Conservative Chronicle for August 3 2016 by Mid-America Publishing Corporation

At Issue this week... August 3, 2016 2016 Election Greenberg (10) Murchison (22) Shapiro (24) Tyrrell (10) Will (26) America Ramirez (24) Anti-Police Atmosphere Elder (18) Blacks Williams (25) Sowell (28) Blue Light Friday Malkin (31) Cotton, Tom Greenberg (6) Clinton, Hillary Limbaugh (27) Lowry (3) Napolitano (30) Cruz, Ted Harsanyi (9) Dear Mark Levy (19) Democratic Party Buchanan (15) Farah (17) McCaughey (28) Moore (16) Saunders (17) Double Standard Bozell (29) Hollis (5) Saunders (26) Electorate Will (15) Federal Debt de Rugy (13) Jeffrey (12) GOP Convention Barone (18) Chavez (21) Krauthammer (4) Lambro (23) Lowry (21) Left, The Prager (1) Leslie’s Trivia Bits Elman (14) Media Bias Bozell (22) Coulter (7) Massie (6) Morality Thomas (9) Republican Party Buchanan (20) Charen (8) Kudlow (3) Schlafly (25) Will (11) Trump, Donald Barone (13) Cushman (2) Thomas (29) Turkey Greenberg (30)

The Left by Dennis Prager

Trump’s speech wasn’t ‘dark’ enough One of the many remarkable traits of the progressives is their lack of self-awareness. This trait was on display last week in the media and Democratic Party’s characterization of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech — and the entire Republican National Convention — as “dark.” FOR THE LEFT to dismiss other Americans as having a dark view of America is preposterous. Because no one — not Trump, not the Republican Party, not any conservative — has nearly as dark a view of America as does the left. Across the board — from the universities to the media to the Democratic Party — the left, around the world and in America, has an unremittingly dark view of the United States. Here’s a brief glimpse. — Racism “is part of our (American) DNA,” President Barack Obama said in 2015. Is there anything Trump said in his acceptance speech that is as dark about America as that? — On July Fourth weekend, Vox published a long column arguing “3 reasons the American Revolution was a mistake.” — The most widely read historian in American high schools and colleges, the late left-wing professor Howard Zinn, was asked (by me) whether he thought the United States had done more good or more bad in the world. “Probably more bad than good,” he answered. — The left regularly characterizes the United States as a sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted country. — Our wars are wars for imperialist expansion, driven by material greed. — The top one percent relentlessly exploits the other 99 percent. — America is rigged against blacks, Hispanics and the 99 percent. — Cops kill unarmed blacks proportionately more than they kill unarmed whites because so many cops are racist. — About 1 in 5 female college students are sexually assaulted on campus. Is there anything in Trump’s speech that can match any of those left-wing views of the United States for “darkness?” Moreover, every one of those leftist critiques of America is false. NEVERTHELESS, we are in a dark time in America. In fact, Trump didn’t make the

case for America’s darkness nearly effectively enough. — Our universities — outside of the natural sciences — are being destroyed as learning institutions. They close minds, censor speech and indoctrinate rather than educate. — Blacks have more anger toward whites and America than at any time since the civil rights era. — American students are learning less while being indoctrinated more. They graduate high school barely able to write a coherent essay with proper sentence structure, grammar and spelling. But they know all about the existential threat allegedly posed by fossil fuels.

Dennis

— According to a recent Gallup Poll, fewer young Americans than at any time since polling began are proud to be Americans. — A greater percentage of Americans are dependent upon government for their income and even for food than at any time in American history. — The American national debt is the highest it has ever been. And it is increasing at a rate that can only lead to an economic implosion. — A smaller percentage of Americans are married than at any time in American history.

— Americans are having fewer children than ever. — Fewer businesses in proportion to the general population are being started than ever before. — Sectors of major American cities are essentially killing zones. — Fewer Americans than ever before believe in God, go to church or affirm JudeoChristian values, the basic moral code of America’s founding and of Western civilization. — Only 2 in 10 black children are born to a married mother. Is that dark enough? And the list is only a partial one. Moreover, every one of those dark facts is the result of left-wing policies, left-wing politicians, left-wing writers, left-wing professors and the left-wing party, the Democratic Party. If all Donald Trump did between now and November were to delineate the darkness created by the left and the Democrats, he could potentially win in a landslide. But, for reasons that elude me, he won’t, just as no Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan has. In the same way that Democrats won’t identify America’s international enemy — Islamic terror — Republicans won’t identify America’s domestic enemy, the left. AND UNTIL Republicans do, the darkness won’t recede. July 26, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

DONALD TRUMP: July 21, 2016

America’s potential: Donald Trump sees it

he Republican Convention this failures, Christie added, “We didn’t disweek resulted in the nomina- qualify Hillary Clinton to be president of tion of Donald Trump and the United States; the facts of her life and Mike Pence for the party’s ticket in the career disqualifies her.” The continual recitation of the facts fall. No more “presumptive nominee” for Trump. While some may disparage regarding Clinton and her focus on althis week’s proceedings as disorderly ways putting herself first will, over time, and disorganized, it has been dull and have an impact on voters. T h e second argument, that anti-climactic for those who were hoping is fit to serve as presifor a convention floor fight. What it will Tr u m p dent, will require accomplish for Jackie more focus and adcertain is to move ditional evidence. the party from the This argument seemingly nevercannot be won by ending nomination (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Trump alone, but marathon to the next phase of the campaign, which is one can be won when it is made by those that will test the candidates’ endurance who know him best, both family and colleagues. Tiffany Trump and Donald and strategy. Trump, Jr., have this week provided their THERE ARE arguments that must perspective on why their father could be made and won for the Trump/ Pence serve as our president. Eric and Ivanka ticket to win in the fall. First, presump- Trump will have their turn before the tive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton convention is over. Tiffany, who recently graduated from has to be proven unfit to serve as president. Second, Trump has to be seen as college, provided a softer perspective of presidential material. The first will be her father than we have seen before. “It’s often said that with enough effort and easier to accomplish than the second. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid determination, you can do whatever you out the facts and proclaimed Clinton’s put your mind to, but saying those words “guilt” during his speech Tuesday night. and living them are different things, and “I welcome the opportunity to hold her my father has lived them,” she said. She then made it personal: “He’s alaccountable for her performance and her character,” he said. “We must pres- ways helped me be the best version of ent those facts to you, a jury of her peers, myself by encouragement and example. both in this hall and in living rooms He motivates me to work my hardest around our nation.” After listing her and to always stay true to who I am and

Gingrich Cushman

what I believe. That’s what he does. He draws out that talent and drive in people so that they can achieve their full potential. That’s a great quality to have in a father, and better yet, in the president of the United States.” DONALD JR. provided a different perspective, one more focused on how his father operates his business and approaches solutions. “For too long, our country has ignored its problems, punting them down the road for future generations to deal with,” said Donald Jr. “In business, I was trained by my father to make the tough investments and decisions today to assure a brighter future tomorrow. We’ve actually started to believe that solving our great problems is an impossible task, and that’s why we need to elect a man who has a track record of accomplishing the impossible ... he’s always fully committed.” Donald Jr. noted that his father was an involved investor. He “hung out with the guys on construction sites pouring

concrete and hanging sheetrock ... He’s recognized the talent and the drive that all Americans have. He’s promoted people based on their character, their street smarts and their work ethic, not simply paper or credentials ... His true gift as a leader is that he sees the potential in people that they don’t even see in themselves.” Christie closed with this argument for Trump. “We have a man who is unafraid,” the New Jersey governor said. “We have a man who wants to lead us. We have a man who understands the frustrations and the aspirations of our fellow citizens. We have a man who judges people based on their performance regardless of your gender, race, ethnic or religious background. We do not need to settle for less.” IT COULD BE that Donald Trump’s ability to recognize great potential in others and help them achieve their dreams allows him to see the great potential in our country, of what could be if we follow the Trump formula described by Tiffany and “do what you love, hold nothing back, and never let fear of failure get in the way.”

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August 3, 2016 REPUBLICAN PARTY: July 22, 2016

Pence saves Republican Party after Cruz disaster

Cruz so divided them and worked them into such frenzy that it happened. Cruz tried to pass it off as just the New York delegation acting up. But that is night. Cruz’s speech was a slap in the face to wrong. The whole hall was in an uproar. GOP nominee Donald Trump. “Vote your You couldn’t even hear the last two paraconscience” is a wonderful-sounding graphs of Cruz’s speech because the boophrase. But we all know what he meant: ing had reached such a crescendo. Cruz left an absolute disasDon’t vote for Donald Trump. ter in his wake when I was in the conhe finished that vention hall and speech. Everyone the crowd’s reacwas dispirited, as tion was unbelievone might expect. able. It started out (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate And then came as a few hands waving in the air and some booing, and Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence. then it just grew and grew throughout the Pence delivered a terrific speech. He entire convention hall. And then boom! It touched on all the major themes — the economy, shaking up Washington and was absolute bedlam. Trump’s outsider roots. He talked about I’VE BEEN to most of the GOP con- how Trump understands that middleventions since 1980, and I’ve never seen class wage earners have been hurt; they anything like it. These people stood on haven’t had a raise in 15 years. That’s their feet and booed. These are Repub- something that Cruz, in all of his years licans! They don’t do this. They don’t of political experience, still doesn’t unknow how to stand up and boo. And yet, derstand! ed Cruz essentially gave a career-ending speech at the GOP convention on Wednesday

Larry

Kudlow

REALLY, WITHIN the first 10 minutes of his speech, Mike Pence turned a demoralized, dispirited, depressed, negative convention into an upbeat and united one. He hit all the right notes and had a lot of optimism in his speech. The Cruz disaster, which had left the convention

HILLARY CLINTON: July 25, 2016

Hillary’s never-ending reintroductions If only we could get to know the real Hillary Clinton. Unveiling the Hillary we supposedly don’t know has been the perpetual, elusive goal of Clinton’s handlers for decades, with the Democratic convention in Philadelphia the latest stab at it. On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook hopefully maintained that a lot of Americans simply “don’t understand” Hillary’s devotion to others, and the convention aims to give them this “fuller picture.” Or as a CNN headline put it, “Hillary Clinton prepares to reintroduce herself to America.” Again. Hillary has made more reintroductions than should be allowed for a person who has never gone away. POLITICAL WRITER Jonathan Rauch has a 14-year rule that posits no one is elected president more than 14 years after winning election as a governor or senator (the traditional jumpingoff points for the presidency). Elected to the Senate from New York in 2000, Hillary is technically only a couple of years past this benchmark for staleness — except this doesn’t do justice to how long she has been around, and especially how long it feels she’s been around. Bill Clinton announced his campaign for president in October 1991. Hillary has been with us ever since. During that campaign, Bill famously told us we’d get two for one. It’s been more than 14 years since she vouched for Bill Clinton

hall spinning just moments before, was suddenly swept away. The entire hall started applauding Pence. Then they started cheering and got on their feet for Pence. Amazing. Trump couldn’t have made a better choice. Mike Pence single-handedly pulled the convention back together and united attendees with an optimistic message. He gave great support to Donald Trump and the ticket. He basically snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He turned destruction into positive hope. I’ve never seen anything like that. Ted Cruz will never politically recover from this. His delegation from Texas wanted him to play ball with Trump — and he wouldn’t. He was freelancing in that speech. His political career is over. He’s finished. Donald Trump and Mike Pence are just beginning. We have to wait and see what Trump does tonight in his speech; it could make or break his presidential campaign. I personally hope that he puts a lot of focus on positive changes for America. I want to see a lot of growth in that speech. I want to hear him talk about lowering taxes and curbing regulations. But here’s what I want to see most of all: a follow-through from what Pence started. One of Pence’s messages on Wednesday night was that we — meaning the ticket — can turn this nation around. It’s an American malaise right now, from the economy, to civil unrest, violence and the threat of terrorism. And that is what Trump must prove to the nation and the world — that he can turn it around. He’s got to convince them. It’s kind of like Ronald Reagan redux. Reagan was able to do this. He proved that he could do the job. That’s what Trump needs to do. That’s huge. It’s more important than any policy detail.

public qualities that make you appealing in private makes you by definition a poor politician. No one ever had to say about Franklin Roosevelt, “You wouldn’t believe how buoyant he is — behind closed doors,” or about Ronald Reagan, “He’s very funny — when the cameras are off.” Over 25 years, the public surely has attained an accurate-enough picture of Hillary Clinton. They may not know all the details of her advocacy work as a young woman, but they have seen her smash-mouth partisanship, her grating insincerity, her gross money-grubbing, her serial dishonesties, her cat-on-a-hottin-roof caution and her grind-out ambition that has lacked a light touch or any poetry. (c) 2016, King Features Syndicate Hillary always points out how she is a target for attack, but the two controThis is not to make a fetish of Jona- versies that have dogged her in the past than Rauch’s 14-year rule — such rules year were entirely of her own doing. of thumb are made to be broken — but No enemy of hers forced her to circumit speaks to how utterly, drearily, ines- vent the rules to try to keep her official capably familiar Hillary Clinton is. A emails off the grid, or to take $675,000 Washington Post article last year was from Goldman Sachs for three speeches. titled “The making of Hillary 5.0: Mar- She did this to herself — because she keting wizards help re-imagine Clinton thought she could get away with it. brand,” and it may have under-counted IN A 60 Minutes interview, she comHillary’s attempted reboots. plained that a different standard applies HER HANDLERS are like leftists to her, a strange plaint after the FBI insisting that socialism has never failed; director gave her a pass on her emails. it’s just never been tried. They want to This suggests the problem isn’t that peoAND THAT’S the spirit Pence inbelieve that people don’t dislike Hill- ple don’t know her so much as that she voked on Wednesday night. Let’s hope ary; they just don’t know her. Even if lacks all self-awareness. Trump does the same. this is true, not being able to project in on 60 Minutes after the allegations of an affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced (1992), tried to remake American health care (1993), wrote the book It Takes a Village to soften her image (1996) and vouched for Bill in yet another sex scandal (1998). It has been more than 14 years just from one Hillary scandal with a wholly implausible explanation (her amazingly lucrative cattle trades that were first reported in 1994) to another (her private server as secretary of state that was first reported in 2015).

Rich

Lowry

Conservative Chronicle

GOP CONVENTION: July 22, 2016

Notes from Cleveland: The two-part rebellion

he main purpose of the modern political convention is to produce four days of televised propaganda. The subsidiary function, now that nominees are invariably chosen in advance, is structural: Unify the party before the final battle. In Cleveland, the Republicans achieved not unity, but only a rough facsimile.

sequiously accommodated himself to Trump during the first six months of the campaign. Cruz reinforced that impression of political calculation when, addressing the Texas delegation Thursday morning, he said that “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.” That he should feel so is not surprising. What is surprising is that he said this publicly, THE INTERNAL opposition con- thus further undermining his claim to sisted of two factions. The more flamboy- acting on high principle. ant was led by Ted Cruz. Its first operaThe other faction of the anti-Trump tion — an undermanned, underplanned, opposition was far more subtle. These mini-rebellion over convention rules are the leaders of the party’s — was ruthlessly congressional wing steamrolled on who’ve offered pubDay One. Its othlic allegiance to er operation was Trump while reCruz’s Wednesday maining privately (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group night convention unreconciled. You speech in which, against all expectation, could feel the reluctance of these latterhe refused to endorse Donald Trump. day Marranos in the speeches of Senate It’s one thing to do this off-site. It’s Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and another thing to do it as a guest at a cel- House Speaker Paul Ryan. ebration of the man you are rebuking. McConnell’s pitch, as always, was Cruz left the stage to a cascade of practical and direct. We’ve got things boos, having delivered the longest sui- to achieve in the Senate. Obama won’t cide note in American political history. sign. Clinton won’t sign. Trump will. If Cruz fancied himself following RonVery specific, very instrumental. ald Reagan in 1976, the runner-up who Trump will be our enabler, an instruovershadowed the party nominee in a ment of the governing (or if you prefer, rousing convention speech that propelled establishment) wing of the party. him four years later to the nomination, he This is mostly fantasy and rationalmight reflect on the fact that Reagan en- ization, of course. And good manners dorsed Gerald Ford. by a party leader obliged to maintain Cruz’s rebellion would have a stron- a common front. The problem is that ger claim to conscience had he not ob- Trump will not allow himself to be the

Charles

Krauthammer

instrument of anyone else’s agenda. Moreover, the Marranos necessarily ignore the most important role of a president, conducting foreign and military policy abroad, which is almost entirely in his hands. RYAN WAS a bit more philosophical. He presented the reformicon agenda, dubbed the Better Way, for which he too needs a Republican in the White House. Ryan pointedly kept his genuflections to the outsider-king to a minimum: exactly two references to Trump, to be precise.

Moreover, in defending his conservative philosophy, he noted that at its heart lies “respect and empathy” for “all neighbors and countrymen” because “everyone is equal, everyone has a place” and “no one is written off.” Not exactly Trump’s Manichaean universe of winners and losers, natives and foreigners (including judges born and bred in Indiana). Together, McConnell and Ryan made clear that if Trump wins, they are ready to cooperate. And if Trump loses, they are ready to inherit. The loyalist (i.e., Trumpian) case had its own stars. It was most brilliantly presented by the ever-fluent Newt Gingrich, the best natural orator in either party, whose presentation of Trumpism had a coherence and economy of which Trump is incapable. Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence gave an affecting, self-deprecating address that managed to bridge his traditional conservatism with Trump’s insurgent populism. He managed to make the merger look smooth, even natural. Rudy Giuliani gave the most energetic loyalist address, a rousing law-and-order manifesto, albeit at an excitement level that surely alarmed his cardiologist. And Chris Christie’s prosecutorial indictment of Hillary Clinton for crimes of competence and character was doing just fine until he went to the audience after each charge for a call-and-response of “guilty or not guilty.” The frenzied response was a reminder as to why trials are conducted in a courtroom and not a coliseum. ON A CHEERIER note, there were the charming preambles at the roll call vote, where each state vies to out-boast the other. Connecticut declared itself home to “Pez, nuclear submarines and ... WWE.” God bless the United States.

August 3, 2016 DOUBLE STANDARD: July 21, 2016

Just words. Just rules. Just for conservatives.

ords — and the left’s hyp- its hypocrisy. As fate would have it, ocritical relationship with both President Obama and Vice Presithem — have been in the dent Biden have a history of lifting other people’s remarks. In 2008, while news quite a bit of late. The most recent tempest-in-a-teapot running for president, Obama gave a is the speech given by the wife of Re- speech that has come to be known as publican presidential nominee Donald “Just words,” in which he lifted big Trump, Melania Trump, Monday night. chunks of a speech given two years earAlthough 93 percent of Trump’s speech lier by Massachusetts governor Deval was original, a couple of passages Patrick. Both Obama and Patrick mainthe speech had been were virtually identical to those in a tained that used with Patrick’s speech given by consent. But no Michelle Obama acknowledgment in 2008: “you was given in the work hard for speech, and thus what you want in (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate it appeared as life;” “your word is your bond;” “you do what you say;” though Obama was attempting to pass and “you treat people with respect.” the remarks off as his own. The extent of copying in Barack There was an additional sentence in Melania Trump’s speech, also similar Obama’s “Just words” speech was to Obama’s, in which Trump reiterated substantially more than that of Melathe importance of passing these virtues nia Trump’s address. But you’d never know that from the media coverage. onto the next generation. Vice President Biden has even more AS ANN COULTER has noted in experience with plagiarism. In 1987, her column this week, those phrases are Biden gave a speech that was copied about as tired, overdone and unorigi- almost completely from one given by nal as possible. But the order of the British politician Neil Kinnock. (Interphrasing made the evidence of copying estingly, Biden’s excuse at the time was unmistakable. Trump’s speechwriter, that he usually gave Kinnock credit, but Meredith McIver, has admitted that the happened to forget on the instance in inclusion of material from Michelle question; coincidentally, this is the exObama’s 2008 remarks was McIver’s planation offered by Barack Obama in fault, and was an innocent mistake. It 2008). Biden was also accused of plamust have been, since it is too monu- giarizing a paper while in law school mentally stupid to have been done de- at Syracuse University. According to a 1987 New York Times article, Biden liberately. That said, the media’s feeding admitted the wrongdoing, but was alfrenzy was — as usual — brazen in lowed to continue his legal education.

