Jim Swift

Plus, Title IX... forever?

Be careful what you wish for. Comedian Owen Benjamin spent yesterday on Twitter saying very not-nice things about one of the survivors of the Parkland school shooting. I won't link to them here because this is a family-friendly newsletter, but part of his schtick was taunting that he can't be…

Amtrak ends charter rides. Did you know that you can hitch your own train cars to an Amtrak train? Granted, not many among us have privately-owned rail cars, a novelty for the richest among us, but some do. Anyways, this practice, the Wall Street Journal reports, is going bye-bye:

How did your team do on opening day? Well, I hope. My Cleveland Indians weren't able to pull out a W in Seattle. But here's a neat story for you I heard yesterday as I was driving home: Michaela Murphy's hilarious tale about her unsupervised childhood trip to the 1981 All Star Game at old Cleveland…

How Kirk Gibson inspired a bunch of future Nationals fans. Since it is Opening Day, we're going to have a few baseball stories. This one from 2016 by Rudy Gersten is worth checking out. It's about Kirk Gibson's's famous 1988 World Series home run, a ball that hit Gersten's aunt Pamela, a fact they…

How to win a trade war. (Hint: the winning move is not to play, per War Games.) Over at FiveThirtyEight, there is a fun game letting you conduct your own trade war. Enjoy!

23 Years Later, Man Returns to Groundskeeping Job With White Sox. This Chicago Tribune story about Nevest Coleman's wrongful conviction is heartbreaking. For a man so wronged, it's heartening to see that the White Sox were eager to offer him his old job back.

'Grandma Torino' Pleads Guilty. In Macon, Georgia, a grandmother pled guilty to shooting a teenager in the head. Why? Because he supposedly threw rocks at her house. My old college professor Chris Lawrence has dubbed her "Grandma Torino", after the movie she apparently didn't watch, of course.

The Facebook Apology Tour. Earlier this morning I joined our managing editor Christine Rosen on the Daily Standard Podcast to discuss the Zuckerberg walk of shame. Do have a listen! Some supplementary reading: Nick Gillespie at Reason makes the same point I do about regulating FB, and over at the…

I am not typically late for things. Except, one morning in March of last year, I was running late to a doctor’s appointment for my wife and me. She was already there, having let me sleep in since I had been up late the night before. Not for work or anything. But to watch Team Israel in the World…

"Toys R Us’s baby problem is everybody’s baby problem" Was it really private equity that did in Toys "R" Us? Or was it demographics? That's what Andrew Van Dam argues at the Washington Post:

What's in the most recent issue? Editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes is here to show you what is in this week's issue.

Happy Friday! We have a lovely new issue out, with the cover story by former TWSer, current Free Beacon bigwig, and Weekly Substandard podcast co-host Sonny Bunch. It’s about the abundance of television #content available to people in the present day. Will any/much of this content endure, or is…

I don't want to grow up... But poor Geoffrey the Giraffe will have to, as Toys "R" Us bids adieu after a 61-year run. (Bankruptcy is causing them to close all of their stores.) I loved TRU as a kid, and my first and only magazine casual has a tie-in. Alas, all good brands eventually die. Something…

It's been a tumultuous year for the digital currency markets. Now that we're a few weeks away from tax day, a friendly reminder: Don't forget your digital currency trades!

Farewell, Mostly Weekly! My good friend Andrew Heaton’s web show at Reason comes to an end, like all good things do. In the final episode, Heaton takes on creative destruction, and then destroys his own show. Creative!

What's in this week's issue? Editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes has a breakdown of what is in this week's issue:

“Having a liberal fantasy is complicated.” The New York Times interviewed an Ohio man who, after President Trump was elected, opted to take extreme measures to stay up on precisely none of the news. (Well, except Cleveland Cavaliers basketball.) Lots of folks have thinkpieces out on this…

Drunk Area Man Struck By His Own Car. In my neck of the woods in Fairfax County, Virginia, a drunk driver tried escaping from his car on foot to thwart the police . . . only to be struck by his own car.

What’s the latest in this week’s issue? Here’s our editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes on what is in the latest edition of this week's magazine:

ProPublica has uncovered what appears to be an unethical—and likely—illegal act performed by an employee of the president's privately held golf course empire.

It’s a blustery day in Washington. My neighbors have had their siding blown off, and our dog has determined he is aerodynamic. The federal government shut down, schools are closed, and a large swath of flights to and from the swamp are being canceled. Therefore, I will try and make today’s links a…

Ben Carson’s new silverware. Ironically, Ben Carson might not get to enjoy his newly refurbished office at HUD for very long, if recent history is our guide. This from CNN:

Can a GoFundMe Bring Back a Beloved Theme Park? Probably not. But that’s not stopping a man in my native Cleveland who wants to bring back the famous Geauga Lake theme park. He’s started a GoFundMe to raise $20 million bucks to start bringing the park back. That’s a fraction of price you’d need to…

Buckley's legacy, 10 years later. William F. Buckley, Jr. died 10 years ago today, so here's some worthwhile #content from the TWS archives you should read to remember the late great conservative heavyweight.

