Conservative Chronicle for September 28 2016 by Mid-America Publishing Corporation

At Issue this week... September 28, 2016 2016 Election Chavez (17) Fields (15) Krauthammer (16) Lowry (30) Sowell (17) Tyrrell (9) Will (9) Charges of Racism Coulter (7) Massie (28) Child Care Charen (25) Cushman (24) Clinton, Hillary Barone (18) Murchison (22) Thomas (6) Congress de Rugy (10) Farah (3) Dear Mark Levy (19) Economy Jeffrey (13) Kudlow (2) Lambro (12) Moore (1) Education McCaughey (26) Williams (25) FBI Napolitano (5) God-Given Rights Jeffrey (4) ISIS Lowry (28) Language Elder (14) Leslie’s Trivia Bits Elman (14) Marijuana Saunders (20) Media Bias Bozell (4) Buchanan (8) Political Correctness Bozell (22) Limbaugh (23) Prager (27) Presidential Debate Saunders (18) Shapiro (13) Thomas (10) Putin, Vladimir Buchanan (31) Harsanyi (29) Will (30) Re-enactments Barone (26) Schlafly, Phyllis Schlafly (11) Snowden, Edward Saunders (29) Taxes McCaughey (3) United Nations Malkin (21) U.S. Presidency Hollis (6) Venezuela Bay (20)

Economy by Stephen Moore

No thank you, President Obama

ast week, while touting the new Census report on income and poverty in America, Barack Obama took credit for $2 a gallon gasoline, and immodestly shouted to his crowd of supporters: “Thank you, Obama.” I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but given that for eight years your administration has done everything to decapitate the oil and gas industry that gave us low gas prices, sorry: No thanks are in order, Mr. President. EVEN MORE amazing was Obama’s victory lap on the income numbers. Yes, incomes for middle-class families rose by an impressive five percent in 2015. And poverty fell. Thank goodness. It’s about time. But the Census report was anything but cause for celebration. It is a stinging indictment of the policy results of both the George W. Bush and the Obama legacies. They both miserably failed and are equally culpable for the sad state of the American family’s finances today. Census found that American incomes are lower today (adjusted for inflation) than they were in 2007. What kind of recovery is this, when we still haven’t made up the lost ground from a recession that happened seven years ago? Thank you, Obama. Even more worrisome is the Census revelation that Americans are poorer today than they were in 2000. In other words, for 15 years, average families have made no progress at all in terms of their personal financial situations. That’s a decade and a half of no growth. That’s sad. The Bush administration has to be held accountable for this malaise, since most of it happened on Bush’s watch. This is a good point to make to the pro-Bush “never-Trumpers,” who keep sanctimoniously denouncing Trump’s policies as reckless. They should look in the mirror. Other decade-long trends brought to light by the Census report were equally gloomy. We still have more than 43 million Americans in poverty today. About 1 in 7 of our citizens is poor. The absolute number of poor people is so large it is now the equivalent of every resident of California being in poverty. Obama’s record on fighting poverty has been a complete failure. The number of families that are poor grew by 3.2 million since the self-

proclaimed savior entered office. Thank you, Obama. If the poverty rate stood today where it was 15 years ago, we would have seven million fewer Americans under the poverty threshold. Why is poverty higher? Two reasons. One is that economic growth has been abysmally low over the last decade. And second: A smaller share of

Stephen

adults are actually working. Getting a job and a paycheck is usually a good way to move out of poverty, but we now have a near-record number of adults who are unemployed. Thank you, Obama. THESE NUMBERS are not just worrisome; they are scandalous. They point to a decade of failed policies enacted by our clueless political leaders. As the great Reagan economist Arthur Laffer has put it so aptly, we keep punishing success through taxes and rewarding failure through welfare, and then we wonder why we are getting nothing but failure.

One other depressing statistic is the lack of economic progress for black Americans under Obama. You won’t likely hear this from Black Lives Matter or the NAACP, but blacks have lost ground economically since Obama entered office. Their incomes have fallen by two percent. That’s especially disappointing because blacks already have much lower incomes than whites and Asians, so they are falling further behind relatively. Thank you, Obama. The left’s flimsy explanation for all this slow growth is that this is the best America can do in the 21st century. But Donald Trump put it very well in his economic speech last Thursday at the New York Economic Club when he admonished the liberal policies that have put us in this current state. “This isn’t the best America can do; this is the best they can do,” he explained. HE’S RIGHT. Tax cuts, regulatory relief, energy production, school choice and repealing Obamacare will fix these problems and create, as John F. Kennedy put it half a century ago, a rising tide that lifts all boats. September 20, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

ECONOMY: September 17, 2016

Tax cuts, King Dollar, growth: JFK to Reagan to Trump

ifty-four years ago, at The Economic Club of New York, President John F. Kennedy unveiled a dramatic tax cut plan to revive the long-stagnant U.S. economy. He proposed lowering marginal tax rates for all taxpayers and reducing the corporate tax. He advised lowering the top tax rate from 91 to 65 percent, and closing tax loopholes. Five times during the speech he used the word “incentive.” In perhaps the most famous line from that path-forging speech, he said, “In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.”

KENNEDY HAD already in 1962 lowered investment taxes on business. And after his tragic assassination, in early 1964, his broader tax proposals were passed into law. And they worked. The U.S. economy grew by roughly five percent yearly for nearly eight years. Almost 20 years later, President Ronald Reagan launched a 30 percent tax rate reduction to save the economy from the high-unemployment, high-inflation 1970s. Reagan acknowledged many times that he was following in Kennedy’s footsteps. Under Reagan, also known as the Gipper, tax rates were slashed from 70 percent to 28 percent, corporate taxes

High business taxes are the biggest were cut and numerous loopholes were closed. And the American economy grew obstacle to a return to rapid economic mostly between four and five percent an- growth. Abundant research has shown that the best way to raise wages and crenually for over 25 years. Both Kennedy and Reagan followed a ate jobs is to slash business taxes. Within simple growth model that I call “tax cuts five years a business tax cut will pay for and King Dollar.” Both men also reached itself, and then some. Importantly, Trump plans to reduce across the aisle to garner bipartisan supindividual tax rates to three brackets port for their plans. 25 and 33 percent. This past week, Donald Trump went of 12, He would cap dea long way toward ductions for the joining their ranks. wealthy and close Speaking before special-interest The Economic loopholes. MidClub of New York, (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate dle-income wage he delivered a positive, optimistic message of growth that earners will be the biggest beneficiaries falls squarely inside the JFK-Reagan of these reforms. To cap it off, he will roll back out-ofmodel. “My economic plan,” he said, “rejects control regulations, unleash American the cynicism that our labor force will energy and abolish the Obamacare failkeep declining, that our jobs will keep ure. leaving and that our economy will never FOLLOWING THE successes of the grow as it did once before.” Optimism. He established a goal of four percent JFK and Reagan tax reforms, Trump’s economic growth, which would double strategy is likely to generate four to five the stagnant rate of the past 15 years. percent growth over time. A rising tide The centerpiece of his plan is a reduction will lift all boats. The contrast between the presidential in business tax rates for large and small firms, to 15 percent from the current un- contenders could not be starker. Hillary competitive 35 percent. He offered im- Clinton would raise taxes on so-called mediate expensing for new investment, rich people, corporations, capital gains, and a 10 percent repatriation rate to in- financial transactions and inheritance. centivize American firms overseas to Has there ever been an example of America taxing its way into prosperity? Never. bring $2.5 trillion home.

Larry

Kudlow

Trump has an economic recovery-andprosperity plan. Clinton has an austerityrecession plan. Historically, in presidential elections, the optimistic growth plan nearly always wins. That said, Trump’s view of monetary policy, especially surrounding the dollar, needs to be resolved. During his speech, he charged that the Fed is “totally controlled politically.” Elsewhere, he has stated that Fed Chair Janet Yellen is keeping interest rates ultralow in a political effort to boost Democratic fortunes. I disagree. Yellen doesn’t control the Fed monolithically. And the real debate about interest rates is going on inside the Fed. True enough, the Fed needs radical reforms. In particular, it needs to replace its failed forecasting models and be rid of the academics who overwhelm the Fed system. But as New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky has taught us, the best way to depoliticize the Fed is to develop a standard of value, to make the dollar strong, reliable and stable. In other words, it’s to develop a monetary rule. JFK and Reagan’s growth model included tax cuts and a steady dollar. Trump has taken a gigantic step toward restoring prosperity with his tax-cutcentered fiscal policy. Hopefully he will soon turn to a sound-dollar policy to bolster the growth impact of lower tax rates and regulations. AND HOPEFULLY he will then pound away on all this on the campaign trail.

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September 28, 2016 CONGRESS: September 21, 2016

Why Trump should start governing now

wo incidents last week demonstrate that the Republicancontrolled House of Representatives, run by House Speaker Paul Ryan, is as dysfunctional and impotent a force to hold the Obama administration accountable for anything — including high crimes and misdemeanors — as it ever was under Ryan’s predecessor John Boehner. — BRYAN PAGLIANO, the former State Department computer specialist tasked with setting up Hillary Clinton’s server, was subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about the national security scandal that continues to haunt the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee. Pagliano

refused to answer the subpoena. He quences, and insiders say they don’t just ignored it. That’s a textbook ex- expect any. — Also last week, Paul Ryan himample of contempt of Congress. How did the Republican House respond to self engineered an agreement by the lican majority to this flagrant denigration and dismissal R e p u b avoid impeaching of the power of IRS Commissioner Congress? Did John Koskinen for they order fedhis clear, unameral marshals to biguous direction arrest Pagliano? (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate of the agency’s ilIs he currently legal political tarbehind bars until he agrees to appear before the com- geting and official abuse of tea-party mittee? No. Instead, Chairman Jason groups and others viewed as adverChaffetz, R-Utah, and a guy doing the sarial to the Obama administration. bidding of Ryan and the GOP estab- This was the most heinous misuse of lishment, huffed and puffed, saying the IRS for political purposes ever adPagliano was “thumbing his nose at mitted by the agency. Koskinen had Congress,” and promised there would previously obstructed any further inbe “consequences.” A week later, vestigation of the facts by House comthere have been no discernible conse- mittees.

Joseph

Farah

TAXES: September 21, 2016

What’s in your wallet?

he choice for voters is clear: A tax cut from Donald Trump or a pay cut courtesy of Hillary Clinton. Trump is promising to slash income taxes to zero for millions of people currently paying them, and to reduce the tax bite on everyone. Clinton isn’t cutting income tax rates for anyone. Instead, she’s campaigning to hike business taxes, despite warnings it will cause wages to plummet and the economy to tank. NO WONDER Trump is moving up in the polls. Most Americans are still making less than they did in 2007. The mainstream media want to double down on the “birther” controversy and other fabricated issues. Voters aren’t fooled. They’ll vote their wallets. Trump proposes a zero income tax rate for singles making $25,000 and couples making twice that. Instead of paying the government money, they’ll file a one-page tax form that says, “I win.” Moving up the ladder, singles earning $35,000 will save about a thousand dollars, according to tax experts at CNN Money. And singles earning $64,000 will get a $2,700 break, on average. Anyone earning $112,000 will save more than $5,300. Sweet. And that’s before applying Trump’s proposed deductions for child care, which will average $12,000 per child regardless of whether parents actually incur child care expenses. A boon for stay-at-home parents. Bottom line: Working couples with two kids will pay no federal income tax on their first $60,000 to $70,000 in household income.

Clinton promises credits — but only to families that actually spend. Disregard Clinton’s bogus claims that Trump wants “to give trillions in tax breaks to people like himself.” Nonsense. Trump caps deductions at $100,000 for singles and double that for couples, so some high rollers will end up paying more. As for the misery of tax preparation, Trump simplifies it: Only three brackets, all lower. He jokes about putting H&R Block out of business. Clinton’s plan adds complexity: More brackets and additional rules.

Betsy

Keeping more of what you earn is good. Earning more is even better. To give everyone a shot at a brighter economic future, the next president and Congress need to jumpstart the economy by slashing business taxes. Right now, the economy is limping along at 1.2 percent — a third of the normal growth rate over the last century. Partly to blame for the stagnation are corporate taxes — the highest in the developed world. They are driving companies to leave the U.S. and putting those that stay at a global disadvantage. TRUMP PROPOSES cutting taxes by over half for large and small businesses to encourage them to stay, expand and hire.

This behavior is nothing new for the House. It’s the kind of behavior we’ve witnessed as a nation since Republicans won control of the House in 2010. It’s the kind of conduct that led directly to Republican voters storming the barricades in 2016 for Donald Trump’s nomination as their presidential candidate. THESE TWO recent developments have provided Trump a golden opportunity to lead, to have an immediate impact on the way Republican officeholders conduct business in Washington, in short, to start governing right now. One of Trump’s bold campaign promises is to overhaul the tax code and, in the process, make certain the IRS never again acts outside the rule of law, as it did under both Obama and the Clinton administration. So what did Trump have to say about the capitulation of the House Republican caucus on the impeachment of Koskinen? Nothing. Not even a tweet. Not a single word. Here was a chance for Trump to make a splash for his own campaign as well as shame House Republicans into action. But he didn’t take it. Likewise, in the matter of Hillary Clinton’s email server tech refusing to appear before Congress in answer to a lawfully served subpoena followed by nothing but huffing and puffing by Paul Ryan’s chain gang, Trump has been mute. Here was an issue directly involving a scandal consuming his opponent for the White House. And, once again, not a word from Trump. Not even a tweet. These represent two incredible opportunities for Trump to weigh in legitimately on the kind of Washington establishment business-as-usual that helped win him the nomination — an outsider who might just shake things up in the nation’s capital. I can tell you for a fact there are many Republicans in the House who were hoping Trump would sound off. They were hoping Trump would call for the immediate impeachment of the IRS’ Koskinen, believing it might make a difference and set a new tone even before the election.

Meanwhile, Clinton preaches class warfare, vilifying businesses for not “paying their fair share” and pledging tax hikes. Recession, here we come. A Federal Reserve report warns that “increases in corporate tax rates lead to significant reductions in employment and income.” Typically, Democrats bash business tax cuts as “trickle down economics” to benefit rich Republicans. But the inspiration for Donald Trump’s tax reform came from a Democrat — John F. Kennedy — who faced a stagnant economy when he became president in 1961. Kennedy understood tax cuts would cause businesses to invest, boosting worker productivity. More productive workers lead to higher wages as well as more goods and services to go around. A more abundant nation. Kennedy startled the nation by insisting that tax cuts would ultimately produce more tax revenue — not less — thereby reducing deficits. He was right, as Larry Kudlow explains in his new book, JFK and the Reagan Revolution. JFK slashed business taxes, and after his assassination, Congress enacted the rest of his tax program, igniting five percent annual growth for the next eight years. Ronald Reagan repeated the formuTHEY WERE hoping Trump la in the 1980s, launching 20 years of would call for Hillary’s tech guy to be four percent plus growth. arrested for contempt of Congress, to set an example for the future. IT CAN HAPPEN again. Hillary It’s not too late to do it. Clinton has given up on growth. Voters Is Team Trump paying attention? can’t afford to.

Conservative Chronicle

GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS: September 21, 2016

Obama: God-given rights ‘was a radical idea’

resident Barack Obama affirmed this week that the Declaration of Independence recognizes that “individual human beings” have “God-given rights.” Yet, he insisted this was a “radical idea” at the time of the founding. Were he right — which he is not — history would see it as one radical idea Obama did not devoutly pursue. On multiple occasions early in his presidency, Obama dropped any reference to the Creator when paraphrasing these famous words from the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” BUT OBAMA did not do that Tuesday when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly. “So I recognize a traditional society may value unity and cohesion more than a diverse country like my own,” he said, “which was founded upon what, at the time, was a radical idea — the idea of the liberty of individual human beings endowed with certain Godgiven rights.” What would Alexander Hamilton say to that? Or Thomas Jefferson? Or Cicero? Writing in February 1775, a young Hamilton argued that God-given rights and natural law were anciently recognized truths. “Good and wise men, in all ages... have supposed, that the Deity, from the relations we stand in to Himself, and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever,” Hamilton wrote in “The Farmer Refuted.” To emphasize this point, he quoted Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. “This,” wrote Hamilton, “is what is called the law of nature, ‘which, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.’” Hamilton understood that our Godgiven rights are part of the natural law and that no government has the authority to take them away. “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records,” he wrote. “They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of hu-

at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, A HALF A century later, looking and to give to that expression the propback on the drafting of the Declaration, er tone and spirit called for by the ocJefferson (who hypocritically and un- casion.” “All its authority rests then on the justly held human beings in bondage in contradiction to the principle of the harmonizing sentiments of the day,” ferson, “whether exDeclaration), echoed Hamilton’s argu- said Jefin conversation, in ment that this principle was not radi- pressed letters, printed escal but commonly says, or in the elheld and long unementary books of derstood. public right, as “This was the Aristotle, Cicero, object of the Dec(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Locke, Sidney, laration of Independence,” Jefferson wrote in 1825. &c.” Writing decades before the birth of “Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought Christ, Cicero made the same argument of, not merely to say things which had Hamilton did the year before Jefferson never been said before; but to place be- wrote the Declaration. “There is a true law, a right reason, fore mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as conformable to nature, universal, unto command their assent, and to justify changeable, eternal, whose commands ourselves in the independent stand we urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions are compelled to take. Neither aiming restrain us from evil,” said Cicero. man nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

Terry

Jeffrey

“This law cannot be contradicted by any other law, and is not liable either to derogation or abrogation,” he said, according to a translation published in 1841. “It is not one thing at Rome and another at Athens; one thing to-day and another to-morrow; but in all times and nations this universal law must forever reign, eternal and imperishable,” said Cicero. “God himself is its author, its promulgator, its enforcer,” he wrote. “He who obeys it not, flies from himself, and does violence to the very nature of man.” Obama says this was a “radical idea” in 1776. Two millennia ago, Cicero called it unchangeable truth. A PRESIDENT who acted on it would protect the God-given right to life of all “individual human beings” and never try to force individuals to act against their consciences. Obama fails on both counts.

MEDIA BIAS: September 21, 2016

Moderators: Referees or fighters?

he latest Gallup poll confirms that the level of trust in the media has reached another new low. The percentage of Republicans who hold a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the press has dropped precipitously to 14 percent, begging the question: Who are the 14 percent who are comfortable with the nonstop tirade against them? It’s no accident these numbers emerge while the liberal press slams the GOP nominee as too dangerous to be allowed to win. Public trust is on the line when moderators line up for the presidential debates. Will they be fair, or will they decide “history” is too important, and pound on Donald Trump before a national audience? Some won’t.

ALREADY, FOX’S Chris Wallace drew liberal outrage by declaring: “I do not believe that it’s my job to be a truth squad. It’s up to the other person to catch them on that.” Wallace sees his role as being like a referee in a heavyweight boxing match, where no one remembers him being there. But the left hounds today’s liberal media, saying that being a mere referee is being an accessory to evil. Matt Lauer was hounded for failing to call out Trump in the NBC commander-in-chief forum for lying about his support for the Iraq war, and daring to question Hillary Clinton about her

On Sept. 19, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. was the latest pundit citing the liberal site that calls itself PolitiFact to suggest that Clinton is much more honest. Fifty-three percent of PolitiFact’s Trump utterances, he says, were ruled “False” or “Pants On Fire” lies, compared to only 13 percent of Clinton’s.

on Fire moment. Similarly, PolitiFact refused to rule on whether Clinton lied to Benghazi families about a video being responsible for the loss of their loved ones. Then, there are those Pants on Fire rulings on Trump. The latest one regarded Trump declaring that Clinton has no child care plan. Perhaps Dionne should talk to his fellow Post columnist Catherine Rampell. Three days before he cited PolitiFact as reliable, Rampell wrote that the Clinton campaign “tweeted a snarky retort to (Trump), saying: ‘It’s literally right here,’ with a link to (Clinton’s) website.” Then, Rampell announced, “But if you click that link, you’ll discover that Trump is ... not wrong.” What Clinton had offered was a gushy list of goals, with no plan to meet them. Nevertheless, PolitiFact proclaimed, “we found two headings on the issues page of Clinton’s website that seemed to address the question.” So, headings that “seem” to address an issue are somehow a plan? How does this “fact” make Trump a Pants on Fire liar?

THIS HAPPENS because PolitiFact routinely fails to assign its “factcheckers” when Team Clinton lies through its teeth. For example, try to find the ruling for when the Clinton campaign said that Clinton left a 9/11 anniversary event because she was simply “overheated.” That was a Pants

JOURNALISTS WILL analyze the “facts” of the debates as soon as they’re over. But they want Trump to be thumped for “lies” in real time — surely, so that Clinton can be proclaimed the “winner,” also in real time. They don’t want to be referees. They want to be fighters who defeat Trump.

email scandal. The left is poised to rip into any journalist who doesn’t tilt the playing field. It’s been easily established over the last year that Trump can lie or mangle facts without regret. But how has it not been just as established that the Clintons lie and mangle facts without regret? Our so-called facts “referees” deplore the one at every opportunity, while tolerating, ignoring or even defending the other.

Brent

September 28, 2016 FBI: September 15, 2016

What is the FBI hiding? What about rule of law?

