Monthly Archives: September 2015
September 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
AP reports that Russia-linked hackers tried at least five times to pry into Hillary Clinton’s private email account while she was secretary of state. This is clear from newly released spam emails from Clinton’s server that were released today. The emails in question were disguised as speeding tickets from New York. They instructed recipients to print the attached tickets. Doing so would have allowed hackers to take over control of
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September 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I discussed the possibility that the Democratic party may experience a crack-up as a result of slavish adherence to the demands of environmentalists, backed by the party’s upscale, elitist wing. The hard-left environmentalist agenda is likely to alienate members of the working class, a traditional Democratic constituency. We may be seeing the beginning of this process with the dispute over the Keystone XLpipeline. The modern Democratic party depends not
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September 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Time once again to update The Warmlist of all the things caused by climate change, which is now nearly everything, including shrimp sex problems. Here’s the latest from Science Daily this week: King crabs threaten Antarctic ecosystem due to warming ocean King crabs may soon become high-level predators in Antarctic marine ecosystems where they haven’t played a role in tens of millions of years, according to a new study led
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September 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
It’s pretty clear that Donald Trump has been wanting to run for president for a very long time, and that this year it was now or never. The video below shows Trump on the Oprah Winfrey Show way back in 1988, sounding exactly like he does today, with two notable differences. First, his hair looks almost plausible. Second, his now-familiar theme about “unfair trade” and a country that is “beating
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September 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Our pal Stephen Knott of the Naval War College has pointed us to the release today by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia of his oral history interview with former Vice President Walter Mondale. There’s lots of interesting political history in this interview, but here are a few highlights, starting with Mondale’s first impressions of Robert and Ted Kennedy when they arrived in the Senate in the early
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September 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
For years, many have advocated that the U.S. enforce a no-fly zone in Syria. Doing so would have prevented the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians by Bashar al-Assad’s air force. Would a no-fly zone have led to Assad’s ouster? It’s not clear. Would Assad’s ouster have been, on balance, a positive development for America? That’s not clear either. The answers may depend on when, during this long and sickening
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September 30, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Politico reports that Senate Democrats are plotting, once again, to make attacks on Charles and David Koch a centerpiece of their 2016 campaign: A coalition of deep-pocketed liberal groups ― including a pair of super PACs backing Hillary Clinton ― has been meeting quietly for months, examining the 2016 map and plotting attacks against the powerful Koch brothers’ network. At midday Thursday, the architect of that effort, Clinton antagonist-turned-enforcer David
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September 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
“History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. . .What if that nightmare gave you a back kick?” This passage from Ulysses captures the Obama presidency in the realm of foreign policy. History, the nightmare from which the president is trying to escape, has given him a “back kick” — in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and Yemen for example — and he risks becoming a
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September 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I’m on airplanes all day today, making my way to Michigan where, it turns out, I’ll be meeting John in a bar late tonight. (This is how conspiracy rumors get started. Stand by for some clandestine video.) Meanwhile, I note a great letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal this morning from Laura Hirschman making the same point I did here last week (“Bush League De-Regulation?“) about Jeb
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September 30, 2015 — Scott Johnson
The Black Lives Matters crowd is opening a new front in the war on racism this weekend in St. Paul. The local crew has announced its intent to disrupt the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday. The Star Tribune reports the story on page one in “Black Lives Matters marathon protest stirs fears, spurs backlash.” I hear that in journalism school they teach reporters to cover the the who, what, when,
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September 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Judicial Watch reports that the Obama administration has granted asylum or residency to 1,519 foreigners with terrorist ties. This information comes from an annual report to Congress by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). More than half of the terror supporters granted asylum or residency by Team Obama provided material support to terrorist organizations, according to the USCIS report. Other received military-type training from a terrorist organization (nine
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September 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Fox News reports that the Teamsters union has decided not to endorse Hillary Clinton for president at this time. According to James Rosen, the union’s 26-member board decided unanimously to withhold endorsing Clinton. Rosen’s Teamsters source cited three reasons. First, the Teamsters are unhappy with Clinton’s recent announcement that she opposes construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Second, they want to see whether Joe Biden will enter the race. Third,
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September 29, 2015 — Steven Hayward
It goes without saying that Hillary is a dreadful candidate, aided by the fact that the media give her the kid glove treatment. A few weeks ago she said that she had an economic plan to get the economy growing again. So why hasn’t she shared this plan with the Obama Administration? Why wait for January 2017? People are hurting now. The obvious question she should be asked is: How
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September 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Give Donald Trump credit. His tax plan, which calls for big cuts in rates, may not be consistent with his previously articulated vision of taxation, but it is fully in line with his vision of marketing. For him, bigger is better. Trump’s plan would cut the top income tax rate from 39.6 to 25 percent (there would be only four rates, the other three being 20, 10, and 0) and
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September 29, 2015 — Scott Johnson
It was the cover the New York Daily News that condensed President Ford’s denial of federal aid to New York City in the classic headline: FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. Somewhat more fairly, but equally concisely, today’s Daily News cover condenses the action at the United Nations yesterday between Presidents Obama and Putin. It’s a sort of PUTIN TO OBAMA moment. Cameron Joseph’s cover story is here. Like everyone else
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September 29, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Almost a year ago I noted here in a post entitled “Time to Revitalize Congress” the great 1959 book by James Burnham, Congress and the American Tradition, in which Burnham warned that the power and capacity of Congress was atrophying badly. Go back and read the whole post if you have time (I actually called for bringing back earmarks!), but here’s the most salient paragraph from Burnham: Congress has let
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September 29, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Viktor Orbán is the Prime Minister of Hungary and the president of the national conservative ruling party Fidesz. During Europe’s current immigration crisis Orbán has been the victim of a negative portrayal in the press as Hungary has sought to protect its borders. This past week Orbán reported on the crisis to the Hungarian Parliament. The video below (about 17 minutes) gives his speech with English subtitles. (You can turn
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