341 articles
If John F. Kennedy’s presidency was, for Democrats, a kind of three-year “Camelot,” then Anthony M. Kennedy’s three-decade tenure on the Supreme Court was also, for Democrats, a kind of judicial Camelot. A place where progressive rights could be created and protected, safe from the people outside…
We have British intellectual—founder of think tanks, editor—David Goodhart, to thank for the distinction between “Anywheres” and “Somewheres,” the replacement for the more traditional left-right or class-based distinctions which were, until recently, used to describe democratic politics.
Growth solves some problems, but it can't solve the government's spending addiction.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
The mental-gymnastics award goes to…
Also: Ange Mlinko on the creativity of constraints, and more.
Tony Mecia on the spectacular rise and dangerous lies of a Silicon Valley darling
Sonny Bunch describes belatedly catching up on Wolfe, Roth, and Bourdain.
John McCain’s warning to his party and farewell to his countrymen, reviewed by Jamie Fly
Gene Healy reviews Laurence Tribe’s new book on the constitutional tool of presidential impeachment.
Stefan Beck reviews Rachel Kushner’s ‘The Mars Room,’ a novel that probes the soul-warping effects of prison life.
In this month’s GQ magazine is a long essay we knew we shouldn’t read, but we couldn’t help ourselves: “Jimmy Carter for Higher Office in ’18,” by Michael Paterniti.
We were saddened this week to learn of the death of Donald Hall, one of the great formalist poets to arise in the second half of the 20th century. Hall wrote scores of works. He was a talented playwright, a superb memoirist, and an omnicompetent anthologist.
“And thanks to my groomer and stylist, Marvin ‘Marv the Barb’ Church, the world’s best barber, and Ms. Carolyn Brown, who squires me in a marvelous manner. I’m grateful to the remarkable group of artists and activists who sat for interviews for this book, including Harry Belafonte (thanks for the…
Sexism, however we define it, is still a problem. And we reckon it always will be, in a fallen world. Still, a great variety of metrics show that women in America are now doing better than men in an impressive range of areas, from educational achievement to career success. But we’ve tended to…
Readers of the Wall Street Journal’s Review section may remember an explosive essay that ran in its pages in 2011: “Darkness Too Visible,” by the paper’s children’s books columnist, Meghan Cox Gurdon. In that essay, Gurdon surveyed an array of popular books published in what’s called the YA…
John Wilson reviews 'Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear' by Matthew Kaemingk
Beating Elizabeth Warren at her own game.
The mysterious assault on our diplomatic personnel in Cuba and China.
The Patriot Legal Expense Fund is here to help Trumpworld.
Alice B. Lloyd's reunion.
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It’s hard to think of a more American company than Harley-Davidson, the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker. Anybody who has ever seen a Harley—or, more likely, heard one—knows it has a sturdy and uniquely American style. The company’s motto: “All for freedom. Freedom for all.” So you might expect an…
A dying breed of GOP moderate, Larry Hogan has handled the rise of Donald Trump better than any other Republican politician
Democrats will go to war against Trump’s court pick, without much hope of success.
“You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think—and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.”
In 2013, Charles Krauthammer was the featured speaker at The Weekly Standard “summit” at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado. His performance was scintillating. He surprised the crowd with his sense of humor. He took questions.
I miss Charles. I’ve missed him for the past 10 months, ever since his operation. As he wrote in his farewell letter, “That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications.” Charles fought those complications in the hospital. This meant that he and…
Wendy Kaminer is actively engaged in an unusual mission for a former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): warning the public that the ACLU has abandoned its commitment to defending free speech. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on June 20, Kaminer notes that a recent internal…
The staff at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in the U.K. had a nickname for the Daedalus Ward. They called it the “Dead Loss” ward because so many of the patients assigned to it died untimely deaths. From 1989 to 2000, it’s also where medical staff at the hospital pursued a mercenary policy of…
To judge from Western newspapers, the elections on June 24 in Turkey brought a crisis for democracy. The “crisis” is that Turks will continue to be governed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the perennially popular Islamist former mayor of Istanbul, for whom they voted overwhelmingly, and not by Muharrem…
This Fourth of July, as is my wont, I will bring down from the shelf my well-thumbed copy of What So Proudly We Hail and therewith touch off a semi-controlled bacchanal of patriotism in my little household. I do this as a civic duty and to set an example for my countrymen. The indispensable Karlyn…
When asked whether he intended as prime minister to offer the British public moral guidance, Harold Macmillan answered that if the people wanted moral instruction, “they should consult their bishops.” Macmillan wasn’t suggesting that people don’t need guidance, nor was he without convictions…
Anthony Kennedy was not a great Supreme Court justice, but not a bad one either. If you were to rank the 113 justices so far, he would be somewhere in the middle, probably the upper middle. On the Supreme Court for 30 years, which is a long time as the lives of justices go, Kennedy, who will be 82…
The Utah senator is on President Trump's short list to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill already voted against Gorsuch, and Josh Hawley plans to exploit that.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
In this latest episode, the Substandard takes on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. JVL goes nuclear on Lowe’s. Sonny is back from the beach. And Vic has a gas at the movies. Plus a special guest appearance!