What's in this week's issue? Get a preview of our articles and features in this video from editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes:

Work with ICE? Nah, I quit. You all remember Kim Davis, don't you? She was the woman in Kentucky who refused to do her job (and refused to quit) because she disagreed with the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage. Davis was an inherently flawed spokeswoman for traditional marriage.

You can get away with a lot if you're a bullsh*tter... Our Books and Arts editor Adam Keiper shares this fascinating thread about a Reddit user who BS'd his way to lots of internet karma... by making a ton of stuff up. He even gave a speech at Harvard about his "accomplishments."

The Issue with Steve Hayes. Want to know what is in this week's magazine? Lucky for you, our editor Steve Hayes is putting together a brief video preview. Check it out here.

Steal, Eagles, Steal! If your team hadn't won a title in 58 years, wouldn't you steal a chair? This Eagles fan (read: NOT JVL) did, and got off easy: $125. If you can afford going to the Super Bowl, $125 for a memento like this is an absolute steal, if you'll pardon the pun.

Day Zero approaches in Cape Town. This Guardian feature about the water crisis in South Africa is fascinating.

Wawa Shabbawa? Yep, that's what it sounds like: Shabbat at a Wawa. A local performance artist, Brian Feldman, came up with the concept. Turns out nobody really went because they're obsessed with Wawa, like Feldman is. Now, a Shabbat at a Sheetz? That's another matter entirely. They'd probably have…

Reince Priebus, Sith Lord. Vanity Fair has a delightful (profanity laced) interview with Anthony Scaramucci about his brief tenure in the White house. Mooch's take on Washington is so wrong, it's laughable:

Forget Detroit, let's all move to Italy. During the economic crisis, there were hundreds of stories written about distressed properties in Michigan. Now, in Sardinia, you can buy homes for $2. Of course, there are strings attached. As Thrillist reports:

The end of video? When I was younger, I recall a photoshop the Sidney (Ohio) Daily News did on the front page of Tonya Harding becoming a wrestler. The story was about the wonders of digital photo editing technology, and was essentially the first "fake news" I ever saw. Now, such technology is…

It's about the infrastructure, stupid! Tonight's State of the Union address is rumored to be heavy on the infrastructure spending rhetoric. At Reason, Christian Britschgi observes "The point of infrastructure spending is to build infrastructure, not create jobs." Amen.

The end of the Chief Wahoo era. Given my lifelong Cleveland Indians fandom, Chief Wahoo has long been part of my sports wardrobe. The New York Times reports that Wahoo's reign as team logo ends in 2019, the year Cleveland will again host the MLB All-Star Game. The trademarks will still be owned by…

Charlie and the Tide Pod Challenge. Over at McSweeney's, there's some fine content (as usual) mocking the young kids who are sticking Tide pods in their mouths.

Kids these days... Don't know how to code all too well, according to a report by HackerRank. As TheNextWeb reports:

Uncovering the TUSD Deep State. Imagine if your local school district had a secret document. The purpose of this document is to blacklist and retaliate against employees. That's what the Arizona Daily Star's Hank Stephenson uncovered at the Tucson Unified School District.

Thrusters, go! Apollo 13 it's not, but NASA found out a way last month to fire up thrusters on the ancient Voyager spacecraft that haven't been used in 37 years. It's a neat story:

Today is the March for Life, the annual pro-life demonstration that takes place around the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. In a first, President Trump addressed the rally via satellite from the Rose Garden. (George W. Bush addressed the group over the phone.) It's worth considering Trump's…

Does America really have only 11 main cultures? That's what a new map by Colin Woodard suggests, and it has lots of people arguing. I grew up in Yankeedom (Cleveland), went to school in the Midlands (Saint Louis), and now live in Tidewater. Naturally, Saint Louis and Cleveland are more similar to…

How China infiltrated the U.S. classroom. Over at POLITICO, our own Ethan Epstein has a good look at how China has used soft power to exert influence with American students via funding "Confucius Institutes."

