December 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Emanuel Macron finally responded today to the protests and riots that have roiled France. In his speech, he declared that he’s heard the anger of those whose economic suffering prompted the protests and will take immediate steps to believe their hardship. What steps? An increase in the minimum wage, for one. Macron announced that those earning the minimum wage will receive a supplement of 100 euros per month, or about
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December 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted this about Rex Tilleson, his former Secretary of State: Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell. Now it is a whole new ballgame, great spirit at State! Trump
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December 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump needs a new White House chief-of-staff to replace Gen. John Kelly. Trump isn’t on speaking terms with Kelly, which has tended to limit the general’s effectiveness. Trump reportedly wanted Nick Ayers for the job. Ayers is the chief-of-staff for Vice President Pence. That job is to White House chief-of-staff as cat sitter is to tiger sitter. Ayers said no thanks. Where will Trump turn? Leading candidates are said
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December 9, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Scott has described Andy McCarthy’s article “Why Trump is likely to be indicted by Manhattan US Attorney.” McCarthy does the heavy lifting associated with a legal analysis of whether Trump has, in fact, violated campaign finance law, as the Manhattan U.S. Attorney seems to believe. The six observations I want to add involve light lifting, at most, but may be of interest even so. First, as McCarthy says, Justice Department
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December 9, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
If the New York Times is right, Mueller’s theory of wrongdoing by President Trump boils down to “defraud[ing] voters.” This theory is worthy of ridicule. If Democrats want to impeach Trump, and I think they do, they will need theories that are more concrete. David French envisages one: a claim that Trump participated in an effort to provide false testimony to investigators. This allegation, he notes, was part of the
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December 8, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
“Prosecutors’ Narrative Is Clear: Trump Defrauded Voters.” So declares the first part of the headline of a New York Times article by Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos. The rest of the headline asks “But What Does It Mean?” Good question. It may mean that the prosecutors haven’t found a crime, but are still pissed off that Trump won the election. I find odd the notion that Trump defrauded voters. No
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December 8, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Rudy Giuliani says Team Mueller doesn’t believe President Trump’s claim that he was unaware in advance of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian-connected lawyer. Giuliani concludes this from his understanding of the way Mueller’s team interrogated Paul Manafort. I’m not sure I believe President Trump’s claim either. It’s not just that on the very day the meeting with the Russians was confirmed, Trump
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December 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Alex Acosta’s Labor Department has authorized OSHA inspectors “to use camera-carrying drones as part of their inspections of outdoor workplaces.” So reports Bloomberg Law, linking to a May 18, 2018 DOL memorandum obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The memorandum requires inspectors to “obtain express consent from the employer” before using a drone, thus likely avoiding a Fourth Amendment problem. However, as prominent labor lawyer and former DOL
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December 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Joe Manchin is the leading contender to become the senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Manchin, however, is pro-coal, as befits a Senator from West Virginia. And when Manchin ran for the Senate in 2010, a campaign ad featured him shooting a bullet through a piece of “climate change” legislation. The left wasn’t amused then, and it isn’t amused now. Tom Steyer has joined environmental
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December 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
William Barr, who served as Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush, reportedly is the leading candidate to become President Trump’s new Attorney General. According to the Washington Post, “two people familiar with internal discussions said the president has told advisers in recent days that he plans to nominate Barr.” Barr was the general counsel of GTE when I represented that company (as one of dozens of lawyers from at
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December 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post takes time out from urging that the U.S. blow up relations with Saudi Arabia, as retribution for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, to provide a clear-eyed assessment of reality in the Middle East. The Post’s Liz Sly finds that Russia has become the region’s rising power. Russia has made huge inroads, commercial and diplomatic, throughout the Middle East. The nations that now woo Putin run the gamut
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December 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein bought his way out of a lawsuit that would have given some of his victims the opportunity to testify about his predatory and criminal conduct. Victims never got that opportunity when Epstein faced criminal charges, because Alex Acosta — then the lead prosecutor, now the Secretary of Labor — let Epstein off with a ridiculously lenient sentence. Despite having committed hideous sex offenses with
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December 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The City Council of Washington, D.C. has approved a measure decriminalizing fare evasion in its public transportation system. In D.C., “fare-jumping” will become a civil offense punishable only by a $50 fine. The legislation was originally introduced by dumb-as-a-rock anti-Semite Trayon White. It passed by a vote of 10-2. Fare-jumping is, of course, a form of theft. And not an innocuous form. The local transit authority loses more than $25
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December 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
On Sunday, I wrote about the riots in the heart of Paris. As a source for how the riots disrupted life in some of the areas where they occurred, I used the report of a friend who lives in the center city. That friend has called my attention to comments critical of my reliance on him. The complaint is that my source, because he lives in a well-to-do neighborhood, is
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December 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The answer from a football standpoint is maybe. From a personal standpoint my answer is I hope they don’t. First, some background. When last we looked in on the 2018 Redskins, their quarterback, Alex Smith, had suffered a horrible leg break. Longtime Skins backup QB Colt McCoy had assumed command. No one questioned McCoy’s elevation. But McCoy needed a backup. For that job, Washington selected Mark Sanchez. In doing so
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December 4, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that Beto O’Rourke, who is weighing whether to mount a 2020 presidential bid, met recently with Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. The meeting reportedly took place on November 16. According to the Post, some former Obama aides have encouraged O’Rourke to run for president. They see him as capable of the kind of campaign that caught fire in the 2008 presidential election. Some Republicans are, or
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December 4, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Heather Mac Donald has written and spoken extensively about how identity politics is hampering America’s ability to maintain its dominance in STEM fields. Our main competitors, most notably China, are focused on making sure the best scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are doing the work. They care nothing about gender. And they spend virtually every dollar related to STEM on hard research and analysis. The U.S., by contrast, is preoccupied with
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