Also: Would you pay to run a bookstore on vacation? Dwight Garner did.
BREAKING! No-name blogs peddle misinformation.
Yes, elections have consequences.
A conversation with Michael McFaul on Putin, Russia, and what the president should read.
The model might be too high on Sinema. But it also might have a point.
North Korea understands what the United States means when it demands complete denuclearization, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers Wednesday.
Plus, why dogs and politics are a dumb mix.
Here are five judges who could potentially replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy.
A new round of demonstrations against the regime launched over the weekend.
With Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, the chief justice will likely move into the swing seat.
"MAGA Student" misses the mark.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
A review of The Dawn Prayer, by Matthew Schrier.
SCOTUS ruled in Janus such dues were unconstitutional. Based on past examples, unions can expect a financial hit.
Also: Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan, and more.
SCOTUS overturns precedent and makes public-sector unions “opt-in” in Janus vs. AFSCME.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn’t know whether the Senate will take up a bill this week to rein in President Donald Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on national security grounds.
Is anyone paying attention to Iraq?
An excerpt from Superhero Ethics.
Progressive leftists got some wins, but they aren't the Democratic Tea Party yet.
"Change is afoot in New York."
Mister Rogers doc has viewers wishing the kindly TV host were here to save us.
The congressman turned radio host has criticized the president’s behavior, but he supports much of the agenda.
Plus, Corey Stewart touts his latest endorsement. But why?
Hosted by Charlie Sykes
State Department official warns that countries that refuse risk sanctions.
The motorcycle manufacturer has drawn the president's ire for announcing plans to build cycles in the EU.
Also: The most complete inventory of human depravity, Rockefeller Center’s lost botanical garden, and more.
There's always an undercurrent of political violence. Is it too late for our norms and institutions to save us now?
Schumer to Waters: Cut it out.
The retiring Arizona senator wants to force a vote limiting Trump's trade authority, and he's using his leverage over judicial nominations.
Driving on Interstate 85 between Atlanta and Charlotte through the northern third of South Carolina, aka the “Upstate,” you’ll definitely see that giant peach-shaped water tower in Gaffney that looks like, er, something else. But after you’re done laughing (or cringing) at this symbol of the…
Beijing has increased its covert activities in the country.
Hosted by Jim Swift
Plus, Jerry Springer finds the end of the road.
SwingSeat update: We have updated forecasts in Texas, Arizona, and Florida.
Also: Remembering Donald Hall, Leonardo da Vinci’s earliest work, and more.
As America continues its downward spiral of incivility, we have entered the Summer of Jerkitude. (I had thought about using a different word that ended in “-holery,” but wasn’t sure it would pass muster with the editors of a tasteful and intellectual publication like THE WEEKLY STANDARD.)
Judicial nominees ought to have the requisite experience for their posts—which is a nonpartisan standard.
In Mississippi’s special Senate election, Trump’s favor is ‘stronger than goat’s breath.’ This year that may hurt anti-establishment campaigns like Chris McDaniel’s.
Trump knows when to hold ‘em and knows when to fold ‘em, knows when to walk away and knows when to run, as Kenny Rogers advised all poker players. He was holding a losing hand when it came to handling the children brought to America illegally by mothers crossing the border illegally, so he folded…
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face and suffer a concussion, a broken orbital bone, and injuries requiring seven staples in the head—before the end of the first round.
Why must museums patronize their visitors?
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes and host Charlie Sykes remember the legacy of Dr. Charles Krauthammer.
The noted public intellectual stumbles in an interview.
The Flores settlement forces a choice between enforcing immigration law inhumanely or not at all. There is a third way.
Also: Remembering Charles Krauthammer, and more.
They aren't making any more of him.
Cathy Young on Simon Rattle: As he leaves the Berlin Philharmonic, what’s next for ‘the people’s conductor’?