Will the reboot of 'The Office' be woke? And if so, will it be funny? Reason's Ed Krayewski asks "at what point will The Office become problematic?" Turns out, those thinkpieces have already been written. From February of last year, there's: Unpopular Opinion: “The Office” Is Very Problematic in…

The Amish help build America's biggest concerts. Who would have thought that some of the most technologically advanced live music shows out there are brought to you, in part, by Lancaster County's Amish population:

Mmmmm. Delicious Laundry Pods. As we know from science™, laundry pods are unlikely to kill you. But that hasn't stopped folks from wanting to regulate the innovative little cleaning pods. Canada, as behind as it often is, has a tweet asking Canadians if they know the health risks of consuming…

C is for Crazy Children's Books. There's a new book project being hawked on Kickstarter called C is for Consent: "a board book for babies, toddlers, and thoughtful parents." Consent is important, but is this really an appropriate concept for babies and toddlers? Especially given that the term…

There's no such thing as a free gift! When I worked in Congress as an aide, I took a meeting with representatives of a foreign government about trade issues. They gave us all little business card holders as de minimis gifts. An older colleague, after the meeting ended, took all of them and threw…

Pave Breezewood. I'm back from my trip to Cleveland (where I covered the Browns #PerfectSeasonParade), and as is tradition, I had to drive through the godforsaken town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania. Over at the Examiner, Salena Zito has an appreciation of the place. One thing's for sure, having…

Cleveland, Ohio

Three pros vs. 100 kids. Japanese television always seems to have strange innovations, so it should come as no surprise that they recorded three professional soccer players playing 100 kids. Fascinating.

Remember "Juicero"? Get ready for "Raw Water." The Silicon Valley company mocked for its pointless technology replicating squeezing (really) is in the news again after one of its founders was quoted in a New York Times story about "raw water." It is dumber than it sounds:

Roy Moore's "Jewish lawyer" voted for Doug Jones. You remember the trainwreck where Kayla Moore brought up their Jewish lawyer as a rebuttal to charges of anti-semitism? He voted for Doug Jones. Not only that, he raised money for him, too!

Are you a bitcoin billionaire? After today, probably not (too soon?), but Remy has another instant classic over at ReasonTV.

Fun times in Richmond! As regular readers are aware, yesterday Chris Deaton reported on the Virginia House of Delegates race that was ultimately decided by one vote. Or was it? Republican David Yancey went into the recount leading by 10 votes over Democrat Shelly Simonds. But then seemingly lost by…

The Empire is good. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, do watch this video confirming Jonathan Last's 2002 opus.

Shame worked in Alabama. That's what Tom Nichols argues over at the Washington Post:

How will tax reform impact you? It hasn't passed just yet, but it just might! The New York Times has a basic calculator worth checking out. And Maxim Lott has one that's a little more advanced. Neither are perfect, but worth examining to get a broad sense of how the tax reform bill might benefit or…

What to watch tonight. If you're looking for something new and interesting to put on tonight, check out Errol Morris's Wormwood tonight on Netflix. It looks fantastic. The Times gave it a positive review, saying:

Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman who served in his office.

#Adulting is hard! CNN has an unintentionally funny look at 26-year-old "new" adults who are having trouble leaving the nest and finding health insurance.

Ranking the best national chains. Tom Sietsema, the Washington Post's food critic, spent some time at D.C.-area chain restaurants. His rankings are as critical as they are for D.C.'s finest food purveyors. Biggest loser? Buffalo Wild Wings. Biggest winner? Cracker Barrel. Sonny Bunch's favorite,…

How we got here with Roy Moore. On Twitter, Alex Burns has a (sad!) look back at how the GOP arrived at today's predicament with Roy Moore. It's a choose your own adventure. Remember those? Except with this one, Republicans always lose.

The end of free speech? Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason has an excellent cover story about how "the left eats its own and the right shows its true colors." Here's my favorite part:

Newman's Own's future depends on what happens in tax reform. I've always had a special place in my heart for the late actor Paul Newman, whose childhood home was three streets over from mine. His charity/business, however, is at risk of being put out of business if a provision isn't included in the…

Gaming TripAdvisor. Surely, you've used sites like Yelp!, TripAdvisor, or others when visiting strange news places. What if one of the top-rated restaurants there was a complete fake? That's what VICE UK's Oobah Butler, a clever prankster, did with his backyard shed:

Sir, we have to land over there so I can use the bathroom. A non-stop flight from New York to Seattle had to divert to Billings, Montana because its toilets were full, the Billings Gazette reports:

The Lake Erie salt mine 1,700 feet beneath the lake is a modern marvel. Growing up in Cleveland, I had heard about this mine, but this was pre-YouTube and the modern internet that can showcase it in all its glory. Check out the video and the interview, it's pretty neat.

Neil Young dings Apple, releases high quality archive for free. Neil Young is not happy with Apple, whom he accuses of watering down the quality of digital music. Fortunately, he has made his archive available, offering high quality master copies of his work via streaming:…

Mike Flynn's RNC speech didn't age well! Vic Berger helps us remember a simpler time, when rhetoric was rhetoric and you didn't have to worry about the pesky special counsel.

