To say that Doug Collins was upset with Democrats is understatement. Thursday, Rep. Collins exploded with righteous indignation at do-nothing Democrats, saying “lately, this has become a committee of press releases.” Collins thanked the witnesses for coming to the hearing, then saying “dehumanizing is taking people you say you care about but then doing nothing for them.”

Rep. Collins started reading his opening statement, then stopped rather dramatically. If you want to see what righteous indignation looks like, watch this video:

That’s what righteous indignation looks like. That’s what a man looks like who’s frustrated by do-nothing Democrats for doing nothing. This clip will be shown in campaign ad after campaign ad next fall. If Pelosi, Nadler, et al, don’t get a ton of bills passed and signed by this time next year, expect Republicans to bury freshman Democrats with ads cut from Rep. Collins’ justified diatribe.

Collins went on:

I think about these kids being used. I think about the Flores Agreement and the trafficking issue or the asylum issue.

Collins finished, saying “I couldn’t read the rest of this. This is dehumanizing. This is showing a non-competent, non-capable majority.” Let’s add some context to Rep. Collins’ speech:

Collins, the top Republican on the panel, spoke at a forum titled, “Oversight of Family Separation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” where Democrats sought to bring attention to what they say is the continued practice of separating children from adult migrants at the border.

The Do-nothing Democrats are experts at whining about what they think is wrong. They’re utterly worthless at fixing things. What have Do-Nothing Democrats gotten done since regaining the majority? Here’s what:

NOTHING!

That’s what they’ve fixed. Nothing. Then there’s this:

“My Democratic colleagues have ideas, I may disagree with those ideas but put a bill up,” Collins yelled. “I have a bill, put mine up, make amendments to it, do whatever you want to do — that’s what Congress is supposed to do. Dehumanizing is this.”

A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a blowhard politician who isn’t interested in fixing problems. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a politician who isn’t interested in keeping their campaign promises. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for doing nothing. It’s that simple.

Krystal Ball used to be a host on MSNBC. She isn’t anymore. To say that she’s critical of MSNBC is accurate but it’s incomplete. Ball is now a host for Hill.TV, where she has a more reputable platform from which to voice her opinions. In this article, Ball didn’t hold back:

“I dare to say some talent did drink more deeply of the Russia conspiracy waters than others, Rachel Maddow, you have some explaining to do,” said Ball, who now who hosts Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

“This is not journalism, it is Infowars conspiracy theory,” she added, referencing the show hosted by right wing provocateur Alex Jones. “CNN and many other outlets are clearly not blameless in this hype machine and the Democratic Party was plenty happy to engage in this speculation as well,” she continued. “Individual members clearly loved that sweet cable news spotlight but I single out my former employer, in particular, in part because they were certainly the worst mainstream offenders.”

This is actually frightening in the worst way. Yes, Mueller was a sad, almost-pathetic, figure but that isn’t what’s frightening. William Jacobsen’s article does that subject justice far better than I can do:

Whether Robert Mueller was a mere figurehead or in control, he was a participant. So while he was a sorry figure in the congressional hearings, and his appearance did substantial damage to Democrat and media plans, the gravity of what happened should not be lessened. It almost worked.

The media, of course, was a full participant in what happened. Just when you thought the major organizations who control almost all of popular and social media couldn’t get any worse, they do. This all takes place while high tech companies put the thumb on the scale by penalizing non-liberal content.

I used to think that Big Government and Big Corporations was the worst combination. Big Tech and the Deep State make Big Government and Big Corporations look like child’s play.

It’s important to factor in the Big Government people and the Deep State. Nancy Pelosi is part of the Big Government nasties that care only about attaining, then maintaining power. As I wrote about in this post, Pelosi is among the nastiest, most disgusting, people in DC. Yesterday, without a hint of proof, Pelosi accused President Trump of committing treason. That’s what a venomous snake looks like. She didn’t have a tidbit of proof. She knew that she couldn’t prove that accusation if her life depended on it. It didn’t bother her that she’d made the most serious charge imaginable. To Pelosi, this was just about appeasing her base. It was all about partisan advantage. This didn’t have anything to do with patriotism.
Krystal Ball did the right thing getting out of MSNBC. That’s a pit of vipers unequaled except in the House Democrat caucus.