Daniel Sarewitz on the impossibility—and the necessity—of distinguishing science from nonscience.
John Podhoretz on the forgettable fun of the long-awaited follow-up to Pixar’s ‘The Incredibles.’
In January of 2006, Charles Krauthammer wrote an appreciation of his older brother, Marcel, who had died shortly after the New Year. It was a far more personal offering than most of his written work and, despite a full catalogue of essays and columns that influenced the thinking of world leaders,…
Anyone who read Charles Krauthammer’s writing, saw him speak on television, or knew anything about his incredible life story could tell you he was exceedingly intelligent. Those who knew Charles well also speak about his dry sense of humor. I often think of the time I witnessed Charles combine…
I would be the first to concede that President Trump’s behavior at the recent G7 summit, while not unexpected, was certainly unconventional. In his patented way, the president seemed to waver between a breezy, hail-fellow-well-met manner and irritability, declining to endorse a summary declaration…
Few heroes of the past can escape the censure of today’s bigotry police. Every week, it seems, brings news that some heretofore revered figure said or wrote something we enlightened postmoderns consider untoward, obliging us to qualify any subsequent expressions of admiration.
In April, PBS announced that it will reboot Firing Line, the long-running public affairs television program hosted by William F. Buckley. The new show will be hosted by the libertarian-conservative commentator Margaret Hoover. We wish the endeavor well, although we wonder why Firing Line with…
Joseph Epstein on profanity.
Celebrating viewpoint diversity.
The World Cup is well underway in Russia, and that country’s authorities have given “assurances” to visiting nations that their fans will be safe from what in Britain are termed “football hooligans.” The Russians have a “blacklist” of known hooligans, according to the BBC, and can assure foreign…
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Like hundreds of other media outlets, Vox.com sent reporters to cover President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore. On June 13, Vox’s foreign editor Yochi Dreazen wrote a piece headlined, “The big winner of the Trump-Kim summit? China.” Dreazen’s analysis was…
Readers who’ve spent time before city or county councils may know how lawless these bodies can sometimes be. Many hold “public” meetings without announcing the time or place, disregard laws on raising taxes and the appropriation of public money, hide the details of procurement contracts and…
Child marriage is alive and well among the Yemeni-Americans in Dearborn, but education may finally erode that social norm.
Trump may well prefer for Mueller to play out the string.
Images of screaming children torn away from parents, photos of toddlers and even babies sitting alone in characterless detention centers, repellent bloviators defending the new policy as if splitting up families were itself the goal . . . the controversy over the Trump administration’s new “zero…
Ilhan Omar bids to succeed Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s Fifth District.
Sandra Day O’Connor envisioned a deadline for racial preferences.
It takes experience to drain a swamp.
It’s a measure of how overabundant the scandal news is in the Justice Department inspector general’s report that the Peter Kadzik story has been pushed to the side. Maybe it’s because the Kadzik materials don’t start until page 461. Or maybe it’s that the Kadzik affair lacks the expletive-laced…
Lindsey Graham, team player.
On June 14, Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice’s inspector general, released a long-awaited report on the partisan shenanigans of a few FBI agents in the lead-up to the 2016 election. The report sharply criticizes then-director James Comey for his bad judgment and disregard for agency…
Nothing good is likely to come from Trump’s tariffs.
A couple of hours ago I was commiserating with a friend who was also working on a short tribute to Charles Krauthammer. We were both having a tough time getting going. The problem, we realized, was this: We couldn't help but think of what Charles would have written. And we were painfully aware that…
The Pulitzer Prize winner is remembered by friends, former colleagues and others whose lives he touched.
Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland made a bombshell admission Wednesday at an otherwise quiet hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She admitted that during the waning days of the 2016 election, the Obama State Department hosted…
Plus, why can't the Trump administration hire normal people?
In a potential Trump-Putin meeting, senators would want the president to talk about Syria, Ukraine, and election meddling.
The vote on a compromise package will take place Friday, to give representatives time to read it.
After the "successful" Singapore summit, China appears to be relieving pressure on Kim Jong-un.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Also: Remembering Stanley Cavell, in praise of wasted time, and more.
On this latest episode, the Substandard discusses Incredibles 2 and the future of Pixar—JVL ranks the worst Pixar movies. Sonny exposes A Wrinkle in Time. JVL goes shopping for a new dishwasher. Vic goes to a buffet.
Maybe the bump in the generic ballot was just noise.
