Monthly Archives: June 2019
June 25, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Project Veritas’s latest project is exposing the left-wing bias that pervades “big tech.” That such bias exists is no surprise, but documenting it–and, more important, its effects–is something else. Yesterday Veritas released a new video, about 25 minutes long, on Google. It consists of two parts: an interview with an unidentified Google employee whose voice is altered so that he sounds like Darth Vader, and footage secretly taped of a
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June 25, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Bernie Sanders likes to cite Nordic nations as models of the kind of socialism he favors. That’s probably why he honeymooned in Sweden. Oh, wait. We have pointed out that the Nordic nations Sanders mentions — the likes of Sweden and Denmark — have turned away from socialism. Charles Lane of the Washington Post, relying on a report by JPMorgan Chase, presents the figures to support our view: Drawing on
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June 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The trouble with California is that it represents the wave of the future. Take California Governor Gavin Newsom — please. Citing Newsom’s tweeted video (below), Monica Showalter writes: “I thought it was satire, something cooked up by his political enemies. You couldn’t put out a less attractive video than the one Gavin Newsom did for illegal aliens on Twitter, advising them himself on how to obstruct ICE from any deportation
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June 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Very sad news this evening of the passing of Herbert Meyer, one of the genuine heroes of the Cold War for his service in the CIA under President Reagan. It was Meyer who, in a famous memo to Reagan in November 1983 when things were very tense with our intermediate-range missile deployments in Europe, wrote: “if present trends continue, we are going to win the Cold War.” Over eight vivid
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June 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Some days—actually most days now that I think about it—the left hands you an easy win. Take the case of Book Culture, a four-location independent bookseller in New York City. Book Culture enjoys a reputation as a progressive bookstore, a certified outlet for all the literary needs of the wokerati. Trouble is, Book Culture is about to go under. Why? I’ll let them explain it: “Our four stores are in
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June 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.” The past certainly isn’t past for Joe Biden. He can’t stop talking about it. One suspects he’s still living in the distant past. The latest example is his over-the-top statement comparing the election of President Trump to the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Biden stated: I think what’s happening now is, I think that Donald
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June 24, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The Science and Environmental Policy Project is one of the best sources of information on the climate debate. Its The Week That Was is a great way to stay current on developments. This week, along with much else, Ken Haapala, President of SEPP, addresses the fiendishly complicated, and still not understood, role of clouds: One of the disturbing characteristics of many politicians, “experts” on climate science, and even established scientific
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June 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign seems doomed to failure. She is not even registering in polls of the Democratic race. Gillibrand has made a strong run in the phoniness sweepstakes, though. Indeed, she looks to be running away with that prize. This is no mean feat considering that Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren are in the race. Perhaps the starkest example of Gillibrand’s lack of authenticity is her flip
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June 24, 2019 — John Hinderaker
South Dakota’s legislature is considering a bill that would require the state’s universities to protect free speech and intellectual diversity. In that connection, some lawmakers have taken aim at the diversity industry: Several Republican lawmakers who were behind a bill to require the state’s university system to promote intellectual diversity are questioning the size, role and cost of diversity offices. The lawmakers, which include the House and Senate leadership, sent
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June 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Spectator USA’s pseudonymous Cockburn attends to the curious case of Ilhan Omar in the column “Ilhan Omar lawyer: two marriages hard to explain.” Reviewing the case from its inception on the Somali Spot site through its evidentiary twists and turns over the past three years, Cockburn writes with the exactitude of a historian and the dash of a humorist. Taking a look back with a gimlet eye, Cockburn writes, for
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June 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump campaigned as the man who would restore teeth to American foreign policy. Red lines would be enforced. The Iran nuclear deal, thanks to which the mullahs were able to finance aggression throughout the Middle East, would be overturned. Iran would not obtain nuclear weapons. There would be a new sheriff in town. This was good campaign rhetoric. Weakness is unappealing. Strength sells. Trump also campaigned as the man
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June 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The curious case of Ilhan Omar is close to breaking open. The Star Tribune’s long Sunday page-one story — geared to the state campaign board investigation of Omar’s 2016 legislative campaign — tells us as much. Having cracked the door to the story open back in 2016, I am not about to give it up now. The case has a number of loose threads hanging from it. One loose thread
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June 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In “Dozens of documents indicate Ilhan Omar lived with Ahmed Hirsi while claiming to be married to Ahmed Elmi,” the Washington Examiner’s Tiana Lowe and John Gage add parking tickets to the evidence supporting the proposition that Ilhan Omar’s marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was a sham. The Examiner story includes the usual Omar response: Omar “declined to answer the Washington Examiner’s questions on the matter, and her congressional
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June 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Health care is an issue of utmost importance to many Americans, and polling suggests that, by a considerable margin, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the issue. But according to this report in the Washington Post, Democratic presidential candidates, by talking so much about “Medicare for all,” aren’t hitting the sweet spot on health care. Instead, they are missing the point. Based on public opinion research, the Post
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June 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is hard to keep track of political fundraising, in part because money goes into a number of different pockets: the campaigns themselves; PACs that spend on behalf of candidates; the Republican and Democratic Congressional and Senatorial committees; and the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee. The parties crow whenever they are ahead with regard to any of these buckets, but whether they are raising more money overall is
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June 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Biden continues to lead the pack of Democratic presidential contenders by just “being Joe.” The pack, showing a desperation that may not be entirely warranted, is trying to close the gap by “being left.” Consider Cory Booker. He has the black male lane basically to himself. In addition, he resembles Barack Obama in important respects. However, polling shows him to be, at present, a third-tier candidate. How has Booker
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June 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
First we have hypersonic missiles: Hypersonic weapons incorporate the speed of a ballistic missile with the maneuvering capabilities of a cruise missile. Hypersonic weapons refer to weapons that travel faster than Mach 5 (~3,800mph) and have the capability to maneuver during the entire flight. As a pentagon report stated, “While the designed speed of the hypersonic missile is faster than that of sound, its advantage lies in its enhanced maneuverability
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