Monthly Archives: June 2017

A stellar choice to head the Civil Rights Division [UPDATED]

Featured image President Trump has nominated my friend and former law partner Eric Dreiband to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. This is a fantastic selection. Eric is an outstanding lawyer, a solid conservative, and one of the finest individuals I know. Politico greets Eric’s nomination with a hit piece, called “Activists unhappy with Trump’s nominee to lead civil rights unit.” The article, by »

New York’s Subways and the Crisis of Government

Featured image Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors vowed to change the Earth’s climate: Mayors from across the country…pledged Friday to take the lead in reducing the nation’s carbon footprint after President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. “There will still be leadership from the United States,” Brainard said in a call with reporters organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “It’s going to come from the mayors »

Project Veritas vs. CNN, Ch. 3

Featured image James O’Keefe released the third Project Veritas CNN video today. It reprises a few highlights of the first two editions, and shows excerpts from an undercover conversation with a CNN producer who says that pretty much everyone at CNN hates President Trump, and American voters are “stupid as sh*t.” (I have long been struck by how readily many journalists, who themselves are not mental giants, label the rest of us »

The Outlook from “New Europe”

Featured image SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 30—What the heck, I may as well get my Rebecca West on and file an old-fashioned “foreign correspondent” story from the the Balkans, where I’m visiting for several days that have included a seminar for graduate students and young professionals at New Bulgarian University, and yesterday a “strategic briefing” for business and political leaders, about which more in a moment. One of my favorite ledes from Whittaker »

17 intelligence agencies–not

Featured image Maggie Haberman is one of the New York Times’s White House reporters, and I think she’s a good one. Sometimes, however, you have to wonder if Times reporters follow the news, or imbibe it straight, no chaser. In a story earlier this week, Haberman repeated the canard that 17 intelligence agencies concurred in the post-election report on Russian meddling. Yesterday the Times appended a correction to Haberman’s article: A White »

One dream from my father

Featured image Paul deliberates over President Trump’s attack on Joe Scarborough and Mika B. in a nearby post (with a comment by John). I have nothing to add to what they wrote. I think that Trump’s tweet was triggered in part by Scarborough and Mika B.’s mockery of a fake Time cover that has been on display at five Trump golf clubs. The Washington Post blew the lid off this scandal earlier »

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured image Ammo Grrrll recalls MY FIRST ELECTION. She writes: A study has confirmed what everybody already suspected: in 2008 some 5.7 MILLION non-citizens voted. I do not know if that also includes the dead, the felonious, and the enthusiastic voters who voted many times. Can’t happen; racist to suggest it does, says The Left. Bovine excrement, says Ammo Grrrll. Mine eyes have seen the glory. The year was 1964 and I »

Obamacare Lite?

Featured image This cartoon by Michael Ramirez hurts, but I am afraid it is not far off the mark. As I wrote earlier today, the GOP’s inability to follow through on its countless pledges to repeal Obamacare is worse than an embarrassment. Perhaps the situation can still be redeemed, but time is growing short. »

Trump’s twitter war with Scarborough and Brzezinski [CORRECTED] [With Comment by John]

Featured image President Trump unleashed a twitter attack on MSNBC personalities Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski today. Shortly before 9 a.m., as their show, “Morning Joe,” was ending, Trump tweeted: I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was »

A leading “hate group” is losing its sting

Featured image The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a left-wing attack dog operation that defames and bullies those with whom it disagrees about politics. Its designation of political adversaries as “hate groups” — which amounts to an ideological fatwa — is widely used in the liberal mainstream media and employed even by parts of the U.S. government. How to explain this? For one thing, the SPLC is still riding the good »

A walk-out at the New York Times

Featured image The News Guild of New York says the New York Times editorial staff will leave the newsroom today in protest against job cuts. The Times reportedly is planning to slash the number of its editors from 100 to as few as 50 or 55. According to Bloomberg, Times reporters and editors sent two letters to management decrying such a cut and asking the paper to reconsider. The letters apparently had »

A Tale of Two Fiascoes

Featured image In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s unexpected (by them) election defeat, the Democrats have gone nuts. Their media wing has made a fool of itself with its Russian obsession, and CNN in particular has lost respect that it will be hard to recover. The attempted assassination of Republican congressmen by James Hodgkinson, a loyal Democrat who marinated in the anti-Trump hatred that is consciously promoted by nearly all leading Democrats, »

The umpire earns a save

Featured image An AP story on the Star Tribune site caught my eye, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal gives it the better headline: “MLB umpire earns save after rescuing woman on Pittsburgh bridge.” Here is the opening by Will Graves: PITTSBURGH — John Tumpane can’t explain why he approached the woman as she hopped over the railing of the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Wednesday afternoon. The woman told Tumpane she just wanted »

Millions of Liberal Brain Cells Have Died

Featured image I’ve commented before on the current Democratic talking point that “millions will die” if the Senate health care reform proposal is enacted, noting that I had missed this enormous mortality that must have been occurring just a few years ago before Obamacare was passed. There is actually fairly robust econometric literature that establishes the proposition that “wealthier is healthier,” and hence that economic growth is the best general policy for »

Hallelujah! Only Three More Years of Climate Hectoring

Featured image The climatistas have issued this definitive declaration: World has three years to save humanity from climate change, warn experts The world has three years to start making significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or face the prospect of dangerous global warming, experts have warned in an article in the prestigious journal Nature. Calling for world leaders to be guided by the scientific evidence rather than “hide their heads in the »

Claire’s compleat embarrassment

Featured image As Scott recounted here, Sen. Claire McCaskill stepped in it when, seeking to distinguish herself from Attorney General Sessions, she tweeted: I’ve been on the Armed Services Com for 10 years. No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. Ever. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel Com. Sessions had said that his previously undisclosed encounters with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak took place as a part of his routine senatorial duties on the »

Sarah Palin vs. New York Times

Featured image Sarah Palin sued the New York Times for defamation yesterday. The case arises out of an editorial by the Times that accused Mrs. Palin (as she is referred to throughout the complaint) of having incited Jared Loughner to murder six people, including a sitting Congresswoman, a federal judge, and a nine year old girl. The Times alleged that Mrs. Palin’s “incitement” of Loughner’s crime was “clear” and “direct.” This was, »