I HOPE IT WAS FOR A LOT: Columbia University settles with former student falsely accused of rape by ‘Mattress Girl.’
Archive for 2017
July 14, 2017
MICHAEL BARONE: Anti-Trump overreach could backfire.
Overreach. President Trump seems to have an uncanny knack for provoking it in his opponents and critics. This often hurts him and the country. But it has the potential to hurt those doing the overreach as well.
Start with Trump’s speech in Warsaw last week. “As the Polish experience reminds us,” he said after recounting in vivid detail how Poland rebounded from decades of horrors, “The defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means, but also on the will of its people to prevail. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”
Vitriolic criticism was quick to come from the left. “A statement of racial and religious paranoia,” wrote the Atlantic’s Peter Beinart. “The West is a racial and religious term,” he explained. An “alt-right” speech, said the New Republic’s Jeet Heer, “meant to conjure blood-and-soil nationalism.”
But Trump’s text included praise of Poland’s and Western civilizations’ resistance to Nazi and Communist totalitarianism, empowering women, striving for excellence, valuing the dignity of human life, debating and challenging “everything.” Presumably, Trump’s critics embrace each of these products of Western civilization.
Nonetheless, they sneer at Trump’s pledge to oppose “another oppressive ideology — one that seeks to export terrorism and extremism all around the globe.” But that threat of Islamic terrorism is real.
Trump was speaking for those, like Britain’s Douglas Murray in his book, The Strange Death of Europe, who fear that European leaders’ welcome of millions of unvetted Muslim “refugees” threatens to degrade and perhaps destroy the liberal achievements of the West. That is not racism, but prudence.
To maintain the opposite, to advocate entirely open borders, is not only problematic politically, but also as public policy. In the weeks since Trump spoke, Western eminences not considered illiberal have questioned the wisdom of allowing unlimited immigration to the West by peoples in African countries whose populations, according to United Nations projections, are set to zoom far above European levels.
Bill Gates, whose philanthropy has contributed to that growth, called for turning back boats of would-be migrants in the Mediterranean and said the influx to Germany is unsustainable. European Parliament President Antonio Lajani predicted an exodus “of biblical proportions” if migration is not limited now. French President Emanuel Macron said that Africa’s “civilizational” problems — “failed states,” “violent fundamentalism,” “Islamic terrorism” — make unlimited migration undesirable.
To call these statements “racism” or “dog whistles” to “white nationalists” is nonsense.
But that’s all they’ve got. Read the whole thing.
What journalists hate most about the current environment is that nobody takes them seriously anymore. That goes against all the career plans they made in high school.
QUESTION ASKED: Who’s Colluding With Whom?
Scott McKay:
But in June, [Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya] was permitted to fly back to the U.S., have the meeting with Trump Junior — at Trump Tower, no less — and then end up in the front row for a congressional hearing involving testimony from a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, then turning up at a D.C. showing of a documentary film on the negative effects of the Magnitsky Act, and later appearing at a dinner involving Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and former Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA) who is now a lobbyist for the Russians. The repeal of that legislation is a priority item for the Russians and a personal project of Veselnitskaya’s; it, rather than any Clinton dirt, was reportedly the primary subject brought forth at the meeting with Donald Trump Jr.
All of this without a visa! Not to mention Veselnitskaya didn’t file a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) document before acting as a lobbyist for a foreign entity, as required by law. Neither, apparently, did Dellums. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote a fascinating letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking them to please find out what in the hell Veselnitskaya was doing in this country last June.
And further, it turns out Veselnitskaya was connected to Fusion GPS, the Democrat oppo research firm which employed a former British spy who used Russian contacts to produce the infamous and debunked Pee Pee Dossier smearing Trump. Veselnitskaya hired Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson to work on behalf of Prevezon, the company she was allowed into the country to represent, in its efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act. Fusion then hired Christopher Steele, the British spy who drew on Russian sources to produce that dossier, and made him available for private briefings on the dossier with left-leaning media sources such as Mother Jones, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo! News, the New Yorker and CNN in September.
If it weren’t for projection, all the progressive left would have is lies and hate.
COLLUSION: Frank Gaffney: Congress Still Hasn’t Investigated Clinton Ties to Russian Military Tech Initiative. “It just, coincidentally I’m sure, happens that a lot of the people who were going to be involved in transferring incredibly important technology – including by the way dual-use, which is to say militarily relevant technology as well as civilian – were people who were donors to the Clinton Foundation. . . . Among them were people who gave former President Bill Clinton half a million dollars for a public speaking gig in Russia. These are the sorts of things that I believe scream out for investigation.”
