May 25, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured image Ammo Grrrll revisits the soundtrack of her road trip and gets real about those PROMISES, PROMISES! She writes: Regular readers know that I recently made a long road trip. But, it really doesn’t matter if I’m only driving two miles to the Walmart — basically, I cannot drive without music. My eclectic driving soundtracks range from Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto to Broadway show tunes to Toby Keith’s sensitive love ballad, »
May 24, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Leftist Fraud All the Way Down

Featured imageHoo boy, it’s been almost three years since last we checked in on the total fraud of Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who pretended to be black in Spokane, Washington, parlaying her ethnic identity theft into the presidency of the local chapter of the NAACP. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that someone who could insist on such complete fraudulence as Dolezal would limit her fraud to just her ethnic »
May 24, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Trump’s excellent letter to Kim

Featured imageAs Steve discussed earlier today, President Trump has cancelled his planned summit with Kim Jong Un. As a fan of the NBA, Kim should have seen it coming. When obnoxious leftist leaders of the Golden State Warriors indicated they might not come to the White House to be honored, Trump “uninvited” them. So Kim shouldn’t have been surprised that when his regime suggested it might cancel the summit, Trump beat »
May 24, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

James Clapper deceives again

Featured imageIn his new book, James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, says “of course” Russian activity swung the election to Donald Trump. The left is treating this speculation, almost certainly driven by animus towards President Trump, as immensely important. For example, Rachel Maddow said, ahead of her interview with Clapper: “The immediate past director of national intelligence, who was director of national intelligence during the Russian attack on the »
May 24, 2018 — John Hinderaker

Media Alert

Featured imageI will guest host Laura Ingraham’s radio show tomorrow. The show runs live from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern, and is heard at other times in some geographies. Our guest lineup is still being finalized, but North Korea and Spygate will no doubt figure prominently. You can go here to find a radio station in your area or to listen online. If you miss the show live, you can »
May 24, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

Judge rules against Trump on Twitter blocking

Featured imageYesterday, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, a Clinton appointee, ruled that President Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking certain followers because of the views they expressed. Judge Buchwald found Trump’s blocking to be “viewpoint discrimination,” which it is, and held that Trump is not exempt from constitutional obligations to refrain from such conduct. Then came the obligatory incantation: “No government official — including the President — is above the law.” »
May 24, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Comey & Clapper clarify

Featured imageDid the FBI spy on the Trump campaign? Sharyl Attkisson compiles “8 signs pointing to a counterintelligence operation deployed against Trump’s campaign.” Although you’d never know it from the New York Times and its mainstream media colleagues, it looks like the biggest scandal in American political history. Here to lend a hand, Michael Barone provides understated and much needed historical perspective to his media colleagues: “Until 2016, just about everyone »
May 24, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Not dark yet

Featured imageToday is the birthday of Minnesota native son Bob Dylan; he turns the ripe old age of 77. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. We’re going to celebrate him as long we’re both still around to enjoy the occasion. He is a remarkable artist, self-invented, deep in the American grain. A few years back I visited Dylan’s old home at 2425 7th Avenue East in Hibbing. The house »
May 23, 2018 — John Hinderaker

How Low Can the ACLU Fall?

Featured imageDuring recent testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said that “the issue of reporting undocumented students is a ‘school decision’ and ‘local community decision,’ adding that ‘we have laws and we also are compassionate.'” That is an accurate, well-balanced statement: for better or worse, Americans do not have a legal duty to aid law enforcement. But it wasn’t good enough for the »
May 23, 2018 — John Hinderaker

James Comey In Panic Mode

Featured imageThat’s my interpretation of this tweet, anyway: Dangerous time when our country is led by those who will lie about anything, backed by those who will believe anything, based on information from media sources that will say anything. Americans must break out of that bubble and seek truth. — James Comey (@Comey) May 23, 2018 Many people criticize Donald Trump’s tweets as ill-advised, unpresidential, and so on. Perhaps so. But »
May 23, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Got Dem Blues?

Featured imageRemember that blue wave tsunami coming to wipe out Republicans in the mid-term elections? Well, it seems to have hit a sandbar far from shore. First, the “generic ballot” of which party voters prefer for Congress has suddenly swung in favor of Republicans, following months of a slowly but steadily narrowing lead for Democrats. The newest poll, from Reuters (generally thought to be without any possible Republican bias—see chart below), »
May 24, 2018 — Steven Hayward

Breaking: Trump Cancels Nork Summit

Featured imageThe White House has just announced that President Trump has cancelled the planned summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. This is an excellent move by Trump, I think. Just this morning my old AEI colleague Nick Eberstadt warned in the Wall Street Journal: North Korea is also threatening to scrap the Singapore parley unless denuclearization is taken off the agenda. There’s no need for Kremlinology here. These are standard »
May 24, 2018 — Scott Johnson

Not dark yet, cont’d

Featured imageBob Dylan is first and foremost a songwriter. He somehow absorbed the folk, rock, country and blues traditions as a precocious young man and then recapitulated them in his own voice many times over while adding a twist of modernist poetry to the mix. On his birthday, I want to take the liberty of reposting some notable cover versions of great songs you may not have heard before, at least »
May 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

North Korea lashes out at Pence, threatens to cancel summit

Featured imageEarlier this week, President Trump seemed to suggest that, in the absence of a nuclear deal with the U.S., Kim Jong Un’s regime might suffer the same fate as the Qaddafi regime in Libya did. Mike Pence then made this threat explicit, saying: “As the president made clear, this will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal.” In response, North Korea’s Vice »
May 23, 2018 — Scott Johnson

The Strib does Tomi Lahren [With Comment by John]

Featured imageRochelle Olson is a pitiful excuse of a reporter for the Star Tribune. Back in 2006, I called her out as “reckless and feckless,” a judgment I stand by today. This is her jocular take on the assault (“liquid launching incident”) on Tomi Lahren at a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis over the weekend, posted on the Star Tribune website this afternoon now that President Trump has weighed in (I have »
May 23, 2018 — John Hinderaker

NFL: If On the Field, Players Must Stand For Anthem

Featured imageThe NFL has unanimously adopted a policy that is intended to end the controversy over players protesting the national anthem: players are not required to be on the field while the anthem is played, but if they are on the field, players (and staff) must stand. This is an instance of actions speaking louder than words. A lot of nonsense was said and written last season about the anthem protests, »
May 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff

First step in a jail break [UPDATED]

Featured imageThe House has passed the “Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act.” Why the ridiculous name? Because it spells out FIRST STEP. FIRST STEP is an appropriate name. As we will see, this legislation is intended to be the first step towards a jail break. A combination of Democrats and libertarians, aided by Sen. Charles Grassley who is neither, has been trying for several years to reduce »