Conservative Chronicle for March 9 2016 by Mid-America Publishing Corporation

At Issue this week... March 9, 2016 2016 Election Buchanan (8) Farah (18) Olasky (30) Abortion Schlafly (4) Academia Tyrrell (25) Apple Napolitano (25) Campaign Finance Saunders (24) Clinton, Hillary Elder (10) McCaughey (1) Cruz, Ted Limbaugh (23) Dear Mark Levy (19) Economy Jeffrey (13) Kudlow (13) Lambro (12) Employee Rights Act Moore (11) GOP Contenders Barone (14) Charen (20) Cushman (22) Erickson (22) Lowry (26) GOP Debates Malkin (3) GOP Pundits Coulter (7) Illegal Immigration Barone (2) Iran Chavez (30) Left, The Hollis (5) Leslie’s Trivia Bits Elman (14) Media Bias Bozell (3, 18) Movie Review Farah (29) Obama Presidency Krauthammer (31) Republican Party Buchanan (21) Prager (27) Rubio, Marco Massie (6) Russo-Ukraine War Bay (29) Sanctuary Cities Saunders (11) Supreme Court Nominee Thomas (6) Taxes Williams (21) Trump, Donald Harsanyi (26) Lambro (28) Limbaugh (15) Morris (24) Murchison (16) Sowell (17) Thomas (4) Towery (9) Will (9, 17)

Hillary Clinton by Betsy McCaughey

Hillary Clinton’s war on whites

illary Clinton is sweeping the Democratic primaries across the South by capturing nearly all the black votes — a staggering 86 percent in South Carolina. She’s doing it with poisonous lies designed to stoke racial resentment. Clinton routinely tells blacks they are the victims of “systemic racism” and scolds whites for not demonstrating more “humility.” She falsely claims that discrimination is causing higher poverty rates and incarceration rates in the black community. There isn’t a shred of evidence to back up her claims. Even so, she gets a pass from the media. LET’S SEPARATE facts from Clinton’s racially inflammatory fictions: On the campaign trail, she complains that “race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind,” noting black families have “just a tiny fraction” of the wealth of white families. Yes, there’s a wealth gap. Clinton blames it on racism instead of honestly confronting the self-destructive choices young blacks are encouraged to make by a welfare system that subsidizes girls having babies before they finish their education or marry. A troubling 72 percent of black children are born to single mothers. That’s not a vestige of slavery, as some liberals argue. In 1950, before widespread welfare, the figure was only 18 percent. “It is well known that people who finish high school, hold a job, and do not have children until they are 21 and have a steady partner are almost never poor,” says black Columbia professor John McWhorter. Clinton rages against a supposed “school-to-prison pipeline,” blaming “racist” schools that disproportionately suspend black students, “racist” police who target blacks, and “racist” judges who mete out longer sentences to blacks than whites for the same offenses. Again, Clinton’s got the facts wrong. Evidence of a school to prison pipeline is “laughably weak,” says Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald. While it’s true black students are suspended at twice the rate of Hispanics and whites, few reports mention that this could be the consequence of inadequate parenting or the failure to stress school achievement at home. It’s ridiculous to suggest racist edu-

cators are to blame. Teaching is among the most liberal of professions. At schools, Clinton proposes ending suspensions, and keeping disruptive students in the classroom while they get counseling. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried that, arguing that the victims of this misguided policy are kids who want to learn — especially poor kids who can’t escape an unruly school.

Betsy

Hillary Clinton apologizes for having said “super-predators” to describe teens maiming and murdering without remorse. But there’s no denying the problem — and it has a racial component. The homicide rate among black males ages 14 to 17 is nearly 10 times higher than for whites and Hispanics of that age. AS FOR PRISON, Clinton tells black audiences it’s time to fix the “crisis of mass incarceration” of black men. But neither Clinton nor anyone else has produced evidence that blacks are given longer sentences than others for the same offenses. Nor is enforcement of drug laws to

blame. In federal prisons, drug offenders are 48 percent Hispanic, 22 percent white and 27 percent black. Most incarcerated blacks are in state prisons doing time for violent crimes and repeated theft. For seven years, Barack Obama has played the race card. It has rubbed raw the feelings between blacks and whites. A Hillary Clinton presidency will make it worse. She pledges to enshrine racial preferences for job employment and college admissions — never mind fairness or the impact on whites and Asians applying to schools and looking for work. Obama dignified race hustler Al Sharpton with roles at White House events. Now Clinton, too, is seeking Sharpton’s advice. She ought to repudiate him as the David Duke of her party. CLINTON’S ELECTORAL strategy is to win big with minority voters. Unsurprisingly, she’s trying to duplicate Obama’s successful campaigns in 2008 and 2012 — when he lost among whites but was carried to victory with overwhelming black support. This time, the nation needs a president who embraces all Americans and tells them the truth, even about race. March 2, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: March 1, 2016

Arizona, not Trump, shows GOP the way on immigration

n last Thursday’s slam-bang Republican debate everyone saw Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz do a fine job of demonstrating Donald Trump’s ignorance and inconsistencies. But many may not have noticed Cruz’s citation of a Feb. 9 Wall Street Journal article that casts light on the immigration issue — and suggests strongly that Cruz’s and Rubio’s serious immigration policies could prove more effective than Trump’s bombast about building a wall and getting Mexico to pay for it. Reporter Bob Davis’ article was about the experience of Arizona, which on this issue has been a laboratory of reform. In the middle of the last decade, after a border fence slowed illegal flows into urban San Diego, thousands of illegal immigrants started crossing the desert border of Arizona and Mexico. Some died in the desert. Some murdered or robbed local residents. There was a fierce outcry for politicians to address the problem. ARIZONA COULDN’T build a wall by itself. But its Republican legislature did pass laws with the aim of discouraging illegal immigration. They were denied benefits such as driver’s licenses and free non-emergency medical care. Law enforcement agents, including Sheriff Joe Arpaio, vigor-

But so was state spending on educaously enforced the laws in Phoenix’s Maricopa County, which is the nation’s tion (80,000 fewer students), emergenfourth-most populous county, with four cy room health care and incarcerating non-resident felons. There was a sudmillion residents. In 2008 the state required all em- den shortage of farm and construction and — probably as a ployers to use the federal E-verify sys- workers result — wages for tem to check job applicants’ legal farmworkers rose status via Social 15 percent and for Security records. construction workIn 2010 the coners 10 percent. troversial Senate (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Some employBill 1070 authoers were forced rized traffic police to check immigration status, one to adjust. Davis’ article begins with an of the law’s provisions upheld by the anecdote about a jalapeno pepper farmer who invested $2 million to develop a U.S. Supreme Court. These measures fall short of the im- machine to harvest peppers. He figured migration policies advocated by Ru- that was cheaper than paying non-illebio and Cruz. They would require not gal workers more. only use of E-verify nationally but also HOW YOU weigh the costs and biometric exit-entry visa-tracking, to identify the 45 percent of illegals who benefits, neither of which can be preoverstay legal visas. That’s something cisely measured, is up to you. But for Donald Trump supporters, such as Arizona’s state government can’t do. But what it could do made a differ- Mickey Kaus and Ann Coulter, who arence. Since 2007 about 200,000 illegal gue that illegal labor is driving down immigrants left Arizona, 40 percent low-skill Americans’ wages, the results of the total, much more than in other look pretty good. Maybe as good as states. Davis quotes various experts you would get by building and getting with different views on the economic Mexico to pay for that “yuge” beautieffects. On one hand, the departures re- ful wall. For the fact is that the surge of illeduced the state’s gross domestic product by two percent and employment by gal Mexican migration ended with the 2.5 percent. State government revenues 2007-2009 recession. And the laboratory of Arizona suggests that technicalwere reduced by about that as well.

Michael

Barone

ly feasible methods — E-verify, entryand-exit tracking — can disincentivize illegal immigration and spur, in Mitt Romney’s infelicitous term, self-deportation. The employer sanctions of the 1986 law failed because they didn’t include such provisions. That’s because most Americans back then, both left and right, hated the idea of anything like a national identity card. But today we don’t much mind having our steps tracked by Google and Visa. Tracking job applicants or visa holders is widely acceptable now. A President Rubio or Cruz could get a Republican Congress to approve such legislation without, as they insist, an immediate path for citizenship or legalization. Democrats have demanded citizenship (they want those votes) as the price for advancing any immigration legislation, but many would be reluctant to resist an enforcement-only bill. The key question for Republican voters is whether they want a nominee who would change policy in a direction that would achieve desired results or whether they want one who bellows in anger but who, as the Houston debate showed, has a weak grasp on the facts and only a hazy notion of what policy can accomplish. RUBIO AND Cruz have shown they are the first kind of candidate. The Donald Trump whom you saw flailing in Houston isn’t.

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March 9, 2016 GOP DEBATES: March 2, 2016

The 2016 Republican debate debacle

hen the dust settles on this wild and wacky GOP primary season, there will be at least one clear Biggest Loser: the Republican National Committee. After 2012, when liberal journalists routinely hijacked the party’s 20 televised debates while cashing in on ratings and advertising revenue, the RNC resolved to change narrative-surrendering business as usual. There would be no more cable TV anchors belligerently taking President Obama’s side while arguing with the GOP nominee (as Candy Crowley infamously did with Mitt Romney over Benghazi). THERE WOULD be no more former Democratic operatives-turned journalists injecting their left-wing social agenda into GOP primary forums (as Clinton adviser-turned-ABC newsman George Stephanopoulous did at the January 2012 Republican debate in New Hampshire when he pushed the Democrats’ War on Women propaganda by pressing Republicans on a nonsense contraceptive ban.)

And there would be real balance in questioner, Salem radio talk show host the selection of moderators, through Hugh Hewitt, received a fraction of the partnerships “with conservative media time. The infamous “screaming lady” in to make sure the concerns of grassroots the audience earned far more buzz. Republicans are addressed.” HEWITT HAD made an earlier apRNC chairman Reince Priebus declared in 2014 after the committee ad- pearance in the second debate hosted by opted measures to reassert control over CNN last September. But again, he was to the margins. As the process: “The liberal media doesn’t relegated even the left-wing deserve to be in New York Times the driver’s seat.” pointed out, the How’s that network “came to working out? the second RepubIt’s the same old, (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate lican primary desame old. Last bate looking for a week’s debate hosted by CNN was commandeered by fight” along with an agenda of setting a Telemundo celebrity journalist Maria up “catfights” between Donald Trump Celeste Arraras, known as “the Katie and the rest of the candidates. Conservative blogger Scott Johnson Couric of Spanish TV,” who soaked up nearly half the show representing “the of Power Line noted that instead of givLatino community” on issues such as ing GOP voters “a chance to assess the strengths of the candidates and to pick Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to the strongest candidate to achieve their the RNC. She did the same during a objective...(CNN moderator) Jake TapDemocratic presidential debate in 2004, per had other ideas in mind. His conwhen she argued with candidates about signment of Hugh Hewitt to the witness driver’s licenses for immigrants here protection program is representative of illegally. The lone conservative token his pursuit of other ideas.”

Michelle

Malkin

MEDIA BIAS: February 24, 2016

The never-ending Obama valentine

resident Obama may be a lame duck, but the press never tires of celebrating him as the first black president. They ran President Bush’s poll ratings into the ground as his term ended, but here in Black History Month, they are promoting Obama like it’s still 2009. On NBC Nightly News, anchor Kate Snow played video posted on Facebook of a four-year-old black girl crying and distraught that Obama’s time in office will soon be up. “This is, of course, President Obama’s last year in office, a fact that has at least one of his supporters quite upset,” Snow told viewers. “Watch what happens when this fouryear-old girl’s grandmother, Caprina Harris, explains that Mr. Obama will no longer be the president.” “I’M NOT READY,” the crying girl complained, “I’m not ready for a new one!” Snow then reported the president responded that the girl should “dry her tears because I’m not going anywhere,” and that “once I leave the White House, I’ll be a citizen just like her. And when she grows up, she can get involved right alongside me.” He’ll be a citizen? What, pray tell, is he now? Surely, many pro-Obama journalists are feeling this little girl’s emotional pain.

Obama fans from ages four to 106 are presented as the “news.” The White House put out a video of 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin being so delighted to meet the president and first lady that she broke out into dancing. After years of requests to visit, McLaurin was invited to a Black History Month event.

THE SAME networks that bury Obama scandals and shrug at his insults — the bad manners of skipping Justice Scalia’s funeral is only the most recent — all celebrated this official White House promo on their morning shows and their evening shows.

Brent

On ABC’s Good Morning America, correspondent Cecilia Vega assured viewers: “And finally, hands down the best video we will see today, I promise you. One woman dancing into the White House like it took her 100 years to get there, because it did. ... Guys, she sprinted into the White House so much that President Obama had to tell her to slow it down, ‘Not too quick, Virginia.’ I love that.”

CBS This Morning had almost the exact same take from anchor/Obama friend Gayle King, who gushed: “She was literally dancing with excitement when she met President Obama and first lady this weekend. ... Oh, it was great. Imagine what she’s seen in her lifetime. When she first saw the couple, guys, she literally ran to them and the president said, ‘Slow down, slow down!’ That’s great.” On NBC Nightly News, Lester Holt led off the show promising this story: “And 106 years old with moves better than most teens. Tonight, we talk to the woman so excited at the White House she broke out her dance moves with the president.” ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir teased at the show’s open: “And forever young. She’s 106, and she’s teaching the president and the first lady how to dance.” THERE’S NOTHING wrong with a little uplifting video clip, but when the Republicans are in the White House, our national media feel they have to retain their “independence” and avoid sharing “propaganda” slickly produced by the White House PR team. When a Democrat is president, propaganda becomes news, and everyone in the newsroom feels just the same way these Obama fans do in these video clips.

The third debate hosted by CNBC in Boulder was deemed a complete disaster by observers across the political spectrum. Instead of focusing on economics, as the network and RNC promised they would, the “moderators” made themselves the center of attention with trivial and condescending questions designed to instigate circus conflict between personalities instead of enlightening viewers about actual policy differences between candidates. Again, this shouldn’t have been a surprise to the RNC. CNBC chief clown John Harwood had a long public record running interference for Hillary Clinton, denigrating conservative critics of Obamacare, and shrugging at convicted infant murderer and abortionist Kermit Gosnell. As for giving actual conservatives a central chance to address the candidates directly, the RNC yielded to Google during the seventh debate in Iowa in January. We didn’t hear from grassroots voters who had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare or business owners negatively affected by Dodd-Frank or victims of illegal alien crime who oppose amnesty. Instead, the privileged questioners included a YouTube fashionista who had crossed the border illegally from Mexico as a child and a Muslim activist who spread debunked, CAIR-style propaganda about “Islamophobia” hate crimes in America. The ninth debate hosted by CBS in South Carolina was moderated by John Dickerson, a Beltway liberal elite who called on President Obama to “Go for the Throat!” and “declare war on the Republican Party,” and to “pulverize” his political enemies over gun control, climate change and immigration. The event was remarkable not so much for any overt political bias as it was for a complete lack of control over both the candidates and the audience. And, of course, no one remembers anything about the first debate other than the feud between Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump. The obvious, effective solution is to wrest control from mainstream media networks and hold debates sponsored by conservative media outlets with conservative journalists and broadcast/ simulcast on neutral ground (hello, CSPAN!). The RNC had one such debate in the works, but abandoned the idea last month. FOR THE CANDIDATES, continuing with these rigged charades is an exercise in futility and masochism. For the RNC, it’s suicide. By its passivity and complicity, the current batch of GOP enablers have proved that they don’t deserve to be in the driver’s seat.

Conservative Chronicle

ABORTION: March 1, 2016

End favoritism for the abortion industry

ithout the late Justice Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a full hour of oral argument on Wednesday on the biggest abortion case in a quarter century. This case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, arises from a Texas law requiring that abortionists have hospital medical staff privileges within 30 miles of the abortion, and also that abortion clinics comply with the same standards as ambulatory surgery centers. Abortion supporters claim that this good law has forced about half of Texas’ 40 abortion clinics to close, and that even more may close if the U.S. Supreme Court does not rule in their favor. The gruesome reality is that many abortions are performed by physicians who lack nearby hospital admitting privileges, and many abortions are performed in degrading clinics whose facilities are below the minimal standards of a modern surgery center. FOR YEARS, the abortion industry has avoided paying the full costs of its business, instead sending its victims to emergency rooms where the on-call physician has no direct knowledge of what went wrong during the abortion. Abortions cause thousands of serious complications every year in the United States, many requiring hospitalization, and abortion clinics shift these costs onto others. “Safe and legal” was the catchphrase used by the feminists to pretend that legalizing abortion was necessary for the health and safety of women. But this week’s case before the Supreme Court proves that the abortion industry is more interested in its bottom line than the safety of women. When an ordinary physician performs any other type of surgical procedure, he remains available to the patient for follow-up care in case of complications. If the patient needs hospitalization, the physician is usually on the medical staff at a nearby hospital so he can treat the patient there. This adds costs for the physician, of course. But no one should be doing “hit and run” operations where the physician causes complications and then is completely unavailable to help address those complications at a nearby hospital. Yet this “hit and run” model is standard operating procedure for the abortion industry, which routinely dumps women with complications onto other caregivers who struggle to determine what went wrong, and who then must bear the costs of follow-up care that should have been paid for by the abortion clinics. No other lawful industry is allowed to shift the real costs associated with its business onto the public in this way.

Some abortion clinics would incur IN MISSOURI, a similar law requiring abortion doctors to have nearby hos- additional costs in order to attain the pital admitting privileges has worked quality of ambulatory surgery centers, well for more than a decade. Multiple and some abortionists may need to imcourts have upheld the Missouri and prove their medical skills in order to be similar statutes as reasonable to protect allowed on the medical staff of a nearby hospital. But there is no constitutional women seeking an abortion. The abortion industry is not impov- right for the abortion industry to cut by insisting on operished. Planned Parenthood and its c o r n e r s erating on women affiliated organiin a less safe envizations, which toronment than what gether constitute is customarily used the nation’s largfor most other proest abortion pro(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate cedures. vider, reported an Dr. Kermit Gosnell was an abortionaccounting profit of $58.8 million in its most recent year, and $127.1 million in ist in Philadelphia who lacked nearby hospital privileges, and who performed the year before. Many of the nation’s best-known bil- his abortions in a dingy clinic below lionaires support abortion-on-demand, ambulatory surgery center standards. either directly or by donating to politi- The grand jury that investigated him for cians who funnel more taxpayer money murder, for which he was subsequently into the coffers of the abortion industry. convicted, recommended that the law No industry can claim a constitutional be changed to impose the latter requirements on abortion clinics to avoid the right to be more profitable.

Phyllis

Schlafly

Gosnells of the future. More than the Texas and Missouri laws are at stake. Louisiana passed a similar law requiring hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles before an abortion can be performed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously upheld it last week in June Medical Services v. Gee. Abortion clinics have filed an “emergency” application to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to overturn that ruling. It is ironic that supporters of abortion demand emergency relief from federal courts to allow abortionists to be unavailable for the true medical emergencies they cause. EVEN AFTER the sudden and tragic loss of Justice Scalia, it’s hard to imagine why the U.S. Supreme Court would prevent states from taking reasonable steps, as Texas and other states have done, to ensure that there is never again another Kermit Gosnell.

DONALD TRUMP: March 1, 2016

Sewer politics: Accusations and insults

was going to write about how the Republican presidential campaign has become gutter politics, but given Donald Trump’s horrid statements, the gutter would be a step up, because things have descended into the sewer. Never in modern times has there been a presidential candidate who has hurled more personal insults and hurtful accusations at his fellow candidates and others who disagree with him. It should embarrass a normal person, but Trump appears beyond embarrassment. HE CRITICIZES Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, for dropping the F-bomb when he did the same thing during the New Hampshire primary campaign. He attacks Marco Rubio for repeating himself when Trump repeats himself repeatedly. He has criticized the personal appearance of Carly Fiorina, Rosie O’Donnell and Arianna Huffington, among others, when he isn’t much to look at. He tosses out words like “loser” and during the Houston debate responded to a question from radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt by saying no one listens to his program and his ratings are lousy. The country is not served by such language. Neither does the political debate format serve the public when it resembles a cage match rather than a serious discussion about the multiple challenges facing America. There must be a better way to elect a president than this.

“Bully backs blowhard for president,” was the headline on the Daily Beast, referring to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s endorsement of Trump. What continues to amaze is the strong backing of Trump by so many evangelicals. If their church members behaved as Trump does, they would receive a serious talking to by the deacons or pastor and if they didn’t repent and change their ways they might face expulsion. With Trump, most evangelical leaders have remained largely silent, offering neither criticism nor

Cal

praise. This is what can happen when some pastors who are called to a different kingdom and a different King settle for an earthly kingdom and lesser king. DOES ANYONE know what Donald Trump’s position is on anything? Do they care? Apparently not from the sycophants who cheer his every insult at packed rallies around the country. He belittles, he whines and he complains that some in the media don’t treat him “fairly” when he has been on TV more than all of the other candidates combined. The reason for all the coverage he receives? He gets big ratings and the networks live for ratings. One of the few evangelical leaders to take Trump on is San Antonio pastor

and best-selling author, Max Lucado. In a recent blog post, Lucado says Trump’s “antics” “wouldn’t even be acceptable ... for a middle-school student body election.” In an interview with Christianity Today, Lucado was asked why he published his post, which he titled “Decency for President.” While saying he doesn’t bring politics into his church, he said he felt the need to speak out because of Trump’s “derision of people,” adding, “It would be none of my business, I would have absolutely no right to speak up except that he repeatedly brandishes the Bible and calls himself a Christian.” “If he’s going to call himself a Christian one day and call someone a bimbo the next or make fun of somebody’s menstrual cycle, it’s just beyond reason to me.” Beyond reason best describes the Trump campaign. It also explains the fealty so many have for a man with whom one hopes they have nothing in common -- from his lifestyle, to his indecipherable politics, to his fact-challenged pronouncements. IN PAST elections some voters have complained about being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. If the nominee for the Democratic Party is Hillary Clinton, and if Republicans select Donald Trump, this election may force voters to choose between the least evil of two lessers.

