(Scott Johnson) Guitarist Jeff Beck died on Tuesday at the age of 78. I learned of his death via Jim Farber’s New York Times obituary, which does a good job of covering Beck’s long career in music. The documentary Still On the Run — The Jeff Beck Story (2018) is also out there for viewing and (as I recall) explores his interest in building cars as well as making music. He appeared
Category: Power Line Blog
More Documents In a Closet
(John Hinderaker) President Biden suffered another embarrassment today when it turned out that there was a second batch of classified documents in a location that is so far undisclosed, but is different from the Penn office where the first classified documents were discovered. This is obviously embarrassing for the Democrats, given that they were hoping to indict Donald Trump for having classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago basement. The White House’s response to
Reminder: Power Line University in One Hour!
(Steven Hayward) Just your 6 pm Eastern time reminder that our next Power Line University class on The Federalist begins one hour from this posting (7 pm Eastern time). Lucretia has had some unavoidable scheduling problems crop up today and will be late for class, but I’ll be there to launch on time and carry on solo as long as possible. If you’re able to join us live, use this Zoom link.
The Daily Chart: Bloat for Blubberers
(Steven Hayward) Administrative bloat on university campuses is a familiar story, but worth keeping a constant spotlight on it until some university trustees or state legislatures (in the case of public universities) decide to wise up and do something about it. This first chart is more than a decade out of date, and surely the administrative cost numbers are much worse now. Especially when you see things like this Mark Perry chart
Thought for the Day: Hamilton on Biden’s Corruption
(Steven Hayward) News item: A government watchdog is demanding the US attorney probing Hunter Biden in Delaware investigate tens of millions in anonymous donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania, where an academic center is named for his father, President Biden. The Ivy League college raked in a total of $54.6 million from 2014 through June 2019 in donations from China, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according
Loose Ends (201)
(Steven Hayward) • So all airline flights were grounded for several hours this morning because of software problems at the Federal Aviation Administration. Gosh, this might distract Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg from his all-important mission to remedy racist roads, and punishing Southwest Air Lines for their computer software problems. Southwest may be facing fines from the Dept. of Transportation, as well as reimbursing expenses for stranded passengers. Think anyone at the FAA
Applying Pelosi’s precedent
(Scott Johnson) AP congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri report via Twitter (below) that Speaker Kevin McCarthy will follow through on his promise to remove Reps. Eric Swalwell (Intelligence), Adam Schiff (Intelligence), and Ilhan Omar (Foreign Affairs) from their committee assignments. Of the three, I think Schiff is the worst. He should be tarred and feathered and run out of town for abuse of his position as Intelligence committee chairman to perpetuate the Russia
Biden explains
(Scott Johnson) President Biden held a joint press conference yesterday with Prime Minister Trudeau and President López Obrador in Mexico City. The White House has posted the transcript here. The press conference followed a meeting at the so-called Three Amigos Summit. I would prefer to think of them as the Three Egregios. They are egregiously destructive leaders. North America is in bad hands. Following a reading of prepared statements by the Three
A Vote On the Fair Tax
(John Hinderaker) The Fair Tax has been a staple in conservative circles for quite a few years. It is a national sales tax that is intended to replace the income tax. There is much to be said for the Fair Tax: as a tax on consumption, it would encourage saving and investment. It is relatively easy to administer; nearly all states already have a sales tax. And it would allow us to
Solar Energy Is Useless
(John Hinderaker) Or perhaps one should say: utility scale solar energy is useless. In northern climates, like where I live, solar panels produce electricity around 18% of the time–not a lot of electricity, any electricity. The vast majority of the time, they are inert. It’s not just that solar panels do nothing during the night, as Duke Energy recently reminded its customers following a series of blackouts. In the North, solar panels