Once More Into the Fogged Bottom
Steyn Online | November 14, 2019 | Mark Steyn

“Yesterday I caught a bit of the impeachment theatre en route to a lunchtime speaking engagement. To be honest, if they’d come round and performed it live in my hotel room, I’d still have fled. If universally respected eminent lifelong career foreign-service bigshots Bill Taylor and George Kent are Adam Schiff’s star witnesses, their chief purpose seems to be to get Democrats pining for the charisma of Bill de Blasio and the self-effacement of John Kerry.

“In a functioning system, the head of the government sets foreign policy and the diplomats enact it. So naturally there’s not a chance of that in Washington. When Taylor and Kent whine that there seemed to be a “shadow foreign policy”, the shadow is theirs; they spent a day testifying that everything had been going ticketty-boo for decades just as they’d always done things – and then Trump came along and took a different view. Oh, my! Anyone would think that, as Barack Obama once proposed, “elections have consequences”.

“First up was George Kent, the “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus”. He warmed up the crowd with some extensive biographical material about the “nearly sixty years” of George Kents (I believe he’s George III or some such) who have “chosen” to endow America with the blessings of their “public service”. It didn’t help that he wore a bow tie.

. . .

… “fellow highly esteemed – or at least highly self-esteemed – foreign-service grandee William Taylor was there to second the motion:

“Ukraine is a strategic partner of the United States, important for the security of our country.”

“Does any rational person believe either half of that sentence? Ukraine is endemically corrupt and its principal exports are, to London and Paris “escort” agencies, its comely if unibrowed blondes and, to America, Hunter Biden’s monthly stipend.”

Liberal judges?

Three Indiana Judges Suspended After Drunken Violent Brawl at White Castle
Legal Insurrection / Mary Chastain / Friday, November 15, 2019

The Court stated the judges “were not merely embarrassing on a personal level; they discredited the entire Indiana judiciary.”

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Judges Andrew Adams, Sabrina Bell, and Bradley Jacobs after a drunken incident at a White Castle in May.

Here is what happened:

At around 12:30 a.m. on May 1, Respondents and Clark Circuit Court Magistrate William Dawkins (“Magistrate Dawkins”) met at a local bar, where they continued to drink alcohol.

At around 3:00 a.m., the group walked to a strip club and tried to enter, but found that it was closed.

The group then walked to a nearby White Castle. While Magistrate Dawkins went inside, Respondents stood outside the restaurant.

At around 3:17 a.m., Alfredo Vazquez and Brandon Kaiser drove past the group and shouted something out the window.

Judge Bell extended her middle finger to Vazquez and Kaiser, who pulled into the White Castle parking lot and exited the vehicle.

Judge Bell, who was intoxicated, has no memory of the incident but concedes that the security camera video shows her making this gesture.

A heated verbal altercation ensued, with all participants yelling, using profanity, and making dismissive, mocking, or insolent gestures toward the other group.

At no time did Respondents move to another location in the parking lot to avoid a confrontation or de-escalate the conflict.

After a verbal exchange between Judge Bell and Vazquez, a physical confrontation ensued.

At one point, Judge Jacobs had Kaiser contained on the ground. With his fist raised back, Judge Jacobs said, “Okay, okay, we’re done, we’re done,” or “This is over. Tell me this is over,” or words to that effect.

At another point during the confrontation, Judge Adams kicked Kaiser in the back.

The confrontation ended when Kaiser pulled out a gun, shot Judge Adams once, and shot Judge Jacobs twice.

Lord forgive me, I can’t stop laughing at that last sentence, which a reporter wrote in an absolutey serious demeanor.

Adams received “two emergency surgeries, including a colon resectioning.” Jacobs stayed in the hospital for 14 days after his two emergency surgeries.

Adams had a blood alcohol level of 0.213. Jacobs’ blood alcohol level peaked at 0.177.

Bell did not have hers tested, but officials knew she had a few drinks because she could not remember the incident.

Officials knew she had a few drinks because she could not remember the incident.

“You want to see energy shut down? Take a look at what I’m competing against on the other side. I don’t think they even believe in energy. So far, I haven’t found any form of energy that’s acceptable to them. I think they think the factories are just going to work without energy, don’t they? (Laughter.) They don’t have a clue, these people.

“But I don’t want to mention it yet. (Laughter.) I want to wait a little bit longer. Let them go a little bit further so they can’t take it back, because as a campaign, I like it. I like it very much. (Applause.) Let them keep talking. Every time they talk, I say, ‘Boy, this looks like it might be easier than I anticipated.’ ” (Laughter.)

— Remarks by President Trump at the Economic Club of New York, November 12, 2019

Syracuse Activists Demand Right To Exclude Potential Roommates Because of Their Race
The College Fix / Greg Piper, Associate Editor / November 13, 2019

First on their ‘long-term’ demand list following possible hoax

Diversity and inclusion isn’t going so well at Syracuse University.

