Monthly Archives: December 2019
December 31, 2019 — John Hinderaker
As Paul noted a little while ago, pro-Iran militia forces known as Kataeb Hezbollah have besieged the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. They are being referred to in news accounts a “protesters,” but in fact they are a trained and organized military force. The attackers breached the outer wall of the embassy compound and then milled around, set fires, etc. Apparently many liberals are trying to portray this attack as Trump’s
»
December 31, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
With developments going from bad to worse for the Iranian regime, the mullahs have decided to play a 40 year-old card. They have orchestrated an attack on a U.S. embassy, this time the one in Baghdad. President Trump summarized the situation in this tweet: Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They
»
December 31, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Every year at around this time, my friend Tevi Troy provides his list of books he recommends. I have found his recommendations to be sound and sometimes inspired. Here is Tevi’s list for 2019. For me, this year in reading centered around my travels to Austria, Croatia, and England. Every country’s history interests me, but I found that of Austria (and its associated empires) to be especially intriguing. I highly
»
December 31, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Modern democracies are said to be in the grip of “populism” that the dictionary defines as “a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.” Most of the learned commentary from academia and the news media describe populism as a harbinger of the apocalypse, a threat to democracy, and the second coming of fascism, all stemming from racism and
»
December 31, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A few days ago, Steve wrote an important and insightful piece called “The Genealogy of Free Stuff.” Citing a Wall Street Journal editorial, Steve stated that Elizabeth Warren’s agenda is so far beyond extravagant that “socialism” seems an inadequate adjective. Steve offered two explanations for the leftward lurch he described. First, hard-left Democrats are convinced that anyone can beat President Trump, and thus see this as the time to go
»
December 31, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Late last week the Star Tribune posted its top 10 most-read Minnesota news stories of 2019. Coming in at number 1 is “New documents revisit questions about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s marriage history,” by Patrick Coolican and Stephen Montemayor. The 3,000-word story takes a serious look at the question we first raised three years ago: did Ilhan Omar marry her brother in 2009? The story was linked by Drudge and RealClearPolitics.
»
December 30, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Inspired by Scott, I thought readers might be interested to know some of the books that I read during 2019, and my thoughts about them. My brother Eric is a historian. I will start with his latest book, Boston’s Massacre, which was published in the Spring. It is about the Boston Massacre, the events that led up to it, and the place of the “massacre” in popular memory. Reading it
»
December 30, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Bret Stephens is a columnist at the New York Times. On Friday he wrote an op-ed titled The Secrets of Jewish Genius. In that column, he speculated about why Jews have made such signal contributions to modern intellectual life, far out of proportion to their numbers. Stephens attributed the phenomenon to Jewish teachings and experience: There is a religious tradition that, unlike some others, asks the believer not only to
»
December 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Grafton Thomas is the anti-Semite who is being held for assaulting with a knife a crowd of Jews in a rabbi’s home during a Hanukkah celebration. I don’t blame the Democratic Party for Thomas’s anti-Semitism or for his decision to assault Jews. However, I do blame Democrats, and some Republicans, for the criminal justice policies that enabled Thomas to be able to act on his violent anti-Semitism outside of prison
»
December 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Biden said today that he will consider choosing a Republican for his running mate if he’s the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Biden added, though, that the Republican would have to be “simpatico with him,” and that he can’t think of such a Republican right now. I can’t either. John McCain is dead. Anyway, McCain’s ACU rating was around 80 percent. In other words, as a Senator he voted for
»
December 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I disagree with claims that the Democratic Party bears responsibility for recent anti-Semitic violence. There is substantial and growing anti-Israel sentiment among Democrats, especially younger ones. There are some prominent Democratic politicians who are anti-Semitic. A Washington, D.C. Democrat blamed Jews for climate change. That moron falls outside of the Democratic mainstream. But does Ilhan Omar? Does Al Sharpton, Barack Obama’s ally? How about Maxine Waters, who has embraced Louis
»
December 30, 2019 — Steven Hayward
There has been a noted reluctance of the media, not to mention the cowardly political class in New York, to note the racial angle of the wave of anti-Semitic violence erupting recently in New York. Mayor Warren Wilhelm (“that’s de Blasio to you buster!”) naturally blames it on Trump. That’s one reason to take in the perspective of Henry Louis Gates, a certified Harvard liberal and old friend of President
»
December 30, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel devoted an excellent column dated December 20 to the theme of this series. I found it posted here at Jewish World Review. Here is the first half of the column, followed by a link to the whole thing: Thanks to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report, we now know for certain what has been, for those paying attention, fairly obvious. The Steele dossier played
»
December 30, 2019 — Scott Johnson
My movie of 2017 was Thank You For Your Service. The film introduced me to the astounding book by Washington Post editor David Finkel, the second of two he has written based on the soldiers he met while embedded with 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the surge. What I found most haunting in the film came straight out of the book. I recommended the movie and the book here on Power
»
December 29, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Anti-Semitism is on the rise across much of the Western world, most shockingly in New York, where seven or eight episodes of anti-Semitic violence have occurred in just the last few weeks. Normally I don’t blame the actions of lunatics or even extremists on mainstream politicians, but the orchestrated anti-Semitism that has infected the Left in the U.S. and across Western Europe in recent years may justify an exception to
»
December 29, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A good horse race needs a solid but beatable frontrunner and a shifting field of entries who, with plausibility, can be said to be on his heels. I don’t know whether the race for the Democratic nomination features these things, but the mainstream media wants it to, and claims that it does. Joe Biden, of course, is the frontrunner. The field of contenders held up by the media as plausible
»
December 29, 2019 — John Hinderaker
This short video is suddenly everywhere. It comes from a livestream of the service at the church near Fort Worth where someone opened fire on parishioners with what looks like a shotgun. He was immediately shot by two legally armed persons, one of whom reportedly was a security guard. It appears that altogether, there were six people who immediately pulled guns in response to the shooter. In recent months, there
»
