Most people in California have driven through the Altamont Pass. It is on I-580 between Tracy and Pleasanton. When I think of the Altamont pass, I think of three things, high traffic, high winds, and huge windmills. This is one of the largest wind farms in the world. Actually, there are 25 wind farms in the Altamont pass. Most people consider this to be an eyesore. Ground Squirrels love it, l because the windfarm kills on average 4,700 bird each year. Others, not so much because many of the dead birds are Golden Eagles which are increasingly rare in California. The 70 or so golden eagles who take on the Altamont Pass each year seldom survive.

We are distracted by looking at all those windmills and wondering why most of them are not actually spinning. I mean after all, the wind is literally buffeting your car, so why don’t more windmills notice or care? I finally talked to someone who, unlike me, actually knows something about windmills. He explained that different wind turbines are designed for different wind speeds. If the wind blows too slow, the big guys just shrug and ignore it. But if it blows to fast that causes a serious problem for the little guys. Apparently, the blades are designed to stop working if the windspeed is too high.

Other than being as ugly as sin and killing birds, I thought wind farms were fairly benign. And it is nice to get all the cheap electricity. Texas, which is literally sitting on a ton of oil and natural gas bought into the green energy thingee and today 25% of the electricity is provided by wind turbines. And you thought all those loud mouths Texans were Neanderthals who didn’t care about climate change, didn’t you?

So, anyway, Texas is taking a stand for the environment and everyone applauded. Until Yesterday. Yesterday it got cold. Most of us think of Texas as a place that gets really hot. And that is true, most of the time. But it can also get really cold. Then, a lot of people learned something really important. Windmills don’t work very well when they get cold. Apparently, these are warm weather devices. So, when it got really cold, the windmills stopped working. Bingo, millions of people lost their electrical power.  It is a good thing this didn’t happen during the summer, because a lot of people might have got really hot and bothered by the lack of air conditioning. This happened when it was really cold, so air conditioning wasn’t a factor. Staying warm, however, became a real challenge. There are real fears that a lot of people died.

Just when liberals begin to think they can actually think, God seems to intervene and provide a different perspective on things. This usually takes multiple catastrophes because liberals are slow learners. But to everyone else the lesson here is obvious. Freezing to death because of the lack of green energy is remarkably similar to freezing to death because of the lack of fossil fuels.

This creates a huge problem for the “Green New Deal.” Most of us have gotten used to having electricity help keep us warm in winter and cool in summer.  While many were concerned because both solar plants and wind farms are ugly as sin, take up a lot of space and were killing birds, we were willing to put up with this because using green energy makes us feel warm and fuzzy. But freezing to death because you can’t heat your home is just not that appealing. Some people are already starting to ask questions and the Green New Deal people won’t like the answers.

No, we can’t actually generate all the electricity we need from wind and solar. Yes, this is a big deal. No, even the hot air generated in Washington, D.C. isn’t adequate to warm homes in Texas. God has spoken, again, and environmentally conscientious Texans, relying on that cheap, efficient, wind energy are green with envy at their neighbors who stupidly rely on fossil fuels. Actually, they are probably blue with envy, but I am color blind.

TDM

Nancy Pelosi just announced that there will be an independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the January 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol. It will be interesting to see who is on that commission. She has also tasked U.S. Armey Lieutenant General Russel Honore’ with assessing the security needs of the Capitol.  A lot of people expect this to be like the 9-11 commission. That commission published the report on July 22, 2004, nearly three years after the 9-11 attack itself.

It is likely that this report will be thorough and accurate. It is also likely to be published after everyone involved has moved on. Shortly after Pearl Harbor the First Roberts Commission was appointed by FDR to investigate and report the facts relating to the attack. It was headed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, which is why it was known as the Roberts Commission. This commission concluded that Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short were guilty of “dereliction of duty.” Anyone who has ever watched TORA, TORA, TORA knows that the story was far more complicated than this. It conveniently blamed everything on the two most obvious candidates and ignored the politicians and cabinet members who contributed greatly to this disaster.

But this is not 1942 and it is not even 2000. Things have changed. While any commission would be important, they will not be the only ones investigating. There are hours and hours of video taken during the event. We can be sure a lot of people are already pouring over that video.

We already  know some of the information was deliberately distorted in the failed attempt to impeach Donald Trump and blame everything on him. Democrats were desperate to charge Donald Trump with murder. One thing required for a murder charge is for someone to be killed. The original story was that U.S. Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick was struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. His body lay in honor at the Capitol Rotunda on February 3, conveniently just before the Trump impeachment trial. Sicknick was just the fifth person and the third Capitol Police officer to receive the distinction of lying-in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Everyone else was a government or military official. The previous two Capitol police officers were Jacob J. Chestnut Jr. and Detective John M Gibson. An armed assailant stormed past a U.S. Capitol checkpoint in July 1988. Both Chestnut and Gibson were shot and killed.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/what-happened-to-officer-sicknick/

It is not totally clear that officer Sicknick was even injured during this unfortunate event. This is certainly a tragedy for the family, and he deserves respect. But facts also matter. He was not rushed to the hospital directly from the Capitol. There are numerous reports that he returned to his police office. Hours after the siege ended, he texted his brother and said he had been “pepper sprayed twice” but was otherwise “in good shape.”

