It really doesn’t get more bizarre than this. Michael Avenatti gained national fame because he represented Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump. The MSM loved him and some even thought he would be a good candidate for the DNC nomination to be President of the United States. All the red flag warnings were flying high, but since he hated Donald Trump nothing else mattered. According to the following link he was on CNN 121 times, MSNBC 108 times, ABC News 12 times, 7 times on CBS, 5 times on NBC and twice on Fox News.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lawyer-michael-avenatti-254-tv-appearances-prior-to-legal-troubles

Few, other than Tucker Carlson, seemed to notice that Avenatti was spouting utter nonsense and had zero credibility. Other, now wiser, people eventually figured this out. Avenatti tried to get Nike to give him $20 million unless they hired him to conduct an internal investigation. Nike, although stupid enough to puff Colin Kaepernick, is not this stupid so they turned him in for extortion.

Avenatti was held in solitary confinement at a New York federal prison Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). His bond was revoked for probable violations of his pretrial conditions and allegedly hiding assets to defraud creditors. CNN reported on this but failed to acknowledge that he was formerly a superstar on their network:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/us/michael-avenatti-jail-conditions/index.html

Today he was found guilty. He is still facing additional charges in California. Odds are it will be a long long time, if ever, before Michael Avenatti gets another opportunity in free society to wreak havoc.

It is sad to see anyone face this kind of future, even when it appears to be so well earned. But what is really pathetic is that in their lust to destroy Donald Trump, so many supposed smart people actually took this man seriously. I believe we are the verge of a lot of people, other than Avenatti, finding themselves in a very different world.

There are signs that William Barr is no longer messing around. The significant of his interference with the Roger Stone case is that four Mueller prosecutors resigned. While Barr will play by the rules, he is on it and we are all very likely to see some very important results sooner than you can imagine.

Perhaps the most important subject is the origins of the Russian collusion investigation. I can remember when Obama said that our intelligence agencies had proved that Russia not only interfered in our election, it did so on behalf of Donald Trump. I was immediately suspicious, not that Russia would try to interfere, but rather that they would favor Donald Trump. It just seemed logical that they would prefer someone who allowed them to buy 20% of our Uranium and whose husband was get $500,000 to bore an audience in Moscow. Just saying.

We bless my soul, Lindsey Graham is requesting interviews of 17 current and former DOJ and FBI officials asking them to kindly explain how these geniuses reached that conclusion. Some of them would be wise to consider how things are going for Michael Avenatti. If the narrative about Russia trying to help Hillary Clinton is proved false, the entire case for investigating Trump also collapses. That would result in the ultimate blow back. It would make the people who believed in Michael Avenatti look good in comparison.

Ave Naughty and he got caught. So sad, too bad for him, but possibly great news for the country.

TDM

There is an old saying: “what goes around comes around.”

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/What+goes+around%2c+comes+around’/rgwew

“One’s actions or behavior will eventually have consequences for one, even if indirectly. The phrase typically refers to one being a victim of the same negative circumstances that they have inflicted on others.”

There is another line from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

Actually, this probably traces back to Machiavelli who wrote in “The Prince:” “Never do an enemy a small injury.” Machiavelli warned that if you miss, you are in grave danger of revenge.

The point is that this is not exactly a new concept. Democrats tried to overturn the election of Donald Trump. They appear to have enlisted the aid of people in the DOJ, the FBI and our intelligence agencies. They definitely included people working for President Trump in the National Security Council. In spite of their best efforts, if one can consider anything done by Adam Schiff to qualify as a best effort, they lost. Trump was acquitted and no one in the MSM is even talking about impeachment any more.

But the story will not end here. Trump was officially acquitted, and he is now finally free to fight back. He resisted doing that before to avoid giving his opponents unnecessary ammunition. That is no longer an issue. He can’t be accused of obstructing justice when he has been acquitted. The DOJ is officially investigating corruption in Ukraine. They are officially looking at the documents obtained by Rudy Giuliani.

The DOJ just notified the court that they are no longer recommending a lengthy prison term for Roger Stone. The adults just took back control of the institution.That case had all the earmarks of a politically motivated prosecution. Four of the prosecutors who worked on that case have already resigned. Devin Nunes says “We believe there are other examples of things they did during the Mueller investigation that I think you and your listeners and the American people will be very interested to learn in the coming weeks.” The link to that video is below:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/devin-nunes-drops-bombshell-teases-mueller-team-corruption-will-be-revealed-in-coming-weeks-video/

There is more. Several people were fired from the NSC. Lindsey Graham is starting to call witnesses. The entire Republican team in the House Intelligence Committee walked out on Adam Schiff because he refuses to investigate the FISA abuse.