March 9, 2016 THE LEFT: February 25, 2016

It takes a bully: The Donald Trump phenomenon

There was a time, decades ago, here’s a saying: “It takes a thief to catch a thief.” A bit of when the political left was a movea twist on this old saw quite ment that defended personal and politaccurately sums up the Donald Trump ical liberties against an establishment that curtailed them. They took pains phenomenon. Fresh off of his third consecutive to argue and persuade that their posiprimary victory in Nevada, Trump is tions were superior. No more. The forcing people to left has become consider the very the establishment. real possibility of They are everyhis becoming the where, they never eventual Repub(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate rest, and there is lican nominee for no escaping their President of the United States. And as support for Hill- efforts to make all of us over in their ary Clinton continues to be flaccid (at image. They are the “omnipotent morbest) in the face of multiple scandals, al busybodies” C.S. Lewis warned of. Worse, they have become so enameven the biggest skeptics are wondering aloud whether Trump could go all ored with themselves and so convinced of their inherent moral superiority that the way. it no longer matters whether their posiDESPITE EARLY efforts to paint tions are demonstrably factually false, Trump’s support as limited to luna- internally inconsistent, or completely tics or “angry white males,” it has antithetical to the values, which they become abundantly clear that it is no have traditionally espoused. Considsuch thing. Trump is drawing support er what the left now defends with no from wealthy, middle-class and poor, sense of irony: — Curtailing freedom of speech male and female, young and old, all racial and ethnic groups, independents, and the press on college campuses in Republicans (of a certain stripe) and the name of “safe spaces” — Denying due process in the name “Reagan Democrats” who have often found themselves politically home- of “justice” to persons accused of sexless since 1988. Perhaps the Trump- ual assault, also on college campuses — Shutting down scientific and kins whose support is most baffling are evangelicals, who support Trump scholarly inquiry that challenges their in staggering numbers, notwithstand- views on anthropogenic “climate ing that his lifestyle and his personal change” — Professing to care about “womdemeanor are not what one might consider to be stereotypically “Christian.” en’s health” but doing nothing to prevent butchers like abortionist Kermit Why is this happening? Because the left has become an Gosnell from operating for years, and army of bullies, and Americans are remaining utterly silent in the face of the horrors in his clinic sick to death of it.

Laura

Hollis

— Professing to be “pro-choice,” but doing everything in their power to ensure that pregnant women have no choice but abortion — Claiming to be “the party of science” while maintaining that a human fetus shouldn’t be “humanized,” that sex and gender are matters of personal feeling and that there are no serious consequences to sexual promiscuity — Decrying what they view as America’s “rape culture” while supporting politicians accused of sexual assault ALL OF THIS is bad enough. But it is not enough for the left, which is on a permanent rampage against aspects of American culture that were once considered admirable and praiseworthy. Police officers are violent racists, stay-at-home moms are anti-feminist sellouts, two-parent families are a vestige of patriarchal oppression, hardworking entrepreneurs and successful business owners are swept up in indiscriminate accusations of being in “the one percent,” or beneficiaries of shapeshifting versions of “privilege,” created to discount their achievements and justify confiscating larger and larger amounts of what they have earned. Americans are fed up. We cannot defend the safety and privacy of our bathrooms, our businesses or our borders. We have no right to insist that our government enforce our laws, ensure that those who vote in our elections are American citizens or even simply protect us from those who wish us harm without being called “racists,” “nativists” and other undeserved epithets. The United States was set up as a Republic to avoid the tyranny of the majority. What we have now is a tyranny of the minority — a relatively small

cabal of academics, media personalities and elected Democrats who have a stranglehold on the national conversation. On any issue the left cares about — abortion, gay marriage, transgender rights, immigration, climate change — one opinion and only one opinion is permitted. Those who disagree must be exposed, mocked, demonized and destroyed. This isn’t tolerance. It isn’t “choice.” It isn’t “live and let live” and it certainly isn’t liberty. It’s bullying. And when the force of government is behind it, it’s oppression. Democrats may have made Trump possible. But Republicans made him inevitable. Those of us who oppose the left’s onslaught have wanted only for their elected officials to utilize the lawful, political power at their disposal to protect our rights. This, they have been completely unwilling to do. Republicans whined that they needed more power. The voters gave them power in 2010 and again in 2014. The voters have been patient. Their patience — like their trust — is gone. INTO THE RING steps Donald Trump. Yes, he is boorish and brash, vociferous and vulgar. But he says that he is willing to do what elected Republicans have not done. And whether or not that will prove to be true, at the very least he refuses to be cowed by the talking heads of the self-appointed elites, and this is an endless source of satisfaction. Americans have taken enough punches. They want someone who will punch back.

Conservative Chronicle

MARCO RUBIO: February 28, 2016

Marco Rubio wants us to forget his record Marco Rubio would like voters to forget that he has made a career of misleading them to get elected. Rubio, and I do not say this lightly, reminds me more of Obama than does Hillary Clinton. He is dishonest and despite what his record clearly shows, he adheres to the mantra of “are we voters going to believe him or our lying eyes?” I warned voters that Rubio was not to be trusted when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2010. He told many of the same outright fabrications then that he is telling now to divert attention from his commitment to amnesty.

LET ME POINT out a few facts that aren’t mentioned or discussed nearly enough. Illegal aliens are and have been continually stealing from America’s middle class by receiving shelter, schooling, health care, food, ad nauseum for decades. Go to the emergency room of the hospital in your area and see how many people speak English without a Hispanic accent. What Rubio doesn’t want you to think about is that it’s every person reading this article who is paying for the Section 8 housing, welfare, and all health care services from birth to diapers to infant formula to even clothing for illegal alien babies and children. It is you and I as taxpayers who are providing the special education needs illegals require and that are increasing the property taxes and school taxes each and every year. It is illegal aliens who are driving the cost of auto and property insurance up in many areas nationwide. It is illegal aliens who are raping, murdering, stealing, selling drugs, and who are establishing the most violent gangs in our country. Walk into a WalMart and observe how these people are spending our tax dollars. Rubio doesn’t want you to think about how the burgeoning underground economy created by illegals is stealing trillions of dollars from you and I even as it enhances the economy of the countries of origin these illegal aliens come from. Go into your local WalMart or any store that has banking services, i.e., cash cards etc., and see how many Hispanics are wiring money to families outside of the United States. (See: Amnesty of Immigration Reform: Both Government Ponzi Schemes; Mychal Massie; 11/25/2014) Rubio is morally opprobrious and he is easily the most disingenuous GOP candidate in the race this year, but those characteristics are perfectly consistent with the character of both Rubio and the GOP. Politifact Florida in partnership with the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald found that Rubio tells the truth in

his campaign ads, statements, and on Wave, Rubio ran as the anti-amnesty his website approximately only 13 per- candidate despite an aggressive procent of the time. Aggregating the other amnesty record. (See: The ‘Big Con’ numbers shows that 65 percent of the Begins; eagleforum.org) Martin in time, Rubio is either outright lying or painstaking detail methodically pointat best, knowingly making statements ed out Rubio’s true record. Martin noted: “In 2006, Rubio even that are less than true. a bill that would have Rubio’s record on being pro amnesty voted for the children of illegal has been straightforward and unchang- allowed [aliens] to pay the ing since he arsame tuition rates rived on the politat Florida colleges ical scene. When as residents.” But Rubio served in when running the Florida House (c) 2016, Mychal Massie for the Senate of Representatives, Arturo Vargas, the executive in 2010, Rubio chose to lie about his director for the National Association eight year record of pushing and adof Latino Elected and Appointed Of- vocating amnesty while in the Florida ficials, applauded his blocking legis- House and painted the then-Florida lation that sought to clamp down on Governor Crist as the villain calling illegals saying: “We were very proud for “an unearned path to citizenship.” of his work as Speaker of the [Florida] This is no different from what Rubio is doing today. House [of Representatives].” The unmitigated gall with which ED MARTIN, in a February 5, Rubio dismisses his pursuit of amnesty 2016 briefing letter to Phyllis Schlafly, is as pernicious as it is shocking. For wrote: “To win the 2010 Tea Party example, Rubio is telling everyone

Mychal

Massie

who will listen that: “he wants a border fence and a visa tracking system,” when the truth is that he voted against both. Julia Hahn writing for Breitbart News exposed Rubio’s grievous mendacity. Hahn wrote: “Rubio’s comments, however, conflict with several crucial votes he cast on the Gang of Eight bill that he co-authored with Chuck Schumer, which was endorsed by [the radial Marxist Hispanic group] La Raza, President Obama, and the Chamber of Commerce. The legislation would have issued more than 30 million green cards in ten years.” (Marco Rubio Says He Wants Border Fence, Visa Tracking System, But Voted Against Both To Pass Gang of Eight Bill; 8/6/2015; breitbart.com) RUBIO IS acting like a petulant little child caught stealing money from his mother’s purse as he lashes out at Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. After all how dare they point out his career as an amnesty pimp?

SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: February 25, 2016

The Schumer-Biden test

veryone knows the meaning of the word “hypocrite” and no one can claim absolute constancy when it comes to living a life consistent with one’s stated values. But in this election year, hypocrisy is on full display. It is now being practiced with neither shame nor irony by leading Democrats, who once forcefully argued positions they have now abandoned. Definitions help focus the mind and so here is one for “hypocrite” from dictionary.com: “a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.”

THAT SEEMS to fit Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Vice President Joe Biden (hypocrite-Washington), who now take positions opposite ones they previously took with apparent conviction when it comes to hearings and votes on a president’s nominees to the Supreme Court. In 2007, Schumer delivered a speech to the American Constitution Society in which he said, “We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances. They must prove by actions not words that they are in the mainstream rather than we have to prove that they are not.” That speech came 543 days before the 2008 election. Schumer now says

the Senate should hold hearings and that the full Senate should be allowed to vote on President Obama’s forthcoming nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, though fewer than 300 days remain before this year’s election. Schumer brushes off charges of hypocrisy, saying any comparison of

Cal

his position then and his polar opposite position now is “apples and oranges.” More like rotten apples and oranges. VICE PRESIDENT Biden is also caught in a hypocritical trap of his own making. In 1992, while serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden said that in the event a vacancy on the Supreme Court should occur during a year when President George H.W. Bush was seeking a second term, Bush should “not name a nominee until after the November election is completed.” Biden also took the exact position then that the current chairman of the committee, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), is taking now. In 1992, Biden said his committee “should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.”

Biden said such consideration would be “unfair to the president, to the nominee, or to the Senate itself. Where the nation should be treated to a consideration of constitutional philosophy, all it will get in such circumstances is partisan bickering and political posturing from both parties and from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.” Well, yes. Those previous arguments by two leading Democrats are now being recycled by Republicans. Biden today explains his 1992 remarks were “hypothetical.” No, they were hypocritical, given his current contradictory position. This helps explain why so many people hate Washington and why everyone gets my lecture circuit laugh line: “I’m from Washington, D.C., where the only politicians with convictions are in prison.” Republican members of Congress have been taking to the floor and reading excerpts from those not so long ago Schumer and Biden speeches. They should continue to do so, making their positions then, the test now. And should the situation be reversed in the future, with a Republican president and a Senate with a majority of Democrats, Republicans should remember the positions they are taking now, or risk being called hypocrites. IT IS A LABEL that is commonly and increasingly bipartisan.

March 9, 2016 GOP PUNDITS: February 24, 2016

Talking head twit-of-the-year contest

he cluelessness of the GOP — Aug. 9, 2015, ABC’s This Week: pundit class is infuriating, but Trump “just feels like that summer fling may ultimately be our salva- in high school that your parents tell you tion. Nothing they say about anything not to do, but you can’t help yourself. is ever right, even accidentally. But by the time we get back to This is makschool, I think Doning the TV news ald is going to be shows resemble fading well into the Monty Python’s background of this “Upperclass Twit race.” (c) 2016, Ann Coulter of the Year” con— Sept. 13, test. The twits 2015, NBC’s Meet don’t notice the starting gun, run into the Press: “Ultimately, I believe a govone another, fall down, run themselves ernor, a Jeb Bush or a Chris Christie or over with their own cars and, then, the someone is going to emerge.” remaining contestants all shoot them— Nov. 1, 2015, ABC’s This Week: selves in the head. Jeb “has the most money. He has the most organization. He has the most enANYONE WHO talks about poli- dorsements, and ... he’s been through tics on TV isn’t going to win them all, the fire before. And that is incredibly but when your horse takes a dump in valuable in the long run. ... He will be every single race, week after week, able to weather this storm, and I think why should we listen to you next time? he’ll be stronger for it when he does.” If you tuned into ABC’S This Week — Jan. 3, 2016, NBC’s Meet the the morning after Trump’s tremendous Press: “As this field continues to narvictory in South Carolina, you’d find row and it’s Donald Trump versus one George Stephanopoulos promising or two other candidates, that’s when analysis from a “powerhouse round- this race will really come into focus. ... table,” by which I assume he was refer- After Iowa, this thing is going to jumring to the table itself. ble again. ... Christie to me is one that I He then turned to the sort of clueless would watch.” morons who have gotten everything If you cut out words from a magawrong for the past seven months so zine and randomly pasted them on a they could tell viewers “what’s next.” piece of paper, you would produce a I’ve picked these two “Republican better analysis of what is happening strategists” at random for reasons of in this election than anything said by efficiency, but it could have been any Fagen. of the Karl Rove-Matthew Dowd-Steve Republican strategist Alex CastelHayes-Hugh Hewitt-George Will-Rich lanos: Lowry dream team. — Aug. 7, 2015, CNN’s Newsroom: Prepare to be dazzled by the analy- “The Megyn Kelly moment ... killed sis! Trump’s opportunity for growth. The Republican strategist Sara Fagen: fire that is Donald Trump is now con— July 26, 2015, NBC’s Meet the tained. It’s not going anywhere. He is Press: “At the end of the day, (Trump) not growing. He was just going to hang is not going to be the Republican nomi- on to that white-hot core. His numbers nee.” may dip or rise a tiny bit. He is no lon-

Ann

Coulter

ger a huge threat to dominate and control the Republican Party.” — Aug. 17, 2015, CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “In a general election, though, Trump is not going to be the nominee. When he leaves, he will be defeated by an anti-Trump. So, there will be a cleansing that will go on, once he is knocked out of primaries.” — Aug. 23, 2015, NBC’s Meet the Press: “And Donald Trump — who is not going to be the nominee ... Look, the average winner of a Republican primary caucus I think, first of all, gets what? — 40, 41 percent. So Donald Trump is not going to grow to that.” — Aug. 24, 2015, CNN’s Wolf: “Frankly, Jeb Bush has a majority Republican position on immigration, on securing the border, on not deporting four and a half million children who are U.S. citizens.” — Aug. 26, 2015, CNN’s Newsroom: Trump’s voters are “not a majority in the Republican Party. This may be the summer of Trump, but we vote in the winter.” — Sept. 16, 2015, CNN’s New Day: Jeb is “still a Bush. He’s still got 100 million bucks in the bank and TV. We are moving to a new phase of the campaign. Candidates are going to have TV ads now. So it’s not just news media with Trump and debates.” — Dec. 6, 2015, ABC’s This Week: “It’s entirely possible that Donald Trump is the nominee.” (By then, Trump had spent five months at No. 1 in the polls, and even CNN was calling him “the undisputed leader of the Republican presidential pack.”) — Dec. 6, 2015, ABC’s This Week: “Marco Rubio is the future of the Republican Party, a different Republican Party, if there’s a little shot that if this is a Trump-Rubio race, we could see the beginning of a better Republican ... But it’s not about issues with Trump.” YOU WILL find the exact same idiocy on any other political program. For hours of fun, take a week off, call in sick, and search Nexis for the words, “Republican strategist” and “Trump.” Chimps throwing darts at a dictionary would be right more often. Why are these people still allowed in the building? The FCC ought to force the TV networks into a massive settlement for promoting snake oil salesmen.

If I were a career counselor, I’d tell my students to become “Republican strategists.” You can be terrible at what you do — and the phone will never stop ringing! In no other profession, even fields that require a fair amount of speculation like oil wildcatting or weather forecasting, can you be so consistently wrong and never lose work. After Trump’s huge victory in New Hampshire and then in South Carolina, did it occur to TV bookers to call any of the people who got it right? Alex Marlow, editor in chief of Breitbart News, explained everything that was about to happen in this race back on the Sept. 14 edition of CNN’s Erin Burnett show. While all the other “strategists” gibbered about Trump losing the Hispanic vote, Marlow said: “Trump is growing the big tent. ... Trump’s policies are appealing to blacks. There are even some polls out there, like a survey USA poll, saying Trump is actually doing fine with Latinos.” In the Nevada primary on Tuesday, Trump not only won the Hispanic vote; he not only won 17 points more of the Hispanic vote than his next closest rival; but his Latino vote nearly matched that of the two Latino candidates combined. In one of the few times you might have heard this point expressed on television airwaves, Marlow said that the No. 1 issue for Breitbart News’ 20 million readers, “has consistently been — since last year — immigration. They are looking for someone who is going to seal the border and prioritize border security as No. 1.” Obviously, Marlow was right about everything. According to Nexis, that was the last time he appeared on TV. IT WOULD be as if, after discovering America, Christopher Columbus reported back to the King and Queen of Spain, but the booker for Ferdinand and Isabella decided that, instead of Columbus, she’d get the guy who never actually set sail for the New World because he was afraid he’d fall off the edge of the Earth into a fiery pit. Fantastic — that’s great. You’re going to be our go-to expert on the discovery of the New World. Can you be here early Sunday morning?

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: February 26, 2016

Probable outcome — Hillary vs. The Donald

Folks who rely on government benn a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump race — which, the Belt- efits are unlikely to rally to a party that to cut government. And way keening aside, seems the promises the nation pays no probable outcome of the primaries — as half income tax, these what are the odds folks are unlikely the GOP can take to be thrilled about the White House, tax cuts. Congress and the Bernie SandSupreme Court? (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate ers, who promises If Republicans free college tuition and making Wall can unite, not bad, not bad at all. Undeniably, Democrats open with a Street and the one percent pay for it, knows his party. strong hand. While these realities of national poliTHERE IS that famed “blue wall,” tics would seem to point to inexorable those 18 states and D.C. with a com- Democratic dominance in coming debined 242 electoral votes, just 28 shy of cades, there are worms in the apple. First, there is the strangely shrunken victory, that have gone Democratic in and still shrinking Democratic leaderevery presidential election since 1988. The wall contains all of New Eng- ship base. As the Daily Caller reports, land save New Hampshire; the Acela under Obama, Democrats have lost a corridor (N.Y., N.J., Pa., Del. and Md.); net of more than 900 state legislature plus Mich., Minn., Ill. and Wis. in the seats, 12 governors, 69 U.S. House and Middle West; and the Pacific coast of 13 Senate seats. Such numbers suggest a sick party. Calif., Ore., Wash. — and Hawaii. Republican strength on Capitol Hill Changing demography, too, favors is again as great as it was in the last the Democrats. Barack Obama carried over 90 per- years of the Roaring ‘20s. Second, due to Trump, viewership of cent of the black vote twice and in 2012 carried over 70 percent of the Hispanic the Republican debates has been astroand Asian votes. These last two vot- nomical — 24 million for one, 23 miling blocs are the fastest growing in the lion for another. The turnout at Trump rallies has been USA. A third Democratic advantage is sim- unlike anything seen in presidential primaries; and what’s more, the GOP voter ple self-interest. Half the nation now receives U.S. turnout in Iowa, N.H., S.C. and Nev. set government benefits — in Social Secu- new records for the party. Yet voter turnout for the Clintonrity, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, student loans, rent subsidies, Sanders race has fallen, in every conschool lunches and Earned Income Tax test, below what it was in the ClintonObama race in 2008. Credits, etc.

Pat

Buchanan

BERNIE’S MILLENNIALS aside, the energy and excitement has been on the Republican contest, often a sign of party ascendancy. Not only would Trump at the top of the GOP ticket assure a huge turnout (pro and con); he is the quintessence of the anti-Washington, anti-establishment candidate in a year when Americans appear to want a wholesale house-cleaning in the capital. As a builder and job creator, Trump would surely have greater cross-party appeal to working-class Democrats than any traditional Republican politician. Moreover, when Bernie Sanders goes down to defeat, how much enthusiasm will his supporters, who thrilled to the savaging of Wall Street, bring to the Clinton campaign?

This is the year of the outsider, and Hillary is the prom queen of Goldman Sachs. She represents continuity. Trump represents change. Moreover, on the top Trump issues of immigration and trade, the elites have always been the furthest out of touch with the country. In the 1990s, when Bill Clinton fought the NAFTA battle, the nation rebelled against the deal, but the establishment backed it. When Republicans on Capitol Hill voted for most-favored-nation status for China, year in and year out, did Republican grass roots demand this, or was it the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable? On immigration, where are the polls that show Middle Americans enthusiastic about increasing the numbers coming? Where is the majority demanding amnesty or open borders? The elites of Europe are as out of touch as America’s. Angela Merkel, Time’s Person of the Year in 2015, is at risk of being dumped in 2016 if she does not halt the next wave of Middle Eastern refugees who will be arriving on Europe’s shores when the seas calm in the spring in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. If we believe the immigration issue Trump has seized upon is explosive here, look to Europe. In the Balkans and Central Europe, even in Austria, the barriers are going up and the border guards appearing. Mass migration from the Third World to the First World is not only radicalizing America. It could destroy the European Union. Anger over any more migrants entering the country is among the reasons British patriots now want out of the EU. America is crossing into a new era. Trump seems to have caught the wave, while Clinton seems to belong to yesterday. A NOTE OF caution: This establishment is not going quietly.