These inconvenient facts did not slow down the media from reporting that Sicknick had been struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. They desperately needed someone to die. The New York Post showed a video claiming to show when office Sicknick was struck by the fire extinguisher:

https://nypost.com/2021/01/11/video-shows-capitol-rioter-hit-officer-with-fire-extinguisher/

It is not clear anyone was seriously injured during this incident and Sicknick was nowhere in sight.

David Quintavalle was quickly identified as the villain after he was identified online by an internet troll. Fortunately for Quintavalle he could easily prove he wasn’t even in Washington, D.C., he was in Chicago. Before the record was corrected, Quintavalle got threatening phone calls and police had to station a car outside his home for protection. Facts really do matter:

https://abc7chicago.com/david-quintavalle-chicago-firefighter-capitol-riots-riot-arrests/9697516/

It turns out that the person who threw that fire extinguisher was a retired Pennsylvania firefighter.

https://www.policemag.com/590741/retired-pa-firefighter-arrested-over-assault-on-officers-with-extinguisher-not-s

Robert Sanford was charged with assault of a police officer, disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering the Capitol. It does not appear that he was charged with battery, which may mean he didn’t hurt anyone. There is no indication he or anyone else was charged with murder or manslaughter regarding Office Sicknick.

Democrats encouraged by Mitch McConnell are dreaming of Donald Trump being indicted with criminal charges. Some prosecutors may stupidly attempt that, but there is zero chance of Donald Trump being convicted of anything regarding the Capitol Riots. The “evidence” presented by the House Impeachment managers would be laughed out of court.  If this is even attempted, it is more likely to impact other people more than Donald Trump. Facts are stubborn things. We already know everything he said. There is video of this. But any investigation will include other people being asked embarrassing questions. I expect the DNC establishment to quietly and behind the scenes try to squash any attempt to charge Donald Trump with anything.

In the meantime, people are very concerned about Democrats succeeding in stifling free speech and restricting our freedoms. This has been compared to what happened in Germany under Hitler. Joe Biden will be a lousy President; he is proving that already. He is going to destroy the economy and do a lot of stupid and irresponsible things. But most of what he has done is illegal and unconstitutional. The courts can and will stop this nonsense.  Democrats may attempt to stifle free speech, but that cat is out of the bag. There are even reports that Parler is back online, but I have not been able to confirm that.

What I can confirm is that even the MSM has moved on. Donald Trump has provided almost zero copy for them, so they are desperate for something. Today the new target of opportunity is Governor Andrew Cuomo. He gave a press conference today that just poured more gas on the fire. The MSM must find outrage at someone over something, and Donald Trump is inconveniently unavailable. Another target is likely to be Gavin Newsom because he is about to be recalled.

The media needs bad news. They only report good news in a failed attempt to pretend their coverage is balanced. Democrats control the House, the Senate, the Presidency and all the blue states botching things. They are likely to be the primary source of bad news, regardless of what the MSM wants or thinks.

So, while the Biden administration will be just as bad as expected, they cannot fundamentally change this country. Raise gas taxes, absolutely. Make the economy even worse, without a doubt. Pass stupid laws and regulations, for sure. But much of what they plan for us will be stopped by the courts.

While the present is depressing, look a little further and there is a bright future ahead. A future where virtually everyone currently in power will be gone. Nancy Pelosi is 80 years old. Chuck Schumer is 70. Mitch McConnell is 79. Joe Biden is 78. Pat Leahy is 80. The only thing certain is that all the above are closer to the end of their careers than the beginning.  We do not know who will be in power four years from now, but we can certainly predict that at least some of these will be gone, either through retirement, illness, or death.

So yes, we have some troubling water, but the shore is still there, and it is not going away anytime soon.

TDM

In 1968 Doctor Spencer Silver, a scientist for 3M, developed a lousy glue. It was strong enough to stick to surfaces, and it didn’t leave a residue, but it couldn’t hold much weight. Few people paid attention. But one person, Art Fry, who also worked at 3M had noticed. In 1970 Art was looking for a bookmark for his church hymnal that would neither fall out or damage the hymnal. So, he took some of Dr. Silver’s glue, applied it along the edge of a piece of paper. Problem solved.

Art also took his new idea to work. He used it to leave a note on a work file. Soon other workers stopped by and asked for a “bookmark” for their office. 3M suspected this might have value, so they created the “Post-it-Note.” They did a test market in 1977 which was not very successful. However, they eventually figured this out and in 1979 Post-it-Note sales exploded. Today almost everyone has used some version of this product and some computer programs have “sticky notes” designed to work the same way as Post-it-note.”

The point being that sometimes when trying to do one thing, you discover something else more important. This is because whenever someone does a serious investigation, they discover things. Not necessarily what they were looking for at all. Synthetic dye was discovered accidentally while trying to manufacture quinine. William Henry Perkins was trying to figure this out. In one experience he produced a black gunky material. He decided to experience on that, In the course of doing his cleanup, he discovered that the rag he was using was now stained deep purple and it wouldn’t go away. Bingo, synthetic dye. Now there are many synthetic dyes, some even used on our food. But we discovered them by accident.

