Monthly Archives: December 2019
December 24, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Boris Johnson is like Winston Churchill, in that even his bitterest critics concede that he is extraordinarily talented. Attacks on Johnson, as on Churchill, often begin, “Sure, he is brilliant, but…” This clip from a recent interview illustrates the point. It also reflects that Johnson, like Donald Trump, has a sense of humor: Boris reciting the Iliad from memory. In ancient Greek. Your move, Labour.pic.twitter.com/hm8x0HAtoD — Old Holborn ✘ (@Holbornlolz)
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December 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
When I read about a high profile murder, I often check the background of the accused killer. Almost invariably, if the killer is an adult, I find that he has a criminal record such that, in a properly functioning justice system, he would be in prison. Last week, in Nashville, a man murdered Clayton Beathard and Paul Trapeni. Beathard is the brother of C.J. Beathard, a quarterback for the San
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December 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Gregg Jarrett’s Witch Hunt is one of this year’s good books on the Russia hoax. Jarrett’s subtitle — The Story of the Greatest Mass Delusion in American Political History — posits that the hoax may have derived from something other than intentional wrongdoing, but Jarrett leaves no stone unturned to make out willful misconduct. I find the book frustrating in certain respects. It lacks an index. It is argumentative. It
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December 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The impeachment farce (by which I mean the way impeachment is being handled) may be headed for new heights. Farce status was attained when Nancy Pelosi decided, for the time being at least, not to send the two articles of impeachment authorized by the House on to the Senate for prosecution. Pelosi’s rationale was astounding. The Senate needs to hear more evidence than the House bothered to collect to adjudicate
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December 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In the aftermath of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign and the Trump presidency, Dan Bongino interviewed Rep. Devin Nunes at length about “the biggest political scandal in US history.” I have not previously heard Nunes speak at such length about the Russia hoax, at least since the release of the Horowitz report on December 9. I will
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December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
At FiveThirtyEight, Perry Bacon argues that President Trump completed his takeover of the Republican Party this year. I think that’s right. Trump’s control of congressional Republicans is exemplified by the fact that no GOP member of the House voted for his impeachment. Indeed, as far as I know, no GOP member acknowledged that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine for a time in order to induce the Ukrainian government to
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December 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Thursday evening, the day after Christmas, starting at 7 p.m. Central time (5 Pacific, 8 Eastern), we are doing a VIP Live event. If you are a VIP member, you will get an email with a link to a live address where you can watch the event and submit your own comments and questions on the issues of the day. We have quite a few new VIP members; I hope
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December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The punchline to this joke was supplied 20 years ago by a soccer fan I met on my way to a match in London: American football, you get up, get dressed, and go to the game. English football, you get up, get dressed, get drunk, and go the game. Twenty years later, I’m not sure the joke applies. The difference may now reside in where you get drunk. In American
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December 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The demand for white supremacists vastly exceeds the supply, which is why we see absurdities like the controversy over military academy students supposedly flashing “white power” signs at the Army-Navy football game. Now, apparently, the age-old “OK” sign means you are a white nationalist, notwithstanding that there are pictures of pretty much everyone in public life giving the sign, like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and nearly everyone else. Or maybe
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December 23, 2019 — Steven Hayward
There are several new wrinkles in the saga of the New York Times‘s egregious and ideological “1619 Project” beyond the fine Roger Kimball essay that Paul highlights below. This can only mean one thing: time for another episode with “Lucretia,” Power Line’s International Woman of Mystery, and scourge of all things politically correct. New developments in the story include a stinging letter to the editor of the New York Times
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December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t know of anyone who skewers the subversive antics of the American left as savagely, yet as elegantly, as Roger Kimball. In this article for the New Criterion, Roger trains his guns on the New York Times’ 1619 project. That project is, in the words of the Times, an effort to “reframe [America’s] history, [by] understanding 1619 [when the first slave ships arrived here] as our true founding, and
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December 23, 2019 — Scott Johnson
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recorded a Hanukah statement that he released via Twitter yesterday (below). The video is also posted on the 10 Downing Street YouTube channel here (comments are turned off). I learned via Ed Driscoll/InstaPundit that Israel National News has taken note of the statement and transcribed it here. Like President Trump, Prime Minister Johnson chooses to stand with the Jewish people. It represents a striking commonality
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December 23, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Back in his district before a friendly audience, Rep. Devin Nunes joined Lee Smith for an interview conducted by News Talk KMJ’s Ray Appleton about Lee’s book The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History. Having listened to the interview via Rep. Nunes’s podcast (below), I can only say I wish I had been there. That was
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December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that some Democrats are mad as hell at Pete Buttigieg for abandoning some of his previous positions — e.g., Medicare for all and decriminalizing illegal border crossings. I think Buttigieg can live with their wrath, given that his move out of the hard left lane has corresponded with a surge in the polls, both nationally and especially in Iowa. However, the Post’s article, by Chelsea Janes,
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December 22, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, I wrote about a case in which the Fifth Circuit, in a unanimous decision, ruled that a suit could proceed against a Black Lives Matter activist for violence he didn’t commit or encourage. The police officer who brought the suit was hit in the head by a rock thrown during a BLM protest. However, he did not claim that the individual he sued, DeRay McKesson, threw the rock,
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December 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The International Criminal Court is a creature of the United Nations that came into existence in 2002. The ICC’s mission is to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.” Needless to say, it hasn’t had a lot of success in doing so, and has been deeply controversial from the beginning. The United States has never joined the
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December 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
You’ve probably heard the old joke about the guy who opens a fortune cookie, and the paper says: “Help! I’m being held prisoner in a Chinese fortune cookie factory.” Well, it actually happened, only it was a greeting card factory. The London Times reports: When Florence Widdicombe opened a box of Tesco charity Christmas cards to send them to her friends, the six-year-old schoolgirl from Tooting, south London, was startled
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