Remembering when unions, now staring down an existential SCOTUS defeat, lost religion.
A Trumpian rubric for our times.
Plus, when 'all you can eat' goes wrong.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
On this latest micro episode, the Substandard breaks down the battle between MoviePass and now AMC Stubs A-List. JVL insists AMC Stubs membership has its privileges. Sonny and Vic remain skeptical. And question! Are there really three good movies to see each week?
Social Creature, a female-driven society noir, is a chilling summer read.
It has slim chances of becoming law, and they have no backup. But it’s a plan.
Also: Japanese fiction after Haruki Murakami, and more.
The Koch Network is launching a television and radio advertising campaign to push back against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
There seems to be some confusion about the president’s foreign policy, so here is a guide that might prove useful. By the policy-maker in chief, himself, as told to this writer during a nightmare.
The Human Rights Council was a hangout for anti-Semitic cranks.
It's time for the U.S. to sanction the leaders of the LEF.
Ask Matt Labash, who's researching this whole tuition thing as the father of two sons nearing college age, himself.
A user manual for our Senate prediction model.
By all accounts, the 2017 Student Action Summit hosted last December by conservative college organization Turning Point USA was boisterous. During the day, more than 1,200 high school and college kids listened to speeches by big names like Ben Shapiro, Donald Trump, Jr., and Tomi Lahren. By night,…
Nikki Haley cites the inclusion of countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, and China on the council.
A Stuart man is behind bars, accused of threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Brian Mast’s children in response to current immigration policies.
The president says he will "make changes" to legislation after he is briefed on the bill.
Plus, why Kelly Cohen is a treasure.
As Americans continue to react with horror to stories of families being torn apart at the U.S.-Mexico border, the White House has struggled to assemble a defense for their new “zero tolerance” immigration policies which have created the problem.
A volcanic island in South Korea has become a hotbed of the migration crisis.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Also: What Robinson Jeffers can teach us today.
The tech titan uses faulty reasoning to end a Pentagon relationship.
Angry nerds, everywhere.
No decisions have been made on future exercises, Defense Department says.
Elon Musk is in the news. (Again.) The latest announcement came last Thursday when Musk’s Boring Company signed a contract with the city of Chicago to build an "express loop" from O'Hare Airport to the city's downtown. In one important way, the deal is wholly unlike most of Musk's other projects—it…
How quickly a label becomes a libel.
Searching for historical precedent that led to this crisis on the border.
Being a big tipper takes more than mere money.
Why did the White House roll out a plan and then ask for a congressional fix only after 2,000 children had been separated from their families.
The GOP had a chance to get Trump’s border wall (and much, much, more) back in 2007. They blew it.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift discuss the latest in the debate over immigration policy and detained children and what to expect from the DOJ Inspector General memo as it pertains to the Mueller Investigation.
Also: Will the Voynich manuscript mystery ever be solved?
When it comes to abortion, the Pope is Catholic.
Call it what you like—it’s still racial discrimination.
Congress recently voted to raise the budget caps that limited the amount of money they can spend. While doing so, they claimed that the budget caps were so tight they were having devastating and lasting consequences for the government.
Seattle has suffered from a lot of bad publicity lately: horrendous homelessness problems, intractable traffic congestion, through-the-roof housing prices, and pushback against its radical city council for passing a “head tax” on jobs that was repealed just weeks after its enactment.
Economy watchers can’t seem to find anything to worry about, with the possible exception of a trade war that few believe will happen. The economy is growing, unemployment is down, labor force participation is up, inflation is hitting Fed targets, the stock market shrugs at bad news and embraces the…
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Back in February, President Donald Trump tried to use the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA—the Obama-era policy that provided legal protections to people brought to America illegally as children—to strong-arm his immigration agenda through a reluctant Congress. He…
Donald Trump is not a dictator. But he sure is jealous of the loyalty that his dictator friends command.
With the point of a finger, we have our answer.
Kim "wants to make his country great."
Also: A new photo of the heir to the Russian throne, the end of the SAT at Chicago, and more.
Maybe we’ll actually enjoy the tournament this year—for once
The world needs more of it, not less.
Today when Spain and Portugal meet for only the second time in World Cup competition, it will mark an epic showdown of not just the two biggest powers on the Iberian Peninsula (sorry, Andorra) but, once upon a time, the world.
His nonsense about the Apostle Paul and protecting 'the weak and lawful' ignores the fact that the policy is not law and many immigrants are seeking asylum.
