Monthly Archives: January 2018
January 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Most of us are eagerly awaiting the release of the House Intelligence Committee’s memo on abuse of the FBI by the Obama administration. It should happen in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, the Bureau is worried, as always, about its public image. The Associated Press headlines: “FBI clashes with Trump, has ‘grave concerns’ on Russia memo.” I’m so old, I can remember when liberals were in favor of revealing
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January 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Public Radio (91.1 FM in the Twin Cities) will broadcast the University of Minnesota Humphrey School symposium on the NFL kneeling protests tomorrow at noon and 9:00 p.m. Moderated on campus yesterday by Professor Larry Jacobs, director of the Humphrey School’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, the symposium panel included Professor Douglass Hartmann, chairman of the University of Minnesota Sociology Department, Frank White, coordinator of the
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January 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Continuing with yesterday’s excerpt about the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, a little bit more from The Age of Reagan, vol. 1: On the morning of January 31, the first full day of the Tet attack, Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams and a Vietnamese TV cameraman employed by NBC were wandering around Saigon getting photos and footage of the battle damage when they noticed a small contingent
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January 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The British politician Denis Healey is credited with the First Law of Holes, which holds: “If you’re in one, stop digging.” Hillary Clinton apparently never heard of the First Law of Holes, because she’s shoveling away over the story that ten years ago she declined to fire a campaign staffer for sexual harassment. Now Hillary wants us to know that she’s oh so sorry, writing a long apologia on Facebook.
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January 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Did you know that you have a fundamental constitutional right to say goodbye? You do according to Federal District Court Judge Katherine B. Forrest (an Obama appointee). I guess that right was another one of those rights hiding in the emanations and penumbras of the 14th Amendment, or something. On Monday Judge Forrest ordered the release from custody Ravidath Ragbir, an alien who ICE had detained and was preparing to
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January 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Scott and I both thought President Trump did a terrific job last night. When his speech was over, I retired to type my post. As I was doing so I could hear peals of laughter coming from the room where my wife and I, with one of our daughters, had watched the SOTU. What was so funny? It was Joe Kennedy III’s response to the SOTU on behalf of the
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January 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
President Trump’s State of the Union pageant last night made a powerful impact on me. The White House has posted the text of the speech here. If a speech can help President Trump, this one should help for the moment. The speech ran for an hour and 20 minutes, but it can be read quickly. It was extraordinarily well done. According to the CBS News poll on the speech, viewers
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January 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
It may be hard for readers to believe this—and I do advise sitting down—but Gov. Jerry Brown is—relatively speaking, mind you—about the only adult in the room in Sacramento among Democrats. If you doubt me, just wait till we have a governor named “Gavin” next year (which California richly deserves), and you’ll see what I mean. Governor Moonbeam has actually vetoed a lot of bad bills that any other liberal
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January 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Tonight’s State of the Union speech was a triumph for President Trump. The speech was excellent, and Trump knew it cold and delivered it effectively. The president began with a recitation of his administration’s achievements that was truly impressive. Trump emphasized, appropriately, the remarkable gains our economy has made in just one year. The president’s reception by most in the House chamber was rapturous, which must have been an eye-opener
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January 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
While everyone is watching Trump deliver the State of the Union address, Power Line’s investigate reporters have turned up a leaked copy of the Schiff Memo that rebuts the Nunes Memo on Obama Administration misconduct. Here it is:
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January 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Jimmy Kimmel is the host of one of the late-night talk shows. I’m not sure which one, as I never watch any of them. As I understand it, they do nothing but bash President Trump and are viewed only by cultists. Kimmel announced that his special guest tonight, as a counterpoint to the president’s State of the Union speech, would be a former porn performer stage-named Stormy Daniels. Ha Ha,
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January 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Democratic Party news outlets, worried about the economic progress being made under the Trump administration, are arguing that he needs to talk about Bob Mueller’s endless Russia investigation in his State of the Union speech tonight. In yesterday’s press briefing, a member of the White House press corps asked Sarah Sanders whether the president will address the Democrats’ fake Russia story tonight. First, an earlier question: Q: Sarah, what would
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January 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
I have no idea whether this is true or not; these days, if it weren’t for leaked news, we wouldn’t have any news at all. But the Washington Post reports that the Justice Department’s Inspector General is focused on the FBI’s delay in reviewing emails that were found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop in the late stages of the 2016 presidential race: The Justice Department’s inspector general has been focused for
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January 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras had essentially the entire Minnesota professional community supporting his nomination by President Trump to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Thanks to Al Franken, however, the nomination sat in limbo for six months. Mistah Franken–he dead. He revealed his true jerkhood in the matter of Justice Stras. The single blue slip veto applicable to federal appellate court nominees was interred with his bones. Today
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January 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
As advertised, Scott participated in a panel discussion on the NFL national anthem protests earlier today. The event took place at the University of Minnesota, under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Humphrey School. I assume it was scheduled with the Super Bowl in mind, but as far as I could tell it was mostly a local audience. Scott brought badly-needed diversity
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January 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Today is the 50th anniversary of North Vietnam’s “Tet offensive” that is largely credited with finally breaking the back of American resolve to prevail in Vietnam. As Peter Braestrup demonstrated in copious detail in his terrific book Big Story: How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in Vietnam and Washington, the media and most historians got the story completely wrong—a story recounted well today
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January 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
After the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the four-page Nunes memo summarizing the abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the course of the 2016 presidential election, ranking minority member Adam Schiff rushed to the microphones to disparage the release of the memo on various grounds. Bret Baier cut to Schiff’s press conference live during Special Report last night. I thought Schiff must be downplaying and omitting the
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