Do you think the impeachment inquiry against Trump is legitimate?

It’s the media’s job to investigate and report the truth about important people and events — at least, it used to be.

These days, it seems that following facts no matter where they lead has been replaced by progressive pandering. It’s hard to come to any other conclusion, especially after a jaw-dropping piece published by CNN on Wednesday.

The left-leaning news network has essentially declared that questioning an unlikely story told by a female presidential candidate is sexist. Forget fact-checking and holding powerful people accountable; if a politician is the correct gender, they apparently get special treatment.

“Warren pregnancy debate another example of sexism in the guise of scrutiny,” the bold headline on CNN read.

The accompanying article by the network’s national political writer Brandon Tensley goes on to shame competing news outlets for noticing that Elizabeth Warren seems to fib a lot.

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“Earlier this week, Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate, was asked about a story that she’s mentioned often on the campaign trail,” CNN reported.

“In 1971, when she was 22 years old and completing her first year of teaching, she lost her job once it became clear that she was visibly pregnant,” the outlet continued.

At least, that’s the version told by Warren. The story seemed to bolster the candidate’s “persistent woman in a world of mean men” shtick.

But when several media organizations checked, they found some pretty compelling evidence that the real timeline of events was significantly different. Actual county documents from the time — which can be viewed online — suggest that the school board eagerly renewed the young teacher’s employment contract.

It also appears that it was Warren who resigned from the teaching job of her own accord. In other words, it was the complete opposite of being fired for becoming pregnant, deflating the entire woe-is-me story.

In an appalling show of abandoning actual journalism in favor of protecting a liberal narrative, CNN decided to scold other outlets for reporting this discrepancy.

“But over the past few days, conservative news sites and mainstream outlets either have sought to directly refute Warren’s account or have disputed it in such a way that it seems as if there’s some reason to doubt that a school in the early 1970s would fire a pregnant woman,” Tensley wrote, linking to articles from the Washington Free Beacon and CBS News.

The reason this story is getting attention, in the eyes of CNN? Sexism!

Fact-checking Warren’s story of being fired “shines a light on the inveterate sexism — women as unreliable narrators, women as answerable for their husbands’ professional lives, women as weak,” the CNN contributor wrote.

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It couldn’t possibly be that Warren is seen as an “unreliable narrator” because she keeps telling fibs. No, the only possible reason is that she is a woman, and can’t you just leave her alone?

This is a perfect example of an establishment media outlet running interference for their darling candidate, all while pretending to be unbiased and committed to facts. The message is clear: Warren is supposed to get a free pass on her exaggerations because she is a woman.

And that is the real irony to all of this. By breathlessly protecting Warren, liberal outlets like CNN are actually acting as if women are less capable and less equal than male presidential candidates.

If leftists truly believe that women should be treated the same as men, then they should have no problem running the same fact-checks. If Warren is truly prepared to run for president of the most powerful nation on earth, she ought to be able to weather basic scrutiny of her campaign stories.

That’s called journalism. Too bad it seems to be such a foreign concept at CNN these days.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole without electricity, water, and freedom.

Due to Democrats’ love for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several days.  Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning.  Democrats could also avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the Democrats couldn’t care less about doing what’s best for California.

While they try to blame climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century.

The Democrats who run California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the state’s population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be rationed during droughts.

Democrats are turning California into a third-world country economically.  The income inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live in luxury and the rest live in squalor. 

Democrats are doing a great job manufacturing poverty and homelessness even as they fail to instill hope in Californians.

California has four times more homeless per capita and three times more poor per capita than the rest of America.  Half the homeless in America are in California, even though California has only 12% of the U.S. population.  Also, blacks are six times more prevalent in the San Francisco homeless population than they are in California in general.

The homeless explosion has brought the return of third-world diseases like typhus to California — not to mention streets littered with human feces.

Democrats are trying to keep people from having cars, just like the people of the Third World.  After all, a car gives people the freedom to move, and freedom is a bad thing in the minds of Democrats since it limits the power the government has over citizens.

Recently, Gavin Newsom, the Democrat governor, transferred millions of dollars that the voters had been ensured would go to improve the state’s failing road infrastructure to a fund designed to convince Californians to give up their cars.

Democrats are also working to make cars unaffordable for any but the richest Californians.

