AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD: Unbiased Washington Post Launches Celebratory Fireworks as Trump Impeached.

But, you say, the Babylon Bee is satire!

SQUAD GOALS: ‘Stop it!’: Ilhan Omar tries to shout down Kevin McCarthy for quoting colleague’s ‘impeach the motherf—er’ remark.

TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE ONLY IGNORING IT BECAUSE THEY CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO BLAME REPUBLICANS: Another anti-Semitic incident in New York for the national media to ignore.

CHEER UP: We’ve Just Had The Best Decade In Human History. Seriously.

Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living through the greatest improvement in human living standards in history. Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 per cent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 per cent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.

Little of this made the news, because good news is no news. But I’ve been watching it all closely. Ever since I wrote The Rational Optimist in 2010, I’ve been faced with ‘what about…’ questions: what about the great recession, the euro crisis, Syria, Ukraine, Donald Trump? How can I possibly say that things are getting better, given all that? The answer is: because bad things happen while the world still gets better. Yet get better it does, and it has done so over the course of this decade at a rate that has astonished even starry-eyed me.

Perhaps one of the least fashionable predictions I made nine years ago was that ‘the ecological footprint of human activity is probably shrinking’ and ‘we are getting more sustainable, not less, in the way we use the planet’. That is to say: our population and economy would grow, but we’d learn how to reduce what we take from the planet. And so it has proved. An MIT scientist, Andrew McAfee, recently documented this in a book called More from Less, showing how some nations are beginning to use less stuff: less metal, less water, less land. Not just in proportion to productivity: less stuff overall.

This does not quite fit with what the Extinction Rebellion lot are telling us.

Well, that’s because they’re insane. And lying.

WAR ON CHRISTMAS: Left: “No one cares that you say ‘Merry Christmas.’” Neil Gorsuch: “Merry Christmas.” Left: “$&@#*#%$&%#^%!!!”

SHE’S NOT WRONG: Tulsi Gabbard Votes ‘Present’ on Trump Impeachment, Slams ‘Purely Partisan Process.’ On the other hand the opposition to impeachment was bipartisan.

FOLLOWING IMPEACHMENT VOTE, CHUCK TODD WARNS OF ‘COLD CIVIL WAR.’

Whoa, talk about being “red pilled!” When did Democratic Party operative with a byline Chuck Todd become an Objectivist?

FASTER, PLEASE: New Non-Partisan Group Calls on Amazon to Drop Scandal-Plagued SPLC.

PREDICTABLE:  “Mainstream Media Ignores FISA Court Slamming FBI over Trump-Related Surveillance Applications.” (Not just predictable, “science” hath predicted it.)

AT AMAZON, Top Gift Ideas.

Plus, Shop Amazon – Most Wished For Items.

HMM: Mark Levin: Impeachment is About Blocking Trump From Getting Another Supreme Court Pick.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: J.K. Rowling in Trouble for Believing in Human Biology.

CALIFORNIA SHOULD BE BUILDING DESALINATION PLANTS. NUCLEAR POWERED ONES. Desalination discharge a boon to fish along the coast of Australia.

HMM: Are herpes virus infections linked to Alzheimer’s disease?

IT’S HARD NOT TO GET DISCOURAGED WHEN YOU READ STUFF LIKE THIS: “Beware of anyone who means to suggest, either implicitly or explicitly, that Black students are more likely to misbehave than their white peers, because bigotry, as always, boasts of an extraordinarily limited bibliography. Such a perception has been disproved time after time.”  I’ve seen similar statements in lots of places. I wish they were true, but wishing won’t make it so. And believing falsehoods leads to bad public policy.

If the statement were true, it would mean that elementary school teachers (a very Democratic leaning group) are among the most racist people in the universe. Pacific Islander, African American, and American Indian children really are disciplined much more often than white children, who in turn are disciplined much more often than Asian children; if it’s not due to differences in behavior than it must be racism.

But there are differences in average behavior.   And, contrary to the above statement, the “bibliography” is extensive.

