January 20, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, has received well-deserved praise from conservatives for actions he took his first day as governor. I want to recognize the early moves of Virginia’s new attorney general, Jason Miyares. The Washington Post reports. Virginia’s new Attorney General Jason S. Miyares has already launched a probe of a state parole board he feels failed crime victims, fired several employees, including in a unit that investigates wrongful
»
January 19, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
During Joe Biden’s lengthy press conference today, the subject of a possible Russian military action against Ukraine came up. Asked what his response to such an action would be, Biden said Russia would be “held accountable,” a meaningless phrase. He added that our response will depend on the scope of a Russian invasion: I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades,
»
January 19, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Alabama’s great football coach Nick Saban, a native of West Virginia, has signed a public letter urging Joe Manchin to support the Senate bill that would force the views of liberal Democrats regarding voting on the states. Saban and Manchin are said to be friends. The letter was also signed by West Virginia-connected sports figures Jerry West, Paul Tagliabue, Oliver Luck, and Darryl Talley. Saban added an important footnote to
»
January 19, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The following report won’t surprise folks who follow the pandemic closely, whether on Power Line or other reliable outlets, but it may contain details of which we were unaware. David Leonhardt of the New York Times writes: The latest Omicron developments continue to be encouraging. New Covid-19 cases are plummeting in a growing list of places. The percentage of cases causing severe illness is much lower than it was with
»
January 18, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Eric Zemmour, the right-wing pundit, author, and candidate for president of France, has been found guilty of inciting racial hatred. He was fined $11,400 for the offense and faces imprisonment if doesn’t pay. According to the Washington Post, during a 2020 debate Zemmour described unaccompanied child migrants to France as “thieves,” “killers,” and “rapists.” Apparently, he forgot, or saw no need, to drop the Donald Trump footnote that “some, I
»
January 18, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya doesn’t. He made this clear in a podcast. Among other things, he said: Nobody cares about it. Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay?… Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line, okay? These comments turned out not to be “okay.” The pushback was such that Palihapitiya later tried to walk his callousness back. After a day
»
January 18, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Brian Flores was the coach of the Miami Dolphins until Miami fired him at the end of the NFL’s regular season. Flores is black. His firing came as a surprise. Flores’ record with the Dolphins was 24-25, but that’s misleading. Miami went 5-11 in Flores’ first season and 19-14 in his next two. The Dolphins have had only three winning seasons since 2008. Two of them were under Flores. The
»
January 17, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
My friend who reads the New York Times called my attention to this frontpage piece about tension between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. It’s by Times stalwarts Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin, who probably had plenty of fun writing it. They report that Trump has become unhappy with DeSantis because the Florida governor won’t say he’d step aside if, as seems likely, Trump decides to run for president in 2024.
»
January 17, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
When Everton hired Rafa Benitez as its manager last summer, I felt he already had three strikes against him. First, he was the former manager of Liverpool, the enemy across the park. Second, while with the Red Shite, Benitez had gone out of way to insult Everton. Once, he compared us to Extremadura, a Third Division Spanish side he managed early in his career. It was possible to view Benitez’s
»
January 17, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
In a briefing about the terrorism at a synagogue in Texas, an FBI spokesman said the demands of the hostage taker, Malik Faisal Akram, were “specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community.” There is a sense in which this is true. The issue the terrorist specifically focused on was the imprisonment of a jihadist, Aafia Siddiqui. He demanded her release. That issue obviously has implications
»
January 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
I’ve written a few posts about common-good/national conservatism and its challenge to the mainstream conservative movement as it has existed since the 1960s. Two of these posts are basically summaries of presentations in a forum hosted by The New Criterion. Among other things, my posts summarized the lead, anti-common-good conservatism piece by Kim Holmes and a rebuttal by Josh Hammer. Peter Berkowitz covers this ground in an article called “The
»
January 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
As Scott pointed out earlier today, Washington, D.C. is among the jurisdictions that will now require vaccination cards to enter restaurants, bars, and other public places. In D.C., the requirement is for proof of having received one dose or more of a covid vaccine. Scott alluded to the disparate impact this requirement will have on Blacks. In D.C., the disproportionately adverse impact on Blacks will be pronounced. According to this
»
January 15, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Time is finally up for Ralph Northam as governor of Virginia. Today, Glenn Youngkin replaced him. Had Northam been a Republican, his time might have been up two years ago, after it was discovered that he once dressed up in black face and he admitted doing so (Northam later tried to weasel his way out of this admission). And there were, in fact, loud calls from some Democrats for Northam
»
January 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Mitt Romney, whose 2012 presidential campaign was set back when Candy Crowley sided with Barack Obama in a debate, has denounced the RNC’s proposal to bar Republican presidential candidates from participating in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Romney calls the proposal “nuts.” The proposal comes from Romney’s niece, Ronna McDaniel. Romney’s argument is this: The American people want to see candidates for president debating issues of
»
January 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, in a post about Joe Biden’s historically bad speech in Georgia, I invited history-minded readers to tell me about a president’s speech worse than Biden’s. Professor Andrew Busch has cited one for me. Andrew Busch is Crown Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. He reached back to 1948 to find a case of a president rivaling Biden for vitriol and demagoguery. Andy writes:
»
January 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Marilyn Mosby is the Baltimore prosecutor who gained fame for prosecuting six police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray in 2015. Gray died in police custody. Mosby failed to obtain a single guilty verdict. However, she did help undermine police morale, which led to a shrinking of the force and a sharp increase in violent crime in Baltimore More recently, Mosby has been under investigation by the Justice
»
January 13, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The Republican Party may bar GOP candidates from participating in debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). A proposal to require candidates to refuse participation in the commission’s debates will be voted on at the RNC winter meeting in February. If adopted the proposal would, I assume, put the CPD out of the presidential debate-running business. Presumably, the debate rules would be established, and the moderators (if any)
»