Californians pay $1.53 more for a gallon for gasoline than the rest of America.  That’s $21 more for a tank of gasoline.  Facebook employees won’t notice it, but the poor in California who can’t afford to live near their jobs are paying through the teeth.

Like all third-world tyrants, Democrats are doing everything they can to eliminate democracy in California.

The jungle primary, where the top two candidates in the primaries go against each other, has resulted in many races where two Democrats are running against each other, giving voters who don’t agree with the Democrats’ failed policies no one to vote for.

California is doing nothing to ensure that people who shouldn’t vote don’t vote.  Instead, the people running the state are doing everything possible to let illegal aliens vote.  When illegal aliens go pick up their driver’s licenses, they’re automatically enrolled to vote unless they say they’re not citizens.

California is also trying to end democracy by keeping the Republican presidential candidate off the ballot.  Democrats passed an unconstitutional law to keep any candidate who didn’t release his tax returns off the ballot solely to keep Californians from voting for Trump.

Finally, the Democrats are going after freedom of the press.  An undercover journalist revealed that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted baby parts.  Instead of investigating that illegal practice, Democrat Kamala Harris decided to put the journalist on trial.

Democrats keep telling us California is the future if they get elected.  That means that poverty, homelessness, the end of democracy, and a press that reports only what Democrats want heard are what Democrats are promising us.

If you’re an immensely wealthy Google employee, California is Heaven.  If you’re not, it’s becoming more and more like Hell.

You can read more of Tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.

Image: Famartin via Wikimedia Commons.

Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole without electricity, water, and freedom.

Due to Democrats’ love for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several days.  Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning.  Democrats could also avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the Democrats couldn’t care less about doing what’s best for California.

While they try to blame climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century.

The Democrats who run California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the state’s population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be rationed during droughts.

Democrats are turning California into a third-world country economically.  The income inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live in luxury and the rest live in squalor. 

Democrats are doing a great job manufacturing poverty and homelessness even as they fail to instill hope in Californians.

California has four times more homeless per capita and three times more poor per capita than the rest of America.  Half the homeless in America are in California, even though California has only 12% of the U.S. population.  Also, blacks are six times more prevalent in the San Francisco homeless population than they are in California in general.

The homeless explosion has brought the return of third-world diseases like typhus to California — not to mention streets littered with human feces.

Democrats are trying to keep people from having cars, just like the people of the Third World.  After all, a car gives people the freedom to move, and freedom is a bad thing in the minds of Democrats since it limits the power the government has over citizens.

Recently, Gavin Newsom, the Democrat governor, transferred millions of dollars that the voters had been ensured would go to improve the state’s failing road infrastructure to a fund designed to convince Californians to give up their cars.

Democrats are also working to make cars unaffordable for any but the richest Californians.

Californians pay $1.53 more for a gallon for gasoline than the rest of America.  That’s $21 more for a tank of gasoline.  Facebook employees won’t notice it, but the poor in California who can’t afford to live near their jobs are paying through the teeth.

Like all third-world tyrants, Democrats are doing everything they can to eliminate democracy in California.

The jungle primary, where the top two candidates in the primaries go against each other, has resulted in many races where two Democrats are running against each other, giving voters who don’t agree with the Democrats’ failed policies no one to vote for.

California is doing nothing to ensure that people who shouldn’t vote don’t vote.  Instead, the people running the state are doing everything possible to let illegal aliens vote.  When illegal aliens go pick up their driver’s licenses, they’re automatically enrolled to vote unless they say they’re not citizens.

California is also trying to end democracy by keeping the Republican presidential candidate off the ballot.  Democrats passed an unconstitutional law to keep any candidate who didn’t release his tax returns off the ballot solely to keep Californians from voting for Trump.

Finally, the Democrats are going after freedom of the press.  An undercover journalist revealed that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted baby parts.  Instead of investigating that illegal practice, Democrat Kamala Harris decided to put the journalist on trial.

Democrats keep telling us California is the future if they get elected.  That means that poverty, homelessness, the end of democracy, and a press that reports only what Democrats want heard are what Democrats are promising us.

If you’re an immensely wealthy Google employee, California is Heaven.  If you’re not, it’s becoming more and more like Hell.

You can read more of Tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.

Image: Famartin via Wikimedia Commons.

