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November 2019

The Schiff coup: Day one By J. Marsolo *****

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/11/the_schiff_coup_day_one.html

These facts cannot be disputed:

1. Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted and bragged on TV that he threatened to withhold one billion dollars in American foreign aid to Ukraine if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma.  Burisma was paying Hunter Biden, son of the Joe Biden, over $50,000 per year as a board member of Burisma.  There is no dirt to dig up.  Joe Biden admitted to the dirt.

2. The Obama-Biden administration did not supply military aid to Ukraine when Ukraine needed the aid against Russia. This was admitted by the acting ambassador to the Ukraine, William Taylor, in his testimony.Trump in December 2017 announced that the United States     would send military aid to Ukraine that then–Ukraine president Poroshenko requested from the USA.  Obama and Biden had refused the sale of $47 million’s worth of Javelin antitank missiles.

In May 2018, after Ukraine tested its new Javelin missiles, Poroshenko thanked Trump for supporting Ukraine and providing the Javelin antitank missile systems.

3. On November 25, 2019 President Trump asked Ukraine’s President Zelensky to investigate Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 election.  There is evidence that Ukraine helped Hillary in the 2016 election and tried to sabotage the Trump election.

4. The transcript of the phone call was released by President Trump.  The transcript speaks for itself.  There is no mention of conditioning American aid on any investigation of Biden.

5. There was no investigation by Ukraine into the 2016 election or any investigation of Joe Biden.

6. Ukraine received the American military aid that is the subject of the “impeachment inquiry” on September 11, 2019, six weeks after the July 25, 2019 phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky.

7. The Democrats have refused to produce the so-called “whistleblower” to testify.

The Real Mystery About C*aramella and Vindman By Charlie Martin

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-real-mystery-about-caramella-and-vindman/

I was chatting with Terry, my writing partner, this morning. He was in the Intelligence Community for years, as was I; Terry on the analysis side, me in collection and later as a computer security researcher. Both of us had, at one time, an “Extended Background Investigation” clearance, the clearance you need for that stuff people like to say is “beyond top secret.” (It’s not, but that’s another topic I explored in detail back when Edward Snowden turned.)

Now, Terry is a Democrat, pretty liberal, not at all impressed with Trump. But we were talking about Eric Ciaramella who was fired from the White House staff because he was leaking confidential information to the media. According to all the sources, he then returned to the CIA, where he currently works.

Which is, frankly, odd.

How, exactly, do you lose a job for security violations and return to the CIA? One would normally lose one’s clearance, and even janitors and cafeteria workers at CIA are cleared.

Then there’s LTC Alex Vindman, NSC staffer and active-duty Army officer. He has testified that he disobeyed orders, advised foreign governments to resist Trump, leaked internal information to others, and was actively working to subvert the president’s foreign policy.

What Happened to California Republicans? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/what-happened-to-california-republicans/

From 1967 to 2019, Republicans controlled the California governorship for 31 of 52 years. So why is there currently not a single statewide Republican officeholder? California also has a Democratic governor and Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. Only seven of California’s 53 congressional seats are held by Republicans.

In 1994, then-Gov. Pete Wilson backed Proposition 187, which denied state social services to undocumented immigrants. The spin goes that it backfired, alienated the Hispanic community and thus marked the road to Republican perdition.

Not quite.

Prop 187 passed with 59 percent support. Wilson’s endorsement of the bill helped its passage, and his support of it aided his landslide 1994 re-election. Among minority voters, 52 percent of Asian and African American voters supported Proposition 187. Some 27 percent of Latinos voted for it.

Liberal groups immediately sued in federal court. Just three days after the measure passed, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing Proposition 187 from going into effect. A month later, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer issued a permanent injunction. Prop 187 never became law.

In effect, two judges nullified the wishes of more than 5 million California voters.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had supported Prop 187. Yet in 2003 he was elected governor. So what caused the Republican demise?

Ironically, radical changes in California demography may have been brought about by Prop 187 — but not in the way many people think.

The Banality of Impeachment The hearings are a pro-forma march to a foregone conclusion.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-banality-of-impeachment-11573689793

House Democrats went public Wednesday with what the media are calling “historic” impeachment hearings, but what strikes us is the pre-cooked nature of the exercise. This isn’t a search for truth. It’s a set-piece production to promote a foregone conclusion. Democrats are turning impeachment into another partisan banality, and the country won’t be better for it.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff plans only five days of public hearings, and he has already heard the witnesses in secret. Mr. Schiff won’t allow most witnesses requested by Republicans, notably the whistleblower who started it all and Hunter Biden. Perhaps Democrats have some new bombshell they’ve uncovered, but that has not been the pattern. What they learn, they quickly leak to the impeachment press.