White people love Subarus. Google's spy cars have documented the "street view" of much of the United States (and the rest of the world). But what are some applications of all of this data scientists could use? Google's folks decided to analyze the types of cars parked on the street to see if they…

Fly the friendly skies! Some airlines are better than others, but all airlines have some great flight attendants. American Airlines has Bette Nash, who, at 81, has been in the industry for 60 years. Turns out, she's also a bit of a celebrity! The Washington Post has a fun feature on her:

WaPo O'Keefes Project Veritas. What happens when one of the right wing's best known provocateurs gets caught? He spins. This is what happened Monday when the Washington Post kneecapped Project Veritas's James O'Keefe, posting an absolutely bombshell story alleging that O'Keefe sent an activist…

Can you hear me now? Apparently, one of president Trump's top economic advisors faked a bad connection while in a meeting with Democratic senators on tax reform to get the President to stop talking. Yikes.

J is for Jihad, and S is for Stupid Children's Books. As a new father, I have already seen the crazy amount of stupid products made for children. The biggest offending category is actually children's books, many of which are terrible. Some are just poorly written, but others are worse: They are…

Occupational Licensing Stinks. At the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf laments the declining right to earn a living. While criticism of occupational licensing is not a new or novel concept (we've covered it extensively), I did learn something sort of horrifying: Tree trimmers and cosmetologists in some…

With Thanksgiving approaching, can't we all agree? Thanksgiving is a tough time for the politically inclined (even worse for the disinclined, I suspect!) This year, I think we can all come together and put our disagreements aside to agree on a simple truth: mayonnaise is disgusting.

Earlier this week, we published a scorecard of where Republican senators stood on the allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. With the #MeToo campaign hitting the other side of the aisle in the upper chamber—Al Franken has been accused by news anchor Leeann Tweeden of groping and…

Trump already to the left of Obama on trade? At the Daily Beast, Lachlan Markay has an item on how the Trump White House is welcoming the far-left trade skeptics that Barack Obama's administration left out in the cold. One need only look at the folks President Trump has appointed on trade,…

Creepy Christianity and Roy Moore. Yesterday, we looked at some of the concerning behavior and statements of religious figures in Alabama concerning Roy Moore. There are, if you'll forgive, moore things to report. And they're not good.

Let's talk about bad preachers. Because some are sticking by Roy Moore, and hoo boy, does one in particular have some very unpreacherlike things to say.

Don't you miss baseball? Yes, the people who update you constantly, starting in November, about how many days until spring training are a little weird, and you should have an offseason, but it's easy to miss something once it's gone. To that end, Bill Kristol announced the two winners of his…

Since there's a lot to cover today, like why Roy Moore shouldn't ever be a member of the U.S. Senate, please accept my condensed afternoon links.

Greta Van Susteren, APP Baron? You of course remember Greta from her long tenures on CNN and Fox News and her brief one on MSNBC, right? Now, she's about to release an "APP" that she wants you to install on your phone. It's called Sorry:

All Hail the Middle Man. (Or at least this one.) Meet Ryan Grant, a 28 year old who raids the clearance aisle at big box stores, and upsells items as a third party seller on Amazon. He started doing this to make some side hustle money, but then quit his job in accounting to do it full time. It…

Manafort, Paul Manafort. As folks comb through the Manafort papers, some interesting things are popping up. Like the fact the Manafort had three valid U.S. passports. Now, cyber security experts are hinting that Manafort's password for file-sharing sites was "bond007."

Airport conspiracy. One of Harvey Weinstein's accusers, actress Rose McGowan, was recently served with an arrest warrant for cocaine posession. McGowan was earlier locked out of her Twitter account related to her allegations, saying: "TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE…

The Substandard is LIVE. Are you a fan of our pop culture podcast, the Substandard? If so, you might be interested to know that they do a Facebook livestream of their podcast (in part) each week. Here is the latest.

The Afternoon Links are back! Where have they been, you ask? Regular readers of other TWS newsletters (JVL, Kristol Clear) know: I'm now a proud father of twin girls. They are a handful, but the dog has taken to them! If only he could hold a bottle ... So, fret not, the Afternoon Links are back,…

The Capital Bikeshare killer is here. Bike sharing programs are increasingly popular in big cities, and Washington was an early adopter with its Capital Bikeshare program. (The keys even look like little communist flags!) The program got started with millions in subsidies from the government, and…

Massacre in Vegas. When tragedy strikes, there's a lot of misinformation out there. It's always best to sit back and wait (usually not very long) until the truth is reported. Here are three things to read today (if you're up to it) about the mass shooting in Las Vegas:

The Brady Campaign's Brass Balls. House majority whip Steve Scalise went back to work yesterday, and it was an emotional day on Capitol Hill. But, to paraphrase Rahm Emanuel, you never want to let a crisis go to waste. Insert the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Here's their welcome…

Space comes to Wisconsin. I'm a huge fan of the website Atlas Obscura. Every neat place I've wanted to visit (especially abandoned things) is on there, and many places I've visited have been because of their site. Part of my bucket list is derived from there, too. Their newsletter is a welcome…

