Pelosi

I remember when she first became Speaker and I thought it was not possible for her to win because she was so far left.

Nancy Pelosi Worried 2020 Democrats Are Going Too Far Left

Headline of the Day

Media Scrambles To Fact-Check Image Of Trump Riding Hero Dog Into Massive Space Battle

Mollie Hemingway on Journalism

California, NK

I blame global warming, not Gavin Newsom

Former Congresswoman Katie Hill

She’s a victim!

Headline from California in 2019

Days of terrifying darkness, cold and hunger amid PG&E’s sweeping power blackouts…

California has the world’s 11th largest economy, and one of the world’s worst political class and government. Mismanagement blamed on global warming. It is a joke.

Now We Know Why The Media Won’t Expose Trump’s ‘Whistleblower’

I & I Editorial Board:

“…The mainstream press has been oddly incurious about the identity of the “whistleblower” who got the Trump impeachment train rolling. Now we know the reason why.

Real Clear Investigations on Wednesday published a bombshell account by investigative reporter Paul Sperry, who says that the identity of the so-called whistleblower “has been an open secret inside the Beltway.” There’s even a 40-page research dossier floating around on him compiled by former colleagues.

It turns out that the person who wrote the second-hand, factually inaccurate account of President Donald Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky isn’t just some careerist, non-partisan CIA official, or even, as Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson put it, a person with “some indicia of an arguable political bias.”

Eric Ciaramella is, as Sperry reveals, “a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia ‘collusion’ investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.”

What’s more, Ciaramella left his White House post in mid-2017 “amid concerns about negative leaks to the media.” Sperry reports that, according to that 40-page dossier, Ciaramella also helped generate the “Putin fired Comey” narrative.

Oh, and he worked “on Ukrainian policy issues for (Joe) Biden in 2015 and 2016, when the vice president was President Obama’s ‘point man’ for Ukraine.”

As partisan icing on the cake, before filing his complaint against Trump, Ciaramella met with the staff of House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff – who is running the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry – for “guidance.”

This sounds like a whole lot more than an “indicia” or an “arguable” bias. In fact, it smacks of the very kind of Deep State that Trump has been talking about.

The press reaction to Sperry’s story? Complete and utter silence.

The only Washington publication to cover his revelations was the Washington Examiner, which has a conservative-leaning editorial board.

But that story, from the headline down, reeks of liberal bias. The reporter, Steven Nelson, spends the second paragraph of the story attacking Sperry, calling him “a partisan pro-Trump figure who … critics accuse of trading in disinformation and conspiracy theories.”

Well, we know Paul Sperry. He worked for Investor’s Business Daily for years, where the Issues & Insights team was before striking out on its own. (He’s written for us, as well.) Paul is a diligent reporter who has broken more stories than Steve Nelson could dream of. To brazenly malign Sperry using leftist tropes is journalistic malpractice at its worst.

Even more bizarrely, Nelson claims to have found “at least one significant factual inaccuracy in the report,” but never reveals what it is. This is the sort of sloppy, biased journalism we expect from the New York Times or the Washington Post or CNN.

That aside, there’s another reason the mainstream press won’t touch Sperry’s story. If it did, it would have to admit that it’s known the “whistleblower’s” identity all along. And that it knows his biases. And that it’s under no obligation to protect his identity. And, finally, that it covered up his identity to keep the impeachment train rolling.

So the blackout holds. The only interest the Washington Post has shown in Ciaramella’s identity is to blast Republicans for trying to “unmask” him. The New York Times laughably claimed that it didn’t know his politics or his name.

It’s no surprise to us that the mainstream press is carrying water for Democrats on the impeachment story. But even we are sometimes surprised and dismayed by its cravenness…”

Original

The Whistleblower

This has the same retched stink as the Kavanaugh lynching. When you think Democrats can’t go lower, they somehow find a way.

DANIEL J. FLYNN:

“…Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations wrote the name Eric Ciaramella on Wednesday. Not since a chained, old man uttered “Jehovah” in Life of Brian have so many people reacted with such hostility to hearing a name said.

Discovering that Eric Ciaramella tattled on the president does not rank with learning that Webster shot J. R. or finding D. B. Cooper in Al Capone’s vault. America merely lacked a name. We knew the type.

Ciaramella graduated from a high school that costs $30,000 a year to attend, received his undergraduate degree from Yale, and obtained a master’s from Harvard. A few years after graduation from that tony private high school, the youngster estimated to its alumni magazine of trips to 28 different countries (he admits he lost count).

When others provide you with the best education and pricey junkets to obscure parts of the globe, not getting the president you asked for might come as a terrible blow. So Ciaramella sought to rectify this injustice by anonymously peddling secondhand gossip — false in large part — designed to instigate another round of impeachment discussions. He did so by first going to Congressman Adam Schiff. When you seek to report a federal crime, go to the FBI. When you seek to gin up political trouble, go to Adam Schiff.

This came as the latest instance of the 33-year-old CIA employee using his government position for partisan, political ends.

Ciaramella absconded from the National Security Council after widespread suspicion arose that he leaked information for the purpose of damaging the president he ostensibly served. At that time, Mike Cernovich wrote in an article that Medium.com later removed that “Ciaramella helped draft Susan Rice’s anti-Trump talking points before the Inauguration.” Cernovich described him as “the main force pushing Trump-Russia conspiracy theories.”

