Tweet of the day

Destroying the president is not just the only viable trajectory for the Left, but it is also the only possible narrative given that focus on the current left-wing agenda is slow-motion suicide.

Victor Davis Hanson:

“…The Left has shown that the collusion exoneration last year by the heralded Robert Mueller investigation—all 22-months, the “dream team,” and $34 million of it—meant absolutely nothing.

Nor did it matter that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no justification of “collusion” in the Steele dossier to justify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants it issued to spy on Carter Page.

Both the Mueller and Horowitz investigations confirmed that even the partisan and warped FBI “Crossfire Hurricane” intrigues could find no Russian-Trump collusion.

And yet the House impeachment managers cannot finish a sentence without exclaiming “Russian collusion,” as if it has now transmogrified into some exotic foundational myth.

Remember, no sooner had Mueller found no collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin and no actionable obstruction than the progressives narrative was recalibrated into Ukrainian quid pro quo—albeit after brief detours in “Recession!” and “Racism!”

Yet it is now as if neither Mueller nor Horowitz ever existed, as if we have forgotten the thousands of hours of investigation that found no Russian collusion, but indeed discovered the systematic warping of the FISA court by allegations of such falsities. As if to prove that the Mueller investigation was never biased, Andrew Weissmann now appears on MSNBC as a legal analyst to continue what he once did for Mueller, in the manner of the post-Russian “collusion” careers of Andrew McCabe, James Comey, and James Clapper.

In truth, impeachment started the very week Donald Trump was inaugurated by articles of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives by 58 Democrats. Between 2017 and 2019, one effort to remove Trump or members of his administration before the 2020 election followed rapidly and furiously upon another. Reason, logic, moderation, and common sense vanished, replaced by a shrill directive that Trump was evil and thus his administration had to be aborted by the good people, and by any means possible…”

Original

Nigel Farage

Headline of the day

Trio of Dem senators considering vote to acquit Trump

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Doug Jones of Alabama are undecided

Trump rally in Wildwood New Jersey

Last night the President held a rally in a Democrat district in New Jersey. The venue held 7,500. It was packed. There were apparently several thousand people outside the building waiting to get in. There were 175,000 requests for tickets prior to the event. The crowd was fired-up and raucous. The President’s campaign manager reported after the event that about 23% in attendance self-identified as Democrats.

Anyone on the Democrat side that can come close to this? Read or see a lot about it in the media? What if the situation was reversed, do you think the media would cover it then?

I predict the 2020 election will be an electoral landslide for Trump.

Related:

Last-Second Impeachment Game-Playing Is Kavanaugh 2.0

Tristan Justice:

“…President Donald Trump’s opponents are using the same failed tactics to derail the president’s agenda for the crime of winning the 2016 election. On Sunday, The New York Times published leaked details of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s upcoming book accusing Trump of tying nearly $400 million in military aid to extracting politically motivated investigations into the Biden family.

Never mind that the book leak arrived on the same day that it became available for online pre-ordering, came unsubstantiated, and surfaced from a former White House aide with an axe to grind over his removal. The late leak is reminiscent of previous attempts to sabotage the Trump presidency with unfair operations pushing shady allegations via anonymous sources with no actual evidence paraded as “bombshells” in a compliant media.

The American people have now seen this kind of rollout happen throughout Trump’s time in the Oval Office. It happened with Russia, it happened with Ukraine, it happened with Brett Kavanaugh, and now it’s happening with impeachment…”

Original

On peace between Israel and the Palestinians

Ian Bremmer:

“…Over the last two days, I received an exclusive early look at President Donald Trump’s proposed plan to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. The effort was led by the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner. The administration’s peace plan tears up the playbook of prior presidents who have tried and failed to make real progress on peace in the region. The Trump “ultimate deal” is unabashed power politics. It recognizes Israeli power on the ground and recent dramatic shifts in the region’s geopolitics. On top of it all, it’s a deal that carries domestic political upside for the president in the midst of an impeachment hearing.

