Observations: The Qando Podcast

We start off with usual fare of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, et al., but the core bit is looking at Trump's attempt to woo black voters to his campaign.

Bernie did well in the Iowa Caucuses--as far as we can tell--and looks strong in NH--making him the front-runner. I hope you're ready for Democratic Socialism.

The Trump impeachment is essentially over. This round, anyway. But the final vote won't be until Wednesday. They day after the Iowa Caucuses, because Cocaine Mitch. The cornoavirus is spreading. Here's hoping we dont get a repeat of 1918.

The Trump impeachment moves towards its inevitable conclusion: Acquittal. Boris Johnson delivered on Brexit.

Virginia seems intent on creating a civil war over guns. Trump's impeachment managers have been named. And a reporter got offended by being outed as a liberal hack.

Iran denies shooting down a Ukrainian passenger liner, but everyone knows they're lying. The nteresting thing has been seeing how many people are willing to jumpt to Iran's defense. Mitch McConnel called Nancy Pelosi's bluff, and scheduled a Senate impeachment trial...with or without House managers showing up to present the House's case. Pelosi caved and announced a vote to name the impeacment managers. Virginia's attempt to impose forearms restrictions is going about as well as one would expect firearms restrictions to work n Virginia.

This Iranian IRG General, Qassem Soleimani, was in Iraq this week. He orchestrated an attack on the US Embassay, while in the midst of plotting a coup in Iraq with an Iranian-backed militia there. The US droned him to death, along with some of those militia leaders who had the misfortune of standing a bit to close to him at the wrong time. Good riddance. The usual crew of suspects are now warning of Iranian escalation. You realize that we've been in a formal state of war with Iran since 1979, right, guys? Also, some fellow went into a church to shoot the place up, and six seconds later caught a bullet in the head for his trouble. Which is the last we'll ever hear about that. Oh, DOnald Trump may or may not have been impeached by the House of Representatives while we were on hiatus, which means that there may or may not be an impeachment trial n the Senate .New York has a bail reform system that looks like bail elimination. Also, Virginia banned guns, but 92% of the counties in that state say, "Nope". So, that

The House held a wierd vote to continue the impeachment inquiry, which is not a formal impeachment inquiry.This will probably turn out well, despite the incompetent buffoonery that seems to characterize both sides of the impechment argument. Meanwhile, the DoJ appears to have turned the Russia Collusion Investigation investigation (yes, that's right) into a criminal investiation by convening a grand jury. Last week, it was perfectly OK to call a field grade officer in the US Army a Russian stooge, but this week, we can't criticize field grade officers. OK. Some baseball talk. Liz Warren has a $55 trilion Medicare for all plan that is perfectly affordable. Meanwhile, Pete Buttigeig says this presidential race is between him and Warren. OK, Pete. The NY/DC media went into a fury of fact-checking to ensure the president didn't award the Medal of Honor to a dog.

Donald Trump either did, or did not commit an impeachable offense by asking about investigating the 2016 election and also mentioning Joe Biden. US companies are going out of their way to kowtow to China. Elizabeth Warren's story about being fired because she was pregnant. It's a thrilling story that apparently never happened. But it was representative of a bigger truth. Hillary Clinton seems to think she won in 2016.

After a two-week hiatus, we try to catch up with everything that's happened since we last spoke. Nancy Pelosi announced that the Congress has started an "Impeachment Inquiry", which is different than an Impeachment Inquiry, which is where congress actually votes on it. Adam Schiff seems to be congenitally unable to tell the truth about the "whistleblower" who contacted his office prior to the "whistleblower" complaint, which differs from a whistleblower complaint, which is where the individual actually has first-hand knowledge of the offense. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is a dead man walking, which means that there is an excellent chance that Elizabeth Warren will be the Democrats' presidential nominee.

The Democrats had an interminable debate this week, the upshot of which was: Kamala Harris believes that if the Constitution says "No, you can't", then the best response is "Yes, we can"; Beto O'Rourke says "Hell yes, we are coming for your AR-15s"; finally, Elizabeth Warren says that the Great Spirit wants single-payer health care for our tribe. It's wierd when Joe Biden has becomne the voice of reason and sanity. Donald Trump Fired John Bolton, who claims he resigned. Bolton will now have to just go back onto to television to explain how he's never seen a bomb that didn't need to be dropped on foreigners, or a foreign country that couldn't see a net improvement by being subjected to that bombing. China may be blinking at the thought of full-scale trade war.

Hurricane Dorian did NOT destroy Alabama as the president predicted, launching Sharpiegate by the Media. The Democrats seem to have hit on a winning campaign slogan for 2020: No Cars, No Meat, No Guns. Everyone is excited to see how well that polls. The Dem presidential candidates held an environmental town hall that lasted several hours and was televised to nearly no one. Apparently, we need to rebuild every structure in the country to a present zero carbon footprint by 2030. China Backed off on the extradition law that prompted protests in Hong Kong. Bloomberg Law ran a hit piece on Leif Olsen that ALMOST worked. Barack Obama's concern for rising sea levels didn't stop him from buying a $15 million beachfront house.