Laura

Hollis

None of this kept the Obama/Biden ticket from taking the White House. The rules about words that only apply to conservatives are also playing out on social media. Twitter has permanently banned the flamboyantly gay and outspoken conservative Milo Yiannopolis, as a result of his criticism of the remake of the film Ghostbusters with an all-female cast. Black actress Leslie Jones, who stars in the film, was on the receiving end of countless vulgar and hateful tweets — none of which came from Yiannopolis. But an article in Vox patiently explained that Yiannopolis was banned because — wait for it — those who sent the racist tweets were clearly “his followers,” so he’s somehow responsible for what they say. In Twitter-speak, Yiannopolis controls (“controlls?”) a “troll army.” Well, OK then. TWITTER, LIKE Facebook, has been accused of discriminating against conservative speech. The banning of Milo Yiannopolis looks like further proof, when compared with Twitter’s decisions not to take down a cartoon

that showed a terrorist slitting a police officer’s throat, or suspend the user’s account. Nor did Twitter take any action against the many accounts of users who expressed support — in the crudest possible terms — for the killing of police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas. Criticize a movie = hate speech. Call for killing cops = free speech. Got it. In fact, when it comes to murder, different rules apply to words as long as leftists use them. Micah Johnson, the sniper who killed five Dallas police officers, said that he “wanted to kill white people; especially white officers.” Afterwards, President Obama said that it was “hard to untangle (Johnson’s) motives.” Really? And sometimes, the left just tries to pretend the words don’t exist. When Omar Mateen went on his murderous rampage in a gay bar in Orlando, the Justice Department inscrutably edited out all references to “ISIS,” “Allah” and “Allahu Akbar” in Mateen’s taped 9-11 calls to the police. Perhaps the most outrageous example of words that mean one thing for progressives, and something else for everyone else, is FBI Director James Comey’s speech earlier this month in which he informed the country that Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted for her mishandling of state secrets and other confidential information, because she didn’t have the requisite “intent.” Even though the words of the statute only required “gross negligence,” not “intent.” Even though Comey stated that Clinton was “extremely careless,” which is virtually synonymous with “grossly negligent.” Even though it was demonstrated that Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly about not having emails on her personal server that were marked “classified.” And even though, in Comey’s own words, another person “in similar circumstances” would likely “face ... consequences.” YOU SEE? The rules are different for them. But not to worry: to paraphrase President Obama (or Deval Patrick), it’s just words. Or, more specifically, just rules about words. And just for conservatives.

Conservative Chronicle

MEDIA BIAS: July 24, 2016

Melania Trump used references we all use

he allegations of plagiarism came “fast and furious” (pun intended) from all mainstream media outlets moments after the gavel banged adjourning the Wednesday evening session of the Republican National Convention. The actions were that Mrs. Melania Trump had plagiarized Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention Speech. The mainstream media, motivated by their contempt for truth, dignity and for anyone who loves America made fools of themselves. Their accusations were ignorant and morally opprobrious, but obviously not out of character for them. IN HER Convention speech Mrs. Trump said: “From a young age my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life.” The verbiage Melania Trump used is as common in individual lexicons as: “hello, goodbye, nice day and goodnight.” I have used virtually, if not at times literally, the exact language verbatim, whenever referencing my late mother and my late grandmother. My son has used almost the exact same verbiage during many of his interviews, speeches, and/or presentations. We hear athletes make the same verbalizations nearly verbatim. Successful people from Derek Jeter to Tiger Woods to, well, Melania Trump say the same thing. The media in their rush to a “gotcha” moment succeeded in creating the proverbial tempest in a teapot. The media’s ability to seize so quickly upon such common colloquialisms and yet tacitly refuse to expose the mountain of unimpeachable criminal behavior by Hillary Clinton is further example of their immoral and duplicitous double standards. What the media did succeed in doing, is yet again having the new media do one of the things it does best — report on the selective moral outrage of left by exposing in full detail what the mainstream media pretends doesn’t exist. In this case the new media immediately exposed the numerous times Obama has factually plagiarized. Obama was factually guilty of lifting major sections from a speech by Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor. In Obama’s State of the Union address in 2014, as President George W. Bush’s lead speech writer told Megyn Kelly: “Obama has gone from blaming [President] Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush.” (See: Bush Speechwriter: Obama Plagiarized Bush; Hadas Gold; politico.com; 1/29/2014)

Using the media standard for plagia- was the first time she was proud of her rism, Michelle Obama plagiarized First country. We did not hear her derogate Lady Laura Bush’s speeches. The sim- anyone. Mrs. Trump spoke of America ple facts are that you will find remark- with a genuine love and appreciation able similarities that are at points near that was palpable. Mrs. Trump did not into the usage of anacarbon copies of speeches by First Lady descend phoric code words Laura Bush of First that played to the Lady Nancy Reavictim classes. gan. In fact, as the Except from the DC Gazette exusual ideologists, posed, in a speech (c) 2016, Mychal Massie Americans were given by Hillary enthralled by Mrs Clinton in 2014 for the New American Foundation, she Trump, a lady who truly exudes appreparroted much the same verbiage Mi- ciation and love for her adopted home. I would point out to the mainstream chelle Obama used in 2008, which was the same verbiage First Lady Laura media, who breathlessly wait for “gotBush used in her 2004 RNC speech. cha” moments and for any opportunity (See: Sorry Liberals, Melania Trump to spin a negative narrative, that they Did NOT Plagiarize Michelle Obama’s remember the lack of character of those Speech And This Is Why; posted by they are shilling for. Their willful ignoring the weight of unimpeachable eviLindsey Bruce; 7/19/2016) dences of systemic wrongdoing by the THAT SAID, the most important Democrat Party as a whole, and Clinthing is what we did not hear from Mrs. ton, Obama, Loretta Lynch, Valerie JarTrump. We did not hear her say that this rett, Eric Holder, and Bill Clinton spe-

Mychal

Massie

cifically is viciously ignored and denied by the mainstream media. As for the voters still on the fence, the question you must answer is who would you rather have in the White House? A genuinely elegant woman who is proud to be an American and who believes in the greatness of America, or the man who when he last occupied the White House was best know for lying to a grand jury, battery against a bevy of women, sexual assaults, molestation and a stained blue dress? I’M SURE there are those who will echo Hillary Clinton’s sentiments of “what does it matter anyway,” but for those who actually care about the direction America is headed — that’s an important question. Because in the final analysis, leftist sycophants can spin and obfuscate the facts but they cannot erase the voluminous record of wrongdoing and self-serving bad decisions by the Clintons and Obama that have placed all Americans in peril.

TOM COTTON: July 22, 2016

Tom Cotton, a Republican to watch

fter his address at the Republican national convention in Cleveland on Monday, it would be inaccurate to declare that a star is born, because it’s been clear for some time that Tom Cotton’s performance has been stellar all along. Whether he was at Harvard, with the military, or in the U.S. Senate, he’s taken stands no one else might dare — and backed them up with a courage that springs from conviction.

THIS BOY from Dardanelle, Ark., in Yell County — Mattie Ross country — has grown into a man his family, his state and now his country can be proud of. Because in just nine minutes before the television cameras Monday night, he summed up not just what this less than illuminating presidential campaign has been about, but what America is about. Not heated divisions and cold calculations but unity, justice and confidence. It’s time for America to be great again, the current head of his party declares. But she’s always been great. And as long as this country continues to produce Tom Cottons, she will grow greater still. Monday night, the junior senator from Arkansas put it better than any jaded commentator on the news could: “We don’t fight because we hate our enemies but because we love our country. We love its freedom and we love that we as Americans are born equal and live free, and that no one can boss us around

or rule us without our consent. We know these things are worth fighting for and dying for because they make life worth living for.” Like Abraham Lincoln, another long, tall Republican in another era of confusion and division, this speaker was going to appeal to the better angels of our nature, not the most partisan impulses of a deeply divided nation. HOW PREPARE for such a major address? Answer: not overly. Or as Tom Cotton put it before the show: “It’ll be the biggest audience, I’m sure,

Paul

since it’ll be a national televised audience, but I have been in some few other pressure-packed situations, so I think I can handle the convention hall tonight. I’ve spent several hours working on my speech, a few more hours with my wife working on the delivery, a few prayers, a good dinner.” And to judge by the result, it all worked. Concisely, informally, effectively. To borrow a term from a great speaker named Franklin Roosevelt, it was a Fireside Chat — even if there was no fireside: “We’d like a commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars. We’d like a commander-in-chief who calls the enemy

by its name. A commander-in-chief who draws red lines cautiously but enforces them ruthlessly. And it would be nice to have a commander-in-chief who can be trusted to handle classified information.” No wonder the speech was punctuated by regular bursts of applause from the convention. In homes across America, regardless of any party affiliation or none, heads must have nodded in agreement. As if the country, so long without guidance, was getting some. To quote CNN’s Chris Cuomo speaking of this remarkable senator, soldier and ever growing statesman: “He’s the future of your party. He’s 39 years old. He’s a family man, he’s a veteran ... and he’s speaking to a lot of the issues that resonate with the American people. Age matters, generation matters, energy matters. He has all of those things.” Whatever his eyesight, Tom Cotton has got to have 20-20 vision, which is a reference not to an optical chart but to a prospective presidential campaign. After his nine minutes before the convention and the country, Tom Cotton was due to meet with Republican delegates from Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida. ... If that sounds suspiciously like a presidential candidate’s itinerary four years from now, it is. HIS SCHEDULE, as he says, is “pretty busy. I came to Cleveland to work, not to party.” Just as he has come to every challenge in his young life.

August 3, 2016 MEDIA BIAS: July 20, 2016

Michelle’ Obama’s speech was trite, too

If you’re on MSNBC and traffic in hen MSNBC signed off at 3 a.m. the first night of the outrage and sanctimony every day, you Republican National Con- can lose your bearings and not even revention, they were still talking about alize what an idiot you’ve become. MSNBC called in experts from variMelania’s speech. For five solid hours, MSNBC had ous fields — a linguist from MIT, a been obsessing over two paragraphs psychiatrist specializing in pathological of Melania Trump’s speech that were self-destructive impulses — and now, go to Jacques Truffaut nearly identical to Michelle Obama’s l e t ’ s in Paris! Well, Brian, 2008 convention the French here are speech. just getting a transThe similar lation of the speech passages were: as we speak, and I — The only (c) 2016, Ann Coulter can tell you they limit to your are shocked. achievements is the (Yes, the moderator for MSNBC’s strength of your dreams! hysterical coverage of Melania’s “pla— Your word is your bond! — May your tomorrows be brighter giarism” was Brian Williams, who must have been trying to quietly excuse himthan your yesterdays! — From tiny acorns great oaks grow! self from someone else’s embarrassing verbal blunders.) Not one single person on MSNBC MSNBC COVERED the banal sayings as if Melania had been caught said, “Yeah, um, can we talk about selling secrets to the Soviets. All night, something else because this is so lame commentators somberly intoned, It’s es- and trivial, we risk looking like sissies.” Huffington Post, Gawker and Jezebel sential that the campaign get out in front of this. Trump needs to apologize ... pulled all-nighters to hoot and sneer at Now is the time for him to demonstrate the prospective first lady’s speech. The crisis management skills — and this IS following day, Andrea Mitchell devoted half her show to Melania’s “plagiaa bona fide crisis. The network presented a split screen rism.” In a few days, we’ll be seeing, DAY presentation of the two paragraphs next to each other, with a color-coded bar 5: NO APOLOGY FOR PLAGIAshowing when the plagiarism becomes RIZED PARAGRAPH! more intense. Hosts read the correLISTEN TO yourselves, MSNBC! sponding parts of the speeches over and over again. Lawrence O’Donnell pro- Your obsession with the “theft” of these saccharine sentiments only reminds nounced: “This is serious.”

Ann

Coulter

people how trite Michelle Obama’s speech was. (Which you adored.) More shocking than the fact that Melania used some of the same expressions from Michelle’s speech is that someone heard these hackneyed phrases and said, “I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE I’VE HEARD THAT BEFORE!” Haven’t you heard these platitudes a thousand times before? Kids spend half the day affirming how special they are. I am somebody! I can do anything! The world is my oyster! Personally, I think it’s a creepy and cynical thing to do. We ought to be honest with people. You can do some things and have a happy life, but most of you are never going to be a nuclear scientist, an NFL quarterback or a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet. No one wants to state the obvious because it involves making fun of both Melania and Michelle, but the fact is: It’s impossible to “plagiarize” meaningless twaddle. Obviously, Melania’s speechwriter didn’t think up those words — and nei-

ther did Michelle’s. You can hear the same thing at any third-rate college commencement, at Orientation Day at Excel academies, at motivational speakers’ corporate events, and right now, in the greeting card aisle of your local Rite Aid. Not even Hallmark cards could claim authorship because there were probably caveman drawings with rainbows that said, “You can achieve anything you set your mind to!” If I were giving a speech and suddenly burst into, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets ...” you’d have a right to say, “Um — Ann, did you write that part about fighting on the beaches yourself? But if I say: “The only limit to your achievement is your dreams!” no one can claim the rights to those words because they’re insipid nothings. No one invented “the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams,” anymore than I invented “Hey — how you doing?” There’s nothing there! These are phrases designed to allow you to make sounds while moving your mouth. People who wanted to hate Melania thought her speech was godawful, and the ones who like her thought it was awesome and are now requesting copies of the speech to use at the office. But all that actually happened was: Melania Trump gave a typical first lady speech. I can’t remember a first lady speech that was memorable. In fact, it would take me a week to think of any convention speech that was memorable. I’ll see your “the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams” and raise you, “I LOVE YOU, WOMEN!” (Ann Romney, 2012 Republican Convention.) Some people like this stuff. There’s a reason we have a greeting card business. THE MEDIA wanted a catastrophe the first night of the Republican National Convention because they’d already written the chyrons for it. Unfortunately, the fact that Melania gave a typically banal first lady speech was the best they got, so MSNBC just powered through with “an attitude of gratitude” realizing that “satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.” I wrote those myself.

Conservative Chronicle

REPUBLICAN PARTY: July 22, 2016

Why I am not a Cruzite: Undermining the GOP

ed Cruz’s electrifying perfor- responsibility for what has happened to mance at the 2016 Republican the Republican Party, and thus, to the National Convention will be country. Together with talk radio and long remembered, and deservedly so. At Fox News celebrities, Cruz wove the a critical moment, when the party of Lin- tale of Republican Party betrayal that coln had uncomfortably but nonetheless so alienated and embittered Republican thoroughly embraced a lifelong Demo- voters against his own party. From the crat/reality star/violence-abettor — and moment he arrived in Washwhen few leading ington, Cruz lacerRepublicans had ated Republicans as demonstrated the part of the “Washcourage to oppose ington cartel.” His him — Cruz did. specialty was the (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Politicians live for attention-grabbing the adulation of crowds, and it’s bracing, gesture, such as his filibuster against even thrilling, to see one stand up straight Obamacare. It had no chance of success, when suffering their jeers. Cruz was par- but positioned Ted Cruz very well with ticularly effective because he dropped the “base.” the Southern preacher style he affected Cruz was crucial in portraying the during the primaries and spoke plainly. Republican leadership — which, while not perfect, had certainly held the line AND YET, and yet. One can never against President Barack Obama — as quite get over the sense with Cruz that corrupt and complicit in everything everything is calculated. He took a risk, Obama had done. In June 2015, for exyes, but there is high potential gain for ample, he mocked: “Why is it that Rehim in being perceived, whatever hap- publican leadership always cuts deals pens in November, as the voice of pure with Democrats and with Washington Republican conservatism. Cruz was a and throws overboard the conservatives pillar of strength last night, God bless that, come October and November in an him. But let’s not forget that John Kasich election year, they are desperately askhas not bowed to the orange god either, ing them to turn out and elect them to nor has Mitt Romney, or Ben Sasse, or power?” many others. When he won Iowa, he proclaimed it There is so much to admire about a “victory for every American who has Cruz — and I don’t doubt that if his plan watched in dismay as career politicians had worked and he’d been elected, he in both parties refused to listen and too would have made a good president — often fail to keep their commitments to but he also must bear some measure of the people.”

Mona

Charen

AND AS TRUMP rose in the polls and became a dire threat to nearly everything conservatives claim to cherish, Cruz adjusted his positions (endorsing deportation of illegal immigrants and their American citizen children, for example, and opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership) and kept praising the New York fraudster. Should Trump apologize for what he said about Mexican immigrants being rapists? Cruz: “I think he’s terrific. I think he’s brash. I think he speaks the truth.” Trump’s critics were “silly” and “politically correct.” Cruz

applauded Trump for “taking on the Washington cartel.” As late as December 2015 — after Trump mocked a handicapped reporter, after he made reference to Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle, after he called on a crowd to “rough up” a protester — Cruz called Trump “terrific.” Clearly, the senator was gambling that the reality star would implode and Cruz would be waiting to net Trump’s fans. That’s a motive, but not an excuse. By praising him so often and so unequivocally, didn’t Cruz help to detoxify Trump? Cruz is a decent and honorable person, but he abetted Trump’s indecency until Trump’s muzzle swung in his direction. And by sowing so much unfair suspicion about the Republican Party, didn’t Cruz help create the “burn it down” mood of 2016, which, in the end, devoured Cruz’s own hopes, along with so much else? Politicians position, hedge and dodge. Understood. But when that positioning comes in the form of undermining a key institution, i.e. the Republican Party, it’s playing with fire. Institutions take decades or generations to build. The Republican Party, for all its faults, was the only vehicle for conservative ideas in our society. Ted Cruz, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and the rest picked an ironic time to undermine it, since the party has never been more thoroughly conservative (at least as reflected in elected officials) than it was in 2016. NOW, WITH A Trumpified Republican Party, conservatives are homeless and arguably crippled. If Trump wins, the transmogrification of the Republican Party will be total and “conservatives” will be Trumpites. If he loses (which is much more likely), the stain of Trumpism may keep Republicans from the White House for another generation. Either way, conservatism is the loser.

August 3, 2016 TED CRUZ: July 22, 2016

In a party filled with cowards, Cruz stood apart

ay what you will about Ted Cruz’s politics or personality, but it takes a special kind of chutzpah to stand up at a convention — in front of millions of viewers — and unfurl a comprehensive attack on the party’s nominee. It’s also unprecedented. On Wednesday night, Cruz gave a commanding and inclusive speech about conservative values. It was so good that the crowd forgot to boo until he was more than halfway finished. “Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom ... (so that) we will be able to say, ‘Freedom matters, and I was part of something beautiful.’”

ALL THESE words were broadsides against Donald Trump’s candidacy. By the end, the crowd tried to drown him out with boos and pro-Trump chants. Cruz’s wife had to be escorted out of the convention center because a mob of Trump fans was threatening her. A man in a do-

nor suite had to be restrained when Cruz Then there were those who had no walked by. They didn’t want something shame. Example: Then-candidate Rick beautiful at the Republican National Perry once gave a speech titled “DefendConvention; they wanted something an- ing Conservatism Against the Cancer of gry. Trump-ism.” Cancer. Now, if you want to When Trump first ran for president, read the text of his speech, you won’t be he claimed that the Republican Party able to find it on Perry’s website. It’s been was nothing but a bunch of spineless removed. And the man who once weasels who didn’t have the mettle to s a i d Trump-ism is “a toxic fight. Trump then mix of demagoguery won the nominaand mean-spiritedtion, and most of ness and nonsense the Republican that will lead the establishment Republican Party (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate proved his contento perdition if purtion true by backing a candidate whose sued” was soon angling for the veep spot worldview directly conflicted with their and promised that he would help Trump own stated beliefs. in “myriad ways.” There were those, such as Paul Ryan MarcoRubio, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who reluctantly and Scott Walker were the people who offered unconvincing endorsements to would supposedly synthesize conservaavert a civil war. Let’s just say this is tive ideals and then offer a compelling, the sort of risk aversion that falls well modern, principled, political case. All of within the normal parameters of politi- them were, at various times, harshly critically expedient behavior — the kind we cal of Trump. But all of them eventually all supposedly hate. fell in line. Trump fans are never going

David

Harsanyi

MORALITY: July 21, 2016

Cause and effect: The nation is groaning

n 1926, speaking about the Declaration of Independence on its 150th anniversary, President Calvin Coolidge noted the unique philosophy behind the creation of the United States: “We cannot continue to enjoy the result, if we neglect and abandon the cause.” Speaking at a news conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following the murder of three police officers and the wounding of three others, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said, “... this is not so much about gun control as it is about what’s in men’s hearts. And until we come together as a nation, as a people, to heal as a people, if we don’t do that and this madness continues, we will surely perish as a people.” Considering the anti-police rhetoric coming from so many groups and individuals, he is right. The question is how do we heal men’s hearts? Isn’t that the primary calling of the clergy?

Donald Trump has positioned himself as “the law and order” candidate. The left may be playing into his hands, as did those in 1968 who rioted in the streets and at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, sealing the election for Richard Nixon. When it comes to national defense and domestic unrest, Republicans have been the preferred party to strengthen the country and restore domestic tranquility. But people looking for

SINCE THE 1960s when one of the popular slogans of that rebellious generation was “question authority,” the U.S. has plunged into an era of licentiousness, looking out for number one (a popular book title in the ‘70s) and the pursuit of prosperity, ignoring higher things like tradition and history, which have proved better for individuals and nations. The divisions have become so strained that some are at war against law enforcement, which, if it doesn’t cease, will end in anarchy.