March 9, 2016 DONALD TRUMP: February 25, 2016

A rare glimpse at Trump on and off the stage

et me make it clear: If a presidential candidate’s team invites me to meet the candidate, I will go. And over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to meet and speak with the likes of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and yes, even Richard Nixon. I’ve had the chance to watch presidents and presidential candidates “behind the curtain.”

SO WHEN THE Donald Trump campaign invited me to have a brief moment with Trump, I happily accepted. Those who read my columns know that I was basically the first syndicated columnist to write that Trump

would be a powerful force in the GOP Let me get right to it: The Trump race for president. And although I had behind the stage is a totally different received some comments from him person. I watched as a small group regarding the columns I’ve written lined up to chat and have photos taken about his candidacy, I had never met with him. I expected to watch Trump the man. talk at them or briskly move So in all honthem along. Instead, esty, I entered an he intently listened arena of 7,000 to each person. wildly cheering He took sheets and darn-near faof information (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate natical followers that some fans not knowing if the brought. He asked Donald would be just as, shall I say, them questions. He did what all of the animated in private as he is with his former presidents I have ever met did fans. I was looking for a glimpse at : He made each person feel like they what a president Trump would be like were the most important person in the behind the scenes. room.

Matt

Towery

DONALD TRUMP: February 28, 2016

How to cool down Trump “He--,” said Alabama’s Democratic Gov. George Wallace before roiling the 1968 presidential race, “we got too much dignity in government now, what we need is some meanness.” Twelve elections later, Wallace’s wish is approaching fulfillment as Republicans contemplate nominating someone who would run to Hillary Clinton’s left. Donald Trump, unencumbered by any ballast of convictions, would court Bernie Sanders’ disaffected voters with promises to enrich rather than reform the welfare state’s entitlement menu — Trump already says, “I am going to take care of everybody” — and to make America great again by having it cower behind trade barriers. If elected, Trump presumably would seek re-election, so there would be no conservative choice for president until at least 2024.

THE DEMOCRATIC Party once had to defend itself against a populist demagogue. During the 1932 campaign, while lunching at Hyde Park with his aide Rexford Tugwell, Franklin Roosevelt took a telephone call from Sen. Huey Long, who as governor had made Louisiana into America’s closest approximation of a police state. When the call ended, FDR told Tugwell: “That’s the second-most dangerous man in this country. Huey’s a whiz on the radio. He screams at people and they love it.” Who, Tugwell asked, is the most dangerous? FDR, recalling Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s violent dispersal of aggrieved military veterans in Washington in July 1932, answered: “You saw how he strutted down Pennsylvania Avenue. You saw that picture of him in the Times after the troops chased all those vets out with

tear gas and burned their shelters. Did you ever see anyone more self-satisfied? There’s a potential Mussolini for you.” Trump, who was a big-government liberal Democrat until he recently discovered he was a conservative Republican, has the upturned jutted jaw, the celebration of “energy” and the flirtation with violence and torture that characterized the Italian who was a radical socialist until he decided he was a fascist. Trump, however, is as American as Huey Long.

George

Will

MACARTHUR SAID all military disasters could be explained by two words: “Too late.” Too late to discern a danger, too late to prepare for it. The Trumpkins’ love affair with their hero is too hot not to cool down — unless his opponents quickly act on this fact: His supporters like him, not what pass for his “ideas,” so the way to stop him is to show him to be unlikable. Clinton’s opposition researchers must be delirious with delight about what they already have to work with. The 2012 Obama campaign had to resort to tendentiousness to present Mitt Romney’s impeccable business practices as proof that he was a villain. Read what a conscientious conservative, Ian Tuttle of National Review Online, is finding in Trump’s already public record (www. nationalreview.com/author/ian-tuttle). Then imagine what fun Democrats will have with Trump’s career of crony capitalism lubricated, he boasts, by renting politicians.

Off to the side, Trump’s family members stood quietly, talking to a few staffers. The entire interesting, albeit short, visit seemed as businesslike and professional as any presidential visit, absent the uppity staff that I usually have to put up with. TO TRUMP’S credit, those who met him backstage were not powerful business leaders or lobbyists; most were hardworking supporters, plus a few elected officials who had broken ranks with the Georgia GOP establishment crowd to endorse him. And for the record, while I have not seen him in a while, I have been in similar situations with Sen. Marco Rubio, and he, too, is impressive. I feel quite certain that Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich are as well. But Trump’s ability — or some would say, inability — to make calm and carefully reasoned decisions has become a popular topic of conversation as he continues to lead the field of Republican contenders. And while my brief glimpse did not answer every question about his leadership style, it did convince me that Trump could easily adapt his high-octane speech rhetoric to be quieter and more deliberate, as presidents are known to speak. After all, it’s not like he could’ve created an enormous business fortune without the necessary tools of sophistication. After our private visit came the rally. To say that I have never seen such a diverse crowd at a GOP rally would be an understatement. Less prevalent were the suits and khaki pants seen at most Republican gatherings. Instead, there were blue jeans, veterans’ caps and typical everyday clothes of working people who might have just left their jobs to attend. There were young women with piercings and young men with long hair. There were AfricanAmericans, Hispanics — you name it. They attended, it seemed, as much out of a desire to display their patriotism, as to express their anger with a system and political party that has become too fancy and too dominated by wealth and power to suit their needs. Well they got what they came for. Having just won the South Carolina caucus, Trump was true to his form and more.

Trump’s Republican opponents are running out of days, places and people to stop him. Candidates, voters and other daydream believers rail against the “establishment,” waiting for this corpse to resurrect itself. But it died 50 years ago, on April 24, 1966, when its house organ, the New York Herald-Tribune, expired. The establishment had been comatose since Barry Goldwater brushed aside its feebly arrogant attempt to derail his nomination at the 1964 convention. Today, the conservative movement should pool its sufficient resources to help Marco Rubio defeat Trump in winnertake-all Florida, where Rubio should spend all of his days and dimes between now and March 15. And to support John Kasich in Ohio. And Trump should be bombarded with questions like these: What are you hiding by refusing to give the public the aesthetic pleasure of examining what you call your “beautiful” tax returns? Will you at least jot down on a piece of paper your gross income in each of the last three years? And your adjusted gross income on your personal tax returns in the last three years? And how much you paid in federal personal income taxes in those years? And how much each of your companies paid? Will you release the last five years of your personal financial statements — these are already prepared — that banks would have required you to submit annually in connection with the loans you I STILL HAVE no idea where this list on the liabilities page of your finan- race will end up. For example, Texas cial disclosure report? is a huge prize; no candidate has discussed how they’ll handle the growTRUMP PROBABLY hopes to seing glut of oil. Florida’s allegiance cure the nomination before releasing remains to be seen, but Marco Rubio pertinent information about his career is rising. But whatever the final result, that supposedly is his qualification for my brief visit reinforced why I’ve been Lincoln’s chair. Perhaps, like Cole Por- right about Trump for 15 months and ter, he knows when a love affair is too counting. hot not to cool down.

Conservative Chronicle

HILLARY CLINTON: February 25, 2016

The trashing of Bill’s accusers: What Hillary did and why

illary Clinton has never been I recently asked him about Hillary’s asked whether she verbally role, if any, in impugning these women. intimidated alleged rape surElder: “Why do you suppose has Hillvivor Juanita Broaddrick. Nor has Clin- ary never — to my knowledge — been ton been asked whether she spearheaded asked, point-blank, ‘Did you or did you the so-called “nuts and sluts” strategy to not verbally intimidate an alleged rape silence and intimidate women who al- survivor by the name Juanita Broadleged affairs with or sexual abuse by drick, as she alleges you did?’” Bill Clinton. Klayman: “I don’t The books Hell think anybody’s had to Pay by Barbara the guts to do it. ... Olson and No One But the hard reality Left to Lie To by here is ... Hillary Christopher HitchClinton started (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate ens depict Hillary what was called Clinton as the puppet master behind the the ‘war room.’ ... This is ... in the camhiring of lawyers and private detectives paign of 1992, which elected her husto dig up dirt on her husband’s accusers. band. George Stephanopoulos was part Bolstering the credibility of Hitchens’ of that. James Carville was part of it. book is a foreword written by respected And the purpose of the war room — and historian Douglas Brinkley, a frequent Stephanopoulos ... of course ... doesn’t guest on CNN, MSNBC and other net- want to discuss this — was to destroy works. any woman that would challenge Bill Is this true? Clinton, because she knew, undoubtedly, Attorney Larry Klayman, who that if her husband didn’t make it to the worked in the U.S. Justice Department, White House, that someday she wouldn’t runs Freedom Watch, a government make it to the White House, either. ... She watchdog group. He founded Judicial wanted to protect her own interests, and Watch, also a watchdog group, which to do that she had to destroy the women was, at one time, known as Bill Clin- who she knew were going to come forton’s “nemesis.” But Judicial Watch ward and reveal the alleged sexual haalso filed lawsuits against President rassment and rape, and the intimidation George W. Bush’s administration for its that was about ready to be leveled against alleged improprieties. these women to keep them quiet.”

Larry

Elder

KLAYMAN HAS represented nearly all of Bill Clinton’s best-known accusers, including Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Dolly Kyle Browning.

ELDER: “WHAT can you tell us about what Hillary did? What was her role in all of this?” Klayman: “We know from the various women who had contact. Some of

them had contact with Hillary Clinton in Arkansas. They know her way of doing business. ... And Stephanopoulos and Carville himself effectively admitted it when they did that documentary, The War Room. It was Hillary who was at the top of that. She was the one who called the shots. And the private detectives who were sicced on these women ... were hired by Hillary Clinton. I took the deposition of (one) and confirmed that (he was) hired through Hillary’s lawyer. So there’s a lot of different evidence here, direct and circumstantial, that places Hillary at the center of these acts against the women.” Elder: “The most serious allegation, of course, is the one by Juanita Broad-

drick. She claims that when Bill Clinton was Arkansas attorney general, he raped her, and two weeks later, at some campaign function, Hillary came up to her and verbally intimidated her, saying things to her, according to Broaddrick, that made it clear: Keep your mouth shut, or else.” Klayman: “One of the private detectives broke into her house and took an answering-machine tape ... to make sure there was no evidence of what had occurred. These were the kind of things that have been done. ... They would have the private detectives — for instance, Kathleen Willey experienced this — she was riding her bike one day and one of these private detectives, or one of his agents, rode up to her on another bike and mentioned the names of her children in a very sinister way. ‘How are your children, Ms. Willey?’ In fact, that happened to me during a deposition at Judicial Watch, where one of the lawyers that were representing the Clintons — shortly after my daughter was born — mentioned her name. And there was no way of knowing that. They wanted us to know that they were watching us ... that we were at risk.” Elder: “I’ve interviewed Kathleen Willey, and I’ve said to her, as I’m saying to you, when people came by and made threats and said names and suggested she should ‘watch it,’ you still can’t trace that to Hillary.” Klayman: “In a court of law, it’s not just direct but circumstantial evidence. I gave you a little bit of it. ... If you add it all up ... it creates a pattern where she’s capable of almost anything.” HILLARY CLINTON once said that when women allege sexual assault, they “have the right to be believed.” Let’s leave it at this — for now.

March 9, 2016 SANCTUARY CITIES: February 28, 2016

San Francisco puts sanctuary before funding

ver since Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez shot and killed Kate Steinle on a warm July evening as she strolled along Pier 14 with her father, San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy has enraged swaths of the rest of America. Lopez-Sanchez, you see, had been convicted of multiple felonies and deported five times. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have deported the Mexican national if he had not been handed over to the San Francisco Sheriffs Office on a decades-old marijuana charge. WHEN THE city dropped the moldy case, then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi released Lopez-Sanchez without notifying ICE. He said he was being true to a 2013 Sanctuary City ordinance that directed law enforcement not to cooperate with detainer requests except for individuals with a violent felony conviction in the last seven years. Weeks later, Lopez-Sanchez shot Steinle with

a gun stolen from a federal agent. the subcommittee that the Bureau of Claiming that the shooting was an ac- Prisons will transfer released federal cident, Lopez-Sanchez has pleaded not inmates who are undocumented and due for deportation directly to ICE — guilty. City Hall refused to kill the 2013 not to sanctuary cities, unless the sancSanctuary City policy. If conservatives tuary agrees only to release the inmate want something, the board of super- to ICE. Culberson had nothing but for Lynch “for doing visors will block it. Citizen safety be p r a i s e the right thing.” damned. Center for ImThe Republimigration Studies can Congress is Policy Director not of like mind. Jessica Vaughan The new chair(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate is less impressed. man of the House She sees “a very Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the De- narrow response to what went wrong partment of Justice, Rep. John Cul- in the Steinle case” that doesn’t adberson, R-Texas, is poised to use Con- dress the real problem: state and local gress’ power of the purse to withhold policies of obstruction. “Most criminal federal law enforcement funds from aliens are in state and local custody insanctuary cities. He told me, “There stead of federal prison.” will be no more Kate Steinle murders, ON TUESDAY, Lynch’s shop sent if I can help it.” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Rep. Culberson a letter that stipulated Lynch is on board. Wednesday she told that local and state governments have

Debra J.

Saunders

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS ACT: February 24, 2016

GOP can give a $1 billion pay raise

f Donald Trump’s gravity-defying ascendancy has validated anything, it is that for Middle America, jobs and economic security are still the dominant issue. Republicans have talked up tax reform, regulatory relief and fiscal restraint — and those are all critical to growth. But it’s time for Republicans to expand their portfolio of issues and concentrate directly on increasing worker paychecks. Hillary Clinton loves to talk about helping “the working-class folks.” This is a voter group she knows so much about, because they are the chauffeurs that drive her to Ritz-Carlton hotels and clear the dinner tables when she gives her $200,000 speeches to Goldman Sachs. But Clinton can’t truly champion these workers’ rights, because the unions won’t let her.

REPUBLICANS CAN and should. One way to do so would be to embrace a new initiative called the Employee Rights Act (ERA). Trump and all the remaining Republican candidates ought to get on board. The act is currently sponsored by Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah in the Senate and Tom Price of Georgia in the House. The ERA (not to be confused with the long ago failed feminist Equal Rights Amendment) would instantly boost take-home pay for millions of workers by having fewer union dues snatched from their paychecks. One key provision of the ERA is to require Big Labor to get workers’ explicit approval before

unions can spend workers’ money on political activities. Under current law, unions can snatch these payments right from the worker paycheck unless the employee formally requests the money back. Although funding a union’s political machine is supposed to be voluntary due to Supreme Court precedent, a McLaughlin & Associates poll found that 67 percent of workers did not know they had a right not to pay union dues for political campaigns.

Stephen

Of course, it’s no surprise that union leaders who get rich and fat off these payments have failed to advertise that members can “opt out” of picking up the tab for political expenditures. THE ERA would also require recertification of unions whenever a majority of the workers at a workplace have not voted in the current union representatives. Right now unions have de facto lifetime certification. But many times the current team of workers at a shop never even voted for the union that is supposedly representing them. Regular elections are democratic and fair to workers. The ERA would also require secret ballots when voting for union representation. This would outlaw the often-

nefarious so-called “card check” system where workers can be bullied into signing a card to institute the union with no secret election at all. The stakes here for worker takehome pay are huge. In the last presidential election labor spent $1.7 billion on political activities. Nearly 90 percent of the money went to Democrats. This election cycle the spending by unions could exceed $2 billion. If half of the workers refuse to opt in to this spending, workers across the country will receive a $1 billion pay raise. Although almost all union money goes to Democrats, we know that there are millions of rank and file union members who support Republicans or don’t care about politics. Trump is getting huge backing from blue-collar union members. Yet these workers’ paychecks are raided to financially boost candidates they don’t support. How is that even remotely fair? THE ERA IS also smart politics. All of the basic worker protections have been poll-tested and are 80-20 issues, meaning 80 percent support the measures — and that includes a majority of union households. Not many policy issues these days command that kind of widespread backing. The ERA puts the GOP firmly on the side of working-class Americans and higher pay. The wonder is why the party hasn’t made this one of its top priorities already.

to certify that they comply with “applicable federal laws” to qualify for federal grants such as the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which reimburses local governments for some costs of incarcerating undocumented immigrants. San Francisco stands to lose about $170,000 from the alien assistance program alone. As a believer in the rights of local governments, Culberson told me, he supports San Francisco’s right to abstain from ICE enforcement. But if San Francisco chooses to release “illegal aliens” and turn them loose on the streets, “don’t even ask for SCAAP funding.” The Department of Justice letter was news to City Hall. “We have no information that would suggest any of our federal funding is at risk and Mayor Lee stands firmly behind our Sanctuary City laws,” Lee’s spokeswoman Christine Falvey told me in an email. Those two sentence clauses contradict each other: If City Hall doesn’t cooperate with ICE except in cases with recent violent felons, then the city stands to lose federal funds. “I can’t speak for the city,” Eileen Hirst, chief of staff to the new sheriff, Vicki Hennessy, told me. She can only speak for the Sheriff’s Office. And: “If, in fact, the city loses this money, it will be up to the people who make the budget — the mayor and the board of supervisors — to decide if and how the money will be replaced.” Sanctuary cities across the country will have to make similar choices. But when you think about it, if elected officials don’t mind risking the safety of their citizens, surely they won’t mind the loss of federal money. President Obama’s executive orders stay immigration enforcement for some four million undocumented immigrants who otherwise “play by the rules.” San Francisco, however, doesn’t care if undocumented immigrants play by the rules. Lopez-Sanchez’s long rap sheet reveals an undocumented resident who did everything but work hard and play by the rules. THAT’S NOT to say San Francisco pols don’t believe in rules. When undocumented immigrant Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 31, announced that San Francisco police had referred him to ICE after he reported his car stolen, the force launched an investigation — on the police, not Figueroa-Zarceno, who was facing a 2005 deportation order and was convicted of drunken driving in 2012. “It’s absurd that the city is investigating the cop who did the right thing,” quoth Vaughan, “instead of the illegal alien, who’s here in defiance of the law.”

Conservative Chronicle

ECONOMY: February 25, 2016

Electorate thinks we’re going in the wrong direction

hen Americans go to the is doing great. It isn’t, and they know it. polls in November to That’s one of reasons his lackluster job choose a new president, the approval numbers haven’t been able to economy will be the central issue in their break out of a mediocre 40 percent range. L e t ’s examine some of the decision. most recent reports The economy about Obama’s has slowed to sluggish economy, a crawl, barely and you decide for growing at an emyourself. barrassing 0.7 per(c) 2016, United Media Services The Commerce cent in the fourth Department said quarter. Millions of Americans have dropped out of the labor Wednesday that new home sales plunged force because they can’t find a good-pay- 9.2 percent last month, with most of ing job. Millions more say they’re forced the decline in the Western states. Sales to take part-time employment because slipped in the Midwest, too, and in other parts of the country. they can’t find full-time work. Meantime, the job market isn’t as RETAIL SALES have slowed; the great as the network news anchors want consumer confidence index is falling us to believe. In a study, MIT economist David Auas hard-pressed consumers tighten their belts. New home sales are plunging. tor found that for many Americans over Hardly a day goes by that the news an- the past five years or so, “middle-wage chors on the CNBC business channel occupations lost ground,” writes Lydia don’t ask top economists and corporate Depillis in the Washington Post. “OverCEOs if we are headed into another re- all between 2007 and 2015, low-wage occupations grew as a share of the labor cession. Many Americans think we are, and market by 0.6 percent, middle-wage oca large majority of Americans say the cupations shrank by four percent and economy and the country are moving in high-wage occupations grew by 0.3 percent. the wrong direction. “And people are still mostly making Barack Obama was swept into office in the midst of a deepening recession, less money than they were before the reproposing a failure-ridden, 1930s-style cession,” Depillis adds. “Median wages big-spending plan to get our country for low- and middle-earning occupations back on its feet, only to see the economy sank 1.5 and 1.8 percent respectively, acstruggle throughout his troubled presi- cording to a breakdown by the Economic Policy Institute’s Dave Cooper.” dency. Says Cooper: (T)here’s been poor The president and his apologists, ignoring all of the data to the contrary, wage growth across the board due to continue to maintain that the economy overall weakness in the labor market.”

Donald

Lambro

MIT’s Autor told Depillis that the “main labor market challenge is not a lack of high-wage jobs; it’s rather the weak or nonexistent wage growth in noncollege jobs.” This is the sorry situation that Obama’s anti-job creation, anti-capital investment, anti-economic growth performance has given us, no matter what the administration’s dubious unemployment rate is right now. And the future doesn’t look any better under his failed economic policies — the kind of policies that Hillary Clinton says she will follow if she becomes president. The Bureau of Labor Statistics “projects that the service sector will capture 94.6 percent of the new jobs added through 2024. The bulk of those, positions such as home health aide and medical assistant, make below $35,540 a year,” Depillis writes. LITTLE WONDER that consumer confidence plummeted this month to the lowest level in seven months in the last year of Obama’s presidency, the Associated Press reported this week. You didn’t hear this on the nightly network news? Gee, I wonder why.

The Conference Board, made up of the nation’s largest corporations and private organizations, said its confidence index fell to 92.2, the lowest level since last July. Based on consumer assessments of the nation’s overall economy, Americans gave low marks across the board. “The percentage of people saying business conditions were good fell to 26 percent, down from 27.7 percent,” the AP reported. Barack Obama can make all of the excuses he wants about the economy over these seven-plus years, but wellresearched statistics don’t lie, and the American people know when things aren’t going well in their lives and in the country. And he can no longer say that he’s made our economy significantly stronger when all the polls say otherwise. Last month, a nationwide CBS/New York Times survey asked Americans this question: “Do you feel things in this country are generally going in the right direction, or do you feel things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?” A whopping 65 percent said “wrong direction.” Only 27 percent said “right direction.” A mere eight percent were unsure or had no opinion. The highly respected Gallup Poll has reported similar numbers on the same question, as have other polls. Hillary Clinton is laying out an economic agenda that is almost a carbon copy of what Obama has proposed and pursued throughout his presidency, while expecting a different result. More big-government spending, tighter regulations on the economy and higher taxes. This is the very agenda that has been holding our economy back with an anemic two percent growth rate, shrinking investment in new or expanding enterprises, fewer job opportunities and lower incomes. The central question being asked in this election year is this: Are you satisfied with the last eight years of the Obama economy, or do you think we need to move in another direction? THE ONLY question Republicans need to settle is who’s the best, most unifying candidate to effectively offer a hopeful and persuasive answer to the broadest possible electorate.

