May 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson

Mike Pompeo: A foreign policy from the Founding

Featured image The Claremont Institute presented its Statesmanship Award this year to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this past Saturday evening at the institute’s 40th Anniversary Gala. Secretary Pompeo’s speech is wonderfully enjoyable, funny, biting, and straightforward in its defense of Trump administration foreign policy. The text of the speech is posted under the title “A foreign policy from the founding” at the institute’s American Mind site and here at the State »
May 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson

Today’s good news

Featured imageThe AP delivered today’s good news this morning: “Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate,’ according to a person familiar with the issue.” I love that “person familiar with the issue.” Someone’s giving it back to the bad boys who’ve been dishing it out via the New »
May 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

Justice Kavanaugh, the new Anthony Kennedy?

Featured imageIt’s way too early to answer this question in the affirmative. However, it’s not a ridiculous question. Reportedly, Kavanaugh has been in the majority more often than any other Justice so far this term. This suggests that Kavanaugh, not Chief Justice Roberts, is at the ideological center of the Court — the place where Kennedy resided after Justice O’Connor retired. It doesn’t mean that Kavanaugh is as centrist as Justice »
May 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

Steny Hoyer faces primary challenge

Featured imageSeeking to follow the path blazed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, someone called Mckayla Wilkes is challenging House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 5th congressional district. Wilkes doesn’t quite have Ocasio-Cortez’s credentials. As far as I can tell, she never tended bar. Instead, Wilkes is (according to The Intercept) a 28-year-old administrative assistant, part-time student, and mother of two. Thus, even without bartending, her resume is sufficiently »
May 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson

Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington

Featured imageToday is the official publication date of Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery, by Senator Tom Cotton. It is now available in bookstores and on Amazon. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews have already posted laudatory reviews. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to Power Line readers and want only to add this personal note. I first met Tom (as I will refer to him here) face »
May 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

Rashida Tlaib’s latest: Not anti-Semitic but blatantly false

Featured imageRep. Rashida Tlaib is under fire for saying this: I think two weeks ago or so we celebrated, or just took a moment I think in our country to remember the Holocaust. There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and »
May 13, 2019 — John Hinderaker

Twitter Delenda Est

Featured imageTwitter must go. It is a threat not only to our democracy, but to whatever sanity our body politic still possesses. The latest instance is that of Dr. Ray Blanchard, one of the world’s leading experts on gender dysphoria. Dr. Blanchard is one of the psychologists responsible for the discussion of gender dysphoria in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard reference work »
May 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

Report: Obama loyalists not sold on Biden

Featured imageJoe Biden’s entry into the presidential race has solidified his status as the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. He’s the first choice of around 40 percent of Democrats, according to polls . No other candidate is close. But how do the friends and associates of Barack Obama feel about Biden? The Washington Post tried to find out. It says it interviewed 53 “former Obama advisers, senior White House and »
May 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson

Biden’s China syndrome

Featured imageA friend sends along today’s big Wall Street Journal story “Frustration, Miscalculation: Inside the U.S.-China Trade Impasse” with this comment: I wonder how much Biden’s comments that China was not a threat, and some polls showing he could win, played a role in persuading China to back off. Biden’s comments were very destructive, regardless. He (through his son) is bought and paid for by China. If he is the nominee, »
May 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

“Trump’s all-out war against House probes”

Featured imageThat’s the headline of a Washington Post story (print edition) about the clash between the White House and House Democrats over the latters’ investigations of the former. The article notes that President Trump “is blocking more than 20 separate Democratic inquiries.” According to the Post, this “amount[s] to what many experts call the most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades. The Post’s claim of obstruction is dishonest in at »
May 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker

Google’s Bias, Quantified

Featured imageThe Daily Mail reports on a Northwestern University study that attempted to quantify the liberal bias of Google’s “top stories” feature: Google’s bias towards left-wing media outlets has been laid bare by an algorithm which detected that it favors sites including CNN and The New York Times over others. According to data compiled by researchers from Northwestern University, the search engine promoted those sites over others repeatedly in November 2017. »
May 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

Media heads explode over Trump’s tongue-in-cheek tweet about the Red Sox

Featured imageI filed this post under “media bias.” “Media stupidity” might be a better tag. Today, President Trump tweeted: Has anyone noticed that all the Boston @RedSox have done is WIN since coming to the White House! Others also have done very well. The White House visit is becoming the opposite of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated! By the way, the Boston players were GREAT guys! At Politico, Caitlin »
May 13, 2019 — John Hinderaker

Standing Up to China

Featured imageFor the first time in quite a few years, the U.S. government is standing up to China’s authoritarian regime. China has been a bad actor for a long time–stealing intellectual property, engaging in unfair trade practices, bullying its East Asian neighbors. The markets are skittish about the current trade impasse, but I think most Americans understand that trade is the lever we can use to deter Chinese misdeeds. Meanwhile, some »
May 13, 2019 — Steven Hayward

“Diversity” and the Welfare State

Featured imageJohn’s post yesterday about how Denmark’s left-leaning social democrats are turning against immigration—not just any immigration but specifically from you-know-where—has prompted me to writing about a broader dilemma that, sooner or later, America’s liberals will need to confront. Milton Friedman and other libertarians long argued that you can have high rates of unskilled immigration, or a generous welfare state, but not both. The basic thought is that high rates of »
May 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson

Hanging up on the New Yorker [updated with word from VDH]

Featured imageI noted on Power Line that I was sideswiped by the New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells earlier this year. I also noted that Victor Davis Hanson was blindsided by the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner around the same time. I wish Israel’s former Ambassador to the United States and former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Oren had been following along on Power Line. He might have avoided Chotiner’s call this past Friday for »
May 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff

This day in baseball history: Gibson does it all

Featured imageOn May 12, 1969, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 at Busch Stadium. Bob Gibson pitched a complete game for the Cards, allowing two runs on seven hits. He struck out six and walked one. There was nothing exceptional about Gibson’s pitching performance that day. It was a typical one for him that year, except for the relatively low number of strikeouts. But Gibson’s contributions weren’t »
May 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker

Immigration Skepticism: It’s Not Just For the Right Anymore

Featured imageWe have been writing for years about the fact that any European who expresses skepticism about the wisdom of mass immigration is immediately branded “far right,” no matter what his other views may be. This has had the unhealthy effect of driving voters toward parties that, in some cases, have indeed been unsavory. But it was probably only a matter of time before “mainstream” parties would see the writing on »