May 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this month, the New York Times published an op-ed by James Comey in which the former FBI director claimed that President Trump “eats your soul in small bites.” Talk about demonizing your adversaries. Comey must not have read Robert Mueller’s report very carefully. One of Mueller’s findings is that members of Trump’s team didn’t carry out his instructions when they believed the instructions were wrongful. Don McGahn, then the
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May 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, two English teams, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, were staring at defeat in the semifinals of the European Champions League. With only 45 minutes (plus stoppage time) to play, Liverpool needed three goals to defeat mighty Barcelona, and that was assuming Barca didn’t score. Similarly, Tottenham needed three goals to defeat Ajax of Amstersdam assuming Ajax didn’t score. To make matter worse, both English teams were without their
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May 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Dana Milbank, the Clown Prince of the Washington Post, has had his White House press pass revoked. He complains about it in this column. Milbank says “he strongly suspects” that he lost his pass because “I’m a Trump critic.” This is a serious charge. The White House shouldn’t revoke press passes because of the political bent of the holder or the content of his writing about the president. However, Milbank
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May 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Reading Paul Kengor’s piece “Is Ilhan Omar a Communist?” and Scott Johnson’s post “Wave of the Future” made me think about Maria Theresa, the Habsburg Empress. I’ll explain why momentarily, but first a word about Maria Theresa. She reigned from 1740 until 1780, and was an incorrigible anti-Semite. But that’s not what made me think of her when I read about Ilhan Omar. Maria Theresa was an excellent ruler, one
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May 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about how, in a reversal of position, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is backing an Indian gaming bill tied to special interests. The bill aims to circumvent legal obstacles currently thwarting the Mashpee Wampanoag’s attempts to establish a casino. Warren used to be hostile to legalized gambling. As a candidate for the Senate in 2011, she strongly opposed successful efforts to expand casino-style gambling in Massachusetts. In 2014, she
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May 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeffrey Epstein was indicted for having sex with dozens of underage girls. His practice was to lure girls ages 13 to 16 to his mansion for a “massage.” He would molest them, paying extra for oral sex and intercourse, and offering more money to bring him new girls. In addition, Epstein reportedly had these underage girls engage in sex with his friends and associates. He would also induce them into
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May 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Bill Clinton has blasted Brett Kavanaugh for his role in investigating the death of Vince Foster, the Clintonista who came to Washington as deputy White House counsel and ended up taking his own life. Clinton launched his attack on Sunday in Las Vegas during an event billed as “An Evening with the Clintons.” Clinton took the position that Kavanaugh deserved to be hit with unsubstantiated allegations of sexual assault because
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May 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Emmet T. Flood, special counsel to President Trump, has sent a letter to Attorney General Barr. Although Barr is the addressee, Robert Mueller is the main target. The letter is a blistering attack on Mueller’s report with a shot at James Comey thrown in. Flood gets right to the point: The [special counsel’s report] suffers from an extraordinary legal defect: It quite deliberately fails to comply with the requirements of
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May 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, President Trump and the Red Chinese appeared to be making major progress towards a trade deal. However, Trump’s team says that the Chinese have reneged on commitments made during the negotiations. Consequently, the administration is prepared to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. It plans to announce the increases on Friday morning. The New York Times’ story on this development is full of speculation about
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May 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Scrambles for presidential nominations are often analyzed in terms of “lanes.” Particular candidates are associated with particular lanes, the lanes corresponding to groups of voters clustered by ideology, identity, or some other feature. It’s a convenient way to analyze these races. Perhaps it’s also helpful. In a sense almost every Democrat running for president can be said to occupy a lane. For example, Pete Buttigieg seems to occupy the gay
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May 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post runs a worthwhile account of Bernie Sanders’ 1988 honeymoon in the Soviet Union. The Post claims that this event is “little understood.” However, the article confirms, albeit sheepishly, what I take to be the common understanding of Bernie’s honeymoon: Sanders went because he had an affinity for the Soviet Union and left finding much to admire about it. The Post dances around what is perhaps the most
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May 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Joe Biden claimed that 14 foreign leaders have called him to “voice concern” about President Trump. Among the 14, he said, was Margaret Thatcher. Lady Thatcher died in 2013, thus missing out on the Trump presidency. Biden then corrected himself, saying that he was actually referring to current British Prime Minister Theresa May. He called his mistake a “Freudian slip.” Freudian? Maybe. Both are female authority figures (though May’s
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May 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
English Premier League soccer doesn’t have a salary cap, at least not one that resembles those in major American sports. There is something called “financial fair play” that restricts the purchase of players, but it does not create anything close to equal spending and/or equal salaries among the teams. As a result, there are wide disparities in the talent level of EPL teams. Sure, some teams punch above their weight.
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May 4, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Advocates of abolishing the death penalty claim that innocent defendants have often been executed. I’m not sure whether these advocates have been able to show that this has ever happened in modern times, but a New York Times piece by Nicholas Kristof makes a pretty good case that Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate, is innocent of the murders he was convicted of committing. Cooper, an African-American, was convicted of
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May 4, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Alex Acosta, still somehow the Secretary of Labor, apparently wants us to believe that, if anything, he pushed too hard in prosecuting sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. “This matter was appealed all the way up to the deputy attorney general’s office, and not because we weren’t doing enough, but because the contention was that we were too aggressive,” Acosta told the House Education and Labor Committee in response to questions from
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May 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
France’s Yellow Vest movement began as a grassroots protest movement with legitimate grievances, especially one over a government tax on fuel. For quite some time, though, the movement has been dominated by assorted thugs, including political extremists and anarchists, who get high on smashing windows and damaging property. On Wednesday, May Day, the thugs once again took to the street, and not peaceably. In one incident, demonstrators entered the Pitie
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May 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I noted that mainstream media coverage of William Barr’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee omitted an important piece of information — Barr tried to address the concern of Robert Mueller that some combination of Barr’s four-page memo and media reporting about it was “confusing” the American public. Barr responded with a statement designed to clarify the situation. The media did not report this fact even though it figured
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