Tag Archives: Ted Cruz

Who will Trump nominate for SCOTUS, and can he get it done by election day?

It's going to be Ted Cruz, because that's who we want
It’s going to be Ted Cruz, because that’s who Republican voters want

So, there’s a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and since we don’t have a wuss in the Oval office, we’re going to get a nominee and a vote on that nominee in the Senate. The process of nominating someone to the Supreme Court requires the president to nominate, and the Senate to advise and consent. The Republicans control both the White House and the Senate, and there is time to get it done.

The Federalist explains that short-time nominations have happened before:

Three Supreme Court Justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday due to complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer, were confirmed by the Senate within 45 days of their formal nomination date.

According to Senate records, Justices Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, and Sandra Day O’Connor were all confirmed in a short period of time. Stevens’s confirmation in 1975 took 19 days, O’Connor’s confirmation in 1981 took 33 days, and Ginsburg’s confirmation in 1993 took 42 days.

[…]Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Trump’s nomination would receive a vote on the floor, adding the Senate will keep their promise to “support [Trump’s] agenda “particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary.”

“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” he stated.

I love this news story, because if there is anything that can get the conservative base out, it’s a conservative Supreme Court nominee. We care about judges, and now everyone is going to be reminded why we elected Trump in the first place. It’s hard to get a perfect nominee through the Senate when we have a few moderate senators who won’t support a social conservative. We need 50 votes for a real social conservative, and we don’t have that. There are at least 3 moderates: Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney. Murkowski and Collins have already come out and said they don’t want to vote on a judge until after the election. Still, we might be able to get someone right of center in there who would give us most of what we want, and get him or her through with a few votes from moderate Democrats.

Now watch this 2 minute video:

Here’s a summary for those who can’t watch:

Trump brought up Cruz in the context of speaking about Cruz’s last Senate victory. “I helped a lot too. I was with Ted all the way, and I think Ted appreciated it. Even said I’m putting Ted Cruz as one of the people for the Supreme Court,” Trump said. He continued:

You know why I did it, because I wanted to make sure I had somebody on the list of about 45 unbelievable people, the smartest, the best, the absolute crème de la crème, the best minds in the country, conservative, they believe in the Constitution. Little things like that. But I said I have to add somebody that we’re going to make sure we could get approved. The only one I could think of was Ted, because  He’s going to get 50 Republican votes and 50 Democratic votes. They’ll do anything to get him out of the Senate. But I joke when I say that to Ted, and I say that all the time, Ted’s only one I know that will get 100 votes in the Senate.

Trump added of Cruz: “He’s a great guy; he’s a brilliant guy.”

I think it would be a smart move for Trump to drive turnout by having a fight over someone the base really wants – like Ted Cruz. Not only is Ted Cruz brilliant and conservative, but his replacement in the Senate would be picked by Greg Abbott, the conservative governor of Texas.

Ted Cruz is Hispanic, and that is a very useful thing to put in the news 45 days out from an election. It reminds Hispanic voters that Hispanics can be conservative, and fit into the Republican party. We need to counter the narrative that the Democrats spread about racism from the right. It’s ironic, because people like Ted Cruz and Thomas Sowell are our best conservatives.

Ted Cruz’s new impeachment podcast is now number one in America

The most popular podcast in the United States: Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles
The most popular podcast in the USA: Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles

I was in the gym on Saturday doing a combination weights and cardio session. I had time to listen to the first four episodes of the new podcast, hosted by Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire, and featuring guest Ted Cruz. If you are looking for something easy to listen to, easy to understand , that will give you just the facts, this is your podcast.

I don’t have iTunes, so I found the audio of the episodes on Podcast Republic. You can download them there, but they’re also on YouTube. I’m skipping episode 1 because it was not very informative. I don’t understand everything they were saying, because I’m just a software engineer, but I tried my best to make notes.

Episode 2: The charges (January 23rd)

Notes:

  • two articles of impeachment “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress”
  • abuse of power: delaying military aid in exchange for two investigations: 1) 2016 election interference and 2) why Hunter Biden was being paid a lot of money to work for a Ukrainian company called “Burisma Natural Gas”
  • The second article of impeachment is “obstruction of Congress” – the Democrats are claiming that: Trump did not allow witnesses to testify, defying subpoenas, and refusing to produce documents
  • Ukraine got the aid, and neither investigation was launched
  • quid pro quos are standard operating procedure in American foreign policy, e.g. – Obama giving money to Iran in exchange for a promise not to develop nuclear weapons
  • If Trump had a valid reason for asking Ukraine to ask Ukraine to do these corruption investigations before getting aid, then the impeachment charges are groundless
  • The Democrats don’t want Hunter Biden to testify
  • The Republicans can call Hunter Biden to testify with only 51 votes
  • The House Democrats called 17 prosecution witnesses, but they wouldn’t allow the House Republicans to call any witnesses
  • There will be a vote on new witnesses in the coming week. If it passes the trial continues, if not, it goes to final judgement
  • If there are new witnesses, the Republicans WILL call Hunter Biden
  • Hunter Biden will almost certainly plead the 5th
  • But they can force Hunter Biden to testify in exchange for immunity
  • Republicans want to find out whether Joe Biden abused his power by withholding U.S. aid to Ukraine in exchange for having a Ukrainian prosecutor fired, who was investigating Hunter Biden and Burisma for corruption