March 9, 2016 ECONOMY: February 27, 2016

Two percent growth is a loser for the angry middle class

he good news is that the economy is growing at two percent and that there’s no recession in sight (barring a complete collapse of profits). The bad news is that the economy is growing at two percent. It’s been doing so for nearly 15 years under Democratic and Republican administrations. Coming off a deep recession, real GDP growth is averaging no better than two percent. After 25 quarters of socalled recovery under Obama, it has increased a total of only 14.3 percent. COMPARE THIS to earlier periods. After the JFK tax cuts of the early 1960s, the economy grew in total by roughly 40 percent. After the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s, the economy grew by a total of 34 percent. And here’s the killer: Real middleclass wages are still flat-lining. These folks get nothing out of two percent growth.

As I feared, subpar economic growth $23,000 — about half of what actually never really came up in the Republican happened at 3.5 percent growth. debate in Houston, Texas. Rather than There is a big difference between growth, we got more catfights. It’s time two and 3.5 percent growth. It’s not to get serious. abstract or theoretical. Essentially, the In a recent essay, John H. Cochrane, middle class has not gotten a raise in a senior fellow at the Hoover Institu- 1 5 years. In fact, a new tion, wrote, “Sclereport from Senrotic growth is tier Research finds the overriding that median houseeconomic issue of hold income of our time.” He has $56,700 (adjusted (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate numbers to back for inflation) at this up. the end of 2015 is From 1950 to 2000, the U.S. econo- almost exactly where it was at the end my grew at an average rate of 3.5 per- of 2000. cent. That generated a massive gain in real GDP per person from $16,000 to NOT SURPRISINGLY, the middle over $50,000. A huge win for the mid- class is cranky and angry. And they are dle class. voting for change. Significant change. But as Cochrane noted, if the whole As in throw-the-bums-out change. That post-World War II period had grown at includes presidents, members of Contwo percent, income per person would gress, big-company crony capitalists, have increased from $16,000 to only and corporate welfarists.

Larry

Kudlow

ECONOMY: February 24, 2016

Obama’s idea of optimism “I have never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today.” That is what President Barack Obama said in the letter he sent to Congress with his annual economic report. What is there to be optimistic about as Obama moves through the eighth — and final year — of his presidency? Certainly not the economic future of the United States. As this column mentioned two weeks ago, real GDP grew by less than three percent in each of the 10 years from 2006 through 2015, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. THAT IS A record: Since 1930, the first year for which the BEA has calculated real annual growth in GDP, this was the first time the United States went 10 years without three percent growth. The White House now sees similar economic growth in the immediate future. “Real GDP is expected to grow 2.7 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent during the four quarters of 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively,” says the president’s economic report. “These growth rates exceed the Administration’s estimated rate of potential real GDP growth over the long run of 2.3 percent a year,” says the report. In the last six years of the Reagan administration, according to the BEA, real annual growth in GDP never dropped below 3.5 percent. In 1983, it grew 4.6 percent; in 1984, 7.3 percent; in 1985, 4.2 percent; in

1986, 3.5 percent; in 1987, 3.5 percent; and in 1988, 4.2 percent. In six of Bill Clinton’s eight years in office, it hit 3.8 percent or better. In two of George W. Bush eight years — 2004 and 2005 — it hit 3.8 percent and 3.3 percent. But if Obama’s new economic report is correct, the greatest real annual GDP growth during his presidency will be the 2.7 percent the White House is predicting for this year.

Terry

THE PRESIDENT’S report also cited the declining percentage of Americans participating in the nation’s labor force. Much of this decline, the report noted, can be attributed to the retirement of baby boomers. But not all of it. “The labor force participation rate has fallen largely due to the baby-boom cohorts moving into retirement, but some of the decline represents the continuation of the decades-long downward trend in the participation of prime-age males as well as the decline in participation of prime-age females since 2000,” says the report. The administration’s plan to get more Americans to at least try to find a job — and thus participate in the labor force — features more government programs.

“The Administration has proposed policies to support labor force participation through more flexible workplaces and paid leave, expanded high-quality pre-school, increased subsidies for child care, and a wage insurance system that would encourage reentry into work,” says the report. Subsidized “child care” is presumably designed to get more mothers of young children to enter the labor force. In 1950, according to the BEA, real GDP grew by 8.7 percent. But in January of that year, according to the BLS, the labor force participation rate for American women was only 33.4 percent. At the end of that decade, in 1959, real GDP grew by 6.9 percent. But the labor force participation rate for American women was only 37.0 percent. In 2015, real GDP grew by only 2.4 percent. But in January 2015, the labor force participation rate for American women was 56.8 percent. Even though the labor force participation rate of women has declined since 2000, there was still a larger percentage of American women in the labor force in 2015 than in the 1950s. Yet economic growth is slower. WE NEED to aim for an economy where fewer women in traditional families are forced to work (even when they would rather focus on taking care of their own children) to pay the taxes to support government benefits for people who do not work.

The middle class is saying the system is rigged against them, and they want to change who’s running the system. Much of this gets to the root of the inequality debate. Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want to raise taxes on the rich, saying it will solve inequality. It won’t. All that will do is significantly reduce incentives to work, save and invest. But I say inequality is not the problem. The problem is a lack of growth. Middle-class people who haven’t seen a raise in all these years don’t want to punish success, and they’re not jealous of those who have done well. They just want their piece of the pie. And while the pie itself has stopped growing, the individual slices have gotten smaller. Can you blame them for being angry and desiring radical political change? Nope. Coming out of the caucuses and primaries so far, the economy has been the No. 1 issue. There’s a message there. And the GOP has to address the issue of growth versus inequality. So far they haven’t done it. With the GDP report for the fourth quarter, which ended in December, we know that the inflation-adjusted economy has grown at 1.9 percent over the last year. Business fixed investment — the category that produces good-paying jobs — is growing at 1.6 percent. Low gasoline prices have helped consumer spending rise by 2.6 percent, but even that’s not a wildly optimistic number. The inflation rate, meanwhile, is a measly 1.1 percent. All this tells me nothing has really changed. But we can change this fast. Research has shown that middle-income wage earners would benefit most from a large reduction in corporate tax rates. The corporate tax is not a rich man’s tax. Corporations don’t even pay it. They just pass the tax on in terms of lower wages and benefits, higher consumer prices, and less stockholder value. So, as I’ve written a million times: Slash the corporate tax rate to 15 percent for large C-corps and small S-corps; go to immediate tax deductions for new investment; and make it easy for firms to repatriate their overseas earnings. This would be the single-most stimulating program for reigniting economic growth. Principally, it’s a middle-class tax cut. If you combine that with regulatory rollbacks and a stable dollar, within less than a year the U.S. economy can break out of its doldrums. TO ALL THE GOP candidates: Please send this message. To my Democratic friends: Why not revive the legacy of the JFK tax cuts? It would be a whole lot better than punishing success.

Conservative Chronicle

GOP CONTENDERS: February 26, 2016

Trump’s rivals must make the case for themselves

oes Donald Trump’s big win in the Nevada caucuses mean he’s the inevitable Republican nominee? He has made himself the favorite and could sew up the nomination with the first winnertake-all primaries March 15. But it’s not inevitable that he will become the nominee. The question is how others can prevent it. Trump won 46 percent in Nevada; Marco Rubio won 24 percent, and Ted Cruz won 21 percent. That’s in line with polling, which showed Nevada to be one of the best Trump states.

IN FEBRUARY polls in the nine states with March 1 primaries he gets less, between 23 and 34 percent. And his final percentages have tended to be a bit under his poll numbers. So he could lose even in three-candidate contests. But each of the three challengers faces serious challenges, including a home-state primary in the next three weeks: Ted Cruz in Texas on March 1; Marco Rubio in Florida on March 15 and John Kasich in Ohio, also on March 15. Could we see a Cruz revival? Ted Cruz lost very conservative voters to Trump in Nevada and evangelicals there and in South Carolina. He ran just one point ahead of Rubio among evangelicals in Nevada and five points in South Carolina. These are groups he hoped would help him win, as in Iowa. But he won’t win March 1 Super Tuesday Southern primaries without improving on those numbers. His best opportunity is in his home state, Texas. But he’s won only one election there, in 2012, and since then has focused on national politicking rather than getting better acquainted with his 27 million constituents. February polling has him just a few points over Trump and, in one poll, leading Rubio by only four percent. He looks likely to fall short of the 50 percent that would give him all of Texas’s 155 delegates. Absent a big victory in Texas, Cruz’s prospects look grim. His percentages so far among non-evangelicals — a larger share of primary voters after March 1 — are 19, 8, 13 and 18. Enough for third place finishes, not more. What about a Rubio surge? In Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, Marco Rubio has demonstrated an affirmative appeal to high-income and college-educated voters — the groups that gave Mitt Romney the nomination in 2012. That makes him competitive in Virginia and Georgia March 1. But he needs most of all to win Florida’s winner-take-all primary, with 99 delegates, March 15. Like Cruz, he’s won just one election there, in 2010, and has concentrated on national issues

since, not in close touch with his 20 ability and the national polls, which show him running better than Trump million constituents. Rubio can certainly improve on his or Cruz against Hillary Clinton or Berweak showings in Florida polls, none nie Sanders. One bit of good news for taken after Jan. 21, which show 18 per- him out of Nevada: 25 percent of voters cent for candidates who have left the there picked “can win in November” reason for their vote, race, including ex-Gov. Jeb Bush. Af- as the about double the fluent, high-edupercentage in New cation voters powHampshire and ered Mitt Romney South Carolina. to a 46 percent win Look for him to in the high-turnout (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate talk a lot about 2012 primary. electability. Is there a Kasich opening? In New BUT RUBIO seems determined not to rely, as Romney did, on negative Hampshire John Kasich found a concampaigning against his chief oppo- stituency big enough for a 16 percent nent. “I don’t have any voters begging second place. Can he find another? Not me to attack anyone,” he said the morn- in Massachusetts or Vermont March 1, ing after Nevada. “I’m not in this race the polls of the few registered Republicans suggest. Not in Michigan March 8 to attack any Republican.” Instead, he’s likely to stress elect- unless he leaps ahead of his poll num-

Michael

Barone

bers there. And maybe not in his home state of Ohio, with its winner-take-all primary for 66 delegates March 15. The one 2016 poll there shows him trailing Trump by five points. An MSNBC poll shows about half of Kasich voters’ second choices were Rubio and the now-exited Bush. Does Kasich keep on plugging away for three weeks to get home? Or does he quit and (probably) help Rubio? WILL SUPER PACs come to the rescue? Big donors, whose $100 million super PAC didn’t help Jeb Bush, don’t seem interested in deconstructing Donald Trump. Attacking him for political incorrectness and violations of conservative orthodoxy just seems to bolster his appeal. That leaves his remaining rivals to make the case for themselves.

LESLIE’S TRIVIA BITS: February 29, 2016

Leslie’s Trivia Bits

n the 16th century, it was fashionable for women to whiten their skin using a compound of white lead known as Venetian ceruse. Made from the white residue produced by soaking metallic white lead in vinegar, the white pigment was also used by painters. The problem was, white lead is toxic and it poisoned a lot of women, quite possibly including Queen Elizabeth I of England, whose face was usually caked with the stuff.

When he was a boy, John Lennon was reprimanded regularly for chewing gum in school. Eventually he finished with school, but not with gum. Watch videos of his performances with the Beatles and you’ll spot him chewing between verses of a song. The most obvious instance is the 1967 BBC broadcast of “All You Need is Love,” but there are others. In some early Beatles footage, you’ll catch Ringo Starr playing the drums and chewing, too. South Africa has 11 official languages. They are, in descending order by number of native speakers, isiZulu (spoken by more than 20 percent of the population), isiXhosa, Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, SiSwati and isiNdebele. You never know when this bit of ulwazi, ukwazisa, inligting ... information will come in handy. Only a fraction of the milk used to make cheese winds up in a finished wedge. The rest — as much as 90 percent — becomes a liquid byproduct called whey. Dumping that whey into rivers and lakes would throw off their natural chemical balance. So savvy

cheese makers in Canada, France, the U.K. and the U.S. feed it into mechanical “digesters” that convert whey into methane biogas used to power the cheese-making facilities themselves and sometimes the villages where they’re located. Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia supposedly was thwarted by the bitter cold Russian winter, which turned the tin buttons on his soldiers’ uniforms to dust. Chemistry teachers love that story, because nothing illustrates an element undergoing physical change quite like the image of freezing soldiers with their pants falling down. Tin darkens and turns powdery

Leslie

at low temperatures. Whether that fact contributed to Napoleon marching in with 600,000 men and retreating with only about 30,000 left alive is unlikely. ITALIC TYPE got its name because it originated in Italy, developed by Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius and type designer Francesco Griffo. Its first use was in 1500 for publication of the Epistole Devotissime of St. Catherine of Siena. The Morgan Library in New York City and the libraries at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas have copies of that 16th-century original in their rare book collections.

TRIVIA 1. White Diamonds is a fragrance created for which screen legend? A) Ava Gardner B) Marilyn Monroe C) Elizabeth Taylor D) Natalie Wood 2. The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” opens with a passage from which national anthem? A) “God Save the Queen” B) “Hail to Thee, Nicaragua” C) “La Marseillaise” D) “The Star-Spangled Banner” 3. Which is the largest country in Africa by population? A) Egypt B) Ethiopia C) Nigeria D) South Africa 4. Which variety of cheese accounts for the biggest percentage of total production by U.S. cheese makers? A) Cheddar B) Cream Cheese C) Mozzarella D) Swiss 5. Traditionally, a tin roof sundae is made with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce and what other ingredient? A) Butterscotch B) Chocolate chips C) Peppermint sticks D) Salted peanuts 6. Helvetica typeface takes its name from the Latin name of what country? A) Greece B) Hungary C) India D) Switzerland (answers on page 19)

March 9, 2016 DONALD TRUMP: March 1, 2016

Exploring Trumpism — a dialogue

ust what is the Trump movement ally done it, not just talked about it. And all about? I’ve tried to get to the Trump has financially propped up the bottom of it by conversing with very people you want to hire him to devarious Donald Trump supporters on stroy. So why won’t you trust Cruz more than Trump?” Twitter. TS: “We already told you. Cruz is a I have found that most outside the and they are all corrupt. movement are having great difficulty un- politician In fact, we’d lose our derstanding it. It’s integrity if we even like nothing we’ve considered supportseen — at least ing him. Even your on the Republican so-called conserside of the political (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate vatives have bespectrum. trayed us by rollOne perplexed person asked me, “Does it shock you ing over for Obama’s agenda.” Me: “But not Cruz. He fought the esthat with all the detrimental information on Trump he is still leading in practical- tablishment and they hate him for it.” TS: “Phooey. He’s an insider. Plus, ly every poll?” My answer: “It doesn’t immigration.” shock me so much as disappoint me.” Me: “But wait, Cruz has been on the LET ME EXPLORE the Trump front lines fighting immigration, and, phenomenon in the form of a dialogue along with a mere handful of others, between a hypothetical Trump supporter prevented the Gang of Eight bill from (TS) and myself. One or two of the re- becoming law. He did not steal this idea sponses are from actual Trump support- from Trump. He was defending our sovers, but most are my own words, and I ereignty at the very time Trump was hope they’re not offensive to those sup- funding those undermining it.” TS: “Cruz is a Canadian. He and his porters. Me: “I’m troubled, because one would wife are globalists. Goldman Sachs. think that Republicans would abandon NAFTA. GATT. CFR. Trilateralists.” Me: “Why would you assign more a presidential candidate who has conducted himself as Trump has during this weight to conspiracy theories than one’s actual track record of fighting illegal imcampaign.” TS: “You aren’t hearing us. We don’t migration?” TS: “Cruz is an establishment liar.” care about political correctness, his manMe: “Oh, boy. Well, I get that Trump ners or your sensitivities. We only care supporters are furious at the establishthat he will get things done. Wuss!” Me: “But what about his questionable ment, but I wonder if a certain percentage of them are just angry in general and allegiance to conservatism?” TS: “You’re still not listening. We are hopping aboard the movement because not interested in your fancy ideological of their discontentment. There seems to terms. It’s all talk. We want action from be an element of undefined rage involved an outsider with experience and accom- that accompanies the specific rage over immigration. Is this movement even coplishments. Action, action, action.” Me: “But what about Ted Cruz? He’s hesive?” admittedly an elected official, but he is ACTUAL TRUMP Supporter (ATS): still an outsider at heart who’s shown “The movement isn’t yet cohesive, but he’ll fight the establishment. He’s actu-

David

Limbaugh

there is a powerful element of rage over the largest invasion in human history.” Me: “This brings us back to where we began. If this movement isn’t yet cohesive why are its members so enamored with Trump? Why is it their man, right or wrong? Wait, before you answer, I think I’ve finally had an epiphany. This movement is not just a matter of a cultish following of Donald Trump as many suspect, is it? People were already outraged and Trump just came along, seized the moment and turned it into a wave.” ATS: “Trump isn’t the leader. He’s merely riding the tiger. If he plays us like the Republicans have for 30 years, he’s toast.” Me: “Now we’re really on to something. So is this why the supporters are not worried about his alleged dishonesty, his vagueness and vacillation on policy and even his stated willingness to work with insiders?” TS: “That’s right; Trump is very popular among us because he is fearless. He’s always on offense, unlike the GOP wimps. But Trump is mainly our vehicle — a darn good and effective vehicle to be sure, but a vehicle. He’s not indispensable. He can always be replaced. This movement is bigger than him. It’s about America. Trump, for now, is Captain America, but we the people are America. The sovereignty resides in us. Cruz is a liar. Amnesty Rubio sweats like a pig.” Me: “Speaking of sovereignty, nationalism is the driving force uniting your burgeoning movement, correct?” TS: “Indeed. As you’ve suspected, we aren’t that concerned, for now, about other issues or the claim that Trump will not satisfy us on those. In fact, we are not necessarily united on those anyway. It’s about this nation. We are nationalists. America and Americans first. We must control our borders. That is the key to addressing a number of existential threats facing this nation, and we can worry about the rest of our problems, major and minor, later, once we’ve returned to the

path of securing our borders and saving the nation. When we build the wall and deport millions, we will ensure that all of America doesn’t turn into California; we’ll better insulate ourselves against Islamist invaders; and we’ll help protect our workers from cheap illegal immigrant labor. Another aspect of our sovereignty is that Trump, as the consummate negotiator, will undo the unbalanced trade deals harming our workers. And he’ll rebuild the military to protect us against foreign threats. Don’t forget. He’s a businessman. And Rubio might just be a bigger liar than Cruz.” ME: “I THINK I understand your concerns, but I ask you again to take a second look at Ted Cruz, for he is not only a safer bet to secure our borders, and restore economic growth, which will enable us to rebuild our military; he is the one person who has shown that, notwithstanding the conspiracy theories, he cannot be bought and he can always be relied on to do those things he promises. There is no reason to take a risk on the volatile Trump, who, in the process of implementing your desired solutions, may expand federal power and implement leftist policies. He’s been liberal more than conservative throughout his life, and we have no evidence of any dramatic conversion. As suspicious as you all are, you should be very suspicious here. You might think you’ll be in charge, but that’s not a realistic expectation. Finally, we must never omit liberty from the equation. Ted Cruz will do most of the things you want done, but he’ll unquestionably honor the Constitution and rule of law, which Trump rarely mentions, reduce government and safeguard that which has always made America unique: her liberty. Please give it just a little more thought and consider this. I do believe Ted Cruz shares your concerns about the establishment and understands the condescension of the ruling class. He’s dealt with it firsthand. He’ll be your reliable advocate.”