Congress could in theory have a greater say on tariffs. Don’t hold your breath.
Allegations of fraud, theft, bigamy, and violence surround Imran Awan.
Second thoughts about the sexual revolution.
The nation-state reconsidered.
Lionel Shriver does not want to write books in which people only say the right thing. She is pushing back against prudence.
President Donald Trump was elected in 2016 in part on a pledge to “drain the swamp,” to eliminate the corruption that many Americans have come to believe dominates our politics. Here, Hillary Clinton served as a perfect foil, a stand-in for all the politicians who have gone to Washington to do good…
From crumbling infrastructure to broken meritocracy, Steven Brill sees problems everywhere.
One of the pleasant surprises of this movie season has been Chappaquiddick, an account of the famous episode from 1969 in which Mary Jo Kopechne was left to drown in a car driven into a pond, and abandoned, by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. It’s not a perfect film by any means; but Kennedy is treated not…
Last week, France’s youthful and dapper president Emmanuel Macron swaggered into a battle of wits with the inexperienced and much-mocked lugnuts who run Italy’s new populist government. Macron was humiliated. That very same Italian populist government, meanwhile, threw down a gauntlet before half a…
James Bowman on the decisions that led to today’s heightened partisanship.
In February, then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson was informed by a North Korean envoy that Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un wanted to meet with President Trump. Tillerson favored accepting the invitation quickly. Trump didn’t.
The June 12 meeting in Singapore between Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong‑un has generated a bewildering array of responses from observers around the world. These responses do not fall along predictable ideological lines. Back and forth across the ideological span, we find…
While much of America learned this week that Washington, D.C., has a professional hockey team, The Scrapbook was reminded that San Diego still has a Major League Baseball team. At the Braves-Padres game at Petco Park, caught on video that quickly became social-media famous, Braves outfielder Ender…
Christopher Atamian on how Takashi Murakami unites kitsch, mockery, and tradition.
There was gnashing of teeth last week when it emerged that the Trump administration had seized the emails and phone records of New York Times national security reporter Ali Watkins in an investigation of former Senate Intelligence Committee aide James A. Wolfe. Wolfe had been leaking like a busted…
Far be it from The Scrapbook to judge the philanthropic impulses of the extremely wealthy, but the recent announcement of a $20 million gift to the City University of New York struck us as a bit rich. The money, which will fund the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, was the gift of Craig Newmark,…
We’ve read some dumb and substandard political pieces in our day—we may even have generated some—but a June 10 piece in the Washington Post is a strong contender for Dumbest Op-Ed Ever Written. The article, by Suzanna Danuta Walters—according to her byline a “professor of sociology and director of…
Things have gotten bad in California. So bad, in fact, as the New York Times recently reported, that some not insignificant number of San Franciscans are actually thinking of . . . voting Republican. The streets are filthy, crime is on the uptick, and government services are in decline. Add to that…
Any assessment of Anthony Bourdain’s life, his suicide notwithstanding, is likely to be tinged with jealousy. We suppose someone had to get paid to be a world traveler and bon vivant, but did Bourdain have to be so good at it? At a minimum, few people have a constitution that can alternately…
It’s World Cup time again. Alan Jacobs on the logic of the world’s most popular sport.
How the YouTube powerhouse Postmodern Jukebox arose from one pianist’s knack for covering recent songs in vintage styles.
All-woman crew boosts bling in latest ‘Ocean’s’ caper—reviewed by John Podhoretz.
Christine Rosen remembers the '80s.
Parsing the Inspector General’s report.
Plus, go inside the converted Walmart that houses immigrant kids.
The president vows to fight what he calls a 'ridiculous case' in court.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren and reporter Andrew Egger sort through a dizzying day of news, including a new New York lawsuit against the Trump organization, the upcoming Inspector General’s report slamming Jim Comey for his handling of the Clinton investigation,…
The former Goldman Sachs executive also says retalitory tariffs could undo the benefits of tax reform.
Also: Lionel Shriver removed from literary prize jury.
Revisiting Page's encounter with a Russian spy in the wake of James Wolfe's indictment.
In this latest episode, the Subtandard discusses Ocean's 8 (spoiler alerts). But things get really interesting when Sonny asks Vic and JVL to come up with their own gender-flipped cast. Plus kid updates on baseball and tap dancing!
“He found the way and I jumped on it.”
How the social justice mob decides who goes down, and who doesn't.
Conservatives are now challenging the law's regulations in court, not Congress. A key Republican says it's a bad idea.