Is Jared Kushner trolling us? News reports are out saying that Jared Kushner is registered to vote in New York... as a female. Left-leaning groups are pointing to this as an example of Kushner's incompetence (and to be fair he did repeatedly make flubs on forms needed to serve as a top adviser to…

Can we send the Boy Scouts an economics textbook? I love popcorn. It's my favorite snack. I was also a Cub Scout once, and selling Trail's End popcorn was my least-favorite fundraising activity. (Selling magazine subscriptions for my Catholic grade school was much easier.) My mom, saint that she…

Here's a joke. It's from the late Mitch Hedberg: "I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny." Mitch's jokes tended to…

Can the former head of the College Democrats win a seat as... a Republican? At POLITICO Magazine, Tim Alberta has a great feature on Wisconsin's Kevin Nicholson. A veteran with a great resume, Nicholson wants to snatch up Sen. Tammy Baldwin's seat. But first, he has to convince GOP voters in…

This online psychic cleaned up. Down in Texas, a Democratic state legislator is facing trial for misdemeanor charges for a few of a series of accused fraudulent acts. This story is all kinds of crazy. The legislator is Dawnna Dukes, who is in her 12th term in the Texas House. Here's a taste of the…

YOU get a baby, YOU get a baby, EVERYONE GETS A BABY! If you're not hip to the popular memes kids are using, that's an Oprah reference. Amazon mistakenly sent out an email to lots of people yesterday—perhaps hundreds of thousands—suggesting somebody bought something off of their (in most cases…

Lasers to the rescue. One of the beautiful parts about my commute into Washington, D.C., from suburban Virginia is crossing the Potomac. Before we moved offices in 2015, I'd drive by the Lincoln Memorial every day. It was like living in a movie. Now, even though our new office is merely two streets…

Before you spend $2 billion on your own submarine... Read this! Only a few hundred individuals on this rock have the spare cash to drop on such a craft, but still, Bloomberg Pursuits has a feature on this privately made submarine. Might be good for preppers, one would think, until you read that:…

What the media won't show you about the lawnmower kid... A click-baity Facebook page affiliated with conservative blog Independent Journal Review is being mocked for suggesting that media wouldn't show photos of the 11-year-old boy the White House used as a PR ploy mowing the White House lawn.…

Species, are like a construct, man. If you're a Twitter addict like I am, one account you must follow is New Real Peer Review. They showcase amazing academic papers that will totally blow your mind. From a Ph.D thesis they showcased on Tuesday by Megan Molenda LeMay, here's an out-of-this-world…

Can the bodega be killed? Probably not. But two ex-Googlers (ugh) want to try, per a write up from Fast Company:

About that iPhone presentation... It's been 10 years since Apple deployed its first overhyped phone, so how about a reunion of sorts. (How much money have you given Apple in the last 10 years? Maybe don't overthink that ...) In January of 2007 the iPhone debuted, and Steve Jobs gave a public hype…

Here's a long read for you. Over at Wired UK, there's a very interesting read on the future of urban warfare. Here's the teaser: "Cheap Chinese-made sensors. Mad Max-style vehicle mods. Consumer drones turned into mortar-dropping weapons. The fight against Daesh is showing the high-tech, higher…

We're going to 20! My Cleveland Indians are red hot right now, having won 15 games in a row. Impressively, the Indians also won 14 straight last season. An Ohio roofing and window company celebrating its 15th anniversary thought it'd be a fun contest to offer customers a 100 percent refund on work…

Trumpism corrupts, Kurt Schlichter edition. I hope Jonathan V. Last will forgive me, but I'd like to add another case to the "Trumpism Corrupts" dossier. It's Townhall.com's Kurt Schlichter. A former Army colonel and a trial lawyer who was a little-known writer in the late 1990s and early 2000s,…

All hail the price gougers. As Irma bears down on Florida, people are stocking up on bottled water. Let's recall not but a week or so ago when, in the wake of Harvey, people were using social media to shame those who sold bottled water at a price they were not used to. Or, now, let's look at social…

James Madison’s Lesson on Free Speech. Over at National Review, our own Jay Cost has a look back at James Madison, free speech, and the times in which we find ourselves with antifa and the alt-right running around. Here's Cost: "None of this means that we should excuse the boorish and ignorant…

Read the latest issue of TWS! Matt Labash's cover story on the Antifa in Berkeley is going viral and for good reason, it's a must read. David Rutz at the Free Beacon says: "You'll never regret taking the time to read Matt Labash." Truer words have never been spoken. But don't stop at Labash, the…

Men's studies actually exists, but not for the reason you think. I was confused at first when I saw that a college actually had a men's studies department. The idea of "men's studies" is usually a trope used to bash the existence of "women's studies" and is (usually) not a serious proposal. Yet,…

