Monthly Archives: May 2015
May 28, 2015 — Scott Johnson
There is so much bad news coming out of the Middle East that it is hard to keep up. Omri Ceren writes from The Israel Project to fill us in on a preview of coming attractions featuring the proxy forces of President Obama’s Iranian friends. Where precisely does Hezbollah fit in Obama’s vision of Iran as a friendly regional power? Too bad Jeffrey Goldberg didn’t riddle Obama that particular question.
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May 27, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Very interesting first day of the new Parliament in Britain this morning, where some Labourites expressed their anger at the SNP—the Scottish nationalists who crushed Labour’s former stronghold up north and threaten to make Labour a permanent minority party—but which culminated in the Speaker of the House upbraiding the new SNP members for not being ready for prime time. Just one minute long, and worth every bit:
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May 27, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that Iraq’s Shiite militias have launched an offensive intended to put a stranglehold on ISIS fighters in Ramadi by cutting off ISIS supply lines and besieging the city. The Shiite militias in question are heavily influenced, if not dominated by Iran. The Badr Organization mentioned in the Post’s report, with its close ties to Iran’s elite Quds Force, is a good example. Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi
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May 27, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, the pre-eminent medical journal that was stung by one of the worst science frauds of the last decade (Andrew Wakefield’s phony vaccine-autism link paper), has a fascinating note reporting on the conversations at a recent conference of scientists in the UK about the problems of scientific review. A few of his statements are genuinely eye-popping: “A lot of what is published is incorrect.” I’m
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May 27, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Lenin said capitalists would sell the rope with which they’d be hanged, which intersects Churchill’s famous definition that “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Both of these came to mind a couple years back when the news leaked out that Chesapeake Energy had secretly given $26 million to the Sierra Club to boost the Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign that was compelling many
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May 27, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Bill Clinton is unsurpassed at spotting and exploiting corrupt entities. This ability forms the subtext of Clinton Cash, Peter Schweizer’s expose of the Clinton Foundation. If there is a corrupt government with which to engage in mutual backscratching, Bill Clinton will find it. Before long, a Clinton Foundation supporter will have obtained concessions from the government; Clinton will have obtained lucrative speaking fees generated by both the supporter (who will
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May 27, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, has taken a huge and well-deserved hit. The Department of Justice announced the unsealing of a 47-count indictment that charges 14 FIFA officials with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy. Meanwhile, Swiss authorities announced an investigation into the awarding of the next two World Cups to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). In addition, they raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich and arrested several
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May 27, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Our first installment in this series took note of the NY Times op-ed by Adam Marcus, managing editor of Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, and Ivan Oransky, global editorial director of MedPage Today (both are co-founders of retractionwatch.com), but now they’re back with another, longer piece at Nautilus that goes into more detail, and offers more shocking examples (such as the Japanese scientist who fabricated a whopping 183 papers that got
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May 27, 2015 — Scott Johnson
We have followed the performance of Marie Harf as a spokesman for the Obama administration foreign policy at the State Department. Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel. She is a walking self-parody. As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form. Now comes word that Harf is being promoted to Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to
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May 27, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Unfortunately for the people of Minnesota, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton had a free hand adopting Obamacare in Minnesota, and Minnesota has gone all in. Courtesy of Governor Dayton and a Democratic legislature, we have bought into the Medicaid expansion and all the rest. In Minnesota the Obamacare set-up runs under the rubric of MNsure. I wonder how many voters know that Minnesota has adopted Obamacare and that MNsure, c’est ça.
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May 26, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Hillary Clinton doesn’t talk much to reporters and when she does, she reveals as little as possible. But she revealed plenty when she described Sidney Blumenthal as “an old friend.” It’s hardly surprising Blumenthal is a friend of Hillary’s. For her, his combination of viciousness and weakness for conspiracy theories must be irresistible. What’s interesting is that Clinton admits to the friendship. I’ve heard it said that Blumenthal’s legendary viciousness
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May 26, 2015 — John Hinderaker
The Left’s ceaseless attacks on law enforcement are having the predictable effect: elevated homicide rates in the cities where policemen have come under attack. Paul wrote here about out-of-control violence in Baltimore in the wake of the anti-police protests there, and the indictment of six officers. Baltimore’s CBS outlet updated the numbers yesterday: It’s the deadliest month Baltimore has seen in more than 15 years. More than two dozen shootings
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May 26, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Paul has already written about the order today by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit, declining to lift the injunction the district court in Texas v. United States of America has imposed against implementation of the administration’s DAPA program. I want to emphasize one or two points about the status and significance of this case. First, while this is not always clear from news accounts, no court has yet
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May 26, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
A panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Obama administration’s motion to stay the preliminary injunction against implementation of its Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) pending appeal. The Court also declined to narrow the injunction’s scope. As readers will recall, Judge Hanen issued the injunction on the view that the government is likely to lose the lawsuit challenging DAPA The
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May 26, 2015 — John Hinderaker
We have chronicled the accelerating decline of Venezuela’s economy under its narco-socialist rulers. When a country can neither produce nor buy toilet paper, you know the end is approaching. Now, Venezuela’s international reserves are disappearing, as its currency implodes. Dimitra DeFotis reports at Barron’s: Russ Dallen, who contributes to a newsletter for investors, and writes about Latin America, writes today that “Venezuela’s situation continues to unravel at increasing speed as
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May 26, 2015 — Steven Hayward
We’ve noted here many times the economic illiteracy of the minimum wage, and even the media are picking up on the perverse effects the $15 minimum wage is having on low-margin businesses such as San Francisco comics shops or fast food restaurants installing touch screens to replace counter clerks (and how long before we have robotic burger flippers?), but this won’t deter liberals. When I explain to students the 1923
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May 26, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
With the left (and some conservatives) now intently focused on vastly reducing the prison population and curbing the police, the attention of the “civil rights” movement has shifted away from the death penalty. African-Americans encounter the police and our prisons every day; executions are rare. But more thoughtful, less agenda-driven observers remain focused on the death penalty. George Will argued against it last week. The Washington Post’s editors do so
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