As senators prepare to pass legislation to expand the authorities of an interagency panel that reviews foreign investments for national security risks, the Senate on Thursday will consider an amendment that would also subject the panel, headed by the Treasury Department and known as the Committee…
Here’s why Elizabeth Holmes, Anna Delvey, and Billy McFarland (the Fyre Festival guy) are the voices of their generation.
Plus, is Trump everything Republicans worried Obama was?
In this latest micro episode, the Substandard discusses the Caps celebration and the upcoming World Cup. JVL expresses his true feelings about parades and hockey. Sonny reveals his love for Premier League soccer. Vic has fond memories of parades—in Germany.
E.W. Jackson got crushed in the Republican primary, but Sebastian Gorka got paid. The Christian activist running for a chance to challenge Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., cut a check to the former presidential adviser to headline a May fundraiser.
Chosun Ilbo had been optimistic about progress toward denuclearization in the days leading up to the Singapore summit.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Also: A Benedictine beatnik and more.
Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game with North Korea.
Robert Zubrin reviews Timothy Snyder's 'The Road to Unfreedom'
Senator Ron Johnson continues his effort to claw documents out of the grip of a reluctant FBI and Department of Justice. As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has been fighting to acquire materials involving the FBI and DoJ investigations both into…
Did John Bolton sign off on this?
The campaign bus, sans the candidate.
The World Cup starts on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. EST (the first game will be broadcast on Fox) and the United States isn’t in it. Boo-hoo. We’ve had a good run: America is one of just thirteen teams to have qualified for six of the last seven tournaments. If we weren’t in the unusually…
Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, narrowly defeated Delegate Nick Freitas in Tuesday's Virginia Senate primary. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Stewart led Freitas by 1.7 points—just over 5,000 total votes statewide—much closer than many had…
Plus, why lit George Conway is the best George Conway.
Speaker Ryan: 'We must continue to apply maximum economic pressure.'
Dennis Rodman, Donald Trump, and Kim Jong-un.
The big takeaways from the joint Trump-Kim communique.
While Trump makes nice, Fred and Cindy Warmbier sue North Korea for their son's wrongful death
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
It is disconcerting to watch the president’s eagerness to serve as a character witness to Kim Jong-un.
The outcome of the Kim-Trump summit was never in doubt.
Intersectionality doesn't help when you’re trying to build a coalition.
Are Canada’s dairy tariffs a national security threat to the United States?
Whatever else comes of Tuesday’s historic talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean despot Kim Jong-un, they’ve already given the world at least one thing: a victory lap from Dennis Rodman.
What do you do with a problem like Aquarius?
Watching the president’s trade messaging shift in real time.
Plus, Dinesh D'Souza's new movie.
The “friend” of Kim Jong-un is headed his way—and being used—again.
Hosted by Jonathan V. Last
Also: Dominic Green remembers John Julius Norwich, author lands $2 million advance, and more.
Nope.
How do people make sense of confusing events in the present? By casting about for precedents—metaphors—from the past.
When are we going to start doing very, very well?
Understanding the economics of MAGA.
On presidential pardons and commutations.
The food world today is exciting as it’s ever been. He was not the cause, but he was a catalyst.
The special counsl uncovered evidence that Manafort had attempted to tamper with potential witnesses.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
The administration has been tough on the Putin regime but the president himself has been inconsistent.
Also: The limits of human endurance, tulips, and more.
The mountebanks are at it again.
House Republicans have until next Tuesday to solve an intractable, decades-old problem.
The Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan continued his pattern of fighting fire with fire this week, striking back at his perceived enemies in a scorching, three-hour sermon entitled "Unmasking Satan" at the Mosque Maryam in Chicago. "[Y]ou and I are going to have to learn to distinguish between the…
Senate Democrats have turned the confirmation process into an exercise in sabotage.
Ahead of President Trump’s June 12 meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore, South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham offered a stark warning to the North Koreans: “If they play Trump, we're going to have a war, and they're going to lose it.”