The Waffle House way. In times of disaster, it's pretty rare for a Waffle House to close. The company is famous for its disaster response, keeping stores open on a limited menu to keep people dry, warm, fed, and happy. In Houston, two stores have closed, but the company's disaster apparatus jumped…

Are you smarter than a college student? This was the favorite tactic Fox News's Jesse Watters employed on Bill O'Reilly's former show. Watters would go out and embarrass college students to show how smart he was and how dumb they were with man-on-the-street interviews. Mediaite caught Watters, who…

I love grocery shopping, so much so that two weeks ago I drove three hours round-trip to see the German grocer Lidl's foray into the U.S. And so naturally, on Monday, I went to check out Whole Foods on the day that Amazon’s purchase took effect.

'Whole Paycheck' no more? Amazon has come in and taken charge of Whole Foods, and their first order of business is to roll back prices like D-FENS in Falling Down. (Minus the racism, of course.) The once-online-only giant plans to integrate the Whole Foods supply chain into their Prime Pantry…

On the eve of Hurricane Harvey making landfall in Corpus Christi, President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Baseball badassery. A lot of people (wrongly) think baseball is a soft sport. It's true that, unlike football or hockey, there's not a lot of fighting. Of course, getting beaned with a 100 mph fastball is no picnic. But when there is fighting in baseball, it's a big deal. So, yesterday as we put…

Safe spaces and 'ze' badges. Scottish student Madeleine Kearns writes in the Spectator about her bewildering first year at a U.S. college, where she and other free thinkers felt compelled to create their own unsafe space: "We met in a disused convent in Hell’s Kitchen and discussed campus-censored…

In a series of tweets, the Republican Party of Virginia attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam on Wednesday for calling for the removal of Confederate statues.

What a bore. Are you a Tesla fanboy? So much so that you pressure your friends into buying one of the heavily subsidized electric sports cars so you can get referral points? (They are expensive!) Well, you're in luck. The fine minds at Tesla have launched a new incentive to further motivate you:…

Over at CBS News, frequent TWS contributor Michael Graham has a column on the dilemma of Afghanistan. "The bad news for President Trump," Graham writes "is that Afghanistan is a no-win proposition: Stay, and you keep losing American lives and treasure. Go, and you risk a future attack planned in…

Did you get to see totality? Most of you didn't, but our own Chris Deaton was back home in the Midwest and posted this beautiful shot, just post-totality, from Elkton, Ky. Chris reports that "The total eclipse looked like the end of days." In Washington, it was sort of a bust unless you had a…

Can you hear me now? Unfortunately, not too well if you're one of the diplomats previously stationed in Cuba, due to hearing loss resulting from a covert sonic device. At the Free Beacon, Adam Kredo and Susan Crabtree report that the U.S. government is hiding key details about these mystery attacks.

ISSUE 5! The American Original, the McLaughlin Group, is back. . . . Or is it? And while John McLaughlin has left the earth, a new pilot episode has just been released with our Washington Examiner colleague Tom Rogan as host. Rogan, a former panelist, considered McLaughlin a mentor . . . but didn't…

Must free trade come with social justice? That's what Canada is saying, reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown reports."[A]s we head into NAFTA renegotiations this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his administration want to expand the rules to include sections on gender issues, climate…

Nice little show you got there... In Boston, a bizarre extortion trial involving movie-stereotype union Teamsters and celebrities from the hit television show Top Chef resulted in a verdict of not guilty for the Teamsters. Interestingly, "at least three witnesses testified that a top [mayoral] aide…

Helicopter commuting used to be something even middle class New Yorkers could afford. That is, until a fatal crash at the Pan Am building killed multiple people. With the rise of Uber, BusinessWeek documents the resurgence of affordable helicopter travel in Gotham.

More than a few times in recent years, tragic—and seemingly preventable—deaths have led to bills and legislation named after the victims. “Megan’s Law” gave us problematic sex-offender registrations. “Kate’s Law” was a failed attempt to deter illegal immigration. Such proposals are frequently bad…

Following surgery to treat a blood clot above his eye, Senator John McCain's office announced that a brain cancer known as glioblastoma was detected:

In the wake of Philando Castile's death at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota, much is being said about whether the National Rifle Association should have weighed in.

Any given weekday, there are about 20,000 people in the United States Capitol complex—which has nearly 20 buildings sprawled over nearly 300 acres. Across those many buildings, there are dozens of tunnels, nooks, crannies, and thousands of different rooms. It's a daunting place and difficult to…

What does France have against the free press?

Since the repeal of Prohibition, most regulations pertaining to the sale and distribution of alcohol has been left to the states under the "three tier" system of distribution, in which manufacturers sell to distributors and control boards, who sell to retailers, who sell to the public according to…

Pepsi's unintentionally brilliant marketing campaign with Kendall Jenner was derided by leftists as a for-profit appropriation, namely of #Resist and #BlackLivesMatter.

