Impeachment Has Been Great for Business

The GOP fundraising business, that is. Who didn't see this coming?

On Twitter:

Axios’ Swan: impeachment backlash helping Republicans build a “formidable” machine for 2020 pic.twitter.com/jyN4QPg3Bd

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 19, 2020

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley Goes Bald

At Althouse, "'Everything I do is political', says Representative Ayanna Pressley, about revealing that she is, in fact, completely bald."

Her hair, with braids and twists, was a political statement. Now that's all gone.

Happy Sunday! #baldsquad #baldbaddies #baldisbeautiful Thank you for the warm welcome #alopecia nation #hairlosscrew. New year. New decade. New truths. New swag. #theyaintreadyforthissmoke pic.twitter.com/M3ggSNrV9B

— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) January 19, 2020

Maine Leftists Can't Cancel Michelle Malkin

If you've been following along, Michelle Malkin continues to take the conservative fight right to the enemy, with no backing down.

Here's her essay, "Cancel culture strikes again: Banned in Maine."

And on Twitter:

This is so crazy, but we prevail. We are on our FOURTH venue with less than an hour to go. #MalkinBannedInMaine #FreeSpeech #OpenBordersInc #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/IkL9LnvKCQ

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 17, 2020

Screw you #cancelculture and God bless you, #AmericaFirst citizens in Maine - I will never forget your persistence & patriotism! 🇺🇸🔥❤️💙 @umaineCR @MaineMayorNick @AdrienneMaine https://t.co/aXLJWtyNRB

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 18, 2020

In November, I was banned in Boston after speech-squelchers on the left and right forced the cancellation of my lecture at Bentley University, a small private institution. The grassroots activists who had invited me were rejected by every major event venue in the nation’s purported Cradle of Liberty. The tail-tuckers cited security concerns or jacked up their rental fees to make it prohibitively expensive to gather peacefully to discuss—gasp!—ideas.

Lou Murray of Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities and Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies heroically persisted, pulling together a great event at a private home attended by 100 patriots who risked their privacy, friendships and even their jobs to listen to—gasp!—ideas. (Watch the video here.)

Soon after, a group of conservative students at the University of Maine, a publicly funded school, invited me to bring my nationalist message about who’s funding the destruction of America to their campus. This prompted the College Republicans’ faculty adviser, political science professor Amy Fried to resign in protest. That led to the de-chartering of the CR group. Why? Because I refused to disavow other young students who have asked trenchant, pesky questions at Young America’s Foundation and Turning Point USA lectures about the GOP elites’ support of wage-suppressing, job-outsourcing, Democrat voter-importing policies that put American students, workers and families last.

Many of those students follow a 21-year-old nationalist named Nick Fuentes who hosts a program (for now) on YouTube and DLive in his basement called “America First.” Because I refused to play the gatekeepers’ game of condemning every last joke or chatroom comment or tweet of someone followed by students whose questions I support, Fried believes that no students at her campus under her watch should be allowed to hear what I have to say about, well, anything.

How strongly do University of Maine officials oppose the free association of college students who want to know more about my work? Yesterday, I learned from Portland Sheraton at Sable Oaks general manager Ed Palmer and others that at least one University of Maine official—along with dozens of others cancel culture jihadists galvanized on social media by an anonymous Twitter account called “Support Maine’s Future”—had called to complain about the students and me after they posted an event notice last Friday. I reached out to top administrators, who did not respond by my filing deadline.

I also wrote to Fried, who responded late Tuesday evening: “I never did that. Didn’t happen. Whoever told you I did is incorrect. Thank you for checking, as you received a false report regarding me.”

I responded: “Too bad you didn’t pay me the same courtesy.”

