Tuesday’s midterm elections weren’t a slam dunk for either party, not by anyone’s estimation. Democrats managed to avoid another apocalyptic election meltdown and keep their base from flipping out by flipping the House, if barely, and Republicans added slightly to their already slight majority in the Senate. We sent at least three Red State fake Read More…
Would it surprise you to find out that each of the five members of the Montana Public Service Commission makes more than the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State and the State Auditor? These are the current salaries of Montana elected officials. Governor— $111,570 Lieutenant Governor—$86,362 Attorney General—$123,499 Secretary of State— $95,695 Superintendent of Public Read More…
The flames of the Ferguson Fire in California have become the latest symbols of a seemingly perennial challenge of fighting fires in the West. I just returned from the Ferguson Fire camp, where I met with firefighters who are working to combat the fire as it bears down on Yosemite National Park and its visitors, Read More…
Montana Governor Steve Bullock’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) took an unprecedented step last month in its efforts to block the opening of the Rock Creek and Montanore mines in Sanders and Lincoln counties, projects that would create hundreds of jobs for Montana workers. Bullock’s DEQ has opposed Hecla Mining Company’s attempt to open these Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON — Republicans who are thinking about opposing President Trump in the 2020 primaries are facing the hardest of political choices. Toppling a sitting president of your own party is a maneuver with the highest degree of difficulty. The most relevant historical model is probably Eugene McCarthy’s race against Lyndon Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles “It’s the worst of times.” The words are Charles Dickens’, from the opening paragraph of a novel set in the 1790s, but the sentiment is familiar today. Americans are divided as never before, we are frequently told, angrily at odds with one another, polarized politically, economically, culturally and in our Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles Karma’s working mighty fast these days. Michael Avenatti, the huckster lawyer who skyrocketed to fame representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in an attempt to derail the Trump administration, was arrested Wednesday by the Los Angeles Police Department and released on $50,000 bail for alleged domestic violence. He is denying the Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles On this date 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson issued a Thanksgiving proclamation to a grateful nation. “This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice,” the 28th U.S. president told a war-weary nation. “God has in His good pleasure given us peace.” He continued: “Complete victory Read More…
COMMENTARY X Story Stream recent articles Silicon Valley has changed. The same companies that once held free speech so sacred they refused to ban terrorists and stood idly by as their tools were used for genocide have suddenly decided that censorship is the only way to save the web in the Era of Trump. The Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles There’s been an ongoing discussion about whether the 2018 midterms can be properly considered a “wave” election. While I think they certainly can be considered a wave, that doesn’t get to the question of whether they ought to be considered as such. At its core, this debate is pretty silly. Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles Good morning, it’s Friday, November 16, 2018. On this date 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson issued a Thanksgiving proclamation to a grateful nation. “This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice,” the 28th U.S. president told a war-weary nation. “God has in His good Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 1:42 PM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. President Trump has hundreds of unfilled presidentially-appointed positions because Democrats have stalled the nominations process out as much as their diminished power in the post-nuclear Senate has allowed. But it is the Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers trying to oust Nancy Pelosi started rallying behind a possible contender Thursday, but the House Democratic leader gained key endorsements and said she has “overwhelming support” to become the next speaker. Pelosi picked up backing from Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights leader, while a Read More…
In the title of his magisterial book, Fyodor Dostoevsky paired “Crime and Punishment,” not crime and pardons, or crime and “Civics lessons,” amnesty and asylum. Punishment must closely follow a crime in order to be both effective as a deterrent, as well as to serve as a public declaration of values and norms. In explaining Read More…
ANALYSIS/OPINION: Reporting the news is difficult and expensive. Grandstanding is more fun and everyone has an opinion. That’s why reporters were once taught, often by a stern taskmaster, to leave opining to the columnists and the editorial page, and save their opinions for after work in the bar across the street. This particular affliction — Read More…
The State Department has made it clear that the 460 rockets launched at Israel from Gaza this week won’t stop Team Trump from rolling out its plans for peace between the Jewish state and the Palestinians within the next two months. In fact, the administration thinks the violence makes the case for another attempt at Read More…
The midterms suggest that President Trump needs to double down on populism, just not the sort that’s been his signature to this point. Trump is both too populist and not populist enough. His populism is largely, although not entirely, a matter of style — combative, lacerating, emotive, unpredictable and grandiose.This sensibility is a central part Read More…
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza recently came to my Harlem community to talk about education. Many parents asked how he was going to improve traditional public schools so more families would want their children to attend them. He gave a weak answer: better marketing. The chancellor seems to believe that Harlem parents have rushed toward charter Read More…
At least one faction in the White House is pushing to give Turkey’s tyrannical Recep Tayyip Erdogan the head he wants most in order to get him to shut up about the Saudi murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. President Trump needs to stomp on these idiots, hard. NBC News reports that Trump officials are looking Read More…
British politics and markets are in chaos because Prime Minister Theresa May can’t sell her long-awaited Brexit plan — and no one knows what comes next. After British voters narrowly approved a withdrawal from the European Union in 2016, we felt the United Kingdom would be better off — able to make its own decisions Read More…
