June 4, 2018

Noir series now on Netflix vividly captures the contradictions and dynamism of the Weimar era.

A little parenting heresy on smartphones and screen time.

Tom Wolfe was death on intellectual pretension, and he mocked those who always sought out the worst in America.

There is a great deal we don’t know about the case of Stefan Halper, the Anglo-American academic who insinuated himself into the Trump campaign in order to help the FBI learn about any connections to Russian election meddling. The president and his allies claim the FBI planted Halper as a spy with…

The partial repeal of Dodd Frank could have gone farther, but it's a good start.

It’s fitting that Sen. Elizabeth Warren should have chosen the Center for American Progress’s ideas conference to declare, as she did last week, that “democracy is crumbling around us.” For the death knell of democracy is one of her party’s oldest ideas, a staple of progressive nightmares from…

In March, Italian voters decided they had more to fear from corruption than from incompetence. Despite the warnings of experts, they voted overwhelmingly for two parties that want Italy to reclaim its sovereignty from the overweening European Union. One of those parties, the League, is on the…

Democrats are expecting a landslide in the midterm elections, and it’s lulled them to sleep on Capitol Hill. A case in point: Republicans have been using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to wipe out Obama-era regulations since the Trump presidency began. And Democrats, responding groggily, have…

Or minority leader.

In Connecticut, a populist pitbull battles a preppy plutocrat.

The Department of Justice plays defense.

Light rail is a very expensive way to move very few commuters.

The creation of the U-2 reconnaissance plane and its role in two tense Cold War episodes.

Bernard Lewis, 1916-2018.

Honoring the animals that work (and sacrifice) alongside our soldiers and sailors.

We needed a review of the new Deadpool movie, and this is it.

SCRAPBOOK.v23-37.2018-06-04.Ramirez.jpg

Liberals and progressives sometimes complain that Republicans win more elections, and they do. But cheer up, lefties—you’ve got a lock on the nation’s elite colleges. The thought occurred to us when we read through Homogeneous: The Political Affiliations of Elite Liberal Arts College Faculty, a new…

A recent New York Times piece took aim at Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (and occasional TWS contributor). A lot of Beltway policymakers are upset at Dubowitz, mainly for his scathing criticisms of the Iran nuclear deal over the last several years but also for the…

Hillary Clinton seems to have made her choice of post-political career: incessant unfunny whining. Consider her address to Yale University’s graduating class of 2018.

Hollywood is notorious for taking certain ideas to unpleasant extremes: CGI in Star Wars movies, saccharine romantic comedy tropes, the Fast and Furious franchise. But in our current #MeToo moment, activists intent on remaking the world in a more female-friendly image have gone beyond outing…

Like Paul Newman’s chain gang in Cool Hand Luke, Starbucks is suffering from a failure to communicate. First, of course, was the Philadelphia branch manager who had two African-American men arrested on the grounds they were loitering (they weren’t). Then, in a burst of enthusiasm and contrition,…

Micah Mattix, exterminator.