AWKWARD SILENCE: Ambassador Taylor, do you know whether Hunter Biden offers anything other than the fact that his dad's the former vice president - or at the time was the vice president?

That silence was the response of someone who knew the answer but didn't dare admit it.

THE DIPLOMAD COMMENTS ON THE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS: New whine in an old battle.

THOUSANDS DEAD as missile carrying blue confetti for gender reveal party accidentally detonates its nuclear payload.

A bit too enthusiastic, perhaps? (And yes, it's the Babylon Bee.)

'WOKE' HISTORY ISN'T HISTORY? Whatever happened to teaching history?

BECOME A TERRORIST. How to get into Harvard without good S.A.T. Scores.

Today it's good enough - and quicker - to just be a terrorist wannabe.

NOT IF YOU LIKE COMEDY. Inpeachment got boring.

SCHITT SCHIFF SHOW: Impeachment going forward on Calvinball rules.

I agree with VodkaPundit: laugh at them.

THE RETURN OF THE MORON VOTE: Democrats know who their key constituents are.

[A]re there enough of them? Well, I have my doubts. Donald Trump has roused an astounding number of Republicans and Independents. He even has the support of some self-respecting Democrats. Moreover, my agents across America tell me that he continues to attract a growing number of Americans who rarely vote. They are tired of Democrats calling America a racist country or an anti-immigrant country or a militarist land or any of the other anti-American canards. In the coming presidential election as in the last, I believe the Democrats are going to lose. There just are not enough Morons out there.

I believe the author's claim that some voters are taking off their Moron caps, but I wonder if he hasn't underestimated the Deep State, which is full conniving bloodsuckers eager to retain their bureaucratic sinecures.

THE REAL MYSTERY about Ciaramella and Vindman. Easily understood when you realize there's one set of rules for the Democrat 'governing class' and a separate set for everyone else.

AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS WERE PRIVATE? Google’s “Project Nightingale” is accessing patient medical records across twenty one states. And they didn’t get permission from the patients! Or their doctors, apparently.

You can thank ObamaCare's electronic medical records requirement for facilitating this atrocity.

More here. Note that CNN chose not to address the patient/doctor permission aspect.

DON SURBER: The liberals are preparing for Turkey Talk 2019.

I'd suggest responding by having all the TV's in the house being 'hardwired' to Fox News....

SMART MOVE: Airport revenues soar after allowing travelers to pay to turn off CNN.

And for the betterment of mankind....

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Here’s what you need to know if you missed Season 2, episode 1 of the Impeachment Follies:

1. The optics were awful. There were two old, dusty bureaucrats speaking gobbledygook, diplo-gibberish reporting what the derp state gossip was around the water cooler. They offered no first hand knowledge, neither of these men had ever met or spoken to the president.

2. This hot mess is not easy to understand unless you’ve been following it from the beginning. If a regular normie wanted to tune in to see what the president did to merit an impeachment inquiry, they were out of luck. This was no Law and Order episode with a gotcha moment.

3. Bill Taylor, an acting Ambassador to the Ukraine dropped a rumor we had not heard before: Taylor said he heard from a staffer that the staffer had overheard a phone conversation where Ambassador Sondland said Trump cared more about the investigations than he did about the Ukraine. Or something like that. Anyway, this staffer will get to testify in a secret tribunal about what he overheard, it won’t be for public consumption. If he has a successful audition, he might be allowed to speak in public.

4. Derp state bureaucrats Taylor and Kent seemed to really, really care about the Ukraine. I mean like super deluxe care. And they were super deluxe worried that Trump’s foreign policy and demand for investigations into corruption would be dangerous for Ukraine, the Russians would move in, people would die. But where were these clowns when Obama refused to send lethal aid to the Ukraine and instead sent them Kotex and Luna Bars? Did they run and squeak to Congress about that? Did they speak up when Obama kicked back while Russia invaded Crimea?

This is the Deep State: We are the [self-appointed] governing class. We alone have the knowledge, skills, and intelligence to govern and you mere mortals and your elected officials cannot be allowed to challenge our superiority.

The 'wizards of Oz' are fighting desperately to keep that curtain tightly closed lest they be revealed as the arrogant, narcissistic idiots they truly are.

5. Schiff said he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is. If so, how would he know if the whistleblower’s name was revealed at the hearing?

6. I don’t think Wednesday’s events changed any minds and that’s bad news for the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi is going to have to put this to a vote and if the public support isn’t there to impeach the president, her members will have to make a choice to risk their seat if they want to support the Democrat party or watch another impeachment attempt fail.

From Liz Sheld's Morning Greatness post over at the American Greatness website, which I highly recommend you bookmark.

UPDATE: Instapundit agrees with what I just wrote (in italics) above.

MIKE ROWE ON WARREN'S WEALTH TAX: "It's not a new thing. It's as old as hate."

And the 'free stuffers' in America will swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

IS HILLARY RUNNING AGAIN? "Let’s just hope we don’t find ourselves falling down the rabbit hole into Hillaryland."

CAPITOL BUILDING to be decorated as giant circus tent for duration of impeachment hearings. It's only a one-ring circus, though; Adam Schiff isn't sufficiently competent to manage three rings.

UPDATE: See the clown.