REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Watchdog: FBI Knew ‘Pee Tape’ Highly Dubious, Didn’t Tell Trump.

AH, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS THE SENATE TRIAL WILL BE DIFFERENT: Trump may be impeached within a week or so, but whenever it happens, everything changes when the scene shifts to the Senate.

EYES WIDE SHUT: Epstein posed with Weinstein and dressed as Navy SEAL for Prince Andrew’s daughter’s birthday bash. “Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell this year while awaiting sex trafficking charges, was reportedly close friends with Weinstein, who has been accused by multiple women of sexual abuse and is slated to go on trial in January. Epstein’s then-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was also part of the grinning trio and can be seen wearing a gold masquerade mask in the photo released by the Sun.”

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A CORNERED RAT RESPONDS:

Last week, the airwaves were full of media praise for Nancy Pelosi to cover for a meltdown seemly aimed at reporter James Rosen but I feel was much more a vent toward a plan going very badly. The media certainly came with both barrels. Chris Mathews and selected Hardball panelists agreed that it may well have been her “finest hour.” That tower of truth Lawrence O’Donnell celebrated her “crushing” of Rosen. Andrea Mitchell attested to Pelosi’s “deep faith” and her sincerity in citing her status as a properly raised Catholic. And the ever-so conservative of convenience David Brooks, no doubt more impressed by the crisp crease of her pantsuit than her substance, called it a “beautiful moment.”

When I bothered to watch the clip of the press conference (actually just a tight, measured statement to the reporters) and her turning on Rosen as she was leaving, my first impression was of a cornered rat striking out and releasing the frustration with its predicament. It might have been quite a bit of her own doing, but Pelosi has been cornered into calling for the bills of impeachment after losing all of the battles needed to make the measure favor her party and her ends.

A person who knows they have control of the situation does not meltdown like that. In her case, I believe she was on-board for an impeachment from the beginning but intended to play it for the full political benefit. And certainly, the present timing would be great for influencing the upcoming elections (seems to be a theme the Dems can’t escape from) if events were in their favor.

The heavy-handed committee meetings with such apparent lack of fairness (not mention evidence of any real kind) have been an across-the-board bust. The more they do, the easier it is to see they have no real case except a distaste for the president and anyone who voted for him. The parade of “witnesses” has been little more than a collection of career swamp dwellers unhappy with the rejection of their great policy insight who had no first-hand knowledge of anything and a selected set of snarky left-wing academics – all of whom appeared to talk down to everyone else without a D in front of their name or not holding a media card. One of the self-important, bow-tied professors even began by instructing us on his “conclusions” before even addressing any points of law and constitutionality.

The bottom line is that the more that the media and House Democrats have thrown out, the more support for Trump has grown. The more the whole thing is too easily seen through, regardless of one’s personal opinion of the president. It is a dishonest sham that can only damage our system of laws.

I am sure that the internal poling that all politicos do is even more telling than what reaches the public. And that it looks bad enough for Speaker Pelosi.

Yeah, nobody in that crowd is acting like a winner.

THEY’RE NOT WRONG: ‘Mass Immigration Turned Virginia Blue’ Banner Hung Over Bridge in Arlington.

PETITION: Posthumously bestow “Wings of Gold” to brave Navy men who died in Pensacola shooting.

GUN RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS: Armed “Don’t Comply” activists give food, clothes to homeless in Dallas.

R.I.P. Major Glenn Miller, US Army Air Forces.

BECAUSE THE PRESS AND THE FBI ARE ON THE SAME TEAM, AND IT’S NOT AMERICA’S. The IG Report Is a Huge Blow to the FBI’s Credibility. Why Is It Being Treated Like Vindication? “The IG report is a chronicle of massive government wrongdoing.”

Related: Horowitz report is damning for the FBI and unsettling for the rest of us.

MORE: What did the President know and when did he know it? IG Report Reveals Comey Did Brief Obama on Trump Campaign Investigation.

STILL MORE: Honestly, The Onion kind of nailed it: Comey: ‘What Can I Say, I’m Just A Catty Bitch From New Jersey And I Live For Drama.’ (Bumped).

HELTER-SKELTER:

Not surprisingly, it was quickly deleted, but not before questions were asked:

Williamson then in turn deleted her “apology” tweet. Williamson’s tweet on Trump and Manson was apparently inspired by an impeccable news source last month called…The Moron Majority:

Though Williamson’s tweet does unfortunately invalidate a headline published by an infinitely better satiric Website, the Babylon Bee, this past July: Marianne Williamson Not Sure What She’s Doing Up Here With All These Crazy People.

Speaking of which, here’s this post’s exit quote:

(Bumped.)

THE NEW YORK SUN ON PAUL VOLCKER:

The most surprising encounters we had with Volcker were at dinner. One was at the apartment Volcker shared with his second wife, Anke Dening, in Manhattan. Near the door was a display of gear for Volcker’s beloved sport of fly fishing. Inside, the towering central banker (he was 6’, 7”) was dressed in a Japanese kimono, right down to the white socks and sandals.

Another was at our own home, where a table of a dozen guests were arranged around him. The dinner was clocking along amicably enough, when, suddenly, a spat erupted between Volcker and the person seated next to him, our older daughter, aged 15. It flared so fiercely — the topic was baseball — that the rest of us sat and gawked. Then it blew over.

After dinner, we helped our eminent guest on with his coat and gave him a copy of a book of the Sun’s editorials on the gold standard. He put his hand on our shoulder as we walked him to the door. “Just remember,” he said, “you can’t go back.” It was the closest we ever got to a policy prescription from the great man.

