Monthly Archives: April 2018
April 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The House Intelligence Committee has just released the redacted version of its 130-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. While it finds Russian interference, it finds that President Trump did not collude with the Russians to promote his election. The report includes an introduction and overview, a summary of table of findings, and a summary table of recommendations. Appendices add another 100 pages to the report. I
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April 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey appeared on the FOX News Special Report with Bret Baier for an interview that spread over two segments last night. The first segment ran 19 minutes. It is embedded below. The second segment ran seven minutes. It is embedded below. Baier was prepared and produced several highlights in the course of the two segments. I was disappointed that he broke so little new ground with
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April 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Dave Begley is a Nebraska attorney practicing elder law and estate planning. He is also our occasional presidential campaign correspondent. Drawing on his 2016 coverage, Dave provides this “campaign coda” with a look at the new book by the New York Times reporter on the Clinton campaign. He writes: Two movies on one screen. No cheering from the press box. That’s my take based on reading parts of Amy Chozick’s
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April 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll considers THE HUMOR FACTOR. She writes: A while back on the Ace of Spades blog I read a great quote attributed to Marilyn Monroe: “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.” I cannot speak for every woman – though nearly all unelected Grievance Grubbers seem to believe they are qualified to speak for the totality of the aggrieved group he/she/xe represents –
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April 26, 2018 — John Hinderaker
A famous statue of Stephen Foster, often referred to as the father of American music, has stood in Pittsburgh for more than 100 years. (Foster was a native of Pennsylvania.) It was sculpted by Italian emigre Giuseppe Moretti: Today Moretti’s statue of Foster was carted away by Pittsburgh authorities: A 118-year-old statue of the “Oh! Susanna” songwriter was removed from a Pittsburgh park Thursday after criticism that the work is
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April 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Bret Stephens, a Never Trumper, compares Donald Trump and George H.W. Bush. Guess who comes out the winner. There’s no doubt that Bush is a better man than Trump, by far. Whether he was better president than Trump will turn out to be? It’s too early to say with confidence. In terms of domestic policy, my guess is that Trump will prove easily superior. Indeed, it can be argued that,
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April 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
At the end of last year, the Department of Justice reported that the number of adults supervised by the U.S. correctional system dropped for the ninth consecutive year in 2016. The correctional population includes persons supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in prisons or local jails. From 2007 to 2016, the proportion of the adult population under the supervision of U.S. correctional authorities decreased by
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April 26, 2018 — Steven Hayward
As previously mentioned, last week we learned that Fresno State University in California apparently hires complete idiots to teach “creative writing.” There’s not much else to add about Randa Jarrar’s jarring comments about the late First Lady Barbara Bush, except I suppose that her choice and use of adjectives seems neither creative nor original—so just how did she get tenure again? But I use this incident to continue the theme
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April 26, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Another travel day for me today and tomorrow, but there are several short news items worthy of note: • William F. Buckley Jr once remarked to the effect that liberalism is the impulse to reach in and turn down your shower. Well: This Eco-Warrior Shower Curtain Forces You to Get Out of the Shower After 4 Minutes London-based artist Elisabeth Buecher, the designer of the inflatable curtains, explains the reasoning
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April 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Senate Democrats are holding up President Trump’s nominees to a degree never witnessed before in my lifetime, and probably not in all of American history. In the first two years of the last six presidencies combined, going all the way back to President Carter, the Senate subjected nominees to a total of only 24 cloture votes. So far, less than half way through President Trump’s second year, there have been
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April 26, 2018 — Scott Johnson
We have yet to ascertain the source of the counterintelligence investigation that culminated in the Mueller Switch Project. Andrew McCarthy and Lee Smith are the two analysts who have both refused to disseminate the carefully cultivated stories of the Obama/Clinton apparatus and provided their own invaluable analysis to the proceedings. Today Lee Smith complicates my understanding of the Steele Dossier in the intensely reported RealClearInvestigations column “Unpacking the other Clinton-linked
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April 26, 2018 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about DNC vice chairman and Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison last week in “The never-ending evasion.” I first summarized Ellison’s long relationship with the Nation of Islam for the Weekly Standard in the 2006 article “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman.” Jeryl Bier has continued to work on unraveling Ellison’s never-ending evasion. Over at the Weekly Standard this morning he asks “Has Keith Ellison really distanced himself from the
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April 26, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday evening CNN assembled a friendly audience of youngsters ripe for former FBI Director James Comey’s pitch. Comey was pitching himself and his memoir paying tribute to himself, in roughly that order. One interesting exchange came out of it (video below), as Anderson Cooper asked Comey a few questions about the leaking of the memos of his conversations with President Trump to his “friend” the Columbia Law School professor Daniel
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April 26, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I suspect many of our readers have heard about the viral story this week of Caren Turner, a Democratic hack in New Jersey (will I offend our New Jersey readers if I say this is redundant?) who served as the ethics commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who attempted to go full “do-you-know-who-I-am?” on two dutiful Tenafly police officers. But if you haven’t seen it,
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April 25, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Supreme Court heard oral argument today on President Trump’s proposed ban on travel to the United States from a handful of countries nearly all of which happen to be predominantly Muslim. Things went considerably better for the attorney defending the travel ban (Solicitor General Noel Francisco) than for the attorney challenging it (Neal Katyal). The New York Times’ account is here. This is the report of ScotusBlog’s Amy Howe.
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April 25, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Today is the 40th anniversary of when Bill Clinton, then the Attorney General of Arkansas, allegedly raped Juanita Broaddrick. Ms. Broaddrick noted the anniversary with a series of tweets that comprise a timeline of that day’s events. It starts innocuously: 2. On 4-25-78 at approx 8am, I called Bill Clinton’s campaign office. I was given another no. to call. He answered. — Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) April 25, 2018 Things went
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April 25, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Candace Owens may have lit the fire that burns down the liberal order. Hyperbolic? No doubt. But one of America’s most respected conservatives emailed a couple of days ago: I think we have all had a big boost in our struggles by Kanye West’s outreach to Candace Owens (I see that John has already invited Candace to Minnesota – a big coup!). Because of West’s influence in the culture and
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