March 9, 2016

The spectacle of bread and circuses, 2016-style Witness the methods deemed necesA little thought exercise here. Imagine: Dwight Eisenhower, in sary to derail his presidential express, 1956, wants to push from view Adlai such as the above-cited philosophical Stevenson’s prospects for reclaiming disquisition — which was actually the White House for the Democratic made by none other than Marco RuParty. Ike darkens his brow and comes bio, a theoretically serious contender forth: “He called me ‘Mr. Meltdown.’ for the White House. A Rubio adviser makes a reasonable Let me tell you something, last night during the debate, he went backstage, — under the circumstances — point. and he was having a meltdown. First, “We came to the conclusion that if bepart of the circus is he had this little makeup thing applying a the price you have ing, like, makeup to pay in order for around his musus to ultimately be tache, because he able to talk about had one of those substantive polsweat mustaches. (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate icy, then that’s Then he asked for what we’re going a full-length mirror ... maybe to make sure his pants to do.” Thus Rubio’s offering the fulllength mirror image. This explanation weren’t wet.” Can we envision it? Or do we lower assumes that, once the clown acts have our chins, muttering, “Dignity, dignity, cleared out, the big top crowd will be where’d you go in the last half centu- ready for some serious talk about capital gains taxes and Afghanistan withry?” drawal dates. I kind of doubt that will happen. NEVER MIND. The finesse and decorum you would expect in discus- The circus image has a haunting qualsions of how to preserve human free- ity. Panem et circenses — bread and doms were last seen squashed on the circuses — were what the Roman popstreet by a television truck covering ulace came to crave for the entertainthe Trump campaign. A few of us old- ment and release they provided. The point of politics isn’t the show. timers shake our heads sadly. I’m not sure how many others do. Ridicule The point of politics is supposed to be and insult are the currency of political the creation of conditions that, in the discourse in our time. Witness Trump. American context, if not necessarily

William

Murchison

everyone else’s, make for peace, free- fans want to hear for the sake of heardom and something resembling popu- ing them. These are “truths” such as: lar contentment. Wall off those Mexicans! This is politics more as pandering and entertainIT WOULD BE peachy keen to ment than as propositional governing. nail Donald Trump as the origina- No one with an IQ over 42.5 believes tor and ringmaster of the revels into such a wall will ever be built, far less whose service he presses would-be that Mexico will “pay” for it. Oh, but it serious candidates such as Rubio. His sounds so good! Tarzan-like chest thumping gives him The root of the Trump problem isn’t credibility he would lack otherwise Trump, nevertheless. It’s the popular as teller of “truths,” which his biggest habit, cultivated over the past three quarters of a century, of turning every great question into a political question: morality, opportunity, achievement, social stability, you name it. Not even freedom used to be so politicized as now. Freedom, by the reckoning of Westerners, is a divine blessing meant for thoughtful exercise and conservation: not at all a prize to be carved up and distributed at election time according to some White House or congressional formula. Politicians’ propensity to gain power through voter temptation is the doorway to the Age of Trump: the age of despair over government’s ability to get anything right without getting more things wrong. THERE USED to be some dignity in the political profession, whose basic purpose was to give Americans scope for fulfillment according to agreedupon rules of conduct. As we no longer agree on anything — thanks to our varied cravings for government goodies — politics in the 21st century is a scramble without dignity, lacking serious purpose, lacking the means of harmonizing human relationships. We might all do with a look at ourselves in any full-length mirrors Donald Trump can spare. March 1, 2016

This Week’s Conservative Focus

Donald Trump

The albatross of a Trump endorsement

onald Trump’s distinctive rhetorical style — think of a drunk with a bullhorn reading aloud James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake under water — poses an almost insuperable challenge to people whose painful duty is to try to extract clarity from his effusions. For example, last week, during a long stream of semi-consciousness in Fort Worth, this man who as president would nominate members of the federal judiciary vowed to “open up” libel laws to make it easier to sue — to intimidate and punish — people who write “negative” things. Well. TRUMP, THE thin-skinned tough guy, resembles a campus crybaby who has wandered out of his “safe space.” It is not news that he has neither respect

for nor knowledge of the Constitu- government of the United States, or tion, and he probably is unaware that either House of Congress, or the Presihe would have to “open up” many Su- dent, with intent to defame, or bring preme Court First Amendment rulings either into contempt or disrepute, or to in order to achieve his aim. His obvi- e x c i t e against either the haous aim is to chill tred of the people.” free speech, for Now, 215 years afthe comfort of the ter the Sedition Act political class, of expired in 1801, which he is now a Trump vows to (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group gaudy ornament. use litigiousness But at least Trump has, at last, found to improve the accuracy and decorousone thing to admire from the era of ness of public discourse. America’s Founding. Unfortunately, but predictably, it is one of the worst THE NIGHT before his promise things done then — the Sedition Act of to make America great again through 1798. The act made it a crime to “write, censorship, Trump, during the Housprint, utter or publish, or cause it to be ton debate, said that his sister, a federal done, or assist in it, any false, scandal- judge, “[signed] a certain bill” and that ous, and malicious writing against the [Supreme Court] Justice Samuel Alito

George

Will

Last chance for America?

he “Super Tuesday” primaries may be a turning point for America — and quite possibly a turn for the worse. After seven long years of domestic disasters and increasing international dangers, the next President of the United States will need extraordinary wisdom, maturity, depth of knowledge and personal character to rescue America. Instead, if the polls are an indication, what we may get is someone with the opposite of all these things, a glib egomaniac with a checkered record in business and no track record at all in government — Donald Trump.

IF SO, the downward trajectory of America over the past seven years may well continue on into the future, to the point of no return. Democrat Susan Estrich says that it is “fun” watching Donald Trump. She may be able to enjoy the spectacle because Trump is Hillary Clinton’s best chance of winning the general election in November. Even if the FBI’s investigation leads them to recommend an indictment, the Obama administration is not likely to indict Hillary. No doubt “The Donald” is entertaining, and he has ridden a wave of Republican voter anger against the Republican establishment, which has repeatedly betrayed them, especially on illegal immigration. But these political problems are a sideshow, in a world where Iran is guaranteed to get nuclear weapons and North Korea, which already has them, is developing long-range missiles that can reach American cities. Iran is also developing long-range missiles. Then there are the international ter-

rorist organizations from the Middle East — many sponsored by Iran — whose agents have had easy access to the United States across our open border with Mexico. We will need the cooperation of nations around the world to keep us informed of these terrorist organizations’ activities, and to help disrupt the international money flows to terrorists. Those nations know that helping the United States makes them targets of terrorism. So they have to weigh how much they can rely on America, before they risk their own national survival by cooperating with us against the terrorists.

Thomas

Is Donald Trump someone who would inspire such confidence among leaders of other countries? Already Trump’s irresponsible rhetoric has caused a backlash in Mexico and there has also been an attempt in Britain to ban him from setting foot on British soil. WE NEED all the allies we can get, from countries around the world, including Muslim allies in the Middle East. The last thing we can afford, at this crucial juncture in history is a president who alienates allies we have to have in a war against international terrorists. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump’s theatrical talents, including his bluster and bombast, may be enough to conceal his shallow understanding of very deep problems. But that will not cut it in the White House, where you

cannot clown or con your way out of problems, and where the stakes are matters of life and death. Trump’s acting like a bull in a china shop may appeal to some voters but, in the world as it is, he may well cost us our last chance to recover from the great dangers into which the Obama administration has gotten this nation. We already have an ego-driven, know-it-all president who will not listen to military or intelligence agency experts. Do we need to tempt fate by having two in a row? Despite Donald Trump’s string of primary vote victories, he has not yet gotten a majority of the Republican votes anywhere. But although most Republican votes are being cast against him, the scattering of that vote among so many other candidates leaves Trump with a good chance to get the nomination. Everyone understands that the best chance for stopping Trump is for that fractured majority vote to consolidate behind one candidate opposed to him. But who will step aside for the good of the country? When we think of American military heroes who have fallen on enemy hand grenades to save those around them, at the cost of their own lives, is it really too much to ask candidates — especially those who present themselves as patriots — to give up their one political chance in a zillion this year for the sake of the country?

also “signed that bill.” So, the leading Republican candidate, the breadth of whose ignorance is the eighth wonder of the world, actually thinks that judges “sign bills.” Trump is a presidential aspirant who would flunk an eighth-grade civics exam. More than anything Marco Rubio said about Trump in Houston, it was Rubio’s laughter at Trump that galled the perhaps bogus billionaire. Like all bullies, Trump is a coward, and like all those who feel the need to boast about being strong and tough, he is neither. Unfortunately, Rubio recognized reality and found his voice 254 days after Trump’s scabrous announcement of his candidacy to rescue America from Mexican rapists. And 222 days after Trump disparaged John McCain’s war service (“I like people that weren’t captured”). And 95 days after Trump said that maybe a protestor at his rally “should have been roughed up.” And 95 days after Trump re-tweeted that 81 percent of white murder victims are killed by blacks. (Eighty-two percent are killed by whites.) And 94 days after Trump said he supports torture “even if it doesn’t work.” And 79 days after Trump said he might have approved the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. And 72 days after Trump proved that he does not know the nuclear triad from the Nutcracker ballet. And 70 days after Trump, having been praised by Vladimir Putin, reciprocated by praising the Russian murderer and dictator. And so on. Rubio’s epiphany — announcing the obvious with a sense of triumphant discovery — about Trump being a “con man” and a “clown act” is better eight months late than never. If, however, it is too late to rescue Rubio from a Trump nomination, this will be condign punishment for him and the rest of the Republican Party’s coalition of the timid. “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,/In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.” So begins James Russell Lowell’s 1845 poem protesting America’s war with Mexico. The Republicans’ moment is here.

WE ARE ABOUT to learn much about Republican officeholders who are now deciding whether to come to terms with Trump, and with the shattering of their party as a vessel of conservatism. Trump’s collaborators, like the remarkably plastic Chris Christie (“I don’t think [Trump’s] temperament is suited for [the presidency]”), will find that nothVOTERS HAVE a responsibility ing will redeem the reputations they will too. They might well ask themselves: Do ruin by placing their opportunism in the I plan to use my vote to vent my emo- service of his demagogic cynicism and tions or to try to help save this country? anti-constitutional authoritarianism. February 29, 2016

February 29, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: February 24, 2016

Money can no longer buy U.S. elections Why haven’t we seen that headline yet the world to spend,” consider this: He has barely spent any yet. While Bush in 2016? It’s a pretty big story, don’t you think? was spending $30-plus million in New It’s been a strange and wild presiden- Hampshire and another $30-plus million tial primary campaign season in both par- in South Carolina, the Trump campaign only about $1 million ties. But the biggest story hasn’t yet been s p e n t in each of those races. reported — that It’s amazing remoney doesn’t buy ally. votes any more. And with that For example, the small level of Jeb Bush campaign (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate spending, Trump spent over $30 million in the South Carolina primary. For has dominated the election news cycle that, he couldn’t break 10 percent of the every day since he entered the race. If anything, voters have rejected the vote. He’d spent a similar amount in New Hampshire with similar results. Realizing ads and cast ballots on what they’re feelit’s not a matter of how much the cam- ing in their gut. paign spends, he bowed out of the race SOMETHING NEW is truly haplast weekend. pening here. I know the news cycle has reported IT WAS ONLY about six months ago the know-it-alls in the Republican Party everything I’ve told you here, but they were telling me this was Jeb Bush’s year. haven’t written the headline yet: Money can no longer buy elections. No one else had a chance. Now let’s turn to the other party. Hillary Clinton was also supposed to be MEDIA BIAS: March 2, 2016 Miss Inevitability. Why? She had all the money. Just as the 2008 campaign was to end in her coronation, so was the 2016 primary. But along came Bernie Sanders. Apparently, no one told him his candidacy or many years now, the liberal was just for show purposes. He actually media have lamented that our put together a grass-roots organization democracy is badly comprofunded by grass-roots donors. The results mised by a rapacious band of billionhave shocked the Democratic Party es- aires manipulating government policy tablishment as much as Donald Trump and elections and frustrating the will and Ted Cruz have traumatized the Re- of the people. Just four years ago, the publican National Committee. networks became a megaphone for the For the two party establishments, 2016 Occupy Wall Street argument that the has been a double whammy. “99 percent” were tired of being domiThe rules have been rewritten. nated by the “one percent.” Conventional wisdom has been confounded. SO WHEN Donald Trump, AmerThe political sages have been discom- ica’s best-known brand name for rabobulated. pacious billionaire, decided to run for Even the media have been perplexed, president, one might have expected thunderstruck, astonished. these Occupier sympathizers would It’s a whole new ballgame. Comparing clearly wonder if his entire campaign this election season with those of the past was a grand conspiracy by the somay be a waste of time. What’s happen- called “ruling class.” ing is historic. What we’ve seen is entirely the opAnd it’s not just a matter of personali- posite. ties. These supposed opponents of “Big Of course Donald Trump shook things Money” dominating our democracy up in a way no one could have foreseen. have spent month after month giving But does anyone really believe that it’s the lion’s share of their political coverBernie Sanders’ personality that has age to the billionaire reality TV host. thrown the Democratic primaries into Through Feb. 25, Trump’s presidential chaos and confusion? campaign has received 923 minutes of What’s happening this year is truly the coverage on the ABC, CBS and NBC result of a spontaneous voter revolt. evening newscasts, nearly five times Faced with the possibility of a Bush- given to Ted Cruz (205 minutes) and Clinton rematch in 2016, Republicans seven times the amount of coverage and Democrats have both expressed a provided to Marco Rubio (139 minshocking amount of anger, exasperation utes). and rejection. The tone of Trump coverage is rouThe money couldn’t overcome the tinely negative. But it still plays into passion. Trump’s strategy of saying outrageous And just so you don’t tell me, “But things to starve the other candidates Donald Trump has all the money in of any oxygen from the establishment

Joseph

Farah

You would think this would be good news. You would think this would be shocking news. It’s even more unbelievable when you consider Sanders is running a one-notejohnny campaign vilifying how money is corrupting politics in America. Yet, the success of his campaign is evidence to the contrary. Now Sanders may not win. But it won’t be because he didn’t raise enough money. He is raising far more than Hill-

ary. He probably won’t win because the Democratic Party’s corrupt rules and its establishment pre-determined the winner. That’s the only way Hillary wins — that and her uncanny ability to avoid indictment. In 2016, there’s almost an inverse correlation between campaign spending and votes cast. THAT MAY not carry over the general election, but you have to admit, this is a big, amazing and as-yet unheralded story.

The media hypocrisy about Trump

press. The billionaire pledged to selffund his campaign but has spent little. It’s being fueled almost entirely by free TV airtime. But there’s one thing Trump doesn’t want covered, and again the networks are complying. In that overflowing tank of news hours, only a small amount (14 minutes, or 1.5 percent of Trump’s total) were spent talking about Trump’s past record of support for liberal positions and liberal

Brent

politicians. Put that number in this perspective: Twice as much time was devoted to Trump’s negative comments about Fox News host Megyn Kelly. Almost an hour was dedicated to Trump’s proposed (temporary) ban on Muslim immigration. UNTIL HE decided to run for the GOP nomination last year, Trump was no one’s idea of a Republican contender, in philosophy, actions or even party label. He called himself a Democrat. He donated large amounts to liberal Democrats, from Sen. Chuck Schumer to the Clintons. He championed Planned Parenthood, tax increases and single-payer socialist health care. He seemed to take all the stomachchurning negatives about Mitt Romney in 2012 — the elitist background and

the past liberal record — and multiply them exponentially. But now, surprising everyone from liberal journalists to conservative stalwarts, he’s seen as the best bet to clinch the Republican nomination. This is hardly unhappy news to liberals at the moment. The latest CNN poll shows Trump losing to Hillary Clinton by eight points and to Bernie Sanders by 12. Trump’s unfavorable numbers hover around 60 percent of the electorate. If that number doesn’t improve, he’s unelectable, period. Naturally, the media refuse to accept blame for the current state of the race. NBC political director Chuck Todd wouldn’t accept the reality that the media “enabled his rise.” He argued instead “the media has also provided all the material that normally a campaign would want to put together an attack against Trump.” So blame the other GOP candidates, not the media. It used to be said that when the GOP field is winnowed from 17 to about six, Trump would no longer dominate. Wrong. On the night before Super Tuesday voting, the networks obsessed over Trump with more than 15 minutes of coverage, compared to just two for Rubio and less than a minute for Cruz. THE ACCUSATION should be made. The liberal media want this vulnerable, blabby billionaire with the high unfavorable numbers to be the Republican nominee.

March 9, 2016 DEAR MARK: February 26, 2016

Closing Gitmo, Hillary rights, Bernie singles DEAR MARK: The president presented his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba. He went on about how Gitmo is a stain on the reputation of the United States and how there’s bipartisan support to close it. Why is President Obama so determined to close Gitmo? — Book Em Dan-O Dear Book Em: President Obama suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome and feels that closing Guantanamo Bay will help cure him along with the other liberals who suffer as well. As far as plans go, this joke contains fewer details than a Trump policy paper. The president boasted that the reason it took him seven years to present a plan was that he initially had bipartisan support and “we wanted to make sure that we did it right.” Basically the president’s plan is as follows: One, close Guantanamo Bay. Two, put the prisoners someplace else. That took seven years? The president blathered on about the public being fed “misinformation.” The only misinformation comes directly from the mouth of Barack Obama. There is not a shred of evidence that Guantanamo Bay is the number one recruiting tool for terrorists. Now I realize that today marketing firms can tell you what you eat, what you drive, where you shop and what you like to watch but I doubt seriously there is a single survey asking ISIS members why they actually joined ISIS. As far as bipartisan support goes Barack Obama appears to be guilty of feeding citizens more misinformation. It was just this past November that the Senate voted 91 to 3 to ban Gitmo detainees from being transferred to the United

States. Forgive my ignorance of civics but I don’t believe there are 91 Republicans in the senate so there must have been more than a few Democrats voting against housing detainees in the United States. The president also regurgitated his same old tired line “Moreover, keeping this facility open is contrary to our values.” If this line sounds familiar it’s because President Obama used it

Mark

in his justification for same-sex marriage and Obamacare. Guantanamo Bay is hardly contrary to American values. We see the bad guy, we capture the bad guy, and we incarcerate the bad guy. We also water-board the bad guy a time or two for good measure. Speaking of values, let’s don’t forget that President Obama’s values include blowing up enemy combatants with drones while failing to mention civilian casualties. So please spare us the selfrighteous lectures Mr. President. DEAR MARK: Hillary, who is supposed to be the smartest woman in the world, got the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence mixed up when she was raging against guns on the Steve Harvey Show. Between her lies, her FBI investigation, and her crazy economic policies, this is another reason we can’t let her win. How does someone this ignorant get this close to the presidency? — Can’t Believe This in Minnesota

Dear Can’t: It’s simple, Hillary has campaigned that she would be President Obama’s third term so she’s quite adept at making the same kind of ridiculous statements as her former boss. Here’s her quote: “We’ve got to say to the gun lobby, you know what, there is a constitutional right for people to own guns, but there’s also a constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that enables us to have a safe country where we are able to protect our children and others from senseless gun violence.” In her liberal skull Mrs. Bill Clinton didn’t misspeak. The constitution describes how our government operates and liberals believe rights come from the government. Whereas conservatives understand the truth that our unalienable rights come from our Creator which is contained in the Declaration of Independence.

DEAR MARK: I saw on Fox and Friends that there’s actually a Bernie Sanders dating website so that people who support his presidency can hook up. Can you imagine anything more ridiculous? — Happily Married Dear Happily: I can only imagine what the typical posts would look like. Single unmotivated white privileged male with English Lit degree and huge college debt seeks similarly unmotivated non-gender specific person to share a lifetime of government entitlements. E-mail your questions to marklevy92@aol.com. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkPLevy

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

TRIVIA ANSWERS T rivia B I T S

ANSWERS 1) White Diamonds is a fragrance created for Elizabeth Taylor. 2) The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” opens with a passage from “La Marseillaise,” the national anthem of France. 3) Nigeria is the largest country by population in Africa, and the seventh-largest in the world. 4) U.S. cheese makers produce more mozzarella than any other cheese variety, according to the USDA. Hooray pizza! 5) A classic tin roof sundae contains lightly salted peanuts. 6) Helvetica is the Latin name for Switzerland.

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Conservative Chronicle

GOP CONTENDERS: February 24, 2016

Frontal assault — the sense to change tactics

oes the Republican field have list them, do I?) have not hurt him. The the sense to change tactics more he vomits venom, the more free when the very nature of the press he gets. While Cruz keeps impotently pounding Rubio as insufficiently party and country are at stake? Ted Cruz, who bears some responsi- harsh on immigration, Trump — a corbility for the rise of Trump, keeps aim- rupt Democrat promising trade wars, ing his Jimmy Swaggart-style pitch to universal health care and war crimes is winning. the choir, unctuously proclaiming his — If ever there status as truest, were a moment bluest conservafor a Republican tive in the race, establishment — a and as such the powerful cabal logical tribune of (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate of donors, ofthe grass roots. Cruz encouraged them to destroy the ficeholders and power brokers — to “Washington cartel” and boy did they intervene, this would be it. Because if listen — except not to his benefit. Irony: Trump is the Republican nominee, it The greatest crony/corporate Democrat spells the end of the party as a conserin America is alive and Ted Cruz’s cam- vative vehicle. It will be transformed into a contemptible platform for the paign is nearly dead. worst excesses of American life: using JOHN KASICH and Ben Carson government for personal gain, bullying are deaf to everything except their own minority groups, undermining civil liberties and enhancing centralized power egotism. Unlike Cruz, Marco Rubio didn’t even more than has been accomplished spend months praising the semi-fascist under Barack Obama. Deluded voters joker in hopes that the “anti-establish- who imagine they are getting the antiment” vote would one day drop into his Obama by voting for Trump are in for lap, but he didn’t attack him frontally the biggest disillusionment yet. But, of course, the “Republican eseither. He hopes that clearing the field of competitors will permit him to defeat tablishment” is not going to ride to Trump one-on-one because a majority the rescue, because it is itself mostly a of Republicans have voted not-Trump. shell. Money doesn’t buy elections (see But campaigns are dynamic. A winner “Bush, Jeb”), and there is no one behind attracts many opportunists, and Trump the curtain. I believe Rubio to be the most viable is on the verge of seeming unstoppable. Those hoping that Trump will say non-Trump candidate left. But above or do something to disqualify himself all, he and the others (who have plenty have surely seen by now that we are in of money) must abandon the strategy a new world. His gaffes (I don’t need to of fratricide. The winner cannot rely on

Mona

Charen

anti-Trump votes alone. He must undermine support for Trump. “Can’t be done?” How about “hasn’t been tried?” Of the $215 million spent so far by super PACs this year, only four percent has been spent against Trump. It’s been the longest free ride in recent political history. TRUMP IS not strong; he’s frighteningly weak. He arguably suffers from narcissistic personality disorder — meaning his wobbly self-esteem needs constant, mantra-like invocations of his own fabulousness and endless affirmation from others. He goes ballistic when suffering even the smallest slight. He’s an ignoramus. Ads should remind vot-

ers, for example, that he doesn’t know what the nuclear triad is. His whole foreign policy experience is being on a TV show with Vladimir Putin, who he praises because his pathetic need for approval utterly distorts his judgment. Putin said something nice about Trump, and Trump praised him in return. What’s a few murders between amigos? He is completely immoral, recommending torture and the killing of wives and children of suspected terrorists. Trump is a Clinton-class liar. Split screens ought to clarify that. He didn’t oppose the Iraq War. He was for it. He’s not self-funding his campaign. He’s collected millions in contributions. He evaded the draft and then offered that sleeping around and risking STDs was his “personal Vietnam.” He’s beyond vulgar. He complained publicly about his first wife’s breast implants. Nearly nude pictures of wife No. 3 are everywhere. Unlike, say, Mitt Romney, who Democrats effectively caricatured as a cruel business tycoon, Trump really is one. He has a history of paying off elected officials to get special treatment, stiffing business associates and abusing those who work for him (such as the “Polish brigade” of illegal immigrants who helped build Trump tower). He ran four businesses into bankruptcy and profited from a scam called Trump University that defrauded credulous people. He’s not a self-made man who “built a great company.” He inherited millions from his dad. That said, he’s almost certainly vastly exaggerating his net worth. Where are those tax returns? He donated more to the Clinton Foundation than to veterans’ charities. And how much of the money he collected for veterans at the Iowa stunt has been distributed? THAT’S A start, gentlemen. There’s plenty more. The con man must be unmasked.

