May 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Kerry’s collusion

Featured image John Kerry has colluded with the Iranian regime to preserve the Iran deal from its prospective undoing by the president of the United States. Matt Viser calls it “shadow diplomacy” in his Boston Globe article breaking the story. Isn’t this the kind of thing for which then Acting Attorney Sally Yates sicced the FBI on Michael Flynn? Because it allegedly violated the Logan Act? Why, yes, it is. (I requested »
May 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Comey less redacted

Featured imageIn traditional scandal management style, a less redacted portion of the House Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election (posted here by Chairman Nunes, embedded below via Scribd) escaped the bureaucracy late yesterday afternoon as we headed into the weekend. Byron York’s story on this version of the report is time-stamped 5:49 p.m. The Federalist’s Sean Davis has posted before and after looks at the report »
May 4, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

It’s not just what Netanyahu said; it’s what Israel did

Featured imageCaroline Glick makes a point about Israel’s haul of Iranian documents that I haven’t seen expressed elsewhere: The physical seizure and removal of these documents by Israeli forces exposed not only the Iranian regime’s perfidy, but also its weakness. Put simply: The Jews breached [the regimes] vaunted defenses and made off with a half ton of incriminating documents without being discovered. There can be no greater humiliation. That Israel intended »
May 5, 2018 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Cultural Appropriation Edition

Featured imageI was going to wish everyone a happy Cinco de Mayo today, but I am told that is not allowed because it is a “cultural appropriation.” So I guess I can’t have a breakfast burrito this morning? How about if I order in Esperanto? Also, prom dresses from China are prohibited. But what about Hillary’s pantsuits, clearly appropriated from North Korea? And what about May Day? How can we celebrate »
May 4, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Study Confirms “Green” Hypocrisy

Featured imageIn a finding that surprises, probably, no one, a new survey shows that the more a person claims to be concerned about global warming, the less likely he is to behave in environmentally friendly ways: Participants in a year-long study who doubted the scientific consensus on the issue “opposed policy solutions,” but at the same time, they “were most likely to report engaging in individual-level, pro-environmental behaviors,” writes a research »
May 4, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Kerry Working to Undermine Trump on Iran Deal

Featured imageThis Boston Globe story about John Kerry offers a perfect window into the constellation of forces that are determined to frustrate President Trump’s policies: “Kerry quietly seeking to salvage Iran deal he helped craft.” John Kerry’s bid to save one of his most significant accomplishments as secretary of state took him to New York on a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, where, more than a year after he left office, »
May 4, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

FBI sponsored meeting turns into anti-Trump rally

Featured imageOn Wednesday, I wrote about a BRIDGES meeting scheduled for later in the day. BRIDGES is a program pursuant to which Department of Justice/FBI personnel meet quarterly with representatives of the Muslim community in southeast Michigan. BRIDGES stands for Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity. In practice, as I tried to show, it stands for whitewashing jihad and pandering to CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), a group »
May 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Killing the worst deal ever (5)

Featured imageThe media continue studiously to ignore the meaning and revelations of the Israeli intelligence coup announced this week. The media were of course willing tools of the Obama administration’s promotion of the deal. There is no reason they might want to reconsider their role in the context of the Trump administration’s great undoing. I want to pause over this episode in a few more posts. To the extent attention has »
May 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured imageAmmo Grrrll is SAFE AT HOME! She writes: Wonderful are the words “SAFE AT HOME,” whether in baseball or in life. The doctor I see for my annual checkup every five or six years always asks me if I “feel safe at home,” and I always assure him that I do. Then he asks whether there are firearms in the home. And I say, “Yes. That’s why I feel safe.” »
May 3, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Our Deranged White House Press Corps

Featured imageToday Sarah Sanders conducted a press briefing. What transpired illustrates Michael Ramirez’s point that there is no difference between the crazed comic Michelle Wolf and the crazed reporters who cover the White House for their various liberal outlets. Ms. Sanders opened, as usual, by talking about some of the things going on in the White House and around the country: Today in the Rose Garden, President Trump continued the tradition »
May 3, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Media Alert

Featured imageI will guest host Laura Ingraham’s radio show tomorrow. The show runs live from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern, and is heard at other times in some geographies. Tomorrow’s show will feature some good guests, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Grover Norquist. In addition, I intend to talk about Michael Caputo’s eloquent denunciation of the forces that are trying to destroy President Trump and anyone associated with »
May 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Mueller’s got a secret

Featured imageSenior United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III has been assigned one of the pending criminal cases — the one transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia — brought by the Special Counsel against Paul Manafort. In a hearing on the motion brought by Manafort to dismiss the charges as beyond the authority of the Special Counsel, Judge Ellis unloaded. As James Freeman puts it in his Best of the »
May 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Killing the worst deal ever (6)

Featured imageTo the extent attention has been paid to Bibi’s bombshell this week, the Obamabots and their media tools insist that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s presentation on the Iranian nuclear archive (which I think barely scratched the surface) added nothing to what they already knew. Matthew Kroenig addresses this point in “Why Netanyahu’s revelations are significant.” He elaborates two points I sought to make earlier in this series. As he puts it, »
May 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson

What Kanye can’t do

Featured imageBill Whittle asserts that there is no middle ground on Kanye West: you either love him or loathe him. I think the middle ground may by “don’t know who he is.” In any event, I listened and learned to Bill Whittle explicating the deep meaning of the Kanye kerfuffle in “Kanye West: Racist” (video below). At right around 3:06 Bill reveals a bombshell that would have prompted me to do »
May 3, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

“White privilege” and “toxic masculinity”

Featured imageAndreas Papandreou became Greece’s first Socialist prime minister in 1981, running against “the privileged.” It was a political master stroke because, as one Greek historian put it, no self-respecting Greek considers himself privileged. Unlike Papandreou, when the modern American left rails against privilege, it leaves no ambiguity about who it thinks are its recipients. The left is talking explicitly about whites — as in “white privilege.” Thus, it is attacking »
May 3, 2018 — John Hinderaker

A Final Word on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Featured imageThe White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, now receding in the rear-view mirror, was a disaster for the Democrats. “Comedian” Michelle Wolf was a disgrace–although, to be fair, several featured speakers in recent years have rivaled her. President Trump had the good sense to stay away, so Sarah Sanders took the brunt of the “comedian’s” misogynistic excess. Virtually all viewers must have been repelled. In the aftermath of the fiasco, the »
May 3, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Report: Feds tapped Michael Cohen’s phone [UPDATED, NBC changes its story]

Featured imageWire tapping the phone of the president’s lawyer? That’s quite a measure. But NBC News reports that federal investigators did just that — tapping the phone of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer. According to the report, the feds tapped Cohen’s phone before they raided his home, office, and hotel room. That makes sense. Once the raids occurred, they could expect Trump to be cautious enough not to call Cohen. »