I had to use my DVR to catch it: the first instance of Major League Baseball's new no-pitch intentional walk.

The impending filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch continues apace, but one Democrat is on record questioning whether Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer's plan to return the favor after the Senate GOP stymied Merrick Garland's nomination will backfire.

A day before President Trump is slated to address the nation before a joint session of Congress (note: Not a State of the Union), Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi addressed reporters at the National Press Club to offer a prebuttal.

Alabama's Jeff Sessions was confirmed by the Senate as President Trump's attorney general Wednesday night by a 52 to 47 vote.

For the remainder of Tuesday night and for most of Wednesday, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is prohibited from debating on the floor of the Senate. That's because her Senate colleagues found her guilty of impugning another senator, Jeff Sessions, whose nomination for attorney general is…

The Trump administration's emercency motion requesting an immediate stay of a Washington federal court's restraining order of President Trump's immigration executive order has been denied.

A federal judge in Seattle has issued a temporary ruling which halts Donald Trump's recent travel ban executive order.

"An old pro told me that originality does not consist of saying what has never been said before; it consists of saying what you have to say that you know to be the truth."— Harvey Penick

President Donald Trump has relieved Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who instructed DOJ employees not to defend his executive order on halting entry by immigrants to the United States from certain countries.

Acting attorney general Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, has ordered DOJ attorneys not to defend President Trump's controversial executive order which temporarily bans those from seven countries, from entering the country. The countries were chosen as part of the Visa Waiver…

The first Twitter transition, it seems, while seamless at the top-level @POTUS account, isn't so among the many hundreds, if not thousands, of Twitter-verified executive branch accounts.

Joining ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, editor at large Bill Kristol expressed cautious optimism with Donald Trump's cabinet picks, and reiterated concern with Trump following his Twitter battle with Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.

Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA director nominee and Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo, was grilled by newly elected Senator Kamala Harris of California over the Central Intelligence Agency's human resources and employee benefits policies regarding gays and lesbians…

Normally, when one hears left-leaning members of Congress complain about outsourcing to save money, it usually is directed at a corporation.

Earlier Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told host John Dickerson that President-elect Trump is going to abide by his promise not to reform entitlement programs:

CNN reports:

Donald Trump's transition team has tapped Fox News personality Monica Crowley as "Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the National Security Council." Politico reported earlier today that Fox had terminated Crowley's contract in anticipation of her appointment.

The New York Times reports that former Clinton campaign manager John Podesta's email was hacked by Russian hackers because an aide mistyped a reply:

The Wall Street Journal reports that President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington to the position of Secretary of the Interior.

The Huffington Post polling database shows that Donald Trump has shaken his longstanding unfavorable ratings following his election victory.

At National Review, Neal Freeman interviews our very own Philip Terzian, detailing his tenure as literary editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD:

A decision by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has desk toy enthusiasts rejoicing. Buckyballs, the toys sold as a collection of 100 to 200 rare earth magnets that can be made into a myriad of designs, are legal again. And after fighting the Obama administration's Consumer Product Safety…

With a three-to-one series lead in the World Series, the Cleveland Indians now face a game seven at home Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs after a 9 to 3 loss Tuesday against ace Jake Arrietta.

If the election weren't bad enough already, those living what Washington Free Beacon managing editor Sonny Bunch calls "the politicized life" have taken their virtue signaling fight to... beer.

In his final days as the minority leader and with the Democrats on the verge of retaking a majority in the chamber, Harry Reid suggested that FBI Director James Comey potentially violated the Hatch Act in a letter, after praising his work on the Clinton email scandal earlier this year. It's the…

Over at Commentary, Max Boot has some enlightening analysis of the fight to retake Mosul, and why the Republican nominee's comments are foolish:

With Donald Trump's path to the White House looking less likely by the day, Republicans are rightly worried about maintaining control of the U.S. Senate should Hillary Clinton become president.

When asked by moderator Chris Wallace Tuesday about his repeated claims that the election was "rigged" and whether he would accept the results of the election should he lose, Donald Trump replied: "I'll look at it at the time."

A new undercover video series from conservative investigator and provocateur James O'Keefe is already shaking up the 2016 race. The stated goal of O'Keefe's "Rigging the Election" series is unveiling the "dark secrets at the highest levels of the DNC and Clinton presidential campaign" and within…

The latest CNN/ORC polls, released Monday, show bad news for Republican Senate candidates in the battleground states of Nevada and North Carolina, following strong numbers in thoes states for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

After John Podesta's apparently hacked emails were leaked by WikiLeaks, the Clinton campaign finds itself under fire after documents showed aides discussing ways to undermine the Catholic church.

Contributing editor and WEEKLY STANDARD movie critic John Podhoretz joined C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb on Q&A to discuss his career as a film critic and editor, movies, and how they've shaped the political landscape.