March 9, 2016 REPUBLICAN PARTY: March 1, 2016

Is a new Republican Party being born?

he first four Republican con- Republicans to threaten to bolt, go third Ronald Reagan’s in 1976, when the tests — Iowa, N.H., S.C. and party, stay home, or even vote for Clin- Ford-Rockefeller-Kissinger administraNev. — produced record turn- ton. tion moved too far toward detente. They would prefer to lose to Clinton outs. If Trump ran and lost, the conservative While the prospect of routing Hillary than win with Trump. movement would have President Clinton A conservative friend told this writer to unite and rally the troops against. Clinton and recapturing the White House brought out the true believers, it was that Trump, unlike, say, Ted Cruz, has One recalls Barry Goldwater’s historDonald Trump’s name on the ballot and never shown an interest in the Supreme ic wipeout in 1964. But, in his calls for economic patriotism, border Court, which, with 1966, Republicans security, and an end to imperial wars that Justice Antonin made the greatest Scalia’s seat vabrought out the throngs. gains in a generacant, hangs in the tion, and went on THE CROWDS that continue to balance. to win the presi(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Yet, surely, a come out for his appearances and the dency for 20 of the vast audiences he has attracted to GOP President Trump, next 24 years. hearing the clamor of those who elected debates testify to his drawing power. Undeniably, a Trump presidency Moreover, Trump has now been en- him to find a Scalia, would be respon- would mean an end to the Bush and esdorsed by Gov. Chris Christie, ex-chair- sive. tablishment policies on trade, immigraWith President Clinton, the court is tion and intervention. man of the Republican Governors Association, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the gone for a generation. But those policies have already been We hear wails that the nomination of repudiated in the primaries, as they have most respected conservatives on Capitol Trump would mean the end of the con- proven to be transparent failures for Hill. Yet, with polls pointing to a possible servative movement. But how so? America. If Trump won and conducted a conTrump sweep on Super Tuesday, save Texas, his probable nomination, and a servative government, it would validate AS LONG AGO as the early 1990s, chance for the GOP to take it all in the the movement. If Trump won and turned populist conservatives were imploring fall, is causing some conservatives and left, it would inspire an insurgency like George H. W. Bush to secure our Mexi-

Pat

Buchanan

TAXES: March 2, 2016

What is the fair share of taxes?

residential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with President Obama, say they want high-income earners, otherwise known as the rich, to pay their fair share of income taxes. None of these people, as well as the uninformed in the media and our campus intellectual elites, will say precisely what is the “fair share” of taxes. That is because they would look ignorant and silly, so they stick with simply saying that the rich should pay more. Let’s you and I take a peek at who pays what in federal income taxes.

THE FOLLOWING represents 2012 income tax data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service, compiled by the Tax Foundation (http:// tinyurl.com/j5yr8cd). The top one percent, 1.37 million taxpayers earning $434,682 and more, paid 38 percent of all federal income taxes. The top five percent, those earning $175,817 and more, paid 59 percent. The top 10 percent of income earners, those earning $125,195 and up, paid 70 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 25 percent, those earning $73,354 and up, paid 86 percent. The bottom 50 percent, people earning $36,055 and less, paid a little less than three percent of federal income taxes. According to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, slightly over 45 percent of American households have no federal income tax liability.

With this information in hand, you might ask the next person who says the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes: Exactly what percentage of total federal income taxes should the one-percenters pay? I seriously doubt whether you will get any kind of coherent answer. By the way, since one-percenter income starts at $435,000, it might be pointed out that $400,000 or $500,000 a year is not even yacht or Learjet money. Plus, if one has two kids in college, a big mortgage and car payments, I doubt he would declare himself rich.

Walter

OUR DEMAGOGUES also claim that corporations do not pay their fair share of taxes. The fact of the matter, which even leftist economists understand but might not publicly admit, is corporations do not pay taxes. An important subject area in economics, called tax incidence, says the entity upon whom a tax is levied does not necessarily bear the full burden of the tax. Some of the tax burden can be shifted to another party. If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if the corporation hopes to survive, it will have one of three responses to that tax or some combination thereof. It will raise the price of its prod-

uct, lower dividends or lay off workers. In each case a flesh-and-blood person is made worse off. The important point is that a corporation is a legal fiction and as such does not pay taxes. As it turns out, corporations are merely tax collectors for the government. Politicians love to trick people by suggesting that they will not impose taxes on them but on some other entity instead. To demonstrate the trick, suppose you are a homeowner and a politician tells you that he is not going to tax you, he is just going to tax your land. You would easily see the political chicanery. Land cannot and does not pay taxes. Again, only people pay taxes. Leftist politicians often call for raising the death tax, euphemistically called inheritance tax. The inheritance tax brings in less than one percent of federal revenue. It is on the books because it serves the interests of jealousy, envy and our collective desire to tax the socalled rich. The effects of inheritance taxes are economically damaging. It has this impact because in order for people to pay the death tax, they often must sell producing assets, such as farms, factories, stocks and bonds. These are highpowered dollars that are shifted from productive activity to government consumptive activity. TOO MANY Americans are ignorant of tax issues and thus fall easy prey to the nation’s charlatans and quacks.

can border, as tens of thousands poured across in the San Diego-Tijuana corridor. Gov. Pete Wilson turned near-certain defeat into a stunning comeback victory in 1994 by promising to send the National Guard. Why did the establishment not respond then to the electorate? Why, instead of trashing Wilson for imperiling future party prospects with Hispanics, did the establishment not do what the people had demanded and move decisively to secure our southern border? What is conservative about uncontrolled borders? Why, as trade deficits with China and the world rose from the tens of billions to hundreds of billions, did the establishment not wake up and see the shuttering factories, the lost jobs and the ghost towns arising across America — and react? Could they not see that, as we celebrated globalization, Beijing and Tokyo were practicing ruthless mercantilism and protectionism? At the end of the Cold War in 1991, many Americans urged that, with the Soviet Empire dissolved and Soviet Union disintegrating, it was time to bring our troops home and let the rich fat nations that had been freeloading for half a century provide the soldiers and pay the cost of their own security. Instead, the establishment opted for empire, for expanding old alliances, dumping over regimes, crusading for democracy, sending our soldiers out to remake Third World countries in the image of Iowa and Vermont. Who now thinks all these wars were worth the cost? Whether Trump wins or loses the nomination, the immigration, trade and foreign policies pursued by the elites since the end of the Cold War are dead letters. The nation has declared them to be so in the primaries. Who is campaigning, in either party today, for open borders, or passing The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or sending troops back to Iraq or into Syria? The Bernie Sanders insurgency appears to have been turned back by the vested interests of his party. But like the George McGovern insurgency in ‘72, which also relied heavily upon the enthusiasm of the young, Sanders’ socialism may be the ideological future of his party. The same may be said of the Trump insurgency. Whatever happens at Cleveland, the returns from the primaries look like the passing of the old order, the death rattle of an establishment fighting for its life, and being laughed at and mocked as it goes down. As in 1964 and 1980, a new Republican Party is taking shape. DEFECTIONS ARE to be expected, and not altogether unwelcome.

Conservative Chronicle

GOP CONTENDERS: February 26, 2016

How much must we compromise our values?

My suggestion has been simple. If language on the campaign trail and bombast to overcome a lack of knowl- Cruz and Rubio will not unite themedge of details. “For what does it profit selves, their supporters are going to a man to gain the whole world and for- have to overcome their distrust of each other and agree to support whofeit his soul?” ever is closest to Unfortunately, Trump in the polls. the window on That means that, stopping Donald for example, in Trump is closing. California, where To stop him, Ted (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Cruz is doing betCruz and Marco ter than Rubio, Rubio are going to have to tag team Trump. It is not that Rubio supporters must unite and supattack ads on Trump do not work. It is port Cruz. In Georgia, where Rubio is that few have ever done them. People doing better than Cruz, Cruz supportBUT TRUMP has said repeatedly do not know his record or background. ers must unite and vote for Rubio. that he has never had the need to repent — a basic tenet of Christianity. The GOP CONTENDERS: February 25, 2016 man has committed adultery, among other sins, is on his third marriage, says he has no need to repent, and Jerry Falwell and Robert Jeffress are lending their credibility to Trump’s. In the South Carolina debate, Trump t’s been a wild primary season. the next contest, where his home state praised Planned Parenthood as “wonNo one would have guessed a Texas would be in play. derful.” The organization chops up This next week marks the first seisyear ago that Senator Bernie children and sells their organs. Jeffress Sanders of Vermont would be giving mic shift in the nomination process. and Falwell have endorsed a man who presumed Democratic Nominee Hill- The race moves from a state-by-state calls that organization “wonderful” and ary Clinton a run for her money, or that contest to Super Tuesday, when 13 whose President, Cecile Richards, has businessman and entertainer/reality states will hold primaries. The week kind things to say about Trump. television star Donald Trump would between the Nevada Caucuses and SuJust how much must evangelicals be leading the Republican nomination per Tuesday will require the campaigns and conservatives compromise them- process. to determine how to allocate money, selves to support Trump? That is the ulstaff, volunteers and time among the But here we are. timate problem. Every person supportvarious states. ing Trump has not just compromised SO FAR, Trump has won three of on a candidate, but compromised their the first four caucuses or primaries for THE STATES that will vote next core values. the Republican nomination for presi- week include Ala., Alaska, Ark., Colo., Those who oppose relaxed immigra- dency: N.H., S.C. and Nev. Addition- Ga., Mass., Minn., Okla., Tenn., Te., tion standards in the country are siding ally, during these last few weeks, due Vt., Va. and Wyo. Combined, these with a man who, until he ran for presi- to their poor election results, the field states represent 595 delegates, who dent, was a champion of relaxed im- of Republican candidates has been will be split proportionally based on migration standards, going so far as to whittled down. Chris Christie, Rand votes. Texas holds the largest number publicly disagree with Mitt Romney’s Paul, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Rick of delegates at 155, with Georgia comrestrictive stance. Santorum and Mike Huckabee have all ing in second at 76. Those who support low taxes are bowed out of the race. supporting a man who called for the Of the 16 candidates originally covlargest tax increase in American his- ered by polling data on the Real Clear Jackie tory at the time. Those who support Politics website, only five remain in blowing up crony capitalism are sup- the race: Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted porting a crony capitalist. Those who Cruz, John Kasich and Ben Carson. (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate support the GOP are supporting a man Looking at recent results, the Repubwho was, until recently, a Democrat. lican nomination is really among three Beyond that, Donald Trump still candidates: Trump, Rubio and Cruz. For Cruz, Texas is a must-win state, supports a Canadian style, socialWhile Trump has been on top, un- so expect him to spend a lot of time, ist healthcare program. The tea party til March 15, all delegates are awarded effort and money there. Cruz overtook movement sprang forth to fight Obam- proportionally (SC was the lone ex- Trump in the Texas polls in late Januacare, a less socialist system than what ception, with all delegates going to ary, and might be able to win his home Donald Trump advocates. Trump). With 1,237 delegates needed state, but with proportional allocation, to win the convention, Trump is far a slight win is not that helpful — it just AT SOME point, people are being ahead at 81, with both Cruz and Rubio heads off the embarrassment that Al asked to compromise their values too at 17. Gore endured by losing his home state. much. Some, like Jeffress and Falwell, After Super Tuesday comes Kan., Trump declared victory in Nevada now find themselves defending a man with 46 percent of the votes. Rubio Ky., La., Maine and Puerto Rico — on who defends an organization they both came in second with 24 percent, and March 5 and 6. On March 8, primaries despise. Others defend Trump on posi- Cruz was third with 21 percent. More will be held in Hawaii, Idaho, Mich. tions he has conveniently adopted and interesting than the voting was the and Miss. On March 12, Guam and the will no doubt abandon when it no lon- election night activity. Trump celebrat- District of Columbia vote. ger suits him. These people are com- ed in Las Vegas, speaking to a crowd The Ides of March mark another promising their integrity for a presi- of supporters; Rubio was already in huge change in the process when the dential candidate willing to use profane Michigan, and Cruz was focusing on contests become winner-take-all. They

obert Jeffress is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. Jerry Falwell, Jr. is the President of Liberty University and son of moral crusader Jerry Falwell. Both have endorsed Donald Trump. Falwell has vouched for Donald Trump’s strong Christian faith. Jeffress called Trump “a great leader, a great visionary and a great American.” Both men have used their ties to the evangelical community to bolster Trump’s credibility.

Erick

Erickson

It does neither side any good to divide and let Trump win. Neither Cruz nor Rubio will be the nominee if they do not stop Trump. So both sides must agree to support whoever is doing best in their own state against Trump. Once Trump is stopped, then Rubio and Cruz can slaughter each other to win the nomination. DONALD TRUMP forces too many people to compromise too many core convictions and to suspend beliefs about his actual positions. But the only way to stop him is for Cruz and Rubio to unite. They need to do so now.

Wild season of the Trump tornado

Gingrich Cushman

include Fla. (99 delegates), Ill., Mo., N.C., Northern Marianas, and Ohio (66 delegates) for a combined 367 delegates. The question is: can Cruz or Rubio last that long? There is no doubt that the Rubio campaign is attempting to design a future that includes holding on until the Florida Primary, but with Trump having been ahead in the Florida polls since August, it might make sense for Rubio to fold beforehand. You might be among those scratching your head, wondering how we ended up here, with Trump in first and with no clear vision to stop the Trump tornado. A Washington Post article written by James Hohmann last August titled, “Trump: Maybe America should try making a jerk president,” provides a view into the draw of a Trump presidency. When talking about researching the cross tabs of a poll, the article notes that Trump said, “’The only thing I did badly on was: Is he a nice person? I was last in terms of niceness,’ he said. “Campaigning deep in the Bible Belt, he once again spun this as not a liability — but an asset. “’I think I’m the nicest of all,’ he deadpanned. ‘I just don’t want to be taken advantage of!’ “Continuing his main line of attack on Jeb Bush, Trump predicted that the choice Republicans face in picking a nominee will come down to niceness vs. competency. “‘We’re tired of the nice,” he said. “’We don’t need the nice. We need competent.’” MAYBE TRUMP’S right — after eight years of niceness, maybe we would rather choose competency over niceness.

March 9, 2016 TED CRUZ: February 26, 2016

A respectful appeal to Trump supporters

s a Reagan conservative this stitutional conservative; he is perfectly is a particularly difficult pri- situated to capitalize on the anti-estabmary season. We finally have lishment sentiment in the GOP electorwhat many of us consider a near-perfect ate because he has been in the trenches, candidate on the issues at a perfect time proving he’ll fight the insiders from within. in our history, but obstacles persist. Then in rides brash businessman Admittedly, it’s not like America got in this desperate condition acciden- Donald Trump — a wildcard of a polititally. For decades, we have been elect- cal maverick — and sucks all the antiing leaders who have been undermining establishment oxygen out of the politiHe apparently the American dream, and in the last two sphere. has just the right presidential elecpersonality, just the tions the majority right bluster, just has virtually furthe right bravado, nished what could and more than be the final nails in (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate enough money the nation’s coffin. Thankfully, Obama had reverse coat- and moxie to mesmerize the disenfrantails. His agenda was decisively reject- chised class — those voters who have ed in both the 2010 and 2014 congres- seen no evidence that any politician, sional elections, which led many of us once elected, has any intention of adto believe his policies weren’t popular dressing their concerns. But is their anger skewing their vieven if he was. sion and sabotaging their judgment? IF THERE was any doubt about the They seem to have rallied around Trump public angst over the status quo, it has because he’s convinced them he would been removed with the rise of Trump close our borders, rebuild our military, on the right and Bernie Sanders on the create jobs and, overall, “make America left. It’s bizarre that some voters’ reac- great again.” But would he? And even if he would, tion to the failure of leftist policies is to double-down on them, but I’ve come to would he inflict other damage? To the first question my honest anexpect no less from leftist voters. Sophisticated analysis aside, it’s swer is: I don’t know. On the second, I clear that the public is mad as heck and think that given his history of supporting liberal causes and politicians and is not going to take it anymore. What a perfect storm for the quint- many recent statements betraying an essentially conservative candidate, Sen. instinct for statist solutions, there’s a Ted Cruz, a freedom lover’s one-man good chance he’d inflict damage, on the dream team. He’s not just an ideal con- courts and elsewhere.

David

Limbaugh

Given the alternatives, it would be a reckless decision to bet the survival of the nation I love and my children’s future largely on powerful rhetoric tailored for itching ears. On something so critically important I have to have more assurance than bold promises from a man with — viewed in the most favorable light — a stunningly ambivalent political history. Meaning no offense, to support Donald Trump for the GOP nomination is a crapshoot — a blind wager based on nothing more than violently shifting sands. How does this make sense when I can choose the real deal in Ted Cruz — a man whose genuine patriotism and constitutional conservatism seep from his very pores, a man who is off-thecharts brilliant and so right on the issues that one’s authenticity as a conservative could be measured, quite literally, by how closely his views conform to Ted’s views and record?

not generalities, to unleash economic growth, restructure entitlements and begin reducing the debt, rebuild the military, seal our borders, defeat our terrorist enemies, reform health care, appoint solid, originalist judges and protect our religious liberties and innocent life. It is tragic that people have concluded that you have to have a person with no experience inside politics to take on the establishment. Under that theory, Donald Trump would immediately become tainted on his first day in office. Additionally, Ted Cruz has actually already fought the establishment — at great cost to himself. Cruz is the antithesis of a politician with his finger in the wind. He is the one who took on ethanol on the eve of the Iowa election. He took on his entire party in budget fights with President Obama because he promised his constituents he would and because he believes it was the right thing to do. It’s ironic that Donald Trump, hailed CRUZ IS A full spectrum Reagan as the anti-establishment savior, has conservative, on economic, defense and supported and funded establishment social issues. He has concrete plans, and liberal causes much of his adult life, and to this day is getting less opposition from the establishment than bad boy Ted Cruz. Even though Trump and a number of other Republican candidates have ganged up on Cruz, he has not changed his positions midstream out of political expediency. Even though he’s not the only one whose campaign has been accused of dirty tricks, Cruz is the only one who has apologized for anything and has recently fired his communications director. I appeal to Trump supporters to reconsider your decision. Why take a risk on the unknown when you have from Ted Cruz an established record of bold, anti-establishment action based on tried and tested policy solutions? Don’t be put off by the label “conservative” just because too many politicians self-identifying as such didn’t deliver. Ted Cruz deserves your consideration precisely because he did. He is also, from all indications, more electable in the general election. I BELIEVE you are patriots and I understand and share your frustration. But I implore you to channel it wisely, judiciously and constructively. If we bet wrong we might not get another chance.

Conservative Chronicle

CAMPAIGN FINANCE: March 1, 2016

Follow the money: The Donald and the Democrats

hen you go to the Cali- tributed to the campaign. That’s pretty fornia Democratic Par- much the answer I got from all the ty’s convention, and you Dems. Why did Trump donate? It’s a happen to be the rare registered Re- mystery. At the convention, Democrats depublican in the press corps, you have to come prepared with an answer to n o u n c e d the Supreme Court zens United deciThe Question: Can I vote for Donald C i t i sion. Los AnTrump in Novemgeles County ber? (My answer: Democratic Party I don’t have to deChairman Eric cide now. Trump Bauman railed hasn’t won the (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate against the Koch primary.) It’s no secret that I don’t like Trump. But as brothers for giving to conservative I listened to speakers at the San Jose causes, then lauded liberal plutocrat Democratic confab Saturday denounce Tom Steyer for his “investment” in the corrosive impact of money on poli- voter registration. tics, I realized some know Trump in a PELOSI, HARRIS, Newsom and way I never will — they’ve tasted his Brown are proof that, on the big issues money. at least, savvy politicians can pocket TRUMP HAS donated buckets to campaign contributions — without beHillary Clinton’s Senate campaign, ing owned by mega-donors. California to the Clinton Foundation and even to Democrats are no slouches at fundCalifornia Democrats. Trump donated raising — and still they blame all po$20,000 to the Democratic Congres- litical ills on money in politics. They sional Campaign Committee in 2006. don’t think money is bad when it goes The Dems went on to win the House, into their coffers, but they know that and San Francisco’s own Rep. Nancy Pelosi became House speaker. Trump DONALD TRUMP: March 2, 2016 met with Pelosi right after she ascended to the speakership. In January, Trump told MSNBC he “always had a good relationship” with Pelosi. I asked Pelosi’s office why Trump he Republican Party has long ponied up for Pelosi. A spokesperson been led by the rich and the referred me to the Democratic Conpowerful who win elections gressional Campaign Committee. I went to the DCCC Web page, which by persuading the lowly and powerless was busy trying to tie vulnerable GOP to vote for them. Ever since the early incumbents to Trump and the Ku Klux Roman Republic, when the Plebeians were pitted against the Patricians, the Klan. Both Donald and daughter Ivanka rich politician’s goal has always been Trump donated to the campaign of At- to land the poor vote to win. They succeeded in the past by drawtorney General Kamala Harris. Ivanka wrote a check for $2,000 in 2013. The ing racial, sectional and ideological Donald donated $5,000 in 2011 and lines among the poor. Now, with Donanother for $1,000 in 2013. Harris is ald Trump’s steady victories, the jig is running to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer up. Whatever their former appellation in the U.S. Senate. In July, her Senate -- Reagan Democrats, the silent macampaign purged The Donald’s money jority, the Southern strategy -- the Joe by giving a $6,000 check to Caracen, a Six-pack’s and Archie Bunker’s of togroup that fights federal enforcement day are now solidly in Trump’s corner. of immigration law. THEY FLOCK to Trump because DONALD AND Ivanka Trump they feel that a Democrat president also donated $3,000 to Lt. Gov. Gavin would only pay attention to the needs Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign of people of color, single mothers or in 2009. Newsom texted me that he gays. And they are convinced that the spent more than $3,000 to produce a Republicans will be true to their counvideo that took on Trump’s immigra- try club roots and ultimately sell them tion “plan.” Trump donated $3,500 out. Republican intellectuals and comto now-Gov. Jerry Brown’s attorney passionate Democrats wear a particular general campaign, and $9,500 to the Democratic State Central Committee. strategy up their sleeves: the promise Trump also gave $25,000 to the Cali- to ameliorate the lives of blue-collar fornia Republican Party in 2005 and America. But they have failed to do $12,000 to former GOP Gov. Arnold so up until now. The left and the right have merged in their discontent to aniSchwarzenegger’s campaigns. Harris spokesman Nathan Click mate a new phenomenon: Trump. Is this the crusade of a secular messaid he doesn’t know why Trump con-

Debra J.