Following is a twitter feed from President Trump, sent out today:

“Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress.”

They shot at a king and they missed by a mile. Now it is his turn. He has several distinct advantages. He has the facts and he has a team that is far superior to those who opposed him. He also has the law and the constitution on his side. Sometimes what goes around really does come around and that will be obvious to everyone very soon.

TDM

On May 16, 1972 George W. Wallace, won the Democratic Party primary in Michigan. He beat George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. Many people believe that this was the result of Republicans and Independents crossing over to vote for the worst Democratic candidate. A racist southern governor was just too delicious to ignore. I suspect they are right about that. I certainly know a lot of friends and relatives who were living in Michigan at the time who did exactly that. That is one reason many states changed the rules preventing someone from voting for a candidate from another party. I remember when we moved to California, I registered as an independent. Then the primary election came around and found out I couldn’t actually vote for anyone.

Well, bless my soul, New Hampshire still has an open primary. Any voter who is registered as undeclared, or registers as undeclared, can vote in either party’s primary. Trump had a rally yesterday in New Hampshire and he literally urged New Hampshire independents to vote for the weakest Democratic candidate. At least some of them are likely to listen.

So, when you watch the news tonight, remember that sometimes worst comes in first. It would be beyond hysterical if Joe Biden were to surge, not because he is actually doing well, but because he isn’t. Almost anything is possible. The only thing certain is uncertainty.

Also, note that no matter what happens it will be worse than it was four years ago. In 2016 Sanders got about 60% of the vote in New Hampshire. He is extremely unlikely to do that. That was only possible because his only competition was Hillary Clinton. Ironically, Hillary got about 38% of the New Hampshire vote in 2016, and if Bernie gets 38% this year, he will be the big winner. It is hard to explain how someone is winning big time when they get about half the vote they got last time.  But, that is almost certain to happen.

TDM

The Democratic Party can’t stand anything, so rather than standing for something, they stand for nothing. It picking up speed on a certain path to destruction. The problem is that in their desire to be fair to everyone, they are fair to no one, not even each other. It is probably mathematically impossible for any of the current candidates to win the nomination as the result of the primary elections and caucuses. The reason is quite simple. Democrats decided to award delegates proportionately. You have already seen the results of this strategy in Iowa. Pete Buttigieg was awarded more delegates than Bernie Sanders, even though Sanders got a lot more votes. This will continue with EVERY primary and every caucus. You don’t have to take my word for it, attached are the actual rules as published by the DNC.

https://www.270towin.com/content/thresholds-for-delegate-allocation-2020-democratic-primary-and-caucus

1. No candidate receives 15% of the vote. If no candidate meets the 15% threshold, Democratic Party rules state the minimum to receive delegates will be 50% of the vote received by the front-runner.  For example, if candidate A wins with 10% of the vote, delegates will be allocated proportionately to anyone that receives 5% or more.
2. Only one candidate exceeds 15% of the vote — but just barely. If only one candidate gets 15%, the allocation is effectively winner-take-all.  This is not a big deal if that person is the clear frontrunner, getting 40%, 50% or more.  However, what if the opposite is true — a candidate wins with 16% vote share, while the next three candidates are just a few points behind.  If that happened repeatedly favoring the same candidate, the party could potentially end up with a nominee that lacks broad support

Unless someone or something intervenes, it the DNC is probably headed toward a brokered convention. Just imagine if Bernie Sanders gets 30 to 35% of the vote, but he is nowhere the 50% needed. If the DNC gives it to someone else, there will be a whole new meaning to feeling the Berne. Yet, establishment Democrats believe that Bernie is likely to be defeated in a landslide by Donald Trump. Some, like John Kerry, predict he will take down the Democratic Party with him.

The House Impeachment managers are desperately trying to get someone, anyone to listen to them. But even the MSM that cheered them on two weeks ago, recognizes the ugly odor of defeat. Adam Schiff couldn’t even get on a Sunday Talk show yesterday. By next week we will have trouble remembering their names. It is like the MSM just woke up last Monday and said: “hey, we got an election going on.” Impeachment is so yesterday.

