March 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Scott has encouraged me to weigh in on the lawsuit Rep. Devin Nunes filed against Twitter and Liz Mair. Before doing so, I should say that I’m not an expert in defamation law. I did defend a few cases that alleged defamation, but this was in the pre-social media age, and the defenses we raised don’t intersect with most of the defenses applicable in Nunes’ case. Turning now to that
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March 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Fox News has added Donna Brazile, former interim chair of the DNC, as a commentator. It has also appointed Former House Speaker Paul Ryan to the board of Fox Corp., the newly formed parent company of Fox News. I’ve always kind of liked Brazile, and her commentary is likely to be worthwhile (she actually is a “Democratic strategist”), at least by the standards of news channel talking heads. However, when
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March 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yahoo News reports that when she was the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris declined to investigate Herbalife, the nutritional supplement company that has been accused of fraudulent marketing practices. In 2015, prosecutors in the San Diego office of the California attorney general sent Harris a lengthy, detailed memorandum urging such an investigation. However, Harris did not initiate one. Other states did. So did the Federal Trade Commission. It obtained
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March 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The college admission fraud revelations are a scandal of some significance. The fraudulent behavior was reprehensible and fairly widespread. There are lessons to be learned. I agree with Heather Mac Donald that the two main ones are that “an elite college degree has taken on wildly inflated importance in American society, and the sports-industrial complex enjoys wildly inflated power within universities.” However, some of the lessons being extracted from the
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March 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
White male presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke and Bernie Sanders are well out in front in the Democratic presidential fundraising sweepstakes, while Joe Biden and Sanders dwarf the field in the polls. Their female, African-American, and Latino rivals have been left in the dust so far. The Daily Caller reports: O’Rourke announced Monday morning that his campaign brought in a record $6.1 million in online fundraising dollars within the first 24
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March 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
As a federal prosecutor in South Florida, Alex Acosta, now the Secretary of Labor, gave pedophile Jeffrey Epstein the “deal of a lifetime.” A federal investigation had revealed dozens of underage victims of Epstein. Yet, through a plea agreement with then-U.S. Attorney Acosta, Epstein managed to plead to only two state prostitution charges, and only one involving a minor. Consequently, Epstein served just 13 months in state prison. He was
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March 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Short of resigning, I’m not sure there’s anything President Trump could do that wouldn’t draw criticism, or at least raised-eyebrows, from the Washington Post. Even if he resigned, the Post would probably demand to know what took him so long. So it’s not surprising that the Post takes a shot at Trump’s common sense decision to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8. Calling Trump “Boeing’s decider-in-chief,” the Post notes that
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March 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The deal that brought Orlando Cepeda from San Francisco to St. Louis in 1966 was probably the second most consequential baseball trade of the 1960s, behind only the one that brought the late Frank Robinson to Baltimore. The Cardinals won the World Series in 1967 and Cepeda was NL MVP. In 1968, St. Louis repeated as NL champs. But on March 17, 1969, St. Louis dealt Cepeda to the Atlanta
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March 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Yellow Vest protesting in Paris produced violence on a scale not seen since the early days of the movement. AP reports: French yellow vest protesters set life-threatening fires, smashed up luxury stores in Paris and clashed with police Saturday in the 18th straight weekend of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. Large plumes of smoke rose above the rioting on Paris’ landmark Champs-Elysees avenue, and a mother and her child
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March 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Chelsea Clinton attended a vigil at NYU for those killed in the massacre at a mosque in New Zealand. NYU turned out not to be a “safe space” for Ms. Clinton, who is pregnant. Muslim students berated Clinton, blaming her for the killings. Their theory? They cited a statement she made condemning anti-Semitic remarks following the utterance of such remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar. In response to someone else’s
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March 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Gail Collins is a left-wing feminist columnist for the New York Times. If this snarky piece about Beto O’Rourke is any indication, Collins wants the Democrats to nominate a female presidential candidate in 2020. Don’t get me wrong. O’Rourke is a deserving target of snark. Indeed, the snark virtually writes itself. But why is O’Rourke a less serious candidate for president than, say, Kamala Harris? He served in Congress longer
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March 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post is pleased as punch that the Senate passed a resolution to overturn President Trump’s national emergency declaration. It gloats (via a headline in the paper edition) that, for Trump, “making it about himself didn’t click with GOP Senators.” According to the Post, Trump’s lobbying effort against the resolution treated the vote “almost exclusively in personal terms.” No surprise there. That’s how Trump treats most things. But the
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March 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The English Premier League (EPL) has been presenting outstanding soccer for many years. However, its excellence hasn’t fully been reflected in European club competitions. English clubs have won the top European competition — the Champions League — only three times this century (Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea once each). By contrast, the two top Spanish clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, have won it a combined nine times. This is a
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March 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A dozen Republicans joined Senate Democrats today to overturn President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border. The vote was 59-41. Trump promptly declared he would veto Congress’ action. With only 59 Senate votes against him, the veto will stick. The 12 Republicans who voted to overturn Trump’s declaration are: Mitt Romney Susan Collins Lamar Alexander Roy Blunt Mike Lee Jerry Moran Lisa Murkowski Rand Paul Rob
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March 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Neomi Rao, President Trump’s selection to fill the seat on the D.C. Circuit that Brett Kavanaugh left. The vote was 53-46. Some Republicans, most notably Sen. Josh Hawley, had expressed concern over Rao as a nominee. However, Rao was able to address these concerns to the Senators’ satisfaction. In the end, she received the vote of every Republican member (and no Democrats). I’m glad Rao was
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March 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
For many months, we (along with many other conservatives) have been urging Senate Republicans to reduce the number of hours permitted to debate nominees. This step is necessary because Senate Democrats have used the 30 hours now permitted to stall nominees. The result is an unacceptable backlog of qualified, confirmable nominees. Consequently, judgeships and key administration jobs remain vacant. Now it finally looks like Majority McConnell will pull the trigger.
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March 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, I noted that Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta failed, in effect, to receive a “full confidence” declaration from the White House. Sarah Sanders’ statement in this regard followed a White House meeting in which, according to what I heard, Mick Mulvaney and at least one key domestic policy adviser urged President Trump to fire Acosta. Given Acosta’s scandalous behavior in connection with the sweetheart deal he gave
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