Saunders

money works when it is in step with til they defund the right. That’s really the voters. So they won’t be happy un- their idea of campaign finance reform.

The barbarians at the gate

siah? Or the best and last act of a huckster and con man? We just don’t know. But we do know a lot about Trump. He gets things done. No matter the cost, legalities or proprieties, and despite any obstacles, he makes it happen. He is -- pardon the pun -- a bull in a china shop, goring those who fleece America and curbing those who would pack our electorate to be more congenial to liberalism.

Dick

But what happens when Trump’s ego and focus lands on an object that conservatives disapprove of? How will he sell the deals to balance the budget and handle taxes? How will freedom of the press weather the storm of a man who feuds with the media and demands looser libel laws? WILL THE balance of power tilt even more to the executive branch, making Congress an increasingly ornamental body? Will he get us into a war if his differences with foreign leaders escalate into personal vendettas? Will Trump

become as obsessed with deposing foreign leaders as George W. Bush did with Saddam Hussein and Hillary did with Moammar Gadhafi? Trump will govern by reign of terror. The establishments of both parties will be shell shocked into compliance with his wishes. Peggy Noonan got it right in her column in the Wall Street Journal: They will pass through the stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance -and come out willing to be lashed into line by an imperious president. Those who think that Trump will be faithful to their agendas are in for a shock. Whether they’re partisans of the religious right, free traders or antiimmigration groups, Trump will not be their man. He will be nobody’s man. He will not toe the line of any ideological agenda. His sole imperative will be what it has always been: Get it built and be done. TO GRASP who he really is, read Robert Caro’s The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,”about Robert Moses, Commissioner of the New York City Departmment of Parks and Recreation, who ruled transportation, construction, highways, parks and land use with an iron hand for years. That’s Trump: Nothing stands in his way.

March 9, 2016 APPLE: February 25, 2016

The iPhone and Apple’s involuntary servitude “There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.” — Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016) After the San Bernardino massacre on Dec. 2, 2015, the FBI lawfully acquired the cellphone of one of the killers and persuaded a federal judge to authorize its agents to access the contents of the phone. Some of what it found revealed that the killer used the phone to communicate with victims and perhaps confederates and even innocents who unwittingly provided material assistance. THEN THE FBI hit a wall. It appears that the killer took advantage of the phone’s encryption features to protect some of his data from prying eyes unarmed with his password. The cellphone was an iPhone, designed and manufactured by Apple, the wealthiest publicly traded corporation on

the planet. Apple built the iPhone so that ucts and negating the privacy of tens of its users can store sensitive, private, per- millions, and even exposing the governsonal data on the phone without fear of ment to foreign hackers. The Department of Justice has arbeing hacked by friend or foe. After the FBI determined it could not gued that Apple has a legal duty to help replicate the killer’s password without solve the mystery of who knew about Bernardino attacks so jeopardizing the phone’s content, it ap- the San that the guilty can be proached Apple, prosecuted and the and representarest of us protected tives of each nefrom future harm. gotiated for weeks Its lawyers asserttrying to find a (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate ed that the governway for Apple to help the FBI without compromising the ment would keep secure whatever key security of the Internet itself. They failed. Apple created. After the DoJ/Apple talks broke Apple has argued that the government has no legal right to compel it to assist in down, the DoJ made a secret application a government investigation, or to compel on Feb. 16, 2016, two and a half months it to alter or destroy its business model of after the massacre, to a federal judge for guaranteeing the safety and privacy of its a search warrant for this key to access the customers’ data. Apple knows that any killer’s iPhone. “key” it creates for the FBI, once used on THE WARRANT was improperly the Internet, is itself vulnerable to hacking, thereby jeopardizing all Apple prod- granted because Apple was not given no-

Andrew

Napolitano

ACADEMIA: February 25, 2016

A pother at old Georgetown

am certainly glad that the Washington Post reported on a controversy at Georgetown University last week, which was created by the sad death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Thanks to that informative report, I am canceling my million-dollar bequest to old Georgetown and channeling it elsewhere, probably to Donald Trump’s super PAC, if I can find his super PAC.

THE CONTROVERSY arose because of a dean’s perfectly civilized published statement of grief. A press release from the Georgetown Law School announced, “Georgetown Law Mourns the Loss of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia,” a Georgetown undergraduate and summa cum laude graduate. The dean of the law school, William M. Treanor, then praised Scalia as “a giant in the history of the law, a brilliant jurist whose opinions and scholarship profoundly transformed the law.” As I say, the dean was perfectly civilized in lauding the passing of this great teacher and jurist, to say nothing of his achievements as a father of nine children. Yet this statement was apparently not characteristic of Georgetown’s faculty at large. Professor Gary Peller objected even to the idea of the university mourning the death of one of its most distinguished alumni. Peller (whose specialty is, according to the Georgetown Law website, civil rights, discrimination and the constitution — presumably Cuba’s constitution) wrote: “I imagine many other faculty, students and staff, particularly people of color, women and sexual

minorities, cringed at (the) headline and at the unmitigated praise with which the press release described a jurist that many of us believe was a defender of privilege, oppression and bigotry, one whose intellectual positions were not brilliant but simplistic and formalistic.” Peller is obviously an advocate of what is called identity politics, which brooks no disagreement and is best left on the lunatic confines of a college campus.

R. Emmett

Justice Scalia was the son of an immigrant from Italy. He was also a devout Catholic. In the 1950s, when he was growing up, America was not exactly hospitable to Italians or, come to think of it, to Catholics. I remember those days well. The brilliant contributions of Italians to American society were finally being recognized, but there was the lingering use of ... I guess today we would call it the “D” word, among other anti-Italian slurs. Justice Scalia overcame them all. Apparently, now at his death he is to be assaulted with new slurs: bigot and defender of privilege. What privilege did he receive that he did not earn? OF COURSE, Peller comes from one of the most privileged precincts in America, academia. He is a professor at Georgetown after being, I am told, bounced from Harvard Law School.

On campus, one can spout off about almost anything and, as sanctioned by the sacred rumble bumble of academic freedom, one will not even be laughed at. Certainly this is true if one is leftwing. Peller is, to be sure, left-wing. He says things that if uttered by a little boy would earn that little boy a mouth full of soap and early retirement to bed. Actually, at Georgetown Law there is a countervailing force to Peller and his left-wing automatons. Precisely two professors out of a faculty of 125 law professors lean right. They are Randy Barnett, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and Nick Rosenkranz, a graduate of Yale Law School. They, too, wrote a letter to the university community. They expressed “personal grief” at Peller’s diatribe. Yet they had a solution. THE TWO conservative’s wrote: “The problem is that the center of gravity of legal academia is so far to the left edge of the political spectrum that some have lost the ability to tell the difference. ... If more of us (conservatives) were here,” the impropriety of Peller’s writing would be recognized. So what is to be done? I say the logic of Barnett and Rosenkranz’s letter should be followed. How about doubling or even tripling the number of conservatives on the faculty at Georgetown? Four, perhaps six conservatives against 125 leftwingers strikes me as a fair fight. Those were pretty much the odds Scalia was up against, at least until he left academe for the real world. He was more than a match for the likes of Peller.

tice of the DoJ application. So, the judge who issued the order denied Apple due process — its day in court. That alone is sufficient to invalidate the order. Were Apple a defendant in a criminal case or were Apple to possess hard evidence that could exonerate or help to convict, the secret application would have been justified. But that is not the case here. Instead, the DoJ has obtained the most unique search warrant I have ever seen in 40 years of examining them. Here, the DoJ has persuaded a judge to issue a search warrant for A THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST, by forcing Apple to create a key that the FBI is incapable of creating. There is no authority for the government to compel a nonparty to its case to do its work, against the nonparty’s will, and against profound constitutional values. Essentially, the DoJ wants Apple to hack into its own computer product, thereby telling anyone who can access the key how to do the same. If the courts conscripted Apple to work for the government and thereby destroy or diminish its own product, the decision would constitute a form of slavery, which is prohibited by our values and by the Thirteenth Amendment. Yet, somewhere, the government has the data it seeks but will not admit to it, lest a myth it has foisted upon us all be burst. Since at least 2009, the government’s domestic spies have captured the metadata — the time, place, telephone numbers and duration of all telephone calls — as well as the content of telephone calls made in America under a perverse interpretation of the FISA statute and the Patriot Act, which a federal appeals court has since invalidated. The DoJ knows where this data on this killer’s cellphone can be found, but if it subpoenas the NSA, and the NSA complies with that subpoena, and all this becomes public, that will put the lie to the government’s incredible denials that it spies upon all of us all the time. Surely it was spying on the San Bernardino killers. There is more at stake here than the privacy of Apple’s millions of customers and the security of power grids and all that the Internet serves. Personal liberty in a free society is at stake. A government that stays within the confines of the Constitution is at stake. THE LATE great Justice Antonin Scalia recognized that liberty and safety are not in equipoise when he wrote that there is nothing novel about liberty trumping safety under the Constitution. The primacy of liberty and a government subject to the rule of law is the core constitutional principle that, while honored, will keep tyranny at bay. And when dishonored, will let tyranny thrive.

Conservative Chronicle

DONALD TRUMP: February 26, 2016

Why Trump would be a bigger disaster than Clinton

There’s a difference between caring his long history of supporting big government — that Trump would try and cobble about the plight of working stiffs and together a populist coalition for the po- embracing isolationism, high tariffs and lices that conservatives hate. This will other policies that would destroy workend up marginalizing ideological conser- ing class long-term prospects. Is everyone supposed to surrender to vatism from within the party. mercantilism because I mean, what it makes 30 percent will Reaganites of angry voters feel gain from this presbetter? You can’t idency? The idea let a mob run your that Trump could (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate party. And it’s not dismantle Obamacare — when, in reality, he backs many a mob — it is hyper-populist or conof its components and has yet to offer any structed around a cult of celebrity — genuine solutions — is a fantasy. The even because it’s angry, though all those idea that Trump would name originalists things are true. The problem is that it’s to the Supreme Court is equally risible incoherent and nihilistic. It’s worth pointing out that the when you consider that Trump has shown absolutely no hint or inclination that he chances of Trump’s protectionist policies passing — with a bipartisan coaliunderstands what originalism entails. tion of progressives and right-protecBUT THE PEOPLE of the working tionists — are far higher under Trump YES. YOU CAN count on it. Clinton, as you may have noticed, does not class are mad! How dare you disrespect than Clinton. Why should free traders help facilitate this kind of disaster? So have the charisma of Barack Obama. Not their concerns? only would she be divisive and ethically compromised, but she would also galvaGOP CONTENDERS: February 25, 2016 nize the Right. Republicans would almost certainly unite against her agenda, which would be little more than codifying Obama’s legacy: a collection of policies that half the country still hates. She won’t be able to pass anything he anti-Trump onslaught Dole and Mitt Romney, respectively). substantial. The most likely outcome is is coming. Perhaps within A Democratic campaign to disqualify another four to eight years of trench warweeks. Just not necessarily Trump would seek to make his unfavorfare in Washington D.C., giving conser- from Republicans. able rating (already 60 percent with the vatives a pass for a number of winnable, Almost as soon as Donald Trump general public) not merely alarming, state-level issues. There will probably is the presumptive GOP nominee — but completely radioactive. be, if historical disposition of the elec- which may be as early as March 15 — How will Trump fare against such torate holds, a Republican Congress. Democrats will surely start to churn out ads? Maybe he will prove impervious to (Who knows what happens to Congress their negative ads. all such criticism, or maybe he will wilt if Trump is elected.) Hardly ideal. But unThey will attack Trump’s credentials under the assault. Who knows? less you believe that an active Washing- as a tribune of the little guy by focuston is the best Washington, gridlock is not ing on a money-grubbing venture like the end of the world. Trump University, designed to extract The myth that Democrats get every- as much cash as possible from people thing will persist. But despite plenty of who thought they would learn somewell-earned criticism, the GOP has been thing from the shell of a school. (c) 2016, King Features Syndicate a more effective minority party than constituents give them credit for. People are IN THIS SENSE, Republicans are THEY WILL dissect his business frustrated, but the conservative idealists record. They will fasten on his failed outsourcing the vetting of their fronthave been gaining ground since the tea casinos and the bankruptcies he used to runner to the other party. At this rate, party emerged. The tea party’s presence stiff creditors while maintaining a lav- they will make Trump their de facto has put a stop to an array of progressive ish lifestyle. standard-bearer in a little less than three reform efforts that the pre-2010 GOP They will fry him for hypocrisy on weeks, never having run him through would surely have gone along with. immigration by pointing out that Trump the paces of the painful testing that is Just as some Republicans are al- Tower was built by illegal Polish im- usually inherent to the process. ready warming to the idea of his candi- migrants worked to the bone and that, Yes, Trump has been constantly critidacy, the temptation in Congress to fol- according to news reports, illegal immi- cized. But op-eds aren’t the same as atlow “Trumpism” — a philosophy based grants are helping build his new hotel in tack ads. A Washington Post analysis on the vagaries of one man — will be Washington. found that of $215 million super PAC strong. Trump’s inclination is never to They will make the cheap threats he spending so far, only four percent has free Americans from the state, but rather throws at anyone who crosses him a been directed at the man on the cusp of to do a better job administering the state character and temperament issue. They securing the nomination. (“we’re gonna take care of everybody!”) will hound him about his unreleased tax A variety of reasons account for through great deals and assertive leader- returns. And, of course, they will use de- the de facto moratorium on sustained ship. Or in other words, everything the cades-worth of controversial statements Trump attacks to this point: clashing Founding Fathers didn’t want the presi- to portray him as racist and sexist. candidate interests; exhaustion after so dency to be. This will all be in the tradition of many donors gave so much to the Jeb So, while gridlock will still hold up the early Democratic ad campaigns Bush super PAC Right to Rise with so most of the issues conservatives care that successfully kneecapped Republi- little effect; fear of Trump. Democrats about, chances are high — considering can nominees in 1996 and 2012 (Bob won’t be similarly constrained. here’s still time to turn it around, of course. But now that many conservatives are moving from the bargaining phase to the depression phase of the Kubler-Ross model, we can begin to grapple with the prospective reality of a Trump-vs-Hillary general election. Whether you’re an ideological conservative, a proponent of limited government or someone who believes that the president has too much power already, you shouldn’t think of this matchup as a contest between horrifying candidates. Rather, you should ask yourself which scenario would be more damaging? I’m pretty sure you’d find that Donald Trump is the form of the Destructor. But Hillary Clinton is the worst, most evil liberal ever!

David

Harsanyi

they can brag about having a Republican president? NONE OF THIS is to argue that the conservative movement or the Republican Party is in good shape, that the status quo is working well or that the leadership doesn’t deserve what’s coming. I’m not saying someone shouldn’t blow up the Republican Party. I’m saying that that someone shouldn’t be an unprincipled imposter. Because at some point there’s going to be a counterrevolution. Those who swear up and down that they would never vote for Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio because they aren’t conservative enough shouldn’t be surprised that a large faction on the Right — more than likely, the larger faction on the Right — won’t support a candidate who is adversarial to its belief system. To support Trump would be an exercise in pure partisanship. For conservatives, it would mean facilitating their own destruction. It makes no sense.

The coming anti-Trump onslaught

Rich

Lowry

The last two viable non-Trump Republican candidates have come up small against the mogul. You would think that the rise of Trump — a seismic political event — would inspire a larger argument about the future of the party, the nature of conservatism or the discontent of blue-collar America, but instead Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are squabbling over who photoshopped whom. Cruz has engaged in hostilities with Trump when he can’t possibly avoid them, as in Iowa and South Carolina, but let up in New Hampshire, when it didn’t suit his purposes. Rubio continues to duck and cover, putting tactics (he, of course, wants Cruz out of the race) over leadership. If Cruz and Rubio aren’t going to consistently attack Trump, at least they should have something to say to his working-class voters who feel they are being left behind and ignored. Yet Cruz and Rubio, loyal sons of their party, do not naturally think in these terms. They know how to have a debate over which of them is more adamantly against gay marriage, but a direct appeal to bluecollar voters on bread-and-butter issues appears outside their comfort zones. IF TRUMP romps to the nomination by mid-March, non-Trump Republicans will have lost to him in part through a lack of trying. That will never be true of the Democrats, who will gleefully and maliciously do the Trump vetting that the GOP race has, so far, been missing.

March 9, 2016 REPUBLICAN PARTY: March 1, 2016

Gratuitous hatred destroying GOP, just as in ancient Israel

have been a radio talk show host tion of Trump’s high school level of perfor 33 years, nationally syndicated sonal insults — has been the Republican for 18. I have never experienced with the best chance of defeating Hillary anything similar to what I am experienc- Clinton. The listener’s email read in part: ing now. Until recently, the only hate “Dennis, I can’t tell you how pi-mail I ever received was from a small number of people on the left. The major ed off I am at you for suggesting Cruz in favor of the back reason for this, I am convinced, is that I drop out stabbing, lying don’t yell at callers Rubio. You have and I treat callers compromised your who disagree with own principles. respect. ... Despicable! Reading my (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate (people) like you emails these days ... lie about ‘if I is a brand new experience. I receive hate mail, sometimes could appoint a president, it would be laced with obscenities, from Republi- Cruz.’ Screw you and all your Salem cans. Most come from Donald Trump colleague’s (sic) for pushing the false supporters, even though whenever I narrative ‘Rubio is more electable.’... I explain my opposition to Trump, I also am no longer a faithful listener and have explain that I understand why so many switched back to Rush after many years. people support him, and even though I You have lied by obfuscation, and tried ask anti-Trump listeners to respect these to manipulate your listeners, and for that, I despise you and the other Salem turnTrump supporters. coats. You all can go f---yourselves!” As noted, I have quite a few emails TO SHOW how widespread the hatred among Republicans is, here are from Trump supporters who after years, excerpts from an email sent by a Ted even decades, of listening to my show, Cruz supporter in Michigan. He was have decided that I am no longer worthy livid at my having suggested that Cruz of being listened to. If one doesn’t supconsider announcing that he will now port Trump, they believe, one is a traitor back Marco Rubio to give Republicans to the cause. It is important to point out that I have a unified opposition — the only chance to stop Trump. I might add that I have said over and over that I would vote for said many times that if I could simply Trump if he were the nominee because appoint a Republican president, it would it is difficult to conceive of even Trump be Cruz, since he is a true conservative being worse than four more years of a and he doesn’t care whether people love left-wing president and decades of a him. However, I believe that Rubio — at left-wing Supreme Court. But to more least until this weekend and his imita- than a few Trump supporters, that is not

Dennis

Prager

enough: If you don’t support Trump, you democratic socialist for president. are the enemy. Meanwhile, many Republicans believe that only their candidate can turn IN A NUTSHELL, the hatred and things around. Therefore, Republicans contempt some of the Republican candi- who oppose their man are regarded as dates have shown one another is reflected no different from Democrats — indeed, among rank and file Republicans. I un- perhaps worse. derstand why — most Republicans view So this is where we stand today: this election as the last chance to save Many anti-Rubio Republicans regard America from becoming the opposite of Rubio as a traitor on the immigration iswhat it was founded to be. The left has sue and therefore have contempt for his been eating away at America’s founda- supporters. Many anti-Cruz Republicans tional values for nearly a century, and it regard Cruz as an extremist conservative has been largely successful. Two exam- who is, moreover, a misanthrope, and ples: Seventy percent of college students therefore have contempt for his supportdo not believe in freedom of speech if the ers. And many anti-Trump Republicans speech might hurt someone’s feelings, — perhaps most — regard Trump as a and many young Americans support a dangerous fraud, and therefore view his supporters with contempt. Needless to say, with these attitudes, there is little chance any Republican can win. So, then, despite eight years of failure under a Democratic president, and with Hillary Clinton — widely regarded as an untrustworthy woman who has put her pursuit of money and power above the interests of her country — as the Democratic candidate, Republicans will still lose. And Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves. In Jewish tradition, there is a famous explanation for the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans in A.D. 70. The ancient rabbis did not blame the Romans. They blamed the Jews. And the reason, they said, was “gratuitous hatred” — Jews hating each for no good reason. Bear in mind: Not all hatred is gratuitous. The hatred of evil, for example, is actually the only moral response to evil. BUT GRATUITOUS hatred is utterly destructive. And that’s what many Republicans now have for one another — and what will therefore enable today’s Romans, the Democrats, to destroy our country in the year 2016.