With President Trump leading the way, the push is on to get serious criminal-justice reform done by Christmas. Resisters on the left and right would be fools to stand in the way. Trump this week called for Senate passage of the First Step Act, which the House passed months ago. The bill would fund prison Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles In the wake of Election 2018, analysts have delved deeply into a seemingly limitless supply of data points to explain the details of what happened. What role did suburban women play? Or health care? Was there a Kavanaugh effect? This obsession with details may be causing us to miss the Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. Democracy is a fragile thing. Ours has lasted nearly 250 years, but there is no guarantee that it will last forever. One thing is certain, however. If the people’s trust is undermined, Read More…
Stan Lee, the reinventor of the comic book, died Monday at the ripe old age of 95. Comic books get a bad rap, although not nearly as bad as they used to. There was a time when comic books were the cause of an all-out moral panic. After the release of psychiatrist Fred Wertham’s book Read More…
Editor’s Note: This piece was coauthored by Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris. The theoretical basis for the man-made (anthropogenic) global warming (AGW) deception was established by The Club of Rome (COR), a think-tank that provides ‘suggestions’ to the United Nations. Composed of UN bureaucrats, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, current and former Heads Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. It’s very easy for media elites in Manhattan to decide that one tweet can prove small towns in Wisconsin are stuffed with racists and anti-Semites. On Nov. 12, ABC, CBS and NBC Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. A cat has nine lives. A woman sometimes has more than that. The feline species keeps coming up with surprises, and you can see them most dramatically in politics. Hillary Clinton, for Read More…
Last week, the White House revoked the press pass of CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, and denied him access to the building. CNN responded by filing suit in federal court against the president. Acosta’s First and Fifth Amendment rights had been violated, said CNN. The demand: Acosta’s press pass must be returned immediately Read More…
“It’s the worst of times.” The words are Charles Dickens’, from the opening paragraph of a novel set in the 1790s, but the sentiment is familiar today. Americans are divided as never before, we are frequently told, angrily at odds with one another, polarized politically, economically, culturally and in our entertainment preferences. Family elders fret Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, is a new kind of politician. She’s telegenic, ideologically progressive, widely celebrated by a media that’s obsessed with Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. Both political parties in Washington can look at last week’s election results and find encouragement. Democrats who see their victories as a sign that Donald Trump will be a one-term president should Read More…
| Posted: Nov 16, 2018 12:01 AM The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. During the Obama presidency, the benefits of the Keystone Pipeline were obvious. Blue collar union workers who were looking for employment in a limp economy would be put back to work. America’s Read More…
Urban critic: Officials Make Political Capital on Amazon Politicians representing Long Island City likely felt they had no choice but to oppose the deal to bring Amazon to their community. But what Crain’s NY’s Greg David finds “more worrisome” is that “virtually all the city’s top officials with broader constituencies have hedged their bets, saying Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles “Superior, they said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early.” DULUTH, Minn. — Gordon Lightfoot’s iconic song about the Edmund Fitzgerald, a Lake Superior iron ore ship that sunk with all hands aboard in a 1975 autumn storm, captures the intrepid spirit of the Minnesota Read More…
In today’s America it’s tough for a politician to do something truly shocking. But it has just been announced that Gov. Tom Ridge, the former head of Homeland Security and Pennsylvania Governor is one of the founders of an apparently conservative lawyers organization called Checks and Balances which they say will “expose President Trump’s abuse Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON — When a national leader urges that votes be ignored or that an election result he doesn’t like might best be set aside, we label him an autocrat or an authoritarian. When it’s President Trump, we shrug. Worse, many in his party go right along with baseless charges of Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles Abraham Lincoln, when informed that General Ulysses S. Grant was a drunk, famously asked Grant’s accusers what whiskey he was drinking so Lincoln could send a barrel to every general in the army. Keep this in mind when President Donald Trump’s critics accuse him of “racism” against blacks. Under this Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles A mob of protesters associated with the radical left-wing group Antifa swarmed the private residence of Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the night of Nov. 7. They yelled, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!” The mob’s apparent aim was to catch Carlson’s family Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles When Amazon chose a Queens neighborhood across from Manhattan for one of its new headquarters, James Corden remarked on “The Late Late Show,” “I gotta say, I really think this could be the thing that finally puts New York on the map.” That was a joke. New York is already Read More…
The time has come for a new Amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution in order to protect our Republic from an unrecognized yet significant rising danger. If we don’t do so (and soon), we may one day experience our own version of a Caesarean dictatorship. Ancient Rome was a republic as well…for centuries Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles Hello, it’s Thursday, November 15, 2018. On this date in 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. In high school history classes this momentous step is often glossed over in a few sentences The Articles of Confederation, we were taught, proved too weak and were soon replaced Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his support for the first major rewrite of the nation’s criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation, but it remains to be seen whether the proposal can pass Congress. Trump said the bill “will make our communities safer and give former Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON (AP) — As a steadfast Rep. Nancy Pelosi all but dared potential rivals for the gavel to come forward, a group of restive House Democrats vowed Wednesday to produce enough votes to block her from becoming the House’s new speaker. For two days now, disgruntled Democrats have claimed they Read More…
X Story Stream recent articles WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy easily won an internal party election to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus, handing the seven-term Californian a familiar role of building the party back to a majority as well as protecting President Donald Trump’s agenda. With Speaker Paul Ryan retiring and Read More…