Adrienne Bennett, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress (Maine, District 2), challenged the school’s bullying tactics: “Free speech is the cornerstone of a free democracy. We are hearing reports that administrators from the University of Maine pressured a private Maine hotel to cancel an appearance by conservative speaker Michelle Malkin. If true, this is a disturbing development from Maine’s public, land-grant university,” she blasted. “All universities—but especially those that receive public funds—have an obligation to foster free speech and free inquiry. I support President Trump’s recent executive order on campus free speech. … I am disturbed that academic elites would interfere to block this speech. For those who disagree with Malkin’s views, the answer is debate and discourse, not censorship.”

My upcoming speaking schedule (for now) includes the New York Young Republican Club (Jan. 16); somewhere, hopefully, in Maine (Jan. 17); Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley (Feb. 11); Michigan Conservative Coalition’s Battle Cry 2020, Troy, Michigan (Feb. 14); Arizona State University (Feb. 26); and San Diego State University (April TBD).

A total of six organizations have now deemed me such a public menace that I’ve been barred from speaking at their venues or events: Mar-a-Lago (canceled by the Trump Organization after complaints by the Southern Poverty Law Center spread by left-wingers at the Miami Herald); Bentley University; the University of Minnesota (canceled at the behest of national leaders of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow); the New Jersey Right to Life Committee; an Indiana conservative group; and Young America’s Foundation.

Why is this censorship campaign from both sides of the political spectrum happening? University of Maine College Republican Jeremiah Childs astutely observed: “They’re doing this to delegitimize us because we’re popular.” Popular, peacefully expressed ideas that threaten establishment empires in both parties must be stopped. The pretense of free inquiry and association must be propped up by the tolerance hypocrites on the left and the culture warrior poseurs on the right. The illusion of “free speech” must be maintained by the keepers of the gate. Lying is lucrative. Telling the truth, controlled by no one, only gets you grief.

Sara Jean Underwood Photos

She updates her feeds almost constantly, and with some excellent content lol.

At Celeb Jihad, "SARA UNDERWOOD NUDE CAMPING PHOTOS."

Let’s ride🚐 pic.twitter.com/8opQ0eNg2K

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) January 18, 2020

Sweet dreams😴 pic.twitter.com/DzMT0xTZRH

— Sara Jean Underwood (@SaraUnderwood) January 18, 2020

Michael Lind, The New Class War

At Amazon, Michael Lind, The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite.

Black Americans Deeply Pessimistic Under Trump

Well, more than 95 percent of blacks voted for Obama, twice. If Dems can't maintain those numbers in November it could be trouble for the party.

There is a "blexit" exodus going on, with lots of black conservatives leading the movement to get African-Americans off the Democrat plantation.

I love it.

At WaPo, FWIW, "Black Americans deeply pessimistic about country under Trump, whom more than 8 in 10 describe as ‘a racist,’ Post-Ipsos poll finds":

“If I’m in a room with white women, I know that 50 percent of them voted for Trump and they believe in his ideas,” said a university researcher. “I look at them and think, ‘How do you see me? What is my humanity to you?’ ” https://t.co/LP1BCOj0G4

— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) January 17, 2020

President Trump made a stark appeal to black Americans during the 2016 election when he asked, “What have you got to lose?” Three years later, black Americans have rendered their verdict on his presidency with a deeply pessimistic assessment of their place in the United States under a leader seen by an overwhelming majority as racist.

The findings come from a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of African Americans nationwide, which reveals fears about whether their children will have a fair shot to succeed and a belief that white Americans don’t fully appreciate the discrimination that black people experience.

While personally optimistic about their own lives, black Americans today offer a bleaker view about their community as a whole. They also express determination to try to limit Trump to a single term in office.

More than 8 in 10 black Americans say they believe Trump is a racist and that he has made racism a bigger problem in the country. Nine in 10 disapprove of his job performance overall.

The pessimism goes well beyond assessments of the president. A 65 percent majority of African Americans say it is a “bad time” to be a black person in America. That view is widely shared by clear majorities of black adults across income, generational and political lines. By contrast, 77 percent of black Americans say it is a “good time” to be a white person, with a wide majority saying white people don’t understand the discrimination faced by black Americans.