Every major network set aside last Monday evening for a full production covering the Iowa Caucus results. Except there were no results. There weren’t even predictions of results. The DNC embarrassed the entire MSM. There weren’t any real results until later in the week and by then everyone had moved on.

But there’s the rub. If Iowa didn’t matter, why did so many supposed smart people spend a lot of time there. Iowa used to matter a lot. They often said there are only three tickets out of Iowa. That is the whole point, it winnows down a crowded field so that people can concentrate on candidates who have some chance at winning. When that doesn’t happen, disaster is inevitable.

Welcome to Disasterville. If Iowa didn’t matter, why should New Hampshire matter? It won’t take long before the entire MSM just waits for Super Tuesday. But Super Tuesday won’t solve the problem either. Bloomberg is likely to buy at least some votes, somewhere. Steyer may even be able to buy some votes. Bernie will be Bernie and Buttigieg will probably lurk in his shadow, for a while. Even Elizabeth Warren may be able to hang on with about 15% of the vote in some states. If you think last Monday was a farce, wait until you watch the results on Super Tuesday. At some point it will become obvious that everyone is getting a participation award, and no one looks like anything resembling a winner.

As for New Hampshire, right now it looks like Sanders will win, by a larger margin than expected. Buttigieg will come in second, and Biden, Warren and Klobuchar will be fighting for third, with none of them likely to get the 15% necessary to be considered a factor. While thousands will wait for hours in the rain and snow to see Trump, Democratic turnout is likely to be suppressed. This is easily a worst-case scenario for Democrats. Yet, in a few weeks, Democrats may look longingly back at Iowa and New Hampshire as the good ole days.

Increasingly the focus will shift from the candidates themselves to the DNC. The same DNC that mucked up Iowa to a fare thee well. As John Kennedy said: “Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.”

TDM

It looks like the DNC nomination will be a race between Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Biden is done; his funds are already drying up. Elizabeth Warren is falling faster than Biden. The only other candidate with anything resembling a pulse is Klobuchar and if she can’t beat Pete, well, she can’t beat anyone.

Buttigieg is only considered a possible candidate because Democrats are terrified about Bernie. He has never even won a state wide election, anywhere. His record as Mayor South Bend, Indiana is spotty at best and South Bend has just over 100,000 people. Folsom will be bigger than South Bend in the near future. But his real problem is that he arrogantly and self-righteously criticizes anyone who disagrees with him. His latest sermon was on why Christians need to support late term abortion. The more people learn about him the less likely he will be considered a legitimate candidate for President. He only looks good in comparison to the worst slate of candidates in American history.

I know some of you are think: “what if Pete Buttigieg was actually elected president?” I mean Obama didn’t have any qualifications for the job either. That, of course, is true. But, for all his faults, Pete Buttigieg is no Barack Obama. For one thing, he appears to have zero support in the black community. He also lacks the charisma of Obama. We can expect Buttigieg to surge, until people learn more about him, and then his drop will be precipitous. The best comparison would be with Howard Dean who looked great, until people realized he was shrieking nonsense.

Smart Democrats have to be absolutely terrified. But, this is what happens when your current leadership team is aging out and there is absolutely no one in the pipeline. Most teams, with this type of problem, would be trying to recruit someone from the competition.

I know. How about Mitt Romney? He would probably jump at the chance to run for President as a Democrat. He certainly hates Trump enough. He could even pray about it so that God would inform his decision. But, sadly, even Democrats are not that dumb.

Democrats are probably already on a fossil hunt. John Kerry has volunteered, but no one cares. Hillary is desperate enough to volunteer to run for VP, although only Biden would be stupid enough to consider that as an option. They may try to recruit Michelle Obama or Oprah, but it is far from certain that either have any interest. Plus, anyone the DNC sticks in there to replace Bernie will set off a revolt.

I wonder if Bernie realizes that a lot of people are probably secreting praying for another heart attack. Of course they would argue that this would be unthinkable, unless they thought it might work.

All of the above is obviously absurd. But so is sitting back and watching Bernie and Pete battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. This is impossible to predict. We know it is beyond bad. Democrats know it is beyond bad. They have to be absolutely desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.

The real solution would be for Democrats to consider purchasing mirrors so they could see the true source of their problems. That is also the least likely solution.