All this was done after these items had been subpoenaed by two committees of the House of Representatives. Yet the FBI — which knew of the post-subpoena destruction of evidence and which acknowledged that Clinton failed to return thousands of her workrelated emails as she had been ordered by a federal judge to do, notwithstanding at least three of her assertions to the contrary while under oath — chose to overlook the evidence of not only esEVER SINCE FBI Director James pionage but also obstruction of justice, Comey announced on July 5 he was tampering with evidence, perjury and recommending that the Department of misleading Congress. As if to defend itself in the face of this Justice not seek charges against former un-FBI-like behavSecretary of State Hillary Clinton as a m o s t ior, the FBI then reresult of her failleased to the public ure to safeguard selected portions of state secrets durits work product, ing her time in which purported office, many in (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate to back up its deCongress have had a nagging feeling that this was a cision to recommend against the prospolitical, not a legal, decision. The ecution of Clinton. Normally, the FBI publicly known evidence of Clinton’s gathers evidence and works with federal recklessness and willful failure to safe- prosecutors and federal grand juries to guard secrets was overwhelming. The build cases against targets in criminal evidence of her lying under oath about probes, and its recommendations to whether she returned all her work-re- prosecutors are confidential. But in Clinton’s case, the hierarchy lated emails that she had taken from the State Department was profound of the Department of Justice removed itself from the chain of command beand incontrovertible. And then we learned that people cause of the orchestrated impropriety of who worked for Clinton were instruct- Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill ed to destroy several of her mobile de- Clinton, who met in private on the attorvices and to remove permanently the ney general’s plane at a time when both stored emails on one of her servers. Bill and Hillary Clinton were subjects of arlier this week, Republican leaders in both houses of Congress took the FBI to task for its failure to be transparent. In the House, it was apparently necessary to serve a subpoena on an FBI agent to obtain what members of Congress want to see; and in the Senate, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee accused the FBI itself of lawbreaking. Here is the back story.

Andrew

Napolitano

FBI criminal investigations. That left the FBI to have the final say about prosecution — or so the FBI and the DOJ would have us all believe. It is hard to believe that the FBI was free to do its work, and it is probably true that the FBI was restrained by the White House early on. There were numerous aberrations in the investigation. There was no grand jury; no subpoenas were issued; no search warrants were served. Two people claimed to have received immunity, yet the statutory prerequisite for immunity — giving testimony before a grand or trial jury — was never present. BECAUSE MANY members of Congress do not believe that the FBI acted free of political interference, they demanded to see the full FBI files in the case, not just the selected portions of the files that the FBI had released. In the case of the House, the FBI declined to surrender its files, and the agent it sent to testify about them declined to reveal their contents. This led to a dramatic ser-

vice of a subpoena by the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on that FBI agent while he was testifying — all captured on live nationally broadcast television. Now the FBI, which usually serves subpoenas and executes search warrants, is left with the alternative of complying with this unwanted subpoena by producing its entire file or arguing to a federal judge why it should not be compelled to do so. On the Senate side, matters are even more out of hand. There, in response to a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBI sent both classified and unclassified materials to the Senate safe room. The Senate safe room is a secure location that is available only to senators and their senior staff, all of whom must surrender their mobile devices and writing materials and swear in writing not to reveal whatever they see while in the room before they are permitted to enter. According to Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBI violated federal law by commingling classified and unclassified materials in the safe room, thereby making it unlawful for senators to discuss publicly the unclassified material. Imposing such a burden of silence on U.S. senators about unclassified materials is unlawful and unconstitutional. What does the FBI have to hide? Whence comes the authority of the FBI to bar senators from commenting on unclassified materials? Who cares about this? Everyone who believes that the government works for us should care because we have a right to know what the government — here the FBI — has done in our names. Sen. Grassley has opined that if he could reveal what he has seen in the FBI unclassified records, it would be of profound interest to American voters. What is going on here? The FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton has not served the rule of law. The rule of law — a pillar of American constitutional freedom since the end of the Civil War — mandates that the laws are to be enforced equally. No one is beneath their protection, and no one is above their requirements. To enforce the rule of law, we have hired the FBI. WHAT DO we do when the FBI rejects its basic responsibilities?

Conservative Chronicle

U.S. PRESIDENCY: September 14, 2016

Ten lessons for the next president of the USA

BUT NOT A day goes by that someegardless of who wins the election in November, here are one doesn’t post a story on social media 10 things that I think he or she that demonstrates the small acts of kindness Americans do for each other every should keep in mind: day: The UCLA fraternity boys who put — The old media rules do not apply. Do we still have to emphasize this in lights on their house for a sick little girl an era of smartphones, Facebook and across the street; the cop who bought Twitter? You do not control the media, shoes for a homeless man; the Georgia and the media does not control the mes- tech students who bought a gift for the sage. Oh, I know that the Obama admin- business school’s security guard. Not to the millions of dollars istration has made media manipulation mention that ordinary citi- number of transgender students, for exan art form — and zens have pitched ample, than for the Department of Eduthat the media has in for victims of the cation to issue a one-size-fits-all diktat. been more than Boston Marathon happy to comply. — Don’t apologize for the United bombing, the Fer- States. But everyone is (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate guson, Missouri the media now. We Our adversaries see it as weakness. found out about Hillary Clinton’s pneu- riots, and countless others. These are the — Now that we know what’s in it, monia because of a man named Zdenek things the president needs to turn our at- we hate it. Gazda, who caught her now-infamous tention to. Obamacare isn’t working. It’s time to — Every problem doesn’t need a fed- allow Congress to fix it — in a bipartisan collapse on his cellphone. The days of a compliant press covering for FDR or eral solution. fashion, which is how it should have been There are 300 million people in this done in the first place. And relatedly... JFK are over. — The public no longer believes the country. Chances are we can solve a — Socialism does not work. problem if given the chance. (Witness the media. See Venezuela. And Brazil. No, not flooding in Baton Rouge and the “Cajun even for health care. The National Health AND WHILE we’re on the subject: Navy.”) It makes far more sense for an Service in England is broke. Our efforts A big part of why Donald Trump is the individual school or school district to at- here are no better. As the Veteran Affairs Republican nominee is because the pub- tend to the needs of the relatively small and Indian Health Services demonstrate. lic no longer trusts the press. A popular comment after the primaries was that HILLARY CLINTON: September 15, 2016 Donald Trump got millions of dollars in free press coverage. Yes, but what no one talked about was the fact that most of that coverage was negative. So why didn’t that hurt him? Because for milThe perception is always that she is n 1996, the New York Times collions of Americans, being criticized by umnist William Safire diagnosed hiding something, which, if discovered, a corrupt press is a badge of honor. The Hillary Clinton’s real problem. might harm her chances of winning the more the “mainstream media” criticized White House. But, from the inconseTrump, the better he did. And they appar- He called her a “congenital liar.” Congenital is defined as “having by quential to the substantive, Hillary Clinently never learn — just this week, CBS ton is about as transparent as lead. selectively edited an interview with Bill nature a specified character.” Her weak-kneed near collapse is Following Hillary Clinton’s health Clinton in which he admitted that Hillary just the latest example. Diagnosed last scare Sunday in New York, we may Clinton had “frequently” fainted. Friday with pneumonia, her campaign have reached the conclusion author — Stop pitting Americans against one blamed her recent coughing fits on seaMary McCarthy did when speaking of another. This has been going on forever. But playwright Lillian Hellman: “Every sonal allergies. When a video shot by a it is deeply damaging, and it needs to word [Hellman] writes is a lie, includ- bystander at the 9/11 memorial service showed her supported by Secret stop. Mitt Romney had his “47 percent” ing ‘and’ and ‘the’.” Service agents as she stumremark, and Hillary Clinton just put her A PERSON’S character is a clue foot in it by characterizing millions of Americans as “deplorable” racists, sex- to the entire person and both Clintons ists, homophobic, etc. President Obama have displayed over many years severe has been just as bad, if not worse. Ameri- character deficiencies. Abraham Lin(c) 2016, Tribune Media Services cans need to see our commonality. This coln said, “Nearly all men can stand past week, as we remembered the 9/11 adversity, but if you want to test a man’s bled and was helped into a van, she disterrorist attacks, we could also look back character, give him power.” appeared for 90 minutes with no press Or her. and see that solidarity. It shouldn’t take Hillary Clinton has had power as first allowed to follow her. a terrorist attack to view each other as lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, countrymen. MOST PEOPLE would regard such now she wants to achieve the ultimate — Focus on the positive. an incident as worthy of a trip to the in power, the presidency of the United The president and his (or her) administration set the tone for the country from States. Along this road we have seen her hospital, possibly the emergency room, the top down. Barack Obama has spent record and it is a trail of cover-ups, mis- but as the New York Post reported, Hillfar too much time criticizing Americans statements, dissemblings, half-truths ary’s aides took her to daughter Chel— religious people are “bitter;” those in and outright lies. It is increasingly dif- sea’s apartment instead because they small towns or remote areas hold “an- ficult to give her the benefit of the doubt wanted to “keep the details of her meditipathy to those who aren’t like them;” on anything because doubt would imply cal treatment under wraps.” Transparency is the key to credibility, police “act stupidly;” Christians need to there might be some reason to believe “get off their high horse” and remember that at least some of the things she says but in Hillary Clinton’s case she and her handlers want us to believe the facade. are true. the Crusades.

Laura

Hollis

— Stop the identity politics. Stop blaming people for things they didn’t do, on the basis of the ethnic or racial group they belong to. This forces them into a defensive posture. What a waste of energy. Accusations polarize, empathy unifies. Appeal to people’s empathy, their charity, and their goodness. You’ll be surprised at what you see. — You work for us. YOU ARE NOT our boss. And you are not a legislative body. Stop telling the rest of us what to do. No more “executive orders” in place of legislation. Respect the Constitution and the limits it places on your office. The entire country is better for it.

Congenital liar — a facade

Cal

Thomas

The campaign says it will release more medical records later in the week, but who believes these will tell the entire story? Maybe the records will be like those emails, which she claimed at various times to have released. She said she released all of them. This was not the truth. This is the challenge when it comes to character. Think of people you know who have consistently lied to you. Would you trust them to pay back a loan? Would you let them baby-sit your kids? Would you trust them as president of the United States? Some Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned about Hillary Clinton’s health and credibility. Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler wants the DNC to identify a potential backup candidate should Hillary Clinton be forced to leave the race. Fowler told Politico, “Now is the time for all good political leaders to come to the aid of their party,” adding, “the plan should be developed by 6 o’clock this afternoon.” THE HOUR for such a decision may be long past six o’clock. For the Democrats, for Hillary Clinton and for the coming election less than 60 days away, it may be approaching midnight.

September 28, 2016 CHARGES OF RACISM: September 14, 2016

Tell us what percentage of Muslims are ‘deplorable?’

t wasn’t just the well-heeled do- terday; I’m going to beat you in women nors at the Cipriani Club who today. This is what makes them feel sulaughed and applauded when Hill- perior to other people, especially other ary called half of Trump’s supporters a white people. It’s not about racism, sex“basket of deplorables” — “racist, sexism, homophobia, etc.; it’s just a selfist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamo- actualization movement for people with emotional issues. phobic.” The dead giveaway is that Her campaign advisers also thought all the hacks on the left it was a killer line. are using the same This wasn’t an offjokes. Compare the the-cuff remark opening lines of captured on a barJames Kirchick of tender’s cellphone. (c) 2016, Ann Coulter the New York DaiWe know that bely News and Dana cause: (1) nothing is ever off-the-cuff with Hillary; (2) it was Milbank of the Washington Post in their part of her scripted remarks, and (3) she’s columns on Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” insult: used it before. Kirchick: “Hillary Clinton was way NOR DID anyone in the media off base Friday night when she claimed mind one little bit. They’ve been calling that ‘half’ of Donald Trump supporters Trump’s supporters racists for more than are ‘deplorable’ racists, sexists and naa year now. Calling other people “racist” tivists. ... It’s not 50 percent of Trump supporters who are bigots. It’s closer to is the media’s favorite thing to do. Whenever the left talks about “rac- 100 percent.” Milbank: “Hillary Clinton may have ism,” it has nothing to do with what’s good or bad for black people. It’s just an- been unwise to say half of Donald other event in the Fabulous White People Trump’s supporters are racists ... If anycompetition, where black people are the thing, when it comes to Trump’s racist support, she might have low-balled the chips. There was a period in this country number.” It never occurs to a hack that someone when racism was a big problem. Unfortunately, when it mattered, liberals were else may have had the same idea. But on the wrong side. Only when the princi- as long as liberals are such perfect therpal danger facing most black Americans mometers of deplorableness, could they was that they’d be patronized to death, tell us how many Muslims are “deplordid liberals start seeing “racism” every- able” — specifically, what percentage are “sexist” or “homophobic?” where. For decades now, the most important Sad people with meaningless lives were suddenly empowered to condemn job of anyone covering a presidential other people. I beat you in blacks yes- election has been to unceasingly demand

Ann

Coulter

that the Republican candidate disavow David Duke. This laughably irrelevant man must be trotted out as a bogeyman to frighten NPR listeners. Instead of reporting news, journalists have become Official David Duke Disavowal Demanders. The only way we find out that Duke is still alive is that Republicans are asked to denounce him every four years. For all we know, Duke died 20 years ago and the media are using a body double. WILL HILLARY ever be asked to “disavow” Al Sharpton, George Soros, Black Lives Matter or Colin Kaepernick? These are people who have power and visibility even when it’s not an election year. In fact, the only time some of them are not in the public eye is during election years, when, for example, Al Sharpton is sent off to a safe house for six months. By contrast, the only time Duke is in the news is during election years. It doesn’t matter who the candidate is — the GOP could run Bobby Kennedy, and journalists would incessantly demand that Bobby “disavow” Duke. The same people who move heaven and earth to make sure their kids aren’t blocked out of the right colleges by af-

firmative action, who couldn’t care less about the astronomical unemployment rate and rampant crime in the inner cities, who think there’s a lovefest going on between African-Americans and the illegal aliens taking over their neighborhoods and jobs, are just showing off to other white people by calling Trump ... “RACIST!” Donald Trump has never been accused of racism in his life. Unlike selfrighteous PC enforcers, who go to extraordinary lengths to avoid extensive contact with blacks, he’s hired lots of black people. His golf clubs famously admit blacks, Jews and Asians — and are often the only clubs in town that do. Black celebrities as well as ordinary black Americans all say the same thing about Trump — that he respects them. Jamiel Shaw, whose son was killed by an illegal alien, spoke at Trump’s first presidential rally, saying: “He’s the kind of man you would want to be your dad. He’s a nice guy. He put himself out there for black people. I know I can trust him.” Mike Tyson said of Trump: “Listen: I’m a black motherf--ker from the poorest town in the country. I’ve been through a lot in life. And I know him. When I see him, he shakes my hand and respects my family. None of them — Barack, whoever — nobody else does that. They’re gonna be who they are and disregard me, my family. So I’m voting for him. If I can get 20,000 people or more to vote for him, I’m gonna do it.” In 2006, long before Trump was thinking of running for president and was still a regular on The Howard Stern Show, Stern pressed him on whether Ivanka would ever date a black guy: Stern: Would (Ivanka) ever date a black guy? That would not go over at Mar-a-Lago. Trump: Yes, she would. She would. Yeah. Absolutely. Stern: You would have no problem with that? Trump: I would have no problem. I would have no problem. I would love that. That’d be wonderful. Robin: He would love that. Trump: The answer is: She would. She would have no problem. AND THEN in 2015, Trump decided to run for president as a Republican and, for the first time in his life, became a “racist.”

Conservative Chronicle

MEDIA BIAS: September 20, 2016

Trump and the press — a death struggle

lerting the press that he would tempt to “delegitimize” Obama’s presideal with the birther issue at dency. These are crocodile tears. Obama the opening of his new hotel, the Donald, after treating them to an gave the game away Saturday night. At hour of tributes to himself from Medal of the Black Caucus’s annual gala, says t h e Washington Post, a Honor recipients, delivered. “beaming” Obama “Hillary Clin“gleefully” had the ton and her camattendees rolling in paign of 2008 “laughter” over started the birther Trump’s concescontroversy. I fin(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate sion. “With just ished it. ... President Barack Obama was born in the 124 days to go,” mocked Obama, “we got that thing resolved.” United States. Period.” Many news organizations will go The press went orbital. “Trump Gives Up a Lie But Refuses along with the game. For many appear to to Repent” howled the headline over the be all in on Clinton’s depiction of half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplolead story in the New York Times. rables” who are “racist, sexist, homophoITS EDITORIAL called Donald bic, xenophobic, Islamophobic ... haters.” Yet one wonders. Do the major media Trump a “reckless, cynical bully” spreading political poison in an “absurdist pres- understand that in their determination, idential campaign,” adding that Trump is bordering on desperation, to kill Trump, the “ultimate mountebank” using a “Big they are killing their credibility? And as Lie” that “made him the darling of the they are losing credibility they are losing wing nuts and racists” and “nativist hal- the country. According to a new Gallup poll, dislucinators.” trust of the press has hit an all-time high. You get the drift. While Trump’s depiction of the birther Half the nation’s Democrats still trust the controversy was ... inexact ... there was media, but only one-in-three indepentruth in it. Obama’s campaign did charge dents and one-in seven Republicans, 14 the Clinton campaign with drawing press percent, believe the media are truthful, attention to that photo of Obama in tradi- honest and fair. When, early in his presidency, Obama tional Somali garb. Apparently, Sid Blumenthal did push a McClatchy bureau jokingly referred to the White House chief to search for Obama’s birth records Correspondents Association dinner as his political base, Americans now believe he in Kenya. Tim Kaine was wailing on Sunday was not exaggerating the case. And the more the media vent their about how “painful” Trump’s birtherism has been to African-Americans. And detestation of Trump, the more Trump’s Democrats and the media are pledging supporters revel in their discomfort. “We not to let it go, but to exploit Trump’s at- love him most of all for the enemies he

Pat

Buchanan

has made,” said backers of Grover Cleveland in 1884. Trump’s folks feel that way about the national press. America’s media seem utterly lacking in introspection. Do they understand why so many people hate them so? Do they care? Are they so smugly self-righteous and self-regarding they cannot see? TAKE THE birther issue again. According to a January HuffPost/YouGov poll, an astonishing 53 percent of all Republicans, 30 percent of all independents, and even 10 percent of Democrats still believe Barack Obama was born outside the USA. What does this say about the persuasiveness of the press? Indeed, what does it say about the idea that universal suffrage is the best way to determine the leadership of a republic?

In 2016, America faces serious issues — a rising deficit and escalating debt, the explosion of entitlements, the resurgence of Russian power, Chinese military expansionism in the South and East China seas, North Korea’s development of nuclear missiles and Afghanistan. Now consider the issues that have transfixed the media this election season: The birther issue, David Duke, the KKK, a Mexican-American judge, Black Lives Matter, white cops, the “Muslim ban,” the Battle Flag, the “alt-right,” the national anthem, Trump’s refusals to recant his blasphemies against the dogmas of political correctness, or to “apologize.” What does the continual elevation of such issues, and the acrimony attendant to them, tell us? America is bitterly and irreparably divided over race, ideology faith, history and culture, and Trump’s half of the nation rejects the modernist gospel that America’s diversity and multiculturalism are her greatest treasures. To the contrary, Trump’s half wants secure borders, “extreme vetting” of immigrants, especially from the Mideast, and foreign and trade policies marked by an “Americanism” that seems to be an antonym for globalism. They want America to be “great again,” and they believe she was once, and is not now. No matter who wins in November, America is going to face a divide unseen in decades. If Donald Trump wins, he will confront a resident media more hateful than that which confronted Richard Nixon in 1968. If Hillary Clinton wins, she will come to office distrusted and disbelieved by most of her countrymen, half of whom she has maligned either as “deplorables” or pitiful souls in need of empathy. NOT FOR HALF a century has the idea of “one nation under God, indivisible,” seemed so distant.

September 28, 2016 2016 ELECTION: September 18, 2016

This year’s most consequential Senate race

rom Erie in the west to Scranton in the east, Pennsylvania is flecked with casualties the stubborn economic sluggishness and relentless globalization have inflicted on industrial communities. But in this middle-class Philadelphia suburb [Glenolden], Tom Danzi knows that the economy is denting even his business repairing damaged cars. HIS SUBURBAN Collision Specialists once had 27 employees kept busy by drivers stimulating the economy by producing fender benders. Now he has only 17. Many cash-strapped motorists keep driving cars with unrepaired scars. So, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican seeking a second term, recently came here to commiserate and to warn that if his Democratic opponent wins she will make matters worse.

Toomey recited for a smattering of Which she probably will if she gets to the Senate. There Katie McGinty, a supporters here McGinty’s policy encreature of the public sector who be- thusiasms, which encompass Demogan her government-centric life giv- cratic orthodoxy and have a cumulaing Sen. Al Gore environmental pol- tive price tag, he says, of $980 billion. icy tips, probably would be a reliable While Toomey talked, on the sidewalk member of an unleashed, and perhaps in front of Danzi’s shop a small gaggle unhinged, Democratic majority: As of McGinty supporters held signs to Toomey’s seat goes, so, probably, goes explain their prop, which needed an explanation: It was a large — the size of the Senate. board — replica of the If he loses, Republicans probably an ironing ship” bracelets chilwill lose control of the Senate, and “frienddren make at sumthat body probmer camps. This ably will lose its was the gaggle’s character: Senate labored way of sayDemocrats, who ing that Toomey is are situational (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group Donald Trump’s ethicists regarding Senate rules, might further dilute friend. Not exactly. Toomey supported the ability of the minority to require Marco Rubio for the Republican nomia 60-vote majority for, among many nation, then Ted Cruz, and has not yet other things, confirmation of Supreme said he will vote for Trump. But the fiction could be fatal where this election Court justices.

George

Will

2016 ELECTION: September 15, 2016

After Reagan comes Trump?

orman Podhoretz, the former longtime editor of Commentary Magazine, is no longer an Inadvertent Conservative for Hillary, or ICH. He is voting for Donald Trump for president. The prospect of Clinton in the White House is too grisly for Podhoretz. It probably also is for his wife, Midge Decter, the gifted essayist. Both are reasonable neoconservatives, which is to say erstwhile liberals who moved over to conservatism sometime in the 1970s. I have known them for years.