Episode 3: Burisma and Hunter Biden (January 24th)

Notes:

  • House Democrats claimed that there is no good reason to investigate Burisma for corruption
  • This opens the way for Republicans to present evidence for why Burisma should be investigated for corruption
  • Even the Democrat’s own witness Lt. Col. Vindman has asserted that Burisma is “a corrupt entity”
  • Burisma is a private company that was run by the company’s Industry minister, and he was getting rich by giving out energy licenses to companies in exchange for money
  • Hunter Biden was named to the board of Burisma right after Burisma had funds frozen by Britain’s serious fraud unit
  • Hunter Biden has no skills or experience in natural gas
  • Hunter Biden was paid between $600,000 – $1,000,000 per year
  • Hunter Biden gave an interview where he admitted that he was unlikely to to be appointed to the board, except that his father was Vice President of the United States
  • Joe Biden responded to the charges of corruption against Burisma by threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine until the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma was fired
  • Cruz presents a timeline, showing how Hunter Biden was appointed right after Burisma funds were frozen, and the prosecutor began investigating Burisma
  • After Biden demanded that the prosecutor be fired, he was fired, and then Biden released 1 billion dollars of aid to Ukraine
  • The Democrats have not investigated the Burisma-Biden quid pro quo, and the Democrats have been blocking the Republicans attempt to investigate
  • It’s the responsibility of the president to investigate corruption inside the United States
  • The Democrats are accusing Trump of threatening to withhold aid in exchange for favors, and Biden actually did threaten to withhold aid in exchange for favors

Finally, at one point in one of the podcasts, Cruz explained that the important part of the aid – the Javelin anti-tank guided missiles – were never held up.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… how on Earth did this thing get to be the number one podcast? Well, if you listen to the quality of the podcast, you’ll see why. You get so much clarity, in such a small number of words. It’s extremely entertaining – a suspense novel.

And guess what? It looks like we might get some resolution to this impeachment trial soon.

Check out this story from far-left Politico:

If the Senate decides to consider new impeachment trial witnesses and documents next week, Sen. Josh Hawley plans to try and force votes on everyone from Adam Schiff to Joe Biden.

The Missouri Republican is preparing to file subpoena requests for witnesses and documents that Democrats and Republicans alike won’t want to vote on. Hawley’s strategy harmonizes with plans from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky to force votes to hear from Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son who was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

[…]If the witness vote succeeds, Hawley aims to force votes on subpoenas for House Intelligence Chairman Schiff (D-Calif.), Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden, Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, the still-unnamed whistleblower who reported Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian president and a reported acquaintance of the whistleblower’s.

In episode 4, Cruz says that the most likely outcome is that 51 senators vote against new witnesses, it goes to final judgment, Trump is acquitted. The next most likely outcome is 51 senators vote for new witnesses, the Democrats call John Bolton and the Republicans call Hunter Biden. The third mostly likely outcome is voting for more witnesses, and calling more witnesses.

By the way, if you have iTunes, please subscribe to the podcast and rate it 5 stars. Perhaps we can get some independents to listen if they notice how popular it is. I am so excited that so many people are going straight for the most intelligent podcast. It’s sometimes fun to put down the entertainment, and just really get to understand the details of something important.

Don’t miss episode 5, (which had just come out at time of writing), they’re going to be covering what the Trump defense lawyers said.

Today, your vote will make a difference in these 14 close Senate races

Toss-up Senate races to be decided on Tuesday
Toss-up Senate races to be decided on Tuesday (Source: RCP)

I think it’s almost beyond dispute that the Republicans will lose the House of Representatives on Tuesday, but the Senate is still in the balance. Above is a list of the toss-up Senate races. If you are in one of these states then you really need to vote today.

Republican candidates (by state)

  • Arizona: Martha McSally
  • Florida: Rick Scott
  • Indiana: Mike Braun
  • Michigan: John James
  • Minnesota: Karin Housley
  • Missouri: Josh Hawley
  • Montana: Matt Rosendale
  • Nevada: Dean Heller
  • New Jersey: Bob Hugin
  • Ohio: Jim Renacci
  • Tennessee: Marsha Blackburn
  • Texas: Ted Cruz
  • West Virginia: Patrick Morrissey
  • Wisconsin: Leah Vukmir

When I look over this list, the names that really stand out to me are Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn – two conservatives with proven records on pretty much everything I care about. But there are also some interesting new candidates, especially John James. He’s in a tight race against Debbie Stabenow, a career politician.