TDM

We are literally watching the Democratic Party meltdown in public. Nancy Pelosi tried, and failed to do a press conference today. When CNN reporter asked her if ripping up Trump’s SOTU speech sent the wrong message, she slammed her hand on the podium. Following is a quote from the CSPAN video of the incident.

.@SpeakerPelosi: “I tore up a manifesto of mistruths. It was necessary to get the attention of the American people, to say this is not true…And I don’t need any lessons from anybody, especially the president of the United States, about dignity.”

If the Democratic Party has lost CNN, they have lost EVERYTHING. Joe Biden is trying and failing to recover from Iowa. The DNC is so embarrassed they are considering doing a total recount in Iowa. That, assumes, they ever finish counting the first time.

In the meantime, Trump got a standing ovation at his press conference in the White House. He thanked all those who had helped him. It is very clear who won and who lost.  Nancy, obviously shocked by Trump’s State of the Union Address, literally said she thought he might have been sedated. That is beyond ridiculous. It is also an admission that Trump knocked it out of the park.

This is likely to get much worse. The Biden investigation is about to go full throttle. It sure looks like a lot of people were just waiting for the impeachment fiasco to officially end. Senator Grassley has been quietly investigating Hunter Biden for a long time. According to Yahoo, a leading Democrat said that the Treasury Department just turned over closely held financial records including evidence of questionable origin to the Senate. These could include Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) filed by financial institutions with FinCEN, part of the Treasury Department, assigned to police money laundering. In addition, Secret Service records were requested regarding Hunter Biden’s travel on Air Force 2.

If Biden continues falling and has to drop out of the race, Democrats may quickly abandon him. They really don’t want him, they just want Bernie less and there really is no one else. That is why they are desperate enough to invite Michael Bloomberg to the next debate. If Biden looks like a sure loser, which appears very likely, they may even turn on him.

No matter how you spin this, Democrats have suffered a humiliating loss. There are typically four stages to grief: denial, anger, depression, and finally acceptance. Democrats have been in denial for over three years and may just be forced to acknowledge the tragedy that is Donald Trump. When that happens, they will quickly move to stage two, which is anger. They are already angry at Donald Trump, but that has not accomplished anything. Soon their anger will be directed at those who failed to protect them from Trump. That will start with Hillary Clinton. She lost to Trump, they know she lost to Trump, and no one really thinks she can beat him this time either.

The question is where to direct their anger next. They will start with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, but it won’t stop there. There is likely to be a civil war for control of the Democratic Party. On one side will be the squad, led by AOC, and on the other side will be the rest of the Party that is not actually insane. Just think about this. Every Democrat in the House foolishly voted to impeach the president of the United States, only to see Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler put on an embarrassing inept performance in front of the Senate on National Television. How on earth do you start an impeachment trial by claiming you have full and complete evidence and then beg for new witnesses? People who watched this honestly know that Trump’s legal team humiliated the House managers. It wasn’t even close, but every Democrat in the Senate stupidly voted to remove President Trump from office anyway. They are likely to pay a terrible price for this mistake.

Perhaps Democrats will miraculous find a way to defeat Donald Trump, retain the House and gain control of the Senate. But that would probably require divine intervention from the God in which they do not believe. A more likely result is that Trump is re-elected in a landslide, Republicans take back the House and increase control of the Senate. This may be so obvious that Mitt Romney might seriously considered returning to the Republican Party, assuming they even want him back.

We may not even recognize the Democratic Party if that happens. It could even splint into two parties, the Democratic Party and the Progressive Party. If that happens, it may take decades for Republicans to muck things up bad enough to lose their advantage. The country will be even more divided and angrier, but that anger will not result in significant political power.

At least some Democrats and their supporters in the MSM have already figured this out. They are desperately looking for new leadership, but that’s the problem. Right now there is no one even resembling a leader on the Democratic horizon. When people think Adam Schiff is a superstar, there absolutely is no one else. If just a couple of Democrats in the House had seized the day and voted against this insane impeachment, they could have elevated themselves above everyone else. That is even more true for Democrats in the Senate. Even if they hated Trump, they still should have pretended to stand on principle because it would have been such a stark contrast with everyone else. If they were really convinced by someone like Adam Schiff that Trump was guilty of a high crime and/or misdemeanor, they lack the intellect to be a leader of anything.