ONE DOESN’T have to endure a sermon — if that is unfamiliar territory — to be struck by the power of ancient truths. Start with Psalm 9:17, “The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.” How about this one: “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.” (Proverbs 29:18) One more to confirm the point: “When the righteous are in authority,

Cal

guidance on how to restore a sense of personal peace and order need look no further than the Bible, the guidebook found in many homes and in most hotel rooms.

the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.” (Proverbs 29:2) The nation is groaning. One doesn’t have to be religious to understand the principle of cause and effect. If you jump off a tall building the cause of your rapid descent — gravity — will produce the effect of your death when you hit the ground. In our post-modern, post-Christian era, we have ignored the moral gravity that once kept us grounded, the boundaries that kept us safe. And now we are suffering the consequences. We are suffering as a people because we have neglected and abandoned the cause of our strength, peace, order and prosperity. There is a way back, but the road is not through the next election and it certainly is not through Washington, which is part of the problem. In The Gulag Archipelago 19181956, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote: “If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” IT DOESN’T have to be destroyed. It can be renewed, but that is up to our individual will and a higher power which politicians do not possess.

to warm to these “elitists,” no matter how helpful they are this year. And after Cruz’s speech, all of them look weak. CRUZ, WHO we shouldn’t forget tried to be buddies with Trump for most of last year, ended up in a different place. Now, I should note that if someone smeared my wife and accused my father of being complicit in the murder of a president, I wouldn’t merely refuse to endorse that person; I would have a new favorite enemy. I’m sensitive like that. So I can imagine Cruz’s speech had something to do with this history. He’s human, after all. It also says something about Trump’s judgment that he invited a politician whom he’d cruelly attacked to speak at the convention — in a prime-time spot. “This man is a pathological liar,” Cruz spat out not that long ago. “He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. ... The man is utterly amoral.” Even if you believe that the Trump camp set Cruz up to be booed (a story I’m highly skeptical about), he created a needlessly divisive situation that could have easily backfired. It couldn’t have only been vengeance. Cruz hasn’t really wavered on his political positions — whether you like them or not. What shouldn’t be lost in the kerfuffle is that the speech he gave was a well-delivered distillation of conservative ideas that went well beyond the strikes on Trump. In contrast with what’s been going on, it sounded inclusive. Cruz also made a strong case for religious liberty — for Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists — and for federalism. All that talk about the Constitution offended Trump’s fans because they know well that the candidate has little, if any, interest in preserving the document. The phrase “vote your conscience” provoked boos from the GOP nominee’s fans. The same day Cruz angered Trump supporters by not honoring a silly political pledge to endorse the GOP nominee, Trump was quoted in a New York Times interview praising another authoritarian and asserting that he would ignore international treaties signed by the United States. SO THOUGH it takes guts to pull off what Cruz did, there wasn’t much downside politically. It seems unlikely that a Trump victory would mean an end to Cruz’s Senate career. If 2016 ends up being a disaster for his party — and it’s a good bet it will — Cruz will be the only major Republican to emerge from the Trump fiasco with his principles largely intact. Maybe, as his critics claim, he’s just laying the groundwork for 2020. Maybe it will backfire. Maybe only someone as stubborn and egotistical as Cruz could do it. So what?

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: July 21, 2016

The candidates for 2016: Character, temperament

hen Great Britain’s Boris Johnson was forced out of the running to replace David Cameron as prime minister by an act of the utmost treachery, the civilized minority on both sides of the Atlantic knew that we had only one candidate left to deliver us amusement and a dramatic shift to good government, Donald Trump. He is entertaining, good natured and possessed of sound ideas to break the logjam in Washington. The Brits are just going to have to be patient. AFTER ALL, Johnson is not completely out of government. Cameron’s successor, Theresa May, has just made him foreign minister, a position from which he can continue to shake up Europe, the English-speaking world, and even his country’s staid foreign office. He is energetic and has a delightful way with words, for instance, when he chided President Barack Obama for “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire.” Obama had ordered that a bust of Winston Churchill be removed from the White House, even though the British statesman was part-American. That was rich. Or when he disesteemed Hillary Clinton for having “dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.” Another good line, Johnson, but is your assessment fair? I think not. To begin with, she does not have “a steely blue stare.” The blue of her eyes might be, as with practically everything else about her, a studied fake. Allegedly, she wears blue contact lenses. Her blue eyes look a muddy brown without her cosmetic lenses. As for her “dyed blonde hair,” for all I know she is bald. When Johnson speaks of her putting him in mind of a “sadistic nurse in a mental institution,” he is only half right. If she were in a mental institution she would be in one not because she was a “sadistic nurse,” but because she was a patient. She is an obvious sociopath. I have watched her carefully for 25 years and reviewed her life going back over four decades. She does not know right from wrong. Her recent run-in with the FBI and her obvious lies to the American people and to the relatives of Benghazi’s victims have been preceded by lies during her work for the Watergate committee, during her years in the Arkansas governor’s mansion (cattle futures, Whitewater, scores more scandals), during her White House years, during 9/11 (Chelsea Clinton’s epic run) and then her email catastrophe. These are only lies she has told. They have nothing to do with her corruption. Forget not that we have yet to hear about the investi-

gation of her co-mingling of State De- received,” she meant it. Though it was partment and Clinton Family Founda- a lie. When she said, “I provided the Department ... with all of my worktion work. In 2009, she was given a fresh start related emails, all that I had,” she was at State. All her past indiscretions had in earnest. But it was not the truth. At been wiped away by the elite’s collec- her first press conference addressing emails she lied when she tive amnesia. Yet somehow she man- her errant “I thought it would aged with her thousands of State De- s a i d , be easier to carry partment emails just one device to pull off her for my work and greatest blunder for my personal ever. With Hillary emails instead of Clinton, things (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate two.” Balderdash! do not get better. As anyone who looked into the matter They get worse. soon discovered, she had multiple deANY PERSON undergoing an FBI vises for four years as she reigned atop investigation who tells so many lies the State Department. Most of us who care to know realize so effortlessly has no sense of right or wrong. When she said, “I did not email that she has lied throughout this enorany classified material on my email,” mous scandal, the worst that has ever she meant it. Though it was a lie. When engulfed any secretary of state and she said, “There was nothing marked arguably any president, including her classified on my emails, either sent or impeached husband. Now we have the

R. Emmett

Tyrrell

director of the FBI to certify these lies and several others. Yet the Democrats in convention assembled are going to nominate her for the highest office in the land. THEY CLAIM Donald Trump lacks the “temperament” of a president. Yet they would nominate a candidate who lacks basic probity? Every time her character is put to the test, Clinton fails the test. This time she failed it on the world stage: at home, in hell holes such as Libya and Syria, and in compromising our intelligence to “hostile actors.” The Democrats would settle for a crook as their nominee over a candidate of questionable temperament. The last time they questioned the temperament of a Republican his name was Reagan. The American people gave him a landslide.

2016 ELECTION: July 19, 2016

Balance: A pivot to the center

very time a voter contemplates the prospect of another President Clinton, it may be enough to make the prospect of a President Trump palatable. And vice versa. Swirling between the Scylla and Charybdis of this weird presidential race, the poor voter may find himself caught up in a whirlpool of second, third and fourth thoughts, with still more to come before November. It’s not just presidential politics this year that may be spinning wildly, but his head.

AT LEAST The Donald picked a running mate to give the GOP ticket some balance. Instead of an attack dog, he’s chosen a solid, conventional conservative in Gov. Mike Pence of solid, conservative Indiana. Call it a kangaroo ticket: stronger in the hind legs. The Donald’s choice of a prospective veep may be the only responsible decision he’s made as a presidential candidate to date. True to bad form, the Clinton camp immediately denounced Donald Trump’s choice of a moderate, centrist candidate for veep as “the most extreme pick in a generation.” Why? For any number of reasons. Gov. Pence, it seems, had moved to defund Planned Parenthood starting in 2007. The governor also has done his best to discourage abortions on his watch. And he moved to protect the rights of those citizens who have conscientious objections to celebrating marriages other than those between one man and one woman. Tell us more, since all those sound less like

reasons to denounce Gov. Pence than to applaud him. What’s more, Gov. Pence’s defense of freedom of religion applies to Muslims, too, which is why he’s differed with Donald Trump’s call for banning Muslim immigrants. As he put it in a tweet: “Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.” As if our Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, which it does. Of course, now that he’s on the ticket, he has decided to help the boss. By helpfully explaining that The Donald meant only banning immigrants from countries where terrorists had taken over the government. And The Donald seemed to agree. Anybody who can moderate his message has got to be a welcome addition to the Republican ticket this year.

Paul

LET’S NOTE, too, that Gov. Pence has been a longtime advocate of free trade. Which is why he supported NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which joined Mexico, the United States and Canada in a common market, benefiting all. Unlike the party’s rampaging standard-bearer this year. No doubt, other differences between these two Republicans will be mined for all they’re worth and more as this strange presidential campaign gets even stranger, proceeding from the surreal

to the ridiculous. It’s embarrassing, but what isn’t about this year’s presidential contest? American presidential elections long have been contests between an old America fading away and a new one a-borning. The classic example may have been William Jennings Bryan’s campaign against William McKinley in 1896. An accomplished orator, Mr. Bryan mesmerized the Democratic convention that year and went on to run not just once but three times as the party’s standard-bearer. That he lost every time gave him a reputation not so much as a loser but martyr. Some of our best candidates for president were never elected (think Adlai Stevenson) while others were unlikely choices who went on to prove great presidents (like James K. Polk and Abraham Lincoln). Or as Joaquin Andujar, a relief pitcher as erratic as they come once put it, there’s one word to describe America: You never know. This crazy year only the unexpected can be expected. MEANWHILE, the Democrats’ search for a vice presidential candidate proceeds from left to lefter. For example, Queen Hillary has interviewed Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts firebrand, for the job. With her on the ticket, immoderation will be assured. Yet her camp calls solid Mike Pence an extremist. Stay tuned, confused American. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Surprises await. And, just as assuredly, so do disappointments.

August 3, 2016 REPUBLICAN PARTY: July 24, 2016

Donald picks his running mate: Pence the pliable

rucial political decisions of- particularly, women with post-bachelor ten concern which bridges to degrees. This fast-growing group — the cross and which to burn. Don- percentages of women in law, medical ald Trump’s dilemma is that he burns and business schools’ enrollments are some bridges by the way he crosses 48.7, 46.9 and 36.2, respectively — is others. His campaign depends on a low- already approximately 65 percent Demprobability event, and on his ability to ocratic. Can Trump ignite a spike in the cause this event without provoking a non-college white vote without causing more-than-equal and opposite reaction. a more-than-commensurate increase in Extrapolating from recent elections, the Democratic propensity of the colthe turnout of non-college educated lege-educated? Speaking of lowwhites this November would be exprobability events, pected to be three Trump’s literpercent smaller as ary interests were a portion of the tohidden until his tal turnout than in vice presidential 2012, and college (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group search took him educated whites a to Charles Dickone percent larger portion. The core of Trump’s support ens’ David Copperfield, where he found consists of non-college educated whites, Mike Pence, whose sometimes unctua cohort whose 2012 turnout was 60.4 ous affect resembles Uriah Heep’s: So percent. There is a low probability that very ‘umble. The adjective “oleagiTrump can motivate recent non-voters nous” might have been invented to dein this cohort to increase the turnout to scribe Pence’s performance with Trump 67 percent. There is, however, a high on 60 Minutes: Being chosen by Trump is “very, probability that the way he stimulates such people — still more insult oratory very humbling.” Trump is “one of the and fact-free “policy” expostulations — best negotiators in the world” and will provide “broad-shouldered American will cause other groups to recoil. strength.” Trump — “this good man” FOR THE FIRST time since at (what would a bad man look like to least 1952 — the first election for which Pence?) — “is awed with the American ample data is available — Democrats people.” Pence, a broad-spectrum social conprobably will win a majority of voters with college degrees — a large and servative saddened by our fallen world, growing group (In 1952, 6.4 percent of can minister to the boastful adulterer Americans had completed college; to- and aspiring torturer who Pence thinks day, about 33 percent have.) Consider, belongs in the bully pulpit. Actually, the

George

Will

sole benefit of Trump’s election would be in making the presidency’s sacerdotal role — the nation’s moral tutor — terminally ludicrous. IN MAY, Pence endorsed Ted Cruz but larded his endorsement with lavish praise of Trump, who excuses Pence for buckling “under tremendous pressure from establishment people.” In a year of novelties, now this one: A presidential candidate calls his running mate weak. It will be interesting to see if Pence will defend his defensible opposition, as a congressman, to Medicare Part D, the prescription drug entitlement. When George W. Bush proposed this

bit of “compassionate conservatism,” House Democrats voted 195-9 against it, deeming it insufficiently compassionate to seniors and excessively compassionate to pharmaceutical companies. Nineteen House Republicans, including Pence, voted against it, largely because this was the first major entitlement enacted without provision for funding. To give the Bush administration time to twist arms and dangle enticements, Republicans held open the floor vote for 2 hours and 51 minutes, twice as long as the previous longest House vote. It passed 216-215. If pharmacology had been as potent in 1965 as it has become, prescription drugs might then have been included in Medicare. Today, will a pliable Pence amend his convictions and repent his resistance to this now immensely popular entitlement? Trump, Pence’s new lodestar, sees nothing amiss with the existing entitlement system and disparages those (remember the man who used to be Chris Christie?) who think trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities are problematic. Pence also has strongly favored free trade, including the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump calls “the worst economic deal in the history of our country.” Never mind. In 1980, George H.W. Bush denounced Ronald Reagan’s “voodoo economics” until Reagan selected Bush as his running mate, whereupon Bush decided that it was very good voodoo economics. The malleable shall inherit the earth. AS TRUMP’S campaign manager, Paul Manafort, says, Trump “has changed the face of the Republican Party” just as Ronald Reagan did. Indeed. A snarl has replaced the sunny Southern California smile. Trump, himself a brand, has completed the rebranding of the Republican Party.

Conservative Chronicle

FEDERAL DEBT: July 20, 2016

Will Congress control debt or will debt control us?

In 2010, after a Democrat-controlled he delegates to the Republican National Convention ap- Congress enacted Obamacare and ran a proved a platform this week trillion-dollar-plus deficit for the second that criticizes the Obama administration fiscal year in a row, American voters publicans a majority in for running up the federal debt and calls gave ReHouse. for amending the Constitution to require t h e The Republicanthe federal govcontrolled House ernment to balcut its first spending ance its budget. deal with Obama The amendin March 2011. ment the platform (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate Since then, the advocates would limit federal spending to a percentage federal debt has increased by more than of gross domestic product and require five trillion dollars in less than five and a supermajority in Congress to approve a half years. In 2014, voters gave Republicans “any tax increase.” control of the Senate as well as the SUCH AN amendment would be a House. Last October, Republican congresgood thing — not only because of what the Obama administration has done but sional leaders cut a budget deal with also because of what Republicans in President Obama that suspended any limit on the federal debt until March Congress have done. “The current administration’s refusal 2017. For incumbents of both parties, to work with Republicans took our na- that effectively postponed any battle tional debt from $10 trillion to nearly over the federal debt until after this year’s election. $19 trillion today,” says the platform. The Republican Congress and Presi“At the same time the administration’s policies systematically crippled dent Obama have not yet agreed on apeconomic growth and job creation, driv- propriations laws for fiscal 2017, which ing up government costs and driving begins Oct. 1 — a little more than a down revenues,” it says. “When Con- month before the election. It is possible the Republican Congressional Republicans tried to reverse course, the administration manufac- gress could cut a short-term spendtured fiscal crises — phony government ing deal with Obama that appropriates shutdowns — to demand excessive funds for the first several weeks of the fiscal year — pushing it past the elecspending.” Yet the Constitution gives Congress tion — so Obama and members of the current Congress can cut another spendthe power to control federal spending.

Terry

Jeffrey

ing deal after the election and before the new president and Congress take office. That would be what they call “bipartisanship.” The Congressional Budget Office reported last week that its long-term estimates show the federal government headed toward a level of “debt held by the public” (securities sold by the U.S. Treasury) as a percentage of gross domestic product that this nation has never seen before. “Federal debt held by the public, which was equal to 39 percent of gross domestic product at the end of fiscal year 2008, has already risen to 75 percent of GDP in the wake of a financial crisis and a recession,” said CBO. “In CBO’s projections, that debt rises to 86 percent of GDP in 2026 and to 141 percent in 2046 — exceeding the historical peak of 106 percent that occurred just after World War II.”

“Specifically,” said CBO, “investors might become less willing to finance the government’s borrowing unless they were compensated with high interest rates. As a result, interest rates on federal debt would abruptly become higher than the rates of return on other assets, dramatically increasing the cost of future government borrowing. In addition, that increase would reduce the market value of outstanding government bonds. If that happened, investors would lose money. The potential losses for mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, banks, and other holders of government debt might be large enough to cause some financial institutions to fail, creating a fiscal crisis.” Major federal benefit programs — especially those that benefit retiring baby boomers — are pushing America in this direction. “In CBO’s projections, deficits rise during the next three decades because THIS INCREASING debt, accord- the government’s spending grows more ing to CBO, makes “a fiscal crisis more quickly than its revenues do,” said likely.” CBO. “In particular, spending grows for Social Security, the major health care programs (primarily Medicare), and interest on the government’s debt.” America is moving toward a fiscal crisis because over the past eight decades — beginning with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt — Congress has created and sustained programs that make increasing numbers of Americans dependent on government for key elements in their life (including income and health care). To balance the federal budget, America needs fewer people dependent on government. Can and will future Congresses reform — or, better yet, privatize — Social Security and Medicare so Americans are not made to pay steep payroll taxes to the federal government in their working years and then forced into government dependency (and thus government control) later in life? Will they roll back the Medicaid welfare program Obamacare expanded? A balanced budget — with or without a constitutional mandate for it — would require such changes. WILL CONGRESS control the federal debt or will it let that debt ultimately control us?

August 3, 2016 DONALD TRUMP: July 22, 2016

Is America ready for a disruptive president?

isruptive. That’s a good word to describe Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, and to describe the sometimes-ramshackle Republican National Convention his campaign more or less superintended in Cleveland this past week. Apple disrupted the music industry; Uber disrupted the taxi cartels; Amazon disrupted the mega-bookstores. Global competition has been disrupting American manufacturing for decades. The inundation of low-skill immigrants unintentionally produced by the 1965 immigration act has disrupted many communities and big metro areas. OVER HISTORY, America has mostly been built by disruption. Certainly the Loyalists in the American Revolution thought so. So did the farmers who cheered for William Jennings Bryan’s free silver as industrialization was disrupting the farm economy. The New Deal was disruptive. So was World War II. As Yuval Levin

points out in his book The Fractured no commentator took his chances seriRepublic, both the political left and ously — except the Dilbert cartoonist, political right see the two post-WW2 Scott Adams. The other 16 Republicans largely decades as normal, with high family formation, low crime, strong faith in represented a party consensus: conserinstitutions and relatively smooth eco- vative on cultural issues; pro tax cuts, backing military intervennomic growth. tions and free trade. But that period Trump was differwas the excepent: perfunctory on tion, not the rule. cultural issues; Postwar America against the Iraq was massively (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate War; corrosively disrupted by the critical of trade John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassina- agreements and illegal immigration. tions, high crime, urban riots and antiTRUMP’S VICTORY in the Rewar protests. That’s the point in time when Don- publican race owes much to $2 billion ald Trump began using his father’s po- or so of free media coverage and to his litical connections to move his Brook- 16 rivals’ unwillingness to risk attacks lyn/Queens real estate business to that might recoil against them. His Manhattan and beyond. And to stamp dystopian picture of America and the his last name on casinos, hotels and world spinning out of control gained credibility after terrorist attacks in San eventually a reality TV show. When Trump came down the esca- Bernardino and Paris, Orlando and lator at Trump Tower 13 months ago Nice, and even more so after recent and announced his candidacy, almost mass murder of police officers. This

Michael

Barone

FEDERAL DEBT: July 21, 2016

Make America sustainable again

he Congressional Budget Office recently released its longterm budget outlook. There isn’t much new there; we are still in the red, and it will only continue to get worse. Considering the extent of the problem, you would think someone on the campaign trail would pay attention. Yet no presidential candidate really is. First, CBO projects that the federal public debt-to-GDP ratio will go from its current 75 percent (up from 39 percent in 2008) to 86 percent in 2026 and 141 percent in 2046. On the deficit side, CBO projects that by 2020, our deficit level will reach $1 trillion, up from its current level of $534 billion. Today’s deficit-to-GDP ratio is 2.9 percent, and it may be close to five percent in 10 years and 8.8 percent in 2046.