In Tuesday's vice presidential debate, one of the closing questions for Senator Tim Kaine and Governor Mike Pence was about their personal faith and potential conflicts with their roles as elected officials.

In his opening statement at Tuesday's vice presidential debate in Farmville, Virginia, Senator Tim Kaine said:

On a crisp fall day as the scent of burning firewood tickles one's nose, a flock of Canada geese flies through the dusk sky, the birds' trademark honks punctuating the breeze. This could be an encouraging image, because the best part about Canada geese is when they leave.

Ferris Bueller famously quipped "A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself." But people do believe in isms—and a few of them are at odds with the isms prized by the ruling political classes.

Everything needs a reboot these days. Classic movies, bad movies, television series, and now, apparently, bad college mascots.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, actor George Clooney told anchor Chris Wallace that "It's a very funny thing, odd for me to be on the same side of an issue as Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer and George Will and people like that," noting that "usually we're not on the same side."

Liberal members of the California Assembly are outraged today after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would eliminate sales taxes on women's hygiene products. Proponents of the bill have misleadingly dubbed their bill as a solution to the "tampon tax" — though there is no specific tax on…

If you live in a battleground state, odds are you've seen an anti-Trump ad railing on Trump's David Duke stumble on CNN's State of the Union.

Hillary Clinton abandoned her traveling press pool earlier this morning at a 9/11 memorial event in New York after feeling "overheated." She was taken to her daughter Chelsea's New York apartment to recover.

In 2014, retired Army general Jack Keane joined Conversations with Bill Kristol to discuss his career, the war on terrorism, and 9/11.

Two recent Quinnipiac University polls have some good news for Senate Republicans.

The politics of funding a divided federal government has always pitted administrations against Congress, but according to House speaker Paul Ryan, the Obama administration is taking it to new levels.

The invitation promised Omarosa, the much loved/hated star of "The Apprentice."

The Foundation for Constitutional Government has released a new episode of Conversations with Bill Kristol.

Strange things are afoot at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency housed within the Department of the Interior tasked with managing the nation's vast swaths of publicly held land.

A former CIA operative and obscure Capitol Hill staffer by the name of Evan McMullin has begun a longshot conservative bid against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein.

On Face the Nation Sunday morning on CBS, longtime Trump adviser and Alabama senator Jeff Sessions discussed the most current iteration of the Trump immigration platform with host John Dickerson.

In a press release, Los Angeles mayor and Hillary Clinton supporter Eric Garcetti announced a partnership with the American Institute of Graphic Arts and other non-profits to "launch [a] targeted 'get out the vote' initiative featuring Edward James Olmos."

The case of a clash between Uber, the city of Seattle, and labor unions has put a new spin on an old saying: If you can't beat 'em, make them join you.

Tuesday night on CNN's Erin Burnett Out Front, editor William Kristol discussed the news that Donald Trump refuses to pivot towards a traditional presidential campaign.

On CNN's Erin Burnett Out Front, editor William Kristol discussed Hillary Clinton's email scandal and how it has hurt her campaign.

Donald Trump used to love the polls, until the polls weren't useful anymore. Now he's is taking matters into his own hands by conducting a poll of his own. Trump's campaign emailed his supporters earlier Monday, saying that he is now facing two opponents: Hillary Clinton and the media.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manfort begged credulity earlier Sunday, when he told CNN's Jake Tapper that he was unaware of an offensive statement made by Carl Paladino, the real estate developer and failed politician who serves as co-chair of Trump's New York campaign. (Paladino lost the New York…

Former Ohio Governor and Senate hopeful Ted Strickland apologized earlier Wednesday after making a joke about the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

Fifty former national security officials who "served in senior national security and/or foreign policy positions in Republican Administrations, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush" have vowed never to vote for Donald Trump.

In the latest episode of Conversations With Bill Kristol, former senator and energy secretary Spencer Abraham and WEEKLY STANDARD staff writer Jay Cost join Bill Kristol to discuss Clinton vs. Trump, whether Trump can win, and what comes next after 2016.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger has long been skeptical of Donald Trump, but said that he "wanted to get" to a place where he could feel comfortable endorsing the GOP nominee.

Netflix's new series Stranger Things has taken the binge-addicted world by storm, and for good reason: it's fantastic.

Cleveland

Donald Trump announced he was delaying an expected Friday announcement of his vice presidential pick that was slated to take place in New York. Trump made the announcement on Twitter:

Like many in the world of politics, I like to collect political bric a brac. Official Trump gear, like the hats, are commonplace these days, so you have to go to the entrepreneurs of America to get the really good stuff.

A new report posted today by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), led by chair Rob Portman (R-OH) confirms that the U.S. State Department funded an Israeli political organization that later ran a campaign dedicated to ousting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.