This proposal will not lead to peace in the coming weeks or months or maybe ever—and it may lead to an immediate outbreak of violence in the Palestinian territories. But, I think by recognizing the harsh realities on the ground and leveraging the unique position of the U.S. in the Middle East, it might open a process that will reduce tension in the region. Based on my early assessment of the plan, it is an effort worth taking…”

Original

Related:

Tony Blair on the Trump Plan:

“This is one of the toughest things I have seen any Administration try. The first time anyone has put down a map. It is a comprehensive plan. It will provoke as much as it pleases but it will force everyone to face up to the real challenges and choices.”

Political collapse in Iran?

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, reflected in the November uprisings, when that segment of the population took the streets against fascism.

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime president, has presented his next year’s budget, which is far from practical. Iran’s oil exports have suffered significant setbacks since the imposition of United States sanctions. The budget is based on the daily export of 1 million barrels of oil, which is undoubtedly far-fetched.

After killing more than 1,500 people and incarcerating 12,000 more during the last November’s uprisings, and at a time when the ruling clerics are facing a deep legitimacy crisis, they can hang on to power only by resorting to sheer repression.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s main force for imposing the repression in the country, is facing defections due to increased isolation after the events of the last few months.

During the uprising last November, a popular outcry in January over the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane, slogans chanted by people targeted Khamenei. The elimination of Qassem Soleimani, among the regime’s most powerful figures, also struck an irreparable blow to the regime.

The supreme leader, under such circumstances, has to consolidate his position…”

Original

On polling

Trevor Thomas:

“…According to Real Clear Politics, in spite of the economy and everything else going well in the United States of America, almost every current national poll has President Trump trailing a hypothetical Democrat opponent. Whether Biden; Sanders; Warren; or even Buttigieg, Bloomberg, or Klobuchar, President Trump trails them all in nearly every poll. As of this writing, the latest general election national poll by CNN, IBD/TIPP, Emerson, Fox News, Quinnipiac, and SurveyUSA has President Trump behind almost every possible Democrat candidate.

In 32 different matchups from the six polling agencies previously mentioned, President Trump leads in only two scenarios. The latest IBD/TIPP national poll has Trump beating Warren 47% to 46%, and the latest Emerson poll has Trump beating Buttigieg 51% to 49%. According to these polls, even Democrats who have since dropped out of the race were beating President Trump.

The latest SurveyUSA national poll (at the end of November, 2019) had Kamala Harris beating the current president of the United States 47% to 42%. At the point Harris dropped out of the race, the Real Clear Politics average had her at plus six over President Trump. Out of 42 polls reported by Real Clear Politics — from June of 2018 until November of 2019 — Trump topped Harris only six times. Again, remember that this is a candidate who couldn’t outlast even Julián Castro and Marianne Williamson.

The lesson here is the 2016 presidential election. At this point in the 2016 presidential election, up until Election Day on November 8, 2016, Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump in the vast majority of polls taken. By my count (using a spreadsheet), as reported by Real Clear Politics (RCP), there were 221 polls taken in 2016 that polled Clinton vs. Trump for U.S. president. Donald Trump led in only 26 polls. Twenty-six out of 221. That’s over 88% of the polls that showed Clinton beating Trump.

Often, the race between Clinton and Trump was shown as a complete blowout in favor of Hillary. From January of 2016 through April of 2016, there were a dozen polls that showed Hillary up by double digits. A March 2016 Bloomberg poll had Hillary up by 18 points!

Similarly, at this point in 2016, until Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, virtually every poll had him leading Donald Trump. From January of 2016 until June of 2016, when Bernie dropped out, RCP reported 28 polls on Sanders vs. Trump. Of those 28 polls, Trump polled ahead of Bernie only once. At the time the polling ended (when Bernie dropped out of the race), the RCP average had Sanders topping Trump by over 10 points!

Again, the race between Trump and Bernie was often shown to be a huge blowout in favor of Bernie. Of those 28 RCP polls, 22 of them had Bernie on top by double digits. Twelve polls had Bernie up by 15 points or more. The same Bloomberg poll that had Hillary topping Trump by 18 points showed Bernie beating Trump by 24 points!…”

Original

Doug Santo