Democrats became hyper excited about the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riots. That is why they rushed through this sham investigation and attempted to impeach Donald Trump and remove him permanently from office. Their investigation was a pathetic joke and Trump was easily acquitted. But in the course of doing this a lot of people started asking questions. “What really happened here? Why was it so easy to overrun the Capitol? How do we prevent that from happening again?”

The investigation of Donald Trump is over, falling far short of expectations. But now there will be real, serious investigations of two subjects. Who is really at fault for the Capitol riots? Democrats failed to make the case that this was all Donald Trump’s fault, but they did a good job in explaining why this is important. There will also be a serious investigation into the 2020 election. This time not to change results, but to prevent this from happening again.

The first thing to be investigated will be the Capital riots. This may even end up with a 9-11 type of commission. Any serious investigation has the potential to hurt Democrats more than they can imagine. The Mayor of DC is a hard-core Democrat. She criticized Trump for using the National Guard to protect the White House. The Metropolitan Police report to her. The Capitol Police report to the Capital Police Board which reports to the Appropriations and Authorizing Committees of the House and the Senate. They don’t report to Donald Trump.

The Capitol Police board consists of three voting members, the Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives, the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol.

The Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives,  the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, and the U.S. Capitol Police Chief  all resigned following the riots.  The people demanding these resignations were Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. The Architect of the Capitol had been nominated by President Trump on December 9, 2019 and was confirmed on December 19, 2019. I am unaware of calls for his removal. The Capitol Police board appointed Yoganda Pittman to be the acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief.

Two days ago, members of the Capitol Police issued a vote of no confidence in the acting Chief of Police, her two assistant chiefs, three deputy chiefs and a captain in the Capitol building division.

And so, it begins. There is going to be some serious investigations and a lot of finger pointing. So far, Democrats have pointed all the fingers at Donald Trump. Well, Trump is gone, so all those fingers need to point somewhere else. Somewhere else is guaranteed to include a lot of Democrats.

This will take time, but the election and the capitol riots will be investigated.  We can be sure that the investigation into the election will move very rapidly because no one wants a repeat of this during the 2022 elections. In addition, many courts have ruled that the way the 2020 election was run was illegal and unconstitutional. While judges did not want to risk overturning an election, the illegal and unconstitutional things that happened will not be ignored. That includes California. On November 2, Judge Sarah Heckman ruled that the election guidelines produced by executive order by Governor Newsom were unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against him issuing new orders.

So, while Democrats shot at and missed Donald Trump, they simultaneously set off an explosion heard round the world. We are now entering the age of discovery and based on the facts already on display, this is going to be a huge problem for Democrats.

It is impossible to predict all the outcomes. Every serious investigation discovers things no one expected. But many of the people demanding answers should be more than a little concerned regarding the age of discovery.

TDM

Donald Trump, as predicted, was acquitted during the Senate trial. Sadly, but predictably, seven RINO Republicans voted to convict. They are Burr, Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse and Toomey. They just self-nominated to the RINO Hall of Shame. Clearly none of them actually listened to the presentations by the House Managers or Trump’s legal counsel. Everyone voted without regard to any of this.

This was followed by Mitch McConnell giving one of the most arrogant and self-righteous speeches in the history of the U.S. Senate. This is a classic example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. All McConnell should have said is the trial is over let’s get back to work. Instead, he decided to preach to the nation explaining why, after voting to acquit, he still thinks Trump is guilty as sin. It was condescending and stupid. What an absolute snake.

McConnell’s major argument is that Trump was making false allegations about a fraudulent election. McConnell clearly thought Trump should have just rolled over and pretended everything was normal. While there have been some wild conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines and double secret agents manipulating the election from a secret high-tech hideout somewhere in Europe, many of the accusations are actually very real. That is why 18 states joined Texas in that lawsuit to the Supreme Court. It is why several state legislatures voted to send alternative electors because of the obvious election violations during the 2020 election. McConnell was either oblivious to this or he didn’t care.

He ended up speaking to a rapidly dwindling TV audience. No one wanted to hear this nonsense. Democrats where not interested in hearing why someone voted to acquit Donald Trump even though he thought Trump was guilty as sin. Republicans didn’t want to hear a sermon telling them to ignore their lying eyes. I seriously believe that McConnell was preaching to a shrinking and soon empty choir. Neither the people who agreed with him or who disagreed with him were interested.

The bottom line is this. Trump was acquitted by the Senate. This was after a botched process that included tons of false and misleading evidence that no court would allow to be used in a legal proceeding. There are probably some people who still dream of Trump being charged with a crime, for something, but they are hopelessly delusional.

Following the acquittal Trump issued a statement, that is total class.

BREAKING: Trump Releases Statement Following Impeachment Acquittal (thegatewaypundit.com)

This makes his opponents look even worse than they did before. Trump has learned something important. He doesn’t need to take shots at his enemies anymore. They are engaged in a circular firing squad rapidly eliminating each other.  When people are saying and doing things this ridiculous the best response is to ignore them. Trump probably heard about McConnell’s speech, got back into his golf cart, and asked: “what did you get on that hole?” He is now focused on things far more important than anything said or done by Mitch McConnell.