One of the last laws in Europe banning abortion, Ireland’s eighth amendment, was decisively rejected by voters on May 25. The plebiscite’s result allows the amendment to be struck from the country’s constitution. Once that happens later this year, Irish women will no longer have to smuggle in…
Poor Mrs. Weinstein, Mrs. Harvey Weinstein that is, estranged wife of the man who’s the King of the Hill atop a long list of sinners knocked off their thrones for having treated the females in their employ as slave owners once treated chattel on their plantations and lordlings once treated their…
A writer in the New York Times Magazine recently fixed our present epoch in time as “a few decades after the heyday of the notorious ‘three-martini lunch.’ ” The gin-soaked midday meal, he explained, had been “an anachronistic ritual during which backslapping company men escaped a swallowing sense…
We have President Trump to thank for the noisy and exciting midterm elections. If John Kasich were president, the sound of the campaign would be zzzzzzzzz. Trump’s aides must have forgotten to tell him presidents aren’t on the midterm ballot. With luck, they’ll keep it a secret.
Investigating discrimination at Harvard.
From Brooklyn to Buffalo, ‘Miranda’ takes her show on the road.
Mike Pence and John Bolton are on the bench.
A misbegotten ‘ceasefire’ in Afghanistan.
Paul Schrader’s dreary latest film creates a noxious new cliché for our times.
Harper Lee’s inspiration in creating Atticus Finch.
Adam J. White on the states’ underappreciated role in our constitutional system(s).
Ian Marcus Corbin on the illiberal philosophers and our fractured politics.
In March The Scrapbook introduced readers to the Boxer Prize—a very special literary award given to famous authors, typically celebrity or politician authors, whose fictional heroes bear a striking resemblance to their creators. We call it the Boxer Prize in recognition of former California senator…
Andrew Ferguson’s boon companion in Rome.
John Julius Norwich, 1929-2018.
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Peter Tonguette on Rodgers and Hammerstein in their day—and ours.
When we saw the headline in the New York Times—“Howard Schultz to Step Down as Starbucks Executive Chairman”—we mistakenly assumed Schultz’s decision to retire had something to do with the recent ruckus over racism. In mid-April, remember, a Starbucks franchise in Philadelphia was accused of racial…
Colorado legalized marijuana in 2014 and the Pot Rush is on—but the ERs are filling up and a generation of kids is at risk.
"I was assigned female at birth, but as I got older I felt less and less feminine. I am not someone who always knew I was transgender. I knew it only when the body I loved—my androgynous child’s body—turned into something unmistakably female. I got breasts. And suddenly . . . ” (“When Neither Male…
It’s difficult to quantify how upset progressive America was in the wake of Donald Trump’s winning the presidential election, but one reliable measure of that anguish is $7.3 million. That’s how much money 161,000 Americans donated to the Green party presidential candidate after she promised to…
The Scrapbook has complained at least once in recent days about center-left news media using the terms “the right” and “conservatives” in highly tendentious ways.
The commercials avoid the pitfalls of the 'Just Say No' era.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
The idea that the ubiquitous chain is a bastion of liberal elitism is laughable.
Also: What do copy editors do, and what’s the point of elevator music?
In this latest episode, the Substandard continues discussing Solo: A Star Wars Story—a story of a box office disaster. JVL explains exit velocity and Sonny's chair flips over. Vic gets saluted by the Swiss Guard. JVL and Vic explain confession to Sonny. Sonny explains 1337. (There's a lot of…
I get the grifting, I even get the graft.
A number of rank-and-file House Republicans on Wednesday night expressed support for a bill that would limit the president's ability to impose far-reaching tariffs on national security grounds without congressional approval, despite President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts alongside Republican…
We all will—in about eight years.
Yossi Klein Halevi on trying formulate a 21st century Israeli and Jewish narrative.
The Pulitzer-winning novelist leaves newly ordained rabbis feeling isolated with his ranting about inclusion.
Plus, the Instaglam candidate strikes again.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Five decades after his assassination, a new Netflix documentary looks at the last months of Bobby Kennedy.
Also: The nightmarish logic of Bruno Schulz, Sergio de la Pava’s Lost Empress, and more.
In short, the Obama administration lied.
Officials also staged “roadshows” encouraging foreign financial engagement with the Islamic Republic.
The Boston Globe highlighted 'overlapping surgery,' provoking outcry and even the Senate Finance Committee. But it's a net good for patients and surgeons-in-waiting.
The Democratic lawmaker recently praised the bureau for its work on the Russia investigation. But the Page-Strzok texts reveal the feeling isn’t mutual.
Plus, are the #CAPS going to win it all?
Under secretary Sigal Mandelker warns companies about the risks of dealing with the Islamic Republic.
"It's an abuse of that authority."
Trump former campaign manager attempted to tamper with witnesses, according to a new court filing.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Pro-tip: Do not call in a hoax to send well-armed, trigger-happy cops to someone’s house.
Cleaning up a misleading claim about two bills signed into law.