IN THE LATE 1970s they made a similar calculation. They were two of only four neoconservatives to attend a dinner I held for the Republican candidate for president. That would be Ronald Reagan. (For those millennials in my audience, Reagan was elected president in 1980, and he did pretty well for a guy over 30.) Other neocons would not attend the dinner. Even Irving Kristol would not attend. He found Reagan “vulgar.” As I recall, the dinner was a great success. Reagan had mastered eating with a knife and a fork, and he could tell a pretty good story. He even listened attentively to my guests. Doubtless Trump would do equally well today, but it apparently will not happen this year. The rest of the neocons have calculated that he is at one with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini. They have a sense of history, though at times it is a bit melodramatic. I say that Norman and Midge made a calculation because politics is usually a matter of calculating. Who of the candidates in the field comes clos-

est to my ideal candidate? In 1980 that was Reagan, and he in fact fulfilled our loftiest ideals. I recall Norman having his doubts about Reagan from time to time, for instance when the president sat down with Mikhail Gorbachev. But Reagan’s presidency was to be historic, and we were mere spectators — as were all those liberals who persisted in calling him a dimwit, even till the last days of his administration. Now it is up to all of us to cast a vote that will be meaningful, or cast a vote that will be onanistic. I would rather cast my vote for a president than pleasure myself like a self-absorbed

R. Emmett

adolescent. I will stand with the Podhoretzes and vote for Trump. I predict he will be the most entertaining president since Reagan, and possibly the most capable of bringing change to Washington, D.C. We certainly need it. AMERICA DOES not need any more congenital liars in the White House. Some lies told by politicians are mere b.s. For instance, Bill Clinton’s lies about his golf score. Or for that matter, Barack Obama’s lies about his golf score. Other lies are more significant. Clinton lies about personal problems even under oath. Obama lies about his agreement with Iran. Hillary Clinton practices both types of lies. For instance, she lied about being under enemy fire in

Bosnia, and about being named after Sir Edmund Hillary. More recently, she lied about her emails to and from the Clinton Foundation, and her emails to and from the State Department. We have these lies thanks to her mishandling of her server. Her server will prove to be for her what that DNA-bespattered dress was for Bill Clinton, to wit, a high-tech collector of evidence that the Clintons are inveterate liars. Until late last week, observers who were questioning Hillary Clinton’s health were marked down as peddlers of conspiracy theories by Clinton’s campaign and the media. When she stumbled into her van Sunday they were still disparaged as peddlers. A few hours later those conspiracy theories were themselves exposed as more of Clinton’s lies. She had been found to have pneumonia on Friday, and the tests were concealed from the media and the American public. Her campaign was perpetrating yet another hoax on us. She plans to become president despite these hoaxes. Imagine the number of hoaxes she will perpetrate if she enters the White House. Imagine the controversies. They will be endless. AS I HAVE said for years, the Clintons live in a culture of lies. Now the lies are all being exposed, thanks to her server. The Clintons lie when they do not have to, and tell a rococo whopper of a lie when a little white lie would be perfectly satisfactory. In the past, Hillary Clinton called those who questioned her health conspirators. But we now know the truth: They were diagnosticians, and she was really sick.

probably will be decided — here among moderate voters in the “collar” counties surrounding Philadelphia. Trump probably will carry some Pennsylvania counties with at least 75 percent, so Toomey must sail between the Scylla of endorsing Trump and thereby offending all non-Trumpkins, and the Charybdis of not endorsing and fueling the Trumpkins’ constant rage. IN JUNE, Toomey had a high singledigit lead. Today he is tied. He says that by November 8 more money will have been spent against him than against any other senator. And for him, some Republican good news is problematic: In Ohio, the weakness of Ted Strickland, the Democratic challenger to Sen. Rob Portman, might cause Democrats to redirect money to McGinty. And some bad Republican news elsewhere is bad for Toomey: Because two Republican incumbent senators — Missouri’s Roy Blunt and North Carolina’s Richard Burr — are having more difficult races than anticipated, Toomey faces intensified competition for Republican funds. Toomey surfed into office on the Republican wave of 2010, which was largely a result of a recoil against the Affordable Care Act. But even in that favorable environment he won by only 51-49 percent. He could, however, wind up owing two Senate terms to the ACA, which is unraveling in Pennsylvania, too: The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that by next year, only 28 counties will have three or more health insurers selling through the ACA exchanges, down from all 67 counties this year. Toomey grew up in a union household in Rhode Island, earned a Harvard scholarship, did well on Wall Street, then joined his brothers in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to start what became a successful chain of restaurants. He successfully ran for Congress in 1998, and in 2004 did something eccentric: He kept his promise not to run for a fourth term. After losing a Senate contest that year, he became head of the free-market advocacy group Club for Growth. Today he is among the most important Republicans regarding the most important issue, tax reform, relating to the nation’s most important challenge, the restoration of robust economic growth. THERE IS no really happy ending for Republicans in 2016. If Trump wins, the party’s rupture with its past is complete and irreparable. If he loses narrowly, there will be an orgy of intramural recriminations, and the GOP’s 2016-2019 will be like Spain’s 1936-1939, an exceptionally uncivil civil war. If Trump loses emphatically, Democrats probably take the Senate. Unless Toomey wins this year’s most consequential Senate race.

Conservative Chronicle

CONGRESS: September 15, 2016

Congress to embrace favorite pastime, kicking the can

lection cycles can be unfriendly size and scope of government by actually to serious policy debates on eliminating programs. Instead, the fight critical issues, such as Wash- will be over bottom-line numbers, which ington’s ongoing addiction to excessive the average American understands little way. On top of that, the government spending and debt. The cir- about anypiece of the budget cus of this election Congress is fightcycle has been paring over (discreticularly devoid of tionary spending) serious discussion is a smaller (and on this paramount (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate declining) share problem. We see of overall federal ACORN from receiving federal funds a minimal concern few years ago, it appears that the GOP’s that deficits are growing again, no seri- spending. desire to save taxpayers a few bucks has ous solutions being offered to control NOW, IT’S true that Republicans have more to do with politics than it does with the exploding federal debt and a failure to recognize the overdue need to rein in shown a willingness to fight on some is- concerns about government spending. the government’s major entitlement pro- sues and stand firmly behind some policy SADLY, THE Republican presidengrams. Instead, members of Congress positions, but these fights usually involve from both parties are hoping to avoid yet side issues, such as cutting off Planned tial candidate supports more military another last-minute tussle over the annual Parenthood funding. Taxpayers shouldn’t spending, busting the budget caps yet federal budget process so they can focus have to fund Planned Parenthood in par- again and protecting the lumbering systicular, but it would be nice for a change tem of federal entitlement programs on November’s high-stakes elections. to see Republicans make the case that the that threaten the prosperity of America’s WITH CONGRESS facing an Oct. federal government shouldn’t be fund- younger generations. That’s unfortunate, 1 deadline to avoid a government shut- ing family planning services at all. But but if measured in terms of what Repubdown, it looks as if a short-term continu- just like the Republican-led battle to stop licans have accomplished in the past 30 ing resolution to keep the government funded is likely to happen. Talking on the PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: September 20, 2016 Senate floor this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced, “I expect to move forward this week on a continuing resolution through Dec. 9 ... and include funds for Zika control and for our veterans.” In other words, McConnell ext week’s presidential de- life — that a baby is only valuable if it and company want to kick the can past bate between Donald Trump grows up to be a superstar — or is every the elections, which, if history is a guide, and Hillary Clinton could life valuable? means the lame-duck Congress coming determine the outcome of the election. For Clinton: You said you would back in December to finalize a fiscally ir- As polls show Trump leading in some have a “bunch of litmus tests” for Suresponsible budget deal will make fiscal swing states and closing the gap in oth- preme Court nominees, including rematters worse, not better. ers, it appears the only burden he must quiring potential nominees to have a House Freedom Caucus conservatives overcome is the one Ronald Reagan commitment to preserving a woman’s oppose a short-term continuing resolu- shared, looking presidential enough that right to an abortion. Would you overtion and are demanding the passage of a voters trust him with so much power. look qualified candidates because they longer-term CR that would allow the next The way these debates have usually oppose abortion? president and Congress to hash out a fi- gone in the past is that the Republican nal budget agreement. They argue that a candidate is asked about abortion, gay lame-duck Congress and president would rights and other social issues and the be likelier to pass a bloated spending bill Democratic candidate is asked about in December, when a number of policy- subjects that appeal to a wider range of (c) 2016, Tribune Media Services makers will have less reason to care. One voters. benefit of passing a CR into next year is that it could temper the awful cycle of Also for Clinton: You appear to have LESTER HOLT, the NBC Nightly budgeting by crisis, which has become News anchor, will moderate the first de- an interventionist foreign policy rethe norm in recent years. It also would in- bate. Here are some questions he should cord. What is your standard for sending crease the chances of keeping the spend- ask: American forces into battle, especially ing caps put in place in 2011 from being For Clinton: You once supported in the Middle East where nothing ever violated, which has happened in previous traditional marriage, but now favor seems to get resolved? end-of-the-year rushes from Congress. same-sex marriage. Polygamists now It’s a sad state of affairs, however, if want to be next in line to receive legal FOLLOW-UP: In one of your the most we can get in terms of a debate and cultural approval. Do you oppose emails you praise Sidney Blumenthal’s over spending is how long of a CR Con- polygamy, and if so on what basis? If son, Max, for his virulent anti-Semitic gress should pass. First, a fight over a po- elected president, how would we know and anti-Israel comments, favoring the tential government shutdown in October you wouldn’t change your mind on this dismantling of the State of Israel. Since wouldn’t be so disastrous as many claim issue? Israel’s enemies have also vowed to de(and Republican leaders believe). Second, Follow-up: What is your standard for stroy the only democracy in the Middle in the grand scheme of our budget prob- defining right from wrong? East and one of the United States’ few lems, the debate over whether a shortFor Trump: You were pro-choice, allies in the region, as president, would term CR would be better than a long-term you said, until you heard about a baby you support the Jewish state or demand CR is somewhat meaningless. Neither that was going to be aborted, but wasn’t. that it give up more land to Palestinians would address the real budget problems You called the child a “total superstar.” when the land it has already relinquished we face, nor would any CR shrink the Do you have a utilitarian view of human has brought it no closer to peace?

Veronique

de Rugy

years, it isn’t much different from the position of the average Republican member of Congress. Granted, the average Republican will now symbolically vote for ending the Affordable Care Act, yet when push comes to shove, Republican members of Congress can’t be counted on to support sensible cuts to Medicare or bringing individual choice to Social Security. So whether we get a short-term CR or we get a long-term CR, the message from congressional Republicans and the party’s presidential aspirant appears to be that the only thing that matters is winning elections.

Questions Lester Holt should ask

Cal

Thomas

For Trump: Many voters are worried about your praise of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who routinely behaves like the KGB agent he once was. Putin has invaded and occupied territories, censored the news and been accused of murdering his opposition. Why do you admire his leadership? Should you become president, what do you think your public praise of Putin will accomplish that will be in America’s interests? Follow-up: Under what circumstances would you use military force against Russia or our enemies in the Middle East? For both candidates: North Korea is developing nuclear weapons that will fit on top of missiles capable of reaching the U.S. Would you authorize a missile defense system able to shoot down North Korean missiles, despite China’s opposition to such a system? For Clinton: The federal government took in record amounts of tax money in 2015 — $3.18 trillion — but the debt is approaching $20 trillion, and you want to spend more. Why won’t you propose cutting programs that aren’t working? For Trump: What agencies and programs would you eliminate or reform? Public interest for the debates will be at Super Bowl level. These and similar questions would produce the information undecided voters need to cast their votes wisely. THE FUTURE of this country hangs in the balance.

September 28, 2016 PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY: September 20, 2016

Phyllis Schlafly, 1924-2016: ‘Conservative hero’

hyllis Schlafly was with us a glorious 92 years, and active in politics for more than 70 of them. It is difficult to identify any issue that she was not on the right side of, typically years or decades before others rallied beside her. She wrote or spoke out on nearly every controversial American political matter, and the conservative movement today is based largely on work that she did five, ten, twenty and even sixty years ago. Though we grieve her passing, she leaves us with a legacy that will take us our own lifetimes to fully appreciate. DONALD TRUMP, in his remarkable eulogy to Phyllis last Saturday at the beginning of her funeral, observed that Phyllis has shaped American politics for more than one-quarter of its entire existence. He commented that she always put America first, as he does, and the massive crowd of attendees gave a standing ovation to Trump in immense gratitude to him for so honoring Phyllis. Phyllis wrote a bestselling book in 1964 called A Choice Not An Echo, which foreshadowed Trump’s meteoric rise. The book exposed how the political system is rigged by kingmakers, and she was thrilled by the arrival of Trump as a candidate for president, 52 years after publication of her work, to take on and defeat the kingmakers in the Republican Party. Phyllis anticipated and led on so many political issues that it would re-

quire another book just to list them. Her Phyllis Schlafly Report, now in its 50th year, is probably the longest continuing political newsletter in history, and its inaugural edition discussed the importance of our Panama Canal a full decade before that became a hot issue propelling Ronald Reagan to his successful campaign for president. In defeating the Equal Rights Amendment, the work for which Phyllis is most famous, she took an initially unpopular stance years before others joined her. Her successful STOP ERA effort did more to define the conservative movement today than any other struggle. But unlike most political leaders, Phyllis also had a tremendous cultural influence, by establishing respectability for those who stay at home and raise their children. Even many liberal-leaning women who attained adulthood in the 1980s and beyond are grateful to Phyllis for carving out space in our culture for them to spend some time away from the rat race to raise their children, and educate them at home. Indeed, one of Phyllis’s proudest achievements was that she taught her children how to read at home, which she did for all six of them in the 1950s and 1960s. This was decades before the homeschooling movement blossomed as an expansion on the same concept. Recently some have called Phyllis the “Iron Lady,” but that term fails to capture the enormous good humor and charm that she always had in the face

of intense hostility. Many middle-aged people today had the benefit of attending a debate or presentation by Phyllis on a college campus, where she would invariably withstand a hostile opponent or audience with remarkable grace. THE FUNERAL Mass on Saturday was held at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, the same place where Phyllis was married in 1949 to Fred Schlafly, a blissful union that lasted until his death in 1993. But far from slowing down as a widow, Phyllis continued her work for

another 23 years by both building on her prior efforts and expanding into new topics. For example, she wrote her book on The Supremacists in 2004 to explain the growing problem of judicial supremacy, which foreshadowed the shocking court decisions in recent years and the crisis that we face in this election as the replacement for Justice Scalia hinges on the outcome. Her more recent book on No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom (2012) exposed the anti-Christian agenda of the Obama Administration. Phyllis attended Republican National Conventions over a span of 64 years, from 1952 to 2016, and I had the joy of being with her for nearly two weeks in Cleveland this summer at her final convention. The party platform now embraces Phyllis’s positions on everything from building a wall to stop illegal immigration, to being strongly pro-life, to attaining military superiority, which were all positions that she staked out decades ago. Phyllis never stopped writing, speaking and organizing. The very day after her passing away on September 5th, the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death, Phyllis’s 27th book was released: The Conservative Case for Trump. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE left this world with a legacy in playwriting that took generations to admire fully. Phyllis Schlafly produced more during her lifetime than the rest of us could keep up with, and it may take us decades simply to realize all the good work that Phyllis, the “conservative hero” in the words of Trump’s eulogy, has left us with. Andy Schlafly, an attorney, is the fifth of Phyllis Schlafly’s six children.

Conservative Chronicle

ECONOMY: September 15, 2016

The Obama economy continues to struggle

The administration, always searching he declining, perpetually weak Obama economy is nearing the for any dubious statistics to suggest evend of its eighth year, a testa- erything’s coming up roses, trotted out a ment to his failed policies that continue Census Bureau report Tuesday that said incomes had risen and poverty was down. to plague the American people. The economy barely grew by a medio- Predictably, the liberal national news cre one percent in the first six months of media promoted the story, often without ing the larger economic this year, with economists saying it will mentionbles besetting the rest likely slog along at this dismal pace for t r o u of the economy. the remainder of In fact, there were Barack Obama’s plenty of reasons to presidency. distrust this rosy Business in(c) 2016, United Media Services report, and to unvestment declined, derstand why Donmanufacturing orders fell, productivity is down, and the ald Trump’s “message of economic delabor force participation rate has shrunk cay (is) resonating so broadly,” the New to 62.8 percent, as millions of long-term York Times explained Thursday. “The answer is in plain sight,” the jobless Americans stopped looking for work and are no longer counted as un- Times said. “The real incomes of most employed. That’s one of the chief reasons American households still are smaller the jobless rate dropped during this presi- than in the late 1990s. And large swaths of the country — rural America, industridency. al centers in the Rust Belt and Appalachia AMERICANS WERE further tight- — are lagging behind. “Many Americans, even those who are ening their belts in August, as the Commerce Department announced Thursday prospering, remain pessimistic about the that retail sales fell 0.3 percent when the fragile recovery,” the Times said. Not surprisingly, there are fears among back-to-school buying season usually shows an uptick in spending. Not now. many Americans that we may be in store Auto sales also fell, along with retail for another recession, and that will work sales in most consumer sectors, suggest- in Trump’s favor in the November elecing that the economy has fallen into a tion. deep, economy-wide slump. WHEN THE Gallup Poll asked Making matters worse, major retailers like Macy’s and Walmart were clos- Americans last week to rate economic ing hundreds of stores and laying off conditions, 26 percent said they were exthousands of workers. “More than two cellent or good, while 30 percent said they dozen malls have shut down in the last were poor. Asked to describe their future four years, and another 60 malls are on economic outlook, 37 percent said it will the brink of death,” the Business Insider be “getting better,” while a whopping 57 percent said it was “getting worse.” website said.

Donald

Lambro

The Wall Street Journal, citing the decline in consumer spending and industrial production, said it was unlikely “that the third-quarter is going to show some big rebound from the first half” in the economy’s tepid growth rate. But the liberaL news media is still sticking by Obama, as it has from the beginning of his presidency — exaggerating any good data, while ignoring or underplaying the decline in the economic growth rate, weak employment numbers and falling confidence in the Obama economy. The Washington Post, for example, made the Census report on incomes the lead story on its front page, saying that the recovery was helping the “middle class” and the poor. But in fact, most of the middle class is struggling, and 43.1 million Americans are still in poverty. And the Gallup

Poll puts the real unemployment rate at 10 percent, not at the Obama administration’s dubious 4.9 percent. The Times headline over Thursday’s Census report about rising incomes — “Economy Remains Fragile for Many” — also added a needed dose of reality to the story. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month that Obama’s economy created only 151,000 jobs in August, a pathetic number in a nation of 157 million workers, millions of whom are unemployed or forced to take part-time work when they need full-time. The number of these “involuntary part-time workers” was “little changed at 6.1 million in August,” the BLS said in its latest report. “These individuals ... were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.” Another 1.7 million discouraged, jobless Americans, who have not been able to find a job, were not counted by BLS because they hadn’t looked for work in the last few weeks. Meantime, Obama’s been doing little or nothing to help boost employment since he came into office and spent $1 trillion on temporary infrastructure projects, much of which increased the budgets of countless federal agencies and programs. It did very little to create long-term employment and boost economic growth. Now in the last year of Obama’s underperforming, job-challenged presidency, his economy remains stuck in the one percent growth range. In other words, the economy has all but stopped growing. In all these years, have you heard House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi complain about his economic record? Or Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid? Or, since she left her job in the administration, Hillary Clinton? ON THURSDAY, Trump refocused on his tax-cutting, job-creating plan to get America moving again, sounding like an establishment Republican. It just might get him elected.