After the Metro DFL’s attempt to rewrite the mining permitting process, Iron Range politicians banded together to fire back at the anti-mining DFL politicians, even producing this factsheet to refute the Metro DFL’s lies.

John Marty, the crusading DFL legislator who never misses an opportunity to control other people’s lives, insists that PolyMet’s permits should be pulled because PolyMet’s parent company had a problem in South America. What Sen. Marty and other DFL legislators are attempting to do is rewrite permitting laws without going through the legislative process. These DFL politicians hope that they can talk Gov. Walz into ignoring existing state laws. But I digress. Onto the Iron Range factsheet:

The claims by metro legislators and anti-mining groups about PolyMet Mining are downright fabrications. It is very disappointing that people don’t know or don’t care what our strong rules and regulations require, and that the media continues to perpetuate the misinformation. The people of the Iron Range deserve better. The people of the state of Minnesota deserve better. There is no scandal. The agencies have done their jobs. The letter of the law was followed to a “T”. Enough of the fake news already. Here are the facts:

Fact: Our DNR required PolyMet Mining to post bankruptcy proof of financial assurance (only accessible by the DNR) before they even issued PolyMet’s permit to mine. It doesn’t matter who or what the ownership looks like the resources needed to close the mine if the company went bankrupt are currently in place and only the state can release the funds.

The Metro DFL is trying to relitigate this issue without the courts. If he had a spine, Gov. Walz would tell these busybody activists to take flying leap off a tall building. Thus far, Gov. Walz has shown he doesn’t have a spine. He’s got a spine of jello.

Fact: PolyMet has undergone the most thorough and transparent environmental review and permitting process more than any other project ever in our state. Extra-long public review periods, with thousands of public comments, all of which were responded to, and extra meetings were held around the state including the Twin Cities. When was the last time a project in the Twin Cities was required to hold public meetings on the Iron Range?

The Metro DFL doesn’t care about the Iron Range. They don’t care about Minnesota’s economy, either. Based on their actions, they only care about obstructing commerce.

The thing that the Twin Cities media doesn’t cover is that the Metro DFL doesn’t just care about regulating mining. They want to turn Minnesota into a regulation state. Here are the legislators who signed onto the factsheet:

If anyone ever thought that Nancy Pelosi’s first goal was to make the United States the best nation it could possibly be, that notion died last night. That’s because Pelosi “told a ‘Tucker’ producer” that “I wonder what Putin has politically, financially, or personally.”

Accusing the President of the United States of treason without a scintilla of proof is partisanship at its worst. Next fall, voters need to know that a vote for House Democrats is a vote for this despicable person. In 2018, Democrats ran away from Pelosi to look moderate. Then half of these Democrats voted for Pelosi to be Speaker. More importantly, most of these Democrats have hung tight with Pelosi on every major vote that’s been taken.

Moderate? Give me a break. But I digress.

Let’s get into the heart of this accusation. What proof does Speaker Pelosi have that suggests that President Trump is compromised? This is pretty high-stakes stuff. When the person who is third in line to the Oval Office accuses the current occupant of the White House of having committed treason, that person better have gold-plated proof that supports her accusation.

Democrats don’t have that type of proof. If they did, they would’ve started impeachment hearings the minute they got their gavels. The next question that needs to be asked is this: If Democrats don’t have proof to support such a flippant, irresponsible accusation, what’s the basis for that accusation? I think Tucker nailed it in this paragraph:

Carlson said that she is once again intimating that the president is a traitor committing treason, but she doesn’t mean it. He said her comments are annoying and ominous. “Everything is political. … It’s just about power,” he said.

This reminds me of Harry Reid’s comments on the Senate floor where he accused Mitt Romney of not paying taxes for 10 years. When asked about making those accusations, Reid replied “Romney didn’t win, did he?”

Harry Reid didn’t care about doing what’s right for America. What’s frightening is that Pelosi is more cold-blooded than Reid. With her, it’s all about gaining, then maintaining, political power to check items off the Democrats’ ideological checklist. This is what evil looks and sounds like:
“It’s about what matters. It’s not politics, not partisanship. It’s patriotism.”

Pelosi doesn’t give a damn about patriotism. She wants to maintain the Democrats’ majority in the House no matter what. She isn’t leading Democrats by focusing them to do the right thing in terms of the economy, the border or impeachment. Democrats are chasing impeachment. Do they have any proof of high crimes and misdemeanors? Of course they don’t.