THERE ARE a lot of assumptions going into these projections. As we know, a small change in these assumptions can have a significant impact. For instance, the newest projections show a slight improvement over previous projections because of lower-than-expected interest rates. However, CBO warns, a one percent increase in interest rates would propel the debt-to-GDP level to 188 percent. Gross debt would be much higher. In addition, we know that many of these assumptions (e.g., that there will not be a depression in the next 30 years and that the unemployment rate will

stay consistently at five percent over the next 30 years) are unlikely to materialize, which would make the final numbers look way worse than they do now. But even without assuming the worst, CBO talks about our dire fiscal outlook, “with debt growing larger in relation to the economy than ever recorded in U.S. history.” Indeed, down the road, debt is projected to reach much higher levels than in the

Veronique

aftermath of World War II, when it stood at 106 percent of gross domestic product. But these levels of debt today are more worrisome than in the 1940s. For one thing, the debt levels in the ‘40s were the product of significant increases in war spending, which naturally went down after the war. In addition, the postwar era experienced a fast-growing economy, which also helped lead to major reductions in debt levels. THAT IS NOT going to happen today. CBO projects meek economic growth all the way to 2046, along with large increases in spending levels. That means that unless we get a major

breakthrough in technology or a life-altering discovery (which could happen, of course), I wouldn’t count on postWWII reduction in deficits and debt and growth levels. But debt and deficits are only a symptom of a deeper problem; spending is growing faster than revenue. While revenue will grow from 18.2 percent of GDP today to 19.4 percent by 2046 (when the 50-year average will be 17.4 percent), spending will explode from 21.1 percent of GDP today to 28.2 percent of GDP in 2046 (when the 50-year average will 20.2 percent). The drivers of our future debt, CBO reminds us, are still the so-called entitlement programs — government-provided health care spending, in particular. It doesn’t mean that Social Security is not a problem, because it is — as is the large growth in interest payments on our debt. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the vague policy options on the campaign trail or in Washington, where talks of expanding Social Security, adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act and not touching Medicare are very popular.

was the centerpiece of his acceptance speech in Cleveland. Trump didn’t get a majority till he got home to New York April 19, but by May 4 all his rivals withdrew. It’s widely appreciated that Trump appealed especially to non-collegegraduates and older voters. There’s also an ethnic angle. Groups with high degrees of social connectedness and respect for order — Mormons, Dutchand German-Americans — were largely immune from his appeal. People without such ties, whom he called Thursday night “people who work hard but no longer have a voice,” were drawn to him. Groups that respond positively to raucous disruptive appeals rallied to Trump: Scots-Irish along the Appalachian spine from western Pennsylvania to northern Alabama; and ItalianAmericans, half of whom live with 100 miles of New York City. If you draw a map of counties where Trump topped 50 percent by May 4, the great bulk of them are along that diagonal and within that circle. For 20 years American elections have been battles between two roughly equal-sized armies in a culture war, with results differing little year to year. It’s easy to predict how 40 states will vote, much harder to predict who will win the election. Donald Trump may well disrupt this pattern, too. Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes seem within his range, as well as Ohio’s 16 and Florida’s 29 — which together would have made Mitt Romney president. Trump seems less competitive in states with younger, more educated populations, such as Colorado (9) and Virginia (13). Heavily German-American Wisconsin (10) seems hostile; low-social-connectedness Nevada (6) quite friendly. It’s not clear that this disruptive convention will help him. Trump’s managers have disrupted the traditions in place for 30 years. These rules had been: only supporters speak, sessions end promptly at 11 p.m., don’t visibly crush dissent, vet speeches carefully. Monday saw a rules rebellion squashed. Tuesday it was controversy over a bit of anodyne plagiarism. Wednesday it was Ted Cruz’s ringing non-endorsement, booed off the stage. But there’s another way of looking at a campaign that has not gone conventional wisdom’s way. Disorder and disarray work against the party in power. Terrorist attacks and police shootings are not what America thought it’d get in the Obama years.

EACH DAY of the Republican National Convention had a different theme. Monday’s theme was “Make AS TECH billionaire Peter Thiel America Safe Again.” Another was “Make America First Again.” Maybe argued Thursday, disruption is a good someone should suggest that we “Make thing when old ways — and especially government — aren’t working well. America Sustainable Again.”

Conservative Chronicle

ELECTORATE: July 21, 2016

A wall too high for the Grand Old Party?

olitical conventions are echo chambers designed to generate feelings of invincibility, sending forth the party faithful with a spring in their steps and hope in their hearts. Who would want to be a wet blanket at such moveable feasts? Steve Munisteri would. Although he calls himself “the eternal optimist,” he respects reality, which nowadays is not conducive to conservatives’ cheerfulness. He served as chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 2010 to 2015 because he discerned “a seismic shift in demographics” that meant his state could “turn Democratic sooner than most people thought.”

THE FACT that Republicans have won every Texas statewide office since 1994 — the longest such streak in the nation — gives them, he says, “a false sense of security.” In 2000, Republican candidates at the top of the ticket — in statewide races — averaged about 60 percent of the vote. By 2008, they averaged less than 53 percent. And Republican down-ballot winners averaged slightly over 51 percent. Texas is not wide open spaces filled with cattle and cotton fields. Actually, it is 84.7 percent urban, making it the 15th most urban state. It has four of the nation’s 11 largest cities — Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin. Texas’ growth is in its cities, where Republicans are doing worst. Dallas has gone from solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. A recent poll showed Harris County (Houston), which is 69 percent minority, with a majority identifying as Democrats. The San Antonio metropolitan area is about three-quarters minority. Travis County (Austin, seat of the state government, the flagship state university and a burgeoning tech economy attracting young people) voted 60.1 percent for Barack Obama in 2012. Asian-Americans, Texas’ fastestgrowing minority by percentage, were three percent of Texans in 2000 and 4.3 percent in 2010. They are projected to be more than eight percent in 2040. In the 2014 gubernatorial election, Hispanics were 25 percent of Texas’ registered voters but only 19 percent of turnout. Two years later, Hispanics are 29 percent of registered voters. Now, suppose the person at the top of a Republican national ticket gives Hispanics the motivation to be, say, 25 percent of turnout. Although it is, Munisteri says, “theoretically possible” for Texas Republicans to win by increasing the white vote, this “political segregation” is, aside from being morally repulsive, politically “a sure-fire long-term losing proposition.” The “blue wall” — the 18 states and the District of Columbia that have

voted Democratic in at least six con- fornia and New York, with a comsecutive presidential elections — to- bined 84 electoral votes. Or three, if day has 242 electoral votes. Texas, you count Illinois (20 electoral votes), which is not a brick in this wall, has which in the last four presidential elec38 electoral votes. After the 2020 cen- tions has voted Democratic by an aversus, it probably will have 40, perhaps age of slightly more than 16 points. Munisteri’s conservative credentials 41. Were Texas to become another blue sailable. He was a prebrick, the wall — even if the 2020 cen- are unascociously conservasus subtracts a few tive teenager — a electoral votes member of Young from the curAmericans for rent 18 states — Freedom in high would have more (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group school in 1976 than the 270 votes — when Ronald needed to elect a Reagan was trying to wrest the Repubpresident. lican nomination from President GerSINCE 1994, when it passed New ald Ford. Munisteri, now working with York (which has now sunk below Flor- the Republican National Committee, ida to fourth place), Texas has been the became a Reagan volunteer and had an nation’s second most populous state. exhilarating experience: Reagan, havMunisteri notes that it is the Republi- ing lost eight of the first nine primaries, can Party’s only large “anchor state.” revived his candidacy by winning all of The Democratic Party has two — Cali- Texas’ 100 convention delegates.

George

Will

Munisteri’s politically formative years were the conservative movement’s salad days — the late 1970s, and 1980s, when many conservatives acquired a serene certainty that this is and always will be a center-right country. Munisteri, however, is “a numbers guy,” so serenity is illusive. HE NOTES that beginning with Franklin Roosevelt’s first victory in 1932, Democrats won seven of nine presidential elections, and if they had succeeded in their effort to enlist Dwight Eisenhower as a Democrat they probably would have won nine in a row. Trends can be reversed but until they are, Republicans risk protracted losing in a center-left country, which America now is, and in a purple Texas, which soon could be.

LESLIE’S TRIVIA BITS: July 25, 2016

Leslie’s Trivia Bits

osmochemistry is the study of the chemical composition of the universe and how it came to be. The field originated in the 1930s, long before space missions started collecting samples of moon rocks and space dust. Helpfully, the universe regularly deposits extraterrestrial matter on earth in the form of meteorites — and it’s been doing so since time began. Cosmochemistry researchers don’t have to leave their home planet to find plenty to study. The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, North Carolina, contains an early-model Zenith TV with remote control. It was a gift from the president of Zenith Corporation, a personal friend of Sandburg’s. While the great American poet admitted he enjoyed some television programs — Groucho Marx was a favorite — mostly he thought TV was a waste of time. Luckily, the TV’s Space Commander 400 remote control had a mute button, one of the first of its kind. MATA HARI, the infamous World War I German spy, was actually a Dutch woman called Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. Her colorful life included a career as an exotic dancer and liaisons with influential men that gave her access to information. She was convicted of espionage and executed by firing squad in 1917, although there was no hard evidence against her. There is, however, convincing evidence that the French intelligence officer who accused her was a German spy himself!

The oldest known nuclear reactor on earth is not manmade. It’s the product of unusual circumstances around 1.5 billion years ago near present-day Franceville, Gabon, where the composition of the uranium in the earth and the absence of elements that inhibit nuclear reactions created perfect conditions for natural nuclear fission. Nuclear technicians discovered the anomaly in 1972 while examining uranium samples from the Oklo Mines in Gabon.

Leslie

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the author Roald Dahl. Among his books for kids is Matilda, story of a smart, wonderful girl surrounded by horrible adults. But that’s not the story Dahl originally intended to tell. In his first draft of the book, Matilda Wormwood was absolutely awful — so evil that Dahl’s editor asked him to reconsider her character. Dahl eventually agreed and gave the story a complete revision. THE XERCES Society is an environmental conservation group that focuses on invertebrate wildlife — bugs, worms, moths, clams, crabs, etc. Founded in 1971, it’s named for the Xerces blue butterfly, the first North American butterfly to become extinct because of human activities. The last known Xerces blue butterfly fluttered by in 1941.

TRIVIA 1. Which characteristic describes most meteorites? A) Chalky B) Metallic C) Radioactive D) Round 2. Poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago “City of the Big...” what? A) Appetite B) Heart C) Ideas D) Shoulders 3. Since 1961, the comic strip “Spy vs. Spy” has appeared in which publication? A) Mad B) National Lampoon C) National Review D) Reason 4. Chemical elements have been named for Uranus and which of these planets? A) Jupiter B) Mars C) Neptune D) Venus 5. In the Australian folk song “Waltzing Matilda,” what is Matilda? A) A bundle of belongings B) A type of flute C) A wallaby D) A missing woman 6. King Xerxes I built the Gate of All Nations in which ancient capital of Persia? A) Damascus B) Isfahan C) Persepolis D) Tabriz (answers on page 19)

August 3, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PARTY: July 26, 2016

Will Russia’s Vladimir Putin get a Pulitzer?

aving off the clerics who an email to DNC chief executive officer had come to administer Amy Dacey: “Does [Bernie] believe in a God. He last rites, Voltaire said: “All my life I have ever made but one has skated on saying he has a Jewish prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. Lord, make my enemies look ridicu- This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern lous.’ And God granted it.” peeps would draw a The tale of the thieved emails at the Baptist big difference beDemocratic Natween a Jew and tional Committee atheist.” is just too good to Dacey emailed be true. back, “Amen.” For a year, (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate In 1960, John 74-year-old Socialist Bernie Sanders has been saying F. Kennedy went before the Houston that, under DNC Chair Debbie Wasser- ministers to assert the right of a Cathoman Schultz, the party has been under- lic to be president of the United States. cutting his campaign and hauling water Is the “Marshall Plan,” to quietly spread word Bernie Sanders is a godless athefor Hillary Clinton. ist, now acceptable politics in the party FROM THE 19,200 emails dumped of Barack Obama? If Marshall and Dacey are still the weekend before Clinton’s coronation, it appears the old boy is not bark- around at week’s end, we will know. The WikiLeaks dump came Friday ing mad. The deck was stacked; the referees were in the tank; the game was night. By Sunday, Clinton’s crowd had unleashed the mechanical rabbit, and rigged. For four decades, some of us have the press hounds were dutifully chasing wondered what Jim McCord, security it. The new party line: The Russians did man at CREEP, and his four Cubans it! Clinton campaign chief Robert were looking for in DNC Chair Larry O’Brien’s office at the Watergate. Now Mook told ABC, “experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke in to the it makes sense. Among the lovely schemes the DNC DNC, took all these emails, and now leaders worked up to gut Sanders in they are leaking them out through the Christian communities of West Virginia Web sites. ... some experts are now telland Kentucky, was to tell these good ing us that this was done by the Rusfolks that Sanders doesn’t even believe sians for the purpose of helping Donald that there is a God. He’s not even an Trump.” Monday, Clinton chairman John Poagnostic; he’s an atheist. The idea was broached by DNC desta said there is a “kind of bromance chief financial officer Brad Marshall in going on” between Trump and Vladi-

Pat

Buchanan

mir Putin. Campaign flack Brian Fallon told CNN, “There is a consensus among experts that it is indeed Russia that is behind this hack of the DNC.” Purpose: Change the subject. Redirect the media away from the DNC conspiracy to sabotage Sanders’ campaign. WILL THE PRESS cooperate? In 1971, the New York Times published secret documents from the Kennedy-Johnson administration on how America got involved in Vietnam. Goal: Discredit the war the Times had once supported, and undercut the war effort, now that Richard Nixon was president. The documents, many marked secret, had been illicitly taken from Defense Department files, copied, and published by the Times.

America’s newspaper of record defended its actions by invoking “the people’s right to know” the secrets of their government. Well, do not the people have “a right to know” of sordid schemes of DNC operatives to sink a presidential campaign? Do the people not have a right to know that, in denying Sanders’ charges, the leadership of the DNC was lying to him, lying to the party, and lying to the country? What did Clinton know of Wasserman Schultz’s complicity in DNC cheating in the presidential campaign, and when did she know it? For publishing stolen Defense Department secrets, the Pentagon Papers, the Times got a Pulitzer Prize. If the Russians were helpful in bringing to the attention of the American people the anti-democratic business being done at the DNC, perhaps the Russians deserve similar recognition. By the Times’ standard of 1971, maybe Putin deserves a Pulitzer. Undeniably, if the Russians or any foreign actors are interfering in U.S. presidential elections, we ought to know it, and stop it. But who started all this? Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has used cyberwarfare to sabotage centrifuges in the Iranian nuclear plant in Natanz. We have backed “color-coded” revolutions in half a dozen countries from Serbia to Ukraine to Georgia — to dump rulers and regimes we do not like, all in the name of democracy. Unsurprisingly, today, Russia, China, Egypt and even Israel are shutting down or booting out NGOs associated with the United States, and hacking into websites of U.S. institutions. WE WERE the first “experts” to play this game. Now others know how to play it. We reap what we sow.

August 3, 2016

The late, great Democratic Party

his week, the Democrats of- aren’t going to produce it, just as if ficially appoint the battered you’re not even trying to get in shape, Hillary Clinton to be torch- it’s a good bet you’re not going to shed bearer of the party. She has slouched to those extra 16 pounds. Amazingly, the last great growth the finish line. She is tired and the country is tired of her. Sorry, Democrats, no hawk of the Democratic Party of modern times, John F. Kennedy, ran against do-overs. You’re stuck with her. But it isn’t just Clinton who is out Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 on sue of the “growth of touch and in tragic decline. It’s the the isdeficit.” The econowhole Demomy in the 1950s was cratic Party. My fairly prosperous, friends at the much more so than American Enterover the last eight prise Institute re(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate years. But JFK ported last week that the Democratic platform is silent said we can “do bettah” and convinced on economic growth. Maybe that is be- Americans we could see much faster cause across the country during the past wage gains with greater opportunities. Through tax cuts and free trade, the eight years of Obamanomics, economic JFK era sparked growth rates of four, growth has been silent. five and even six percent in the go-go THIS IS an exaggeration, of course, ‘60s until LBJ crashed the economy but not much of one. We have had two with New Deal welfare statism. Now we have this weird austeritypercent growth under Obama, but that’s an economy treading water. It’s sister- worship that has taken over the party. kissing growth that, yes, has thankfully The rich and businesses are portrayed kept us out of recession, but doesn’t as scalpers and scoundrels. And emlead to much, if any, rise in living stan- ployers are exploiters in the “you didn’t build that” mindset. Radical environdards. Just as Obama refuses to utter the mentalists, a bedrock of the party, are words “Islamic terrorism,” now the anti-growth and believe that when peowhole party can’t seem to bring itself ple get richer, it’s worse for the planet. to endorse “economic growth.” For the (They should go live in India or Mexico left, growth isn’t really the goal. They City and see how well the environment is doing there.) They ridicule what they want redistribution of wealth. The language of a party platform call “growth-mania” on the right. Hudoesn’t matter much, if at all. But if man economic activity, they warn, is you’re not for growth, you probably causing catastrophic global warming.

Stephen

Moore

PERHAPS THIS explains the litany of economic failures during the Obama years. We have had $8 trillion of new debt; minimum-wage increases; Obamacare; an $800 billion stimulus plan (with “shovel-ready” projects); tax increases on the rich; more than $100 billion in green energy subsidies; auto company and union pension bailouts; re-regulation of the financial industry and banks; and a Federal Reserve that has manufactured near zero short-term interest rates for seven years with up to $4 trillion of bond acquisitions. All of

these were designed primarily to redistribute income, so is it a shock that they haven’t produced growth? Poor Hillary Clinton has the unenviable task of persuading Americans to open up wide and swallow four more years of this swill. Here’s a question that Donald Trump and Mike Pence should be asking every day: What would Clinton offer that is any different? She is promising minimum-wage increases, tax hikes on the rich and more infrastructure spending. This is new? This is change? The left’s defense of growth anemia is that two percent growth is the new normal, so get used to it. Obama’s first economic guru, Larry Summers, calls this secular stagnation that is here to stay. This past week at a Politico economic forum I made the claim that we could have four percent growth easily, and the jaws of the media dropped in collective disbelief, as if I suggested that we could suspend the laws of gravity. Actually, four percent growth isn’t that hard to achieve. A pro-America energy production policy, including putting coal back in business, could produce $150 billion more output each year. Another percentage point of growth could come from tax reform with reductions in business taxes to spur investment and hiring, according to the folks at the Tax Foundation. BUT DEMOCRATS will never get us there, because they aren’t even trying. They will celebrate two percent growth — the weakest recovery in half a century — as a glittering achievement. The party that once stood with the working class now says Americans have to work more and settle for less. That’s not just wrong; it’s sad. July 26, 2016

This Week’s Conservative Focus

Democratic Party

If black lives matter, then vote Republican

f black lives matter — and they surely do — the logical, rational, historical and practical course of action in 2016 is to vote Republican. That may seem puzzling and counterintuitive, since Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton seem so closely aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement that blames police for systematically targeting minorities for abuse, discrimination and even murder. But is there more to the story? Indeed, there is.

DINESH D’SOUZA’S courageous new book, Hillary’s America, and movie of the same name, deal with the way the Democratic Party defended slavery, perpetrated “Jim Crow” policies in the South after the War Between the States and fought tooth-and-nail against voting rights and civil rights legislation through much of the 1960s. It’s a story also dealt with in shocking straightforward fashion in another bestselling book by Ben Kinchlow, Black Yellow Dogs. It’s worth pointing out that D’Souza is an American citizen from India and Kinchlow is a black American.

The worldview of the Democratic They both portray the history the Democratic Party doesn’t want you to Party is still responsible for victimizknow — that systematic, institutional ing blacks and systematically reducing racism in America was exclusively a the population of African-Americans in creation of that party beginning in 1832 a number of ways — albeit more covertly. and lasting through the mid-1960s. First, the Democrats’ friends in You’ve heard of the Ku Klux Klan? It was the military wing of the Demo- Planned Parenthood target black and m i n o rity communities for cratic Party for 150 years. abortions. Black AmeriThe abortion rate cans weren’t the for black women is only lynching vicalmost four times tims of the Klan. that of white womHundreds of white (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate en. On average, Republicans, the black babies are aborted abolitionists and the party of equal 870 rights, were murdered by the white- every day in the U.S. It’s the Democrathooded racists along with black Ameri- ic Party alone that defends abortion on demand as a sacred right and that fights cans. It’s hard to believe today because this for taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthistory is not taught in school, not found hood, far and away the biggest provider in college textbooks, not of any inter- of abortion in the country. est to the mainstream media and hardly BUT THERE’S more, too. remembered even by many Republicans Today, the Democrats get 90 percent today — even though we might vaguely recall that Abraham Lincoln was the of the black vote by turning history on its head. They pretend to be advocates first Republican president. But that’s only part of the story sadly for “racial justice” by patronizing the — even tragically — neglected at the black community, blaming America’s Republican National Convention this police officers for targeting blacks, promoting dependency on government week.