Paul Sperry notes that Ciaramella circumvented his chain of command in telling another agency of a meeting between Trump and Russians in the Oval Office a day after James Comey’s firing. This email, referenced in the Mueller report, effectively launched a “Putin fired Comey” narrative depicting the president of the United States as a marionette controlled by the Kremlin.

“And Ciaramella worked with a Democratic National Committee operative who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election,” Sperry reports, “inviting her into the White House for meetings, former White House colleagues said. The operative, Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American who supported Hillary Clinton, led an effort to link the Republican campaign to the Russian government. ‘He knows her. He had her in the White House,’ said one former co-worker, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.”

Politico detailed the collusion between Ciaramella’s DNC operative pal and Ukraine in a lengthy report by Kenneth Vogel, now with the New York Times, and David Stern, who resides in Kiev. “Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office,” they write. “They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.”

Why did John Brennan assign Ciaramella to the National Security Council? What role, if any, did Ciaramella take in this particular collusion involving Chalupa and a foreign government to influence the outcome of a U.S. presidential election? Why did Sen. Rand Paul describe Ciaramella as Vice President Joe Biden’s point man on Ukraine?…”

Original

Drain the swamp, set the governed free

This headline sums up my opinion of the impeachment farce

A tragedy for the nation – and democracy

There is no excuse for this nonsense

Utah sees record cold of -43.6 ºF – ‘Perhaps the lowest October temperature ever recorded’ in continental U.S.

This 24-hour temperature plot from an observing station at Peter Sinks, Utah shows overnight lows bottoming out around 43 degrees below zero - which may be the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Lower 48 during the month of October.

Global warming to blame?

Tent encampments across California are testing residents’ tolerance and compassion as street conditions deteriorate.

Thomas Fuller, Tim Arango and Louis Keene:

“…Insults like “financial parasites” and “bums” have been directed at them, not to mention rocks and pepper spray. Fences, potted plants and other barriers have been erected to keep them off sidewalks. Citizen patrols have been organized, vigilante style, to walk the streets and push them out.

California may pride itself on its commitment to tolerance and liberal values, but across the state, record levels of homelessness have spurred a backlash against those who live on the streets…”

Original

al Baghdadi a never-Trumper?

Political Cartoons by AF Branco

Twisted, Biased Media or Journalism

Mike LaChance:

“…For years, conservatives have pointed out the liberal biases of the media, but the Trump era has brought the subject into focus never seen before now. The media’s reaction to the death of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi may have been a turning point.

Progressives in media are so dedicated to opposing Trump, that the Washington Post eulogized the terrorist with more warmth than they have ever afforded President Trump, or even certain high school students caught on camera wearing MAGA hats.

CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and the other usual suspects also had spectacularly bad takes on the death of al-Baghdadi, all of which were framed to discredit Trump or downplay his role in the situation.

In years past, the media tried to remain subtle in their bias but that all changed on election night in 2016. Anyone who was paying attention that night saw the media completely transform in real time. Many of the same cable and network news hosts who played palace guards for the Obama administration for eight years, became members of the angry mob at the palace gate, overnight.

One day the White House was an institution which could do no wrong and must be protected at all costs, the next it was a potential hotbed of corruption. We suddenly needed journalists who were willing to speak truth to power in supposed defense of our democracy.

In case you haven’t noticed, the vast majority of the media is working in direct partnership with the Democrat Party to undo the results of the 2016 election and to remove Trump from office…”

Original

Whistleblower

STEPHEN KRUISER:

“…A very clear picture of why the Democrats have been so fiercely protecting his identity also came into view. He has connections to Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, the Democratic National Committee, and the awful Trump-hating stain on so many news cycles: John Brennan.

This thing stunk when we first found out that the whistleblower didn’t even have firsthand knowledge of the call. If he’s Biden and Brennan’s puppet the stench becomes permanently toxic…”

Original

Democrat Run Government

MIRANDA DEVINE:

“…It’s not climate change that has set California on fire, as Gov. Gavin Newsom claims.

It’s human mismanagement and green obstinacy.

Locking up forests and preventing tree clearing and the systematic fuel reduction required in any prudent management of nature has been a disaster in a state that is “built to burn.”

Now that the cataclysm predicted by world forestry and fire experts has come to pass, the culprits are blaming climate change.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. They warn of cataclysmic climate change if we don’t suddenly remove the cheap, fossil-fueled energy on which this nation’s economic prosperity was founded.

Then they work against any sensible management of California’s forests which would reduce the severity of routine regular wildfires.

Then, when the wildfires become record-breaking conflagrations, they point and say, “See, I told you so.”…”

Original

Anti-Trump ‘Whistleblower’ Worked With DNC Operative Who Sought Dirt On Trump From Ukrainian Officials

Madeline Osburn:

“…A new report from RealClearInvestigations reveals that the anti-Trump “whistleblower” who prompted the current impeachment proceedings against President Trump is a registered Democrat who worked with a Democratic National Committee opposition researcher who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Federal documents reveal that the whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, previously worked in the Obama administration with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan. RealClear reports that Ciaramella remained there into the Trump administration, and headed the Ukraine desk at the National Security Council, eventually transitioning into the West Wing, until June 2017.

He then “left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia,” RealClearInvestigations reported. Ciaramella is a Yale graduate who reportedly speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and Arabic.

Officials told RealClear that Ciaramella strongly opposed Trump’s foreign policy…”

Original

Doug Santo