September 28, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: September 21, 2016

What to expect in the first presidential debate

hanks to the nomination of Conway, has apparently been able to volatile reality television star get Trump under control. Like a pentDonald Trump, the first presi- up movie monster chained to the wall dential debate between Trump and the of a dank dungeon, Trump’s aggressoporific Hillary Clinton is widely ex- sion waits — lurks. But it has not reapsince Trump’s inpected to draw record numbers. With p e a r e d famous attack on the polls knotted the gold star Khan up and the swing family. Every so states in heavy often, we’ve seen contention, conflashes of Crazy ventional wisdom (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Trump (Vladimir says that the debate will be exciting, a bloodletting Putin’s a great guy! Do we really know between the staid Clinton and the ag- whether Obama was born in the United States?). But he’s been sticking to gressive Trump. But actually, it could be massively the teleprompter onstage and avoiding press scrums offstage. The man who boring. once criticized Clinton for avoiding RIGHT NOW, Trump’s agenda a press conference for well over 200 is simple: Appear sane. Clinton has days has now gone over 50 days withbeen attempting, somewhat success- out a presser. Real Donald Trump is in fully, to portray Trump as an escapee hiding, @realdonaldtrump has been from a mental hospital, a madman on handed over to a blind trust, and Telethe loose, a man who would unleash prompter Trump is on the loose. nuclear war if handed the keys to the THAT MEANS that Clinton’s task nuclear arsenal. In the past few weeks, Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne during the first debate will be to break

Ben

Shapiro

ECONOMY: September 14, 2016

into the dungeon and free the monster. that Clinton has been speaking with To that end, the New York Times reports psychologists to explore where she can poke Trump, in order to prompt him to turn into the Hulk — complete with purple pants. According to the Times, “They are undertaking a forensic-style analysis of Mr. Trump’s performances in the Republican primary debates, cataloging strengths and weaknesses as attended high school but not graduated well as trigger points that caused him to lash out in less-than-presidential had a median income of $32,906. One lesson from the Census Bureau ways.” Trump’s task: Avoid those pitfalls, data: If you want to do better financially in the United States, earn a degree, get take six Valium, and wake up president. Meanwhile, Clinton’s main goal will married, have kids and work. Another lesson: America needs a new be to appear lifelike. With questions swirling around her health and stamiera of economic growth. The last time Gross Domestic Prod- na, she’ll be expected to flash energy uct grew by three percent or more in this and wit. She’ll also be expected to not country was 2005. Since then, we have appear as a complete liar, which is an had 10 straight years without that level uphill task — it’s far easier for a seemof growth despite the fact that the last ingly crazy person to appear stable recession ended in June 2009. In the (every Hollywood actor) than for a sefirst and second quarter of this year, the rial liar to appear honest. She’s got an economy grew at an annual rate of only uphill battle, but she’ll mostly want to 0.8 percent and 1.1. percent, according avoid controversy from Trump. This means that the debate will come to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. to whether Trump can avoid being porYet from 2005 to 2015, real federal trayed as a character from One Flew spending in constant 2009 dollars grew almost 23 percent, rising from $2.7221 Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and whether trillion to $3.3360 trillion, according to Clinton can avoid being portrayed as the White House Office of Management the title player from Weekend at Berand Budget’s Table 1.3. Federal taxa- nie’s. Sounds riveting. tion grew almost 24 percent, rising from $2.3716 trillion to $2.9395 trillion. THIS IS what happens when the The federal debt, according to the Treasury, grew approximately $10.22 standards for our politicians finally hit trillion — rising from $7.93 trillion at rock bottom: We end up with a discusthe end of fiscal 2005 to $18.15 trillion sion between a guy who simply needs to act like a normal person and a womat the end of fiscal 2015. an who simply needs to act like a warm THE AMERICA we have seen so body. It would serve Americans right far in the 21st century is a nation where that after selecting candidates for engovernment spending, taxes and debt tertainment value they end up with the grow vigorously while the economy and season finale of Joe Millionaire. incomes do not.

Stop big government, see bigger growth

eventeen years ago, near the close of the 20th century, the typical American household had a higher income than it did in 2015. The Census Bureau’s annual report on income and poverty in the United States, released this week, did not focus on that fact. But it did note that real median household income was higher in 2015 than in 2014. “Median household income was $56,516 in 2015, an increase in real terms of 5.2 percent from the 2014 median of $53,718,” the report said in its “Highlights” section. “This is the first annual increase in median household income since 2007, the year before the most recent recession,” the report said. IN 2007 — nine years ago — real median household income (in constant 2015 dollars) was $57,423, according to Table A-1 in the report. America has not gotten back there yet. In the nearly five decades between 1967 and 2015, according to that table, real median household income peaked in 1999 at $57,909. It has never been that high in the 21st century. But the Census Bureau data also shows — as it has shown in the past — that some types of households tend to have higher incomes than others. To modern American liberals, this would be evidence of a class war, where rich and evil people exploit the poor.

But the Census Bureau’s Table FINC-01, which shows median household income by “characteristics of families,” demonstrates something else. In 2015, according to this table, “married couple families” had a median household income of $84,324. By contrast, families with a male householder and “no wife present” had a median income of only $49,895. Families with a female householder and “no husband present” had a median income of $34,126.

Terry

MARRIED-COUPLE families with no related children, according to Table FINC-04, had a median household income of $79,881. But married couple families with two or more children within the 6-to-17 age range had a median income of $99,027. Married couple families in which the wife worked and the family had two or more related children within the 6-to17 age range had a median income of $109,502. Families where the householder had a bachelor’s degree had a median income of $103,224. By contrast, families where the householder had a high school degree had a median income of $52,906, and families where the householder had

Conservative Chronicle

LANGUAGE: September 15, 2016

Hillary’s ‘deplorables?’ What about her ‘generalistic?’

his political season means full employment for pundits, opinion givers, strategists and soothsayers, on cable television and via social media. It’s interesting to watch the catch phrases, verbal crutches and tics speakers and writers use, which often, when examined, make little or no sense. We all do it. Donald Trump is fond of saying, “Thatt I can tell you.” Does that mean he’s sitting on the real bombshells? Hillary Clinton, in her broadside against “half” of Trump supporters whom she said were a “basket of deplorables,” actually invented what appears to be a new word — “generalistic.” CLINTON SAID, “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.” Hey, “deplorables” we get. Water’s wet, the sky is blue. Republican politicians — and their supporters — are racist, sexist and homophobic, and they smell really, really bad. Clinton added: “And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.” Well, before Trump arrived on the political scene, then-Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, now interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, said the GOP has “a white-boy attitude.” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., accused then-President George W. Bush of an intentionally sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina because he wanted blacks to leave Louisiana to ensure it remained a red state. Frank called it “ethnic cleansing by inaction.” Again, Democratic Politics 101. But, “generalistic?” Inventing new words? Good, Lord! That just takes the normal political vitriolic combat to a new low. Now, we’ve come to expect verbal sloppiness from Trump. But Clinton is an Ivy-League-educated lawyer, and she’s set the bar higher while consistently accusing Trump of lacking the temperament, judgment and knowledge to be president. Now Trump, in the opinion of his detractors, has demeaned Mexicans, a captured veteran, women, Muslims, the handicapped and others. But he has scrupulously avoided the use of the word “generalistic.” For that alone he might carry a few swing states. Now, while we’re at it, do we need a presidential executive order from our next president to address following: Why do people say “In other words?” How about getting it right the first time?

Why do people say, “Well, that’s Why do people say “Not to change the subject” and then proceed to change what you think!” Of course it is. Does it look like Karl Rove is standing here the subject? Why do people say they “could care feeding me lines? If I were giving you less” when they really mean the exact your opinion — one of us wouldn’t need to be here. opposite? Why do people say they “don’t Why do people say, “Let me be permean to interrupt” and then fectly honest?” Did I stop you? proceed to interrupt? Why do people Why do people say, “If you will?” start a sentence Does it mean with the words “I they’d shut up if mean?” Can we you replied, “Now (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate stipulate that you that you mention do, in fact, mean it — because the perit, no, I believe I won’t?” Why do people say, “Here’s what I son who’s speaking is ... you? Why do people say “At the end of think?” I certainly hope it’s what you the day” — as opposed to at the end of think. After all, I am talking to ... you. the month, year or decade? Is it a matter WHY DO people say, “I’ve got good of short attention spans? Why do people say, “Let me be news and I’ve got bad news?” Doesn’t candid?” What, did a judge place you everybody?

Larry

Elder

under a restraining order? Permission granted! Why do people call television the “boob tube” and then gripe, moan and whine that they can’t find anything good to watch? Why do people say, “Let me be as clear as I can?” Permission granted, but I want 10 pushups if you fall short. Why do people say, “He’s getting on my last nerve?” And just where exactly is that? On second thought, never mind, we’d rather not know. Why do people say, “He was lying through his teeth”? As opposed to what? Lying through his butt cheeks? WHY DO people say, “Silly me. I’m a complete idiot?” And you have to restrain yourself to keep from saying, “I was just thinking the same thing.” Is it November yet?

LESLIE’S TRIVIA BITS: September 19, 2016

Leslie’s Trivia Bits

lan Smithee directed a lot of films — a lot of really bad films. It’s a not-so-secret secret that “Alan Smithee” is a pseudonym used by directors who don’t want their names attached to projects that were changed significantly without their consent. Take the 1990 film Catchfire. Despite the fact that it featured Oscar winners Jodie Foster and Joe Pesci, it was such a mess that director Dennis Hopper was credited as Alan Smithee and Pesci had his name removed from the credits entirely. Westward Ho! (the exclamation point is intentional) is a coastal village in Devon, England. Its name comes from the 1855 novel Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, the tale of an Elizabethan adventurer who leaves his home in North Devon to travel west (naturally) to the New World. Seeking to capitalize on the book’s popularity, and to bring tourists to North Devon’s sandy beaches, the Westward Ho! family resort was built in the area in the 1860s. Pretty soon the whole area came to be called Westward Ho!

The Philadelphia Zoological Garden was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered in 1859, then delayed by the Civil War, it opened in 1874 and had 813 animals in residence in its first year. Among them, as one newspaper reported, were “four porcupines, two laughing hyenae, two golden leopards, one not quite full grown and tractable, and the other very large and vicious ... twenty-six monkeys, some very large and treacherous and others small and frisky.”

THE THREE stars that comprise the “belt” in the constellation Orion are Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. Their names are Arabic, as are the names of other stars in Orion: Meissa, Rigel, Saiph, Bellatrix and Betelgeuse. Even though constellations generally have Latin names, more than 200 individual stars have Arabic names that originated with stargazers in the Muslim world. In fact, the work of 10th-century Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi is still used as a reference today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the late Phil Hartman, who would have turned 68 on Sept. 24. He will live forever in reruns of The Simpsons, where he voiced the characters of has-been actor Troy McClure and shyster lawyer Lionel Hutz, and many others including Plato, Moses and God. After Hartman’s death in 1998, both Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz were retired as a tribute to his work. TRIVIA 1. A 189-minute version of which

Leslie

Amtrak’s thrice-weekly train service between Chicago and New York is called the Cardinal because it travels through six states on its way to the east coast — Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia — and the cardinal is the official state bird of all of them.

sci-fi movie from a Frank Herbert novel is credited to director Alan Smithee, not director David Lynch? A) The Andromeda Strain B) Dune C) Invasion of the Body Snatchers D) Solaris 2. Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh made what practice popular in England? A) Smoking B) Stamp-collecting C) Tattooing D) Vegetarianism 3. The goal of NASA’s Orion mission is to send humans to what celestial destination in the 2030s? A) Betelgeuse B) Jupiter C) Mars D) Venus 4. Who is the main character in “If I Ran the Zoo” by Dr. Seuss? A) Cindy-Lou Who B) Foo-Foo the Snoo C) Gerald McGrew D) Sam-I-Am 5. Vermonter Ethan Allen is famous for leading a Revolutionary War attack at what site on Lake Champlain? A) Bunker Hill B) Fort Charlotte C) Fort Ticonderoga D) Kemp’s Landing 6. Which of these is an example of a Platonic solid? A) Dice B) A football C) Icicles D) Ketchup (answers on page 19)

September 28, 2016 2016 ELECTION: September 16, 2016

Trading places in the homestretch

hat an opportunity Hillary which she chose to make her remarks Clinton missed with her — among the wealthy star-seekers at a talk about “basket” cases. fundraiser in New York, members of an She blew a chance to broaden empa- elite society who enjoy their privileges thy for the unhappy, dissatisfied, disen- blindly enough to be amused by her chanted voters who find Donald Trump’s mean characterizations, as though she message of strength — making America were performing in a skit on Saturday great again — important and crucial. Night Live. Trump was right She demeaned all to call them out. He those voters who told the National are imperiled by Guard Association the global econoin Baltimore, Marymy, threatened by (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate land: “She and her waves of illegal wealthy donors all immigrants who compete for low-end jobs and angry with had a good laugh. You heard them. They the politically correct elitists who under- were all laughing. Good, good solid cut their values. By narrowing sympathy laugh. They were laughing at the very people who paved the roads — I mean, for them she expands her negatives. and these are the roads that she with THE TWO candidates have traded all of her security drive on — paint the places. Clinton demonstrates how she buildings she speaks in, and importantly, can stoop to insult as smoothly and as all of the other functions.” She mocked cruelly as her prime nemesis has done. the voter, not the candidate — always a The Donald, for once, stayed on message, dangerous tactic in a democracy. Clinton’s vulgar references brought eschewing ad-libbed black-and-blue language, and even looking presidential in out a rare eloquence in the Donald. He his concern for Clinton’s flailing health. reminded his audience that his supportNo one would dare call this a pivot, but ers come from every part of America, and every occupation, saying, “We have it’s refreshing. Not only did Clinton lump half of her the support of cops and soldiers, carpenbasket cases together as irredeemable ters and welders, the young and the old, bigots, and the other half as helpless, and millions of working class families hopeless, desperate, dependent victims. who just want a better future and a good She shut down constructive conversation job.” It was not quite Walt Whitman, but over what kind of leadership she would it wasn’t bad. Clinton managed to half-apologize for provide, for the millions who don’t see the world through her royal blue glasses. generalizing so broadly as to include half Equally disquieting was the setting in of Trump’s supporters, but her broad-

Suzanne

Fields

brush namecalling smacks of guilt by association, and suggests that she did it intentionally to try to guilt-trip the independents who dare think of voting for Trump. She insists that they would be buying the bad brand. Trump followers, however, are having the last laugh, wearing T-shirts with the slogan “adorable deplorables.” And a poster parodying Les Miserables depicts a triumphant ragtag clutch of revolutionaries marching up the hill under two flags. One is the stars and stripes, the other is emblazoned with the name “Trump.” The caption in bold letters identifies them as “Les Deplorables.”

CLINTON’S REMARKS coincided with the hide-and-seek controversy over her health problems. In the Los Angeles Times tracking poll released this week, Trump now leads by nearly six points. This is still within the margin of error, and polls are mere snapshots in time, but it suggests the toll taken by Clinton’s undisciplined mouth. Her slurs against Trump supporters and working class men and women enabled him to draw emphasis toward an image of her as the rich insider who thinks she never has to show mercy to anyone. “While Hillary Clinton lives a sequestered life behind gates and walls and guards,” he said, “she mocks and demeans hardworking Americans who only want their own families to enjoy a fraction of the security enjoyed by our politicians.” Then, with a bow to his emerging softer, sensitive side, he offered something to women, from whom he suffers a gap. During a speech in a Philadelphia suburb, he presented a child care policy for families, reflecting the strong influence of two strong women. Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager, wants him to make child care a priority. And his daughter, Ivanka Trump, a mother of three who is passionate on the subject, helps him with details. IN AN INTERVIEW with Megyn Kelly of Fox News, Trump defended her father’s harsh remarks about women in the past. She cast her defense with a feminist twist: “My father can be an equal opportunity offender. He will speak his mind, and he treats women equal to how he treats men. ...I think the fact that he doesn’t treat us differently or with kid gloves shows the fact that he recognizes we’re equipped to handle it.” It’s not clear whether that includes Hillary Clinton.

September 28, 2016

Hillary sharpens, Trump softens. He’s rising, she’s falling

Nervy. Can you really repackage the f you are the status quo candidate in a change election in which the boasting, bullying, bombastic, insultnational mood is sour and two- ing, insensitive Trump into a mellow thirds of the electorate think the coun- and caring version? With two months try is on the wrong track, what do you to go? In a digital age in which every do? Attack. Relentlessly. Paint your past outrage is preserved on imperishopponent as extremist, volatile, clue- able video? Turns out, yes. How? less, unfit, dangerous. Indeed, Hillary Deflect and deny — Clinton’s latest naand pretend it never tional ad, featuring happened. Where are major Republican they now — the politicians echobirtherism, the ing that indictment (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group deportation force, of Donald Trump, the scorn for teleends thus: “Unfit. prompters, the mocking of candidates Dangerous. Even for Republicans.” That was the theme of Clinton’s fa- who take outside money? Down the mous “alt-right” speech and of much of memory hole. Orwell was wrong. You don’t need her $100 million worth of ads. repression. You need only the sensory overload of an age of numbingly PROBLEM IS, it’s not working. Over the last month, Trump’s new ephemeral social media. In this surreal team, led by Kellyanne Conway, has election season, there is no past. Clinton ads keep showing actual worked single-mindedly to blunt that line of attack on the theory that if he can Trump sound bites meant to shock. Yet just cross the threshold of acceptability, her numbers are dropping, his rising. How? Trump never goes on the dehe wins. In an act of brazen rebranding, they set out to endow him with stature fensive. He merely creates new Trumps. Hence: and empathy. (1) The African-American blitz. It’s a Stature was acquired in Mexico whose president inexplicably gave Trump the new pose and the novelty shows. Trump opportunity to stand on the world stage is not very familiar with the language. with a national leader and more than hold He occasionally slips, for example, into his own. It’s the same stature booster referring to “the blacks.” And his arguSen. Barack Obama pulled off when he ment that African-Americans inhabit a stood with the French president at a news living hell and therefore have nothing to lose by voting for him hovers someconference in Paris in 2008. That was part one: Trump the states- where between condescension and inman. Part two: The kinder gentler Trump. sult.

Charles

Krauthammer

BUT, AS EVERY living commentator has noted, the foray into AfricanAmerican precincts was not aimed at winning black votes but at countering Trump’s general image as the bigoted candidate of white people. Result? A curious dynamic in which Clinton keeps upping the accusatory ante just as Trump keeps softening his tone — until she finds herself way over the top, landing in a basket of deplorables, a phrase that will haunt her until Election Day. (Politics 101: Never attack the voter.) (2) The immigration wobble. A week of nonstop word salad about illegal im-

migration left everyone confused about what Trump really believes. Genius. The only message to emerge from the rhetorical fog is that he is done talking about deportation and/or legalization. The very discussion is off the table until years down the road. Case closed. Toxic issue detoxified. Again, that’s not going to win him the Hispanic vote. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to soften his image in the Philadelphia suburbs, pundit shorthand for white college-educated women that Republicans have to win (and where Trump trails Romney 2012 by 10 points). Which brings us to: (3) The blockbuster child care proposal. Unveiled Tuesday, it is liberalism at its best, Big Government at its biggest: Tax deductions, tax rebates (i.e. cash), and a federal mandate of six weeks of paid maternity leave. The biggest entitlement since, well, Obamacare. But wait. Didn’t Trump’s acolytes assure us that he spoke for those betrayed by the sold-out, elitist, GOP establishment that for years refused to stand up to Obama’s overweening mandates, Big Government profligacy and budgetbusting entitlements? No matter. That was yesterday. There is no past. Nor a future — at least for Ivanka-care. It would never get through the GOP House. Nor is it meant to. It is meant to signal what George H. W. Bush once memorably read off a cue card. “Message: I care.” And where do you think Trump gave this dish-the-Whigs cradle-to-college entitlement speech? Why, the Philadelphia suburbs! CAN’T GET more transparent than that. Or shameless. Or brilliant. And it’s working. September 16, 2016

This Week’s Conservative Focus

2016 Election

Age matters for both Clinton and Trump

to pretend that age doesn’t matter any- young. There are exceptions — athletes more — that 70 is the new 60 or even the and fitness fanatics, perhaps — but neinew 50? Yes, we’re living longer, but our ther Clinton nor Trump falls in those catbodies and minds deteriorate over time, egories, which is why it is so important no matter how well we take care of our- that both of them release their medical records. Clinton, despite hiding her pneuselves. I say this as a 69-year-old woman monia from the public for several days who eats well, walks four or five miles after it was diagnosed, has been far more nearly every day, works long hours, forthcoming than Trump. She’s released travels 75,000 miles a year, writes pro- a list of her medications and details about tory of hyperthyroidlifically and is in generally good health. her hisism and deep vein But I can’t pull an thrombosis, as well all-nighter workas information on a ing on an article concussion she sufas I did even a few fered while secreyears ago or do a (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate tary of state. 10-mile mountain Trump, on the other hand, has givhike without paying the consequences. It is foolish for most people my age to en virtually no useful information. On NO MATTER who wins the election this year, we will be getting a president pretend they have the same energy, stam- Thursday, he pulled a typical Trump pubnot in his or her prime. Why do we have ina or capacity they did when they were lic relations stunt by going on The Dr. n March 2015, I wrote a column suggesting Hillary Clinton was too old to run for president. It generated a lot of blowback, as I suspected it would, even though she hadn’t yet formally announced her candidacy. Carter Eskew, who ran Al Gore’s media campaign in 2000, berated me in the Washington Post for “the sexist and ageist nature” of what I had written and called it “remarkably outrageous.” But Clinton’s recent bout of pneumonia and episodes of appearing to lose her balance in public raise important questions, and age should not be off-limits as a topic. To be clear, the same concerns apply to Donald Trump — in my view, even more so.

Linda

Chavez

Our political predicament

here is no point denying or sugar-coating the plain fact that the voters this election year face a choice between two of the worst candidates in living memory. A professor at Morgan State University summarized the situation by saying that the upcoming debates may enable voters to decide which is the “less insufferable” candidate to be President of the United States. My own take on this election is that the voter is in a situation much like that of an American fighter pilot in World War II, whose plane has been hit by enemy fire out over the Pacific Ocean and is beginning to burst into flames. If he bails out, there is no guarantee that his parachute will open. But even if he lands safely in the ocean, he may be eaten by sharks. If he comes down on land, he may be captured by the Japanese and tortured and/or killed. IN OTHER words, there are huge and potentially fatal risks. But, if he remains in the plane, he is doomed for certain. To me, Donald Trump represents multiple and potentially fatal risks. But Hillary Clinton is a certainty of disaster. Her vaunted “experience” is an experience of having repeatedly made decisions that turned out to be not merely wrong but catastrophic. The most obvious example has been her role as Secretary of State during the Obama administration’s decision to undermine and help destroy the governments of two nations — Egypt and Libya — that were no threat whatever to Americans or to America’s interests. The net result was that two Middle East nations that were at least neutral

toward the United States, in contrast to others who are hostile and belligerent, were turned into countries where Islamic extremists created turmoil, and one in which Islamic terrorists killed the American ambassador and those who came to his aid. President Obama and Secretary Clinton inherited an Iraq where terrorists had been soundly defeated, thanks to General David Petraeus’ “surge” campaign, which both had opposed when they were in the Senate. But the Obama administration turned victory into defeat by pulling American troops out of Iraq, against the advice of top military leaders, setting the stage for the emergence of ISIS and its triumphant barbarism that attracted adherents who began waging a terrorist war inside Western nations, including the United States.

