Monthly Archives: June 2020
June 30, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Stanley Kurtz writes: President Trump had a great riff at his rally the other day in Phoenix. It was all about “abolish,” about how the Left wants to abolish the police, ICE, bail, even borders. Trump’s riff is effective because it is true. The Left has gone off the deep end, and they’re taking the Democrats with them. Well, there’s another “abolish” the president can add to his list, and
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June 30, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Politicians love to say that they are “following the science.” To hear them talk, you would think they spend hours poring over data and they go where the numbers drive them. If only. The COVID epidemic has brought out politicians’ faux reliance on “science” in spades. As good an example as any is my state, Minnesota, where our governor, Tim Walz, has offered one tribute after another to “science” as
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June 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson beat the Star Tribune to the story of the three Minneapolis City Council members who want to ashcan the police but have retained private security to protect themselves at taxpayers’ expense. He invited me on his show to talk about it last night. Unfortunately for me, he covered it thoroughly in his introduction. I have taken the liberty of embedding the video below. As one thing led to
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June 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Not long ago I had occasion to write an article for the Bipartisan Policy Center lamenting the decline in the discipline of history, noting, among other things: [C]onservatives in history departments are scarce and dwindling. . . conservative-minded historians are likewise alienated from both the ideological center of gravity and the dominant methodological focus of American history today. . . The effect of this is not simply a further narrowing
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June 30, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, when I briefly previewed the remainder of the Supreme Court term, I suggested that most of the big cases wouldn’t go well for conservatives, but that conservatives might squeak out wins in the religious liberty cases. Today, the Supreme Court decided one of those cases, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and the conservative position prevailed. By a 5-4 vote, the Court held that the Montana supreme court
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June 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
At the present time the polls look bad for President Trump. How bad? Credible polls show him 10 points behind Biden, and struggling in key swing states as well as what should be easy states, like Georgia. His campaign seems listless at the moment, lacking a clear message or strategy for turning around his bad poll numbers. There’s a story up on Fox News wondering whether Trump might drop out
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June 30, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Some of us have suspected for a while that the level of patriotism in the Democratic Party has dropped alarmingly low, but the Democratic National Committee has now confirmed that patriotism is unwelcome in that party. Because celebrating the 4th of July is white supremacist. Or Mount Rushmore is white supremacist. Or, in any event, the combination of the two is white supremacist: When people started talking about the idea
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June 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Over the weekend Minneapolis’s FOX 9 broke Tom Lyden’s story of the three Minneapolis city council members who have private security officers protecting them at city expense. Tom’s story is posted here. The video is below. The three council members are vocal proponents of substituting a Department of Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows for the Minneapolis Police Department. They all voted in favor of the ordinance advancing such a proposal last
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June 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz conducted yesterday’s press briefing on COVID-19 with a supporting cast that included Dr. Tim Schacker of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Dr. Bill Morice of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. He announced the attainment of the goal to reach capacity for 20,000 tests a day. He calls it the Minnesota Moonshot. A good time was had by all. Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm was on hand to review the
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June 29, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
I doubt that I agree with the Black Justice League about much. However, I agree with some of what it argues in this statement in response to the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name from Princeton’s school of public policy. I agree that: 1. The Wilson-related name change is a “symbolic gesture” that does not address Princeton’s “racist status quo”; 2. “Diversity training” would not accomplish anything; 3. Princeton’s actions are
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June 29, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Not on everything, presumably. But on the key issues of our time, he is right on the money. I didn’t know about this interview on Friday until I saw it linked on InstaPundit this evening, and I haven’t seen a complete transcript. But The Federalist is a good source, so here we go: In a wide-ranging interview in the Oval Office Friday, President Donald J. Trump said that the country
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June 29, 2020 — Steven Hayward
• This weekend’s body count from Chicago: 18 dead, 47 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings Chaser: Trump’s letter to Chicago Mayor Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. Lightweight: “More Americans have been killed in Chicago than in combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq combined since September 11, 2001, a deadly trend that has continued under your tenure. . . Your lack of leadership on this important issue continues to fail the people you
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June 29, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Congressman Dean Phillips represents Minnesota’s Third Congressional District. On June 22, he emailed his supporters, stating that “Racism is deeply ingrained…in our institutions, and in our everyday lives.” He posted a similar message on Facebook and has created a “resource guide” on his website for “racial justice allyship” to “understand our nation’s” black experience and combat “systemic racism” in America. Kendall Qualls is the Republican nominee running against Phillips. Qualls
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June 29, 2020 — Steven Hayward
My nomination for the most Orwellian phrase of the moment is, “We need to have a conversation about X [race, class, gender, policing, inequality—fill in the blank].” What “we need a conversation” means in practice is, “You shut up and agree with the left.” It seems the (checks notes) Harvard Business Review agrees, in an article titled, “Academia Isn’t a Safe Haven for Conversations About Race and Racism.” The interesting
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June 29, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As expected, the Supreme Court today ruled in favor of abortion providers in June Medical Services v. Russo. It struck down a Louisiana law that required abortionists to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital in order to perform abortions. The vote was 5-4. Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal majority. Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion. Four years ago, Roberts reached the opposite result in a Texas case in
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June 29, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Atlanta’s interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant was about to address the City Council on the unrest plaguing the city when a councilman informed Bryant: I was just notified there was a young man who was just shot and killed at 377 Westchester Boulevard. Can you get a unit out there? He’s been on the ground and there’s no police who have come. He’s dead already,
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June 29, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The city of Minneapolis is deep into the cultural revolution driving the Democratic Party ever further to the left. The city is run entirely by Democrats. Boy mayor Jacob Frey is a Democrat, as are 11 of 12 current members of the city council. The twelfth — Cam Gordon, Ward 2 — is a member of the Green Party. That’s diversity, Minneapolis style. The current council lineup is displayed here.
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