***

The impeachment case—after the failure of non-collusion with Russia and the non-obstruction of Robert Mueller —now boils down to President Trump’s dealings over a few weeks this summer with new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Readers who want to save time should read Mr. Schiff’s opening statement Wednesday because it offers the most damning interpretation of events.

Mr. Schiff’s claim is that Mr. Trump sought to “condition, coerce, extort or bribe an ally into conducting investigations to aid his re-election campaign.” He did this by having his Administration threaten to withhold U.S. military aid and deny an Oval Office meeting until Mr. Zelensky publicly announced a corruption probe. That sums up the case.

J Street Responds to JV Editorial & Blurs Lines

http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/11/13/j-street-responds-to-jv-editorial-blurs-lines/

Jeremy Ben-Ami, is described in the bio that accompanies his latest article on The Times of Israel website as “the executive director of J Street.” The J Street website describes him as the “president.” Just as it is unclear what exactly Ben-Ami’s true title is there are many other things about this Jewish organization created to advocate for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state in Judea-Samaria (which it calls the West Bank) that seem to be just as deliberately blurred.

In his Nov. 10 column Ben-Ami responds to The Jewish Voice’s Nov. 8 editorial (“The J Street Danger to Israel”). Ben-Ami argues “Those attacking J Street and presidential candidates for even examining the concept of restricting the use of US aid are in many cases people who have loudly called for restrictions on aid to the Palestinian Authority or the United Nations.” Elsewhere in the article he claims that J Street “supports the provision of security assistance.” Which is it? J Street can’t have it both ways.

The views of J Street’s critics on issues related to the PA or the UN have nothing to do with J Street’s new pledge to lobby to reduce U.S. aid to Israel unless the Israelis agree to Palestinian Authority demands.

The Jewish Voice is proud to be the only Jewish newspaper we see that challenged J Street on this with an editorial and we will continue to speak out against J Street when they side with Israel’s enemies.

The Legality Of Israel’s Settlements

http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/11/13/the-legality-of-israels-settlements/

Next month will mark the third anniversary of the Obama Administration’s parting shot at Israel in the U.N. This was when Obama and company first failed to vote against the U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement-building and followed up that slap in the face against Israel by sending Secretary of State John Kerry to give an anti-settlements tirade of a speech at the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the State Department headquarters in Foggy Bottom on December 28, 2016.

The Trump Administration has the opportunity to neutralize the nonsense that was at the foundation of Kerry’s attack on Israeli settlements just as it did the question of Israel’s rights to Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The Administration seems unaware of the ease with which it can remove the stick that was used to hit Israel.

While the December 28 Obama Administration attack came from Secretary of State John Kerry, the ammunition came from Jimmy Carter’s State Department.

Here is what Kerry said “virtually every country in the world other than Israel opposes settlements. (…) In fact, this resolution simply reaffirms statements made by the Security Council on the legality of settlements over several decades. It does not break new ground. In 1978, the State Department Legal Adviser advised the Congress on his conclusion that Israel’s government, the Israeli Government’s program of establishing civilian settlements in the occupied territory is inconsistent with international law, and we see no change since then to affect that fundamental conclusion.”

Lessons of ‘West Side Story’ (Harvard Gazette) see note please

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/west-side-story-explores-racial-ethni

Puleez! what would these P.C. fools do with Frank Loesser’s wonderful “Guys and Dolls?” Or how about “South Pacific” and the song “There is Nothing Like a Dame”??? They are sucking the fun out entertainment and national culture…..rsk

Cast and crew of new production wrestle with the classic musical’s racial, ethnic, and political complications

More than 60 years after its Broadway debut, “West Side Story” remains a touchstone of modern American theater. A new Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production opening this week at Farkas Hall is confronting the cultural missteps associated with the classic musical, turning an ambitious theatrical project into a complex educational experience for cast and crew.

When the artistic team began planning the show, members focused on addressing chronic issues of Latinx representation in casting, a flaw illustrated early on by the Oscar-winning 1961 film adaptation in which the vast majority of Puerto Rican characters were played by white actors, such as Natalie Wood as the female lead, Maria. They also wanted to find a way to reckon with the real and underdeveloped histories of Latinx life in New York in the late 1950s, beyond the show’s stereotypical portrayals.

“‘West Side Story’ has left a big cultural footprint, so there is value in reclaiming the story and depicting it as accurately as possible,” said technical producer Amanda Gonzalez-Piloto ’21, noting that the script for the HRDC production cannot be changed due to copyright restrictions. “We’re working within a limited framework, so we have been asking: What can we do to make a more accurate and respectful cultural representation and also acknowledge there are some seeds of truth in this very flawed creative masterpiece?”