There are people out there. People who are Democrats. People who actually have leadership ability. People who are not insane. But, right now, no one even knows their name. They are being shouted down by people like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and AOC. Eventually, we will hear from them, but that may not happen any time soon. It may not even happen during our lifetime.

TDM

The Democratic Party is literally having a meltdown. If you are a Democratic, you should have noticed all the red flag warnings. During the time when Obama was President, Democrats were being devastated in state elections. But, after this week, the Democratic Party is at high risk of a catastrophic wipe out in November.

The country changed dramatically during the 10 years after Obama was elected and it was the Democratic Party that declined and the Republican Party that soared. In 2008, according to Gallup, 29 states were solid DEM, 6 leaned DEM and 10 were competitive. Only 4 states were solid GOP and 1 state leaned GOP. By 2018 that had changed dramatically. Only 14 states were solid DEM, a drop of 15 states, 8 states leaned DEM and 10 were competitive. At the same time 13 states were now solid GOP and 5 leaned GOP.

There was also an enormous change in which party controlled state governments. The big change took place in 2011, after 3 years of Obama. In 2010 Democrats controlled 27 states and Republicans controlled 15 states. In 2011 that completely flipped. Democrats only controlled 15 states and Republicans controlled 27 states. Today, Democrats control 19 states and Republicans control 29 states.

This week, the Democratic leadership literally poured gas on their house fire. Actually it started last week. They stupidly forced Republicans to vote on the acquittal of President Trump AFTER the State of the Union address. Apparently they thought this would put the State of the Union address under a cloud. Instead the opposite happened. Trump hit it out of the park and today when Democrats, along with Mitt Romney, vote to convict President Trump they are the ones who will look silly and vindictive.

Monday night, the Democratic Party either could not or would not report on the results from Iowa. The result was a national embarrassment on national TV. At best, they look hopelessly incompetent. At worst, they look like they are plotting to do anything and everything to stop Bernie Sanders.

It is pretty obvious that at least some people knew the results Monday night. Pete Buttigieg clearly knew which is why he made his victory speech. Amy Klobuchar pretended she had done well while Biden and Warren looked like Deer in the headlights.

Now it is Wednesday and they still haven’t finished counting. Biden is already campaigning in New Hampshire, admitting he got hammered and trying to explain why he is still a viable candidate. If you have to explain why you are still relevant, you aren’t. Biden spent 29 days in Iowa during December, January and February, more than any other candidate, only to come in a distant 4^th.

In the meantime Mike Bloomberg is spending a fortune on political ads obviously planning on buying the nomination. A lot of people are speculating about a brokered convention where the DNC establishment picks the candidate. If that happens, there is likely to be a civil war in the Democratic Party.

Then, Nancy Pelosi pulled a childish stunt that boggles the mind. She literally tore up the State of the Union Speech on national television. She looked and acted like a spoiled child. She also looked like someone who knew she had not only been defeated, she had been humiliated. She may have provided video that will result the ultimate “Agony of Defeat” political ad. This is so bad that few even pretend to defend her actions; instead they are trying to change the topic toward slamming Trump’s policies.

Many people already expected Democrats to suffer a humiliating defeat in November. House Democrats certainly believe that, which is why they voted to impeach Trump before having any actual evidence. The only Republican in the U.S. congress dumb enough to buy this charade was Mitt Romney. Whether he knows it or not, he has destroyed any chance of a political future.

But now Democrats have actually increased the speed in their race to the bottom. Now defeat in November not only looks more likely, this has the potential to literally tear the Democratic Party apart at the seams. John Kerry knows this, which is why he was desperately trying to build up Joe Biden and even hinted that he might consider a run.himself. Kerry was overheard saying that if Bernie Sanders was the nominee, he would take down the Democratic Party with him. Actually, it is worse than that. The party may actually suffer even more damage if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination.

That is the real lesson of Tuesday’s child, Nancy Pelosi. This is the face of a loser. A spoiled brat, who did not get her way, and can only scream and stamp her feet in fury. That is actually fun to watch, but it is a far cry of what should be expected by the Speaker of the House, third in line to the Presidency.

Unless someone of something intervenes, Democrats are fast waddling toward a catastrophic loss in November.

