Is Mueller finally ready to spill some tea?

July 3, 2019

The announcement that former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will testify before two House committees next month is significant only if Mueller goes back on his word. You’ll remember that, in a public statement in May, the former FBI director who investigated possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign made clear that he had no desire to testify before Congress. If he were to appear, he added, “I would not provide information beyond that which is already public.” “If” has become “when.” On Tuesday it was announced that, in response to subpoenas ...

Has Trump outdone Obama?

July 3, 2019

It took less than a week for informed opinion to settle the question: In ordering airstrikes against Iran on June 20 and then canceling that order at the last moment, President Donald Trump committed an unforced error of enormous magnitude. Writing in the Atlantic, Kori Schake, a noted national security expert, ably recited the fast-breaking conventional wisdom: “Trump has now shown himself just as willing as President Barack Obama was to make empty threats that damage American credibility.” Indeed, according to Schake, Trump’s offense is actually worse than ...

Break chains in America of child marriage

July 3, 2019

On June 26, activists in wedding dresses and chains gathered at the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., to press for passage of a bill to ban child marriage. Some wore tape across their mouths. “Arms chained, mouths taped, trapped, silenced,” said Fraidy Reiss, executive director of the group Unchained at Last. “This is what life looks like for girls and women right here in Pennsylvania who are forced to marry.” Incredible as it sounds, only two U.S. states have banned child marriage outright. Many others set the minimum age at 18 but include exceptions with no minimum age. ...

Biden still remains the Democrat to beat Trump

July 3, 2019

During the Thursday debate, Kamala Harris went straight for Joe Biden’s jugular over his alleged failures on race matters. The day after, however, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the black mayor of arguably America’s blackest city, Atlanta, endorsed Biden for the Democratic nomination. And according to The Daily Beast, a Democracy Corps poll had Biden’s favorability with African Americans up by net 18% after the debate. What gives? Didn’t the Twitter left just declare that Harris had eviscerated Biden? As usual, it interpreted events according to its own assumptions — and ...

Kids shouldn’t be used as political pawns

July 2, 2019

When faced with two women who each claimed to be the mother of the same child, King Solomon announced he would slice the child in two and give half to each claimant. One woman was pleased. The other wailed in sorrow, and begged the king to give the child to her opponent. Solomon understood that the woman who wanted to save the child even though it meant she’d lose him was the true mother. There are no Solomons among us today. Children are once again being used as pawns and commodities in our immigration debate, and the adults are fighting to gain philosophical and ...

Justices saw through ploy for question

July 2, 2019

In a stunning victory for the rule of law, a bare majority of the Supreme Court agreed that the Commerce Department had not adequately justified the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. But the decision says more about how poorly the Trump administration covered its tracks than it does about the court’s willingness to rein in the administration’s worst excesses. The decision handed down Thursday is procedurally complicated but will probably have the effect of blocking the addition of a citizenship question to the census. The Census Bureau was going to ask every ...