John James is an Apache helicopter pilot and business owner
John James is an Apache helicopter pilot and business owner

Fox News talked about him a bit in an article about the 5 of the races where the underdog has a chance at defeating the entrenched incumbent:

Ahead of Election Day, Republican John James gained steam in his quest to unseat longtime incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The Michigan Democrat has held her seat since 2001 and led James by double digits last month — but recent polling reflects a tightening race.

Both an EPIC-MRA poll and a Mitchell Research & Communications poll from late October showed Stabenow in the lead by just 7 points. An Emerson poll had her up by 9 points. In comparison, an EPIC-MRA poll had Stabenow ahead by 23 points in September.

“John James is giving 43-year politician Debbie Stabenow the fight of her political life, and there’s zero question she’ll be running scared these final days,” Tori Sachs, James’ campaign manager, told Fox News in a statement.

Jake Davison, the editor of Inside Michigan Politics, told Fox News that James, an Army veteran, is “an absolute star” who has “the base really fired up.”

James has been endorsed by President Trump and multiple people in his administration have hit the campaign trail for the Republican candidate. The Ending Spending Action Fund super PAC, funded by GOP mega-donors, also launched a $1 million advertising campaign buy for James ahead of the election as strategists told Politico the race is closer than some may expect.

Fox News has ranked the race as likely Democrat.

If you’re in Michigan, you really need to make an effort to get this man elected on Tuesday. We rarely get rock star candidates like this, and we need to pull out all the stops to send him to the Senate.

Surprisingly, James isn’t the only pilot we’re running – we also have former squadron leader Martha McSally, who flew the A-10 Thunderbolt in combat. She’s running for Senate in Arizona. Her race is currently a toss-up, because her radically leftist opponent is pretending to be a Republican in spite of her hard-left record.

Patrick Morissey in West Virginia is also seeing a late surge against Joe Manchin, who voted against de-funding Planned Parenthood.

Why should you vote Republican?

Famous conservative Ben Shapiro, an orthodox Jew, listed 10 reasons why people should vote conservative, for Real Clear Politics.

His list:

  1. The Courts
  2. The Investigations
  3. Impeachment
  4. The Economy
  5. Foreign Policy
  6. Polarizing Culture Wars
  7. Attacks on Religious Liberty
  8. The Twisting Of Social Media
  9. The Democrat-Media Complex
  10. Mob Rule

The ones I care the most about are the courts and religious liberty. I do not want to be compelled by leftists (whose salaries I pay with my taxes) to act as if I am a secular leftist. I am not a secular leftist, and I want to be able to work and save without having to act like a secular leftist.

Let’s look at some of his points:

6. Polarizing Culture Wars. We’ve already seen the Democrats suggest that mob politics is the new normal. We’ve seen the Democrats capitalize on racial issues to polarize the country; we’ve seen them try to divide Americans by class and sex as well. With the platform of Congress, look for Democrats to attempt a series of divisive maneuvers intended to relaunch the culture wars in new and frightening ways.

8. The Twisting Of Social Media. Democrats have made a habit of threatening our biggest social media companies with investigations and regulations should they fail to crack down on conservative perspectives. Democrats, angry at Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, blamed companies like Facebook for so-called “fake news,” and attributed Clinton’s utter incompetence to the impact of Russian bots. Democrats don’t believe any of that, but they’ve frightened social media companies into cracking down on free speech, as a leaked report from Google to Breitbart News showed this week. Social media companies are deeply afraid of Democrats punishing them for failing to target conservatives. Don’t be surprised if those social media companies escalate their efforts to do just that.

9. Radical Growth of the Democrat-Media Complex. We already know that the mainstream media institutions are dominated by Democratic supporters. And we know that those Democratic supporters will parrot any talking points the Democratic Party pushes. But with Democrats in power pushing every line of attack simultaneously, the media’s never-ending firehose of anti-Republican propaganda will merely widen the nozzle. If you’re worried about media bias now, wait until Democrats control the Congress and put President Trump in their sights.

10. Mob Rule. Democrats believe that they must lash out in anger in order to win in 2018. If they do win, they’ll double down on that anger, hoping it carries them to victory in 2020. Like the mobs invading the Senate and the steps of the Supreme Court? Enjoying top Democratic officials nodding and smiling at crowds harassing Republicans in restaurants? Get ready for much, much more. The only way to shut down the Democrats’ new mob rule strategy is to stop them cold at the ballot box.

Think about the way that things have been going in the culture. The secular left owns the public schools, higher education, Hollywood, hedge funds, the mainstream media, big government, the courts… they occupy all of the commanding heights of culture. If you think that they won’t use that power to coerce you, you’re mistaken. And you only have to look at what happens to Christians and conservatives in Europe, Canada and other countries where the left rules. Be sure that you take time to vote today, and share something on your wall to encourage everyone you know to vote as well.