Joseph

Farah

LOL at the DNC: Regime change

emocrats have every reason to rage against the Democratic National Committee: Newly leaked DNC memos confirm that Donald Trump was right when he said the party machine was “rigged” in Hillary Clinton’s favor. The latest CNN/ORC poll shows that 68 percent of voters think Clinton is not “honest and trustworthy.” As a Republican unhappy with the Trump nomination, I at least can take heart in the knowledge that GOP leaders tried in their fashion to stop The Donald’s surge. Democrats have to live with the fact that their party leaders engineered the primaries and debates to hand Miss Unpopularity the nod on purpose. “SHE WON by over three million votes,” Clinton booster Lanny Davis observed over the phone, “so if the staff of the DNC was leaning or favoring to Hillary Clinton, it probably didn’t have much effect on that total.” Copy that. Which begs the question: Why did DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz throw the full weight of her machine behind Clinton when the former secretary of state had the nomination in the bag anyway? Lord Acton had it right when he said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Consider the DNC debates. In January, Republicans had scheduled 11 debates, Democrats had scheduled six. Wasserman Shultz maintained that the DNC schedule was designed to “maximize the opportunity for voters to see our candidates.” Really? Half of those six debates were scheduled during weekends — one on the Sunday of the threeday Martin Luther King Day weekend. No one sched-

Debra J.

ules a political debate for a weekend unless the goal is to decrease viewership. VERMONT SEN. Bernie Sanders agreed to a California debate before the state’s June 7 primary — the San Francisco Chronicle had hoped to be a cosponsor — but Clinton declined. The newly released-by WikiLeaks emails included correspondence by DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda who forwarded a copy of a press release on Sanders’ acceptance of the invitation with the editorial comment, “lol.” That’s why Wasserman Schultz had to go. When an institution lies to its members

even though leaders are fully aware that no one is being fooled, it is time for regime change. Sanders only has himself to blame, however, for this DNC-talking point included in the batch released by WikiLeaks Friday: “Dems don’t even pay attention to email story.” After all, it was Sanders who looked at Clinton during the first presidential debate in October and said, “The American people are sick and tired about hearing about your da-- emails.” METHINKS THE public has grown tired of the Clintons flouting rules and getting away with it. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that a third of Democrats disapproved of FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to seek criminal charges against Clinton for using a private server for classified Department of State correspondence. The game gets old. Hillary Clinton claims she used private servers for convenience, none of the emails was marked classified, and she turned over all of her emails to investigators. That’s bunk. Everyone knows she is lying. And the lies will only get more blatant if she is elected. July 26, 2016

wealth redistribution programs like food stamps and welfare and defending racist affirmative-action programs for minorities. In addition, who is it that promotes the doctrinaire teaching of Darwinism in American schools and universities? The Democrats, who insist evolution is not a theory, but a fact. What are the ramifications of that? It was Darwinism in the 19th century that promoted the notion of superior and inferior races — and justified the genocide that led directly to the Holocaust. (See from Darwin to Hitler, Darwin’s Racists: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, The Darwin Effect and The Dark Side of Charles Darwin), Who’s defending Darwinism today? Only one political party — the Democrats. Coincidence? Who’s defending the disproportionate elimination of unborn black babies in America today? Only one political party — the Democrats. Coincidence? Who overlooks black-on-black violence that results in the murder of thousands of mostly black males in America year after year? Only one party — the Democrats. And who is it that defended slavery, Jim Crow racist policies, forced segregation, poll taxes and birthed and incubated for 130 years the vicious, violent racists of the Ku Klux Klan? Only one party — the Democrats. Coincidence? For 130 years, blacks knew which party was their champion — the Republicans. Martin Luther King was a Republican. His parents were Republicans. Their parents were Republicans. But, in the mid-1960s, the Democrats changed political tactics, determining there was a way to win black votes while still keeping their feet on their necks. Believe it or not, that’s the Democratic Party of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Today, they promote dependency, victimhood status and paternalism. Those policies have proven to be as destructive to the black family and black dignity as slavery. In effect, the Democratic Party has been building the “new plantation” for the black Americans. Is that just my opinion? NO, IT IS shared by many courageous voices within the black community, including WND columnist Star Parker (See Uncle Sam’s Plantation), Deneen Borelli (See Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation) and Jesse Lee Peterson (See The Antidote). July 27, 2016

Conservative Chronicle

GOP CONVENTION: July 26, 2016

What’s ‘Making America One Again’ about? “Make America One Again.” That was the stated theme of the last night of the Republican National Convention. In the welter of analysis of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech, few have commented on it, but it’s worth taking it seriously. Liberal commentators have dwelled repeatedly on Trump’s “dark” and “dystopian” view of America. Apparently, you’re not supposed to think badly of our nation when we have a black Democratic president.

THIS IS mostly just partisan spin. The candidate of the out party invariably takes a dim view of the way things are going. Yes, they usually add more uplift than Trump provided. But when two-thirds of voters think the nation is not moving in the right direction, pessimism does not go against the grain. You heard similar pessimism, although about different things, in the campaign for the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders depicted the nation as if we were in the seventh and eighth years of a Bush presidency. Unlike other recent acceptance speeches, Trump’s made almost no mention of history, except for a reference to a Lyndon Johnson IRS regulation, and made no attempt to put his candidacy in historical context. There was no mention of Ronald Reagan. Nevertheless, the theme of “making America one again” is in line with the historical character of the Republican Party, which has always had a central core of people seen as typical Americans but are never by themselves a majority. They must attract others to their cause. In contrast, the Democratic Party has been a coalition — sometimes fractured, sometimes a majority — of disparate minority groups: white Southerners and big city immigrants in the 19th century, black churchgoers and gentry liberals today. Hillary Clinton is trying to reassemble the 2012 Obama 51 percent majority by offering something to blacks, something else to Hispanics, another thing to millennials and LGBTQs. Trump is doing something different. He seeks to appeal to different kinds of people as all being Americans. On Thursday night, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Mississippi native, quoted an 1861 Abraham Lincoln speech in Cleveland: “If all do not join now to save the good old ship of Union this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.” Thursday night speakers included the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who proclaimed himself proudly gay, proudly Republican and, most of all, proudly American.

IN HIS ACCEPTANCE speech saving Republicans from the task of opTrump promised to protect LGBTQs posing majority opinion. But you don’t (he charmed the audience by stumbling have to participate (I haven’t seen any over the acronym) from a “hateful for- recent cases of bakers sued for refuseign ideology” and thanked evangeli- ing to making wedding cakes for gay ples). This is in line cals (while admitting that he is far from c o u with basic etiquette, being one himself) which says you can for their support. decline a wedding The message invitation without is that the culture giving a reason. wars are over. (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate The debate As for “who uses over these issues which bathroom,” the latest cultural brouhaha, Thiel’s an- seems stale, and it’s not clear that Democrats’ efforts to pump up their conswer was: “Who cares?” Other arguments have become stale. stituencies’ enthusiasm or arouse their Abortion won’t be criminalized, but fears will work; we’ll get some idea in abortions have been rarer and the num- Philadelphia. But it may prove hard to ber of abortion clinics is declining, and provoke alarm in those who have been not just because of restrictive state laws. mostly winning on these issues. Democrats have a more target-rich Same-sex marriage has been legalized everywhere by the Supreme Court, environment in attacking Trump as

Michael

Barone

volatile and unreliable, as presumptive vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine did Saturday. More difficult will be attempts to present a sunnier alternative to Trump’s “dark” narrative. It’s true that, as Barack Obama said Friday, crime is down compared to 30 years ago, and increases in urban homicides may just be, as he said, an “uptick.” But Trump’s numbers are accurate also. A president who people thought would be something like Martin Luther King has sounded more like Al Sharpton. IT’S HARD to make the case that things are not really as bad as you think they are, and that sophisticated people realize that terrorist incidents are less common than bathtub accidents, that murders of police are less of a problem than bathroom issues. We’ll see how the Democrats do.

ANTI-POLICE ATMOSPHERE: July 21, 2016

Hillary lies — and cops die

he fascinating thing about Hillary Clinton’s lie that “African-Americans” are disproportionately killed by police is that she continues peddling it after the murders of three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, which followed the ambush killings of five officers in Dallas. In both cases, the murderers were black men apparently convinced that the cops were out to get black people and who, therefore, sought to exact revenge. President Barack Obama, too, talks about the “disparity” that blacks, compared to whites, are more likely to be killed by the police. That Obama — in lecturing about this so-called disparity — gets away with ignoring the disproportionate rate at which blacks, especially young blacks, commit violent crime is truly astonishing.

SHOULD BLACKS, at 13 percent of the population, comprise 13 percent of doctors, 13 percent of lawyers and 13 percent of NBA players? If not, does this mean there is a “disparity” that we must address as a society? According to economist John Lott, teenage black males, compared to teen white males, are nine times more likely to commit murder — and the murder victim is almost always another young black man. What about that disparity, Mr. President? It’s also interesting to watch the reaction of those who believe Clinton and defend her position, even when they are confronted with the facts. Talk about — pardon the pun — shooting the messenger. When I told someone that, according to the Washington Post, of the

965 blacks killed by cops last year, less than four percent involved a white cop and unarmed black man, he sniffed, “Why should a cop kill anyone who is unarmed?” Well, take the case for Michael Brown, arguably the white policeblack suspect encounter that launched the Black Lives Matter movement and its mantra, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” Eyewitness testimony and physical evidence show that Brown charged the police officer and attempted to get the cop’s gun. Unarmed does not mean nonthreatening.

Larry

It’s hard to believe that two Ivy League-educated lawyers, Obama and Clinton, do not understand things like statistics, ratios and how to properly interpret crime data to incorporate the rate at which crime is committed by young black men versus the rate at which crime is committed by young white men. As Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute writes in the Wall Street Journal, “According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, blacks were charged with 62 percent of all robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009, though they made up roughly 15 percent of the population there.” THIS LEADS us to but one conclusion: Obama and Clinton are flat-out lying. The goal is obvious — to retain that monolithic black vote, without which

Democrats cannot win at the presidential level. Obama cannot brag about — and Clinton cannot run on — his economic record for blacks. Under his watch, black poverty is up. Net worth is down. The “wealth gap” between blacks and whites is at a 25-year high. And as to the employment of black men, their “labor force participation rate” (the percentage of those 20 years of age and over who are either working or looking for work) hit its lowest rate in December 2013 — well into Obama’s second term and his economic “recovery.” That low was the worst since 1972, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping such records. And since December 2010, black men’s employment rate every single month to date has seen lower numbers than any month under all other presidents dating back to 1972. So, what to do? Change the subject, of course. Make the election about “social justice.” Prattle on about what Clinton calls the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Never mind that this drive to induce paranoia among blacks has real-world consequences. As mentioned, already it has helped inspire murderers to kill officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. But it also causes police officers to be less proactive, fearing that they, too, will be accused of unfairly “profiling” blacks. Cops pull back. This police passivity means crime increases, the victims of which are disproportionately black, the very people Ms. Clinton claims to care so deeply about. LIES GET votes. But they also get people killed.

August 3, 2016 DEAR MARK: July 22, 2016

Observations on the GOP convention

nother Republican Convention has concluded. Thank goodness as I have grown weary of the nature of this year’s politics even coming from my own side of the aisle. With that in mind please allow me to share my average Joe observations and take a look at the five C’s of the RNC convention.

THE CANDIDATE: Liberals will obviously hate to hear this but I believe Donald Trump came out of the convention looking like a confident leader, dare I say even presidential. This was the first time for many undecided voters to actually meet Mr. Trump aside from the caricature painted in the media and I believe he left a good impression. For Democrats and the never Trump crowd, Trump still comes across as a blustery candidate who will say anything regardless of who he offends. Well guess what people, so did some of the most beloved presidents in our history. Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan all made comments that today’s squishy Democrats would find cringe worthy. But they were all men of conviction who weren’t afraid to offend anyone whether it was the Russians or members of their own party. Only time will tell if Trump belongs in that elite group of historical figures but as of today there’s no doubt America is number one in his heart. THE COVERAGE: The coverage was exactly what I expected. The pundits micro-analyzed every detail making mountains out of the mole hills most Americans didn’t notice or even cared about. Of course most of the analysts are

either leftists or establishment Republicans eagerly looking for anything to smear Donald Trump in hopes of derailing his candidacy. Everyone knew that the overall goal of the convention was for the GOP to come out as a unified party fully supporting Donald Trump and in predictable fashion the media went after every potential crack in the façade in hopes of destroying that unity. From Melania’s speech and dress to Ivanka’s

Mark

shoe company to the minor controversy surrounding the Ted Cruz delegates and the rules committee, the media did its best to malign the convention. The number one theme chosen ahead of time by the mainstream media and its cohorts was to report that the GOP convention was full of anger but not the indignant anger that is sincerely felt by millions of Americans. Considering what is going on in the United States and the world, heck yeah Republicans are angry. The country is $19 trillion in debt, a record 94 million have left the workforce, our borders are leakier than a craft beer festival, burdensome regulations are crushing business, terrorism is hitting our shores more frequently, the police are demonized, and after seven years of the Obama administration the world is a mess. Despite these legitimate concerns the media continued the false narrative that the GOP is simply full of mean spirited racist, misogynistic, homophobes lacking any kind of diversity whatsoever.

Let’s see if the media goes after the DNC convention with the same fervor ,especially the Clinton/Sanders divide and the forced racial and gender quotas for the Democrat delegates. I’m also curious to see how the media covers the newly released WikiLeaks emails from the DNC that shows how the DNC favored Clinton over Bernie in their “rigged” system.

THE CRYBABIES: Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and assorted other GOP “dignitaries” did a disservice to their party by either not attending the convention or in Cruz’s case by opening his mouth. Nothing impresses me more than a gracious loser and these men showed their immaturity and selfishness by failing to acknowledge that a Hillary presidency is far more damaging to the country than their little bruised egos. Thankfully Trump’s speech overshadowed them all. THE CRITICS: Nothing new here just look above under “Coverage.” Critics like Jon Stewart are whining that the GOP doesn’t own patriotism. It’s true the GOP doesn’t own all of patriotism – just American patriotism. It’s no secret that Democrats prefer globalism and are more patriotic towards their international brethren than the United States. CLEVELAND: The host city did a fantastic job of keeping everybody safe including the protesters. Kudos to the city leaders and law enforcement. I cannot wait to offer my observations on the Democrat convention in my next column. E-mail your questions to marklevy92@ aol.com.

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) Most meteorites are metallic, with high iron and nickel content. 2) Carl Sandburg called Chicago the “City of the Big Shoulders.” 3) “Spy vs. Spy” is a long-running comic strip in Mad magazine. 4) The chemical element Neptunium is named for the planet Neptune. 5) The Matilda in “Waltzing Matilda” is a bundle of belongings. 6) The Gate of All Nations is in Persepolis.

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Conservative Chronicle

REPUBLICAN PARTY: July 22, 2016

Senator Ted Cruz and the Trump takeover

he self-righteousness and will not forget the Brutus who stuck the smugness of Ted Cruz in knife in his back. To any who read Allen Drury’s Adrefusing to endorse Donald Trump, then walking off stage in vise and Consent or saw the movie, Ted Cleveland, smirking amidst the boos, Cruz is the Senator Fred Van Ackerman of his generation. takes the mind back in time. Yet, beyond the denunciations of At the Cow Palace in San Francisco in July of 1964, Gov. Nelson Rock- Trump and disavowals of his candidaefeller, having been defeated by Barry cy, something larger is going on here. The Goldwaterites were not only Goldwater, took the podium to introduce a platform plank denouncing “ex- dethroning the East Coast liberal establishment of Rockefeller, but saying tremism.” Implication: Goldwater’s campaign goodbye to the Republicanism of President Eisenhower and Vice President is saturated with extremists. Purpose: Advertise Rocky’s superior Nixon. Something new morality. was being born, Smug and selfand births are not a righteous, Rocky pretty sight. brayed at the What was becurses and insults, (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate ing born was a “It’s a free counnew Republican try, ladies and Party. It would be dominated, after gentlemen.” Rocky was finished. He would never Nixon, by conservatives, who would seek to dump the Accidental President, win the nomination. Gerald R. Ford, in 1976. They would RICHARD NIXON took another recapture the party in 1980, and help road, endorsed Goldwater, spoke for elect and re-elect Ronald Reagan. Vice President George H. W. Bush him in San Francisco, campaigned for him across America. And in 1968, with won in 1988 through the exploitation Goldwater’s backing, Nixon would of cultural and social issues. His Demrout Govs. George Romney and Rock- ocratic rival, Gov. Michael Dukakis, opposed the death penalty, opposed efeller, and win the presidency, twice. public school kids taking the Pledge Sometimes, loyalty pays off. About Cruz, a prediction: He will not of Allegiance, and had a progressive be the nominee in 2020. He will never program to give weekend passes to be the nominee. If Trump wins, Cruz convicted killers and rapists like Willie is cooked. If Trump loses, his people Horton.

Pat

Buchanan

Once this became known, thanks to Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater, the Little Duke was done. The Dukakis tank ride in that helmet, to show his aptitude to be commander-in-chief, probably did not help. THE CRISIS of today’s Republican Party stems from a failure to recognize, after Reagan went home, and during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, that America now faced a new set of challenges. By 1991, America’s border was bleeding. Thousands were walking in from Mexico every weekend. The hundreds of thousands arriving legally, the vast majority of them Third World poor, began putting downward pressure on working-class wages. Soon, these immigrants would begin voting for the welfare state on which their families depended, and support the Party of Government. By 1991, free trade had begun to send our factories and jobs overseas and de-industrialize America.

By 1991, an epoch in world history had ended. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the Cold War was suddenly over. America had prevailed. “As our case is new,” said Lincoln, “so we must think anew and act anew.” Bush Republicans did not think anew or act anew. They were like football coaches who still swore by the single-wing offense, after George Halas’ Chicago Bears, the “Monsters of the Midway,” used the Tformation to score 11 touchdowns and beat the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL championship game, 73-0. What paralyzed the Republicans of a generation ago? What blinded them from seeing and blocked them from acting on the new realities? Ideology, political correctness, a reflexive recoil against new thinking, and an innate inability to adapt. The ideology was a belief in free trade that borders on the cultic, though free trade had been rejected by America’s greatest leaders: Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The political correctness stemmed from a fear of being called racist and xenophobic so paralyzing, so overpowering, that some Republicans would ship the entire Third World over here, rather than have it thought they would ever consider the race, ethnicity or religion of those repopulating America. The inability to adapt was seen when our Cold War adversary extended a hand in friendship, and the War Party slapped it away. Rather than shed Cold War alliances and rebuild our country, we looked around for new commitments, new allies, new wars to fight to “end tyranny in our world.” These wars had less to do with threats to vital interests, than with providing now-obsolete Cold Warriors with arguments to maintain their claims on national resources and attention, not to mention their lifestyles and jobs. With Trump’s triumph, the day of reckoning has arrived. The new GOP is not going to be party of open borders, free trade globalism or reflexive interventionism. The weeping and gnashing of teeth are justified. FOR THESE self-righteous folks are all getting eviction notices. They are being dispossessed of their home.

August 3, 2016 GOP CONVENTION: July 22, 2016

Republican convention: No unity, no victory

Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Trump’s vice presidential pick was Democratic National Convention dom- supposed to add gravitas to the ticket. inated the news for almost three days. Pence warned in his speech that the It could have been a one-day story, United States “cannot have four more but the campaign’s adamant, blatantly years apologizing to our enemies and doning our friends. false denials turned it into three. And a b a n America needs to no sooner had be strong for the Team Trump put world to be safe.” one controversy But no sooner had to bed than it he uttered those stoked another. (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate words than the Ted Cruz’s New York Times failure to endorse the nominee was, apparently, no sur- published an interview with Trump prise to the campaign. Staffers had a done earlier that day, which threw copy of his speech for three days prior those sentiments under the bus. to his delivering it. So why did they exTRUMP TOLD the New York tend his time from 10 minutes to 20? The only possible explanation is that Times that he would reverse 67 years they hoped for exactly what happened of American foreign policy by disreon the convention floor — the booing garding Article 5 of the NATO treaty if he felt that member nations haven’t THE TRUMP campaign’s refusal and jeering of Cruz. But the melee also managed to up- “fulfilled their obligations to us.” He to acknowledge that parts of Melania’s speech were taken word for word from stage the evening’s star, Mike Pence. also said he’d shred NAFTA “in a split onventions are usually pretty boring affairs, but this week’s Republican convention was anything but. Apparently, Donald Trump thinks that’s a good thing for the party he now leads. Midweek, Trump tweeted about the controversy surrounding his wife’s partially plagiarized Monday speech: “Good news is Melania’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!” If chaos, disorganization and mixed messages on policy are a mark of success, Trump had a banner week. But for those of us watching to see whether Trump could bring a badly fractured party and country together, it was a disaster.

Linda

Chavez

GOP CONVENTION: July 21, 2016

The Trump dynasty takes over the GOP

atching the GOP convention, you could be forgiven for believing that almost all the brightest stars in the Republican firmament are Trumps. Members of the Trump family were among the best, most high-profile performers. During the first two nights of the convention, the hall began to empty as soon as the Trumps left the stage, its energy and purpose sapped by the departure of the animating family.