Thomas

A WHOLE series of disastrous military and foreign policy decisions have led to public criticisms by an extraordinary succession of former Secretaries of Defense and top generals who had served under the Obama administration. Such public criticisms of any administration, by its own former high officials, are virtually unheard of. One of these Secretaries of Defense, Robert Gates — who has served under several administrations of both parties — criticized Donald Trump as well. Secretary Gates said: “The world we confront is too perilous and too complex

to have as president a man who believes that he, and he alone, has all the answers and has no need to listen to anyone.” Secretary Gates called Trump “beyond repair.” He also criticized Hillary Clinton, so this was no partisan attack. Unfortunately — perhaps tragically — she and Trump are our only alternatives this election year. On the domestic front, as well, Trump is an uncertainty, while Hillary is a guaranteed catastrophe. Given the advanced ages of various Supreme Court justices, whoever becomes the next President of the United States can expect to have enough appointments to that court to determine the future of American law — and American freedom — for decades after that President’s term of office is over. Hillary Clinton has already said that she wants to see the current Supreme Court’s decision overturned in a case where they ruled, by a 5 to 4 vote, that both corporations and labor unions have free speech rights. On other issues as well, she has advocated curtailments on free speech. And without free speech, there is no effective limit on what any administration can do. On racial issues, Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly pushed the idea that blacks are besieged by enemies on all sides, and need her to protect them — in exchange for their votes. Trump has at least supported charter schools, which are one of the few avenues through which the next generation of blacks can get a decent education.

Oz Show, releasing the barest of details about his health but not the actual medical records. CAMPAIGNS ARE grueling, and it’s no wonder Clinton became ill, especially at her age. According to the National Institute on Aging, “a lifetime of stress on our bodies is thought to contribute to immunosenescence,” or the gradual deterioration of our immune systems’ ability to respond to infections or receive protection through vaccinations. Clinton was vaccinated against pneumonia, according to her doctor, but she got it anyway, which suggests her immune system didn’t respond as well as might a younger person’s. But if Clinton’s age is a factor, Trump is even older and is hardly a fit specimen. So why hasn’t Trump become ill on the campaign trail? Maybe he has. Who knows? He’s not the same kind of retail politician as Clinton, and his schedule has been lighter than hers. He takes days off from campaigning, travels in luxury and infamously dislikes shaking hands (though he seems to do it more often now than in the primaries). Maybe he is as healthy as he claims to be, but his late-night tweets, his repetitive speech patterns, his apparent inability to learn anything about public policy, his memory lapses — even about his own statements — his paranoia and his conspiracy theories all raise at least the possibility that he’s suffering some cognitive decline. Given the choice between a candidate who is physically less robust and one who’s declining mentally, I’d say the latter is scarier. The Constitution bars candidates below the age of 35 from running for president, and no one complains. Maybe it’s time we think about upper limits, as well. Nearly three-quarters of S&P 500 companies have mandatory retirement policies in place for their corporate directors, and about a third of big corporations set upper limits on the age of CEOs, as well. Although a 1986 law prohibits employers from forcing retirement because of age, important categories are exempt, including airline pilots, air traffic controllers and law enforcement officers. The presidency is certainly more complex and demanding than any of those jobs.

THE 25TH Amendment provides for the removal of a president who becomes incapacitated, but is it really so outrageous to consider whether we need to put a cap on the age at which a president can be sworn in, too? It’s just hubris to pretend age is totally irrelevant to the ability to do the job. Sure, the voters are capable of deciding the issue in most elections. THERE ARE no good choices, but But this time around, they really have no nevertheless we must choose. choice. September 20, 2016

September 16, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

HILLARY CLINTON: September 20, 2016

Will Democratic success breed Clinton’s failure?

uccess breeds failure. That’s ment,” including following the news one of the melancholy lessons and thinking about politics. Clinton runs farthest behind the you learn in life. The success of policymakers in stamping out inflation Obama 2012 numbers among young in the 1980s and minimizing recessions voters. Those under 30 voted 66 perfor two decades also produced policies cent for Obama in 2008 and 60 percent that contributed to the collapse of the in 2012. But the most recent Quinnipoll showed Clinton housing and financial markets in 2007- p i a c in a four-way pair08. ing winning only It’s the same 31 percent among in politics. Stratvoters under 35 raised so far been buying her votes? Her egies and tactics — which might millions of dollars of ads in target states, that seem certain (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate portend, as the run while the Trump campaign spent to produce victory Atlantic’s Russell zero, didn’t build landslide-type leads, can eventually produce defeat. Prognostications that one Berman writes, “a big dip in turnout by or prevent any leads she had from being whittled down in the weeks since Trump party or platform will prevail far into young Americans.” It’s not clear that standard campaign flew to Mexico Aug. 31. the future usually turn out to have a surThe old rule is that putting up ads tactics will help. After Clinton’s colprisingly early sell-by date. lapse she canceled her schedule for gets you votes. But maybe that rule THAT BECOMES apparent when the next two days — which consisted doesn’t apply when you have two such you look at the shrinking margin for of fundraisers on the West Coast. This widely known — and widely distrusted Hillary Clinton in the polls. As of Fri- came after her “baskets of deplorables” and disliked — candidates. Money can also buy you lots of camday, the Real Clear Politics average of characterization of half of Trump suprecent polls shows Clinton’s margin porters — made at a Manhattan fund- paign headquarters and huge tranches of big data identifying individual voters’ down to 1.5 percent in two-way pair- raiser. preferences and concerns. The Obama ings with Donald Trump and down to BUT WHY keep raising money in 2012 campaign showed that organiza1.1 percent in four-way pairings that inmid-September? Has the money she’s tion and data-mongering are most useclude Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. And it’s down to 0.7 percent in polls that included interviews conducted on PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: September 20, 2016 or after Sept. 11, when Clinton collapsed while attending a 9/11 commemoration in Manhattan. Note that Clinton is averaging only 42 percent in four-way polls, with 11 percent being cast for the minor-party ary Johnson and Bill Weld — control the field to lower their standards candidates. That means Clinton is runthe former GOP governors so that you can play. ning far short of her goal of replicating of New Mexico and MassaBesides, I think Johnson wins when the 51 percent majority Barack Obama chusetts who now head the Libertarian Americans tune into the debate Monday won in 2012. Party ticket — should embrace their fail- night and see in the harsh glare of the deThat majority depended on high turn- ure to qualify for the first debate. Com- bate spotlight the best that the two parout and high Democratic percentages mission on Presidential Debates set the ties have to offer — Hillary Clinton and from three groups: Blacks, Hispanics bar too high for third-party candidates Donald Trump. and young people. The last two of these to own a podium at Hofstra University According to the RealClearPolitics demographic groups will inevitably on Sept. 26: To qualify, nominees had polling average, 54.9 percent of voters grow as percentages of the population, to be constitutionally eligible to serve, have an unfavorable view and many observers have speculated appear on enough state ballots to have a that this will result in an emerging and mathematical chance of winning a maenduring Democratic Party majority. jority vote in the Electoral College and But Hillary Clinton is having trou- show at least 15 percent support in five ble assembling that majority this year. national polls. With 8.4 percent support (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Blacks turned out at higher rates than in polls selected by the panel, Johnson whites in 2012, for the first time in his- didn’t make the cut. tory. That was driven by intensive turnof Clinton, while 57.3 have a negative out efforts, but also by spontaneous enTHE JOHNSON-WELD campaign view of Trump. You just know that more thusiasm for the first black president, as has posted an online petition that calls people will despise them by Nov. 8. If shown by high black turnout in the non- on the debate panel to let the Libertar- I were Johnson, I wouldn’t want to be target states of Louisiana and Missis- ians debate. With more than 875,000 anywhere near the stage when Clinton sippi. That’s not likely to be duplicated online signatures, the campaign likely and Trump finally face off. with the first black president no longer will meet its goal of one million. I think on the ballot. that’s the wrong tactic. Sure, you can arPITY THE moderator, NBC’s LesAs for Hispanics, there’s speculation gue that the panel is “rigged,” as Johnson ter Holt. This silly campaign season has they’ll turn out in vast numbers to op- said, with too many major party former focused on what the candidates say far pose Donald Trump. But maybe not. big shots. If the panel wanted to accom- more than what they do. If Holt sticks to Polling shows Trump faring no worse modate third-party candidates, then it that model and, say, asks Trump if Trump among Hispanics than Mitt Romney at could have stuck to its first two crite- was trying to foment violence against this point four years ago. And in July ria. Or it could have had different rules Clinton when he suggested Clinton’s the Pew Research Center reported that for one of the debates to accommodate bodyguards disarm. (Quoth the Donald: “Hispanic voters lag all registered vot- outsiders. But that didn’t happen, and it “She doesn’t want guns. Let’s see what ers on several measures of engage- never looks good to ask the folks who happens to her. Take their guns away. It

Michael

Barone

ful when messages are conveyed not by TV spots or robocalls but by actual volunteers concerned about similar issues. How many of these can Hillary Clinton inspire? WHEN CLINTON was leading in polls after the Democratic National Convention, she looked to have a chance in Georgia and Arizona, with 27 electoral votes, which Mitt Romney won by eight and nine percent. Now that polls have the race nationally about even, 10 states — with 125 electoral votes — that Obama carried by smaller percentages may be within range for Trump. Success, for either party, sooner or later breeds failure.

In the first debate, three’s a crowd

Debra J.

Saunders

would be very dangerous.”) Trump will be ready to slam Holt as a media elite who hides behind security walls. If Holt asks Clinton tough questions about her State Department emails, Democrats will target him for the same treatment they reserved for Matt Lauer. My suggestion: Ask Clinton what she means when she says she has taken responsibility for her decision to use a home-brew server for highly sensitive communications. What exactly happens when she takes responsibility? Last week, it was Johnson’s turn to squirm when MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle asked what he would do about Aleppo. “What is Aleppo?” Johnson responded — confirming that Syria is not a top concern for the Libertarian nominee. Afterward Johnson didn’t try to make excuses. He admitted it looked bad. It’s often the open questions that lead to recriminations. THAT’S ANOTHER reason the Libertarians should be happy to sit out the first dance. Johnson and Weld are right to shift their sights to the October debates. Let Clinton and Trump do their worst to each other — the more voters see of the major party swells with their Machiavellian moves, the more they might crave a real human being who wants the government to do better by doing less.

September 28, 2016 DEAR MARK: September 16, 2016

Deplorable, sexist health remarks, Colin Powell DEAR MARK: I can’t believe what Hillary said about Trump supporters. Hillary wants to be President of the United States yet she proudly insulted millions of Americans by calling them deplorable. It disgusts me that any politician could think that about her fellow citizens. — Proudly Deplorable Dear Deplorable: Every now and then a politician actually articulates their true feelings. Hillary opened her bleeding heart and honestly stated what many Ivy League Northeastern liberals think about the unwashed masses. At a fundraiser hosted by Barbara Streisand, Hillary blathered “You know to just be grossly generalistic; you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that and he has lifted them up.” Hillary went on to say some of these people are “irredeemable.” This was not a gaff as her remarks were prepared, written, and approved by either Hillary or her team. Democrats always play the “ism” and “phobia” cards when describing Republicans but blatantly referring to millions in this regard is a new low even for a Clinton. I did not see a single racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic speaker at the GOP convention yet the Democrat convention gave us a week of the Black Lives Matter anti-police rhetoric. Just imagine if Trump labelled half the Democrats as anti-police, pro-Occupy Wall Street, anti-coal, anti-Christian, pro-free college, pro- tax, pro-open borders, and pro-baby killing and then put-

ting them in the basket of idiots that are irredeemable.

DEAR MARK: With all the hub bub concerning Hilary’s health problems and her fainting on September 11th, I was wondering if you think a candidate’s medical records should be made completely public. After all FDR and JFK had some pretty major health issues that didn’t seem to affect their ability to serve as president so why should we worry today? — Dr. N o Hillary

Mark

Dear Dr.: This is a tough email to answer as I believe presidential candidates should be as transparent as possible even with regards to health so the voters can make informed decisions. On the other hand unless a candidate is showing signs of a particular illness or debilitating condition I believe the medical basics should suffice, i.e. blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer issues, etc. In the case of Hillary’s condition, she flat passed out at a public event and her condition is still somewhat of a mystery. Yes, I know they’re claiming pneumonia but it is the Clintons we’re talking about. Combine that with her concussion and other health scares and the public has a right to know her complete medical history. As for Trump he seems as healthy as a horse and appears to have more energy than that drum beating rabbit. What’s laughable is that some in the media are claiming that Mrs. Bill Clin-

ton’s health problems are brought about by sexism. Journalists” like CNN’s Christiane Amanpour claim that because she’s a woman Hillary has to work harder thus she’s more susceptible to illness. Amanpour tried to support her claim by citing President Franklin Pierce who passed out on the battlefield in the 1840’s but still served as president. Now I’m not a journalist like Ms. Amanpour but it seems to me that she could have researched the weather on 9/11 and discovered that Ms. Clinton passed out on a beautiful New York morning with the temperature in the upper 70’s. That’s hardly the 1840 battlefield conditions Pierce faced and definitely not due to sexism.

CONTACT INFORMATION Individual Contact Information Greenberg - pgreenberg@arkansasonline.com Krauthammer - letters@charleskrauthammer.com Levy - marklevy92@aol.com Lowry - comments.lowry@nationalreview.com Malkin - malkinblog@gmail.com Massie - mychalmassie@gmail.com Napolitano - freedomwatch@foxbusiness. com Saunders - dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Schlafly - phyllis@eagleforum.org Thomas - tmseditors@tribune.com Will - georgewill@washpost.com

DEAR MARK: Some of General Colin Powell’s emails were hacked and released and they aren’t complimentary of either Trump or Hillary. Even though he supported Barack Obama, I still respect Powell’s service to our country. Will this have an impact on the election? —Janice in Indiana Dear Janice: Here’s what Powell actually emailed to an acquaintance referring to Hillary: “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect. A 70 year old person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still #%+! ing bimbos at home.” Although Powell called Trump a “national disgrace” this is far more damaging to Hillary. Meanwhile Bill thought it was a compliment.

Contact through Creators Syndicate Michael Barone, Austin Bay, Brent Bozell, Pat Buchanan, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, Vernoique de Rugy, Larry Elder, Leslie Elman, Joseph Farah, David Harsanyi, Laura Hollis, Terry Jeffrey, Larry Kudlow, David Limbaugh, Dick Morris, William Murchison, Dennis Prager, Ben Shapiro, Thomas Sowell

E-mail your questions to marklevy92@ aol.com. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkPLevy

TRIVIA ANSWERS

Contact - info@creators.com Contact through Universal Press Ann Coulter or Donald Lambro Contact by mail : c/o Universal Press Syndicate 1130 Walnut Street Kansas City, MO 64106 Answers from page 14

T rivia B I T S

ANSWERS 1) The 189-minute Alan Smithee cut of Dune is a film geek cult classic. 2) Sir Walter Raleigh helped make smoking fashionable in Elizabethan England. 3) NASA’s Orion mission has a goal of sending humans to Mars. 4) Gerald McGrew is the main character in Dr. Seuss’ “If I Ran the Zoo.” 5) Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont led an attack on Fort Ticonderoga. 6) Cubes, such as dice, are among the 3-D “Platonic solid” figures that Plato described circa 350 B.C.

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Conservative Chronicle

MARIJUANA: September 18, 2016

Marijuana: California should legalize it

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, has here’s a reason marijuana rial board this month by offering that he laws don’t work: There is no was “mulling” the 2016 ballot measure. endorsed Prop. 64. As a former proscompelling reason for them to Let me be clear. In 2016, Califor- ecutor, Swalwell need not fear being work. nians don’t go to prison — or even labeled soft on crime. In 2014, I asked Marijuana is not a dangerous drug. jail — for holding small quantities of him if he thought legalization would usage. Swalwell anUsed in moderation, cannabis has few marijuana. (Possession of less than an drive up swered, “Honestly, ill effects; used in excess, the intoxicant ounce of marijuana no.” Newsom has has fewer and less severe side effects isn’t even a misdebeen careful to than alcohol. It’s not in a class with opi- meanor in Califorframe himself as oids that can kill users. There has been nia anymore — not pro-marijuana no known lethal human overdose of it’s an infraction, (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate as much as antimarijuana. The California Medical As- punishable by a Prohibition. He sociation supports state Proposition 64, $100 fine. Prop. 64 which would legalize, tax and regulate would require that minors caught with knows that laws against pot are not the marijuana for recreational adult use. an ounce or less attend drug education only threat to teenagers; heavy mariThere is no compelling public-safety or counseling programs and perform juana use can change the structure of interest in government’s ban on adult community service.) State laws against their brains and sabotage their success recreational use — not in a free country. marijuana were wrong when they led to as adults. jail time; now that getting caught can AS THE PROP. 64 meeting ended, IT’S TIME for California to cut its end with a $100 ticket, they’re a waste Newsom told me how much his wife ties with ill-conceived federal and state of resources and feckless. drug laws that ban adult recreational use and thus consign marijuana cultivation VENEZUELA: September 21, 2016 and sale to criminal gangs. Just as the mob grew powerful thanks to the American prohibition of alcohol (which failed to douse the public’s desire for spirits), drug gangs have flourished thanks to Chavez also enlarged the VenezuWashington’s war on drugs. By legalizespite the touts that it would ing marijuana, not simply decriminaliz“be remembered for centu- elan military and armed it with Russian ing its use, California can move the trade ries,” Venezuelan socialist weapons purchased with petro-dollars. out of the shadows to a place where the dictator Nicolas Maduro’s non-aligned He said Venezuela needed a large and state can regulate and tax it. As Lt. Gov. summit proved to be a less-than-mem- powerful military to protect its socialist revolution. Military power would Gavin Newsom, a proponent, told the orable bust. Chronicle’s editorial board, “The goal is The non-aligned nation summit, also help extend the revolution. Chavez to end the black market.” held in Caracas from September 16-18, had a grandiose plan. He would create Criminalization of marijuana also was supposed to showcase Maduro as the South American “super-state” envifeeds a public contempt toward the po- a radical and resilient socialist leader. sioned by 19th century South American litical system. When they were young, Instead, it revealed Venezuela’s weak- revolutionary Simon Bolivar. This BoPresidents Obama, George W. Bush and ness and exposed Maduro as delusion- livarian state would include Venezuela, Colombia, Surinam and parts of EcuaBill Clinton flouted the law, partook of al. the weed and got away with it. If they Summit attendee Zimbabwean dic- dor. had been arrested and convicted, their tator Robert Mugabe lauded Maduro life paths may not have led to the White and Venezuela’s great “Bolivarian” House. An arrest on drug charges can revolution, but when Mugabe sings prevent young men and women from your praises, the praise is thin indeed. winning security clearances needed for (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate some jobs but not, apparently, for the ZIMBABWE AND Venezuela have However, Chavez’ political and position of commander in chief. Alas, much in common: Violence, turmoil when Clinton, Bush and Obama were and poverty. As the Economist noted economic mismanagement had consein a position to do something — to end earlier this year, the arc of Venezuela’s quences. The economy sputtered. As a crusade that disproportionately hurts economic decline mimics Zimbabwe’s. domestic opposition increased, Chavez young people of color — they could not Venezuela’s inflation rate in 2016 is intimidated and brutalized his critics. be bothered. around 700 percent; Zimbabwe expe- Conditions in Venezuela declined. rienced 700 percent in 2006. CHAVEZ DIED of cancer in March IN THAT SPIRIT, many statewide Zimbabwe was once an agricultural officeholders in California (including breadbasket. Mugabe’s corrupt and 2013. In April 2013, Maduro, the desigNewsom) refused in 2010 to endorse violent regime turned Zimbabwe is a nated heir, won a disputed election. Oil prices dropped and the economic sputProposition 19, which would have le- basketcase. galized adult use of marijuana. Then Oil-producing Venezuela was truly ter became an economic collapse. The Colorado and Washington legalized rec- wealthy. Then 1999 rolled around and economy is now in its third year of deep reational use in 2012 and it became clear Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, recession. I mentioned the 700 percent California would follow suit. Newsom Hugo Chavez, became president. The inflation rate. Earlier this year food saw the light. He and political operative ex-paratrooper combined the rhetorical shortages began. In 2007, Chavez flexed his military Jason Kinney now frame marijuana le- flair of Benito Mussolini with the antigalization as a “social justice” issue — Americanism of Fidel Castro. He had muscles and publicly toyed with invadyet it remains a social justice issue from the economic savvy of both dictators ing the island of Curacao, a Dutch-prowhich most Democrats run. No other — meaning he had none whatsoever. tected territory just off the Venezuelan statewide officeholder has endorsed Instead, he squandered Venezuela’s oil coast. At least two serious studies conProp. 64, although Gov. Jerry Brown, windfall on populist political schemes cluded a Venezuelan quick strike could seize the weakly-defended island before who trashed Prop. 19, teased the edito- and self-aggrandizement.

Debra J.

Saunders

and he hate secondhand marijuana smoke. As the election looms, readers have sent me the occasional email warning that legalizing pot could increase squalor on the streets of San Francisco. They warn that with legalization, downtown could smell like pot smoke — as if it does not already. Yes, San Francisco has more than its share of medical marijuana dispensaries. Sorry, esteemed reader, I answer, booze and heroin are the downward drivers on San Francisco sidewalks, not marijuana. Pot plumes work like the fog that comes in on little cat feet and cools the bay, except it brings relief to the nose. In a city that reeks of urine and the pungent smell of stagnant sewers, marijuana smoke has become San Francisco’s deodorant.

Can a powder keg implode?

