Monthly Archives: December 2019
December 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Daniel Horowitz has reviewed ICE’s brand new comprehensive enforcement and removal operations report. ICE reported that it issued detainers on criminal aliens in fiscal year 2019 who were collectively charged with 2,500 murders. To put that in perspective, albeit via an imperfect comparison, Horowitz says that law enforcement agencies only arrested 9,049 individuals in total for homicide in 2018. This source places the total number of murder arrests in 2018
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December 16, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Despite the clouds of unknowing emanating from the liberal press, Americans are catching on. Rasmussen asked the question: How likely is it that senior federal law enforcement officials broke the law in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency – very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely or not at all likely? 52% of likely voters responded that it is likely that senior federal law enforcement officials–the
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December 16, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Democrats have been talking about impeaching President Trump since before he was inaugurated. They didn’t really need an excuse, they just needed a majority in the House of Representatives. Once they won that majority last November, impeachment was a foregone conclusion, Nancy Pelosi’s crocodile tears notwithstanding. They thought the Russia collusion hoax would be their rationale, but when that collapsed, they scarcely missed a beat, transitioning seamlessly to the Ukraine
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December 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In August, some economic forecasters were saying there was a 50 percent chance of a downturn by no later than the end of next year. Now, the conventional view is that 2020 will be a year of steady and sustained economic growth. Given the track record of economic forecasters, this prediction may or may not be good news for the economy. But let’s take it at face value and assume
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December 16, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Last year one April Doss published articles at the Atlantic and the Weekly Standard on the FISA warrants taken out on Carter Page. Doss had served as senior minority counsel on the Senate Intelligence Committee (she worked for the Democrats). She also spent over a decade at the National Security Agency, where she was associate general counsel for intelligence law. Doss touted her professional experience and expertise to assure us
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December 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I believe there’s a market among Democrats for a presidential candidate who is not radical, who is not old and frequently confused, and who is not a straight white male. Who might that candidate be? It might have been Kamala Harris. However, she opted not to fill that lane. Now, she’s an ex-candidate for president. It might be Pete Buttigieg, except it’s not so clear that he’s non-radical. Buttigieg seemingly
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December 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A police officer who was hit in the head by a rock thrown at a 2016 demonstration in Louisiana sued DeRay Mckesson, the prominent Black Lives Matter provocateur who organized the demonstration. The officer did not allege that Mckesson threw the rock, that he called on anyone to throw rocks, or that he called on anyone to commit any act of violence. Yet, he sought to hold Mckesson liable for
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December 15, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In a February 2018 memo that earned him nothing but opprobrium and abuse, Rep. Devin Nunes laid out the truth of the FISA abuse underlying the Obama administration’s surveillance of the Trump campaign. Rep. Adam Schiff disputed the Nunes memo with a competing memo of his own. Following the Department of Justice Inspector General report issued last week by Michael Horowitz, however, Schiff has been incapacitated from keeping up this
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December 15, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It might not be worth the effort to deconstruct articles appearing in a magazine that sold for $1, but still–when I saw this Newsweek cover on InstaPundit, I was curious: I was curious because I am a frequent reader of Fars News, which is conventionally described as the “semi-official” voice of Iran’s mullahs. One of Fars’s most insistent themes is that the United States and Israel are allied with ISIS,
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December 15, 2019 — John Hinderaker
As Scott noted earlier, James Comey was interviewed by Chris Wallace this morning on Fox News Sunday. After Michael Horowitz’s report was released, Comey claimed that it vindicated him. When Wallace pointed out that Horowitz testified that his findings “don’t vindicate anybody who touched this,” Comey retreated, but only as far as absolutely necessary. Comey admitted that mistakes were made: He’s right, I was wrong. I was overconfident in the
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December 15, 2019 — Scott Johnson
James Comey appeared for a 15-minute interview by Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday this morning. When it comes to the FISA warrants whose verification and alleged facts he swore to, Comey asserted, he doesn’t know anything. As Director of the FBI he wasn’t familiar with the details; as the director, he’s “not kept informed.” And he never oversaw investigation of the Trump campaign or of President Trump — just
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December 15, 2019 — Steven Hayward
It is not secret that the wokerati are making steady inroads into the domain of the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, engineering, etc). But Nature magazine, although left of center, might have been thought immune from the sillier aspects of the PC culture. Not so. After publishing an article recently about the coming “supremacy” of quantum computing over conventional supercomputers, Nature has published this letter, signed by 13 scientists, which I reprint
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December 15, 2019 — Scott Johnson
When the Soviet Union collapsed and its archives were opened, certain Cold War controversies became susceptible of definitive resolution. Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis titled his 1997 book on the subject We Now Know. By the same token, publication of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse and related issues should similarly bring closure to the Russia hoax touted by the Democrats and their media adjunct
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December 15, 2019 — Scott Johnson
This morning we conclude our celebration of the twentieth year of the second coming of the Claremont Review of Books. Its new (Fall) issue is in the mail. The magazine has moved to a sleek new site with a new URL (claremontreviewofbooks.com). The editors have made the new issue freely accessible for the next few days. This is the last of my previews. Each of the four pieces previewed here
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December 14, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Last week, the New York Times editorial board absurdly assured us that anti-Semitism is a phenomenon of the right. Sure it is, guys. Keep telling yourselves that. Another case in point: in the aftermath of the Tories’ electoral sweep, whom did some on the left blame? You guessed it. Ken Livingstone–“Red Ken”–the far left former mayor of London who left the Labour Party last year amid charges of anti-Semitism, explained:
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December 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The left’s obsession with inequality has reached a level of fanaticism that you could easily confuse with parody. Check out this New York Times headline: It’s for real. Here’s some of the whole story: Hermit crabs face a uniquely competitive real estate market. They need bigger and bigger shells throughout their lives, but can’t grow these homes themselves. So they rely on castoff snail shells, and are constantly on the
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December 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The headline of this AFP “news” story certainly shows no bias at all, nosiree, but you can file it under “Feel Good Story of the Day” anyway: UN Deadlocked, Detached from Climate Emergency Madrid (AFP) – A UN climate summit in Madrid risked collapsing Saturday after marathon negotiations between countries left them more divided than ever over on how to fight global warming and pay for its ravages. Diplomats from
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