SUSTAINABILITY: Monthly Federal Spending Tops $400B for First Time.
Real monthly federal spending topped $400 billion for the first time in June, when the Treasury spent a record $428,894,000,000, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.
Prior to June, the record for federal spending in a single month was held by March 2017, when the Treasury spent approximately $392,816,000,000.
In August 2012, the Treasury spent $392,408,410,000 in constant 2017 dollars
As the Treasury was spending a record $428,894,000,000 in June it was taking in approximately $338,660,000,000 in taxes—thus, running a deficit for the month of $90,233,000,000.
Washington has added more than $500 billion in new debt so far this fiscal year — absent an economic downturn or a major war.
“COMRADES” IS GENDER-NEUTRAL, RIGHT? London Underground Tosses ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ for Gender-Neutral Greetings and Announcements.
SO HE’S GOING TO CAMPAIGN LIKE A DEMOCRAT? Promising a ‘Vicious and Ruthless’ Campaign, Trump Supporter Corey Stewart Announces Senate Bid.
THIS ONE WAS JUST TOO BIG TO CLEVERLY SUMMARIZE: Liz Sheld’s morning brief has everything, and I do mean everything.
I’D ALMOST FORGOTTEN THE WHOLE “EMOLUMENTS” KERFUFFLE: Josh Blackman & Seth Barrett Tillman, in the New York Times: Yes, Trump Can Accept Gifts. “More than two centuries ago, the storming of the Bastille was commemorated when the Marquis de Lafayette, then a French government official, gave President George Washington the main key to the demolished fortress — a gift Washington kept without asking for Congress’s permission. Indeed, other early presidents followed this tradition of accepting gifts from other nations without ever seeking congressional consent. This practice is one that Mr. Trump’s legal adversaries ignore as they attempt to redefine the meaning of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause. Federal courts should not allow them to create a new legal restriction on the president’s conduct.”
What’s more, it’s not an “emolument” at all when a foreigner stays in a Trump Hotel. The unending variety of strained legal arguments being offered for transparently partisan reasons is doing more to undermine the rule of law than it is to undermine Trump. It’s sad to see some formerly respectable people jumping on board.
Meanwhile, a thought: Say Trump actually gets tired of this and resigns. Will Democrats be happy with what comes next? I suggest that they won’t. Two likely things: Trump doesn’t actually go away, but wages full-time political war against his critics, while Mike Pence becomes miraculously transformed into Hitler, just like all Republicans do once they’re president. Then if I’m Pence I name Ted Cruz VP, because enough Dems and Republicans would fear a Cruz presidency to put the kibosh on any efforts to get rid of Pence — and enough Dems and Republicans in the Senate dislike Cruz to ensure they’d confirm him just to get him out of there. . . .
But seriously, these people haven’t thought things through, and it will come back to bite them.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: “I want to make a prediction: The next successful Republican politician will rally the Right by making America’s universities his punching bag — and the universities will prove even more vulnerable to that politician’s attacks than the media were to Donald Trump’s.”
If Republicans want to change the culture – really change the culture – reforming academy should be their top priority:
The next Trump, then, will play to the worst fears of parents by going after colleges and universities. In doing so, he will unite the best, the worst, and all the other elements of the Right. They will be primed to hear the critique, which will be partially or even largely correct. The next Steve Bannon will seek to “overthrow” the university system from behind the scenes. And the universities, like the media before them, will walk right into the trap, while the Left rejects potential voters as deplorable ignoramuses.
Can you see it yet?
You bet — read the whole thing.
Related: The Closing of the American Mind Now.
TRIGGER WARNING, DEMOCRATS: Your Path To Political Revival Is Through Trump Voters.
To win again, the Democrats don’t need to adopt an alien agenda or back away from policies aimed at racial justice. But their leaders would be well advised to change their rhetorical priorities and more directly address the country’s bastions of gloom. The party has been crushed—not just in the recent presidential election, but in countless down-ballot elections—by its failure to develop a message that can resonate with people beyond the core members of the Obama coalition, and by its unwillingness to blare its hostility to crony capitalism.
