

“Those folders contained notes from interviews that took place at Rudy Giuliani’s NYC office with various Ukrainians about debunked conspiracies related to Ukraine. This was just another attempt by the White House to peddle Rudy Giuliani conspiracy theories,” the source added.

Republicans have doubled down on calls for an investigation into Biden’s role in the ouster of a Ukraine prosecutor in 2016, despite no evidence of wrongdoing.

The media seems to think that if it just says the magic words often enough, the problem goes away. We already know that Creepy Joe lied. We already know that his adulterous, crackhead son who banged his brother’s widow was being paid ludicrous sums of money for doing nothing by the Ukrainians.

The word “debunked” clearly no longer means what it used to mean. But what level of truth can you reasonably expect from people who also claim that “man” means “woman”, “cat” means “dog”, and the number six means “purple”.

First Creepy Joe went down. Now Red Bernie has been medically disqualified.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart procedure for a blocked artery and was canceling events and appearances “until further notice.”

The 78-year-old Sanders was in Las Vegas when, according to a campaign statement, he experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation. Two stents were “successfully inserted” and that Sanders “is conversing and in good spirits,” according to the campaign….

He is one of three candidates over age 70 in the Democratic primary, which has spurred debate over whether the party should rally behind a new generation of political leaders, and President Donald Trump is 73. Sanders’ health issue is certain to revive that discussion in the weeks before the next presidential debate this month.

The Democratic establishment wants to unite the factions behind Injun’ Elizabeth as soon as possible, so the 78-year-old Sanders is not going to get the pass on his medical issues the way Hillary Clinton did on hers in 2016. Sanders won’t go away willingly, and he’ll try to stick it out, but it’s inevitable now.

I’d gradually reached the conclusion that Steve Bannon was not on the side of the good, the beautiful, and the true despite his presumed role in helping elect the God-Emperor. But now we may have an inkling that he was just as much Establishment as the GOPe figures with whom he regularly brawled:

The butler who managed Jeffrey Epstein’s posh Paris pad claims he waited on a rotation of famous faces including Prince Andrew, Bill and Melinda Gates, as well as Steve Bannon, according to a report.

The butler, who only identified himself as Gabriel, has come forward about the convicted pedophile’s celebrity guests during his 18-year career working at the $8 million pied-à-terre, FranceInfo reported.

“I served crowned heads, diplomats, businessmen and politicians,” he told the outlet.

Among the powerful guests he listed were former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prince Andrew, who would crash several nights at the apartment while Epstein was out of town, according to FranceInfo….

The butler also claimed his boss was still hosting famous guests at his Paris apartment last year. He said former White House chief strategist Bannon paid a visit in fall 2018. “I was even his driver in Paris,” Gabriel told his outlet.

In the autumn of 20-freaking-18 Bannon was still hanging out with Epstein? FFS, by 2018 even people who have absolutely nothing to do with money, power, or politics knew that Epstein was a damned pedo.

No wonder Trump didn’t hesitate to kick him out.