Courtney Tate, 40, an elementary school teacher in Irving, Tex., outside Dallas, said that since Trump was elected, he’s been having more conversations with his co-workers — discussions that are simultaneously enlightening and exhausting — about racial issues he and his students face everyday.

“As a black person, you’ve always seen all the racism, the microaggressions, but as white people they don't understand this is how things are going for me,” said Tate, who said he is the only black male teacher in his school. “They don’t live those experiences. They don’t live in those neighborhoods. They moved out. It’s so easy to be white and oblivious in this country.”

Francine Cartwright, a 44-year-old mother of three from Moorestown, N.J., said the ascent of Trump has altered the way she thinks about the white people in her life.

“If I’m in a room with white women, I know that 50 percent of them voted for Trump and they believe in his ideas,” said Cartwright, a university researcher. “I look at them and think, ‘How do you see me? What is my humanity to you?’ ”

The president routinely talks about how a steadily growing economy and historically low unemployment have resulted in more African Americans with jobs and the lowest jobless rate for black Americans recorded. Months ago he said, “What I’ve done for African Americans in two-and-a-half years, no president has been able to do anything like it.”

But those factors have not translated positively for the president. A 77 percent majority of black Americans say Trump deserves “only some” or “hardly any” credit for the 5.5 percent unemployment rate among black adults compared with 20 percent who say Trump deserves significant credit.

In follow-up interviews, many said former president Barack Obama deserves more credit for the improvement in the unemployment rate, which declined from a high of 16.8 percent in 2010 to 7.5 percent when he left office.

Others said their personal financial situation is more a product of their own efforts than anything the president has done.

“I don’t think [Trump] has anything to do with unemployment among African Americans,” said Ethel Smith, a 72-year-old nanny who lives in Lithonia, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. “I’ve always been a working poor person. That’s just who I am.”

Black Americans report little change in their personal financial situations in the past few years, with 19 percent saying it has been getting better and 26 percent saying it has been getting worse. Most, 54 percent, say their financial situation has stayed the same...

Remember, all polls are questionable in the current era --- because "shy" voters don't want to reveal their real preferences, and that goes for blacks too.

If 20 percent of blacks vote for Trump in the key Midwest battleground states in November, the Dems can kiss it goodbye.

Lots of folks are talkin' about a Trump landslide. I can't wait.

Still more.

Identity Politics Remains a Political Loser

It's Kim Strassel.

I love this lady!

At WSJ, "Stay Woke, Drop Out: In its wake, identity politics leaves a trail of failed Democratic candidates":

In its wake, identity politics leaves a trail of failed Democratic candidates, writes @KimStrassel https://t.co/auu0EMfEGU via @WSJ

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) January 17, 2020

To paraphrase Santayana, Democrats who refuse to acknowledge Hillary Clinton’s failures in the 2016 election were always doomed to repeat them. Why is their primary field littered with the failed bids of woke candidates? Why is #WarrenIsASnake trending on Twitter? Because identity politics remains a political loser.

That’s the takeaway from the rapidly narrowing Democratic field, and smart liberals warned of it after 2016. Mark Lilla, writing in the New York Times, faulted Mrs. Clinton for molding her campaign around “the rhetoric of diversity, calling out explicitly to African-American, Latino, LGBT and women voters at every stop.” Successful politics, he noted, is always rooted in visions of “shared destiny.”

Progressives heaped scorn on Mr. Lilla—one compared him to David Duke—and doubled down on identity politics. Nearly every flashpoint in this Democratic race has centered on racism, sexism or classism. Nearly every practitioner of that factionalist strategy has exited the race. Mr. Lilla is surely open to apologies.

