Monthly Archives: June 2018
June 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is said to be one of the five or so jurists on the short-list for nomination to the Supreme Court. The Washington Post is concerned that Kavanaugh would try to shield President Trump from the Russia investigation and its various non-Russia related offshoots. That concern gives rise to this piece by Michael Kranish and Ann
»
June 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I let my previous regular notices of “Academic Absurdity of the Week” go dormant quite a while ago, because it was just too easy, and was also getting redundant. And repetitive. And tedious. But a news item out the last few days compels a brief revival, with an academic absurdity to end all absurdities. In my regular scan for headlines for the Saturday Week in Pictures gallery, I came across
»
June 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I haven’t seen much coverage of this story, perhaps because the mainstream media is once again covering, as best it can within reason, for the anti-Trump resistance. Protesters organized by the Democratic Socialists of America shut down operations at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon. They did so by taking over part of the grounds of the facility on June 17, in protest of administration policy
»
June 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The Dowager Empress of Chappaqua, AKA Hillary Rodham Clinton, AKA the person who did her best to transform Washington DC into Rodham and Gomorrah, is over in Britain at the moment, and yesterday compared herself to . . . Churchill. And the way in which she did it makes me think she is still holding out the possibility of running again in 2020. Some of the report from The Guardian
»
June 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The principle of equal treatment without regard to race is one that is close to my heart. Accordingly, one of my favorite books on a legal subject is Andrew Kull’s The Color-Blind Constitution. The book is full of surprises. For example, Kull devotes two chapters to the separate but equal doctrine approved by the Supreme Court in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The case represents the bygone era
»
June 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Barack Obama pursued the fantasy of a U.S.-Iran alliance and sought to build up Iran as a regional power. Beyond sheer perversity, it was hard to see a rationale for this strategy. President Trump has sensibly reversed it. Seeing Iran’s mullahs as our bitter enemies–let’s not overthink this, “Death to America” does not lend itself to a subtle, counterintuitive interpretation–Trump has sought to weaken them both externally and internally. This
»
June 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
This morning I’m flying to Albuquerque on my way to St. John’s College in Santa Fe to study Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man next week. I posted “A note on Invisible Man“ earlier this week. I hope to deepen my understanding of this compelling and still timely novel. My trip this morning prompts a musical question. Have you ever heard “Albuquerque” rhymed in a song? Trying to write this out now,
»
June 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Have liberals ever had a worse week than this (since November 8, 2016 that is)? Get ready for the mother of all freakouts by the left as the Senate moves to hold hearings and confirm a successor to Justice Kennedy. I predict that there will be several attempted disruptions and protests at the hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Second, I predict that Democrats will demand over and over again
»
June 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
A poll by YouGov shows that half of Democrats think it was “fair” to kick Sarah Sanders out of that restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Only a third of Dems think it was unfair. These numbers are, within a one percentage point, the reverse of what Americans as a whole believe about the incident. No wonder the Democratic establishment frets about the unhinged left. Arguably, it should be freaking out. When
»
June 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
On Tuesday, Judge T.S. Ellis of the Eastern District of Virginia denied Paul Manafort’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges that have been brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller. Simply put, Manafort’s argument was that the charges against him–essentially, tax evasion with regard to millions of dollars he received from the Ukraine government–long preceded, and had nothing to do with, the supposed subject of Mueller’s investigation, alleged collusion
»
June 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
You can guess what the main theme is for tomorrow’s epic—super-double epic—Week in Pictures (already done and in the can), but in the meantime, here is the Washington Free Beacon‘s fabulous two-minute highlight reel of the left’s two-minutes hate drill (I guess the left doesn’t read Orwell any more) on the upcoming Supreme Court nomination battle:
»
June 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
White House reporters apparently thought that Jarrod Ramos’s murderous rampage was somehow President Trump’s fault. When he crossed the White House lawn late yesterday afternoon, they hectored him for a statement on the shootings. The bitterness in their voices is palpable. NBC News tweeted this as if they were proud of it: "Can you please talk to us about the dead reporters in Annapolis?" “Do you have any words of
»
June 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Reuters reports that President Trump may nominate a replacement for Justice Kennedy before July 10. That’s when Trump is scheduled to leave the U.S. for his trip to Europe. Reuters cites, “a White House official” as its source. I think there’s a good chance that Trump will, indeed, select his nominee before he departs for Europe. The goal should be to get a Justice confirmed by the beginning of October
»
June 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I don’t think the Germans have any standing—or will ever have any standing—to offer up something like the cover of a recent issue of Stern (pictured at left), but perhaps it’s just another indication that the global left is taking its cues from America, where reductio ad Hitlerum has been the default Democratic attack on Republicans since the end of World War II. But always remember Rule #1 of liberalism
»
June 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll digs into the left’s DIRTY THESAURUS. She writes: Peter Fonda, 78-year-old “baby” brother of 80-year-old Hanoi Jane, is still alive! I had no idea. Boy, it is getting harder and harder for these great feminist men and their #MeToo womyns to come up with ever more disgusting slang for lady bits, hurled as insults at conservative women. But “Gash”? Seriously? Wow. I can’t even think when I last
»
June 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
There has been some hand wringing among establishment Democrats and their supporters in the mainstream media about the harassment, and calls for more harassment, of Trump administration officials by raging leftists. The hand wringing has less to do with the impropriety of such behavior and the threat it poses to civil society than with fear that it might help Republicans. Thus, a front page headline in Tuesday’s Washington Post (paper
»
June 28, 2018 — John Hinderaker
The Department of Justice has been stonewalling requests for information from both House and Senate committees for about a year, perhaps in hopes that the Democrats will win the midterm elections and all investigations will go away. The committees, which are charged with oversight over DOJ, have shown remarkable–in my view, inexplicable–patience. But that patience is running out. A little while ago, the House adopted a resolution along party lines,
»