The Blexodus More black Americans are beginning to shed the shackles of the Democrat Party. Willie Richardson ·

https://patriotpost.us/articles/66740-the-blexodus-2019-11-13

This past weekend in Atlanta, I got the opportunity to experience my first BLEXIT event. In case you have been under a rock, BLEXIT is a movement of political renaissance as millions of Americans, primarily black, are exiting the Democrat Party. Candace Owens, founder of BLEXIT, is the modern-day version of Harriet Tubman as she brazenly has become the trailblazer for freedom. Freedom of thought. Freedom of voice. Freedom of vote. Freedom of common sense.

For so many years within the black community, the only political voice you could have without any “blacklash” was liberal. Our parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts have made the Democrat Party a matter of birthright. It’s so deep that it’s an unspoken or unwritten rule. It’s just as engrained as the melanin within our skin. It’s like a Thanksgiving holiday tradition that only certain people make the macaroni and cheese, turkey and dressing, or the lemon, pecan, and sweet potato pies. You don’t have to say it, it’s just understood. This “vote or die” liberal mentality has been passed down from generation to generation like grandma’s recipes.

For many black Americans, you grow up, go to church, graduate high school, go to college, vote Democrat, get married, and have some grandchildren to start the whole process over again. Did I mention vote Democrat?

Said differently, a black family person has a better chance of being accepted as a homosexual by his family, church, and community than of being a Republican believing in Christian conservative ideas. Yes, it’s that serious. The saddest part is nobody can tell you why. It’s all emotionalism.

At BLEXIT, however, something was different. I felt comfortable being in my own skin. Not because of the color of my skin, but because I was not being judged intellectually or politically based on my skin. I declared my political independence before the entire world.

Standing in a long line waiting to enter the Buckhead Theatre, I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone. We all had like minds and it was refreshing. It was good to see two teenage black males being able to articulate why they believe what they believe, instead of getting emotional and calling others names. It was amazing to hear their 55-year-old mentor say, “People think these young guys don’t have a clue. I just stand back and fold my arms and watch them handle interview questions from the media. They know their stuff!” He was smiling from ear to ear. It was good to meet an older white couple in line that overheard me say I was from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The man said, “Hey, I’m from Rossville, Georgia, right next door to you.”

Ukrainian Officials Release Records of 46 Payments to Hunter Biden from Burisma Holdings, 38 Payments were for $83,333 Totaling Over $3.1 Million by Jim Hoft

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/11/ukrainian-officials-release-records-of-46-payments-to-hunter-biden-from-burisma-holdings-38-payments-were-for-83333-totaling-over-3-1-million/

New memos released last week reveal Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian natural gas company, pressured the Obama State Department to help end the corruption investigation during the 2016 election cycle just one month before then-Vice President Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor probing his son Hunter.

Joe Biden bragged about getting Viktor Shokin fired during a 2018 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The media immediately covered for Biden and said his targeting of Mr. Shokin was totally unrelated to the prosecutor’s corruption investigation into Hunter and Burisma Holdings.

New memos released because of a FOIA lawsuit filed by award-winning investigative reporter John Solomon show Burisma Holdings contacted the Obama State Department several times during the 2016 election to discuss ending the probe.

In fact, Burisma Holdings actually name-dropped Hunter Biden when requesting help from the State Department.

According to CD Media last week former Ukrainian official Oleksandr Onyshchenko said Hunter Biden was receiving “off the books” payments from Burisma in the millions.

On Tuesday CD Media posted leaked records of payments to Hunter Biden from Burisma Holdings totaling millions.

The documents show 46 payments to Hunter Biden’s company from Novembe 2014 to November 2015.

There were 38 payments for $83,333 totaling more than $3.1 million.

Adam Schiff’s Star Witness Just Admitted Burisma Should Be Investigated For Corruption By Tristan Justice

https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/13/adam-schiffs-star-witness-just-admitted-burisma-should-be-investigated-for-corruption/

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent made the case for launching an investigation into the Bidens and their involvement in Ukraine related to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Kent, the State Department’s top official on Ukraine, said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in the Democrats’ partisan impeachment proceedings Wednesday he was concerned about a, “perception of a conflict of interest,” related to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, serving on the board of the energy company while his father oversaw the Obama administration’s policy towards Ukraine.

Hunter Biden served on the board of the company for $50,000 a month despite having no prior experience in the energy industry while his father served as vice president deeply involved U.S.-Ukrainian policy.

Kent also testified in a private deposition that he voiced his discomfort over the situation to the White House in 2015 where administration officials brushed off Kent’s concerns.

“I raised my concerns that I had heard that Hunter Biden was on the board of a company owned by somebody that the U.S. Government had spent money trying to get tens of millions of dollars back and that could create the perception of a conflict of interest,” Kent told lawmakers behind closed doors in October. “The message that I recall hearing back was that the vice president’s son Beau was dying of cancer and that there was no further bandwidth the deal with family related issues at that time… That was the end of that conversation.”