Here’s the key question for voters: Do you want a House majority that puts its priorities first? Or would you prefer a majority that puts your priorities first? A vote for a Democrat is a vote for putting the Democrats’ priorities first. That translates into a chaotic situation at the border. That translates into a stagnating economy. That’s a vote to ignore small-town America. That’s a vote against energy dominance, too.

Worst of all, it’s a vote to hand the Speaker’s Gavel to Evil Nancy Pelosi. No thanks.

What a shock! Supposedly pro-border security Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted a hearing that would fix most of the problems with the US-Mexico border. Once again, this proves how unserious Democrats are on the subject of border security. What these Democrats are quite skilled at is complaining about Republicans’ bills.

The article notices that “Ms. Feinstein said Mr. Graham’s bill went too far to eliminate the Flores Settlement, which she said included important protections for migrants when they are in custody. She also complained that he hadn’t worked hard enough to make his bill bipartisan. ‘We believe that the solution on the immigration issue can and should be done on a bipartisan basis,’ the California Democrat said.”

This is a political stunt. Anyone that complains about the minor details in a bill without offering an amendment to fix that detail isn’t interested in bipartisanship. They’re interested in signaling to the media to cover, then criticize, the Democrats’ PR stunt.

Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-MO), nailed it with this analysis:

I triple-dog dare a Democrat to tell me what serious bills Democrats have submitted in either the House or Senate. I’m not worried about the results because Democrats aren’t serious about border security. Yesterday’s stunt was proof that Democrats care more about the optics of the issue than they care about fixing the problem.

In 2020, Americans will need to decide whether they’d rather have a president and a unified congress that wants to fix problems or whether they’d rather have a congress that’s mostly interested in obstructing. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for obstruction. In the House, Democrats haven’t written a single serious bill that would fix our asylum laws or would fix the Flores Decision.

If Minnesota taxpayers aren’t outraged with the Tim Walz Department of Human Services lack of integrity, they will be when they read this:

Today Senator Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake) renewed her call to split the Office of Inspector General into a separate department in light of the continued personnel and culture problems within DHS. Senate Republicans included the change in the Health and Human Services budget passed on May 1, 2019.

“Yesterday’s revelations that a whistle blower was escorted out of her office after emailing her concerns about the legality of government contracts is more evidence the culture at DHS needs to change,” said Sen. Benson. “The change should start with an independent OIG that is open to hearing fraud reports, pursues them without bias, and protects the people that report problems.”

“We proposed making the OIG independent and accountable to the Governor last session. During negotiations, House Democrats and the Governor’s office instead suggested a ‘Blue Ribbon Commission’ to cut costs. I appreciate the effort, but the Blue Ribbon Commission hasn’t been assembled yet and DHS is crumbling under the weight of poor leadership. We need real reforms, not just cost-saving measures, to change the culture and purpose of the agency from top-to-bottom,” Benson concluded.

Senate Republicans have established a website (www.mnsenaterepublicans.com/mnwhistleblower) for DHS and other state government whistleblowers to reports their concerns. “It’s clear leadership at DHS is not taking fraud or abuse seriously. We want all DHS and state agency employees to have a safe place to report their concerns. We will keep their complaints anonymous and pursue them with the full weight of the legislature to determine whether tax dollars are being wasted or abused.”

The current Inspector General, Carolyn Ham, remains on leave after the Legislative Auditor highlighted serious concerns with her management of the OIG. On Friday, July 12, Ham said her investigation was going to start today, July 23. The following Monday, the Governor contradicted Ham’s statement and said the investigation had already began. Senate Republicans have not been officially informed of when the investigation began and the public remains in the dark on the status of the investigation.

If Democrats don’t fix this crisis, they can kiss their House majority good-bye. Right now, it’s Gov. Walz and House Democrats that are obstructing real change. Sen. Benson and other reform-minded Republicans have proposed substantive changes. That leaves things in the DFL House’s lap.

The DFL’s proposed Blue Ribbon Commission is a joke, especially compared with the Senate GOP’s plan to making the Office of Inspector General independent of the Department they’re tasked to protect. If the DFL wants to stick with that position, that’s fine. It’s just that they’d better prepare to hand over their chairman’s gavels.

