October 21, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Way back in 1998, voters in the State of Washington approved Initiative 200 by a margin 58 to 42 percent. Initiative 200 was a clone of California’s Proposition 209. It prohibited the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. However, as Gail
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October 21, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Nancy Pelosi is dabbling in Middle East policy again. She’s leading a congressional delegation to Jordan to discuss Middle East “peace” and Syria with members of the royal family. This isn’t Pelosi’s first foray into Syrian matters. More than a decade ago, she met with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. At that time, she pronounced Assad the key bringing peace to the Middle East. “The road to peace is through Damascus,” the
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October 20, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Baltimore Orioles were down three games to one to the New York Mets entering Game Five of the 1969 World Series. The Orioles thus needed to win three straight games. The previous year, the Detroit Tigers had overcome a three games to one deficit against the St. Louis Cardinals. However, that was only the third time in the history of the World Series this had been accomplished. The Orioles
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October 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The next G-7 summit, which is due to be held in the U.S., will take place at Doral, the luxury resort Trump owns in Florida. It was the decision to hold the summit there that Mick Mulvaney was explaining and defending before he unwisely decided to spar with reporters over the temporary withholding of aid to Ukraine. According to Mulvaney, Doral was added to the list of about a dozen
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October 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I want to take another look at Mick Mulvaney’s presser — the one that Democrats and the mainstream media claim nails down the existence of a quid pro quo arrangement between President Trump and Ukraine (or offer thereof) involving U.S. military aid. My previous post focused on the fact that if Mulvaney was talking about a quid pro quo, it wasn’t military aid in exchange for conducting an investigation of
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October 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney held a press conference today. Mulvaney cited two reasons for the holding up of military aid to Ukraine: (1) lack of a contribution by European countries and (2) corruption in Ukraine. Then he added: Did [Trump] also mention to me in passing the corruption related to the DNC server?” Absolutely, no question about that. But that’s it, and that’s why we held
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October 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
International football, by which I mean nations playing other nations, has a strong and obvious nationalist component. The anthems of the two teams are played before the matches commence. Some players belt out the song with the gusto one would expect at a feverish nationalist rally. Fans paint their faces in the colors of their nation. Some countries come to a standstill the day their team plays. FIFA, the body
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October 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Two years ago at this time, we (and many others) were writing about the decline in television viewership of the National Football League. Back then, the NFL was reeling from controversy sparked by some players kneeling during the National Anthem. The League’s critics included President Trump. Two years on, players are no longer kneeling, Trump is no longer criticizing, and NFL viewership is on the rise. According to Pro Football
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October 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Four years ago, we published an article by a distinguished alum of Princeton University. He documented the leftist takeover of Princeton, tracing it back to the late 1960s and the rise of William Bowen and Shirley Tilghman. He wrote: Over the years, beginning as early as the 1960s and 1970s, Princeton loaded up its faculty with liberals, socialists, Marxists, and other fellow travellers, and more recently, with people like Paul
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October 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
With the 1969 World Series tied at one game for the Baltimore Orioles and one game for the New York Mets, the Series moved to New York City. The pitching matchup was Jim Palmer vs. Gary Gentry. It favored Baltimore. Palmer, who came into prominence by outpitching Sandy Koufax in Game Two of the 1966 Series, had fought off serious injury to become one the best pitchers in baseball. His
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October 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
There are respectable arguments in favor of the pullback of U.S. troops in northeastern Syria. I don’t find them persuasive, but they are serious. Unfortunately, President Trump persists in making ludicrous arguments. One of them, the fact that the Kurds didn’t help us with the Normandy invasion, I discussed here. I hoped that this argument was a throwaway — a one-off. No such luck. Now, Trump is claiming that the
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October 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I once heard Jonah Goldberg talk about a book in which multiple conservative and multiple liberal authors were asked to write whatever they wanted to about politics and political theory. As Goldberg told the story (or at least as I remember it), the conservative authors collectively presented an array of theoretical musings (libertarian, social conservative, natural law based, etc.). The liberal authors all wrote about how Democrats could win the
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October 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump says he will raise tariffs on Turkish steel due to Turkey’s invasion of Syria. He will also halt negotiations on a trade deal. In addition, certain Turkish ministers associated with the invasion will be sanctioned. Trump notes that “Turkey’s military offensive is endangering civilians and threatens peace, security and stability in the region.” The result, he adds, is a “humanitarian crisis” that “Turkey does not seem to be
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October 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Lebron James has weighed in on the controversy over the expression by the Houston Rockets’ general manager of sympathy for the people of Hong Kong, and on the NBA’s reaction thereto. James accused the GM, Daryl Morey, of thinking only about himself. James said: [A]t times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself. I don’t want
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October 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Charles Barkley claims that those who criticize the NBA for not taking a stance on China are hypocrites (and worse). He says people ripped Colin Kaepernick for taking a stance on race relations and the police in America, yet want the NBA and its players to take positions about what happens in a foreign country. Barkley is wide of the mark. First, Kaepernick was ripped not for taking a position
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October 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The heavily favored Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Mets in Game One of the 1969 World Series. Game Two seemed like a must-win affair for the Mets. They sent Jerry Koosman to the mound to face Dave McNally. These were two of the very best left-handed pitchers in baseball at the time. Koosman was a farm boy from Minnesota. He hadn’t played high school baseball because his high school
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October 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
We know from documentary evidence that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, told William Taylor, our ambassador to Ukraine [correction, the chargé d’affaires], that there was no quid pro quo involved in connection with Ukraine investigating the Bidens. Sondland appears to have been the president’s point person within the diplomatic corps for dealing with Ukraine in these matters. Sondland will testify before a congressional committee this week. According
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