Monthly Archives: April 2018
April 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I agree with Scott that Andy McCarthy is an invaluable source of informed analysis regarding the Clinton email scandal and the collusion hysteria. There is no one whose analysis has been more helpful to my thinking about these matters. The column McCarthy published this weekend on James Comey’s role in the Clinton email scandal represents another valuable contribution. I want to make two points about this piece, at least one
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April 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
With today’s bombshell about Iran’s ongoing nuclear weapons program, the wreckage of Barack Obama’s foreign policy is coming into focus. Syria: the “red line” fiasco, with hundreds of thousands killed. North Korea: a do-nothing policy that brought America’s West Coast perilously close to coming under nuclear threat. Iran: a deal that would have been foolish even if the mullahs hadn’t cheated, $100 billion and sanctions relief now, in exchange for
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April 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Speaking in English, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyhau announced the recovery of a massive cache documenting Iran’s nuclear program: a half ton of documents and related materials removed from Iran. Video of the announcement is embedded below via the Prime Minister’s office; the text is posted here. Alexandra Fulbright reports on the announcement for the Times of Israel here. Noa Landau reports on it for Haaretz here. Twitchy collects instant reactions
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April 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Democrats have a very good chance of taking the House of Representatives in November—if they can keep their comediennes under control. Apparently the folks who run the White House Correspondents Dinner have forgotten the lessons of the Wellstone funeral in 2002. Democrats also need to keep their Bernie-bro “progressives” under control. Whatever else you may think of Nancy Pelosi and minority leader Steny Hoyer, they know practical politics, and know
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April 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Enthusiasm for the Democratic Party is waning among millennials, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The online survey of more than 16,000 registered voters ages 18 to 34 shows that the edge Democrats have over Republicans with this group has slipped significantly in the past two years. Two years ago, 55 percent of registered voters ages 18 to 34 supported Democrats for Congress, while only 27 percent supported Republicans. Now, Democratic
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April 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
“Drain The Swamp” was an important rallying cry of the Trump campaign. But does it still resonate a year-and-a-half after the 2016 election? It does. So finds a poll commissioned by Ear to the Ground and conducted by McLaughlin & Associates. The poll (of 1,000 likely voters) found that 55 percent of Americans are “concerned” or “very concerned” about “the Swamp,” with 36 percent very concerned. 59 percent of those
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April 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The self-glorifying book tour of former FBI Director James Comey continues for the indefinite future. In his weekly National Review column this past Saturday, Andrew McCarthy conducts a reality check. In the column he explicated one thread of Comey’s comments in the interview with Bret Baier on FOX News last week. McCarthy’s column is headlined “Comey Confirms: In Clinton emails caper, the fix was in.” Subhead: “He knew Obama’s Justice
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April 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Taking a quick look around online this morning, the most illuminating piece I can find on last night’s strike on the Syrian army base in Hama is Avi Issacharoff’s analytical Times of Israel column “Resonant Syria strike suggests coordinated US-Israel message to Russia and Iran.” Here is the opening of Isacharoff’s analysis: Hours after a mysterious “earthquake” — 2. 6 on the Richter scale — registered on the devices of
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April 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
City Journal has just posted the video below reporting Heather Mac Donald’s experience on the front lines of the campus free-speech war. This video is part of a special collaboration with John Stossel and City Journal contributors (other videos in the series are accessible here). City Journal has posted this video together with a transcript under the heading “The campus free-speech crisis.” Heather joins Stossel to talk about the free-speech
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April 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Who runs Pope Francis’s Twitter feed? Because this is beyond embarrassing—it’s so stupid it isn’t even idiotic: I’m on the road again today and tomorrow, but when I get home, remind me to dust off my copy of Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address and explain why it was the best and most important Papal speech of our still-young century. And thus why Francis is such an immense disappointment by any comparison.
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April 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
What should we make of Kim Jong Un’s promises in advance of a proposed meeting with President Trump, including his promise to give up North Korea’s nuclear arsenal if the U.S. promises not to invade? I think Walter Russel Mead answers the question correctly when he describes them as “a repackaged version of virtually every concession North Korea has ever proposed.” What should we make of Kim’s historic meeting with
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April 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
News out in the last few hours of a large explosion at a Syrian army base in Hama, where Iranian military are said to have a presence, supposedly the work of an Israeli missile strike. So far there is scant coverage by the cable news networks, and AP’s first report is pretty sketchy—maybe everyone is hungover from last night’s bacchanal at the White House Correspondents Dinner? In any case, the video
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April 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a disgrace. “Comedian” Michelle Wolf was vulgar and partisan. I know, that is par for the course at these events, but Wolf went far beyond the pale. Her attacks on Sarah Sanders were particularly vicious and inexcusable. I spent some time with Hugh Hewitt tonight; he was at the dinner and said–I don’t think he would mind my repeating this–that he would have
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April 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Hitler’s Germany virtually annihilated its Jewish population and made a strong run at annihilating Europe’s. Post-war Germany thus took pains to enforce a “Never Again” creed. But that ended when Angela Merkel decided to admit more than a million asylum seekers from Muslim countries. Now, Merkel admits that Germany confronts “a new phenomenon” as the refugees “bring another form of anti-Semitism into the country.” What in God’s name did Merkel
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April 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
In a recent debate with a Kommitted Klimatista, my interlocutor remarked proudly on a hotel he had invested in whose energy is completely supplied by solar power. Knowing that the sun actually goes down and stops supplying electrons, I asked the obvious question: “So, is the hotel disconnected from the grid?” You don’t need to guess what the answer was, and why the claim that any building is “100 percent
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April 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
When University of Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a possible Senate candidacy last month, I urged him to follow his heart and go for it. He is interested in the seat held by the appointed Democratic incumbent, Tina Smith. According to the Star Tribune, however, Painter was “unsure whether he would run as a Republican, Democrat or independent.” Clarifying the issue
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April 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minneapolis’s Star Tribune dominates news coverage in the Twin Cities by setting the agenda for the rest of the local media. To the extent that it has influenced Minnesota politics — and its effect is certainly not insubstantial the left-wing tilt of its news coverage and opinion pages has done untold damage. Today’s Star Tribune story by Chris Serres on “racial bias” in child protection shows how it can be
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