The fact that Gov. Walz hasn’t lifted a finger on starting the investigation into Carolyn Ham suggests that he’s disinterested in fixing the Department of Human Services. It might not hurt him politically but I’m betting that the MNGOP will tie his inaction and the DFL’s unseriousness around the DFL’s necks.

One of the things that businesses should count on is that they shouldn’t have their projects shelved if they follow the rules. Apparently, that isn’t good enough for the anti-mining DFL. According to this Strib article, far outside-the-mainstream DFL politicians want PolyMet’s permits stopped:

Democratic lawmakers are calling for Gov. Tim Walz to suspend all state permits for PolyMet’s proposed copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota, saying the state needs assurances “that the permits were not rigged.”

It’s the first move by lawmakers following recent disclosures about how state and federal regulators handled a crucial wastewater permit for PolyMet, which would be the state’s first hard-rock mine. Three inquiries into that episode are underway. Sen. John Marty, the Roseville Democrat leading the effort, said lawmakers were also motivated by Glencore’s recent purchase of PolyMet Mining Corp. and the catastrophic failure earlier in the year of an iron ore mine tailings dam in Brazil, a facility with a similar design to the tailings dam PolyMet would use.

Democrats have fought against PolyMet permitting since it started. This is just their latest attempt to halt the PolyMet project. It’s also the DFL’s latest attempt to keep Iron Rangers poor.

It’s apparent that the DFL doesn’t care whether those living on the Iron Range live in poverty. If the DFL cared about people living in poverty, they would’ve helped get PolyMet permitted years ago.

House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, called the letter an “ideological attack.” “It’s disappointing that Metro Democrats are spreading misleading and false information about the environmental review process in an effort to derail this project and its tremendous benefits for Minnesota jobs and Minnesota’s economy,” Daudt said in a statement. “PolyMet is the most thoroughly reviewed industrial project in Minnesota history and has been going through the environmental review process for 14 years.”

When companies follow the state’s laws and the permits are issued, companies should be able to rely on that as a matter of good faith. Sen. Marty’s attempt to throw extra-legal steps into the process would make him an authoritarian. If Sen. Marty wants a stiffer set of regulations, then he should be required to follow the regular legislative procedure. If the rules can get changed by politicians without legislation or without a hearing, then there isn’t a true rule of law.

Then again, if Sen. Marty and the DFL is willing to ignore state law in their attempt to kill a properly permitted project, there’s no reason to think that they’ll follow routine procedures. This is Metrocrat machine politics at its worst.

What wooden stakes are to vampires, the Mueller hearings, especially the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing, is to impeachment. When John Ratcliffe asked Special Counsel Mueller what other person (besides President Trump) had the burden of proving themselves innocent, Mueller replied that nobody has had that burden imposed on them. Rep. Ratcliffe asked that in reference to Andrew Weissmann’s statement that, while they didn’t indict President Trump, they didn’t exonerate him, either.

Each time Special Counsel Mueller couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer key questions about Weissmann’s investigation, a little impeachment momentum disappeared into the ether. Once it’s gone, it isn’t returning. While Speaker Pelosi tries propping up her chairmen, she knows that impeachment is dead. She can put tons of perfume on that pig, it’s still just a pig. Here’s how Pelosi tried propping up Chairman Schiff and Chairman Nadler:

“The American people now realize more fully the crimes that were committed against our Constitution,” Pelosi said in the Capitol of Mueller’s testimony. “It is a crossing of a threshold in terms of the public awareness of what happened,” she later said during a news conference following Mueller’s testimony.

With little due respect to the Botox lady by the Bay, the hearings had the same effect on articles of impeachment that cold water has on campfires. If you want to watch Ms. Pelosi’s nauseating press conference, you can watch it here:

It’s easy to pile on Robert Mueller this morning. I’ve already done that in other posts so I won’t continue with that. That being said, the real villains in this travesty are the activists in the Resist Movement, Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff and other Democrats, Rod Rosenstein (who never should’ve offered Mueller the position), the FBI lovebirds (Strzok and Page), Andrew McCabe, Andrew Weissman and Jim Comey.

Without these disgusting people, there wouldn’t have been a special counsel appointment. But I digress. Another thing that needs to be highlighted is the discipline that Republican members of the Judiciary and Intel committees showed yesterday. They shined like I’ve never seen them shine before.

