April 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Trayon White is the D.C. Council member who explained that Jewish financiers control the climate and create natural disasters to gain political control. I called him anti-semitic and dumb as a rock. To his credit, White has been trying to make amends. Reportedly, he attended a Passover Seder. In addition he visited the Holocaust Museum. Unfortunately, the museum visit will only reinforce the “dumb as a rock” tag while doing
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April 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s start with the disclosure thing. As an attorney, I had the good fortune to represent Starbucks in various matters, including a case, a matter of public record, where race discrimination was alleged (but not found). Nothing in this post is based on any information obtained as an attorney representing the company more than six years ago. What to make of the arrest of two black men at a Starbucks
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April 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes released the following statement after the Committees received James Comey’s memos. Their statement is, I believe, spot on: We have long argued former Director Comey’s self-styled memos should be in the public domain, subject to any classification redactions. These memos are significant for both
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April 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Justice Department’s inspector general (IG) referred his finding that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe repeatedly misled investigators for a determination of whether McCabe should be criminally prosecuted. The referral was to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. It came shortly after the IG issued his report on McCabe’s misconduct. A criminal referral does not necessarily mean a criminal prosecution. It means the U.S. Attorney will consider
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April 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, I wrote that Senate Majority Leader McConnell seems finally to be displaying a sense of urgency in getting President Trump’s nominees confirmed. He had threatened to keep the Senate in session on Fridays and even over the weekend in order to get a slate of nominees confirmed. The tactic worked and the slate got its long-awaited vote which resulted in confirmation. Yesterday, the Washington Examiner reported that McConnell
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April 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
They say that no one likes a loser. I don’t think that’s true in sports, where winning teams seem less liked than losing ones. When I coached youth basketball, I was more popular the year my team went 8-8 than the year we were 16-0. In politics, though, the saying generally holds true. One reason is probably that so many people have so much riding on a politician’s success. Unlike
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April 18, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Senate today voted to kill a five-year-old Obama administration “guidance” on making auto loans to minority borrowers. The House almost certainly will follow suit. The guidance, issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, took aim at a common industry practice whereby auto dealers mark up interest rates offered by finance companies. The finance companies set an interest rate based on objective criteria such as borrowers’ credit history and the
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April 18, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
There was an interesting clash yesterday between Justice Neil Gorsuch and the other conservative Supreme Court Justices. In the case of Sessions v. Dimaya, the Court held that the government could not deport a legal resident who was twice convicted of first-degree burglary. The majority consisted of the four liberal Justices plus Justice Gorsuch, who wrote a separate concurrence. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas wrote separate dissents. The Immigration
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April 18, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
William Drozdiak of the Washington Post writes about the strong relationship between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron. According to Drozdiak, the two speak to each other once or twice a week about policy, more than President Trump talks with any other world leader. Macron reportedly has influenced Trump on such key issues as expelling Russian diplomats and bombing Syria. Drozdiak finds this “bromance” surprising, and on a superficial level it
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April 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
We have seen that, from a conservative perspective, the Alex Acosta Department of Labor is bad on immigration, bad on equal pay, and weak on at least one important wage and hour law issue. Now we learn that it is also bad on religious liberty. We learn this from the case of Acosta v. Cathedral Buffet, Inc.; Ernest Angley. In this action, the Department of Labor sued a restaurant operated
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April 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Michael Anton is the author of the famous “The Flight 93 Election” article, a powerful statement of the case for supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy. Until recently, he served as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council. When Gen. McMaster was replaced as NSC head, Anton left the White House to return to teaching and commentating. “The Flight 93 Election” piece appeared in “American Greatness.”
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April 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
James Comey’s book and interview tour may enable him gain personal enrichment and public attention. However, they will further stain his reputation within the FBI. That, at least, is the conclusion I reach from this article in the Daily Beast. Jana Winter reports: James Comey’s first interview since President Trump fired him as director of the FBI has enraged his former agents who deluged the Daily Beast with their disdain
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April 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
One of the main targets of our air attack on Syria the other day was described by the Pentagon as a “scientific research center located in the greater Damascus area.” We attacked it because it’s “a Syrian center for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological warfare.” But how central is it to Assad’s chemical weapons program? If we can answer that question, we will have a
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April 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Mediaite reports that Laura Ingraham maintained her ratings in her first week back from vacation following the ad boycott launched against her show prompted by that kid and the anti-gun movement. Ingraham had more viewers than Mad Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC’s host in the same time slot, and twice as many viewers as CNN’s entry, “CNN Tonight.” As for sponsors, one has returned so far. Ace Hardware will resume its sponsorship.
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April 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
For months, Sen. Cory Gardner has been blocking the Trump administration from staffing key positions at the DOJ. Among these position are Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division; Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division; Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division; and, until Gardner was finally shamed into relenting, Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division. In all, around 20 positions reportedly were affected. You might think that Gardner’s obstruction leaves these key divisions
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April 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2013, when the Obama administration was trying to convince Congress to authorize an attack on Syria to enforce its “red line’ against Assad using chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry promised that the attack would be an “unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.” He often used the word “degrade,” rather than “destroy,” to describe the impact of the contemplated attack on Syria’s chemical weapons program. Kerry received plenty
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April 13, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has kept his promise to strike Syria in response to the recent chemical attack launched by the Assad regime. Tonight, U.S. air power attacked three Syrian targets. The first was a research center believed to be used to develop chemical weapons. The second was a chemical weapons storage facility. The third was a command center believed to be used in connection with chemical warfare. The U.S. acted together
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