Austin

Bay

Dutch, British and U.S. forces could respond. In 2016, Curacao is being invaded by Venezuelan refugees. The island cannot handle the refugee influx. Refugees had fled to Colombia as well. A recent poll in Venezuela indicated between 40 and 50 percent of Venezuelans would flee their country if they had the chance. Why? Shortages. Long lines for food and next to no medicine. Once prosperous Venezuelans complain they now spend their days hunting for food. For decades, Venezuela has relied on food imports to meet domestic needs. Oil revenues supplied the cash. Now that money is gone. In July, Maduro militarized food distribution, or tried to. He ordered the Venezuelan military to monitor food production and oversee the distribution of food supplies. Though Venezuelans are angry and disenchanted, political opposition remains fragmented and ineffective. The opposition coalition, Democratic Unity, wants to remove Maduro from office but its call for a referendum has encountered bureaucratic resistance. Venezuelan law governing recall elections and removal from office are also quirky. The national election board also says its members have been threatened, presumably by Maduro’s supporters. FOR THE MOMENT, Maduro has stymied and cowed his opponents. Maduro has the guns and he controls the food. Repression, however, doesn’t prevent starvation. Civil wars typically explode with a spasm of violence. Instead, Venezuela is imploding into civil chaos. The next year will be dangerous and difficult.

September 28, 2016 UNITED NATIONS: September 21, 2016

Hey, UN corruptocrats: Spare us refugee sanctimony

nother United Nations sum- of open borders. If only we uneducated mit in New York. Another heathens who oppose unfettered mass finger-wagging extravagan- immigration to America from Ameriza. Another useless “historic declara- ca-hating breeding grounds learned to tion” (nonbinding, of course) to save the appreciate “diversity” more, a Skittlesworld (by holding another summit ... in colored rainbow of peace and harmony would reign. two years). A n d yes, I know, “SkitAs America reels from the latest tertles” is now a trigrorist attacks by ger word after Muslim refugees Donald Trump Jr. and immigrants in used the treats in a New York, New completely innocJersey and Minne(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate uous homeland sota, the world’s global do-gooders filled the Big Apple security meme on Twitter to illustrate with their humanitarian hot air. U.N. of- America’s inability to separate murderficials convened in NYC this week to minded refujihadis from legitimate refpush for “collective action” to “protect ugees escaping persecution. To which I say: Suck it up, snowthe rights of refugees and migrants, to save lives and share responsibility for flakes. Terrorists are teaching their kids to slice throats and you’re whimpering large movements on a global scale.” over candy analogies? Talk about canLET ME PUT this as politely as dy-a--es. Not to be outdone in the international possible: Bug off, UN nitwits. Islamic jihadists are lopping off infi- sanctimony Olympics, President Obama dels’ heads; kidnapping young African used center stage at the U.N. General girls, Christian missionaries and West- Assembly to rail against self-preservaern tourists; incinerating Afghan school- tionism in favor of “global integration.” girls; imposing mass genital mutilation Instead of a full-frontal fusillade against on Muslim girls and marrying them off al Qaeda, the Islamic State and all the to lecherous brutes while they’re still in other homicidal spreaders of Allahu grade school; pushing gays off of roof- Akbar-it is, Obama aimed his sharpest tops; mob-raping European women; barbs at American supporters of Donald casting fatwas on cartoonists, filmmak- Trump and U.K. voters who voted to ers and authors; and stabbing, shooting withdraw from the European Union. “A nation ringed by walls would only and bombing Jews, Christians and eximprison itself,” he lectured. Muslim apostates all over the world. (Pay no attention to the brand-new For starters. But the real problem, the UN elites fence at the White House now nearly tell us, is “rising xenophobia” in coun- 14-feet high to protect Obama from untries whose citizens are sick and tired wanted outside “integration.”)

Michelle

Malkin

This week’s U.N. production of Caring Theater is just the latest attempt by the world’s most feckless social engineers to compensate for their own abject, chronic failures. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, bloviated against “race-baiting bigots, who seek to gain, or retain, power by wielding prejudice and deceit, at the expense of those most vulnerable.” What he didn’t talk about: The decades-old corruption, fraud and abuse perpetrated by the UN.itself and its vast refugee bureaucracy. In Malaysia, UN refugee officials have been implicated in black market schemes to sell United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees cards and false identity papers in order to get resettled in the United States, Australia and Canada.

In Lebanon, Arabic-language newspaper Al Monitor reported this year that “Aid organizations have become fountains of corruption, while ‘humanitarian mafias’ accrue massive sums” through UN funding. Last year, fiscal watchdogs blew the whistle on systemic management of the UN refugee agency’s nearly billiondollar budget over the last two years. An internal audit deemed every measure of financial controls over refugee relief funds “unsatisfactory.” The report came just two years after another internal assessment raised red flags over “the lack of adequate managerial control” by UN officials contracting with third parties purportedly helping refugees. All that came in the wake of the latest UN rape epidemic earlier this spring involving peacekeepers in the Central African Republic who sexually abused civilians, including more than 100 girls in one prefecture. That outbreak follows years of brutal exploitation by UN staff members in Nairobi who shook down African refugees seeking resettlement in North America, Europe and Australia while the U.N. looked the other way. And that scandal ran parallel to another widespread UN peacekeepers’ sexual predator ring involving refugees that stretched from the Congo to Bosnia and Eastern Europe. UN brass downplayed the barbaric treatment of refugees in its care as the result of a few rogues. But rape rooms and internet pedophile video productions were run by senior UN officials and other civilian personnel, untold numbers of whom fathered babies with young girls and teens held as prostitutes and sex slaves. Nothing has changed. BEFORE THE world’s policemen barge in on us again to denigrate our efforts to protect our home, they should spare us the refugee sanctimony and clean up their own.

Conservative Chronicle

HILLARY CLINTON: September 20, 2016

Hillary, terrorism and the blame game

t’s hard to know what’s funny termined action. What does her pressthese days. It’s possible that conference pledge, “We’re going after nothing is and nothing will be the bad guys,” actually mean? It’s well funny until we are safely through the to see whether Trump can be acquitelection season — maybe not even ted of vagueness in response to such a question. He wants more profiling of then. suspects, regardless of Hillary Clinton, who puts herself terrorist he wants immigraforth as prospective commander in r a c e ; tion from the Midchief, blames her dle East all but shut Republican opdown to facilitate ponent for the the weeding out of Toothless when it comes to taking on slasher attack on (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate bad guys. Is that and breaking enemies. Clinton appears mall shoppers in enough? Likely less worked up over that bleak state of Minnesota; for the planting of a bomb that wounded more not. affairs than over the supposed verbal than two dozen in Manhattan; and the outrages of the man she wants, badly, THE OBAMA administration’s to beat for president. We’re to trust her explosion of a bomb that prevented the floundering in the Middle East — try- intentions meanwhile. start of a charity race. ing to look busy without actually beOK. And what if more attacks ensue SHE BLAMED her opponent. Yes: ing busy — seem to deserve a little on the U.S. homeland? What if one of On account of Donald Trump’s record more credit for the weekend’s assaults them — just one — takes on the charof apparently outrageous remarks about than Clinton would readily admit. acter and horror of July’s attack by a terrorists and the culture from which In profile, at least, Barack Obama’s homicidal truck driver on a throng of they come. “The kind of language and America seems a partly spent force: holiday visitors in Nice, France? rhetoric Trump has used is giving comfort to our adversaries,” Clinton said POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: September 16, 2016 at a press conference. It would appear, by the candidate’s logic, that these adversaries so dislike his criticisms that they pay him back by — say, inspiring a Somali-American to go out and start ny American who has sought on every public school in America. Libknifing innocent people. refuge from politics by es- eral state and local governments banned Oh, is that the way to hit Trump — caping into the world of travel to North Carolina. Hollywood prove him right? Go on a mall rampage; blow up some people; get Americans sports realizes now that there is no es- studios cancelled plans to film there. worked up about the duty and necessity caping politics. In the last few months, Musicians cancelled their concerts. But it has become completely impossible the most dramatic action came in the of putting a stop to terrorist outrages. Terrorism, which continues to kill to follow sports without being lectured sports world. Dependent on TV contracts and corpeople all over the world (most of the about the oppressive ways of the United victims, somewhat ironically, Mus- States, and its failures to achieve the porate advertisers who now insist on lims) is no laughing matter. What highest of today’s cultural goals: “Inclu- political correctness, the sports leagues have fallen like dominoes. Even NASwould be, so to speak, fun is to find out sion.” Leave that word in quotation marks CAR issued a statement of disapproval. why, if the Democrats’ anti-terror strategy has been such a roaring success, a because in the guise of “inclusion” peo- The NBA pulled its All-Star mere billionaire TV celebrity is able to ple will be most righteously excluded. game out of Charlotte, North dis-calibrate it with mere words. “We In the name of “tolerance,” those conknow,” said Clinton, “Donald Trump’s demned for intolerance will be boycotcomments have been used online in re- ted and punished, unless they genuflect cruitment for terrorists.” She evidently to ever-evolving “anti-discrimination” (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate means to include in that genre of re- dictates. marks Trump’s calls to sort out nonTHE STATE of North Carolina is Carolina, in protest. In the last few days, violent Muslims from the violent kind before allowing additional Muslims to being tarred and feathered in the sports the NCAA cancelled plans to hold basworld because it passed a bill in March ketball tournament games and champienter the United States. So, beating up on “the bad guys,” as stating that the state’s public schools onships in the state, and then the Atlanshe called the terrorists in her remarks, would abide by boy-girl divisions dat- tic Coast Conference, a league with four turns non-bad guys bad. Or makes the ing back to the advent of man. The bill North Carolina athletic powerhouses, bad worse — or something. When it said, “Local boards of education shall followed suit and withdrew all “neutralcomes to assigning motives, Clinton require every multiple occupancy bath- site championships” from the state for hasn’t the advantage of a spotless re- room or changing facility that is desig- this academic year. Everyone boycotting the state is decord. Her false claim that an amateur nated for student use to be designated manding that North Carolina repeal this for and used only by students based on anti-Muslim movie by a Coptic Chris“discriminatory” bill. But if that haptheir biological sex.” tian inspired the attack on our consulpens, what happens next? Is every lineThis, according to the gender-deconate in Benghazi doesn’t inspire belief in her present claims of Trump’s culpa- structing left, is the “new Jim Crow,” a toeing sports bureaucrat ready for the bility in the mayhem of this weekend. cruel and usual punishment of students next round of “inclusion” demands? The larger point, nonetheless — be- who reject the gender they were “asFOR THE NEXT front of this war, cause blame-gaming is always small signed at birth.” Obama’s Department potatoes — is whether Americans of Justice used the media-created hub- let’s turn to Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of could rely on a second President Clin- bub, replete with a phantom victimol- the gay sports site Outsports. Zeigler ton to deter terrorism by robust and de- ogy, to mandate bathroom “inclusion” briefly congratulated the NCAA for its

William

Murchison

IF THE SOLUTION to terrorism, an ancient vexation, were as simple as A, B, C, we could argue about who is likelier to undertake, for starters, A and B with the greatest likelihood of success. Blaming a political opponent for a series of attacks no one forecast should not be accounted decisive strategy for keeping Americans safe. Is that all Clinton has to offer for our protection? Handgun sellers should hire extra help.

What follows the bathroom boycott?

Brent

Bozell

stance but then insisted it will be “meaningless” unless the association follows his next demand: “If the NCAA is serious, it is only a matter of time before BYU (Brigham Young University) gets kicked out of the association. And every other school with an anti-LGBT policy will be removed as well.” The writer singled out several religious schools for having policies “far more sinister and discriminatory than North Carolina.” Should anyone be surprised? The cultural fascists are in charge. This czar of “inclusion” wants “Christian” schools — and he put “Christian” in quotation marks — banned from the league. The NCAA issued a statement saying that its “values of inclusion and gender equity” are “for all.” Zeigler says that religious schools have to be banned, “or the NCAA is failing on their own stated commitment.” Guess who else makes the LGBTQUnfriendly college list? The Princeton Review blacklist includes Auburn University, University of Arkansas, Baylor University, University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Wake Forest University, among others. Will the NCAA ban them all? WHAT HAPPENS next? Brown University is demonstrating the latest insanity of the left. Students are distributing free tampons in every campus bathroom — including the men’s rooms. This is because pads and tampons are “a necessity, rather than a luxury,” and apparently not all people who menstruate are women.

September 28, 2016 POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: September 16, 2016

Political correctness doesn’t only threaten speech

any, including me, have that would “threaten (the) sense of comlamented that political cor- munity” there. Some students and faculty members rectness, especially on university campuses, is undermining free took umbrage to the email because they speech. That’s true, but I’m not sure that considered it patronizing and also unpolitical correctness is the only culprit n e c e s s a r y because, in their view, no applicability to or that free speech is the only casualty. it “had the culture and the Most of us actual history” at have heard about Yale. But when “white privilege,” professor Erika “trigger warnChristakis — who ings,” “microag(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate was also an assogressions” and “safe spaces.” Let me provide rough ciate master of Silliman, one of Yale’s definitions from an online dictionary residential colleges — took exception and other websites. I’m sure that I could to the email in her own email to Sillibe accused of a microaggression for man students, many students, sadly, failing to be more precise, but I’m try- didn’t receive Christakis’ message with good cheer. Christakis wrote, “Have we ing. lost faith in young people’s capacity WHITE PRIVILEGE is the notion — in your capacity — to exercise selfthat whites have an advantage in getting censure, through social norming, and societal benefits in Western countries, also in your capacity to ignore or reject to the disadvantage of nonwhite people things that trouble you?” Instead of applauding her for vouchunder the same social, political or economic circumstances. Trigger warnings ing for their maturity, they interpreted are communications warning that the it as inviting insensitivity to the expecontent of a text, video, etc., might up- rience of minorities. Some 700 people, set or offend some people, especially including students, faculty and alumthose who have previously experienced ni, fired off an open letter in response a related trauma. Microaggressions are to Christakis’ email, saying, “In your subtle but offensive comments or ac- email, you ask students to ‘look away’ tions directed at a minority or other if costumes are offensive, as if the degnon-dominant group, often uninten- radation of our cultures and people, tionally or unconsciously reinforcing and the violence that grows out of it is a stereotype. The original idea of safe something that we can ignore.” Christakis’ husband, Nicholas, who spaces was that educational institutions should not tolerate anti-LGBT violence, was the master of Silliman, made the harassment or hate speech. Therefore, mistake of meeting with students and certain places were designated as safe not sufficiently throwing his wife (and for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans- himself) under the bus for her email. gender students. The term has been ex- Nicholas met with a large group of students, who surrounded him in the resipanded to protect all minorities. Last year, just a few days before Hal- dential college quad. The encounter was loween, there was a firestorm involving captured on four videos, totaling some these concepts when a Yale University 24 minutes, and I watched the entire professor responded to an email sent thing (titled “Yale Students and Nichoto students by the university’s Intercul- las Kristachis” on YouTube). To me, it tural Affairs Council. The council had is appalling and horrifying. Christakis calmly, respectfully and advised students not to wear costumes

David

Limbaugh

cordially responded to one student after another, most of whom treated him with utter contempt and disrespect, used invectives, and demanded an apology for his wife’s email. Several rebuked him for not remembering their first names from his previous interactions with them. When he acceded to their demands to say he was sorry for hurting their feelings and the pain it had caused them, they were unmoved. When they further demanded that he also acknowledge that the email created “space for violence to happen” and apologize for it, he drew the line, saying, “That I disagree with.” One student then said, “It doesn’t matter whether you disagree.” Another launched into an endless rude diatribe, and when Christakis tried to calmly respond when she’d paused, she cut him off, saying he shouldn’t get to speak. YOU WILL have to watch the video to get the full flavor of how hateful it was, how unreasonable the mob of students was and how patiently and calmly Christakis tolerated their bullying. Shortly thereafter, about 1,000 students conducted a “March of Resilience” against an “inhospitable climate for people of color on campus.” Then a smaller group submitted a list of demands to the university’s president. It said the school must immediately implement “lasting policies that will reduce the intolerable racism that students of color experience on campus every day.” Among other specific demands were that all undergraduates be required to take courses in the “Ethnicity, Race, and Migration” program, that mental health professionals be permanently established in each of the four cultural centers with discretionary funds, that the annual operational budget for each such center be increased by $2 million and that the Christakises be removed from their positions as master and associate master of Silliman College.

Believe it or not, despite the fact that there were no documented examples of racism giving rise to their complaints, the university surrendered and granted most of their demands. Much has been written about the danger to free speech such events represent. There is no question that is the case. But I am far more concerned with what they reveal about the state of race relations in this country — at least on college campuses — and the messages we are sending to young people, namely: — They are too fragile to deal with perceived, let alone actual, adversity. — If a charge of racism is leveled against a “non-minority,” it must be presumed valid, and the accused won’t even be allowed, in some cases, to explain or deny it. — Any perceived slight must be addressed, and all demands must be satisfied, no matter how unreasonable. — We must be forever obsessed with race, gender and sexual preferences. — Rudeness and disrespect will not be punished but will be rewarded. The atmosphere on many college campuses on these issues is toxic. Those engaging in the indoctrination don’t appear to seek improvement in race relations and don’t appear to seek resolution. Is it not obvious that a flagrant contradiction underlies these complaints? Those crying “racism” and “sexism” demand that they be treated equally and nondiscriminatorily, yet virtually every demand they make screams just the opposite. How can we be colorblind and color-obsessed at the same time? MANY PEOPLE don’t have the courage to address these issues, because they fear the mob would descend on them if they dared to challenge its claims. Yes, but if we keep pretending that the mob’s claims are true and rolling over, things will only get worse. When can it possibly end?

Conservative Chronicle

CHILD CARE: September 15, 2016

Huge contrast between Clinton and Trump

ith less than two months proposal, which I will be outlining toto go before the presiden- day.” Clearly Ivanka, a working mother tial election, every day counts. This past week provided a huge of three, has had a positive impact on contrast between Democratic nominee Trump and on his proposal to devise soHillary Clinton and Republican nomi- lutions that put people first. After noting that his “campaign is nee Donald Trump. While Clinton is telling us she thinks about ideas; we’re about solutions,” asked us “to lift our (some) Americans are deplorable, and T r u m p sights, and to imagthat telling us ine what we can about her health Jackie accomplish if we is no big deal, work together, Obama’s camtrust each other, paigning for her is (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate and put the needs reminding us that of our own citizens she is an extension of today’s establishment. Meanwhile, Trump is hold- first.” His child care and dependent-care ing policy speeches and introducing thoughtful, detailed reform programs policy does just that, from a variety of that will help everyday Americans and angles: pretax deduction, direct aid, tax that are very different from what Clin- incentives and saving plans. Under the Trump plan, child care ton is producing. costs for children from birth until age THE CONTRAST could not be 13 will be tax deductible for families. This is incredibly important because it clearer. Tuesday night, standing next to his recognizes child care cost as a cost of daughter Ivanka, Trump outlined child being employed. Additionally, it will care and dependent-care reforms that include a deduction pretax for “stay-atinclude items that assist very different home parents or grandparents as well as those who use paid caregivers.” This families in very different ways. Think of this as the citizen-first ap- recognizes the benefit received from the work of stay-at-home parents and proach. “I want to applaud my daughter, grandparents. The plan helps those who have lower Ivanka, for her work and leadership on the issues facing working moms in our incomes and do not pay taxes though country,” Trump said. “She has been a direct payment. “The EITC boost in deeply invested in this since long be- the Trump plan could mean as much as fore the campaign began, and I am so $1,200 extra per year,” says his webgrateful for her work and efforts on this site.

Gingrich Cushman

plan will provide more leeway to states that let families “choose who will be providing care and where that care will be provided without fear of loss of government benefits.” Additionally, the Trump plan will provide incentives to businesses to provide workplace child care. It will “incentivize employers to provide child care at the workplace by making the existing tax credit for employer-based child care facilities more effective, and will allow the same income tax exclusion allowed to individuals to businesses that contribute to an employees’ cost of child care.” WHILE MANY people use child For many workers and employers, onsite care centers, many do not and the Trump child care is a dream come true, reducing commute times, allowing parents to see children during lunch and improving productivity and reducing absenteeism. Finally, and possibly most radically, the plan will provide six weeks of maternity leave to new mothers. Recognizing that “each year, 1.4 million women who work give birth without any paid leave from their employer,” Trump has a solution. He adds six weeks of paid leave for new mothers to the government Unemployment Insurance program. This will be paid for by improper payments and 2017 reforms proposed within the UI system itself. In coming weeks, as Trump continues to propose reforms that will change our lives for the better, Clinton will find it harder to convince voters that she is the one who cares for them. While Clinton points to her experience and long history of fighting for voters, we voters have to decide — are we better off now than we were then? — or are we stuck in an institutional morass of more of the same and are we ready for real change? Elder care cost will also be included. For those of us who are or have been stuck between the needs of young children and older parents (sandwich generation) this is an answer to our cry of anguish and exhaustion. To encourage savings and provide for future expenses, the Trump plan includes new dependent-care savings accounts allowing for pretax, rollover funds for future expenses relating to child and elder care. To further assist low-income families, “the government will provide a 50 percent match up to $1,000 per year.”

FOR THOSE who are fed up with talking points and are ready for real change — Donald Trump may very well be the answer.

September 28, 2016 CHILD CARE: September 16, 2016

Child care proposals: Be like Sweden

here may be valid criticisms of the Trump (Ivanka as much as Donald) child care proposal, but the New York Times and the Huffington Post did not find them. As is always the case with new proposed social spending, the New York Times chides the United States for being so very retrograde: “Within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a consortium of 35 countries, including the world’s wealthiest, the United States stands out as the only nation that does not already guarantee paid maternity leave.”

