Monthly Archives: November 2018
November 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
FIRST STEP, the leniency for federal felons legislation being supported by President Trump, may or may not pass the Senate this year. Either way, it has split the Republican caucus. This Washington Post report leaves no doubt about that. The division is encapsulated in dueling National Review articles — one by Sen. Tom Cotton opposing the jailbreak and the other by Sen. Mike Lee supporting it. In another NRO article,
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November 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The Daily Caller’s Richard Pollock has an exclusive report on an FBI raid. When I say FBI raid, I mean FBI raid. It involved some 16 agents making a house call on whistleblower Dennis Nathan Cain. The problem here seems to be that Cain is blowing the whistle on federal law enforcement (or the nonfeasance thereof) in matters pertaining to the Clinton crime family. As if that weren’t enough, Robert
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November 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Just in time for your weekend listening pleasure, Episode 99 is ready! This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Timbs v. Indiana, concerning the widespread practice of “civil asset forfeiture,” in which law enforcement will seize your property upon arrest (sometimes even without an arrest and criminal charge) and keep the money or asset for themselves. By coincidence this week I ran into the person
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November 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
To prepare for my appearance on the Tom Shillue show yesterday, I boned up on the latest known developments in the Mueller investigation. I relied mainly on the links in Scott’s recent post, with the work of Andy McCarthy being, as usual, the most valuable. There are at least three fronts of recent activity: the Paul Manafort front, the Jerome Corsi/Roger Stone front, and the Michael Cohen front. Let’s discuss
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November 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Today is Winston Churchill’s 144th birthday, though any day is worthy of recalling what I have taken to using with students on the first day of my seminar on political leadership—Leo Strauss’s famous eulogy to Churchill in the classroom at Chicago: The death of Churchill is a healthy reminder to students of political science of their limitations, the limitations of their craft. The tyrant stood at the pinnacle of his
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November 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
In connection with Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to one count of making false statements to Congress yesterday (see Criminal Information below), I have a few notes. I want to keep these notes simple consistent with a low level of confidence in my understanding of what is happening here. • The first stories previewing Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to making false statements to Congress were posted yesterday morning before the the
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November 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll recalls and reflects: SKOOL DAZE or THE MORE THINGS CHANGE. She writes: Columnist, historian, farmer, intellectual giant, Professor Victor Davis Hanson never fails to deliver a brilliant take on whatever he weighs in on. One of his outstanding traits as an essayist is his clarity. But, sometimes he lapses into Greek, Latin, Swahili or Sanskrit without providing a translation. I don’t even think he is showing off; he
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Anthony Scaramucci — yeah, that guy — has rallied to the defense of Alex Acosta, the Secretary of Labor who, from all that appears at this point, gave pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a sweet plea deal instead of insisting on the stiff sentence his crimes warranted. Scaramucci tweeted: @SecretaryAcosta is doing a great job and obviously @realDonaldTrump likes him so time to do a number on him. This is DC: how
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Reuben Foster is a linebacker who starred at the University of Alabama and was a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers. Battling injury, he played in 10 games for the 49ers last year, his rookie season, and 6 games so far this year. In February, Foster’s girl friend accused him of domestic violence. Police arrested Foster. However, she later recanted, claiming that she made up the allegations to
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about an event, hosted jointly by the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution, called: “Identity Politics Is a Threat to Society: Is There Anything We Can Do About It At This Point?” The panel consisted of my friends John Fonte and Peter Berkowitz; my hero Heather Mac Donald; our long-time blog adversary Andrew Sullivan; and Michael Lind, who questioned whether identity politics is a serious new threat.
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
This afternoon at 3:35 (Eastern Time), I will be a guest on the Tom Shillue show. You can click on the link above to listen, or you can hear the show on SIRIUS XM Channel 450 and dozens of stations across the country. We’ll probably be talking about the recent developments in the Mueller investigation, including the Michael Cohen plea agreement, among other subjects.
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November 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Michael Cohen is to plead guilty in federal district court in Manhattan this morning “for misstatements to Congress,” according to the multi-bylined New York Times story. I actually can’t tell from the Times story as posted at the moment whether Cohen has appeared in court yet and whether more than one charge was presented. The Times reports that “Cohen admitted to making false statements to Congress about his efforts to
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November 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
If John weren’t on vacation this week, he would have noted the Daily Beast story reporting that Avenatti brought the defamation lawsuit against President Trump in the name of Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) without her consent. If true, this represents serious professional misconduct. Stormy Daniels also raised issues regarding the funds Avenatti has raised via crowdfunding in her name. The Daily Beast story rested on this statement from Stormy Daniels:
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November 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
An explosion of what passes for news related to the Mueller Switch Project has appeared in the mainstream media this week. It features Jerome Corsi, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and President Trump. Insofar as “collusion” with organs of the Russian government in manipulating the 2016 election is concerned, there seems to be no there there. I should add this related media note. The Guardian entered the scene with a dubious
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November 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In his time as Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta has done much to accommodate liberals and little implement a conservative agenda. His inaction has attracted little criticism — virtually none unless you count the occasional posts about I have written for Power Line. To make matters worse, President Trump, although he has attacked other cabinet members — especially Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielsen — has had nothing but public praise
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November 28, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I have a hypothesis that I’ve not yet published anywhere, but it seems like the propitious time has arrived. My hypothesis is that while places like Berkeley, Colorado/Boulder, the University of Wisconsin, etc. have the rap for being the most politically correct and radical institutions of higher education, in fact they are relatively sane compared to small, elite private liberal arts colleges. I believe that most small private liberal arts
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November 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I doubt that Robert Mueller poses an existential threat to the Trump presidency. He may pose some threat, but American manufacturers pursuing their economic interests may pose a greater one. The decision by General Motors to shut down several plants in the U.S. and to cut up to 15,000 jobs illustrates the threat. The impact of GM’s decision will be felt most acutely in the industrial Midwest, including states that
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