February 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The National Football League has enlisted former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to defend it in the class action race discrimination suit filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. I wrote about Flores’ case here. It strikes me as weak, at least as to his individual claim. Lynch is a partner at Paul Weiss, the prestigious New York law firm. Paul Weiss frequently represents the NFL in lawsuits,
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February 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the jury in the Sarah Palin case found that the New York Times is not liable for the false claim it made against Palin in an editorial. The judge had already ruled in favor of the Times but, in an unusual move, he allowed the jury to continue deliberating to a verdict. Palin always faced an uphill battle because of the high level of protection current law affords journalists
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February 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The Hill reports that Senate Democrats are urging Joe Biden to “speed up his process for picking a nominee to the Supreme Court.” It has been about three weeks since Justice Breyer announced he will retire. It took only a month to confirm Amy Coney Barrett. Confirming Barrett was a matter of great urgency because Republicans were well on their way to losing control of the Senate. Democrats aren’t up
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February 16, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
I want to respond to the objections Steve Hayward presented to what I’ve written about Donald Trump’s handling of presidential documents. He objects to my statement that media reports of Trump tearing up documents “seem to be accurate.” However, his main objection is that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with Trump destroying documents because “every White House document going back to the 1980s is composed on a computer.” I’ll start
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February 15, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about what I called “a Princeton-Morgan Stanley joint venture in discrimination.” My reference was to Morgan Stanley’s Freshman Enhancement Program, which is available only to Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and/or LGBTQ college freshmen. All other freshmen need not apply. Princeton participates in the program. Today, former White House Counsel Boyden Gray sent a letter on behalf of the Project on Fair Representation to Morgan Stanley and Princeton
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February 15, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s a bad sign for Joe Biden and the Democrats that their friends are urgently appealing for a course correction. It’s an even worse sign that the corrections being offered are mutually exclusive. Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent advises Biden and the Democrats to tout their alleged achievements in bolstering the U.S. economy. Sargent acknowledges that right now the American public doesn’t see it that way. He cites poll results
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February 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Judge Jed Rakoff has ruled that Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial that falsely said she incited violence against Gabby Giffords and others fails due to lack of evidence that the Times knew what it wrote about her was false or that it acted recklessly in publishing the editorial. Judge Rakoff will allow the jury, which is in its second day of deliberations,
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February 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, just before the NBA reached its deadline for trades, the Boston Celtics dealt Enes Kanter Freedom to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets then cut the outspoken critic of Red China. Kanter Freedom went to Houston in a multi-player deal. To me it looks like Houston got more value in terms of player personnel than Boston did. The center Boston obtained in the deal, Daniel Theis, has less impressive
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February 14, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post, I linked to a New York Times op-ed by three leading National (or Common Good) Conservatives on foreign policy. The piece, called “Hawks Are Standing in the Way of a New Republican Party,” was written by Sohrab Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, and Gladden Pappin. My post didn’t discuss the merits of the New York Times op-ed. Instead, I cited it as an example of what looks like a
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February 13, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Princeton freshmen received an email regarding Morgan Stanley’s Freshman Enhancement Program. That program “is designed to help diverse rising sophomores in college gain a better understanding of the various businesses and career paths Morgan Stanley provides.” If selected for the program, rising sophomores “will participate in a hybrid program consisting of virtual learning and an in-person component.” They will also receive what Morgan Stanley describes as “valuable training,
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February 13, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2020, Nancy Pelosi, sitting behind Donald Trump at his State of the Union Address, showed her contempt for the speech by ripping it up. It was a nauseating display by the Speaker — one that said more about her poor character than about Trump or his address. Afterwards, Trump complained: I thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it’s an official
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February 12, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
When the latest inflation numbers came out this week, Joe Manchin used the occasion to again denounce appropriating trillions and trillions of dollars in new spending. This comment, of course, was a shot at the Democrats’ build back better proposal. I suggested that this boondoggle was on life support. But now, after all these months, the White House seems finally to be listening to Manchin’s concerns over inflation and the
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February 11, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
A working paper by a Johns Hopkins economics professor and two other economists found that covid “lockdowns” did very little, if anything, to reduce the number of covid deaths. The paper has received a fair amount of attention from conservative media, but has been largely ignored by mainstream outlets. The mainstream media’s lack of attention to the study is unfortunate. But then, conservative outlets generally ignore covid studies that find
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February 11, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
John Comaroff is a professor of African and American studies and anthropology at Harvard. Some female graduate students have accused him of sexual misconduct. Harvard responded by sanctioning him for allegedly violating its policies on the subject. He’s on unpaid leave, and barred from teaching required courses and taking on additional advisees through the next academic year. Thirty-eight Harvard faculty members complained about the sanctioning in an open letter supporting
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February 10, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump has issued a partial response to allegations that he mishandled presidential documents in violation, possibly, of federal law. As I understand the reporting on this subject there are four such claims or suggestions: (1) that he improperly took at least 15 boxes of material to Florida after he left office, (2) that while president, he tore up some documents (and ate one), (3) that while president, he flushed
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February 10, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.6 percent in January on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 7.5 percent. That’s a 40-year high. I’ll take the BLS’ word over my impressions. However, I feel like the prices I’m paying have risen more than 7.5 percent in just six months.
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February 10, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
In my post last night about charges that Donald Trump violated federal document retention requirements, I wrote: “For what it’s worth, [Omarosa] Manigault Newman says she once saw Trump tear up a note and eat it. That’s one way to stymie those pesky staffers.” By saying “for what it’s worth,” I indicated my skepticism about this claim. My skepticism (which isn’t the same thing as outright disbelief) is based not
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