There are a lot of Republican Senators guaranteed to be furious with McConnell. He will pay a high price for this. This won’t be obvious at first, because these people are very smart and very focused. But they will not ignore this and at some point, his day of reckoning will arrive. I predict no later than the fall of 2022, when Republicans take back the House and the Senate. When that happens there is zero chance Mitch McConnell will be the next majority leader.  Winners pick winner not whiners.

The trial is over. The House Impeachment case was demolished. It was so bad they tried, and failed, to call an additional witness. No one on either side of the trial wanted this to continue. That witness, by the way, would have helped Trump if anyone were listening. She reported that when McCarthy called him about the riot, Trump allegedly said those weren’t my people. She thought that was outrageous, but it is clear evidence that Trump did not think his people were doing this. Why would he think that if he had deliberately incited them? Of course, no one in the MSM, including on FOX News, picked up on this.

If you have noticed, the MSM has already moved on. They are reporting that Trump was acquitted. Some say that seven Republicans voted to convict but no one pretends that matters. This creates several huge problems for Democrats. What, after all, was the point if Trump just continued playing golf? The only thing accomplished was to waste time on another exercise in futility.

But they did a lot more than that. While the Senators were clearly not paying attention to the evidence, other people did. The Democratic case fell completely apart, and they know it. That is why they tried to call a witness. During the closing argument by the Trump attorney literally said the House Impeachment Managers were guilty of fraud. When they closed, they never even addressed this accusation. I guarantee you a lot of people noticed this.

They also noticed that nothing is being done to fix COVID 19, nothing is being done to fix the economy and some of the actions taken by Biden are already showing up in negative results. Today the news broadcasters spent little time on COVID. They were too busy reporting on the increase in gas prices. Don’t be surprised if rising gas prices replaces COVID in the daily reporting. And this time, it is impossible to blame it on Donald Trump.

Sometimes getting what you want comes at a very high price. Never truer than today, Democrats impeached and tried Donald Trump and it changed nothing. But accomplishing nothing came at a high cost. This put Democratic hypocrisy and incompetence on full public display. When Republicans promised to call Nancy Pelosi as a witness if they kept this up, Democrats ran for cover. Most people watching know who ran for cover and who didn’t.

TDM

The lawyers for Donald Trump just ended their defense. They took about two hours to destroy the presentation by the House Managers. It was high theatre, stunningly effective. The House Managers should be doing a gut check because they just got eviscerated on national television. This was one of the worst mismatches in history. Not only were the House Managers outclassed, the lack of evidence, deliberate distortion and blatant hypocrisy turned this into a rout.

While some people, like Chris Wallace, will pretend there is still room for debate, the opposite is true. If Democrats even attempt extend this fiasco of a trial, they will be adding insult to injury. We can be sure the Trump lawyers could have put on hours and hours of rebuttal. They didn’t because they knew it was unnecessary. They brilliantly used the Democratic presentation against them. They proved that the Democrats had no case. They also proved that Democrats lied repeatedly to distort data and events. Then they put Democratic hypocrisy on full display.

This reminds me of what happened to Lord Chamberlain during a House of Commons debate. He was trying, and failing, to explain his strategy for defending Britain against Adolph Hitler. British Conservative MP, Leo Amery flung these words at Chamberlain, loosely quoting Oliver Cromwell’s words to dissolve congress on April 20, 1653:

“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us be done with you. In the name of God, go!”

I lot of people feel exactly the same way about the House Impeachment managers. Within days Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill. Notice any Neville Chamberlain statutes recently?

Democratic House Managers were not only lying, but they also stupidly put this on full display. Trump’s attorneys made that abundantly clear. My past experience has been this. Once people are confronted with the reality that those, they trusted were lying to them, it changes everything. Even if one desperately wanted to believe the House Managers, this is beyond embarrassing. Kind of like the quarterback throwing three pick sixes in the fourth quarter. First you boo the other team, then you boo the referees, then you boo the coach and then you boo the quarterback. The loudest boos are already saved for the quarterback.

No matter how anyone tries to spin this Democrats blew it big time. It was an unmitigated disaster. During a presentation littered with stunning rebukes perhaps the most significant moment was when Trump’s attorney displayed a tweet absolutely ignored by Democrats and the MSM that changed EVERYTHING.

Democrats have been screaming that Trump ignored the violence for hours. The opposite is true and clearly documented. At 12:30 p.m. he sent the following tweet:

 “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

One half hour later another tweet:

“I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence!”

If this was reported in the MSM I never saw it. It certainly wasn’t mentioned by the House Managers. Instead, they focused on his statement at 2:30 p.m., where he also told people to go home.  Even then they focused only on the part of his statement where he said he understood why people were upset, implying that he encouraged the riot. This was a lie and that they knew it was a lie.

