Monthly Archives: February 2022
February 28, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Most State of the Union speeches are forgettable events, where presidents simply lay out their laundry list of desired policies within a highly unedifying cliche-to-substance ratio. But once in a while a State of the Union speech actually matters, and such is the case with President Biden’s address tomorrow night. First, most SotU speeches run an hour or more. Can Biden actually make it that long? But much more important
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February 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Victor Davis Hanson’s American Greatness column today is “The crowded road to Kyiv.” It is long, historically informed, and necessary reading in its entirety. As always, he draws back to provide perspective. He writes with some indignation in the penultimate section of the column designated “Leftwing mania” as follows: On cue, an embarrassed Left now offers some surreal takes on why Putin went into Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014
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February 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Last week the jury returned guilty verdicts in the federal trial of the three former Minneapolis police officers — the officers other than Derek Chauvin, who pleaded guilty — charged with violating the civil rights of George Floyd in the arrest that resulted in his death. The jury found Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng guilty on each of the two counts against them and found Thomas Lane guilty on the
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February 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
There is no Churchill on the scene and there is no Hitler. Over the past week, however, I have heard the words of Leo Strauss on the death of Winston Churchill echoing in my head. Strauss made these remarks in the sixth session of his Introduction to Political Philosophy course at the University of Chicago upon hearing of Churchill’s death on January 25, 1965 (per Catherine Zuckert here). It may
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February 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
It has been clear for a while now that COVID masks are the MAGA hat equivalent for certain kinds of Progressives who march under the banner of “COVID-Zero” (which means no relaxation of the lockdown mandates until COVID no longer exists, or in other words, never) because they have been conditioned by 50 years of liberalism to expect the government to deliver a zero-risk world. So although polls show even
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February 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
It is increasingly obvious to everyone who isn’t an idiot (which excludes John Kerry, most of the Biden Administration, and climatistas everywhere) that our anti-fossil fuel holy war has been foolish in the extreme, and weakened the West’s geopolitical strength as well as our economic vitality. Slowly you can hear the gears grinding toward some changes. Start with France declaring two weeks ago that it will build 14 new nuclear
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February 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Solid news from Ukraine is sparse, and some of what we think we know will turn out to be wrong. But one thing is certain: the Russians have not yet been able to take Kiev. This has to be a major setback for Putin’s regime. The Ukrainians don’t have to win, they just have to keep fighting. And they seem to be all in. The Klitschko brothers, both former heavyweight
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February 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I am going to be in Florida for the next week. If you live within shouting (or driving) distance of Gasparilla Island, I will be speaking at a reception in Boca Grande on Wednesday, March 2, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The topic will be how American Experiment is trying to save the state of Minnesota, and we will also probably talk some Power Line. The reception is free, although
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February 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Vladimir Putin and others insist on our understanding the rape of Ukraine in a certain context. The context consists of components including the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe, and Putin’s high anxiety. If anyone has supplied the context from Ukraine’s perspective, I missed it. I doubt that it’s ancient history in Ukraine. Ukraine’s subjugation by the the Soviet Union was an unhappy experience.
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February 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Liz Collin is the Emmy-winning former reporter and news anchor at the Minnesota affiliate of CBS News. When Liz announced that she was leaving the station a month ago, it was big news. The Star Tribune story reporting her departure was the most-read story that day. On Monday Alpha News announced that Liz had come to work for the site. The announcement was coincident with the release of Liz’s video
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February 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I’ve had a few listeners of the podcast, especially of recent episodes such as the latest with Randy Barnett, who say they’d like to have Lucretia and I walk through how the Commerce Clause of the Constitution became the workhorse of modern civil rights law, and lots of other regulatory schemes. We have treated this subject before, but never systematically, and I’ve also heard from listeners who say, “Please, please—no
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February 26, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Steve has noted how America’s energy policies–suppressing fossil fuels and spending vast sums to develop inherently unreliable wind and solar energy–play into the hands of the Russians. While we waste trillions of dollars on expensive and unworkable energy sources, we simultaneously feed Russia’s export economy by buying Russian oil and gas. Meanwhile, if our “green dreams” are realized, we will allow them to run their economy on a far more
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February 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
The left is agitating about how Tucker Carlson and some other conservatives are making equivocal if not pro-Putin pronouncements, and I’ll look into and analyze this in a separate post tomorrow. For now, it suffices to point out that the left is once again playing a great game of misdirection or projection. Just as the Soviet Union encouraged—and clandestinely funded—the so-called “peace movement” in Europe back in the 1970s and
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February 26, 2022 — John Hinderaker
This is one of the more striking poll results I have seen in a long time: A new Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris Poll survey released Friday found that 62 percent of those polled believed Putin would not be moving against Ukraine if Trump had been president. When looking strictly at the answers of Democrats and Republicans, 85 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Democrats answered this
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February 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Here’s an interesting Twitter thread from someone named Riho Terras, a member of the European Parliament, posted a few hours ago. Obviously we’re not in any position to vouch for the accuracy of this thread (and some of it seems dubious), but pass it along in the interest of broad coverage: THREAD 1/7 Intel from a Ukrainian officer about a meeting in Putin’s lair in Urals. Oligarchs convened there so
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February 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Some Loose Ends for a Saturday afternoon/evening: • We’ve been so busy with the geopolitical and other news that we haven’t noted the apparent collapse of the Manhattan DA’s case against Donald Trump: A pair of prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business empire have resigned. The exit of Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz on Wednesday followed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
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February 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I don’t think there is a better place to follow breaking news than Twitter. I can’t vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the videos, but these six tweets show up on my feed directly or indirectly via sources I have chosen to follow. Marc Thiessen and Michael Doran are of interest, as always. Each of the four following theirs is worth a look. UDPATE: The AP has just posted
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