TDM

The Democratic Party in Iowa was totally humiliated last night. Every network was fully staffed to break the big story. None of them could get any information at all. Normally, there would be at least some information. It might be limited to exit polls or limited result from some locations, but in this case there was absolutely nothing. The theory is that this was all caused by some $60,000 smart phone application. But, that theory doesn’t hold water. There was clearly something else going on. I suspect that a least some people in the DNC headquarters were getting reports. They actually admitted that, but said they were holding off reporting until they performed data integrity. I don’t believe them. This was too humiliating for Democrats and too helpful for Donald Trump. They had to know that. Yet, they considered this a better alternative than reporting the actual results. I believe that what really happened was that Joe Biden was coming in 4^th or lower. If all the news outlets had reported Biden coming in 4^th or lower last night, it would have ended his campaign. I think the DNC called an audible and decided that a delay of game was necessary to keep Biden from total collapse.

The results are finally starting to come in and Biden is in distance 4^th, barely ahead of Klobuchar. But, the delay of game strategy means that Biden can just disregard Iowa and try to hang on until South Carolina. The theory is that the black vote in South Carolina may keep Biden in the race, at least for a while. I don’t think anyone really thinks Biden has a real chance, but at a minimum they need him to slow down Bernie until after Super Tuesday. Otherwise, it will be Bernie against nobody and for all his faults, Bernie is somebody. You can’t beat somebody with nobody.

This is hard to predict, but right now Bernie is the only candidate with even a potential path to the nomination. I suspect Democrats are just desperately trying to prevent Bernie from becoming inevitable, so they can broker something at the DNC convention. Odds are that will work about as well as the DNC counted votes last night in Iowa.

TDM

I recently went to see “The Play That Went Wrong.” It was described as a comedy, but would probably be more accurately described as a total farce. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong resulting in loud laughter from the audience.  The real skill was displayed by actors pretending that they were trying to be serious.

On the way home from the play, it suddenly dawned on me that this script was remarkably similar to the impeachment trial. The primary difference being that the actors in this play knew it was a farce, the Democratic House managers are equally absurd, but they appear to be oblivious to that.

There could have been no more appropriate ending to the House presentation than what actually happened. Adam Schiff stood up and prepared to give his well-rehearsed moving and eloquent recitation of previous discredited arguments. There was significant risk that Schiff, would again, resort to inventing things or deliberately misrepresenting facts. We may even have been treated to another tearful sermon begging people to buy Schiff’s delusional version of reality. But, Schiff didn’t get his chance at glory, because Jerry Nadler, one of the few people on this planet with less credibility that Schiff, jumped to his feet and speed waddled past Schiff to the microphone, while Schiff was hissing: “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry in a failed attempt to save the day.

In addition, Hakeem Jeffries managed to say something so stupid that he made both Nadler and Schiff look brilliant in comparison. Jeffries chose to answer this question:

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee hired a retired foreign spy to work with Russian contacts to build a dossier of opposition research against her political opponent, Donald Trump. Under the House managers’ standard would the dossier be considered as foreign interference in a U.S. election, a violation of the law, and/or an impeachable offense?”

Jeffries responded by admitting that the Hillary Clinton campaign did this, but he said it was an improper analogy:

“The analogy is not applicable to the present situation because first, to the extent that opposition research was obtained, it was opposition research that was purchased,”

In other words, Jeffries admitted this was true, but because Hillary paid for this, it was OK.

While the MSM, predictably, continues to slam Trump and praise the Schiff team, they are no longer pretending that the House manager made their case. It is increasingly obvious that no matter how passionately Schiff and Co plead, no new witnesses will be called. It is also clear that President Trump will be acquitted and he is far more likely to get Democratic votes for acquittal than he is to get Republican votes for conviction.

Democrats and the MSM are hoping that the American people watching this are too stupid to recognize that the entire Democratic case is an absolute farce. They will probably be right, with regard to a lot of people, but it I strongly believe that most people can and will recognize the truth. Unless something major develops between now and November, this is likely to go down as one of the worst political blunders in our nations’ history.

TDM

The House Managers have totally botched the impeachment trial. Democratic senators are a lot of things, but most of them are not stupid. Many of them are highly skilled attorneys. They know that Schiff failed to make the case and they also know this will soon become obvious. The smart ones already know they have lost and are looking for the least painful exit. No one is even pretending that this will result in Trump’s removal from office. The Schiff show is almost over and the response by Trump’s attorneys is likely to be epic.