I do not know how this will impact the way Senators will vote. It should result in an immediate unanimous vote to acquit. But odds are Democrats will not even consider doing that. Doing the right thing solely because it is the right thing to do will never be seriously considered.  Sadly, every Democrat is likely to still vote to convict. But I doubt seriously that any more Republicans will vote to convict and some of the people who voted to hold the trial may now vote to acquit. Republicans who vote to convict Donald Trump after this performance will be committing political suicide.

The real jury is the American people. Anyone who watched this with an ounce of objectivity cannot help but realize Democrats only embarrassed themselves. It may take a few days for the MSM to realize the full scope of this disaster, but the whirlwind is already on the way and the day of reckoning is coming.

This was unbelievable. As a litigation manager I have seen many trials and seen how juries respond to evidence. I cannot predict how those in the Senate with little wisdom and zero character will respond, but the real jury, the American people will easily understand what happened. Let me put it this way. If I were one of Trump’s attorneys, I would be ordering the champagne to be chilled and it would be expensive champagne. If I were one of the House Managers or those depending on them for representation I would be throwing up.

TDM

If you watched the coin toss at the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs won the toss. They chose to defer receiving the kickoff until the start of the second half. That is because it is usually better to be last, than first.

There is a reason the prosecution must present its’ case first; it is to give an advantage to the defense. For that reason, good prosecutors wait until they have all the evidence, and can confirm every item of evidence before they present their case. For example, if there is any evidence that could be interpreted as exculpatory the prosecution is likely to present it first. The biggest mistake in any court is to present something as evidence only to have it rebutted effectively by the defense. The second biggest mistake is to ignore exculpatory evidence. Both are big mistakes.

The presentation by the House Managers is impressive only to people who are easily impressed. Serious people instantly see the potential for a devastating rebuttal. One of the smartest people on Fox News is Shannon Bream. Behind that pretty face and engaging smile is a deadly legal mind. Shannon is the Chief Legal Analyst for Fox News for a reason. She instantly recognized that video is going to be the name of the game. Today I had Fox News on the radio as I drove to work. Fortunately, I heard Shannon Bream before turning the radio off as soon as Chris Wallace made an entrance. She warned that this video may come back to haunt Democrats. Wallace, of course, was too in love with the Democrats to notice.

It is really this simple. Democrats rushed this through, without the aid of skilled legal professionals. The House Presenters are a class of incompetent clowns. Good at generating lots of emotion, some of which could even be genuine, but incapable of putting on a solid presentation immune from rebuttal. They are making so many mistakes that the biggest challenge for the Trump attorneys is deciding what to attack first.

If I were to make a recommendation to the Trump team it would be this. Start by presenting the parts of the video Democrats left out. Some will assume that means the part where Trump said to walk peacefully and patriotically. But that is not what I mean at all. What I mean is the numerous specific examples that Trump gave regarding evidence of systemic fraud.  I will quote him directly:

“In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before….So just in a nutshell, you can’t make a change on voting for a federal election unless the state legislature approves it. No judge can do it. Nobody can do it, only a legislature.

This was not written by Donald Trump. It was written by a skilled constitutional attorney and every word was chosen carefully. Democrats never even attempted to refute any of this.

“In Pennsylvania, the Democrat secretary of state and the Democrat state Supreme Court justices illegal abolished the signature verification requirements just 11 days prior to the election…There were over 205,000 more ballots counted in Pennsylvania. Now think of this. You had 205,000 more ballots than voters…Over 8,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Over 14,000 ballots were case by out of state voters…More than 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania were illegally counted, even though they were received after election day…The day before the election, the state of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out. Yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people…Just that one element. 400,000 ballots appeared from nowhere right after the election.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. These statements were ignored by the House Impeachment Managers. All the defense needs to do is replay this part of Trump’s speech and point out that House managers did not refute ANY OF THIS.

Trump does not need to prove election fraud; it is more than enough that he made very specific credible allegations that Democrats did not even attempt to refute.

We can be certain that Trump’s attorneys will shred the video presentations made by the House Managers. This is actually very easy to do.  The selection editing is off the wall. But there is more. For example, some of the video was shot by John Sullivan, who is connected with Antifa. The House managers either didn’t realize that or didn’t care. Eric Swalwell made graphic use of a tweet without realizing it had been photoshopped and was an obvious fake. Cicilline quoted Mike Lee, only to have Mike Lee angrily deny the conversation and demand it be stricken from the trial record. Even Schumer folded quickly on that, because he can’t afford to have Mike Lee testify as a witness. They jumbled up events, got them out of sequence and ignored the timeframe they considered so relevant. They also missed a lot of what was on those videos. For every video of so-called violent acts, there were hundreds if not thousands of people in the same location who clearly were not violent. Remember the CNN reporter standing in front of a police station on fire and explaining that the protests were mostly peaceful. Kind of like that.

I believe the Trump legal rebuttal will be focused and beyond brutal. Frankly, I think this will result in a major embarrassment for Democrats. Even people who desperately wanted to see Trump impeached and humiliated will be furious. Furious that this critical task was turned over to people so obviously incompetent.

Matthew 20:16. KJV “So the last shall be first and the first last.” The English revised version says: “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” This obviously was not written about the Trump impeachment trial, but it is still probably the best explanation for the predictable outcome.