THE TRUMP phenomenon began, in part, as a revolt against a dynasty (the Bushes), and here we are celebrating a cult of personality with the family in the starring role (and one of the patriarch’s sons, Donald Jr., already marked out for a future political career). Charles Hurt of the Washington Times, an early adopter of Trumpite populism, couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for the ascendancy of people who are rich and famous thanks to their relationship to someone else who is rich and famous: “Behold! A new American political dynasty is born!” Whatever this sensibility is, it isn’t small-”r” republican. Which isn’t to take anything away from the Trumps, who have proven themselves talented and winsome platform speakers. They did their family proud. Yet this is a strange standard for a political party. The GOP campaign feels a little like an exercise in what the great social scientist Edward Banfield, in his classic study of a backward town in Italy in the 1950s, deemed “amoral famial-

ism.” Banfield described how each family’s focus on its own narrow interest made it impossible to build social trust. The rule was, “Maximize the material, short-run advantage of the nuclear family; assume that all others will do likewise.” Certainly this has been Donald Trump’s M.O. throughout his business career — where he has extended no undue consideration to anyone outside the charmed circle of his family — and his politics has some of the same hallmarks.

Rich

THE TRUMPS are reckless with the dignity of their supporters. They forced loyalists to go through ridiculous contortions to insist that there was no plagiarism in Melania’s speech, until finally issuing a mea culpa. If his family has thrived at the convention, a party stalwart like Paul Ryan has struggled to fit in. The speaker of the House gave an adorable speech from a warm-and-fuzzy alternative reality where Republican voters had endorsed latter-day Jack Kemp-style Republicanism this year New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has as much claim to be a member of the extended Trump family as any beloved valet, yet didn’t seem to realize or care that in his indictment of Hillary Clinton, he condemned positions shared by

Trump (warm regard for Vladimir Putin, a hands-off policy in Syria, support for an opening to the Castro regime in Cuba). When Ted Cruz declined to endorse Trump in relatively gentle terms at the end of his speech — his call to vote your conscience would be a truism in any other context — he was nearly shouted from the stage. No one seemed to mind that the rest of his speech was a recitation of conservative orthodoxy, much of which is a matter of indifference to Trump. Indeed, for a Trump convention, the Republican gathering was relatively bereft of celebrations of Trump’s immigration restriction, protectionism and a noninterventionist foreign policy that would accommodate dictators and, in all likelihood, outsource the military campaign against the Islamic State. Even the speeches of Donald Jr. and running mate Mike Pence sounded decidedly un-Trumpian notes. It was welcome to hear Donald Jr. say that “freedom requires a limited government,” but it’s a sentiment much more associated with the heretical Ted Cruz than with his father. ONE REASON for the (deservedly) fierce attack on Hillary Clinton at the convention is that opposition to her is the only political glue holding together Republican officeholders and their party’s nominee. It’s a testament of her weakness that Trump is competitive — and in the hunt for a resounding victory for Trumps everywhere.

second.” These are treaties signed by presidents of the United States and ratified by the U.S. Senate. A Trump administration would mean adios to the rule of law and welcome to rule of one. For those actually listening to what he says he would do, it sounds like a more bellicose version of the current administration — with the president following the laws he likes and disregarding or rewriting those he doesn’t. In a normal election cycle, this would be enough to defeat a candidate. President Gerald Ford’s re-election odds famously plummeted when he declared in a presidential debate, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,” arguing that Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia were free from Soviet interference. In 1976, such blunders could actually doom a candidate. This year, Trump’s gaffes have been so numerous and outrageous that no single misstatement or insult seems to stick. Even Trump’s disparaging remarks about America in that same Times article will probably go unnoticed. “When the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger,” he said when asked why he seemed to be defending Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s jailing of 50,000 people after the failed coup that tried to oust the leader. Trump also called for pulling out U.S. troops from South Korea, noting that if we hadn’t stayed on the peninsula after the Korean conflict, “maybe you would have had a unified Korea.” Apparently, it doesn’t matter to Trump that that would most likely mean one under the rule of Kim Jong Un, about whom Trump has admiringly said, “You’ve got to give him credit. ... He goes in; he takes over; and he’s the boss. It’s incredible.” There is no doubt that Trump’s true believers will end the week thinking their guy is a winner. But I can’t imagine that most undecided voters will feel the same. The Trump convention gave us controversy, plagiarism, heckles, boos and cries of “lock her up” about the Democratic nominee. It was full of anger, even hatred, and remarkably devoid of policy. WILL ANY OF this matter on Election Day? I think so, not that people will go into the voting booth remembering the missteps made in July. But the likelihood that we will see more of the same for the next 100 days virtually guarantees Republican defeat. This week was Donald Trump’s chance to show those not yet in his camp that he can indeed lead the nation to a more prosperous, secure and principled future. He failed, utterly.

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: July 25, 2016

The ‘smart’ party and the ‘dumb’ party

guess I’m a — how you spell that so “smart,” they don’t put a stop to the there word? “Kon-serve-a-tive.” whining and cringing of the anti-freeThat’s with a “K,” right? Mean- speech faction that increasingly domiing I didn’t do no college and I like to nates academia. The “smart people vs. dumb people” monkey with cars. And I don’t trust them Ivy League folks with all them divide, as I suppose we are supposed to it, does vast harm to the degrees. And might — you won’t tell consider notion of democratic nobody, will you, Mister? ‘Cause them whole politics. When the edjy-cated news“smart” decide paper folks might their own policies get on me — vote are the only ones for Trump? worth adopting, And mean(c) 2016, Creators Syndicate contrary policies, while, ‘scuse the however seasoned, however well-reaauto grease on my overalls. Among the signal (forgive that 10- soned, fall into contempt. That’s the buck adjective) marks of the 2016 kind of contempt already brewing as campaign is the intellectual snobbery the smart liberals gather in Philadelof the liberals who convene as Demo- phia to show the dumb and unenlightcrats in Philadelphia this week to save ened how America really should be the country from ignorance and bigotry run, by federal edict, if you get down to it. by nominating Hillary Clinton.

William

Murchison

A CONSTANT meme — that’s a 50-buck word there — of campaign coverage is the education gap. Essentially, it means (according to the Pew Research Center) that people with postgraduate degrees “are far more likely than those with less education to take predominantly liberal positions across a range of political values.” From which data it would appear to follow that liberal positions are the “smart” positions, whereas non-liberal ones (skepticism about immigration or, more broadly, affection for traditional norms and values) are what you’d expect from people who suppose Yale is a door lock. Snobbery is endemic — these big buck words stay with you when you read the modern media — in the human makeup; meaning we all do it. However, its implications in 2016 seem unusually dangerous. Political observers are dividing the political landscape between smart liberals and dumb conservatives: Trump types with their red “Make America Great Again” caps and distaste for learned discourses on the reasons oldfashioned values like patriotism and law and order no longer deserve a serious hearing, having been displaced by diversity, for instance, and the need for “safe spaces.” The non-equivalence, in liberal terms, of academic “safe spaces” and Western ideals like free speech shows what we’re coming to — and how radical, and dangerous, the political divide is this year. On the one hand, sensitive collegians clamor for protection on campus from offensive ideas. On the other hand, universities, the very institutions that shape the views of our selfvaunting thought leaders, are supposed to traffic in ideas of all sorts. You wonder why, if the “smart” people who favor liberal ideas are really

“FACTS,” WRITES Roger Cohen in the New York Times, looking back on the Republican National Convention, “are now a quaint hangover from

a time of rational discourse.” The rational — who work for the Times and like institutions — decide what’s rational and what isn’t. The challenge isn’t so much to disentangle Trump’s particularly fantastical claims as it is to discredit the entirety of what the nonsmart, non-educated, non-rational party, Trump’s party, might believe. Not always without cause, be it noted. A whole college seminar would fail to root out the causes of intellectual snobbery in politics. The soil of the Garden of Eden would be an attractive place to begin. Nonetheless, the effects, as distinguished from the causes,

are destructive enough to warrant investigation. SAY THE “smart” party and its “smart” candidate win in November (as could certainly be the case): What happens then to all the “dumb” people who voted for the “dumb” party and its ideas? Are they ignored, or ridden out of town on a rail? The challenges of democratic government admit of no such “solutions.” In democratic government, the “smart” solution is supposed to be what the people — never mind the Harvard faculty — want. I hate to be “dumb,” but there it is, folks.

MEDIA BIAS: July 27, 2016

WikiLeaks reveals media collusion

he radical leftist collective known as WikiLeaks tried to ruin the Democratic convention by posting a trove of Democratic National Committee emails that easily proved that party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her staff shunned neutrality in favor of pushing Hillary Clinton’s nomination. The Bernie Sanders socialists were enraged, their suspicions confirmed. THE MEDIA paid some attention to that, especially when Schultz was quickly ousted from her job. Guess what else was confirmed, which the media largely skipped over? The evidence in the emails that revealed great chumminess and coordination between Democrats and the supposedly “objective” national press. You really don’t need an email collection to know this. After all, NBC “News” hired Chelsea Clinton for $600,000 a year to make some of the most sleepinducing “happy news” stories to ever air on television. She was producing stories less than once a month, or more than $50,000 a pop. In February, Gawker made a Freedom of Information Act request for government emails from Hillary Clinton’s PR aide Philippe Reines. The disclosed emails exposed Politico big-foot Mike Allen. He offered a cozy Politico chat with Chelsea Clinton: “No one besides me would ask her a question, and you and I would agree on them precisely in

advance.” When exposed, Allen spun the offer as “clumsy.” Well, the latest emails demonstrate Politico is still making a mockery of journalistic “independence.” We now learn that “reporter” Ken Vogel sent a story on Clinton fundraising to DNC national press secretary Mark Paustenbach for a pre-publication review. Now, checking for confirmation of some numbers or confirming a quote — that’s OK. But the entire story? That is journalistic malpractice. The Democrats have Politico on a leash.

Brent

REPORTERS TRY to present a friendly face to most of their subjects, but they don’t always boast, “Hey, you’ll like this story I did.” That’s what happened with Juliet Eilperin, White House bureau chief for the Washington Post. She sent an email to Paustenbach cooing, “Dear Mark, I think you all will be totally fine with it. Thanks again for all your help. Best, Juliet.” So the DNC gives blessings now? The front-page story was headlined: “Obama, who once stood as party outsider, now works to strengthen Democrats.” The story wasn’t as bad as a 2014 front-page puff piece from Eilperin touting how the Obama White House has changed the junk-food culture: “Calorie

counts and hummus with vegetables are in.” You don’t need an email to see the chumminess. CNN commentator Maria Cardona is identified on air as a Democrat, but the emails show that disclosure is a little incomplete. In emailed exchanges with DNC spinners, Cardona repeatedly asked how to perfect an op-ed for CNN.com. Collusion? Liberals will probably see no conflict of interest. Now remember how many fits the liberals have thrown over CNN in-house Trump analyst Corey Lewandowski still getting checks from The Donald. Emails also show Wasserman Schultz yelling at reporters like they were servants — and well, the media coverage can leave that impression. She titled an email to NBC’s Chuck Todd “Chuck, This Must Stop” when Mika Brzezinski called for her to resign on Morning Joe. DNC aides tried to arrange a meeting between the warring parties, but Todd replied, “Between us, do you think that’s a good idea?” Wasserman Schultz scuttled it, wondering if Brzezinski “even matters, to be frank.” Ouch. THE PRIMARY reason the media would skip covering their own lack of independence is obvious. The public already believes they aggressively favor one side in our political debates. Why put a spotlight on your problem? Transparency is a media buzzword, but it never applies to their own partisan games.

August 3, 2016 GOP CONVENTION: July 21, 2016

Convention gives little insight into Trump’s character

he Republican National Con- for candidates up and down the ticket vention ended the way Don- who you trust to defend our freedom ald Trump wanted it to, by and to be faithful to the Constitution.” In the final weeks of the primary nominating him for president, but well short of uniting his party for the divi- battles, Trump bitterly attacked Cruz as a serial “liar,” mocked his wife, sive general election to come. even speculated that It wasn’t for lack of trying. The a n d Cruz’s father was GOP’s two top connected to Presileaders in Condent Kennedy’s asgress, House sassination. Speaker Paul In the uproar Ryan and Senate (c) 2016, United Media Services that followed his Majority Leader non-endorsement Mitch McConnell, spoke in his behalf, despite deep mis- speech, Cruz told a meeting of Texas givings about the man who now leads delegates on Thursday that he was “not in the habit of supporting people who their party. attack my wife and attack my father.” But the bitter feud between the two THEN CAME a few other past and present party leaders who tried to rally is the least of the problems that Trump the GOP’s rank and file behind Trump’s faces in the general election. The deepcandidacy: former House Speaker er divisions in Congress, state governNewt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris ments and the nation’s electorate are Christie, and Trump’s vice presiden- far more troubling. According to an endorsement count tial running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who gave an eloquent defense on the Washington Examiner’s website, there are 41 GOP House members in of the nominee. But the GOP’s deep divisions were the 247-member majority who haven’t exposed anew by Trump’s last primary said whether they will endorse Trump opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who — and at least 13 more who have alwas loudly booed by convention del- ready flatly said they won’t endorse egates for refusing to endorse the par- him. At least 137 others had already announced their support earlier this ty’s nominee in his remarks. He had signed the pledge to support year. In the Senate, at least half a dozen the nominee of their party, as other GOP candidates had, but turned his Republicans, out of their 54-seat maback on the man who had beaten him in jority, have said they won’t endorse the GOP primaries and won the nomi- Trump, while 30 of them have said they support his candidacy. nation in Cleveland this week. Those are small anti-Trump num“Vote your conscience,” Cruz told GOP delegates and Republicans across bers, perhaps, but reflective of larger the country Wednesday night. “Vote numbers in the overall electorate.

Donald

Lambro

TRUMP CLEARLY has a large base of support, as was very clear in the primaries and caucuses. But presidential races in the general election, especially with Republicans, are won by making inroads among key minority voting blocs. In 2004, George W. Bush won reelection with 16 percent of the black vote in Ohio. No Republican has won the presidency without carrying this state. He won 11 percent of black voters nationally. But that’s not the case with Trump. The Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Hillary Clinton winning the support of nearly 90 percent of the black vote in Ohio. Trump draws just four percent of them. A recent NBC News/ Wall Street Journal survey shows Trump drawing zero black support in the Buckeye State. It’s not hard to see why, writes Michael Kranish in the Washington Post. Late last year, “Trump drew criticism when he retweeted a tweet that said blacks killed 81 percent of white homicide victims” across the country. “The claim quickly was shown to be false. The actual number was 15 percent; 82 percent of whites were killed by whites,” Kranish reported. But Trump also faces nationwide rejection from one of the largest and fastest-growing minority groups in the United States: Hispanics. In 2004, Bush won 64 percent of the Hispanic vote in the South, up from 29 percent in 2000. A Democratic Party strategist in charge of Hispanic outreach told me at the time that the Bush forces had mounted a far more effective campaign. “We were outgunned,” she said. But Trump can kiss the large Hispanic vote goodbye in November. Ac-

cording to a national poll of Hispanic voters for Univision earlier this month, Clinton drew a muscular 70 percent of their vote. Other polls show her getting an even larger share than that. Trump, who has attacked Hispanics as criminals, rapists and drug dealers, drew just 19 percent. Meantime, this week’s Republican convention was a huge disappointment because it lacked what successful party gatherings have presented in the past: a bevy of the party’s biggest stars, including most of the presidential candidates past and present, in a powerful show of unity, support and diversity. Instead, we saw a convention that told us very little, if anything, about the nominee and his character. Trump had his wife, Melania, and his children at the podium speaking about him, but none of them told a single personal story that gave Americans any insight into his character. In 2012, Mitt Romney’s wife told America of their long marriage, surviving on pasta and tuna fish in a basement apartment, with an ironing board for their table. Longtime friends told of Mitt regularly visiting their son dying of cancer, and related other stories of caring for those in a time a need. There was none of that in Trump’s convention. “Speakers aren’t sharing their personal stories about Trump,” a newspaper headline read the next day. MAYBE THAT’S because this is, at its heart, a synthetic, antiseptic campaign of slogans and insults by a very rich man who believes running the country is no different than hosting a reality TV show.

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: July 27, 2016

When Americans want to elect Mommy or Daddy But government is not our parent. Americans want to elect Daddy or Though comedian Chris Rock may think Mommy. That’s what this election has become. that Barack Obama is the “dad of the It hasn’t been about competing or con- country,” he most certainly isn’t. And trasting visions of government. It hasn’t if we think of our presidents that way, been about rooting out corruption in we’re likely to stop holding them acWashington or bringing change to the countable. Even children of abusive partheir parents. And system. It certainly hasn’t been about ents love even when nearly 7 principle. in 10 Americans No, this elecbelieve that the tion has become country is moving a simple decision: in the wrong direcDo you want the (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate tion, 56 percent of thickheaded loudmouth who understands your problems, Americans think President Obama’s door do you want the cold and calculating ing a terrific job. robotic manipulator who doesn’t? Do THIS MEANS that our government you want the real-life Archie Bunker, or would you prefer Mary Tyler Moore in is no longer accountable to us, even in our own minds. Government just beOrdinary People? comes a popularity contest rather than a THAT’S WHAT the latest polls tell tool for the protection of rights. And our us. They tell us that Americans aren’t presidents become our parents; our parhappy with either of their choices. Fully ents become our dictators; and our dicta45 percent of Democrats wish someone tors become unanswerable. It’s comfortother than Hillary Clinton had won the primary, and the same percentage of AMERICA: July 22, 2016 Republicans wish someone other than Donald Trump had been nominated. Sixty-eight percent of Americans think Clinton isn’t honest or trustworthy; 54 percent think she’s running for personal think it’s time to clear the air. For gain rather than the good of the country; those of you who still don’t seem 57 percent say Clinton would divide the to understand my job, let me make country as president; and just 38 percent say they’d be proud to have her as presi- it perfectly clear: I do not work for a podent. Trump’s numbers are bad, too, but litical party. I work for America, its idehe has a significant advantage on honesty als and our Constitution. It’s not my job (with 55 percent saying he’s dishonest). to be the cheerleader for a party or an inForty-seven percent say he’s running for dividual. It’s my job to protect America personal gain, and 55 percent say he’d and defend its principles. And frankly, I don’t care whether you agree with me or divide the country as president. Trump is now beating Clinton where not. As an editorial cartoonist, I’ve had a it counts. People believe that he understands their problems and believe that consistent record for over 30 years as a constitutional conservative, a free market Clinton doesn’t. Here’s the bigger problem, however: capitalist and a defender of America and Electing politicians who “understand its ideals. your problems” is a recipe for disaster. AMERICA IS great. America is an Governing properly isn’t about identifying with the feelings of constituents; that exceptional nation and a beacon for libposition logically leads to a politics of erty. I believe, absolutely, in this grand individual “problem-solving” focused republic. It is the greatest country in the solely on curing constituents’ ills. Gov- world. But the strength of America and erning properly should be about under- the solutions for America lie in its people standing that government’s job isn’t to and in our foundation of liberty and freesolve Americans’ problems; it’s about dom, not in one individual or the governmoving aside obstacles so that Ameri- ment. America has lost its way because we cans can solve their own problems. have abandoned our values and prinNo longer. ciples. We elect those who believe in BILL CLINTON is truly the father of nothing, who routinely compromise their the “feel your pain” politics, the notion principles for political expedience and that politicians ought to be beer buddies, who negotiate away our ideals. I refuse folks who get what we feel and respond to do that. We have lost our way because we to it. This is a successful campaign strategy, but it changes what we’re looking have allowed progressive re-engineering for. Now we’re looking for candidates of our values and the rewriting of our hiswho can demonstrate that they get us and tory by allowing progressive institutions candidates who can provide for us. We’re to brainwash generations through education, popular culture and the media. looking for President Benjamin Spock.

Ben

Shapiro

ing to think that politicians care about elect is to hand over our God-given rights you, but they’re lying. They don’t. They for the cheap promises of baby kissers. care about themselves. And to project daddy and mommy issues onto those we

Have faith in America

America has lost its way because there are far too many who believe that government is the solution rather than the problem, far too many who have traded their liberty for subsistence. As de Tocqueville once said, “The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” America has lost its way because there are far too many who believe that government creates jobs. Government does not create real jobs. Liberty creates jobs. I was in Berlin before the wall came down, and I was there a year later when freedom rebuilt that city and allowed it to flourish. We have lost our way because far too often, we compromise and adhere to the current of populism and conventional thinking because navigating through the flood of accommodations and going with the flow is often easier than doing the right thing. WE HAVE lost our way because there are too many who are too willing to accept a half loaf because it is free, when with some hard work and faith, you can feed thousands from a few loaves. Someone has to stand up for the truth. The depth of these problems will not be easily resolved by a superficial emotional reaction or hollow promises, no matter how great the uproar. It requires a far more substantive solution, a return to what our Founding Fathers believed in, the uniquely American ideals and values. For a republic to survive, it must be built on a bedrock of virtue. Our coun-

try is exceptional because these liberties handed down from God are protected by constitutional principles. So if you’re looking for a party lackey or media bootlicker, there are plenty of those around. Please take your pick. You will not find him here. I support America and its values. I have criticized both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past when the media refused to do its job. I have criticized both foe and friend when it was needed. While friends may disagree from time to time, don’t ask me to compromise my values or beliefs to accommodate your lack of faith and fortitude. I believe in America. I believe in its people. America is a great country, and it will find its way. I may be wrong. I have certainly been wrong in the past. I am humbled by it. I try to learn from my mistakes, and I am willing to freely admit that. But I work hard to substantiate my point of view and to ensure that my instincts are validated first, rather than emotionally react to events. Life and thought is an evolutionary process, but morals, ethics and integrity are principles that should not be malleable. I WILL continue to do my job and to do what I think is in America’s best interests, and I will stand alone if I have to. This column is by Michael Ramirez, a two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist with Creators Syndicate.