THIS IS the familiar refrain: All other advanced countries do X; it’s embarrassing that the United States is the only country without nationalized health care, or paid leave, or universal preschool, etc., etc. During the Cold

We are encouraged to emulate the War, we were constantly hectored that while the Soviet Union didn’t have po- enlightened policies of Sweden, where litical freedom, it sure did provide eco- paid family leave is very generous. nomic freedom in the form of a guaran- Admirers of Scandinavian social deteed job, free health care, family leave mocracy never mention the trade-offs, and so forth. When the Soviet Union though. If Sweden were to exit the EU fell, we learned that its actual standard and become a U.S. state, it would rank 38 other states in of living was the rough equivalent of b e l o w wealth based on B a n g l a d e s h ’s , purchasing power that Leningrad’s parity. hospitals had raw The Huffington sewage in the Post reproaches taps, and that no (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate the Trump proone except the posal for someCommunist Party elite had ever seen a banana. (But for thing else, too — aiming it only at her husband’s connections, Lyudmila women. “The plan, while ostensibly Putin would have died from injuries embracing a progressive stance, rolls sustained in a car crash because the back decades of progress in work and public hospital was so dreadful. So in parenting in the U.S., where men writes Steven Lee Myers in The New have taken on more of the parenting work.” Tsar.)

Mona

Charen

EDUCATION: September 21, 2016

Cruelty to black students

ast year’s college news was about demands for safe spaces, trigger warnings and bans on insensitivity. This year’s college news is about black student demands for segregated campus housing and other racially segregated campus spaces and programs. I totally disagree with these calls by black students. It’s a gross dereliction of duty for college administrators to cave to these demands, but I truly sympathize with the problems that many black college students face. For college administrators and leftist faculty, the actual fate of black students is not nearly so important as the good feelings they receive from a black presence on campus. Let’s examine some of the problem.

A VERY large percentage of all incoming freshmen have no business being admitted to college. According to College Board’s 2015 report, the average combined SAT score for white students was 1576 out of a possible 2400. Black student SAT scores, at 1277, were the lowest of the seven reported racial groups (http://tinyurl.com/ozpkpdk). The College Board considers an SAT score of 1550 as the benchmark that indicates a readiness for college-level work. Only 32 percent of white students scored at or above proficient in math, and just seven percent of black students did. Forty-six percent of white test takers scored proficient in reading, and 17 percent of blacks did. The ACT, another test used for admission to college, produced similar results. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reports, in an article titled “A Major Crisis in Col-

lege Readiness for Black Students,” that 34 percent of whites who took the ACT were deemed college-ready in all four areas — English, mathematics, reading and science. For blacks, it was only six percent (http://tinyurl.com/h6x5g8n). These are significant differences in academic preparation between white and black students. I am sure that the differences give black students feelings of inferiority and being out of place. Black college students across

Walter

the country have demanded segregated housing and other “safe spaces” on campuses designated for students of color. Students calling for segregated spaces do so because they allege their campuses are oppressive, are discriminatory and represent institutionalized racism. For decades, colleges have purchased peace by creating whole departments of ethnic, diversity and multicultural studies. All too often, these “studies” are about propaganda and not serious education. Plus, they provide students with an opportunity to get an easy A. THE MOST pervasive form of racial discrimination at most colleges is affirmative action. In the name of helping people from groups that have suffered past discrimination, colleges admit black students whose academic preparation differs significantly with that of their white peers. Those differ-

ences are not subtle. It should not come as a surprise that the intended beneficiaries of that “benign” discrimination feel themselves ridiculed, isolated and treated differently. As a result, students who might be successes in a less competitive environment are turned into failures. One faculty member at a historically black college put it this way: “The way we see it, the majority schools are wasting large numbers of good students. They have black students with admissions statistics (that are) very high, tops. But these students wind up majoring in sociology or recreation or get wiped out altogether.” The problem of black education begins long before college. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as The Nation’s Report Card, shows that nationally in 2015, only seven percent of black 12th-graders scored proficient in math, and only 17 percent did so in reading. This suggests that the average black 12th-grader has the academic proficiency of a white eighth- or ninth-grader. Consider the following question: If one admits 1,000 randomly selected eighth- and ninth-graders to college and admits 1,000 randomly selected 12th-graders, who do you think is going to come out on top? Who would be surprised if the eighth- and ninthgraders felt inferiority, oppression and insensitivity? THE ACADEMIC elite feel righteous seeing blacks on campus, even if they are severely mismatched. Black people must ask: Are we going to sacrifice our youngsters so that white liberals can feel good about themselves?

Tell it to Bernie Sanders, who betrayed his own backwardness last year when he proclaimed: “Every other major country on earth, every one, including some small countries, say that when a mother has a baby, she should stay home with that baby.” Whoops, he used the M-word: mother. SURELY NEW parents ought to be free to decide for themselves who is going to care for new babies (or sick grandparents, for that matter). But the high dudgeon of the Huffington Post is ridiculous. The Post is indignant at the idea that mothers are more likely to care for babies. It is part of the progressive project to make mothers and fathers fully interchangeable. Sweden again demonstrates progressivism’s limitations. Both mothers and fathers get eight months (yes, months) of paid leave in Sweden, for a total of 16 months per child. Paid paternal leave was introduced in Sweden in 1980. Yet mothers and fathers continued to make different choices. In 1993, disappointed in the relatively few fathers who took advantage of the policy, the Swedish government instituted a use-it-or-lose-it policy for paternal leave. Still, mothers and fathers made different choices. In 2008, Swedish mothers were taking 78 percent of leave days, and fathers only 22 percent. Clearly frustrated at the recalcitrant fathers, the Swedish government introduced a “gender equality bonus.” Couples who shared parental leave equally got the equivalent of $1,900 from the state. How did that work out? Here’s how Swedish radio summarized it: “A year and a half after the bonus was introduced, the verdict — according to a review made by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency — is clear. The bonus has not helped at all.” “Why should the state care?” you might ask. Excellent question. Because good progressives believe that the only reason women do more child care than men is benighted, pre-feminist thinking. “I believe in carrots,” explained thenPrime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, about the gender equality bonus. Opposition leader Mona Sahlin retorted, “It seems that no one really wants to eat these particular carrots, because hardly any have applied for them.” THE PROGRESSIVE utopias of Scandinavia (or here, as it seems we’re headed in the same direction) can fiddle with subsidies and bonuses all they want, but they will continue to bash their heads against a fundamental reality: Women enjoy being with their babies and will choose to spend their time that way if they possibly can. Fathers make irreplaceable contributions to child rearing, but not in the form of nursing infants. There, was that so hard?

Conservative Chronicle

RE-ENACTMENTS: September 16, 2016

2016 — the year of political re-enactors

he thought came to me as I watched the Cleveland police clear away protesters from the city’s Public Square. Half a dozen on horseback, nearly a dozen or so on heavy-duty bikes, the cops deftly corralled the protesters without so much as touching anyone, much as a border collie channels a flock of uncomprehending sheep. Then it struck me: What I was seeing was not the real thing, not a genuine spontaneous protest, stoked by anger and with the constant potential of breaking into unstoppable violence. Instead, I was watching a group of re-enactors, wearing costumes copied from the past and carrying signs minimally updated.

AND WHAT can be more American and 21st century? Every month, thousands of people re-enact, in authentically scratchy uniforms and on the same killing grounds, the great battles of the Civil War or American Revolution. So it’s not so odd to see national convention re-enactors reprising the protests of 1968 or 1972. Re-enactors are admirable for their determination to get in close touch with our history, its triumphs and tragedies. And of course it’s heartening that re-enactments, unlike the actual events, are almost entirely harmless to participants and spectators. I remember the smell of tear-gasinduced vomit and the sight of bloodstains on sidewalks in Chicago in 1968. I witnessed nothing like that in Cleveland’s Public Square (itself a monument to the Union’s Civil War victory) or in the streets of Philadelphia where the more numerous Bernie Sanders protestors were re-enacting the antiwar, anticorporate protests of half a century before. The protesters aren’t the only re-enactors active this year. Donald Trump’s rallies are larger than those any candidate has attracted in a couple of decades and more raucous and unruly and defiantly delighted when the candidate transgresses the unwritten but fiercely media-enforced rules of political correctness. Trump rallies can be seen as reenactments of the rallies for George Wallace in his three campaigns for the Democratic nomination and his thirdparty race in 1968. But like the riot reenactors in the Public Square, the air of menace is almost totally absent. Wallace was an outright segregationist, willing to condone violence against peaceful protestors. Trump wants different trade agreements and enforcement of current immigration laws — mistaken policies, you may believe, but not denials of basic rights. There is an element of re-enactment, too, in the Black Lives Matter move-

The surprise re-enactor of 2016 turns out, given the events of last weekend, to be Hillary Clinton. Like another past Democratic nominee, she decided to “power past” (the verb form uttered in stentorian unison by her admirers) warnings of illness to risk the consequences of outdoor campaigning in New York City. The analogous previous nominee THE #BLM re-enactors are doing some actual harm, unfortunately. was Franklin Roosevelt, seriously ill he ran for a fourth term As the Manhattan Institute’s Heather as as president at age Mac Donald has 62 in 1944. Roodocumented, their sevelt decided to protests have led campaign through police in cities the four large such as St. Louis (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate boroughs of New and Baltimore and York City in an Chicago to draw back from proactive enforcement in open car on Oct. 23, a cold, rainy day. high-crime neighborhoods, resulting The photos show a wet but smiling canin sharp increases in African-American didate, waving a soggy hat as crowds of deaths. Not as bad as the ‘60s, but bad one million people cheered him. That was four months after D-Day, enough.

ment. But the property damage in Ferguson, Missouri, and other recent riot sites was microscopic next to the destruction of much of Newark and Detroit in 1967. The police tactics that have raised complaints also pale in magnitude next to what was standard operating procedure in the 1960s.

Michael

Barone

three days after Gen. MacArthur returned to the Philippines: Victory was in sight. New York City cast seven percent of the nation’s votes that fall, 61 percent for Roosevelt. The president died six months later. Hillary Clinton’s version took the much milder form of appearing at a 9/11 commemoration on a breezy, sunny, 79-degree morning, two days after being diagnosed with pneumonia. Reportedly dehydrated, she collapsed and had to be lifted into a car, losing a shoe in the process. CLINTON SEEMS less unhealthy and less lucky than Roosevelt, whose trip around New York was a success. But Clinton is also less accomplished: Supervising the reset with Russia and the pivot to Asia doesn’t compare with promising and achieving absolute victory in World War II. Re-enactments, however earnest, are not the real thing.

EDUCATION: September 14, 2016

Bad teacher protection racket

ad teachers. We’ve all had one. A Connecticut judge is ordering the state to stop spending money on teachers who can’t or won’t teach. State Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher ruled last week that Connecticut must overhaul how it evaluates and pays public school teachers, including expediting firing the worst performers. Connecticut claims 98 percent of its public school teachers are competent. The judge smelled a rat. How can that be, he asked, when only 10 percent of Bridgeport’s high school graduates are ready for college or a job? Connecticut’s teacher-protection racket is similar to what’s going on in most other states. In New York, desperate parents are also suing. The courts are their last resort, because state pols — intimidated by the powerful teachers unions — refuse to reform the system. Never mind the little children who never learn to read. REFORM IS mostly a state issue. But Donald Trump is putting a national spotlight on it, taking a stand for “merit pay” and against paying the “bad ones” the same as the “good ones.” Hillary Clinton is endorsed by the unions and wedded to the status quo. This November, voters get a chance to weigh in against the unions’ chokehold on their kids’ schools. That chokehold is costing Connecticut taxpayers a bundle. The state pays the third-highest teachers’ salaries in the nation.

It’s irrational, says Judge Moukawsher, when teacher pay is not in any way linked to teacher quality. Teachers are paid based on seniority and whether they have a master’s degree. Yet there is no evidence — none — that after the first few years, teachers continue to get better the longer they’re on the job, or that a master’s degree makes a difference. “Good teachers are the key to a good school system,” Moukawsher argues. He calls the teacher evaluation system in Connecticut a farce — like “cotton candy in a rainstorm” — virtually nonexistent.

Betsy

Moukawsher’s ruling also compels Connecticut to adjust the allocation of money among rich and poor school districts. But his key insight is that spending on teachers without evaluating them is money down the rat hole. ACROSS THE country, parents who have watched their own children set back by an awful teacher are going to court challenging teacher protection laws. In Minnesota, parents are fighting against granting tenure after a mere three years and shielding teachers with the most seniority from layoffs. Quality needs to be part of the equation. Quality is never considered in New

York state, which like California, which has a LIFO — last in, first out — rule that protects teachers with seniority from layoffs. And in New York City, even after a teacher is tagged unfit, the chances of termination are only five percent. It’s that hard to fire a bad teacher. No wonder parent groups are suing. One plaintiff, the mother of a little girl forced to repeat second grade, explains that “her daughter fell behind due to an incompetent teacher who didn’t assign homework and didn’t help her child read.” These parents have quit asking politicians to act. They know lip service is all they’ll get. In his January 2015 State of the State address, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ridiculed the notion that over 98 percent of public school teachers are rated effective or highly effective. He called that “baloney,” and promised teacher evaluations based on independent observers (not the school principal) and student test scores. But now he’s backing away. It’s the same story everywhere: Unions and their Democratic Party allies are blocking reform. The biggest victims are poor children, whose parents rarely have an option except their local school. TRUMP, WHO backs school choice and merit pay for teachers, calls it a civil rights issue: “The Democratic Party has trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth” in failing schools. It’s time to put the kids first.

September 28, 2016 POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: September 20, 2016

Did the famous sailor assault the famous nurse?

he most famous American ment of the war bein’ over, plus I had photo of World War II is un- a few drinks, so when I saw the nurse I doubtedly that of the four Ma- grabbed her, and I kissed her.” Any American who looks at that rines planting the American flag on Iwo Jima. The second most famous is prob- photo today realizes just how different ably the legendary photographer Alfred a time we live in. If a man were to do that to a Eisenstaedt’s picture of an American today, he would sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square w o m a n likely be charged in New York City, with sexual aswhen people were sault, found guilty, celebrating Jabe ordered to pay pan’s surrender. a serious sum The kiss was (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate of money to the not, of course, merely a peck on the cheek. If it were, woman, be sent to prison, be civilly no photo would have been taken. And if sued and be labeled a sex offender — one were, no one would have remem- effectively ruining much of his life. She, on the other hand, would be rebered it. The sailor clearly grabbed the nurse. She is leaning backward, bent at garded as victim of sexual assault and the waist; he is holding her up with both labelled a survivor, and would seek psychological counseling. hands around her waist. Living in pre-feminist darkness, THE PHOTO has been back in the Friedman did not see it this way. As her news because the woman, identified as son told the New York Daily News, “My Greta Zimmer Friedman, died on Sept. mom always had an appreciation for a 8, at age 92. She was 21 when the pic- feminist viewpoint, and understood the premise that you don’t have a right to ture was taken. The sailor, later identified as George be intimate with a stranger on the street. Mendonsa, mistook Friedman’s dental ...(But) she didn’t assign any bad moassistant uniform for that of a nurse. tives to George in that circumstance, He later explained that he hugged and that situation, that time.” One reason might be that she was a kissed her because of his overwhelming gratitude for the work nurses had per- Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Europe, formed while he was in combat in the and, unlike feminists in America, she Navy, because of his elation over the knew real evil. war ending and because he had had a GIVEN THE context, the act was few drinks. As he put it, when he and Friedman were reunited in 2012 at the essentially innocent. Reinforcing its inspot of their kiss, it was “the excite- nocence are the facts that the kiss was

Dennis

Prager

very brief and Mendonsa’s wife can be seen smiling in the background. But in the feminist age of enlightenment in which we live, when it comes to any act of physical intimacy by a man with a woman, there is no such thing as “context.” Unless there is a verbal “yes” accompanying every act by the man, the presumption is that the intimacy was a sexual assault, a form of rape. Thus, in today’s America, George Mendonsa is deemed to have committed an act of sexual assault. Context has no say. On the Sarasota, Florida, waterfront there is a 28-foot statue of Mendonsa kissing Friedman. It clearly offends at

least one Sarasota Herald-Tribune columnist. A few days after Friedman’s death, Chris Anderson acknowledged that the statue “represents euphoria, innocence, romance, nostalgia and a level of unity and pride this country arguably has not seen since V-J Day.” But as a someone who surely attended college and probably graduate school, he sees the darker side, saying, “Is it possible that thousands upon thousands of people over the last seven years have come to the Sarasota waterfront to unwittingly pose in front of a giant depiction of a sexual assault?” Likewise, the writer of the New York Times obituary of Friedman felt compelled to note that “In recent years, some have noted its darker undertones.” Among the examples cited was Time Magazine, which in 2014 had written, “many people view the photo as little more than the documentation of a very public sexual assault, and not something to be celebrated.” There is no question that there needed to be greater sensitivity to men’s physical interactions with women, and that too many men did in fact get away with rape. But America is not a better place — nor, for that matter, are American women happier — because we now consider George Mendonsa a sexual criminal and Greta Friedman a survivor of sexual assault. For most Americans, America was — with all the flaws that did indeed have to be dealt with — a happier and more innocent place then. That’s why there is a statue of that kiss at the Sarasota waterfront. And that’s why “thousands upon thousands” of couples pose for pictures in front of it. THEY ARE celebrating life, America, and men and women. At college, American kids are taught to fear all three.

Conservative Chronicle

CHARGES OF RACISM: September 17, 2016

Do black athletes understand the meaning of equality?

watched a black professional football player wax passionately in his complaint that it isn’t as bad today as when his “mamma” was born in 1955, but blacks today are still fighting for equality. The ESPN program hosts solemnly nodded their heads in agreement. The depth of ignorance the petulant multi-millionaire athlete displayed was stunning. Which brings me to my point. Just what “equality” is it that these blacks are claiming blacks do not have? Do they understand the definition of “equality” or are they arguing for preferential treatment simply because they are black?

WHAT THESE pluripotent complainers are apparently too uneducated to realize is that blacks have the exact same equality everyone else has. And if they bothered to put aside their jaundiced perspective of modernity they would understand that. Equality dictates and defines the ability of all persons to purchase the home of their choice predicated upon their credit and ability to pay for same. Equality dictates and is defined as the ability of all persons to dine, shop, purchase and lodge wherever they choose based upon their ability to pay. Equality dictates and is defined in the context that a person can seek employment where they wish and reasonably expect to be considered for hiring based upon their qualifications. Just what equality are blacks lacking today? I live in Orlando, Florida. The restaurants we dine at are host to countless numbers of blacks, many of whom are staying in expensive hotels on vacation. I see blacks dining and shopping in the most exclusive stores, as well as in Wal-Mart. Blacks enjoy luxurious timeshare rentals just as many others do. For these spoiled multi-millionaire athletes to claim that blacks don’t have equality is a damnable heterodoxy spewed by pernicious calumniators. Even more contradictory to the boorish complaints is that many multi-millionaire athletes live in the same area that I do. It is an undeniable fact that blacks have the same rights and opportunities that everyone else enjoys. It is the choice of what to do with said rights and opportunities that needs to be addressed. If blacks did not have equality they would not be ordering meals in Orlando restaurants from Wendy’s to Christner’s Prime Steak and Lobster to Chatham’s Place with whites taking their orders and preparing their meals. If blacks did not have equality they would not be renting and purchasing homes from Baton Rouge to Wyoming to Anchorage, Alaska. If blacks didn’t enjoy equality they wouldn’t be serviced by white sales persons in every corner of America from a Dollar Tree store to the haute couture stores in the finest shopping districts.

The message blacks need to embrace is that life isn’t free and bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. They must understand that they can change the definition THE TRUTH IS that these com- of propriety but they cannot change the plainers are stenotopic, and motivated injurious outcomes from same. I am beyond weary with the comby a bigotry that looks back to a time past that America has had the good plaining and accusations of inequalsense and decency to reject and over- ity in America. I am equally tired of hearing we need a conversacome. tion on race. First of It is an unconall there is no such scionable act of thing as “race.” The intellectual disidea of race is the honesty to perconstruct of the suade other blacks (c) 2016, Mychal Massie social-Darwinists that the misforthat was emtune some of them suffer is always based upon their skin braced by Hitler as justification for his color. The Gordian knot that binds the attempted extermination of Jews and minds of so many blacks is further tight- the myth of German superiority. What ened by these complaining and protest- those calling for such dialogue are acing athletes, many if not most of whom tually calling for is a conversation on would be serving jail sentences if they skin color. To which I say, we do not need a did not excel at punt, pass, kick, throw, conversation on skin color; we need a and shoot (baskets). Bad police have injured and/or mistreated Americans of every description, not just blacks.

Mychal

Massie

conversation on personal responsibility and propriety. Instead of resorting to perverse self-serving tautological arguments that are without merit, these athletes need to set examples by going to classes, graduating from schools based upon meeting standards of learning consistent with grade level, having a wife and family not “babies mammas,” staying away from drugs and aberrant behavior, by attending Christ-centered churches with their families and by representing personal responsibility juxtaposed to belligerence and bigotry. IT’S ABOUT time these people understand that within the realities of life the chance of tragic misfortune hovers about us all. But with that said, what must be understood is that bad behavior and bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. And if people refuse to change their behavior they cannot change the consequences resulting from same.