Kamala Harris created the first big viral moment when she tore into Joe Biden, absolving him of being a “racist” even as she accused him of working with segregationists to oppose school busing. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand didn’t hold the race card but ran a campaign about “women’s equality,” attacking any Democrat who didn’t measure to her standards on abortion, child care and violence against women.

Sen. Cory Booker campaigned relentlessly on “systemic racism” and “social justice,” blasting Mr. Biden for his work on the 1994 crime bill and warning the nation of an “all-out assault” on black voting rights in 2020. Beto O’Rourke felt the need to make up for his own whiteness by going all in on reparations for slavery. Julián Castro built his run on complaints about “discriminatory housing policy,” injustices to transgender and indigenous women, and threats to marginalized communities.

Which bring us to Elizabeth Warren’s attempt to rescue her campaign with a Hail Mary appeal to “sexism.” Her campaign leaked in the run-up to Tuesday’s debate the claim that Mr. Sanders, in a private 2018 meeting, told her he didn’t believe a woman could win the presidency. Mr. Sanders denied it. When the inevitable CNN question came Tuesday night, Ms. Warren played the victim and rolled out a rehearsed statistic about the election failure rate of the men on stage. She praised the Democratic Party for having “stepped up” to elect a Catholic president in 1960 and a black one in 2008 and suggested it should do the same for a female candidate today. Sen. Amy Klobuchar cheered her on.

This is the politics of exclusion—and it explains why a field that began as the most diverse in Democratic history is now coming down to a competition between two old white men. Candidates who speak primarily to subsections of the country are by necessity excluding everybody else. All voters want to know what a candidate is going to do specifically for them, and for the country as a whole. And while many voters view issues in a moral context, few voters feel a moral imperative to vote for candidates solely because they are black, or female, or gay. It’s an unpersuasive argument.

Identity politics is also by necessity vote-losing, because it requires accusations. Ms. Warren is getting blowback now after implying that Mr. Sanders is a misogynist, and calling him a liar. Sanders supporters are lacing Ms. Warren on social media with snake emojis and declaring a #NeverWarren campaign. Even if she stages a comeback, she’s alienated a key base of support.

Precisely because Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders don’t have easy identity-politics cards to play, they’ve focused on broader themes. Yes, they give shout-outs to core liberal constituencies, but Mr. Biden’s consistent argument is that he is the only one qualified to beat Mr. Trump, while Mr. Sanders’s is that America needs to overhaul its economic system. Those are positions around which greater numbers of Democrats can unify...

More.

Annie Lederman Flashes

She's a comedienne.

She's weird.

At Celeb Jihad, "ANNIE LEDERMAN FLASHES."

Didn’t realize Best Buy would be filled with hot guys. Had to act fast! pic.twitter.com/AIgA8ziwSl

— Annie Lederman (@annielederman) January 5, 2020

Gun Control Battle Deepens in Virginia

At the Epoch Times, "Gun Control Battle Deepens as Legislation Advances in Virginia":

Gun Control Battle Deepens in Virginia as new gun laws move thru Democrat controlled legislature. “It’s awoken a sleeping giant.” Hundreds of 2A supporters took the day off work to attend, others drove from hours away to protest new proposed gun laws. https://t.co/8Xsdhc2N0o

— Kari Lake (@KariLakeFox10) January 16, 2020

As 4 bills progress along party lines in Virginia legislature, 2nd Amendment sanctuary movement gains momentum.

RICHMOND, Va.—Hundreds of Second Amendment advocates converged on Virginia’s state capital on Jan. 13 to oppose a slew of tighter gun control proposals being voted on by newly elected state lawmakers.

The long line of Virginia residents—many wearing bright “Guns Save Lives” stickers—showed up before 8 a.m. in a show of support for their constitutional rights that they say are being infringed upon. Some gun control advocates attended as well, holding signs with slogans such as “sensible gun laws equal less gun violence.”

