Power Line

With news breaking of the possible involvement of President Obama in the FBI investigation of Carter Page along with Sidney Blumenthal slithering from the sewer yet again, Steve Hayward asked John Yoo some questions about how the FISA process actually works—especially the three renewals of the Page warrant that required new probable cause. What could that evidence have been? Possibly nothing. Source

Steve Hayward talks with Kelly Jane Torrance, deputy managing editor of the Weekly Standard, about the protests in Iran and the Iranian dissident movement in exile, which is being ignored by nearly all of the mainstream media. Torrance is one of the only journalists covering this story closely, while still making time to keep up her title as the Cocktail Queen of Washington. Source

Steve Hayward sits down with Henry Olsen, author and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, but also a premier practicioner of “psephology” (try pronouncing that fast three times—or just once!), which we define as reading the entrails of public opinion polls to figure out what the heck is going on. Henry was one of the very few to predict Trump’s 2016 victory in detail. Source

Steve Hayward is joined by the triumvirate behind American Greatness ( amgreatness.com)—Chris Buskirk, Ben Boychuk and Julie Ponzi—to talk more about what the MAGA agenda means in practice, the shape of the fast-moving debate over immigration reform, whether the decline of California is irreversible, what lessons should be learned from the dramatic fall of Steve Bannon. And Steve debuts Power Line’... Source

Steve Hayward reached all the way across the Atlantic to track down comedian/magician (and occasional Ricochet contributor) David Deeble to talk about comedy, why most comics (and actors and most other artists) are liberal, and the challenges of comedy in Germany, which isn’t exactly known for its appreciation of comedy. If you’ve never seen David in action, look him up at his website (... Source

Steve Hayward and John Hinderaker take note of the exit of Al Franken from the Senate, and how it has thrown Minnesota politics into a state of turmoil, making it ground zero for the mid-term election later this year. Unnoticed by the national media, Minnesota has been slowly turning into a red state—Trump nearly won it in 2016—and this year will see two Senate races as well as a governor’s race. Source

In this year-end episode, Steve Hayward checks in with Ben Boychuk, columnist for the Sacramento Bee and managing editor of the American Greatness website, about how to think about Trump—yes, we’re still trying to figure him out too—and looking ahead to next year. Conservatives are mostly pleased with Trump’s first year. What might go wrong for Trump in 2018? Source

“Darkest Hour,” the new Churchill biopic that comes out in general release this week, has generated some controversy about its accuracy and depiction of Churchill in the crucial weeks of May 1940. Steven Hayward, who liked the film, and Scott Johnson, who disliked it, argue it over and break it down for us, and end with a list of Churchill books everyone should read. Source

Steve Hayward sits down with Jonathan Rauch of the Atlantic Monthly and Brookings Institution to discuss Jon’s latest ebook, Political Realism, and also the parlous state of free speech on college campuses. Jon offers the counter-intuitive thesis that decades of political reform have made our government worse! Then since Jon was visiting Steve at Berkeley, the conversation pivots to the problem of... Source

In this episode of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward converses with John Yoo about the early days of the Trump Administration, the immigration order, the Gorsuch nomination, and especially how the time is ripe for the obvious Broadway sequel to “Hamilton,” namely, a hip-hop ode to that great advocate of limiting executive power—James Madison. In this episode of the Power Line Show... Source