ISIS: September 19, 2016

Is Donald Trump a traitor?

omeone dares call it treason. Hillary Clinton used the occasion of the New York-area bombings to accuse Donald Trump of providing “aid and comfort” to ISIS. This speaks both to her desperation as polls show a tightening race and her foolish misunderstanding of what drives ISIS and other Islamic radicals. Clinton makes it sound like ISIS fighters are disaffected members of a swing-state focus group who, as soon as they hear an offensive statement from Donald Trump, prepare the next attack. IF HILLARY really believes Trump is a “recruiting sergeant” for terrorists, she has a thin understanding of human motivation. It takes something very powerful to convince a young man to risk life and limb fighting for a terror group that is hunted and bombed wherever it gains a foothold. That something isn’t the ephemera of an American presidential campaign; it is religion. ISIS is an apocalyptic cult. As Graeme Wood wrote in a widely noted essay in the Atlantic last year, “Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, ‘the Prophetic methodology,’ which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail.” It is tempting, Wood writes, to consider jihadists “modern secular people, with modern political concerns, wear-

ing medieval religious disguise,” when in reality ISIS is inexplicable outside of its “sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.” In other words, Donald Trump — or any other American politician — is beside the point.

Rich

Radical Islamists have maintained a murderous enmity to the United States across presidencies. What did Hillary’s husband do to incite Islam? Yet al Qaeda nearly sank a U.S. destroyer on his watch and hatched the Sept. 11 plot. George W. Bush insisted that Islam is a religion of peace, and Barack Obama steadfastly refuses to use the word “Islam” in connection with the word “terrorism.” Yet there is no evidence that al Qeida or ISIS relented in response to their carefully selected diplomatic words. THE LEFT has a habit of calling things it doesn’t like “recruiting tools” for terrorists. We were told that the Iraq War was a recruiting tool, even though shortly after President Obama “ended” the war, ISIS established a caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. We were told that Guantanamo Bay was a recruiting tool, even though the ISIS threat has

grown as President Obama has moved to shut down the facility. A few recruiting videos have indeed featured Trump. It’s hard to believe, though, that young Muslim men around the world are becoming terrorists because they take exception, for example, to Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslim travel to the United States. One video from a pro-ISIS group earlier this year appeared to use a clip from Trump — saying Brussels is “an absolute horror show” — purely to attract media attention. None of this is to say that Trump’s inflammatory statements are correct or wise. But the best recruiting tool that ISIS has, besides its twisted religious vision, is its success on the ground. That’s why voters should want to hear a serious plan to defeat ISIS from both Trump (whose plan is secret) and Hillary (whose plan is a nebulous version of the status quo). We shouldn’t fool ourselves that the right choice of words or immigration policies will mitigate the threat from ISIS or similar groups. The source of their hatred is much deeper than that. As an ISIS magazine put it, “The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam.” SHORT OF THAT, there is no choice but to fight on — and reject delusion.

September 28, 2016 VLADIMIR PUTIN: September 16, 2016

Why the conservative admiration of Putin is dangerous

Rationalizing your nominee’s in- a lot of talk about how elites and the rulconsistencies isn’t unique. It’s conven- ing class have led the nation to a canditional behavior from partisans in every date like Trump. It seems to me that in election, in every political party. What many ways, Trump’s fans pine for their own muscular ruling class. makes 2016 different is: Well, if you’re a fan of unaccountable — Conservatives find themselves outside their comfort zone, sometimes plutocrats, you’ll love Putin’s Russia. Some conservatives try to taking positions that contradict 40 years couch their appreciation of philosophical positioning. for Putin’s potency — Trump’s in relativistic terms. stances don’t osYou know, “He cillate; they thrust does what’s right in unknowable for his country,” directions all the (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate he “fights for RusTHEN AGAIN, this growing Putin time, oftentimes admiration among conservatives prob- more than once a day. Keeping up can sia’s interest,” etc. Who are we to judge, ably reflects two dynamics. The first, make a partisan look more like a shady right? But why would any allegedly freedom-loving conservative allow a which we’ve seen on numerous fronts in apparatchik. The second, far more concerning as- dictatorial ruler to define what “love of this election, is the corrosive effect this Republican nominee has on the princi- pect of this trend is that love for Putin country” means anywhere? Wouldn’t a ples and long-held beliefs of conserva- likely reflects a genuine (once latent) conservative maintain that the fundashift among Republican voters. There’s mental interests of any people — to be tives in general. freer and more prosperous, which in turn makes them safer and less bellicose — EDWARD SNOWDEN: September 15, 2016 are universal? It’s also worth pointing out that Trump praised Putin’s “control” of his country, not his foreign policy. That’s something his defenders seem to ignore. he ACLU is behind a campaign pardon others — Chelsea Manning, forTRUMP IS helping normalize the to prompt President Obama mer CIA chief David Petraeus — who to pardon National Security also shared classified information? If idea that we need a strong president who Agency leaker Edward Snowden. As Obama pardons Snowden, then how gets things done, regardless of how he Snowden told the Guardian, he knows does the intelligence community keep goes about it, rather than one who navigates through the messy, slow-moving he violated “laws on the books,” but “that secrets in the future? D i r e c t o r Oliver Stone’s Snowden swamp of republican governance. He’s is perhaps why the pardon power exists out this week — not alone, of course. It’s basically a — for the exceptions, for the things that c o m e s which gives im- coarser version of Obama’s contention may seem unlawmediacy to the (no, I’m not saying Putin and Obama ful in letters on a ACLU’s effort, are the same) that he has a moral duty page but when we as does the cal- to circumvent the legislation process on look at them morendar countdown issues he finds particularly important. Or ally, when we look (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate on Obama’s abil- Tom Friedman’s notion (others share it) at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems ity to absolve Snowden. Photogenic and that China should be praised for its comself-deprecating, Snowden fits the cen- mitment on climate change, no matter these were necessary things.” tral casting image of a reluctant hero. In how it gets that done. Like anyone else, SNOWDEN SHOWS an under- Laura Poitras’ documentary Citizenfour, there are Americans willing to embrace standing of the president’s pardon power. Snowden repeatedly urges others not to authoritian methods if it means forwardStill, I have a few questions I would want make the NSA story about him — which ing their cause, especially in the case of answered before I would sign onto the of course Poitras does. Better to make a national emergency. notion that the ex-NSA contractor acted this a morality play than a hard-boiled morally and ethically — and hence de- look at the cost of these leaks to U.S. intelligence and America’s allies. serves clemency. To wit: How did a guy who’s against authoriSNOWDEN HAS bravely committarian governments that spy on their citizens end up in Vladmir Putin’s Russia? ted — under his own name — what he (Snowden blames the State Department frames as an act of civil disobedience. for revoking his passport after he left But if Snowden truly is who he says he Hong Kong, but why is he in Moscow? is, let him come home and face the criminal charges against him before a jury of His residence belies his rhetoric.) If Snowden wanted to stop the NSA’s his peers. As long as Snowden remains practices in 2013, then why didn’t he, as holed up in Moscow, he might as well former CIA Deputy Director Mike Mo- be Donald Trump, who is so smitten rell suggested in his book The Great War with Putin’s praise that he compliments of Our Time, simply copy a couple of him in turn. Trump and Snowden share documents and mail them to the Wash- a willingness to live in Putin’s thrall, ington Post instead of downloading 1.7 but at least Donald Trump doesn’t live million documents and taking them to under Vladimir Putin’s thumb. President Obama should not pardon Edward China? If Obama pardons the biggest leaker Snowden. of all time, then won’t he also have to onald Trump admires Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strength and “great control over his country.” So naturally, conservative supporters like Hugh Hewitt, Dinesh D’Souza and many others felt compelled to praise the effectiveness of the Russian strongman, especially when compared to President Barack Obama. First of all, remember that when Trump’s con game is over, you’ll still be one of the people who defended an authoritarian thug.

David

Harsanyi

Snowden, Putin, Trump

Debra J.

Saunders

Russia has a lot of order but little freedom. No one has more “control” over his nation than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Crime rates are super low, I hear. Things get done. There’s no political “obstructionism.” No doubt, other tyrants love their people and country deeply, too. No one has ever pursued the geopolitical goals of Moscow with more vigor and “strength” than Joseph Stalin. Would we praise him as an effective leader or patriot? Or should Obama invade Canada to show how much he cares about American interests? There are lots of expats up there, you know. Now, if you don’t believe Obama has pursued the right foreign policy (and I don’t), it’s not a violation of The Logan Act. That’s why we have elections. But was Obama unable to conduct foreign policy because he lacked the strength? If so, then we should celebrate. Obama abuses power enough. I’d hate to see what he or any other president would do with even more control. For example, Putin would never have to worry about asking the Senate to sign a self-destructive climate deal with China. Obama, despite all the fanfare, couldn’t get it done. Would conservatives admire him more if he found a way to make the climate deal binding and projected power and effectiveness? One hopes not. THE OLIGARCHS Putin has empowered to run Russia don’t help their people. Despite its wealth of natural resources, the CIA puts Russia’s growth domestic product per capita right under that of French Polynesia, and right above that of Aruba. The Russian state feeds perpetual conflict that only benefits the powerful — one of the hallmarks of fascism. We have to live with Russia, and we may even have to partner with Russia on occasion. But once we start praising human-rights-violating thugs, we risk becoming accessories to his power, and worse, adopting some ugly ideas.

Conservative Chronicle

VLADIMIR PUTIN: September 15, 2016

Vladimir Putin’s post-factual politics “In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. ... Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building. ... For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes.” — George Orwell, 1984

DOCUMENTS inconvenient to the regime went into the Ministry of Truth’s slits and down to “enormous furnaces.” Modern tyrannies depend on state control of national memories — retroactive truths established by government fiat. Which is why Russia’s Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction of a blogger for violating Article 354.1 of Russia’s criminal code. This May 2014 provision criminalizes the “Rehabilitation of Nazism.” The blogger’s crime was to write: “The communists and Germany jointly invaded Poland, sparking off the Second World War.” The secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact have gone down one of Vladimir Putin’s memory holes. The pact was signed Aug. 23, 1939. On Sept. 1, Germany invaded Poland. Sixteen days later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Poland was carved up in accordance with the secret protocols, and about six months later Soviet occupiers were conducting the Katyn Forest Massacre of 25,700 Polish military officers, officials, priests and intellectuals. Although in 2009 Putin denounced the pact as “collusion to solve one’s problems at others’ expense,” in 2015 he defended it as Stalin’s means of buying time to prepare for the Nazi onslaught. This fable is refuted by, among other facts, this: Stalin did not prepare. When Germany’s ambassador in Moscow informed Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov that their nations were now at war, a stunned Molotov asked, “What have we done to deserve this?” The Russian Supreme Court’s Orwellian ruling was that the blogger denied facts established by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. It convicted leading Nazis of waging aggressive war against, among others, Poland, but, in an act of victors’ justice, made no judgment against the Soviet regime, representatives of which sat on the tribunal. This accommodation to postwar political reality was necessary to enable the tribunal to function, which was necessary for civilizing vengeance. The tribunal ignored, but did not deny, the patent fact of Soviet aggression. The Russian court’s ruling is a window into the sinister continuity of Putin’s Russia and the Soviet system that incubated him. So, if the former secretary of state who aspires to the American presidency has time to read a book

before Jan. 20, she should make it The 1836 to celebrate a soldier’s death in New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladi- the war against Poland and rewritten mir Putin by Steven Lee Myers of the in Soviet times ... to remove the homNew York Times. It is a study of the vol- age to the tsar. For Putin, the choir sang atile nostalgia of a man seething with the Soviet verses.” There was the 2006 resentments acquired as a KGB opera- assassination in Moscow, on Putin’s tive — a “devoted officer of a dying 54th birthday, of the troublesome jourAnna Politkovskaya. empire” — during the Soviet Union’s n a l i s t (Asked about the final years. It is a frequent deaths of pointillist portrait anti-Putin journalpainted with tellists, Donald Trump ing details that breezily said, “I should cause so(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group think our country briety to supplant dreams of happy policy “resets” with does plenty of killing.”) And the 2006 poisoning in London of Putin’s antagoRussia: nist Alexander Litvinenko using radioAS A SENIOR security official in active polonium-210. Domestically, Putin’s “managed depost-Soviet Russia, Putin kept on his desk a bronze statue of “Iron Felix” Dz- mocracy” is Stalinism leavened by kleperzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret tomania, as in the looting of the energy police and terror apparatus. At Putin’s giant Yukos. In foreign policy, Putin’s May 7, 2000, presidential inauguration, Russia is unambiguously and unapoloa choir sang a composition “written in getically revanchist. The Soviet Union

George

Will

was likened to a burglar creeping down a hotel corridor until he finds an unlocked door. Putin, who found Crimea unlocked (when he honeymooned there in 1983, it seemed “a magical, sacred place to him,” writes Myers), is pushing on the door of what remains of Ukraine. The Democratic presidential nominee fundamentally misread Putin’s thugocracy, and her opponent admires the thug because “at least he’s a leader.” As the Russian blogger’s fate demonstrates, Putin practices what Orwell wrote: “’Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” BACK IN THE day, some analysts prophesied a “convergence” between the Soviet Union and the United States, two industrial societies becoming more alike. In our day, there is indeed a growing similarity: In both places, post-factual politics are normal.

2016 ELECTION: September 15, 2016

A big, beautiful black swan

f you aren’t seriously contemplating the biggest black swan event in American electoral history, you aren’t paying attention. Fifteen months ago, Donald Trump was a reality-TV star with a spotty business record and a weird penchant for proclaiming that he was on the verge of running for president. Now, he’s perhaps a few big breaks and a couple of sterling debate performances away from being elected 45th president of the United States. TRUMP HAS no experience in elected office and, unlike past nonpoliticians elected president, hasn’t won a major war. He barely has a national campaign. He perhaps knows less about public affairs than the average congressman. He has repeatedly advertised his thin-skinned vindictiveness and is trampling on basic political norms. No major political party has ever nominated anyone like this. If Trump were to prevail, it would make Barack Obama’s unlikely rise from unknown state senator to first African-American president of the United States in about four years look like a boringly conventional political trajectory. Trump now has a legitimate shot at winning the general election because he got the lucky draw of at least the second-worst presidential nominee in recent memory and, pending how she fares over the next two months, perhaps the worst. All it took for Trump to wipe away most of Hillary Clinton’s lead was act-

ing like a somewhat normal presidential candidate. Have a meeting with a foreign leader. Give some policy speeches. Read from a teleprompter at rallies. Use his NPR voice when appropriate. NONE OF this required strategic genius, only a decision not to throw away the election with repeated episodes of self-indulgent stupidity. Democrats should be feeling a creeping sense of panic: — They are trying to win with a candidate who is loathed and distrusted and has few redeem-

Rich

ing qualities. As Yuval Levin, editor of the journal National Affairs, points out, corrupt and dishonest politicians are often entertaining, and dull politicians are usually earnest and honest. Hillary manages to be both boring and corrupt. If she decided to sit out the rest of the campaign and rely on surrogates to hit the trail, she might do no worse and perhaps better. — No one can be certain that her health is what the campaign says it is. If Hillary did have a more serious condition than allergies and walking pneumonia, does anyone believe the Clintons would be forthright about it? Even if nothing else ails her, if Clinton has another episode in public like the one on Sept. 11, the bottom might fall out.

— President Obama probably can’t close Hillary’s enthusiasm gap. For entirely understandable reasons (dull, inauthentic and old), the Obama coalition isn’t excited by Clinton. Obama is an adept campaigner, but there is no evidence Obama ever successfully transferred enthusiasm for himself to another candidate. — If the kitchen sink hasn’t killed off Trump, what else is there? The Clinton campaign has already used his greatest hits of most offensive statements in countless TV ads. If none of this has sunk Trump, what’s left that is going to have a new and different shock value? — A compelling Trump debate performance could change perceptions of his suitability to be commander in chief. Hillary is trouncing Trump on this attribute by a 2-to-1 margin. If Trump shows up and seems plausible during the biggest moment of the campaign, he could vastly improve his standing on this basic question of readiness. All this said, Hillary probably still has an advantage. Presumably, she won’t be as snakebit the rest of the campaign as she has been the past two weeks. She has a campaign and Trump doesn’t, and that must count for something. Demographics favor her. But if Trump can hoist himself over the bar of acceptability, he might give the voting public enough permission to make this the change election it is naturally inclined to be. A TRUMP victory may not be likely, but it isn’t far-fetched. And no, stranger things haven’t happened.

September 28, 2016 VLADIMIR PUTIN: September 16, 2016

Bibi Netanyahu backs Trump — on Putin

But was that really aggression, or reince Donald Trump said that if Vladimir Putin praises him, he flexive strategic reaction? We helped dump over a pro-Putin would return the compliment, democratically elected regime in Kiev, Republican outrage has not abated. Arriving on Capitol Hill to repair ties and Putin acted to secure his Black Sea between Trump and party elites, Gov. naval base by re-annexing Crimea, a that has belonged to Mike Pence was taken straight to the peninsula Russia from Catherine the woodshed. Great to KhrushJohn McCain chev. Great powers told Pence that Pudo such things. tin was a “thug and When the Casa butcher,” and tros pulled Cuba Trump’s embrace (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate out of America’s of him intolerable. Said Lindsey Graham: “Vladimir Pu- orbit, did we not decide to keep Guantin is a thug, a dictator ... who has his tanamo, and dismiss Havana’s protests? Moscow did indeed support secesopposition killed in the streets,” and sionist pro-Russia rebels in East Ukraine. Trump’s views bring to mind Munich. But did not the U.S. launch a 78-day PUTIN IS an “authoritarian thug,” bombing campaign on tiny Serbia to effect a secession of its cradle province of added “Little Marco” Rubio. What causes the Republican Party to Kosovo? What is the great moral distinction lose it whenever the name of Vladimir here? Putin is raised? The relationship between Russia and Putin is no Stalin, whom FDR and Harry Truman called “Good old Joe” Ukraine goes back to 500 years before and “Uncle Joe.” Unlike Nikita Khrush- Columbus. It includes an ancient comchev, he never drowned a Hungarian mon faith, a complex history, terrible Revolution in blood. He did crush the suffering and horrendous injustices — Chechen secession. But what did he do like Stalin’s starvation of millions of there that General Sherman did not do to Ukrainians in the early 1930s. Yet, before Bush II and Obama, no Atlanta when Georgia seceded from Mr. president thought Moscow-Kiev quarLincoln’s Union? Putin supported the U.S. in Afghani- rels were any of our business. When did stan, backed our nuclear deal with Iran they become so? Russia is reportedly hacking into our and signed on to John Kerry’s plan to have us ensure a cease fire in Syria and political institutions. If so, it ought to go hunting together for ISIS and al Qei- stop. But have not our own CIA, National Endowment for Democracy, and da terrorists. Still, Putin committed “aggression” NGOs meddled in Russia’s internal affairs for years? in Ukraine, we are told.

Pat

Buchanan

Putin is a nationalist who looks out for Russia first. He also heads a nation twice the size of ours with an arsenal equal to our own, and no peace in Eurasia can be made without him. WE HAVE to deal with him. How does it help to call him names? And what is Putin doing in terms of repression to outmatch our NATO ally, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and our Arab ally, Egypt’s General el-Sissi? Is Putin’s Russia more repressive than Xi Jinping’s China? Yet, Republicans rarely use “thug” when speaking about Xi. During the Cold War, we partnered with such autocrats as the Shah of Iran and General Pinochet of Chile, Ferdinand Marcos in Manila and Park Chung-

Hee of South Korea. Cold War necessity required it. Scores of the world’s 190-odd nations are today ruled by autocrats. How does it advance our interests or diplomacy by having congressional leaders yapping “thug” at the ruler of a nation with hundreds of nuclear warheads? Where is the realism, the recognition of the realities of the world in which we live, that guided the policies of presidents from Ike to Reagan? We have been told by senators like Tom Cotton that there must be “no daylight” between the U.S. and Israel. Fine. How does Israel regard Putin “the thug” and Putin “the butcher?” According to foreign policy scholar Stephen Sniegoski, when Putin first visited Israel in 2005, President Moshe Katsav hailed him as a “friend of Israel” and Ariel Sharon said he was “among brothers.” In the last year alone, Bibi Netanyahu has gone to Moscow three times and Putin has visited Israel. The two get along wonderfully well. On the U.N. resolution that affirmed the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine, Israel abstained. And Israel refused to join in sanctions against a friendly Russia. Russian-Israeli trade is booming. Perhaps Bibi, who just got a windfall of $38 billion in U.S. foreign aid over the next 10 years from a Barack Obama whom he does not even like, can show the GOP how to get along better with Vlad. Lindsey Graham says that the $38 billion for Israel is probably not enough, that Bibi will need more, and that he will be there to provide it. REMARKABLE. BIBI, a buddy of Vlad, gets $38 billion from the same Republican senators who, when Donald Trump says he will repay personal compliments from Vladimir Putin, gets the McCain-Graham wet mitten across the face.

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Michael Barone, Austin Bay, Brent Bozell, Pat Buchanan, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Ann Coulter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, Larry Elder, Leslie Elman, Joseph Farah, Suzanne Fields, Paul Greenberg, David Harsanyi, Laura Hollis, Terence Jeffrey, Charles Krauthammer, Larry Kudlow, Donald Lambro, David Limbaugh, Rich Lowry, Michelle Malkin, Mychal Massie, Stephen Moore, Dick Morris, William Murchison, Andrew Napolitano, Marvin Olasky, Dennis Prager, Debra J. Saunders, Phyllis Schlafly, Ben Shapiro, Thomas Sowell, Cal Thomas, Matt Towery, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., George Will, and Walter Williams.

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•NEWSPAPER• •DATED MATERIAL•

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Postmaster: Timely Material Please deliver on or before 9/28/16 Periodicals Postage Paid Mailed 9/22/16

Read Charles Krauthammer, Linda Chavez & Thomas Sowell on Pages 16-17

2016 Election

This week our CONSERVATIVE FOCUS is on:

Read Stephen Moore’s Column on Page 1

Obama’s Unbelievable Victory Lap

Abysmal Growth

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 • Volume 31, Number 39 • Hampton, Iowa