How much do you trust a Ukrainian lawmaker with unverified documents who unveiled them to the world at a news conference hosted by a Russian-owned news agency?

If you’re Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, you trust them quite a bit. If you’re a partisan of former 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, you likely trust them not at all.

If one side is completely right here, it could have a major effect on the 2020 presidential race.

On Wednesday, Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, held a news conference hosted by wire service Interfax-Ukraine. In it, he accused former Vice President Joe Biden of accepting almost $1 million for consulting services from Ukraine energy giant Burisma while he was in office.

(Burisma, for those making their domiciles under rocks, is the company that paid Biden’s son Hunter $50,000 a month to serve on its board.)

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Wednesday night, appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani brought up Derkach’s claims to buttress his case that the Bidens had been up to some dirty dealing in the former Soviet republic.

“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani said.

“Do you think we’re going to hear [from] the press that a member of the parliament in Ukraine held a press conference today and — name was Andriy Derkach, you won’t hear this on the news, ladies and gentlemen, because they censor it, you only get the news the Dems want you to hear — Derkach publicized documents which he said described the mechanisms for getting money by Biden Sr.”

Giuliani then quoted Derkach during the news conference:

“This was the transfer of funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, to Joe Biden through a lobbying company,” he said.

“Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca, which according to open sources is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was for consultative services.”

Giuliani went on to describe some of Derkach’s further comments — which, taken in full, seemed pretty damning.

According to Interfax-Ukraine, Derkach said: “According to the documents, Burisma paid no less than $16.5 million to [former Polish President, who became an independent director at Burisma Holdings in 2014] Aleksander Kwasniewski, [chairman of the Burisma board of independent directors] Alan Apter, [Burisma independent director] Devon Archer and Hunter Biden [who joined the Burisma board of directors in 2014].

RELATED: Huge Blow to Dems as Files Show Giuliani Learned of Ukraine Issues 3 Months Before Biden Became Candidate

“Using political and economic levelers of influencing Ukrainian authorities and manipulating the issue of providing financial aid to Ukraine, Joe Biden actively assisted closing criminal cases into the activity of former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who is the founder and owner of Burisma Group.”

On “Hannity,” Giuliani expanded on that.

“Let me tell you who Mykola Zlochevsky is,” Giuliani said. “He’s a major oligarch. He stole $5 billion from his people. He very suspiciously was allowed to come back [to Ukraine]. His case got dismissed when they dismissed Hunter Biden’s case [involving Burisma] … This guy’s one of the major criminals in the Ukraine and he’s now walking around free because Joe Biden got the case dismissed.”

Biden said the Justice Department should take the Ukraine accusations seriously.

“This case stinks. They can run away from it all they want,” Giuliani added.

Obviously, accepting this kind of gift from a state-run company during his time as vice president would be incredibly illegal and a major new twist in the Biden case — something that Giuliani no doubt knew when he brought it up on Hannity’s show.

It’s also a difficult sell when you consider the source. It’s not just the fact that the story is a hard one to believe. Even with new leadership, Ukraine isn’t necessarily known as being corruption-free — or the kind of place where a blockbuster story about corruption can be believed on its own merits.

The fact that this happened at a news conference hosted by a Russian-run wire service seems more than a bit sketchy, particularly when you consider the fact that the motive behind the news conference seemed to be exculpating Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and pinning electoral interference in American politics on Ukraine’s former leadership.

“We see the conflict in which the new government of Ukraine faces due to the activities of the previous president,” Derkach said at the news conference, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

“I want to emphasize that I’m almost sure, and not only I, but many journalists, that [former Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko personally bears responsibility for the situation in which Ukraine has ended up, for dragging Ukraine into interfering in the U.S. presidential election, for a huge number of corruption scandals and international corruption that could not have occurred without his control or participation.”

These are not the kinds of things you want to hear in a Joe Friday “just-the-facts-ma’am” news conference, particularly in a country that has a history of corruption. For its part, the Biden campaign refused to comment when contacted by the U.K. Daily Mail about Giuliani’s remarks.

So, will this end up being a major new wrinkle in the Bidens’ Ukrainian troubles?

Or, will this end up being a major embarrassment for Rudy Giuliani?