TDM

As a litigation manager for a large corporation, I had the opportunity to see many great trial attorneys in action. Sometimes they were working for me, sometimes against me, but always fun to watch. I had a very serious case in San Antonio, Texas. The plaintiff’s attorney was known as one of the “Inner Circle of Advocates,” an invitation only group that considers themselves to be the best plaintiff lawyers in the United States. You only get into this group if you have won really big jury verdicts. This guy used to send me letters, almost daily, addressed to “Mr. Checkwriter.” He even hired a Hollywood Studio to recreate the incident. It was a truly horrific incident, but not necessarily the result of our negligent acts or omissions. If you go to the website for the “Inner Circle of Advocates,” they still consider themselves to be 100 of the best plaintiff attorneys in the U.S.

I didn’t exactly use a recent law graduate to represent my interests. I used the senior law partner in a major firm who was also a highly skilled trial attorney. I still remember the numerous settlement conferences with this plaintiff attorney. He always came armed for bear and ready to put on a show. At our final settlement conference, he had demanded I show up with adjusters from my reinsurers. I showed up alone. He asked me why I ignored his request. I said I have full authority on this claim, I don’t need to call anyone or get approval from anyone. All the money that will ever be offered to settle this claim will be approved by me. He then said: “But I have a five-hour presentation ready for them.” I said: “Go ahead. I opened my briefcase and showed him that I had brought lunch.” He said: “I would obviously be wasting my time showing this to you, you already know all about this case.” I just smiled, and he sat down and began to negotiate. We were able to settle that case.

Really special trial attorneys are a different breed. The only way to accurately evaluate them is to see them in action. Even then, most people don’t know what they are seeing. That is because these attorneys put on a show and they are extremely good at making their case.

Many people have highly criticized Bruce Castor for his opening statement during the Trump impeachment trial. But the people criticizing him are often people rooting against him or frankly self-promoting. I was watching what I consider to be a brilliant trial attorney doing exactly what he intended to do. He was not there to convince Democratic Senators of anything. They weren’t listening. He was talking to the American people, and a lot of them got the message. That message was that the reason Democrats are trying this case is not because of the evidence, but because they are terrified of Donald Trump. Here is exactly what he said:

Defense attorney: Trump ‘removed by the voters’ (yahoo.com)

“I was struck. I thought that the House managers who spoke earlier were brilliant speakers, and I made some notes. And they’ll hear about what I think about some of the things they said later when I’m closing the case. But I thought they were brilliant speakers, and I loved listening to them. And they are smart fellows.

But why are the House managers afraid? And why is the majority of the House of Representatives afraid of the American people? I mean, let’s understand why we are really here. We are really here because the majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. That’s the real reason we’re here.

The reason that I am having trouble with the argument is the American people just spoke, and they just changed administrations. So, in the light most favorable to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle here, their system works. The people are smart enough in the light most favorable to them. They’re smart enough to pick a new administration if they don’t like the old one. And they just did, and he’s down there at Pennsylvania Avenue now probably wondering how come none of my stuff is happening up at the Capitol.”

Some have concluded that he is admitting that Trump lost the election. The AP headline shouted: “Defense attorney: Trump removed by the voters.” But he didn’t say that. He said that the people trying Trump have concluded that Trump lost the election. He seemed to be appealing to their better nature, but he knows they have no better nature. Bruce Castor is a lot of things, but he is not stupid. I believe every word was intentional and it was effective. By praising the House managers for being brilliant speakers he actually put extreme pressure on them to make their case. They couldn’t deflect from the evidence by claiming that the Trump attorneys were arrogant and rude and unwilling to accept reality.

This reminded me of the trial performance by one of my top trial attorneys. The allegation was that the plaintiff, also an attorney, had suffered serious brain damage that among other things affected her short-term memory. When my attorney was trying to cross examine her, he messed everything up. He spoke in bumbling terms, repeated questions, and literally looked like a hot mess. He was an Irish guy with a great sense of humor and was in his seventies at the time, So, he came across as this nice, older guy, who was having a tough day. He even laughed at himself. At one point he accidentally knocked his coffee cup over when trying to find his notes. The plaintiff was becoming very angry and annoyed. At one point she said: “You are deliberately misquoting me. That is not what I said. Then she quoted word for word from her deposition transcript.” At that point, my seventy-year-old stammering attorney turned instantly into the dangerous trial attorney representing me in that trial. He stood up straight, snapped to attention, and said: “Pretty remarkable short-term memory.” The jury literally laughed out loud.

They were out for less than an hour and gave her zero damages. I have to admit his performance was so good that even I was a little concerned that he was losing it. I should have known better.

I think a lot of people have greatly underestimated Mr. Castor. He did pour oil on the waters, but never underestimate a skilled trial attorney. They are a rare breed, unlike anyone else. They didn’t get there by accident and it has been my experience that even other attorneys often underestimate them. Mr. Castor is a highly experienced trial attorney. I think he threw those House Managers a large curve ball and they may just swing and miss before they even realize what happened.