August 3, 2016 REPUBLICAN PARTY: July 26, 2016

Donald Trump’s speech trumped Ted Cruz

onald Trump’s acceptance speech proved that his vision, not Ted Cruz’s, is the future of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Trump hit the right notes in his talk in putting America first, while Cruz’s presentation to the convention the night before was thin on conservative substance. Cruz did not disqualify himself from being a future standard-bearer merely by failing to endorse Trump, but also by failing to embrace the conservative policies that are necessary to make America great again. It was Trump, not Cruz, who succeeded in fulfilling Ronald Reagan’s goal of “raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people.” TRUMP REPEATEDLY and passionately demonstrated in his acceptance speech that he would stand up for Americans and do everything in his power to

end the exploitation of the United States that have cost American workers dearly. by the rest of the world. “American- Trump has single-handedly converted ism, not globalism, will be our credo!” our Party into one that is now pro-AmerTrump declared, adding that “the Ameri- ican-worker. “I have visited the laid-off factory can people will come first once again.” As Trump did throughout the cam- workers, and the communities crushed rible and unfair trade paign, he led on the fundamental issues by our horTrump declared of immigration and trade. While his ri- deals,” during his speech. vals eventually “These are the followed his lead, forgotten men and it was Trump who women of our counframed the issues (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate try ... who work and forced the mehard but no longer dia to pay attenhave a voice.” tion to them. “I am your voice,” Trump then said, Trump explained in a compelling way the harm resulting from crime by illegal amid thunderous applause. For the first aliens. He described how he personally time since Ronald Reagan, the Repubmet with the family members of a young lican Party has a nominee who actually woman with a promising future who had represents the average American worker. been killed by an illegal alien, who was AN ASTOUNDING 12 million nonthen released and still remains at large in Republicans crossed party lines to vote our country. On jobs, the Republican Party since for Trump in the Republican primaries. the 1990s supported free trade deals The Democrats did not vote for Trump

Phyllis

Schlafly

BLACKS: July 27, 2016

What can discrimination explain?

guiding principle for physicians is primum non nocere, the Latin expression for “first, do no harm.” In order not to do harm, whether it’s with medicine or with public policy, the first order of business is accurate diagnostics. Racial discrimination is seen as the cause of many problems of black Americans. No one argues that racial discrimination does not exist or does not have effects. The relevant question, as far as policy and resource allocation are concerned, is: How much of what we see is caused by current racial discrimination?

FROM THE late 1940s to the mid1950s, black youth unemployment was slightly less than or equal to white youth unemployment. Today black youth unemployment is at least double that of white youth unemployment. Would anyone try to explain the difference with the argument that there was less racial discrimination during the ‘40s and ‘50s than today? Some argue that it is the “legacy of slavery” and societal racism that now explain the social pathology in many black neighborhoods. Today’s black illegitimacy rate is about 73 percent. When I was a youngster, during the 1940s, illegitimacy was around 15 percent. In the same period, about 80 percent of black children were born inside marriage. In fact, historian Herbert Gutman, in an article titled “Persistent Myths about the Afro-American Family” in the Journal of Interdisciplinary

History (Autumn 1975), reported the percentage of black two-parent families, depending on the city, ranged from 75 to 90 percent. Today only a little over 30 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households. The importance of these and other statistics showing greater stability and less pathology among blacks in earlier periods is that they put a lie to today’s excuses. Namely, at a time when blacks were closer to slavery, faced far more discrimination, faced more poverty and had fewer opportunities, there was not the kind of social pathology and weak family structure we see today.

Walter

ACCORDING TO the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes referred to as The Nation’s Report Card, nationally, the average black 12th-grader’s test scores are either basic or below basic in reading, writing, math and science. “Below basic” is the score received when a student is unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at his grade level. “Basic” indicates only partial mastery. Put another way, the average black 12thgrader has the academic achievement level of the average white seventh- or eighth-grader. In some cities, there’s even a larger achievement gap.

Is this a result of racial discrimination? Hardly. The cities where black academic achievement is the lowest are the very cities where Democrats have been in charge for decades and where blacks have been mayors, city councilors, superintendents, school principals and teachers. Plus, these cities have large educational budgets. I am not arguing a causal relationship between black political control and poor performance. I am arguing that one would be hard put to blame the academic rot on racial discrimination. If the Ku Klux Klan wanted to destroy black academic achievement, it could not find a better means for doing so than encouraging the educational status quo in most cities. INTELLECTUALS AND political hustlers who blame the plight of so many blacks on poverty, racial discrimination and the “legacy of slavery” are complicit in the socio-economic and moral decay. But one can earn money, prestige and power in the victimhood game. As Booker T. Washington long ago observed, “there is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”

because they prefer supporting a billionaire, but because they like his positions on immigration and trade. Trump extolled “the dignity of work and the dignity of working people.” He brings back to the Republican Party the “bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians” whom he said his father was most comfortable being with. Trump observed that “America has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997,” and that NAFTA was “one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country.” “Never again,” Trump added. In contrast, Ted Cruz’s speech at the convention made only passing references to immigration and trade, without the substance or the passion that Trump expressed. Instead Cruz repeated “freedom” over and over, some 23 times, declaring that “America is an ideal,” and that the ideal is merely that “freedom matters.” Cruz’s speech reflected the views of his mega-donors, who tend to be more libertarian than the conservative views of the average American. Leaving people alone to do whatever they like is not enough to restore the United States to military superiority or economic independence, or to achieve the many other goals set forth in the Republican Party platform. Cruz’s vision is not that of Ronald Reagan, who made the United States stronger and more prosperous as Trump vows to do. Trump emphasized in his speech his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he said “will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments.” Trump even pledged “to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence.” Cruz made no such pledge and failed to mention the TransPacific Partnership. Trump obviously meant every word in his electrifying speech, as when he expressed his genuine outrage at how “big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of [Hillary Clinton] because they know she will keep our rigged system in place.” Cruz’s speech had no such criticism of Hillary, and relied on superficial rhetorical devices like devoting much of his speech to a story about a sympathetic victim with whom Cruz had no personal connection. THE SHORTCOMING of Ted Cruz is not only his failure to endorse the Republican Party nominee. The greater flaw is that, like Mitt Romney and others in the Republican Establishment, Cruz has failed to embrace the conservative vision that Donald Trump stands for.

Conservative Chronicle

2016 ELECTION: July 25, 2016

The path ahead for Hillary Rodham Clinton

n route to fight one of his many duels, French politician Georges Clemenceau bought a one-way train ticket. Was he pessimistic? “Not at all. I always use my opponent’s return ticket for the trip back.” Some Hillary Clinton advisers, although not that serene, think her victory is probable and can be assured. Her challenge is analogous to Ronald Reagan’s in 1980, when voters were even more intensely dissatisfied than they now are. There were hostages in Iran and stagflation’s “misery index” (the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates) was 21.98. By August 1979, 84 percent of Americans said the country was on the wrong track. A substantial majority did not want to re-elect Jimmy Carter but a majority might do so unless convinced that Reagan would be a safe choice. Reagan’s campaign responded by buying time for several half-hour televised speeches and other ads stressing his humdrum competence. NOW, VOTERS reluctant to support the unpleasant and unprepared Republican also flinch from Clinton, partly because of the intimacy the modern presidency forces upon them: As one Clinton adviser uneasily notes, a president spends more time in the average family’s living room than anyone who is not a family member. Clinton is not a congenial guest. Her opponent radiates anger, and America has not elected an angry president since Andrew Jackson, long before television brought presidents into everyone’s living room, where anger is discomfiting. Clinton’s campaign must find ways to present her as more likable than she seems and more likable than her adversary, both of which are low thresholds. Regarding the threshold that matters most — 270 electoral votes — she would not trade places with her opponent. Since 1976, Florida, today’s largest swing state, has been somewhat more Republican than the nation. Clinton now is in a statistical tie there (in the Real Clear Politics average of polls), where the Hispanic vote is growing and moving left. She leads in Virginia, the third-largest swing state (behind Ohio), by RCP’s 5.3 points and in another purple state, Colorado, by eight points. One state that might indicate a tectonic shift in American politics is Arizona, which has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since Harry Truman in 1948 (Bill Clinton in 1996, by 2.2 points). In 2012, Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama there by nine points. Today, however, John McCain’s sixth Senate campaign may be becoming his most difficult. His trademark has been “straight talk” but now he must mumble evasions about the man at the top of the

percent for Trump. If Arizona becomes a presidential battleground this year, it will validate The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein’s analysis that any Trump gains for the GOP among white blue-collar votes in Rust Belt states (e.g., Ohio, Wis., Pa., IF CLINTON, who is in another sta- Mich.) may be more than matched by tistical tie in Arizona, decides to compete Clinton gains among minorities and perthere, one reason will be the Mormons. sons with college educations in Sunbelt and elsewhere. They are just five percent of the state s t a t e s Clinton’s selecpopulation, but tion of Virginia’s eight percent of U.S. Sen. and forthe general elecmer Gov. Tim Kaine tion turnout. In a represents the competitive elec(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group rare intersection tion, their deep of good politics cultural antipathy toward Donald Trump might swing 11 and good governance. He increases electoral votes. Utah Republicans in this her chance of winning the 13 electoral year’s caucuses voted 69.2 percent for votes of his state, which has voted with Ted Cruz, 16.8 for John Kasich and 14 the presidential winner in four consecuRepublican ticket who has disparaged McCain’s war service. McCain, who has won his five previous elections by an average of 33.4 points, today leads in the RCP average by 5.5.

George

Will

tive elections and seven of the last nine. He, like she, has been an executive, so perhaps experience has inoculated him against the senatorial confusion between gestures and governing. THERE PROBABLY is no Democratic governor or senator more palatable than Kaine to constitutional conservatives. Such conservatives are eager to bring presidential power back within constitutional constraints, and Kaine is among the distressingly small minority of national legislators interested in increased congressional involvement in authorizing the use of military force. And as a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, Kaine can, if their paths ever cross on the campaign trail, patiently try to help Trump decipher the acronym NATO.

DOUBLE STANDARD: July 21, 2016

Nero fiddles, Twitter burns

hen Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos, a blogger for the conservative news website Breitbart.com who used the Twitter handle Nero, Yiannopoulos reacted with characteristic modesty. He told the New York Times the ban launched “the beginning of the end for Twitter.” Oddly, Yiannopouolos may be right. In February, the social media platform announced its “Trust and Safety Committee.” With Orwellian overtones, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, “Twitter stands for freedom of expression, speaking truth to power, and empowering dialogue. That starts with safety.” The San Francisco startup invites all comers to post their thoughts by name or anonymously. The more outrageous the tweets, the more attention they attract. Unbowed, Twitter HQ gets all sanctimonious when trolls get nasty. Like, who knew that would happen?

CONSERVATIVES KNEW that the Twitter panel, comprised of leftleaning organizations, would target the right. Their suspicions were confirmed when Twitter promptly shuttered the account of Robert Stacy McCain, an anti-feminist blogger. Twitter would not disclose which Tweets led to McCain’s ostracism. Likewise Twitter won’t stipulate which Tweets were the reason Yiannopouolos had to go on Tuesday. In the brave new world of social media, no one talks on the record. No social media platform discloses which actions specifically led to a user’s banishment. They give lip service to transparency, then hide behind their platforms and their doublespeak.

So when I asked Twitter why it exiled Yiannopouolos, I got a vanilla statement emailed by a spokesperson who told me nothing and did not want to be named. I have to assume that Twitter talked to Buzzfeed, which reported Yiannopouolos was banned because he had “incited his followers to bombard Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist and demeaning tweets.” The nasty racism unleashed in those tweets drove Jones off Twitter.

Debra J.

AS A PRIVATE company, Twitter has the right to refuse service to unwanted individuals and set standards of acceptable discourse. Its prohibition on “hateful conduct” reads: “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.” That’s a reasonable standard as long as it is applied fairly, or at least fairly most of the time. But there is nothing fair about the Trust and Safety Committee, a collection of left-leaning groups weaned on the expectation that institutions will protect them from the sharp elbows of partisan brawling. Yiannopoulos is a provocateur, a gay, alternative-right conservative who lives to push others’ buttons. When a lefty group gets his “Most Dangerous Faggot Tour” banned from campus, it’s

like throwing him a steak. A shameless self-promoter, he flogs their intolerance, because, well, they are extremely intolerant. The proof is in the Twitter lifetime ban. Note that Twitter did not exile Yiannapoulos for anything he wrote, but for what his fans wrote. As the web site Recode reported, Twitter booted Yiannopoulos because he was “one of the main instigators. He tweeted that Jones was ‘barely literate’ and also referred to her as a man.” The “barely literate” was in response to a grammatical error in a Jones tweet. (Who among us is without sin?) Jones is tall and strong, hence the dig at her femininity. I don’t defend those remarks. I endure worse on a regular basis. So if Twitter wants to ban users for relatively tame criticism, it’s going to become a lonely site fast. If Twitter can derail someone for what his or her followers do, then why not eject Black Lives Matter leaders for inciting the rogue Baton Rouge cop killer? That’s where guilt by association leads. WE ALL KNOW that won’t happen. This is left versus right. This is liberals deciding what conservatives should be allowed to say. More conservatives will leave Twitter, and more liberals will think that everyone agrees with them because their views are reinforced on the Twitter loop. It’s easy to tout civil discourse when you’ve muzzled your opponents. My guess is many liberals will nod in agreement with this column, but they won’t do anything about it because they’ll think Yiannopoulos deserved to be banned. And that’s the end of Twitter.

August 3, 2016 HILLARY CLINTON: July 26, 2016

OK, Hillary, have fun defending Obama’s record

ome Republicans are disillu- 1/2 years ago but also it is outrageous sioned with their party’s nomi- that Obama and his media enablers nee, but imagine how rank- airbrush the Democrats’ principal culand-file Democrats must feel. Their pability in engineering the policies that presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, led to the financial crisis. Clinton will also be running against not only is exceedingly unappealing in her own right but also seeks to fulfill a candidate whose negatives — before Barack Obama’s third term and must the Republican National Convention, defend — even champion — his disas- at least — rival hers and who gives his critics ammunition on a daily trous record. Apart from Clinton’s own baggage basis. But I suspect — her corruption, that as much mateher empty record, rial as the precedher enabling of her ing strategies will husband’s sexual provide, Clinton’s (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate exploits, her enorbread-and-butter mous unlikability — she has sidled up to Obama so much theme will be that same old Democratic during his tenure that she is stuck with song: Republicans are evil, uncompassionate, racist, sexist, xenophobic, hohis record, whether she likes it or not. As President Obama’s record reflects mophobic, extremist bigots who want the worst presidential performance in to subjugate women and minorities and modern memory — and probably lon- exploit the downtrodden. Think about it. When is the last time ger — Clinton has her work cut out for her, but she will have a smorgasbord of you heard a Democrat talking about freedom and prosperity? Democrats excuses available. long ago discontinued any pretense to CLINTON MUST misrepresent such aspirations. Now they just openly Obama’s record by sanitizing the mis- reveal their resignation to economic erable conditions Americans are cur- malaise in perpetuity and the necessity rently experiencing and arguing that of using government even more extenany failures, all of which she will deny, sively to redistribute wealth to achieve were caused by Republican opposition “economic justice.” and obstruction during his term or ReTO THEM, the economy is a zeropublican disasters preceding his term. Don’t laugh, but the meme that “it’s sum game and the “haves” have too Bush’s fault” is still fresh on their lips. much of that finite pie and must be Every mainstream media report that forced to share their pieces with the grudgingly concedes the economy is “have-nots.” They view as fantasies the struggling invariably cites the 2008 fi- concepts of robust economic growth nancial crisis Obama “inherited.” Not and “a rising tide lifts all boats.” And only is it ridiculous to scapegoat Re- why not? The narrative that Republipublicans for a recession that began 8 cans are greedy haters has secured 90

David

Limbaugh

percent of the black vote for Democrats for ages, so why stop lying now? Besides, being tied to Obama’s record, Clinton will have no optimistic economic arrows in her quiver. She would look absurd trying to tell Americans that they could expect prosperity in her third Obama term. But at least she can assure them that she wouldn’t let those dastardly Republicans have control over dishing out morsels of the ever-shrinking pie Obama’s Democrats have over-baked into oblivion. Unfortunately for Clinton, the economy, including Obama’s egregious record on jobs, are only the beginning of her troubles. There are a host of other issues she’s going to have to explain away or distort. Consider this small sample: — The $19 trillion national debt. Granted, it has been alluded to so many times that it is approaching cliché sta-

tus, but it still scares people with any sense of reality. — Obamacare. No matter how Obama spins it, it has been an unmitigated disaster, failing all expectations as to cost and accessibility, and is steadily getting worse. — Foreign policy. Obama and Clinton have had no coherent foreign policy except to cozy up to our enemies and insult our allies. They’ve intentionally orchestrated the decline of America’s power and influence in the world. — The polarized state of the American people, to which Obama has mightily contributed, especially on racial relations, which haven’t been this bad since the 1960s. The tension between blacks and cops is alarmingly bad and increasing. — The destructive swath of the Islamic State group and other Islamists — abroad and at home — is proliferating, and Obama and his party have no answer, other than to encourage us to believe their alternate reality that they have this under control. — Democrats continue to advocate an open-borders policy, which exacerbates every other problem we are facing. Note that I didn’t list this administration’s assaults on the rule of law, traditional values, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, work and the conventional energy industries, among others, because Democrats have succeeded in conning many people into believing that they are on the right side of these issues. HILLARY CLINTON can harp all she wants to about the Republicans’ “darkness,” but her evidence of our darkness is that we are pointing out the darkness of the Democrats’ policies and record. Pointing out darkness is not darkness. It is our patriotic duty to contrast that darkness with the luminous potential of a strong, prosperous and free America — an America that Democrats have forsaken.

Conservative Chronicle

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: July 27, 2016

Dems busting Airbnb, defending status quo

he battle over Airbnb is taking center stage at the Democratic National Convention. The fight is emblematic of the dispute between Republicans and Democrats over who should steer the economy: government regulators on the one hand, or consumers and business innovators on the other. Democrats are attacking Airbnb and similar internet sites that enable people to earn cash renting their homes out. Senator Elizabeth Warren and several like-minded lawmakers are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to crack down. They’re determined to regulate everything. They claim to be for the little guy, but they’re protecting a rigged economy that favors hotel unions and the real estate industry. To heck with the budget traveler who needs a temporary place to stay or the home sharer who needs to make extra cash.

sense is another matter. Does he really innovators from even starting compawant to tell an elderly lady she can’t nies. The White House conceded last rent out her apartment because New York’s affordable housing shortage week that growth for 2016 will stay an anemic 1.9 percent. matters more than her need to make at That’s less than enough money to half the rate durstay in her home? ing Ronald ReaSchneiderman gan’s presidency even suggests that or Bill Clinton’s Airbnb brings an (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate best years, and “influx of out-ofwell below the town visitors upsetting the quiet of longstanding resi- rate needed to get America working dential neighborhoods.” In New York, again. This horrible news provoked not a murmur of concern from Democrats. the city that never sleeps? In fact, President Obama doubled IT’S A TYPICAL case of politi- down on his defense of regulations last cians targeting a beautifully disrup- weekend with vague platitudes about tive industry in order to defend the protecting the public. The gravest harm done by regulastatus quo. Overregulation is destroying growth in the U.S. by discouraging tion is not time and money squandered

AIRBNB IS fighting back, running ads defending its service. Meanwhile, in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo is still mulling over whether to sign a bill that would make it illegal for most New Yorkers to advertise their apartments on the sites. And in California, Airbnb is being pummeled with local regulations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento. Visitors to Disneyland used the short-term rentals until the city of Anaheim banned them entirely in January. The attack on Airbnb is an example of pro-regulation politicians depriving consumers of choices and impeding start-up industries. For decades, politicians from both parties have piled on regulations. But Donald Trump declared war on excessive regulation during his GOP presidential acceptance speech last week, calling it “one of the greatest job killers of them all.” Airbnb is now used by people in 34,000 towns and cities in 191 countries. In New York City, for example, it is heavily used by women over 60 who rent out their homes to make ends meet, allowing them to stay put after retirement or the death of a spouse. But Dems like Warren say Airbnb drives up rents. How? Renters who can earn cash a few days a month on their place can manage to pay higher rents. Warren and other senators wrote to the FTC last week urging an investigation of Airbnb’s impact on “the cost of housing in our communities.” The federal government has no business interfering with local housing prices. Read the Constitution, Senator Warren. Nothing in there on that. New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman parrots Warren’s argument about Airbnb pushing up rents. Schneiderman has the authority under state law to intervene, but common

Black votes matter to politicians

Betsy

McCaughey

on compliance, but rather the forfeited opportunities — companies never launched, technologies never invented, jobs never created, and products consumers will never see. Uber, the popular alternative to taxis, narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of the taxi industry and its elected henchman. Fortunately, Cuomo — unlike many Democrats — appreciates Uber as “one of these great inventions” in “this new economy.” Cuomo said, “It’s offering a great service for people and it’s giving people jobs.” LET’S HOPE Cuomo takes the same enlightened approach to Airbnb. And other Democrats see the light.