The makings of a Democratic majority are real. Demographic advantages will continue to accrue to the left. The party needs only to add to its coalition on the margins and in the right patches on the map. Doing that does not require the abandonment of any moral principles; persuasion is a different category of political activity from pandering. A decent liberalism, not to mention a savvy party, shouldn’t struggle to accord dignity and respect to citizens, even if it believes some of them hold abhorrent views.
It may take a generational shift before Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” remark is not longer the Democrats’ brand with the white working class voters who were already fleeing the party.
Meanwhile, younger Americans are trending more conservative than is widely appreciated on economic issues. That gives the GOP an opening to pursue the youth vote — although doing so will probably require a tricky combination of accepting defeat on certain social issues (gay marriage, aspects of the Drug War) while doubling down on others (religious liberty, campus reform, and the like).
WHY ARE LEFTIST INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF RACISM? Evergreen student: ‘This school seems to focus so much on race that it is actually becoming more racist.’
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Seventh grader, far ahead of her class, punished for taking too many courses.
THE HILL: Lawmaker pushes probe of whether Comey leaked classified info.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) want Congress to investigate of whether former FBI Director Jim Comey leaked confidential information in a memo that was leaked to the press.
“We don’t know if the memo that he leaked through his friend to the New York Times contained confidential information, but we do know based on that [news] story — that other memos he put together may have had confidential classified information,” Jordan, member of the Oversight Committee ,said in an interview with The Hill’s Molly K. Hooper.
“That warrants us examining those, that matter as well and getting to bottom of it,” Jordan said, adding that he’s “pushing for hearings right now in the Judiciary Committee on the Comey/Lynch matter.”
The Hill on Sunday reported that more than half of the memos that Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump contained classified information.
Josh Marshall was saying on Twitter the other day that Trump thinks everybody in DC is dirty. If so, well, he’s not wrong. . . .
TECHNOLOGISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS: China’s Grip on Maps Hinders Self-Driving Car Makers.
Self-driving cars need detailed maps to help them discern their exact location, navigate tricky intersections and avoid fixed objects like buildings. But China limits the amount of mapping that can be done by foreign companies, citing national security concerns.
Global car makers already need to partner with a local company to open factories in China, but some are skeptical they will be able to find a way to operate their autonomous-car software in China because of the mapping restrictions.
Brian McClendon, an industry pioneer who helped created Google Maps and later headed up Uber Technologies Inc.’s self-driving effort, said he doubted U.S. software would ever be adopted for self-driving cars in China.
“We’re going to have a bifurcated market for self-driving—China will do China and the U.S. will do U.S. and the rest of the world will quickly choose and do one or the other,” said Mr. McClendon, now a research professor at the University of Kansas.
I’m reminded a bit of the Soviet Union’s strict controls on fax machines and photocopiers — for all the good that did them — and have to wonder if anyone outside China will trust Beijing-approved technology.
OUT: THE “DEEP STATE” IS A FIGMENT OF THE PARANOID RIGHT-WING IMAGINATION. In: The Deep State Is Actually Good For You.
IT’S A FAT, JUICY TARGET: The Next Right-Wing Populist Will Win by Attacking American Higher Education. “American higher-education is incredibly screwed up. Only its most servile apologists will deny that.”
HEY, NOBODY’S PERFECT: The DNC is Debt-Ridden, Unpopular, and Failing.
MIDEAST: Qatar Needs To Be Brought To Heel.
O CANADA: Oil Sands Help Shale Stymie OPEC’s Effort to Rebalance Market.
As oil rigs in the U.S. jumped 45 percent this year, north of the border, oil-sands companies including Devon Energy Corp., Suncor Energy Inc. and Cenovus Energy Inc. have ramped up operations as well. Their thermal production sites are running as much as 30 percent above capacity this year, squeezing barrels from existing production sites to maximize revenue.
Oil sands will be second to shale as the biggest contributor to global supply growth over the next two years with half a million barrels a day of production scheduled to enter the market, according to IHS Energy. The growth seen across North America is blunting the impact of output cuts agreed to by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers including Russia.
These days, everybody is drilling their way to lower prices.
HOORAY FOR HEATHER GERKEN: Dean of Yale Law School: Campus Free Speech Is Not Up for Debate. “In law schools we don’t just teach our students to know the weaknesses in their own arguments. We demand that they imaginatively and sympathetically reconstruct the best argument on the other side.”
We certainly should. I’m already liking Gerken better than her predecessor, who didn’t seem to grasp this stuff at all.