TDM

Democrats started their second impeachment trial of Donald Trump today. They started by lying, showing a video by Donald Trump that deliberately edited out the part where he specifically told people to be peaceful and patriotic. It was highly emotional but lacking in substance. They showed numerous tweets by Donald Trump that they interpreted to be inciting an insurrection. All of this was more than a reach.  It was long on emotion and short on substance. Their basic premise is that they hate Trump and so must find a way to punish him.

Trump’s attorneys presented a concise legal argument. It was, of course, ignored by all the Democratic Senators and six Republicans. Like most legal arguments, it was a bit boring. The entire day was a waste of time. The same result could have been achieved without bothering to hear any arguments at all. Both arguments were directed at the public audience, not the audience in front of them. Democrats are aiming at the Democratic base and their fawning supporters in the MSM. Republicans are aiming at the 74 million people who voted for Donald Trump. They are also crafting arguments for a hearing by the Supreme Court. In the unlikely event that Trump is convicted, the Trump attorneys would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court. I suspect the Supreme Court would quickly vacate the decision.

I was a litigation manager for many years, handling thousands of lawsuits. One of the important qualifications for that job is evaluating how a case will really play in front of a jury. Not what you want to believe, but what is reality. On several occasions I had attorneys tell me I should try a case. For the attorneys, the risk was low, because they got paid either way. I had one case where my attorneys strongly recommended proceeding to trial. So, I made them an offer: “If we take it to trial, and you win, I will pay your legal fees. But if you try this and lose, you will not be paid.” They were furious and quickly said no, how could you even ask us to do that. I responded by saying that this was exactly what they were asking me to do. I settled the case. Quite honestly, it wasn’t even a close call.

So, I watched these proceedings with the view of determining how the real jury, public opinion, will respond. How will the Democratic base and the MSM respond? How will the millions of Trump supporters respond? And how will the large number of independents respond?

It is easy to predict how Democrats and the MSM will respond, they have already decided that Trump is guilty. The Republican base is also easy to predict. They will be outraged that the trial is even happening and even more outraged at the obvious lack of due process. With regard to independents, I believe most of them are already asking the most important question: “What, exactly, is the point?”

There is another significant factor, ignored by Democrats and the MSM to their great peril. We know that 74 million people definitely voted for Donald Trump. They would have us believe that 80 million people voted for Joe Biden, but I doubt that anyone really believes that. They may not believe the election was stolen, but it is absolutely certain that the entire deck was shuffled against Donald Trump. The Time Magazine article documented that for anyone in doubt.  Even if 80 million people voted against Donald Trump, but they did not vote for Joe Biden. If Democrats are wrong about the number of people who actually voted for Donald Trump, they are making an irrevocable error.

In any trial, there are winners and losers. Six Republicans stupidly voted to let this trial continue. They are Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. This was at best, stupid. If they had voted no, the result would have been a 50/50 tie and Kamala Harris would have been forced to cast the deciding vote. That would have put her between a rock and a hard place. So, for purely political reasons, this was a huge unforced error. I suspect all of them will pay a high price for this mistake.

One thing is certain, the political pundits commenting on this are usually those least capable of rendering judgement. Donald Trump is letting his attorneys speak for him. That is a huge change for him, and it puts tremendous pressure on Democrats. It also reduces the viewing audience by a huge margin. Few Trump supporters will be interested in watching this fiasco.

I believe people are going to be surprised at the huge increase in support for Donald Trump. This is human nature. Democrats are kicking him while he is down, and if he continues to handle this with grace and dignity, they will only embarrass themselves.

This will definitely be a trial of tears. The question is who will be crying when it is done. My guess is that the list will not include Donald Trump.

TDM

“It is better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.”  I don’t know who said that, but it sounds right. It reminds me of when I was teaching a Sunday School class. The topic of AIDS came up, and one guy started spouting off his theories about AIDS, most of which was nonsense. Fortunately, I was able to change the subject and move on. After the class, I took him aside because I thought there was something he needed to know. In the same classroom was the Dr. who literally discovered that AIDs could be transmitted through the blood. He had been the head of research at one of the top Biochemical firms in the world and was Director of an AIDs foundation. He was considered one of the most knowledgeable experts on AIDs in the world. Also in the classroom was a Dr. who was board certified in four specialties. He was also a biochemist who had discovered and patented the international test to determine if someone had AIDs.

I explained to this guy that these men had remained silent because they didn’t want to embarrass him. I knew both men very well and as a result I also knew that everything this guy said was wrong. But, of course, that did not slow him down on his mission to inform humanity. He at least had the good sense to be embarrassed. I told him I would speak to my friends about this and that they would understand. They both were very gracious when I talked to them. I thanked them for their graciousness. Then they both said something similar to me. Sometimes the most difficult challenge is to separate facts from fiction when talking about something like AIDs. We have made it our life’s ambition to determine the truth because the truth saves lives.

I felt the same way after reading the Time’s story. I have to admit, I did not spend a lot of time (pun intended) reading this. Time Magazine has shredded its’ credibility long ago. But what soon became obvious is that TIME felt that the people who conspired to influence the outcome of the 2020 election really believed they were saving the world for Democracy. It is remarkable that people would believe they were saving democracy by preventing it. They were interested only in preserving their own power and failed to understand that what they were doing was in direct opposition to Democracy. They felt the American people were best served by a conspiracy to deceive.