BLACKS: July 26, 2016

lack votes matter. If Republicans could get 20 percent of black votes, the Democrats would be ruined. This is highly unlikely, given the approach used by Republicans. However, the point is that Democrats must not only continue to get nine-tenths of black votes, they also need to get a high turnout of black voters on election day. People who expected the election of President Barack Obama to lead to racial healing and a post-racial society failed to take account of the political reality that racial healing and a postracial society would, at a minimum, reduce black voter turnout. BLACK VOTES matter to many politicians — more so than black lives. That is why such politicians must try to keep black voters fearful, angry and resentful. Racial harmony would be a political disaster for such politicians. Racial polarization makes both the black population and the white population worse off, but it makes politicians who depend on black votes better off. Hillary Clinton desperately needs black votes in this year’s close election. Promoting fear, anger and resentments among blacks — and, if possible, paranoia — serves her political interest. Barack Obama has mastered the art of keeping black voters aroused while keeping white voters soothed — thanks in part to the gullibility of much of the public, who mistake geniality and glib rhetoric for honesty and good will. Obama has repeatedly put the weight and prestige of the presidency on the side of those who denounce the police before any facts are verified —

and even after facts have come out, exposing the fraudulence of such claims as the claim that the “gentle giant” Michael Brown said, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” When a career race hustler like Al Sharpton, with a history of hoaxes, is a regular visitor and advisor to the White House, that is a reality that whites and blacks alike ignore at their peril. The fact that Sharpton owes millions of dollars in unpaid income taxes ought to be a devastating revelation of what lucrative careers there are in race hustling. Nothing reveals the political cynicism of the Obama administration like their campaign to force

Thomas

schools to reduce the number of black male students who are disciplined for misconduct. Because black male students are cited for disruption and violence more often than other categories of students, that is automatically taken to mean that racial discrimination is the reason. THE MOST obvious alternative explanation is that black male students engage in more disruption and violence than Asian females or some other students. But that possibility is implicitly ruled out. What makes this such a farce is that many, if not most, of the teachers and administrators in ghetto schools are black themselves, and have no reason

to discriminate against black males. What makes it a disaster is that only a few thugs in a classroom are enough to deprive all the other students of a decent education — which, for many, is their only chance for decent lives as adults. If black lives matter at all to the Obama administration, they obviously don’t matter as much as black votes that can be won by posing as defenders of blacks, even in situations where defenders of thugs are destroying black children’s futures. Even the thugs themselves will be worse off in the long run, if somebody does not put a stop to behavior that can lead them to prison as adults. Hillary Clinton plays the same political game of posing as a defender of blacks from enemies threatening them on all sides, as she tries to win an election that would amount to a third term of the Obama administration’s policies — most of which have left blacks worse off than before Obama took office. The ancient phrase, “By their fruits ye shall know them” has been replaced by the current notion that by their rhetoric you should judge them — and vote for them. ONE OF THE key questions this election year is whether black lives matter more than black votes that can be won by racial charades that undermine and endanger those lives. The answer to that question will affect all Americans, because racial turmoil is to no one’s interest, except some politicians and race hustlers.

August 3, 2016 DOUBLE STANDARD: July 22, 2016

So much for ‘unprecented’ jail talk

Take CNN commentator Jack Cafhe Republican National Convention’s rowdy chants about ferty, who on Oct. 17, 2005, gushed to Hillary Clinton — “Lock her Wolf Blitzer about the idea of Karl Rove “What should Karl up!” — have caused liberal journalists in prison: if he is indicted? to get extremely distressed. In its lead Rove do ... He might want editorial on July to get measured 21, the Washingfor one of those ton Post fulmiextra-large orange nated that team (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate jumpsuits, Wolf, Trump’s “descent because looking from standard red-meat partisanship to unprecedented at old Karl, I’m not sure that ... they’d accusations of criminality displays con- be able to zip him into the regular size tempt for the rule of law and a startling one.” The legal expert known as Rosie disinterest in fact and reason.” O’Donnell insisted to Geraldo Rivera THAT’S STRONG brew. It’s too on April 30, 2005, “This president inbad for them that it’s completely false. vaded a sovereign nation in defiance of Somehow, the Post writers are acting the UN. He is basically a war criminal. like they were born yesterday, or slept Honestly. He should be tried at The through the last Republican presidency. Hague.” And Michael Moore delighted Chris They’ve chosen to overlook that their liberal friends in news and entertain- Matthews on July 23, 2007: “Personment were active participants in an ally, I’d like to see a perp walk coming out of the West Wing of the White eight-year anti-GOP hatefest.

Brent

Bozell

House.” Matthews inquired: “Do you we need a trial, in this country, where think they’re guilty of war crimes?” Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush would be Moore replied: “Absolutely. ... I think brought up on charges for causing the deaths of so many people.”

DONALD TRUMP: July 26, 2016

Trump’s acceptance speech

onald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention was too long — 75 minutes — and too loud. Modulation is the key to good public speaking. One’s voice should rise and fall like the tide, which allows really important points to be made whether the volume is low or high. His adult children are better speakers. Having said that, Trump hit mostly high notes — the country is on the wrong track. The latest Real Clear Politics data shows 69.3 percent of those surveyed believe we’re on the wrong track. One has to go back to the ‘70s and Jimmy Carter to see similar numbers.

CRIME AND violence are serious concerns. Trump promised to be a “law and order” president, specifics to come. Many believe race relations have deteriorated since President Obama took office. The police are under attack. Poor children are trapped in failing public schools and Democrats won’t let them escape. Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, promise school choice. Terrorism is on the rise at home and overseas. Instead of focusing on battle readiness, our depleted military focuses on the inclusion of transgender and women soldiers. Veterans are not being adequately cared for. Speaking to blue collar “Reagan Democrats,” who haven’t had a significant pay raise in years, or who are unemployed or underemployed, thanks to the policies of the Obama administra-

tion, Trump said, “I am your voice.” Whether Republicans are united enough to win the election remains to be seen, but the left, the establishment and the media are united in their opposition to Trump. They claim Trump is playing on fears, but they have fears of their own; fear of losing control of government and their lucrative positions. Fear is not a bad emotion to arouse if it is based on genuine threats and there are plenty of those, as anyone paying the slightest attention can attest.

Cal

Liberal media coverage and commentary on the convention was mostly the same. Friday’s headlines, editorials and columns in various publications exposed not just bias, but the fear the media have in losing their influence. HERE ARE just a few samples: “Mr. Trump’s Apocalypse Now” (Washington Post editorial). “A Foreign Policy Wrecking Ball” (second Post editorial). “Seeking Victory by scaring the country to death” (columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.) The predictable New York Times also had a lead editorial about “Donald Trump’s Campaign of Fear.” Columnist David Brooks wrote about “The Death of the Republican Party.” Online, the column headline read “Make

America Hate Again,” just in case readers didn’t get the message. A front-page “news analysis” in the Times speaks of Trump’s alleged “Failed Chance to Humanize Outsize Image.” A column by Matthew Continetti in the Washington Free Beacon was headlined “The Demagogue Rises.” Batman, call your office. Like the definition of love in the book and film Love Story, being a liberal means never having to say you’re sorry about your failed programs and failed philosophy. That’s because liberalism is not based on results, but on feelings and intentions. Trump is saying the left has failed and liberals don’t like the prospect of being held accountable for the damage they’ve done to America. That’s why the media will stage a love-in for Hillary Clinton and all things Democrat at their Philadelphia convention. Don’t expect a question like this: “Your party has spent huge amounts of money on the poor and yet there are about as many poor people today as when the War on Poverty began half a century ago. Same with education. Isn’t it time to try something else?” YOU WON’T hear that question because the left thinks the problem is that government isn’t taxing, spending and regulating enough. That attitude has fueled the rise of Donald Trump and some like me, who were once skeptical of him, would like to see Trump shake up Washington, if only to watch the expressions on the smug faces of the left.

AL FRANKEN, now a United States senator, wildly talked of executions for Bushies over the Valerie Plame matter on David Letterman’s Late Show on Oct. 22, 2005. “You know, George H. W. Bush, the president’s father, was the head of the CIA, and he has said that outing a CIA agent is treason.” Letterman agreed: “It is treason, yes.” Franken added: “And so basically, what it looks like is going to happen is that Libby and Karl Rove are going to be executed.” This being a “civilized” audience in Manhattan, they laughed, and then Franken implied executing President Bush might be a logical follow-up if Rove confessed about higher-ups. “In that case, the president — and I think, by the way, that we should never ever, ever, ever execute a sitting president.” Letterman played along in this grisly game. “Have we ever come close in the history to executing a seated president?” Franken answered: “No, this will be the closest.” LET’S CONCLUDE with the one and only Ed Schultz, who, like others in liberal hate radio, specialized in wanting Republicans dead. On his show on May 11, 2009, he begged for Dick Cheney’s demise. “Lord, take him to the promised land, will you? I don’t even wish the guy goes to hell. I just want to get him the he— out of here.” On Feb. 24, 2010, Schultz shouted, “You’re da— right Dick Cheney’s heart’s a political football! We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him!” Dear Washington Post ranters: There’s nothing “unprecedented” about calling your opponents criminals or wanting them dead. Liberals have excelled at that rhetoric forever.

Conservative Chronicle

HILLARY CLINTON: July 21, 2016

Case against Hillary: What if the fix was in?

hat if the folks who run the tem even though she regularly sent and Department of Political received state secrets? What if she sent Justice recently were told many emails containing state secrets that the republic would suffer if Hillary about her Libyan war to her friend Sid Clinton were indicted for espionage Blumenthal? What if Blumenthal had because Donald Trump might suc- been turned down for a State Departceed Barack Obama in the presidency? ment job by the president himself? What if Blumenthal did not have a What if espionage is the failure to safeguard state secrets and the evidence government security clearance to relawfully any state that Clinton failed to safeguard them is c e i v e secrets? What if unambiguous and Clinton knew that? overwhelming? What if the FBI What if Presifound that Bludent Obama nevmenthal’s emails er really liked (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate had been hacked his former rival whom he appointed as his secretary of by intelligence services of foreign govstate? What if he had no real interest in ernments that are hostile to America? seeing her succeed him because he and WHAT IF there were terrible sehis wife simply could never trust her? crets that Clinton wanted to keep from WHAT IF, when Clinton suggested the public and for that reason she used to the president that the U.S. wage a private servers and non-governmentsecret undeclared war against Libya, issued mobile devices? What if those the president went along with it as a terrible secrets involved her enabling no-lose proposition? What if he as- the unlawful behavior of her husband sumed that if her secret war succeeded and his shoddy, unlawful foundation? he’d get the credit and if her secret war What if Mrs. Clinton made decisions as secretary of state that were intended failed she would get the blame? What if the means of fighting the to enrich her husband and herself and secret war consisted of employing in- she needed to keep emails about those telligence assets rather than the U.S. decisions away from the public? What if the president recognized all military? What if Clinton concocted that idea because the use of the military this and authorized the FBI to conduct requires a public reporting to the entire criminal investigations of Mrs. ClinCongress but the use of intelligence as- ton? What if, after the ascendancy of sets requires only a secret reporting to Donald Trump in the Republican presia dozen members of Congress? What if Clinton expanded her war by dential primary, the president warmed permitting American and foreign arms up to his former rival? What if Trump dealers to bypass the NATO arms em- so got under the president’s skin that bargo on Libya by selling heavy-duty, it drove him to embrace Clinton as his military-grade arms directly to militias chosen successor and as the one Demoin Libya? What if this was Clinton’s crat who could prevent a Trump presidream scenario — an apparent civil dency? What if the president sent word to war in Libya in which the victorious side was secretly armed by the U.S., the Department of Political Justice to with democracy brought to the country exonerate Clinton no matter what evidence was found against her? What if, and Clinton the architect of it all? What if the CIA warned Clinton that in response to that political interferthis would backfire? What if the CIA ence, the FBI investigation of her failtold her that she was arming not pro- ure to safeguard state secrets and her Western militias but anti-American ter- corruption took irregular turns? What if FBI management began rorist groups? What if she rejected all that advice? What if providing material to intimidate FBI agents who had the assistance to terrorist groups is a felo- goods on her? What if FBI manageny? What if the Department of Political ment forced agents to sign highly irJustice actually obtained an indictment regular agreements governing what the of an American arms dealer for going agents can tell anyone when it comes to what they learned about Clinton? along with Clinton’s schemes? What if the Department of PolitiWhat if Clinton’s secret war in Libya was a disaster? What if she suc- cal Justice never subpoenaed anything ceeded in toppling the Libyan leader, from Clinton? What if it never conCol. Moammar Gadhafi, only to have vened a grand jury to seek and hear him replaced by feuding warlords who evidence against her? What if the FBI control anti-Western terrorist groups requires a grand jury to subpoena docthat not only failed to produce democ- uments and tangible things? What if racy but instead produced destruction, it is highly irregular for a major FBI criminal investigation to be undertaken chaos, terror, torture and death? What if Clinton managed her Libyan without a grand jury? What if the attorney general was indisaster using a non-secure email sys-

Andrew

Napolitano

volved in a publicity stunt with Clinton’s husband and then used that stunt as an excuse to remove herself and her top aides from making decisions in the case? What if this was a sham, done so as to make it appear that FBI professionals — rather than someone politically motivated, such as the president or the attorney general — were calling the shots in the case? WHAT IF Hillary Clinton has engaged in espionage and public corrup-

tion and FBI agents know that she has? What if they have evidence to prove it but they could not present anything to a grand jury because President Obama wants Clinton, and not Donald Trump, to succeed him in office? What if this blatant political interference with a criminal investigation is itself a crime? What if, midstream in this criminal investigation, the fix was put in? What do we do about it?

TURKEY: July 20, 2016

Turkey’s ordeal

he first news bulletins raised To quote a cab driver in Ankara when the wildest hopes: In a once it looked as though the coup might familiar pattern, Turkey’s mil- succeed: “The people tried to stand up itary would again step forward to make against President Erdogan, but they that country part of the West, complete couldn’t, they were crushed, so the had no choice but to with free elections and the rule of law. military take over.” Or as a Back when the teacher said in IsOttomans ruled, tanbul: “The counTurkey was try is in chaos, and known as the Sick Erdogan needs to Man of Europe, (c) 2016, Tribune Media Services be put in his place, but now it would but I’m afraid. I’m become a healthy democracy again. Its reigning sultan very afraid because in the past a lot of these days, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had innocent blood was shed in these coups. long been saying that a military coup I’m anxious. I don’t know what to say at was in the offing, which was his excuse this point. We are all in shock. No one for continuing to tighten his grip on thought that the military would stand up against Erdogan.” But it did, or at least power. some of it did before being crushed. And THE FIRST announcement from hope delayed soon became hope denied. At least since the French Revolution those officers heading the coup seemed to promise as much. They said they’d set the pattern, the urban middle class seized control of the country “to rein- — the bourgeoisie — has been the seedstall the constitutional order, democ- bed of the greatest changes. And as long racy, human rights and freedoms, to as Turkey has such a class, the country ensure that the rule of law once again will remain restive under any dictator. reigns in the country, for law and order This time, many Turks may have been disappointed, but surely there will come to be reinstated.” Those officers were acting in the tra- a next time when they won’t be. dition of the military leader who had FOR A MOMENT, the sun had overthrown a corrupt regime and created modern Turkey. His name: Mustafa broken through the clouds. And the old Kemal Ataturk, and his portrait is still Turkey of hope seemed to be returning. displayed everywhere in Turkey but, Would the veil be lifted, and Ataturk’s vision be restored? It was not to be. At alas, mainly for ceremonial purposes. Support for the military as a guard- day’s end, hope had soured. The coup ian of the country’s stability and moder- had been crushed and Ataturk was still nity remains strong in Turkey, despite dead. the demagoguery of its current dictator.

Paul

Greenberg

August 3, 2016 BLUE LIGHT FRIDAY: July 27, 2016

#BlueLightFriday: From the White House to your house When you need something done, call other than rant on air and social media.” Our friend Cameron Gray of NRA a retired cop. That’s how Blue Light Friday at the News helped spread the word. My colWhite House came together last week. leagues at Conservative Review aslogistics and social Unlike the lame duck occupant at 1600 sisted with coverage. Cardillo Pennsylvania Ave., I have little experi- m e d i a also summoned ence as a comretired NYPD munity organizer. detective, Rob So I asked retired O’Donnell, who New York Police runs the nonprofit Department officer (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate charity Brothers John Cardillo if he could help me turn out his law enforce- Before Others, which supports the LEO ment friends, families and supporters to community. “As a law enforcement professional honor the fallen. for 25 years working with communities His one-word answer: “Yes.” of all backgrounds, I can conclude one OUR MISSION: Bring a blue hue to thing: All lives matter! Always have, althe People’s House in Washington, D.C. ways will,” O’Donnell told me. “Be it — in the wake of the Dallas and Baton a 911 call, or a peaceful protest, police Rouge police ambushes — since Barack of all backgrounds do what they were Obama refused to do it himself. Obama trained to do: run to the gunfire for all, spurned the Federal Law Enforcement regardless of color or creed.” That’s what fallen officers Brent Officers Association Foundation’s request to make the small, but meaning- Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael ful, gesture of turning the floodlights Krol, Michael Smith, and Lorne Ahrens blue the same way he turned them rain- did in Dallas. And what fallen officers bow for gay marriage or pink for breast Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola did in Baton Rouge. And cancer awareness. Ordering the rest of the country to what fallen officers Wenjian Liu and Ralower its flags to half-staff for five days fael Ramos were sworn to do in Brookwas enough, his administration diffi- lyn. “Same as September 11th, same as Orlando, same as New Orleans, same as dently told reporters. every street of every community in evWe did not agree. As Cardillo told me: “Watching ery town,” O’Donnell reminded us. We stopped by the nearby National Barack Obama invite those who celebrate cop killers Mumia Abu Jamal and Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, Joanne Chesimard to the White House, which features more than 20,000 names and giving the benefit of doubt in police- of officers killed in the line of duty involved shootings to the career crimi- dating back to 1791, before our vigil. nals over the career law enforcement At Lafayette Park, we passed out blue officers, compelled me to do something glow sticks and flashlights to a crowd

Michelle

Malkin

of about 50 people who gathered to take part. Several active-duty LEOs stopped by after work and stood with us, too. A bagpipe player who works at a local fire department led our procession. Gray noted: “Members of a certain Service that is known for being Secret even quietly thanked some of us, and one said it was hard not to applaud.” A crowd of young Black Lives Matters demonstrators approached, and then retreated without engaging us. Maybe they were allergic to the beautiful sound of “God Bless America” resonating from bagpipes. NBC News and Associated Press photographers snapped pictures and video (but perhaps since no American flags were burned or angry fists were raised, none of the images they captured has appeared to have made it on air or in print.)

No matter. As the sun sank, our little blue lights twinkled in the dusk and we talked to curious tourists about rising anti-cop rhetoric and violence that doesn’t make front-page headlines. Many passers-by draped glow sticks around their necks or promised to turn a light blue on their front porches when they got home. Cardillo is already working on another event in his adopted home state: “Our #BlueLightFriday gathering in front of the White House is something I hope catches on nationally. I’m optimistic as I’m already planning another for south Florida in partnership with local law enforcement.” Indeed, many families have already taken upon themselves to create their own porch-light memorials and share them online. One Lowe’s home improvement store is now selling designated blue bulbs and encouraging customers to “light up the sky blue” in August for the men and women on the front lines. It couldn’t come at a better time. This week, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Convention are giving prime-time speaking slots to agitators of the Black Lives Matters movement, which has stoked virulent cop hatred without accountability for its bloodthirsty “pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em up like bacon” rhetoric. As Philadelphia’s own Fraternal Order of Police noted: “It is sad that to win an election Mrs. Clinton must pander to the interests of people who do not know all the facts, while the men and women they seek to destroy are outside protecting the political institutions of this country.” TEACH YOUR children that small gestures matter. Change the culture, one little blue light at a time.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2016 • Volume 31, Number 31 • Hampton, Iowa