The rallying crowds did little to stop four gun control measures from advancing in the state’s Democratic-led General Assembly after approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee passed legislation for universal background checks, a measure allowing localities to ban weapons from some events and government buildings, a “red flag” bill allowing authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from certain individuals deemed a risk, and a law that limits the purchase of handguns to only one per month...

Still more.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Against Norman Varner in 'Preferred Prounouns' Transgender Case

At the Hill, "Judge: Referring to transgender people by chosen pronouns 'courtesy,' not law."

And from Vodkapundit, at Instapundit, "MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Sanity at Last: Court Refuses to Kowtow to Personal Pronouns Like ‘Xemself, Faerself’":

On Wednesday, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals refused a male prisoner's motion that the name on his order of confinement be changed and that he be addressed by female pronouns on account of his female gender identity. The ruling on personal pronouns sets an important precedent for free speech, judicial impartiality, and the basic meaning of pronouns against the transgender movement's bastardization of language.

The case involves Norman Varner, a federal prisoner who pleaded guilty in 2012 to attempted receipt of child pornography and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, partly due to his previous conviction on child pornography and his failure to register as a sex offender. In 2015, he claimed to have transitioned to being female, and asked to be referred to as "Kathrine Nicole Jett."

A lower court had denied his motion and he appealed. The 5th Circuit panel ruled that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to consider the request because Varner's motion was not authorized by any statute...

Still more.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The 'Senate's Time is at Hand' (VIDEO)

It's impeachment trial, Day 2.

The Majority Leader skewers the Dems and it's hilarious.

At at New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Trump Legal Team to Add Starr and Dershowitz for Senate Trial."

Kara Del Toro on Instagram

Her page is almost all bikini photos.

At Taxi Driver, "Kara del Toro Braless in a Beige Sweater."

ICYMI: Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands

[Re-upping this post as well, as Professor Scruton has passed away, a genuine loss for conservative philosophy, if not Western civilization.]

At Amazon, Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.

Bernie Sanders Is a Hardline Communist

[Re-upping this piece from almost exactly four years ago, so hilarious.]

From Paul Sperry, at the New York Post, "Don’t be fooled by Bernie Sanders — he’s a diehard communist":

As polls tighten and self-described socialist Bernie Sanders looks more like a serious contender than a novelty candidate for president, the liberal media elite have suddenly stopped calling him socialist. He’s now cleaned-up as a “progressive” or “pragmatist.”

But he’s not even a socialist. He’s a communist.

Mainstreaming Sanders requires whitewashing his radical pro-Communist past. It won’t be easy to do.

If Sanders were vying for a Cabinet post, he’d never pass an FBI background check. There’d be too many subversive red flags popping up in his file. He was a Communist collaborator during the height of the Cold War.

Rewind to 1964.

While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party USA. He also organized for a communist front, the United Packinghouse Workers Union, which at the time was under investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

After graduating with a political-science degree, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he headed the American People’s History Society, an organ for Marxist propaganda. There, he produced a glowing documentary on the life of socialist revolutionary Eugene Debs, who was jailed for espionage during the Red Scare and hailed by the Bolsheviks as “America’s greatest Marxist.”

****

Sanders still hangs a portrait of Debs on the wall in his Senate office.

In the early ’70s, Sanders helped found the Liberty Union Party, which called for the nationalization of all US banks and the public takeover of all private utility companies.

After failed runs for Congress, Sanders in 1981 managed to get elected mayor of Burlington, Vt., where he restricted property rights for landlords, set price controls and raised property taxes to pay for communal land trusts. Local small businesses distributed fliers complaining their new mayor “does not believe in free enterprise.”

His radical activities didn’t stop at the ­water’s edge.

Sanders took several “goodwill” trips not only to the USSR, but also to Cuba and Nicaragua, where the Soviets were trying to expand their influence in our hemisphere.