Conservative Chronicle

DONALD TRUMP: March 1, 2016

Trump is vindictive, insulting — and may need a shrink

onald Trump talks in sim- do that, saving more than $200 billion plistic, egocentric, combat- — including Fat City: How Washington ive terms about how he will Wastes Your Taxes, which President Rongovern if he wins the presidency, but he ald Reagan passed out at his very first Cabinet meeting. (His budget never mentions Congress. tor, David Stockman, Go through all of the boastful promis- d i r e c sought to eliminate es that he’s made at or cut back some of his rallies and the those agencies, with debates, which he limited success.) says are “a waste (c) 2016, United Media Services But getting a of time. He seemmajority of Coningly suggests that gress isn’t easy, and would likely be hardhe will do these things alone: er, if not almost impossible, for someone SLASH THE budget, cut taxes, beef with Trump’s insulting temperament. Republicans control both houses of up the military, erect a 2,000-mile concrete wall costing tens of billions of dol- Congress and will likely hold on to them lars along our southwestern border with in November, but Trump is obviously not Mexico, and create a nationwide police popular among GOP lawmakers. In fact, force to round up and deport 11 million he’s downright unpopular, even among rank-and-file conservatives. undocumented Hispanic migrants. At this point in his campaign, you “We’re going to make many cuts. ... We’re going to get rid of so many could fit the number of GOP lawmakthings,” he says, saying “we,” but mean- ers who’ve endorsed him in a telephone booth. ing “me, me, me.” There are a lot of things Trump is proApparently, Trump skipped his classes in Government 101, the ones dealing posing to do that are deeply disturbing with the three co-equal branches of gov- and should frighten Americans who beernment that were set forth by the Found- lieve in the First Amendment. You know, the one where our Founding Fathers deing Fathers in the U.S. Constitution. The last time I looked, Congress con- clared that “Congress shall make no law trolled the purse strings of the govern- ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of ment. No revenue can be spent, reduced the press ...” or rescinded without the written approval TRUMP IS well known as a litigious of a majority of 535 members of Conbully who threatens critics with legal acgress. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for not tion simply for criticizing him, which is just cutting, but getting rid of waste- their right under the Constitution. Over ful, outmoded, inefficient agencies. I’ve the course of his campaign, he has angriwritten books detailing where we can ly hurled threats of a “big lawsuit” when

Donald

Lambro

someone says or writes something that displeases him. Last Friday, during rambling remarks at a campaign appearance in Fort Worth, Texas, Trump said he would “open up our libel laws” to make it easier to bring lawsuits against people who say or write “negative” things about him. “One of the things I’m going to do if I win, I’m going to open up our libel law so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles we can sue them and win lots of money,” he said, according to a dispatch by the Reuters news service. Trump specifically singled out the New York Times and the Washington Post as his main targets, adding, “With me they’re not protected. We’re going to have people sue like you’ve never been sued before.” That is meant “to intimidate and punish” his many critics who come after him, writes fellow columnist George Will. “It is not news that he has neither respect for nor knowledge of the Constitution. ... His obvious aim is to chill free speech, for the comfort of the political class.” Trump’s anti-free speech threats re-

mind historians of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by Congress in 1798 and signed into law by the thin-skinned President John Adams. They contained four laws, one of which made it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous and malicious articles against the government or its officials. The acts were bitterly attacked at the time as an attempt to stifle criticism of the Adams administration, and were opposed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as an assault on free speech. They expired in 1801. What kind of president would want to copy the intent of 18th-century laws that punish free speech? Someone who is vengeful and would attempt to use the power of Big Government and the police state to threaten and silence his critics. Consider one example of what a President Trump has in store for any American who would dare oppose him. When the former reality television celebrity learned that Thomas S. Ricketts, one of the owners of a baseball team and a major GOP donor, was opposing him, he threatened him with legal retaliation. “I hear the (Ricketts) family,” Trump tweeted, “who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” Trump is putting the country on notice that if he becomes president, with all the power and prerogatives that comes with that office, he’s coming after anyone who has the temerity to criticize him. In one of his latest threats to the news media and to the Washington Post in particular, Trump said, “If I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.” These are the kind of malevolent, geteven, Nixonian practices Trump would bring to his presidency, declaring war on anyone who opposes him. At 6:30 a.m. one day, Trump tweeted a quote from the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, which said that “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” When someone questioned its origin, Trump replied, “What difference does it make if it was Mussolini or somebody else? It’s a very good quote.” MAYBE HE’S telling us, “I’ve got very sharp claws, so don’t anger me.” Somebody call in a shrink.

March 9, 2016 MOVIE REVIEW: March 2, 2016

Make plans to see The Young Messiah

The movie is directed by Cyrus Nowt’s been many weeks since I had the opportunity to screen an rasteh, co-written with his wife, Betsy amazing movie being released Giffen Nowrasteh, the team responsible for another great feature film — The March 11 nationwide. ing of Soriah M. His Many movies are sent my way, but S t o n name is also familI write about very iar for a historic TV few. mini-series called I always watch The Path to 9/11, a these movies skeppolitically charged tically, having for(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate special that was merly, in another life, covered Hollywood and grown shown by ABC once in September 2007 weary of watching so much dreck. My and then shelved, never to be seen again. It seems Bill and Hillary Clinton did next beat — the Middle East — often not like it — and their friends at the netseemed more pleasant. work made sure to minimize the damIT WAS WITH that cynical view age by refusing to release it on DVD or repeating the very popular two-part that I viewed The Young Messiah. series on TV. I watched it once. I watched it again. BUT BACK to their latest project. Then I watched it a third time with It’s a fictional interpretation of what my family. Now I can’t wait to see it on the big it must have been like for the sevenyear-old Jesus to learn His destiny. screen.

Joseph

Farah

RUSSO-UKRAINE WAR: February 24, 2016

It starts in Egypt, where Jesus spent that time because the Bible offers little His early years. We often forget about in the way of detail about it. Later, we follow Jesus, Mary and Joseph as they travel back to their home in Nazareth. I’m not issuing any spoiler alerts. I’m not going to tell you much about the movie’s twists and turns. I’m just going to tell you it is faithful to the time period, it is gorgeously filmed, it is extraornian crimes against ethnic Russians dinarily well acted and the story is ut(first in Crimea, then eastern Ukraine) terly amazing, endearing and inspiring. and accusing NATO of promulgating Though the story is obviously extranefarious plots against Mother Russia. biblical, its spirit is in harmony with the His real reason for launching the at- message of the Scriptures. tack in February 2014? Ripe opportuniIt also boasts a performance by the ty. The chaos in Kiev made a coordinat- young lead, Adam Greaves-Neal, which ed Ukrainian response unlikely. Putin is simply unforgettable. Surely a star is also correctly assessed key NATO lead- born. ers, especially U.S. President Barack Not surprisingly, it wasn’t easy makObama. Not one of them had the spine ing this movie. Nowrasteh had many to stop him. doors slammed in his face. Money was Putin concluded that if his war could tight. There were many roadblocks and “creep” below the radars of outrage obstacles to overcome to get the picture and major media, he might succeed in made and released in a big nationwide taking eastern Ukraine and Ukraine’s opening next month. Black Sea littoral. Ethnic Russian miliI had the pleasure of meeting the tias armed and trained by Moscow and Nowrastehs recently and talked about backed by Russian Special Forces and the film — hearing of many of the chalartillery would invade neighborhood by lenges they had in getting it made. They neighborhood. If the opportunity ap- are good people — true and faithful bepeared, some Russian tanks might make lievers. thrust to seize a key objective — then I can’t wait for more people to see it disappear in an easterly direction. and to learn of its effect on our culture. So in late March and April 2014, the It will be out two weeks before Passwar crept into eastern Ukraine. Ukraine over and Easter. Make a point of seeing resisted, however, with unexpected fe- it. Take your whole family. Take your rocity. There is also some evidence that neighbors. Organize your church to see at a particularly dicey moment, Poland it en masse. provided some military supplies. The It’s a powerful movie. I can’t say drop in oil prices has hindered — but enough about it. not stopped — Russia’s ability to wage So enough. economic war. MAKE YOUR plans. Mark your FOR TWO years, Ukraine has just calendars for March 11. Help make it been strong enough to cling to indepen- a successful opening — the kind of hot dence, but is too weak to regain control movie that everyone’s talking about and of the Donetsk basin. Regain Crimea? must see. Crimea is lost. And Putin’s creeping war It’s just two weeks away. proceeds. I can’t wait.

Russo-Ukraine war two years on

n February 25, 2014 — two bloody years ago if you live in eastern Ukraine — Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Since then, the Kremlin has cleverly pursued its “creeping war of aggression” and its death toll — Russian and Ukrainian alike — continues to mount. Ukraine gets the worst of it, suffering extensive economic loss and endless political crises. As I write this column, the Ukrainian government is on the verge of collapse. Since a government collapse in Kiev seeds more chaos, it counts as a political win for the Kremlin. Germany, Great Britain, France and the U.S. are trying to stabilize Ukraine, or so they say. NATO has tentatively decided to pre-position military equipment in Poland. NATO is deploying small troop contingents on a rotational basis. Poland, on Ukraine’s western border, is still not convinced the major powers have their heart in it. IN FEBRUARY 2016, the West is paying for its collective failure to support verbal condemnation of Russia’s invasion with effective collective action to support the 1994 Budapest Accord. Russia’s invasion and the March 2014 annexation of Crimea shredded that agreement. The accord involved nuclear weapons and territory, so it mattered. With the Budapest Accord, Ukraine agreed to exchange its potent nuclear arsenal for Russian guarantees of Ukrainian territorial sovereignty. Put

monosyllabically, No Nukes for No Land Grabs. The No Land Grab dimension reinforced a lesson everyone supposedly learned from WW2: aggression, annexation and territorial expansion by a major European power produce mass slaughter across the continent. In the 20th Century, European territorial wars became global wars.

Austin

Bay

Given these terrible consequences, a nation just didn’t do it. One other sad point: the U.S. and Great Britain backed the Budapest Accord. The Clinton Administration touted it. BUT SO MUCH for hard-learned lessons, diplomatic guarantees and Washington and London’s promises to insure political compliance. Putin’s Russia invaded and annexed, and its blatant act of aggression recalled the worst of the 1930s-era European history. Putin is a master of propaganda. He claimed that the February 2014 collapse of Ukraine’s pro-Russian regime was illegal and amounted to a coup. Why that justified Russia filching Crimea was finessed, not addressed. Putin wowed Russian television viewers and crowds in Red Square by invoking Russian historical territorial claims, alleging Ukrai-

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: February 29, 2016

Antidote to anarchy: The need for Cuban DNA

he way we learn most about presidential candidates now is through debates, which are to real governance as Home Run Derby is to real baseball. So be it. Who can avoid brain freezes? Who can strike out in one game and go 4-for-4 in the next? These next two months will tell. We can already lay to rest, though, the silly debate of the early primary season: Does a senator or a governor make the best president? It’s silly because a president needs to understand both big and little, both vision and the devilish details. The capacity to comprehend both varies enormously from individual to individual, regardless of experience.

Communist influence in Hollywood too much American power, moviegoers and staring down threats to throw acid cheer rebels like Katniss in The Hunin his face. Many Americans were ger Games, but in life most are rebels tired of hardships, and had Reagan not without a cause. One reason is that we a new book of Judges, gained the support of Democrats dis- live now in biters of legal right gusted by abortion, Carter could have where arand wrong declare been re-elected. there is no God in Soviet leaders America and evwould have careryone should do ried on. The Cold what is right in War would have (c) 2016, God’s World Publications his own eyes. continued. We might now all be dead after miscomWHILE AMERICA falls into munication and fear led to nuclear war. But we survived, and a generation cultural anarchy, dictators who mix arose that did not know Josef Stalin or nationalism with remnants of comMao Zedong or Pol Pot or the Ayatol- munism rule Russia and China, and lah Khomeini. Unwilling to bear bur- Middle Eastern clerics worship a god dens, and listening to the pied piping of created in man’s authoritarian imagiTHE MORE important question is a president who thinks the problem is nation. The antidote to both anarchy worldview — and in this election, how a candidate views the world. We’ve IRAN: February 26, 2016 elected each of our last three presidents (two governors, one senator) as domestic policy chiefs. Bill Clinton ran immediately after the Cold War ended. George W. Bush sadly became a foreign policy president after 9/11: s messy as this year’s U.S. seeks legitimacy in the eyes of its own His play in an uncompassionate arena presidential election seems in people and the world, which is why allowed Barack Obama to gain the the midst of the hard-fought sham elections take place. The illuWhite House with a 2008 pledge to nomination battle in both parties, no one sion that the people have a role to play bring troops home and ignore as much questions that the voters will decide. helps keep dissent in check, though, as as possible the rest of the world. (Bow, Anyone wishing to run who meets the we saw in 2009, when obvious vote“reset,” smile.) basic qualifications of being a natural- rigging occurs the people protest. But Given this history, it’s irrelevant born citizen at least 35 years old can put those protests were met with violent whether governor or senator DNA is his or her name before the voters. Those crackdowns. And in the face of total better. The candidates need Cuban supporting a losing candidate may not abandonment of democratic forces in DNA, the kind gained from seeing like the results, but we can’t question Iran by the West, especially U.S. Presitotalitarianism face to face and un- that we’ve been given a fair chance in dent Barack Obama, their protests led to derstanding its soul-sapping evil. In the process. The same can’t be said for little change. Havana and Miami I’ve interviewed elections taking place Feb. 26 in Iran, Cuban Christians who learned crucial which will effect not only the people of lessons by spending years in Fidel Cas- Iran but Americans as well, after the ditro’s prisons, but you don’t need Cuban sastrous agreement on nuclear weapons genes to have the kind of Cuban DNA reached by the Obama administration (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate I’m describing. It comes whenever with the current regime. you learn to fight dictators. We were Friday’s elections are guaranteed to blessed in the United States to have a IRANIANS GO to the polls Friday produce the results the ayatollah wants. run of presidents with Cuban DNA: to select members of the 290-mem- Initially, more than 12,000 individuals Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, then ber Islamic Consultative Assembly — registered as candidates for the 290 parJohn F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and the nearest thing Iran has to an actual liamentary seats. But unlike in a democRichard Nixon. parliament — and for the 86-member racy, those candidates don’t go through a With all their differences in policy Assembly of Experts, which is nomi- vetting process by the people to winnow and character, they were all ready, in nally tasked with selecting the Supreme the field; instead, the Guardian Council Kennedy’s classic words, to “pay any Leader. Iran’s system, despite the facade approves a five-member team to considprice, bear any burden, meet any hard- of elections, is anything but democratic. er the eligibility of candidates. In order ship, support any friend, oppose any Its constitution provides for a “Guard- to qualify, candidates must “believe and foe to assure the survival and the suc- ian Council” made up of six theologians adhere to Islam and the sacred system cess of liberty.” They all acted in sup- and six jurists, appointed by the Su- of the Islamic Republic in practice.” port of other parts of Kennedy’s inau- preme Leader and the Supreme Leader- These positions “belong to Hezbollahis gural address: that “the rights of man appointed chief jurist, respectively. The and revolutionary and committed indicome not from the generosity of the Guardian Council’s purpose is to ensure viduals,” according to a statement by state but from the hand of God.” That that any laws passed by the consulting the secretary of the Guardian Council the United States should not “permit assembly are compatible with Islam as in October 2015. In other words, they the slow undoing of those human rights interpreted by the Guardian Council. must be in line with the regime, which to which this nation has always been There is no separation of powers as we brooks no dissent or argument. committed.” know it; it is essentially a system where AS A RESULT of the Guardian one man rules: namely the Supreme JIMMY CARTER did not under- Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Council’s role in selecting who will stand that and lost to Ronald Reagan, Nonetheless, as in most totalitarian actually appear on the ballot, half were who had Cuban DNA after battling systems, the government desperately disqualified for the Consultative As-

Marvin

Olasky

and oligarchy is Cuban DNA. The only good that came out of my youthful Communism was an appreciation of the reality of evil. Some ISIS-watchers are gaining a similar education. Many millennials lack that understanding, but there’s still time. Maybe their teachers can be the two senators in our presidential race with Cuban DNA bequeathed them by their fathers, who saw Fidel Castro and ultimately refused to bow, scrape, and grin. I find both to be attractive candidates, but others may also have it: We’ll learn much during debates to come. Reprinted with permission of WORLD. To read more news and views from a Christian perspective, call 800951-6397 or visit WNG.org.

Not all elections are democratic

Linda

Chavez

sembly, including 50 current members who wanted to run for re-election. Of the 810 candidates for the Assembly of Experts, only 165 were approved, and not a single woman qualified. One of the most interesting aspects of Iran’s election is that it reflects a power struggle between Ayatollah Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Khamenei is old and sick and will not likely last much longer in power as the Supreme Leader. He is believed to want to step down and to play the decisive role in selecting his successor, but Rouhani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani have other ideas. While some in the West see the Rouhani-Rafsanjani faction as “moderate,” the fact is neither man behaved as a moderate in office, engaging in the same extrajudicial killing and torture of dissidents and pursuing the same goal of an expansionist, nuclear-armed Iran. The fight is not so much one of ideology as it is a power struggle, with the Rouhani-Rafsanjani group seeing an opening to the West that helps the Iranian economy as consolidating their hold over the people. IN THE END, nothing will change in Iran until the Iranian people can make their own choices for leadership. As the leading opponent of the regime, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi, said, “The sham elections are merely an instrument for imposing a medieval caliphate on the 21st century.” Unfortunately, the Obama administration has helped prop up that regime, which will be a greater threat to the United States in the future and will pose a major challenge to whoever ends up winning our messy, democratic presidential election.

March 9, 2016 OBAMA PRESIDENCY: February 26, 2016

While Obama fiddles ... year eight of Obama State of the world, Year Eight of to announce yet another “provisional Barack Obama: agreement in principle” on “a cessation (1) In the South China Sea, on a speck of hostilities” that the CIA director, the of land of disputed sovereignty far from defense secretary and the chairman of its borders, China has just installed anti- the Joint Chiefs deem little more than a aircraft batteries and stationed fighter ruse. jets. This after Chi(3) Ukraine. Havna landed planes ing swallowed on an artificial isCrimea so thorland it created on oughly that no one another disputed even talks about (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group island chain (the it anymore, RusSpratlys, claimed sia continues to by the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan trample with impunity on the Minsk and Vietnam). These facilities now cease-fire agreements. Vladimir Putin is function as forward bases for Beijing to now again stirring the pot, intensifying challenge seven decades of American the fighting, advancing his remorseless naval dominance of the Pacific Rim. campaign to fracture and subordinate the Ukrainian state. Meanwhile, Obama “CHINA IS clearly militarizing the still refuses to send the Ukrainians even South China Sea,” the commander of defensive weapons. the U.S. Pacific Command told Con(4) Iran. Last Thursday, Iran received gress on Tuesday. Its goal? “Hegemony its first shipment of S-300 anti-aircraft in East Asia.” batteries from Russia, a major advance (2) Syria. Russian intervention has in developing immunity to any attack turned the tide of war. Having rescued on its nuclear facilities. And it is negotithe Bashar al-Assad regime from col- ating an $8 billion arms deal with Ruslapse, relentless Russian bombing is de- sia that includes sophisticated combat stroying the rebel stronghold of Aleppo, aircraft. Like its ballistic missile tests, Syria’s largest city, creating a massive this conventional weapons shopping new wave of refugees and demonstrat- spree is a blatant violation of U.N. Seing to the entire Middle East what a curity Council prohibitions. It was also Great Power can achieve when it acts a predictable — and predicted — conseriously. sequence of the Iran nuclear deal that The U.S. response? Repeated pathet- granted Iran $100 billion and normalic attempts by Secretary of State John ized its relations with the world. Kerry to propitiate Russia (and its ally, The U.S. response? Words. Iran) in one collapsed peace conference Unlike gravitational waves, today’s after another. On Sunday, he stepped out strategic situation is not hard to discern.

Charles

Krauthammer

Three major have-not powers are seeking to overturn the post-Cold War status quo: Russia in Eastern Europe, China in East Asia, Iran in the Middle East. All are on the march. To say nothing of the Islamic State, now extending its reach from Afghanistan to West Africa. The international order built over decades by the United States is crumbling.

Is he at least going to celebrate progress in human rights and democracy — which Obama established last year as a precondition for any presidential visit? Of course not. When has Obama ever held to a red line? Indeed, since Obama began his “historic” normalization with Cuba, the repression has gotten worse. Last month, the regime arrested 1,414 political dissidents, the second-most ever recorded. IN THE FACE of which, what does No matter. Amid global disarray and Obama do? Go to Cuba. American decline, Obama sticks to his Yes, Cuba. A supreme strategic ir- cherished concerns: Cuba, Guantanamo relevance so dear to Obama’s anti-anti- (about which he gave a rare televised communist heart. address this week) and, of course, climate change. Obama could not bestir himself to go to Paris in response to the various jihadi atrocities — sending Kerry instead “to share a big hug with Paris” (as Kerry explained) with James Taylor singing “You’ve Got a Friend” — but he did make an ostentatious three-day visit there for climate change. So why not go to Havana? Sure, the barbarians are at the gates and pushing hard knowing they will enjoy but 11 more months of minimal American resistance. But our passive president genuinely believes that such advances don’t really matter — that these disruptors are so on the wrong side of history, that their reaches for territory, power, victory are so 20th century. Of course, it mattered greatly to the quarter-million slaughtered in Syria and the millions more exiled. It feels all quite real to a dissolving Europe, an expanding China, a rising Iran, a metastasizing jihadism. NOT TO THE visionary Obama, however. He sees far beyond such ephemera. He knows what really matters: climate change, Gitmo and Cuba. With time running out, he wants these to be his legacy. Indeed, they will be.

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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, Erick Erickson, Joseph Farah, 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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Wednesday, March 9, 2016 • Volume 31, Number 10 • Hampton, Iowa