WASHINGTON — A few years ago, I was talking with Charles Krauthammer in the Fox News green room when the news that someone famous had passed away flashed on the television screen. Charles told me the way he hoped to go when his time came. His dream, he said, was to be assassinated during the […]
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The deep history behind the Singapore summit
President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have concluded their summit in Singapore. The summit mixed theatrics and drama. At least two of the handshake photo ops included canny doses of Trumpian flattery. The summit produced a dictator’s commitment to denuclearize and an agreement to continue discussions calculated to achieve denuclearization — […]
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Lessons for the Trump-Kim summit
The unprecedented, historic and weird summit (Dennis Rodman might be there) between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un could produce the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, or just more of the same lies and dissembling from North Korea we have seen before. These days, world events do not occur in a vacuum. Former […]
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The biggest winner of the Trump-Kim summit is China
By Josh Rogin The Washington Post In Chinese President Xi Jingping’s wildest dreams, he could not have envisioned a better outcome of President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — at least as it concerns Beijing’s interests. After one day of meetings, Trump agreed to halt U.S.-South Korea military exercises, doing exactly […]
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Petaluma High learns censorship doesn’t work
Here’s an axiomatic truth: If you want to make sure people see or hear something, ban people from seeing or hearing something. That predates the internet, as any former teenager who ever hid under the covers listening to “Louie Louie” with the volume down can surely attest. We are talking about a long time ago […]
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Social contract between generations needs updating
WASHINGTON — The trustees for Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports last week. This is cause for discouragement because it reminds us how much we’ve mortgaged the country’s future to spending for older Americans. Already, Social Security and Medicare constituted 42 percent of federal spending in 2017, say the trustees. If they had […]
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It has been a wonderful life, full and complete
By Charles Krauthammer The Washington Post I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me. In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove […]
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Trump’s popularity in upward trend
Right now, Donald Trump is in the strongest political position since the initial months of his presidency. He’s not in robust shape — he’s ticked up into the mid-40s — but the slow upward trend in polls has been evident since March. Too much shouldn’t be read into the numbers, except for the basic conclusion […]
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For Democrats, the tide is still against them
NEW YORK — With their successes this week in the California primaries, Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their prospects for the midterm elections. But they should take note of the bigger picture when it comes to left-right politics these days. During the last decade, the center-left has been devastated electorally across the West. Unless Democrats […]
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Supremes make case for freedom of religion
Nothing appears beyond the reach of the social engineers, not even cake. In a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court said the Colorado Human Rights Commission had failed to take into account the religious beliefs of a Lakewood baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has sometimes […]