January 8, 2018 — Steven Hayward

German Energy Policy on the Rocks

Featured image It’s been a tedious chore to track the slow motion train wreck of Germany’s energiewende, or “energy revolution.” Climatistas here have long touted Germany as the model we should follow. Think of it a renewable energy uber alles. Well there’s a problem, and you don’t even need to know German to get this headline from two days ago: Fortunately we have Benny Peiser (a German native) at the Global Warming »
January 8, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Rick Santorum endorses Seth Leibsohn

Featured imageOur friend Seth Leibsohn is running for Congress in Arizona’s 9th district. I don’t know much about Arizona politics, but Steve Hayward does. He says “the 9th district, centered in Maricopa County, has a fairly close partisan balance among registered voters, and thus ought to be winnable by a strong candidate like Seth.” Seth has our endorsement. More consequentially, he now has the endorsement of Rick Santorum & Patriot Voices. »
January 8, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Populism and the administrative state

Featured imageSteve Bannon’s days as an influential player may be over. If so, what is his legacy? It’s not the election of President Trump. This was down to Trump himself, as the president likes to remind us. Nor is Bannon’s legacy hanging tough on “Billy Bush weekend,” though at times this seems to be what he is most proud of. And his legacy is not blowing a safe Senate seat in »
January 8, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Teachers’ Unions: Enemy of Men and Minorities

Featured imageThe American Economic Association just wrapped up its annual meeting in Philadelphia, and one of the panels was devoted to the issue of the economic effects of teachers’ unions. Get a load of the abstract from this paper from two Cornell University economists presented at the panel: The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining Michael Lovenheim, Alexander Willen, Cornell University Abstract Teacher collective bargaining is a highly debated feature of »
January 8, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Rotten Apple

Featured imageAmong the many important periodicals that I don’t have time to read is Cigar Aficianado. I’ve been holding out for years for a companion glossy tabloid, Trophy Wife Aficionado, and long thought it was the perfect venture for Donald Trump, but he apparently had other ideas for his next career move. If someone made Trophy Wife Aficionado a package deal along with Marvin Shanken’s other glossy tabloid, The Wine Spectator »
January 8, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Make Hollywood great again

Featured imageI watched NBC’s broadcast of the Golden Globe awards last night with morbid fascination to soak in the self-love and the self-praise of the Hollywood crowd. The hours spent in psychotherapy seem to have paid off big league, though introspection was nowhere in evidence. The sexual harassment panic featured as a motif. My favorite moment was Halle Berry’s appearance as a presenter in the obligatory black gown with the voluntary »
January 7, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Blue States Search For Ways to Preserve Subsidies

Featured imageBlue state governments are reeling following enactment of the tax reform bill, which among many other virtues, corrects an injustice: residents of low-tax states like South Dakota will no longer be forced to subsidize residents of high-tax states like New York. Or at least, not to the same extent. State and local taxes will still be deductible, up to $10,000. The Associated Press reports: “States exploring tax changes in response »
January 7, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Lying For Money and Power

Featured imageThe Democrats are doing the same thing to Donald Trump that they did to Ronald Reagan–questioning his sanity, claiming he is senile and unstable, denying his fitness for office. There are two differences: the Democratic Party controls the press more monolithically today than it did durning the 1980s, and the Democrats hate Trump even more than they hated Reagan–something I never expected to see. In this crazed historical moment, Ambassador »
January 7, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Does Comey need the Comey defense?

Featured imageFormer Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy is a natural teacher. In his current NRO column, he gives a short course on the intent element of criminal statutes. All our criminal laws set forth the elements of an offense. The intent element of a given crime (oversimplified, the intent to perform a given act) is to be distinguished from motive (the reason for performing the act). In his July 2016 »
January 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Rethinking Iran

Featured imageIt’s not yet clear whether the Iranian regime will succeed, for now, in stamping out the protests against it. Regardless, Bret Stephens says the protests have made apparent the need to reject the conventional wisdom about the regime. Stephens describes the conventional wisdom as holding that Iran “is a dictatorship with democratic characteristics, and that it’s riven between hard-liners who want to make it more repressive and militant and reformists »
January 6, 2018 — John Hinderaker

For Liberals, Every Damn Thing In the World Is About Trump

Featured imageToday the Associated Press headlines: “Cumming: Important to portray gay character in time of Trump.” For liberals, it doesn’t matter what the topic is, it’s always “the time of Trump.” Actor Alan Cumming, who is portraying what is believed to be the first gay lead character in a broadcast network drama, said Saturday that it’s particularly important that the milestone is happening during President Donald Trump’s administration. Really? Why? Trump’s »
January 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Steve Bannon’s limited, modified grovel

Featured imageToday, Steve Bannon issued a statement expressing regret “that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding [Donald Trump Jr.] has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency.” Bannon rejected the idea, attributed to him by Michael Wolff, that Trump Jr. did anything “treasonous” by meeting with Russians during the presidential campaign. He said his remarks were directed at Paul Manafort. Bannon’s »
January 7, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Hollywood Agonistes

Featured imageIt’s Hollywood awards show season, and apparently the first of them—the Golden Globes—will be on this evening. It has come to this: Hollywood is counting on ratings going up as people tune in to see how they’ll handle the Harvey Weinstein train wreck. Apparently Hollywood is having second thoughts about the whole matter because they didn’t have the foresight to see how many “good people” it would take down, like »
January 7, 2018 — Steven Hayward

“Drive Fast, Freeze a Yankee!”

Featured imageIt is now well understood that the “energy crisis” of the 1970s was entirely the product of bad government policy. If you need a primer on this point, see Peter Grossman’s fine book from Cambridge University Press, U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure. Federal price and allocation controls meant that disruptions in the oil market by OPEC were magnified here at home, with the result being artificial shortages. Everyone »
January 7, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Sundance explains it all, or not

Featured imageThe pseudonymous Sundance is the proprietor of the Conservative Treehouse site (he spells it Tree House). As a reader, I find him incredibly frustrating. He is a poor and clumsy writer. The basics of exposition seem to have escaped him. He is verbose. Clarity is a casualty of his style. Occasional translation of his prose is required (“This timeline is so transparent it’s deafening”). One needs constantly to be wary »
January 6, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Sabo: We All Knew

Featured imageI’ve never met the California street activist who goes by the name Sabo. He is, I believe, a Hispanic former gang member who discovered conservative principles and has become the conscience of southern California. The Golden Globes, which I take it are some sort of movie awards, are coming up, and Sabo is on the case. He highlights the issue of sexual harassment by liberals, and the complicity of the »
January 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Making sense of the Steele criminal referral

Featured imageYesterday, Scott discussed the referral of Christopher Steele to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. The referral was made by Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham. The crimes Steele may (or may not) have committed are violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, based on “false statements investigators have reason to believe Steele made to them about the distribution of claims contained in the [anti-Trump Russia] dossier.” Note that Sens. Grassley »