In the morning, our 15-year-old descended for breakfast. “Do you know who Paul Volcker is?” she demanded. Yes, we exclaimed, he’s one of the great central bankers of all time. “No, no,” she said, “that’s not who Volcker is.” So we asked who he was. “He was on the baseball blue ribbon commission!” she exclaimed — nailing the fact that one of the reasons Volcker will be so widely missed is that was a man of many parts.

Read the whole thing.

OPEN THREAD: Give voice to your thoughts.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Schiff Threatens Press Freedom: When the surveillance state exposes a journalist and his sources, there’s an instant chilling effect.

If Trump had done this to a journalist, we’d be hearing about a “constitutional crisis.” Since it was a Democrat who did it to a journalist, it’s crickets for the most part. But when Trump does do this to a journalist, I’m going to find it difficult to muster the requisite outrage, knowing how the profession as a whole stayed silent, or applauded, what Schiff did.

HERE’S WHY MATT WALSH IS DEAD WRONG ON BANNING PORN:

When conservatives say they want a less intrusive government, they mean it. Until they don’t. Conservative podcaster and commentator Matt Walsh published a piece for The Daily Wire arguing for more restrictions on, and even the banning of pornography.

In the article, Walsh discusses a letter that a group of Republican lawmakers sent to Attorney General William Barr urging him to enforce obscenity laws to combat hardcore pornography. Not only does Walsh support them, he also states that the government should go so far as to outlaw pornography altogether.

He’s wrong. I’ll show you why.

The Babylon Bee, America’s Paper of Record, may have stumbled into the scariest solution of all to the issue: Porn Addiction Ended By New Law That Requires Matt Walsh’s Disapproving Face To Appear On All Adult Sites.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Meh. I addressed this over 15 years ago: Porn And Violence: Good For America’s Children?

Last week, I responded to James Glassman’s observation that American teenagers are doing better than they’ve done in decades by trying to figure out why that might be. Teen pregnancy is down, along with teen crime, drug use, and many other social ills. There’s also evidence that teenagers are more serious about life in general, and are more determined to make something worthwhile of their lives. Where just a few years ago the “teenager problem” looked insoluble, it seems well on the road to solving itself. But why?

After that column came out, it occurred to me that I had the answer: Porn and videogames. That’s what’s making American teens healthier.

It should have been obvious.

The evidence is incontrovertible.

IT’S IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN TO LEARN SELF-RELIANCE: 4-year-old twins free selves, climb to safety after crash.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SELF-AWARENESS: Biden barks at NPR reporter, “Don’t compare me to Donald Trump. What Donald Trump says, he makes fun of people. He belittles people. He lies. I don’t do any of those things. Period,” Biden said.

Period:

ROGER SIMON: Durham Throws a Monkey Wrench in Horowitz’s Dumb Show.

WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: ‘OMG!’ Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) shows Dem counsel’s ‘pee tape’ tweet at impeachment hearing and destroys ‘nonpartisan investigator’ spin.

(Classical reference in headline.)

‘BREXIT, ACTUALLY:’ UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson parodied Love Actually as a major election looms.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson parodied the 2003 rom-com “Love Actually” in an ad asking people to vote Conservative in support of Brexit.

In Johnson’s remake of the iconic Christmas carol singers scene, the British prime minister imitates the character Mark (Andrew Lincoln), holding up cards telling a woman in the scene — mimicking the film’s Juliet (Keira Knightly) — that her vote has never been more important.

“The other guy could win…” the card reads. “So you have a choice to make between a working majority or another gridlocked hung parliament arguing about Brexit.”

It’s a remarkable ad (down to the parody of the famous Bob Dylan cue-card tossing gag in 1965’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”) and Johnson’s completely non-threatening mannerisms. I suspect enterprising American political campaigns on both sides of the aisle will copy aspects of it in future elections:

PORTLAND CONSIDERS “MANDATORY REST SPACES” FOR THE HOMELESS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY.

Socialist Portlandia about to discover Conquest’s First Law of Politics: “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”

JOHN HINDERAKER: A Pensacola Postscript. “The first responders were local policemen because the Pensacola Navy base is, like most U.S. military facilities, a gun-free zone. Joshua Watson was a rifle team captain at the Naval Academy. If he had been armed when Alshamrani began his rampage the outcome likely would have been different. Many, many other servicemen and women at Pensacola are perfectly competent to carry arms and do so away from the base. Bizarrely, not even the guards at Pensacola were armed.”

SPACE: Blue Origin gets set to send thousands of postcards to space and back on test flight.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: NBA Ratings Are Down This Year And The Association Can’t Figure Out Why. Here’s A Theory. “Nowhere in its article does Variety mention another possibility; that people are sick of getting a dose of politics with their sports and may have been turned off this season by the NBA’s kowtowing to China.”

HEH: Joe Biden Will Command Respect from Both Our Enemies and Our Adversaries:

What you’re looking at here is a 77-year-old man who passed up his best shot at winning the presidency because he was afraid of Hillary Clinton. Now he’s desperately struggling to make up for that monumental mistake, while trying to hold onto his rapidly fading mental faculties. Even if you don’t like Donald Trump, you should be rooting for the Dems to nominate this guy. If he’s this hilarious now, how much fun will he be when the pressure really gets cranked up?

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Barry watches Joe spewing this nonsense. Biden was Obama’s insurance policy for eight years — Who would ever want to assassinate him, if the alternative was this clown? — and now Biden has convinced himself he was the one running the show the whole time. It must be torture to Barry’s ego. Tee-hee!

It’s Jim Treacher, so read the whole thing, which dovetails well with this cringe-worthy moment on the eve of 2008 election, when two veteran television news readers, with access to their respective networks’ newsrooms, along with the wire services and every columnist in America on speed dial, pretend to not know Obama’s worldview, but have no qualms about voting for him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMas1bVidw

But then, as Treacher himself wrote: