Economy desk: A Terrific Trump Economy

“You won’t hear this from the media,” Bryan Preston points out at PJ Media: “America under President Trump is doing well.” So well, in fact, that “the labor participation rate is breaking records,” unemployment is “at historic lows across all demographics” and “wages are increasing,” especially in “lower-income levels.” In large part, that’s because America is “now, for the first time in decades, energy-independent,” thanks to fracking and other new technologies. The result: We “now buy less than 10 percent” of our oil from the “unstable Middle East.” Trump supports those technologies unlike “hard-left” Democrats, and his policies are leaving our adversaries weaker. “Handing the country to any of the Democrats running for president,” on the other hand, only “weakens our national security” and spells “economic disaster.”

Impeach watch: A ‘Permanent Stain’ on Democrats

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi smiled as she “signed (with numerous pens) two articles of impeachment against President Trump” and “passed out the pens like souvenirs” — while Trump signed “phase one of a new trade deal with China.” The contrast, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas sighs, “could not have been starker” — and shows Democrats’ fundamental insincerity. House Democrats, for example, “continue to leak documents they hope will damage the president,” while Democratic senators “have already declared him guilty” — which only “opens the doors, as some of the Founders warned, for ‘normalizing’ impeachment.” So much for Pelosi’s claim that impeachment will leave a “permanent stain” on Trump’s legacy: The stain will actually be on Democrats, who “plotted” the impeachment for fear that Trump “will be overwhelmingly re-elected in November.”

From the right: Pelosi’s Cold Logic

“Maybe Nancy Pelosi held on to the impeachment articles because she was waiting for her pens to arrive,” quips Matthew Continetti at The Washington Free Beacon. After all, the impeachment itself was “years in the making.” Pelosi previously resisted impeaching Trump, because the House speaker knew she couldn’t win “a majority of her caucus” — but the whistleblower’s claim “was enough to bring aboard moderates from swing districts.” She was never looking for “justice”: She wanted, and got, a “steady stream of bad press for Trump” and “hostile questions that make some Republicans squirm,” in order to achieve “victory in November.” Democrats should watch out, though: When they previously tried these underhanded tactics during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, “Republicans found themselves more unified” — and a “similar dynamic” may happen again.

Conservative: Listen to the Dersh

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz is right, declares Human Events’ Will Chamberlain: “Even if every fact alleged by House Democrats was true, the Senate should still dismiss the articles of impeachment.” The Constitution only calls for impeachment in cases of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” — and, despite Democrats’ “bluster,” they have “failed to allege” any “violation of established law, i.e. a ‘crime’ or ‘misdemeanor.’ ” Dems, though, claim they don’t need to prove criminality, yet they only cite an “out-of-context quotation” from Alexander Hamilton and English common law to support their position — when both actually argue the opposite. In all, it’s Dershowitz who’s right, not Democrats: The Senate should dismiss the articles of impeachment “at the first available opportunity,” Chamberlain concludes.

Religion beat: A Plea for Pakistani Christians

In an open letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan published at First Things, Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput laments “the hardships now faced by Christians in Pakistan.” To wit, “Pakistan still does not fully protect the religious liberty of all of its citizens.” Catholics and other minorities in Pakistan “face chronic hostility, harassment and persecution.” Of special concern “is that Pakistani Christians are vulnerable to the misuse of blasphemy laws and are at risk of false accusations and wrongful criminal prosecution. Neighbors can settle ordinary disputes by leveling a charge of blasphemy against a Christian citizen who is then arrested and jailed.” Mob lynchings of supposed blasphemers are all too common. Chaput pleads with Khan: “I urge you to make every effort to secure the full rights of Pakistan’s citizens of every religion.”

— Compiled by Karl Salzmann & Sohrab Ahmari