James Comey, was not referred for prosecution by the FBI's inspector general, though the IG report did note that he broke FBI policy on the release of classified information. Comey declared this to be complete exoneration. We learned this week that Kristen Gillibrand had been running for president, when she announced the suspension of her campaign. Lawrence O'Donnel was forced to retract a false story about the president on his show this week, though he retracted it in the most combative way possible. Greta Thunberg is being tragically used by Green campaigners. But those were just appetizers for our main conversation about White Supremacy, and the peril it supposedly presents to the country. The trouble about the White Supremacy hysteria is that if everything is White Supremacy, then nothing is.

Bruce is away again, but Dale and Michael took up the slack, discussing the Trade War that President Trump escalated via tweet on Friday. In addition, he said he was ordering companies to start shutting down their business with China. The Dow dropped 536 points. It was a deeply wierd ending to a week that started with President Trump attempting to buy Greenland, also via tweet. The Supreme Court announced that RBG was treated for a cancerous tumor over the summer, but she's all better now. Hopefully, she'll stay on the court past the election, thus avoiding Ragnarok. The CEO of Overstock resigned this week, revealing that he had carried out a romantic engagement with convicted Russian spy Marina Butina at the behest of Peter Strzock. He had been in a relationship with her previously, but he took pains to assure the American people that he didn't lay a finger on Butina...the second time around. Imagine our relief. David Koch died, unleashing an unpleasant cheer from the Progressives, proving once again that th

With Bruce out of the picture, Dale and Michael careened from one topic to another with little to link them, other than a suspicion that we aren't a very happy country. Liz Warren and Kamala Harris both recalled the "murder" of Michael Brown. Joe Biden will scale back on public appearances, in an apparent effort to slow down his gaffe machine. Donald Trump want to buy--of all places--Greenland. The ChiComs are preparing to crack down on Hong Kong.

A CNN contributor this week explained how Trump's announcement that we were keeping the US flag at half-staff until Aug 8 was a secret Nazi message. Kamala Harris will eliminate the filibuster when she becomes...president? Liz Warren mourned the anniversary of Michael Brown's "murder" by a police officer. The crazy never stops. Republicans look like they are finally going to cave on gun control, which is probably not what their base wants. We have a serious problem with mental health treatment in this country, and gun control won't solve it. Finally, the Chinese, as Gary Trudeu's Doonesbury character, Raoul Duke, once said, are an especially tricky people.

Robert Mueller testified before Congress about the special prosecutors's investigation this week. During his testimony, he learned a number of details from his report, about which he was previously unaware. Boris Johnson became the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, promising a Brexit, one way or another, by the end of October. Republicans and Democrats reached across the aisle to ensure future generations of children will be born into debt slavery. The Chinese are an especially tricky people. Do you speak a language? Then shut up you cultural appropriator!

Just when the establishment Democrats and AOC's squad were about fo get into a knife fight, Donald Trump inserted himself into the situation. The Progressive left continues to spiral out of control. Our politics is just awful.

Jeffrey Epstien was arrested on a number of charges related to, but separate from, his earlier kid-touching conviction. Who else will get caught up in this net? Other than Secretary of Labor Acosta, who was essentially forced out of office for not being tough enough on Eptsein's initial plea deal. AOC basically called the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a racist this week. As Omar said in The Wire, "You come at the King, you'd best not miss," and AOC's Chief of staff was savaged by a Tweet from the House Democrats earlier today. The White House held a Social Media Summit this week, whose high point was a near fistfight between an apparently drunk Playbow reporter and Sebastian Gorka in the Rose Garden. Good times. A gay writer penned an article in The New Republic today, stating, basically, the Pete Buttigieg would be bad president because he hasn't had enough hot, gay sex with hot, gay men. The article was removed during the brodcast. Also, Kim Jong-Un is now officially the head of state for North Korea

Donald Trump had a July 4th celebration in the capitol, featuring the military, tanks, and aircraft flybys, which has never happened before in the entire history of the Republic. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez seeks media camera attention at a rate that shame CHuck Schumer, a feat previously thought impossible. The Democrats presidential candiates had debates, and the winners seems to be--so far--Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden and Harris. Speaking of Joe Biden, he declared that this Russian election meddling would never have been alowed under Barack's and his watch. Um. Ok. Antifa seems to consist mainly of vicious, cowardly narcissists. Brett Weinstein has started an new podcast, the Dark Horse podcast, which should be a must listen for anyone of any political stripe. Artificial General Intelligence is still scary.