Schiff built his entire case around an assumption he cannot prove and for which he has no evidence. Schiff has repeatedly said that there was no explanation for investigating Joe Biden other than to interfere in the 2020 election.  He claims that all of the allegations regarding Biden have been discredited as a conspiracy theory. He offered no evidence to support that claim. In doing this, he made Joe Biden a centerpiece of the impeachment trial. Joe Biden is unlikely to be called as a witness, but he is definitely a person of interest.

It is indisputable that Joe Biden personally demanded Ukraine fire a specific prosecutor, within six hours, or he would withhold $1 billion in aid. He even admitted that Ukraine questioned whether he had the authority to do that. Biden scornfully told them he had exactly that authority. A billboard in Time’s Square is now playing a loop of this video.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/23/joe-biden-hit-times-square-billboard-ukraine-deals/

It is also indisputable that Hunter Biden was appointed to board of Burisma and was paid big bucks. It is indisputable that Burisma was considered to be hopelessly corrupt. Several witnesses called by Democrats in the House admitted that. This means the only real question is why was Hunter Biden appointed to this position? So far, I have yet to hear a good answer to that question.

Democrats also made Rudy Giuliani a focus point of this trial. They even quoted John Bolton referring to Giuliani as a “hand grenade.” That actually may be quite accurate. But a hand grenade can be a pretty effective weapon. Rudy has been strangely silence recently, probably because he knew that anything he said or did would have been used by Democrats in the impeachment trial. But, they are about to rest, that makes it much easier for Giuliani to speak up. He has already started doing that with an appearance on Fox and Friends. Either Giuliani is delusional, or he has a lot of evidence regarding corruption by Biden and others in the Ukraine.

Ted Cruz is one of the smartest attorney’s in congress. Here is what he said:

House Democrats perhaps unintentionally threw Joe Biden under the bus..(Trump attys) are going to have the opportunity to present..evidence ..that supports a serious investigation into..whether Joe Biden participated in that corruption.. (with Burisma)

The Democratic presentation also made a huge mistake by letting Nadler off his leash. Lisa Murkowski, who Democrats were counting on to cross over the aisle, is livid because Nadler basically said Republican Senators were part of a cover-up:

“I see a lot of senators voting for a cover-up, voting to deny witnesses, an absolutely indefensible vote, obviously a treacherous vote,”

Here is what she said to Alaska Public Media:

“I took it as very offensive,” Murkowski told reporters in the basement of the Senate Wednesday afternoon. “As one who is listening attentively and working hard to get to a fair process, I was offended.” 

Democrats called the furor over Nadler’s idiotic comments as a distraction. However, none of them even attempted to defend his remarks. Democrats desperately needed help from Republicans like Murkowski to even get this trial extended beyond the initial presentations. They needed those witnesses. They already lost that battle. If they have lost people like Murkowski, they have lost the war.

The Democratic attempt to impeach Trump was always destined to fail. But, when they were trying this in the MSM, they had an opportunity to sell a lot of people on a false and patently absurd narrative. Voting to forward articles of impeachment to the Senate was a huge tactical error. It made Democrats present their case first and it allows Trump’s legal team equal opportunity to respond. That gave a huge advantage to Trump’s legal team. Trump’s team knows all the evidence that Democrats have accumulated and they know all of their arguments. Democrats do not know what evidence the Trump team has accumulated and they don’t really know how Republicans will conduct their defense.

I actually have a lot of experience in litigation since I am frequently retained as a litigation consultant and expert witness. From this perspective, it looks like the Democrats have made an enormous blunder and that is about to become obvious to everyone. Watch for the same pundits in the MSM who are singing the praises of Adam Schiff turn on him when they realize how badly he has mismanaged this. Quite simply, if your quarterback starts throwing interceptions that turn into a pick six, the cheers quickly morph into loud boos.

One final note. There is a report that over 1,000 Republicans are at least considering running for congress against an incumbent Democrat. They are doing this because they see the potential for a once in a life time opportunity to flip a congressional seat.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/impeachment-drives-1-000-gop-candidates-to-run-for-house

“According to Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, impeachment has helped to push about 1,000 Republicans to file to run for House seats this year.

In an interview, he said that impeachment “intensity” has raised the overall political intensity to an Election Day level, and Republicans are responding, giving him an incumbent or challenger candidate in 384 of 435 House districts, nearly 40 above expectations at this stage of the year.”

TDM