September 6, 2017 — Steven Hayward

That Was Then, This Is Now

Featured image It’s outrageous how heartless President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are about immigration and the DACA program. Hiding behind “the rule of law” like this: [T]here are those in the immigrants’ rights community who have argued passionately that we should simply provide those who are [here] illegally with legal status, or at least ignore the laws on the books and put an end to deportation until we have better »
September 6, 2017 — Scott Johnson

The many moods of Amy Klobuchar

Featured imageMinnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has been negotiating with the Trump White House over appointments to four federal vacancies in Minnesota (US Marshal, US Attorney and two federal district court judgeships) in exchange for the return of her blue slip blocking consideration of Eighth Circuit nominee David Stras. Stras has received bipartisan support from Minnesota lawyers, judges and former colleagues at the University of Minnesota Law School. It is impossible to »
September 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Hysterical congressman calls John Kelly a “disgrace to the uniform he used to wear”

Featured imageRep. Luis Gutierrez, Congressman open-borders himself, went on a rant today against John Kelly, the White House chief of staff. Gutierrez pronounced Kelly, who served in the Marines for more than 40 years, “a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear.” Gutierrez added that Kelly “has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling »
September 6, 2017 — Steven Hayward

De Blasio Unplugged

Featured imageOne of the things I learned taking in the APSA last weekend is how fully today’s radical left rejects the liberal democratic tradition in toto. The rule of law, democratic institutions, and majority rule itself are all tools of oppression that need to be replaced. And then there’s New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was interviewed a few days back by New York magazine. He was asked, “In »
September 5, 2017 — John Hinderaker

Harvey, Houston and the Left

Featured imageAs countless observers have pointed out, the remarkable response of the people of Houston to Hurricane Harvey stands as a rebuke to the race-baiting Left. Despite the Left’s endless incitement to hatred, when disaster struck, people of all races and backgrounds cooperated in a remarkably successful effort to minimize the damage. This is the subject of Glenn Reynolds’ current column in USA Today: “Hurricane Harvey revealed the awesome power of »
September 5, 2017 — John Hinderaker

House Committee Subpoenas FBI, DOJ in Russia Investigation

Featured imageByron York reports that Trey Gowdy’s House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the FBI and the Department of Justice over the origins of the fictitious Russian “dossier” that was used to smear Donald Trump during the presidential campaign: In the most significant escalation yet in the wrangling between Congress and the FBI over the Trump dossier, the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the bureau and the Justice Department for documents relating »
September 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Franken opposes, Klobuchar disposes

Featured imageThis past Thursday the SEIU, the NEA, the NAACP and other left-wing interest groups promulgated a joint letter opposing the nomination of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras by President Trump to fill a seat on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. I read the joint letter as an echo of Franken’s comments on the nomination as well as a cue to Franken to oppose Stras. Today Senator Franken duly »
September 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Dreams from Obama

Featured imageOne of the defining characteristics of President Obama that we disliked most was his disdain for the rule of law. If he could get his way, he might take the prescribed route to his destination. If not, he took a shortcut, with his phone and his pen. He even bragged about it. Obama’s DACA program — a supposedly temporary stopgap — represents the quintessence of his monarchical disposition. Before he »
September 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

President Trump and the rule of law

Featured imagePresident Trump should have ended the DACA program, or at least announced its phasing out, as soon as he took office. Nonetheless, his decision to announce its phasing out now, assuming he sticks to it, represents a victory for the rule of law. The legal status of “dreamers” is a matter for Congress, not the executive, to decide. Even President Obama said so before he elected to decide the matter »
September 4, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

This day in baseball history — now that was a pennant race

Featured imageLabor Day used to mark the beginning of the home stretch in baseball pennant races, back in the old days when we had pennant races rather than scrambles to make the playoffs. The American League standings on Labor Day 1967 promised a great pennant race. Here is how things stood at the end of play on Monday, September 4: Minnesota – Boston 0.5 Chicago 1.0 Detroit 1.5 These standings were »
September 4, 2017 — John Hinderaker

A Day at the Fair

Featured imageYesterday I wrote about my annual visit to the Minnesota State Fair, focusing on the humorously over-the-top leftism of that obscure genre known as seed art. But I wouldn’t want readers to think that the Fair is anything less than one of the world’s great spectacles. So here is a more balanced look at a day at the Fair. It actually covers only a thin slice of the Fair. I »
September 5, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Testing the Ratchet Effect

Featured imageThe “Ratchet Effect” is the well-known theorem that once liberals get a social welfare program in place, it is nearly impossible for a subsequent conservative government to roll it back. Margaret Thatcher did privatize a lot of nationalized industries in Britain, but then socialist or Labour Party governments did the same thing in New Zealand, Australia, and even France back in the 1980s, as the incompetence of government ownership of »
September 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama weighs in on DACA, disingenuously

Featured imageFormer President Obama takes to Facebook to attack President Trump’s decision to phase out DACA. As one would expect, Obama’s piece is a masterpiece of misdirection. Scott has posted the full text of Obama’s statement. As Scott says, the former president indulges in his favorite pastimes: question begging, condescension, and attempting to make his opponents out to be indecent, immoral and stupid. I found this passage from Obama’s statement telling: »
September 5, 2017 — Steven Hayward

APSA After-Action Report

Featured imageI’m still digesting the weekend’s endurance contest better known as the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. It’s one of those chores I take on so that you don’t have to. A lot of the panels are of course silly, like “Søren Kierkegaard and Political Thought.” Description: Altogether, in broad strokes, Kierkegaard’s thought saturated the air of the most important moments in twentieth century political thought—interwar Germany, post-WWII »
September 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Our dystopian future

Featured imageI can’t think of anything smart (in a straightforward sense) President Obama ever said, but he had a certain gift for promulgating bad policies that are difficult to undo. Obamacare is first and foremost among them, but Obama’s catastrophic foreign policy also presents a powerful case in point. That bit about undermining American allies while building up America’s enemies — that wasn’t just bad, it was evil. But the arrangement »
September 4, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

A middle class revival

Featured imageThis column by Robert Samuelson is called “The Quiet Comeback of the Middle Class.” It presents a picture of contemporary America at variance from the narrative of both the left and the Trumpians, at least in their 2016 incarnation. Samuelson cites a Gallup poll from June of this year in which 62 percent of Americans said they are in the middle or upper middle class, while only 36 percent classified »
September 4, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Power Line’s Next Comedy Legend

Featured imagePower Line is honored to be the venue for our regular Friday feature from Ammo Grrrl, but it is long past time that we acknowledge a faithful Power Line reader and frequent supplier of pictures and ideas for the Saturday photo gallery: comedian/magician David Deeble. You should subscribe to his YouTube page, and follow him on Twitter, where he rivals Iowahawk for timely takes on the current news, like this: »