One thing’s for sure — this one isn’t likely to be forgotten anytime soon. It’s also going to shine an unwanted spotlight yet again on what the Bidens were doing in Ukraine back during the Obama era.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Recently, I viewed a 12-minute YouTube video by Tony Heller, released 9/20/2019.  He described it as “my gift to climate alarmists” and added: “This is my most concise expose of climate fraud.  Please pass it around to everyone you know and your elected officials.  The video is a little short, but cuts right to the heart of the matter.”  Be advised that the video is totally devoid of slick Hollywood production techniques, and the narration is monotone, but does cut to the heart of the matter. 

Before sharing, I took the precaution of researching Tony Heller.  Google listed several negative references up front that basically discredited him as a climate science–denying fraud.  However, digging deeper, I found he is well educated, often contributes to Watts Up With That?, and has occasionally used the pen name Steven Goddard.  His rather uniquely formatted website, titled Real Climate Science, contains his unorthodox yet impressive résumé.  Here was found evidence that Scott Adams of Dilbert fame considers Tony the skeptic he finds most convincing.

My career involved business analytics using the same math and charting methods as those applied to climate data.  Therefore, I am familiar with the misleading techniques demonstrated in the video.  I have also felt pressure from senior management to use questionable data, omit contradictory findings, or adjust measurement scales to exaggerate or understate trend changes if necessary to support their desired solution.  

Obviously, this type of data deception works best when the intended audience lacks the technical expertise to know it is being sold a fantasy.  It is even easier when the fantasy is something many truly want to believe (e.g., Greta Thunberg and other Extinction Rebellion participants).  The ultimate fantasy solution to prevent a climate catastrophe requires that big government be given the power to regulate man-caused CO2 and those infinitesimal amounts of methane from cow flatulence.  Never mind that total atmospheric CO2 is 0.04% (the equivalent clout of 4 pennies versus a $100 bill) and that today’s slightly higher CO2 levels have significantly increased worldwide crop yields.

Sadly, the truth contained in Tony’s video will never overcome the emotion-fueled political advantage of having a simple, taxable villain like CO2.  No wonder politicians, media, academia, and the green energy industrial complex will protect this lucrative fantasy at all costs.  Nevertheless, I recommend watching the video, here or below.  Then you decide.

Recently, I viewed a 12-minute YouTube video by Tony Heller, released 9/20/2019.  He described it as “my gift to climate alarmists” and added: “This is my most concise expose of climate fraud.  Please pass it around to everyone you know and your elected officials.  The video is a little short, but cuts right to the heart of the matter.”  Be advised that the video is totally devoid of slick Hollywood production techniques, and the narration is monotone, but does cut to the heart of the matter. 

Before sharing, I took the precaution of researching Tony Heller.  Google listed several negative references up front that basically discredited him as a climate science–denying fraud.  However, digging deeper, I found he is well educated, often contributes to Watts Up With That?, and has occasionally used the pen name Steven Goddard.  His rather uniquely formatted website, titled Real Climate Science, contains his unorthodox yet impressive résumé.  Here was found evidence that Scott Adams of Dilbert fame considers Tony the skeptic he finds most convincing.

My career involved business analytics using the same math and charting methods as those applied to climate data.  Therefore, I am familiar with the misleading techniques demonstrated in the video.  I have also felt pressure from senior management to use questionable data, omit contradictory findings, or adjust measurement scales to exaggerate or understate trend changes if necessary to support their desired solution.  

Obviously, this type of data deception works best when the intended audience lacks the technical expertise to know it is being sold a fantasy.  It is even easier when the fantasy is something many truly want to believe (e.g., Greta Thunberg and other Extinction Rebellion participants).  The ultimate fantasy solution to prevent a climate catastrophe requires that big government be given the power to regulate man-caused CO2 and those infinitesimal amounts of methane from cow flatulence.  Never mind that total atmospheric CO2 is 0.04% (the equivalent clout of 4 pennies versus a $100 bill) and that today’s slightly higher CO2 levels have significantly increased worldwide crop yields.

Sadly, the truth contained in Tony’s video will never overcome the emotion-fueled political advantage of having a simple, taxable villain like CO2.  No wonder politicians, media, academia, and the green energy industrial complex will protect this lucrative fantasy at all costs.  Nevertheless, I recommend watching the video, here or below.  Then you decide.