In 1985, he traveled to Managua to celebrate the rise to power of the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government. He called it a “heroic revolution.” Undermining anti-communist US policy, Sanders denounced the Reagan administration’s backing of the Contra rebels in a letter to the Sandinistas.

His betrayal did not end there. Sanders lobbied the White House to stop the proxy war and even tried to broker a peace deal. He adopted Managua as a sister city and invited Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to visit the US. He exalted Ortega as “an impressive guy,” while attacking President Reagan.

“The Sandinista government has more support among the Nicaraguan people — substantially more support — than Ronald Reagan has among the American people,” Sanders told Vermont government-access TV in 1985.

Sanders also adopted a Soviet sister city outside Moscow and honeymooned with his second wife in the USSR. He put up a Soviet flag in his office, shocking even the Birkenstock-wearing local liberals. At the time, the Evil Empire was on the march around the world, and threatening the US with nuclear annihilation.

Then, in 1989, as the West was on the verge of winning the Cold War, Sanders addressed the national conference of the US Peace Council — a known front for the Communist Party USA, whose members swore an oath not only to the Soviet Union but to “the triumph of Soviet power in the US.”

Today, Sanders wants to bring what he admired in the USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua and other communist states to America.

For starters, he proposes completely nationalizing our health-care system and putting private health insurance and drug companies “out of business.” He also wants to break up “big banks” and control the energy industry, while providing “free” college tuition, a “living wage” and guaranteed homeownership and jobs through massive public works projects. Price tag: $18 trillion.

Who will pay for it all? You will. Sanders plans to not only soak the rich with a 90%-plus tax rate, while charging Wall Street a “speculation tax,” but hit every American with a “global-warming tax.”

Of course, even that wouldn’t cover the cost of his communist schemes; a President Sanders would eventually soak the middle class he claims to champion. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need, right?

Still more.

Frankly, all of this is public information.

Folks should read the Bernie Sanders entry at Discover the Networks. Diehard Communist is right.

Megan Parry's Thursday Forecast

It's been cold in the early mornings, that's the main thing, dang.

The beautiful Ms. Megan, at ABC News 10 San Diego:

Patti Smith, Year of the Monkey

At Amazon, Patti Smith, Year of the Monkey.

Lev Parnas Breaks With Trump and Giuliani

This is getting really tiring.

The House Democrat Majority had all the time they needed to conduct the impeachment inquiry. They don't get to relitigate it in the Republican-controlled Senate. That's how it works.

Dems are virtually guaranteeing 45's reelection.

At the New York Times, "Lev Parnas, Key Player in Ukraine Affair, Completes Break With Trump and Giuliani."

Breaking News: Lev Parnas, a key player in the Ukraine pressure campaign, said that President Trump was fully aware of efforts to find damaging information on his rivals https://t.co/JoLY1zMK4s

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 16, 2020

Samsonite Freeform Expandable Hardside Luggage

At Amazon, Samsonite Freeform Expandable Hardside Luggage with Double Spinner Wheels.

BONUS: Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution.

Queen Olivia

On Twitter:

Throwback☺️ who likes to be naughty in public😳 pic.twitter.com/0PcHS5UXEB

— snapchat: QueenOliviaxox (@sexyoliviaaa) October 22, 2019

And, "How I start my day," and "Let me ride."

'Pro-Choice' Extremists

Saw both of these within minutes of each other, probably because of the stupid algorithms.

Very ugly pro-abortion ideology, in any case.

My God. Read this. When the pro-abortion movement takes off its mask, you can clearly see how psychotic, bloodthirsty, and cartoonishly evil it is pic.twitter.com/CnrPwahqTl

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 16, 2020

You couldn't lay out a better example of how the rhetoric of "choice" plays out in real life: Dudes and their henchmen bully women into aborting, then gaslight them by insisting it was all their choice all along--aren't they liberated, independent women?? It's a license to abuse. https://t.co/HbvNDL7Z9r

— Brandon McGinley (@brandonmcg) January 16, 2020