OCEANIA STILL RETAINS ITS TWO-WAY TELESCREENS: Despite Viewership Woes, CNN Retains Stranglehold On 58 Airports. “One reason airports are happy to retain CNN is the cash it’s willing to shell out. Public documents indicate CNN offered the Miami-Dade International Airport $150,000 annually for its most recent contract, which will expire in 2024. Documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicated CNN is paying $225,000 each year for rights to the airport in Atlanta, where CNN is headquartered. It also provides LCD monitors, as well as the equipment to install them. At more than $100,000 per contract, it’s safe to estimate CNN is shelling out well over $6 million annually to retain its 58-airport presence. That’s before accounting for the number of staff members needed to produce CNN Airport Network, the specialized operation responsible for ensuring airport viewers only see ‘appropriate’ content. If an air-travel accident takes place, for instance, the network promises to scrub the incident from airport televisions to avoid unsettling travelers.”

IT’S DEAD, JIM: The Force doesn’t appear to be that strong with the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga.

CLASSICAL HERO: Odysseus vs. the Matriarchy.

HEH: Slow News Day. “I sat down to do a blog post, but it doesn’t seem like anything of any lasting import happened yesterday. Instead, let’s enjoy some music videos.”

Good choices for a tragicomic day like today.

STUDY ESTIMATES THAT HALF OF US ADULTS WILL BE OBESE BY 2030.

Obviously, people will be living it up, eating and drinking what they want without fear of repercussion in the next decade, since AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and Greta Thurnberg assure me that planet earth has less than 12 years to live.

AT AMAZON, Last-Minute Deals Galore.

COCAINE MITCH: McConnell Rips Apart Democrats’ ‘Partisan Crusade’ on the Floor of the Senate.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This is interesting, and sounds like McConnell may be setting things up for the Senate to reject the House articles as not stating an impeachable offense:

“House Democrats want to create new rules for this president because they feel uniquely enraged,” he argued. “This is by far the thinnest basis for any House-passed presidential impeachment in American history.” He condemned it as “the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.”

McConnell noted that Pelosi is considering not sending the articles of impeachment over to the U.S. Senate. After rushing through the process of impeachment in the House, “they’re content to sit on their hands.”

“The Democrats’ own actions concede their allegations are unproven. The allegations are not just unproven, they’re also legally incoherent,” he said. “If the Senate blesses this historically low bar, we will invite the impeachment of every single future president.” . . .

McConnell dismissed both articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The first article “does not even purport to allege any actual claim,” instead using “the vague phrase ‘abuse of power’ to impugn the president’s action in a general way.” He argued that this followed exactly what the Founders warned against — impeachment for maladministration.

The second article involves Trump’s supposed obstruction by going to the courts to challenge congressional subpoenas.

“It’s not a constitutional crisis for a House to want more information than a president wants to give up,” McConnell explained. Indeed, this kind of legal battle is “a routine occurrence.” In the case of Bill Clinton, Congress went to the courts.

“This takes time, it’s inconvenient. That’s actually the point. Due process is not meant to maximize the convenience of the prosecutor, it’s meant to protect the accused,” the Republican leader insisted. “Fourteen months of hearings for Richard Nixon; years of investigation for Bill Clinton; twelve weeks for Donald Trump.”

McConnell did not say whether the Senate would take up the trial and call witnesses who might explain Trump’s side of the story on Ukraine.

The Republican leader’s historic speech did indeed echo the Founders, who warned against impeachment based on partisan strength rather than real crimes.

The way it’s set up, the House can impeach for whatever it chooses, but it’s up to the Senate to decide whether the House has stated an impeachable offense. And by dismissing the articles on this basis, there’s no need for a Senate trial. Trump would like a trial to get his side out, but it’s not as if the Senate is the only place he can do that. And part of the Dems’ strategy is to make it harder for Trump to fill a Supreme Court seat if (when?) one opens up before January 2021. And we know McConnell is focused on judicial appointments. Anyway, stay tuned.

CHINA INDIA SYNDROME: Another prescription-strength Zantac recall for, maybe, having too much of a carcinogen. Maybe sourcing our medicines from poor countries where corruption is rife was a bad idea.

AMERICAN THINKER: James Comey is a Pathological Liar.