October 1, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

The Pangloss-Pétain Presidency

Featured image The argument whether Joe Biden is the worst-ever president could be settled by ranking him with the worst people in American history. If that seems too glib or partisan, people might try an historical and literary approach. For example, Voltaire’s eponymous Candide finds chaos and catastrophe on every hand but his mentor Dr. Pangloss sees it as the best of all possible worlds. According to the good doctor, “It is »
October 1, 2023 — Scott Johnson

My friend Scottie

Featured imageThis is an entirely personal note about my first friend in life — Scott Sansby. We have been friends since my family moved from Moorhead to St. Paul in 1958. Let me put it this way. We have been friends since the Eisenhower administration. We became friends that summer and then went to grade school together for the following five years. Scottie has a wide world of friends, but we »
September 30, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

China’s Doll Departs

Featured imageSen. Dianne Feinstein has departed this life at the age of 90. The California Democrat can be remembered in several ways, especially as the American politician most faithful to the People’s Republic of China. In April of 2020, Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit charging that Chinese Communist officials are “responsible for the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians.”  For Sen. »
September 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Dem Congressman Obstructs an Official Proceeding

Featured imageThe House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly today for a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government for 45 days. The “clean” CR does not include any of the conservative terms the Republicans have been trying to get, but it does include billions in disaster relief. Personally, I would just as soon have seen a government “shutdown,” i.e., a temporary furlough of nonessential government workers. The fact that Democrats voted »
September 30, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Podcast: The 3WHH, Phila-Pest Edition

Featured imageSettle in with your best chilled Hungarian dessert wine and Philly cheese steak for this cosmopolitan issue, which finds John Yoo—host for this week’s episode—tired out from looting in his home town of Philadelphia, while Lucretia and Steve are together in Budapest carrying on with more conspiracies against the international rules-based order. John gives us on-scene reports from ground-zero of the “recreational shopping” going on in Philadelphia, plus an update »
September 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Coming soon

Featured imageDemocrats have rewritten their rules and schedule to accommodate the requirements of President Biden. Biden is not wildly popular in his own party. Those in the know — they know that Biden needs all the help he can get. He needs help remaining upright in public. He needs help in the Democratic caucuses and primaries to stave off embarrassment. It’s not an edifying sight. Running a quixotic campaign for the »
September 30, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Code Violation Edition

Featured imageAs several observers have already mentioned, the Senate’s new Fetterman-friendly dress code, which made casual Friday look like the prom, lasted less than a Half-Scaramucci (Washington’s new favorite measure of time, though I’m holding out for a revival of “fortnight”). Speaking of someone not wearing any clothes, Justin Trudeau looks pretty foolish not noticing an actual Nazi in his midst, having been so good at spotting them among Canadian truckers »
September 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Dianne Feinstein, Centrist?

Featured imageDianne Feinstein died last night. She cast a Senate vote earlier in the day. Tributes to her are pouring in, which is natural and appropriate. But check out how the Washington Post described her: I think it is true that Feinstein was not as crazy as some of her Democratic colleagues, but is there any plausible sense in which she was a centrist? The American Conservative Union rates members of »
September 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward

What Government Shutdown?

Featured imageIt is still not clear whether we might have a “government shutdown” because of dissent among House Republicans on our mangled budget process, but it is worth repeating something that has been pointed out before: the hysteria over a “government shutdown” is overdone. Think back to past government shutdown: Were your local schools still open? Did your local police still patrol the streets, and were your state and local courts »
September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Reading the UNGA tea leaves

Featured imageClifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s most recent column is “Reading the UNGA tea leaves” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his column on Power »
September 29, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

Big Hunka Nazi

Featured imageVolodymyr Zelensky is a man on the move, and on September 22 the Ukrainian president addressed the Canadian Parliament. Also appearing was Yaroslav Hunka, 98, hailed by Speaker Anthony Rota as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.” The members cheered, but there was a problem. Yaroslav Hunka served under Nazi command with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, a voluntary unit also known as »
September 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Remembering Pat Paulsen

Featured imageI haven’t thought about the late comedian Pat Paulsen in a long time. He started running for president in 1968 and kept at it on a quadrennial basis, more or less like a comic version of Minnesota’s own boy wonder Harold Stassen (although Stassen himself became a punch line). See the history set forth in “Pat Paulsen for president!” The Library of Congress has even found a place in its »
September 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Trump the Authoritarian

Featured imageDemocrats like to label Donald Trump an authoritarian. This is why he supposedly is a threat to “our democracy.” The charge is generally groundless. Trump was president for four years, so he has a track record as the least authoritarian president of recent years. But Trump, being Trump, can’t get out of his own way. So earlier this week, on Truth Social, he handed the Democrats all the ammunition they »
September 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: More “Racist” Test Results

Featured imageSeparately we’ll savor the schadenfreude of the completely predictable and expected implosion of Ibram X. Kendi, and especially how the identity-politics left is turning on him. Hopefully the equally fraudulent Robin DiAngelo will be next. But for now, take in a revealing bit from one of Kendi’s black critics just now, Tyler Austin Harper of Bates College, who wrote candidly in the New York Times back in June: Nearly every »
September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Annals of senescence

Featured imageAlex Thompson reports that President Biden is working on a critical project for his re-election bid: Make sure he doesn’t trip. Thompson’s Axios scoop runs under the headline “Biden team’s don’t-let-him-trip mission.” The Biden team is worried that one more public tumble might convince voters that Biden is not up to the job. I believe that voters already come to that view, and with good reason. The physical manifestation of »
September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured imageThinking through the case against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, Ammo Grrrll has formulated PERFECTLY LOGICAL REASONS TO HAVE GOLD BARS AND HALF A MILLION IN CASH HIDDEN IN YOUR HOUSE! She writes: Do we have THE best “Parliament of Whores” (hat-tip the late, great P. J. O’Rourke) that money can buy, or what? Sure, some might see the words “Bob Menendez” and “New Jersey” and think there must be »
September 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker

A Comment on Last Night’s Debate

Featured imageI didn’t watch last night’s GOP debate, which, based on the accounts I have read, including Scott’s, was a good decision. Many morning-after accounts have focused on the fact that Fox included a liberal Hispanic reporter as one of the moderators, and, in addition, the nominally Republican moderators asked many challenging if not outright hostile questions. See, for example, Ed Morrissey, who quotes some of the questions. I will reproduce »