In response to anti-black and anti-Asian graffiti found in a bathroom and bulletin board in a campus dorm last week, students are holding a sit-in and making several demands of the administration, according to The Daily Orange.

One of those demands: the ability to deny roommates based on their race.

It shows up as No. 6 on a poster in the Arch building where the sit-in is taking place, as documented by Daily staffer Casey Darnell, and No. 1 on the protester’s “long-term” demand list: “Agree to offer a ‘Same Race’ option for roommate selection on the housing application for all students.”

MSNBC’s Katy Tur Invites Analyst to Find GOP ‘Responsible’ for School Shooting Deaths
Newsbusters | Brad Wilmouth | November 15, 2019

On Thursday afternoon, within a couple of hours of covering the school shooting in Santa Clarita, California, MSNBC journalists were predictably suggesting Republicans were to blame for the deaths as analysts and several Democratic guests pined for more gun control.

At one point, host Katy Tur invited MSNBC law enforcement analyst Jim Cavanaugh to blame Republican Senators for gun deaths because of their refusal to support more restrictions: “Would you go so far as to hold them responsible for the deaths that are continuing — the lives that are continuing to be lost with gun violence?”

Cavanaugh, who had already been ranting against Republicans for several minutes, declared, “Look, I clearly do,” and then resumed his rant.

Robert Pattinson Thinks Jennifer Lopez Would Make an “Awesome” Batman
Variety | November 13, 2019

. . . Lopez believes that Pattinson is the perfect choice to play the legendary superhero. “I think you’ll be a great Batman. An awesome Batman! Seriously, because he’s a dark character.”

“You would be as well!” Pattinson replied.

“Huh? I could be Batman?” Lopez exclaimed. “Why not!”

So maybe even you could be the next Batman! Why not!?

Texas Democrat Caught Carrying Envelope of Cocaine
Freebeacon | November 14, 2019 | Elizabeth Matamoros

Texas Democratic state representative Alfonso “Poncho” Nevárez was caught on video surveillance dropping an envelope containing cocaine at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The Texas Department of Public Safety filed an affidavit on Oct. 29 detailing surveillance footage that revealed Nevárez “dropping a white paper object” as he walked out of the airport on Sept. 6. Two Texas Department of Transportation employees found the white envelope, prompting an investigation.

Inside the sealed envelope were four “small clear plastic baggies” containing cocaine.

Nevárez, who is chairman of the state house Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee, told the Texas Tribune on Thursday “the news is true.”

Nevárez used an envelope with official state letterhead to carry his drugs.

“I observed the white envelope had a letterhead that was from the ‘Office the State of Texas House of Representatives Member Poncho Nevarez,'” Special Agent Otto Cabrera wrote in the affidavit.

The affidavit provides a warrant to test Nevárez’s DNA as his saliva is presumed to match the saliva on the envelope. The sample will be used as evidence against the representative.

“I believe that there is probable cause to believe that the DNA profile obtained from Exhibit #S2.P1 could possibly belong to Rep. NEVAREZ,” Cabrera said in the affidavit.

I’m just trying to figure out if her name means anything backwards, or whatnot.

Ethics Committee Releases Messages Showing Tlaib Asking Campaign for Personal Money, as Ethics Probes Announced
Fox News | November 14, 2019 | Gregg Re

The House Ethics Committee on Thursday released a trove of striking internal campaign communications sent in 2018 by Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib , in which Tlaib urgently requests money from her congressional campaign to defray personal expenses.

The document dump was related to the committee’s ongoing ethics probe into Tlaib, which the panel said on Thursday would be “expanded” based on a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Additionally, the Ethics Committee acknowledged for the first time on Thursday an investigation into Florida Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings concerning a “personal relationship with an individual employed in his congressional office.”

Texts and emails released by the Ethics Committee show Tlaib frantically contacting members of her staff for financial help.

In one April 2018 email offered as an exhibit by OCE, Tlaib wrote that she was “struggling financially right now” and was “sinking.” She continued: “So I was thinking the campaign could loan me money, but Ryan said that the committee could actually pay me. I was thinking a one time payment of $5k.”

In another email, on April 4, 2018, Tlaib wrote: “I am just not going to make it through the campaign without a stipend.”

“With the loss of a second income to lean back on,” she wrote. “I am requesting $2,000 per two weeks but not exceeding $12,000. The cost of living stipend is going towards much needed expenses due to campaigning that includes car maintenance, child care and other necessities. Please let me know if I can proceed.”

In August of that year, Tlaib texted her future chief of staff Ryan Anderson at 6:38 a.m.: “Sorry for the early text but do you think the campaign can still pay me a stipend until the general. Trying to get out of debt.”

“I think we definitely afford to do so. But we need to really clearly define your time and space,” Anderson responded, noting that the arrangement could arouse “concern” among the media.

The OCE also attached scans of checks made out to Tlaib from her campaign, totaling thousands of dollars.

“We need to really clearly define your time and space”???

Well, I guess that would be a start . . .