They felt Donald Trump deserved to be removed because he opposed them. In doing so, they made the best possible case for his Presidency. Donald Trump admittedly came with a lot of baggage, but as he himself once said, you needed someone who understands the swamp to know how to drain it. I believe historians will use the Time Story, not to trash Trump but rather to elevate him.

Sometimes being wrong is mostly humorous. But other times, it is tragic. This is never truer than when talking about contagious diseases. There is always someone, usually in a position of high authority, who makes decision action based on false assumptions.  We recently watched the Victoria series on Masterpiece Theatre. There was a serious cholera outbreak in London. The Doctors in the establishment felt this was caused by miasma. They didn’t know exactly what that was, but they were sure they were right. So, they did all the wrong things. One Doctor, not well-known, figured out the real cause, which was contaminated water. At that time London had a horrible sewer system. This Doctor figured out that everyone who got cholera had been getting water from the same pump. Once they disconnected the pump, the epidemic went away. Today we know that cholera is spread by a specific bacterium that is usually spread through contaminated water.  Thanks to our modern sewage and water treatment the United States has not had a cholera case since 1911. It is, however, still present in underdeveloped countries.

The Time magazine article is actually quite valuable. It accidentally exposed the real source of many problems. A lot of people who believe themselves to be uniquely qualified to make decisions for everyone else are instead absorbed by delusions they created themselves. What they consider to be disinformation is often a collection of inconvenient facts. Now, after admitting that they colluded to defeat Trump, they are pretending that there is no evidence this election was fraudulent.

The Apostle Paul warned about this in Romans 1:18-28.  (International Version):

For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’sp invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that peopleq are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things,r and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Though claiming to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

24For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lustss of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. 27In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.t

28Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. 32Although they know God’s just requirement—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Never truer than now. Time magazine in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable merely managed to document it. This is not exactly politically correct, but sometimes being actually correct is more important.

Some will assume that by quoting the Bible I am being homophobic. That would be wrong. I once had a man working for me who was dying of AIDS. He came into my office and asked me if I was a Christian? I was immediately suspicious. He then said: “Does God hate me so much because I am a homosexual that he had to kill me?” I was shocked to my core and desperately searched for a response. So I said this: “You obviously know what the Bible says about this, and I can hardly pretend to be capable of re-writing scripture. But I can say this, if homosexuality is a sin, I also know that the least of my sins is no more acceptable in the eyes of almighty God than the worst of yours. I like you; I respect you, I value you and I certainly am not about to judge you. I just pray for your recovery.” He did make a miraculous recovery. I doubt that it had much to do with me but remain grateful all the same.”

All of us need to seek the truth, in all things, but also avoid the self-righteousness and arrogance we can often see in others much easier than we can see it in ourselves.

TDM

When I was VP & Director of Insurance for ABM Industries, I had several opportunities to meet Bill Walsh, because he was on the Board of Directors for ABM. I always avoiding talking football with him, because it would be like asking God why he wrote certain scripture passages. I was pretty sure that I would be far more likely to say something stupid than to drop some pearl of wisdom. But, at the 2000 Annual Meeting I made an exception. I had just watched Tom Brady lead Michigan to a comeback victory in the Orange Bowl over Alabama. Brady threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns. Michigan was behind 28-14 in the second half, but Brady just kept on coming. Michigan eventually won in overtime, 35-34 when Alabama missed an extra point.

So, when I saw Bill Walsh at the annual meeting in March, I just had to ask him what he thought about Tom Brady. I talked about the Orange Bowl and wondered if the 49ers were considering drafting Tom Brady. Walsh told me that the 49ers had looked at Tom Brady, but they felt that Giovanni “Vinnie” Carmazzi was a franchise quality quarterback. The 49ers picked Carmazzi with the 65^th pick. Brady was signed at 199 by the Patriots.

I also asked Bill who he thought was the best quarterback playing at the time. He instantly said Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner had just won the Superbowl for the Rams in 2000.

At the ABM Annual Meeting in March of 2002, I saw Bill Walsh again. Brady had replaced Drew Bledsoe and led the New England Patriots to their first Superbowl ever. He beat, Kurt Warner. Carmazzi was a total bust. He never played in a regular season NFL game. I had zero intention of mentioning any of this when I talked with Bill Walsh. I am not that stupid. So, I just walked toward him with my hand extended for a handshake, he smiled and me and said: “shut up!” I laughed out loud.

Obviously, Walsh remembered our conversation.  Coach Walsh had a good sense of humor and he went on to explain that Vinnie Carmazzi had looked like a good idea at the time. I just said I obviously knew little about football, I had just sensed that Brady was someone special. I saw Bill Walsh several times after that, but these were the only times we ever discussed football.

I do not know who will win today. I just know that Tom Brady has been doing the impossible for a long time and I sure wouldn’t bet against him this time either.

I had surgery on my spine Friday afternoon, so that is why I didn’t post anything. I am doing fine, but still very sore. I am doing a little better today and looking forward to the game.

TDM