The GOP frontrunner in Virginia is known for extreme rhetoric and ties to vicious people.
Also: The paper that poisoned its printers, the true meaning of the Pentagon Papers, and more.
President Trump takes petulance to a new level.
The absurd logic of hyper-individualism is upon us.
Time is running out to confirm top federal judges in 2018.
Jews worry too much. That seems to be the point of a recent article in the otherwise sensible Economist. Sure, two German rappers won that country’s highest music award by bragging their torsos are “better defined than an Auschwitz inmate’s” and vowing to “make another Holocaust.” But, says the…
Two new books give him credit where it isn't due.
“Politically, it would be a disaster."
White House press secretary faced several questions Monday after the NYT reported that Trump's legal team said he did dictate the statement.
Plus, we're baaaack!
SCOTUS didn't touch the First Amendment issue, but Kennedy's decision smacked down anti-Christian hostility
Lawmakers lay out a list of demands to President Trump ahead of planned summit.
SCOTUS homes in on Colorado’s contempt for Jack Phillips, not the First Amendment and free expression.
The president's latest moves—and Steve Bannon’s lastest comments—raise the question.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Also: The return of Firing Line, the second-worst poet in English, and more.
No, we are not in the midst of a trade war. A trade scuffle, surely. But not a war. At least not yet.
On the network’s employment of Joy-Ann Reid, Ben Rhodes, and other champions of truth.
Or, how to make the duties of social workers even more difficult
People have been forecasting the end of the euro since the currency came into being in the late 1990s. Yet the euro has survived five sovereign bailouts—including three successive ones of Greece (the continent’s most troubled economy)—and two bank rescues aimed at Spanish and Cypriot banks. The…
The great American job-creating machine, already in high gear, picked up in May, when the economy added 223,000 jobs—over 50,000 more than experts had predicted.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
“Hybrid warfare is already here and America is not ready," says Nebraska senator.
We have no idea how good this is.
Gordon S. Wood on Arnold’s path from wartime hero to resentful traitor—and why it’s a story worth remembering.
The world is full of stupid and angry people, and most of them live in Portland.
Philip Terzian: A new book defending Jimmy Carter’s presidency reveals how his supposed strengths became liabilities.
Joseph Epstein on the scandal that ended the tennis great’s career—and the challenge it creates for biographers.
Victorino Matus: From toast to fancy guac, the green fruit’s moment is ripe at last.
"After Years of Belt-Tightening, Weary England Is Feeling the Pinch,” announced a front-page, above-the-fold headline in the New York Times on May 28. It’s a lengthy article—more than 3,000 words—replete with stories about declining public services and attendant growth in social ills.
An eyewitness account from an unmanned border crossing.
Since the invention of videotape, law enforcement across the developed world has fallen prey to the same folly: If you install enough security cameras, criminals won’t do bad things because they’ll know the cops are watching. The trouble with that view is that it ain’t so, as anybody who’s spent…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who famously and without evidence claimed Native American ancestry and thus minority status in her pre-Senate days—and whom Donald Trump still calls “Pocahontas”—now wants badly to put the whole controversy to rest. Who wouldn’t? Our advice would be to ignore the past and…
A political establishment of long standing always suffers from a kind of mental illness. No matter how unambiguously it is repudiated or how joyously it is driven from office, its members will continue to remember the episode as accidental, temporary, and unjust. This week in Italy such arrogance…
Eric Felten's long-ago summer reading.
A community organizes against his library plans.
Social media are full of people who, under the impression that their political fulminations are witty, spend much of their days collecting likes and retweets from the hordes of barking-seal partisans. And so it was that Yvonne Mason, a retired English teacher in South Carolina, wrote a letter…
Will we witness the strange death of conservative—or liberal—America?
The tension between peaceable nations and the Russian Federation intensifies with each passing week. It is the path Vladimir Putin has chosen. The latest development is more serious than it may sound: Russian billionaire and Putin crony Roman Abramovich has had his visa renewal application…
The Scrapbook remembers the days before social media and the Internet, and they weren’t marked by civility and well-informed dialogue. Even so, when someone in the pre-Internet era responded in print to an article or essay, he or she had usually read the article. Nowadays you just read the…
If you’re tired of being overwhelmed by the presence of President Trump, you’ve come to the right place. The subject here is Gerald Ford, the so-called accidental president who took over when Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, and served until January 20, 1977.
The real action with spies nowadays lies not with Russia but with China.
How Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was forced to fake his death.