Monthly Archives: December 2018
December 31, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post, I reported on the shameful attack by Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris on a judicial nominee — Brian Buescher — for belonging to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic social and charitable organization. The two Senators insist that Buescher drop his membership in that organization and recuse himself from cases in which it has taken a position. Why? Because according to Hirono, the Knights have taken
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December 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
It is hard to select the best of the Week in Pictures, but going back through them I realized how fast the year went (because Trump years are like dog years). It seems like decades ago that we were obsessing over Tide Pods, plastic straw bans, and a government shut down. (Oh, wait. . .) This was the year of Lizzie Warren’s DNA test, and the meteoric rise of Beto
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December 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
We were surprised when Nike launched a major advertising campaign featuring former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and even more surprised when it seemed to work. Nike’s sales went up, and the company attributed the increase in part to Kaepernick chic. The tag line of Nike’s Kaepernick ad was, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Of course, Colin Kaepernick didn’t sacrifice everything by taking an anti-American stance–only, at most,
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December 31, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I opined that if Elizabeth Warren runs for president, she will face a steep uphill climb. Today, it looks like she intends to embark on that climb. The Boston Globe reports that Warren announced she is “exploring” a run for the presidency in 2020. She plans, according to a campaign source, to ramp up her operation right away, with travel to early primary states expected soon. With Warren “exploring”
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December 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
We throw a lot of shade here at vegans, chiefly because it has taken on the affectations of ideology, such that cow-hating environmentalists would mandate a vegan diet for all of us if they could. There’s also much truth in the joke: “How do you do you know someone is vegan? Because they’ll eff-ing tell you!” But what will the oh-so-sensitive cultural left do when they realize that western veganism
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December 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s New York Times profile of Ilhan Omar (accessible here on Outline) appears to exist in two versions. I have written Ms. Stolberg to pose one more question: Dear Sheryl: When I use Outline to read your [profile of Ilhan Omar], it carries the sentence: “And at home in Minnesota, Ms. Omar has been dogged by specious rumors that she briefly married her brother for immigration purposes —
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December 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
New York Times congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg profiles Ilhan Omar in “Glorified and Vilified, Representative-Elect Ilhan Omar Tells Critics: ‘Just Deal’” (accessible here via Outline). Omar is more or less made to order for the Times; she perfectly embodies the state of the left. She is this year’s model. She therefore receives the mostly hagiographic treatment one would expect from the Times. A cynical reader of the Times might
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December 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about Elizabeth Warren’s commencement speech at Morgan State University earlier this month. In her address, Warren pandered shamelessly to her audience of African-Americans. The focus of my post was on the nonsensical content of Warren’s speech and how she was sending the wrong message to the graduates. As to the politics, I noted only that the audience probably would have preferred “a younger, more ‘with it’ speaker
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December 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post’s attacks on Acting Attorney General Matthews Whitaker continue with an “expose” of actions he took as a U.S. attorney to combat illegal immigration. Post reporter Michael Kranish traveled to Marshalltown, Iowa to get the goods on Whitaker. The “goods” consist of efforts to enforce U.S. immigration law against an employer one-third of whose workforce consisted of illegal immigrants. The Post learned that some town officials, including the
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December 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Some time in late 2019, or possibly early 2020, Power Line will surpass one billion page views since we started the site in May of 2002. For that landmark, which we certainly failed to foresee, we are grateful to our readers. At this point, we feel like internet old-timers. A great deal has changed over the years we have been writing here. Despite those changes, we are still going strong.
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December 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The lawyers representing Concord Management and Consulting in the election interference case brought by the Special Counsel against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities have filed a motion that is deserving of more attention than it has received to date. The motion seeks approval to disclose (i.e., review and discuss with Concord Maanagement) documents produced to the lawyers by the Special Counsel with their client under the protective order
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December 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
The nation’s first anti-law enforcement attorney general, Keith Ellison, has named the man who will be his chief deputy when he takes office next month. The Star Tribune gives the story its usual lazy treatment, mostly quoting Ellison’s press release: Minnesota Attorney General-elect Keith Ellison picked a veteran immigration lawyer to be his chief deputy attorney general on Friday, reviving a position that will give Ellison a second-in-command when he
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December 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
I’ve gotten to know Harley Feldman through our local chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Harley is a brilliant, soft-spoken guy and successful businessman. Three years ago his daughter Allison was brutally murdered at her home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Allison’s murderer was apprehended this past April. I wrote about the story at the time and am filing this update after meeting with Harley last month. The broad outlines of the
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December 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In a mock wistful tone, CNN reports that the TPP trade agreement is going into effect without the participation of the U.S.: A major 11-country agreement goes into effect Sunday, reshaping trade rules among economic powerhouses like Japan, Canada, Mexico and Australia — but the United States won’t be a part of it. That means that Welch’s grape juice, Tyson’s pork and California almonds will remain subject to tariffs in
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December 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
That is a proposition for which we see overwhelming evidence on a daily basis. For today, consider these two videos of progressives gone mad. The first features, to all appearances, a man with long hair. But he goes insane in a game store when he considers himself to be “misgendered.” My favorite moment is when he threatens to “tell the entire LGBTQ community” about the horror he has experienced. PJMedia
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December 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
• RIP, Bre Payton. I only ever met and spoke with Bre Payton in person twice that I can recall (both times about our common roots in southern California, and my high regard for Patrick Henry College, this upstart institution in northern Virginia that is turning out impressive graduates like Bre because it stands for something), so I can’t claim to have known her well. But I was following her
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December 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Reuters headlines: “‘Reality’ bites: Cuba plans more austerity as finances worsen.” Cash-strapped Cuba plans fresh austerity measures and will pressure the sluggish bureaucracy to tighten its belt and cut red tape to address weak growth, falling export earnings and rising debt. So “Cuba” is going to “pressure the sluggish bureaucracy” to deliver better results? Who is “Cuba,” other than the Communist apparatchiks–bureaucrats–who supposedly will be pressured? The economy has averaged
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