Usually, politicians participating in high profile hearings specialize in grandstanding. That didn’t happen Wednesday. Each member focused like a laser on a specific topic in their attempt to elicit new information. That’s the new model that Republicans should adopt for high profile hearings from now on.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler also said his committee would go to court Thursday to seek access to grand jury material in the Mueller report and to enforce a subpoena against former White House Counsel Don McGahn to try to get him to testify. “Today was a watershed day in telling the facts to the American people. With those facts we can proceed,” Nadler said — although he, too, stopped short of calling for impeachment.

Stick a wooden stake in that impeachment vampire. It’s dead. CPR won’t resuscitate this patient, either. Fill our the toe tag for impeachment. Unless Democrats want to lose the House again in a landslide.

It’s obvious that Robert Mueller didn’t write the report that bears his name. It’s obvious that he was only minimally attached to this investigation. By his own admission, Mueller said that he sat in on “very few” of the interviews.

Today’s hearings didn’t produce much in the way of new information, though it provided some positive pro-Trump highlights. This is one of those pro-Trump highlights:

I’m betting, as I’m betting others are, too, that Andrew Weissman wrote the report. Further, I’m betting that he threw that line in there to help his fellow Democrats in their fight to impeach President Trump. It isn’t a secret that Weissman is corrupt.

Weissman is the prosecutor who got unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court for his prosecution of Enron. He knew what his burdens were. He didn’t let that stand in his way. He wanted that conviction even if it meant throwing Enron and Arthur Andersen under the bus.

Mueller looked totally unsteady, repeatedly asking that they repeat the question:

I don’t want to be disrespectful but Mueller looked as out of it as someone who’d just suffered a mild stroke. Another pathetic moment came when Mueller said that he didn’t know who FusionGPS was:

The other reason why I’m convinced that Weissman wrote the report and, in fact, was the de facto leader of the Special Counsel’s office is because they didn’t pay any attention to the Clinton campaign’s corruption.

To those that pay attention to congressional hearings, they know that the Democrats’ impeachment drive is over. That isn’t what’s important, though. What’s important is that Democrats won’t admit that impeachment is over.

Robert Mueller’s long-anticipated testimony is turning into a total disaster for Democrats. Drudge’s headline screams the reality:

Underneath the picture read the headline “Dazed and Confused.” That’s perhaps a little gentle. Here’s what Grabien wrote on Mueller’s testimony:

Mueller, who is often celebrated in the media for laser-like thinking, had to ask lawmakers to regularly repeat their questions, seemingly struggling to pay attention. At other points, Mueller got confused about whether the members of Congress were asking him questions or if they were reading from his own report. In just the first 90 minutes of the hearing, Mueller needed help understanding questions more than 10 times.

In one such exchange, Mueller — under questioning from Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) — asked: “And where are you reading from on that?” “I’m reading from my own question” the lawmaker reminded him. “Then can you repeat it?” Mueller asked, eliciting laughter from the audience.

In another painful episode, Mueller had to ask Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee three times to clarify and restate her question. Under questioning from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Mueller failed to follow a question that was merely 14 words long: “Attorney #2 in the Inspector General’s report and Strzok both worked on your team, didn’t they?” “Pardon me?” Mueller replied. After Gaetz restated his question, Mueller replied: “And the question was?”

Katie Pavlich touched on something that I think is significant:

Lawmakers are allowing Mueller to get away with not answering dozens of questions based on information directly from his 400+ page report. He simply keeps saying “not in my purview,” but much of it is, in the “four corners” of the report. And mostly everyone is letting it slide.

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 24, 2019

It isn’t related but at the end of the House Intel Committee hearing, both John Ratcliff and Ranking Member Nunes simply thanked Mueller for his years of service and yielded back the balance of their times. It was like they knew they’d made their points and were resting their case. I think their instincts were exactly right.

The other thing that came through loud and clear was how authoritative Mueller didn’t sound. He repeatedly asked Republicans on the committees to ask the question again. At other times, he didn’t seem like he knew the contents of the report that bears his name. Clearly, he didn’t write this report.

If today is the last time he testifies on Capitol Hill, it will be a sad final chapter to his career.

Finally, the title I originally wrote said “Mueller’s testimony virtually ends impeachment.” As you can see, I’ve since deleted the word virtually. Democrats will keep investigating but that horse is as dead as our first 41 presidents.