January 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Smash and grab robberies are rampant in San Francisco, where authorities do very little to discourage them. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 31,000 people reported smash and grab robberies in the city in 2017 alone. Hoping to document such a robbery, “Inside Edition,” a television program, placed GPS trackers inside items in a car parked in an area well known for theft. The items were a $250
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January 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
A hundred years ago, give or take fifty, I was part of a team that competed for my high school on a quiz show called “It’s Academic.” During one of our matches, I correctly provided the answer “Bye Bye Blackbird” to a question about a song written in the 1920s. Afterwards, I joked with a teammate that I had been reluctant to press the buzzer and answer the question because
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January 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s how the New York Times characterizes the Massachusetts Senator in an editorial today. I would have said “liar,” but why quibble? Whether it’s falsely claiming to be an Indian or falsely claiming she was let go from a teaching job because she was pregnant, Warren’s ability to spin a yarn is undeniable. Ironically, the Times’ characterization of Warren appears in an editorial endorsing her for president. Such must be
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January 19, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Two of the Washington Post’s Trump-despising reporters, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, have a new book about the president called A Very Stable Genius. In advance of its publication, the Post ran an excerpt in today’s paper. The excerpt describes how three of Trump’s then-top advisers — James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, and Gary Cohn — organized a session for the president designed to sell him on key aspects of conventional
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January 18, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
New evidence from Lev Parnas has Democrats more insistent than ever that the Senate impeachment trial include testimony from witnesses who did not appear before the House. Parnas joins the ranks of John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney as key witnesses the Dems say they need testimony from. Even the Democrats can’t deny that Parnas is a problematic witness. He appears to be a crook with a motive to lie. However,
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January 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Peter Shumlin, the former governor of Vermont and a Democrat, had this to say about Bernie Sanders, his fellow Vermonter: What I’ve seen in Bernie’s politics is he and his team feel they’re holier than the rest. In the end, they will play dirty because they think that they pass a purity test that Republicans and most Democrats don’t pass. What you’re seeing now is, in the end, even if
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January 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Christian Paz, writing in The Atlantic, warns Democrats to worry about the Latino vote in this year’s presidential election. According to Paz, the Trump campaign is doing an excellent job of reaching out to a key segment of the Latino vote — evangelicals. By contrast, Democrats are “struggling to engage Latino voters, address issues beyond immigration reform, and treat Latinos as the influential voting bloc they are.” Only Bernie Sanders
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January 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Matt Taibbi, writing from the left for Rolling Stone, calls CNN’s debate performance on Tuesday “villainous and shameful.” Taibbi is referring to CNN’s handling of the “he said, she said” dispute between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. And he is absolutely right to characterize CNN’s performance as he does. First, CNN’s Abby Phillip assumed the truth of Warren’s claim that Sanders said a woman couldn’t defeat President Trump. Despite Sanders’s
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January 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports: An angry split among liberal Democrats broke into the open Wednesday as two prominent presidential candidates exchanged accusations of dishonesty, raising fears among party leaders of a repeat of the internecine bitterness that many Democrats say contributed to President Trump’s victory in 2016. The fears are not without a basis. Yesterday, some irate supporters of Sanders circulated a #NeverWarren hashtag. #WarrenIsASnake also began trending. Warren deserves
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January 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The late Qasem Soleimani was not just Iran’s leading military figure. He was also a central player in Iranian politics. Indeed, there were persistent rumors that he might stage a military coup. Such a coup, rumor had it, would have been designed to save the hard line Iranian regime, which has increasingly been under fire for rampant corruption and incompetence. The idea would have been to bring down the civilian
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January 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
In the immediate aftermath of Iran’s missile attacks on U.S. bases — in response to the killing of Gen. Soleimani — there was speculation that Iran, feeling compelled to do something but not wanting to risk an attack by the U.S., had conducted the attack in a way designed not to kill or injure any Americans. U.S. officials expressed this view. They noted that, in fact, no Americans were killed
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January 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Before the start of the college championship football game on Monday night, a collection of all-time college great players was onstage at the New Orleans Superdome. Nearly all of them were running backs, including Archie Griffin, Barry Sanders, Herschel Walker, Earl Campbell, and Jim Brown. There were also descendants of Gale Sayers, Red Grange, and Jim Thorpe. Missing, of course, was O.J. Simpson who may be the best college running
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January 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
I watched most of tonight’s Democratic debate. It was a pretty dull affair. To the extent there were fireworks, they occurred after the debate, albeit in the form of something that didn’t happen — a non-handshake. During the debate, as expected, there was an exchange between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren about the latter’s allegation that the former told her a woman couldn’t defeat President Trump. The exchange was civil
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January 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Elizabeth Warren claims that in December 2018, she told Bernie Sanders that a woman could win the presidency in 2020, and that Sanders disagreed. Sanders denies this. According to his version of the meeting, Sanders said only that Trump would attempt to undermine a female opponent by using scorched earth tactics. According to the Washington Post, two people “with knowledge” of the conversation support Sanders’s version. The Post doesn’t say
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January 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times reports that Bernie Sanders is considering releasing a list of potential Supreme Court nominees he would pick from if elected president. Sanders said this during an interview with the New York Times editorial board. He noted that his wife believes he should release such a list, as President Trump did during his 2016 campaign. Who would be on a Sanders Supreme Court short list? William Kunstler
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January 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
My thoughts about Prince Harry and his wife apparently abandoning the royal family aren’t as insightful or as nuanced as those expressed by John in his outstanding post about the matter. As I see it, no one should feel obligated to participate in the British monarchy, and certainly not in a non-starring role. My argument isn’t that one’s desire for happiness trumps one’s obligations. Few doctrines are more dangerous. My
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January 13, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s what might be in store on Saturday when the fourth annual Women’s March takes place in Washington, D.C.. The Washington Post says that only about 4,500 women have indicated on Facebook that they will attend. The organizers say they expect 10,000 participants. It wasn’t always like this. The day after President Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of thousands marched in protest in Washington (an event I covered for Power Line). Taking
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