It requires a bit of perspective to see the trend in Washington: nothing fails to succeed like success. When presidents have threatened the Washington condominium of Tweedledee liberal Democrats and barely distinguishable Tweedledum Republicans, and then were seen as successes, opposition flaked off in retreat.
So it was with Richard Nixon, who arrived in Washington with all the baggage from the Alger Hiss affair and the Helen Gahagan Douglas Senate election (in which she called him “Tricky Dick” and he called her “the pink lady-right down to her underwear”), and the Chequers smear, but moved with agility abroad and at home. The president ran gradually better in the polls and was widely respected by the moderate and conservative majority of voters. Of course it all blew up when he mishandled the Watergate affair, but for four years the glacial mass of his opposition melted steadily.
Ronald Reagan incited fears of extremism and was represented as a simplistic dolt who should still be selling 20-Mule Team Borax in a cowboy outfit on television. But he was amiable, a magic public speaker; his tax cuts induced an immense economic boom, and his defense build-up culminating in comprehensive anti-missile defense deescalated and ultimately won the Cold War. The alarmists fell silent and he did not really attack the great Washington sleaze factory’s activities, so they endured him and closed in behind him when he returned to California.
align=”left” As was foreseen, the response of the solid anti-Trump press after the election was not that public grievances against Washington must be based on something, but rather that there were more racist, sexist, gun-happy, Bible-thumping, lager-lout philistines than had been appreciated.
Donald Trump has not just been a distasteful opponent, as the D.C. political establishment generally considered Nixon; or a convivial Californian outsider like Reagan, who changed economic and strategic course but didn’t attack pillars of Washington incumbency. Nixon and Reagan had contested numerous elections as Republicans, and despite the odd rhetorical flourish, weren’t going to do more than make course corrections from their Democratic predecessors, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter.
But Trump was different. He launched a movement, paid for his own campaign, (no ghastly fund-raisers with the dumb, opinionated rich), dismissed the Bushes, McCain, and Romney as Clinton-Obama sound-alikes, and frontally assaulted Wall Street, Hollywood, the national media, the lobby system, and every adult in Washington D.C. (which voted 96 percent against him).
Trump’s crushing victory in the Republican primaries was attributed to the weakness of the other candidates―he would hit a stonewall with Hillary. His victory over Hillary was a freakish product of the vagaries of the electoral system (from which John Quincy Adams, Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, JFK, and George W. Bush also benefited), and of Russian interference via Wikileaks and otherwise, and the conduct of FBI director James Comey. (Comey was at first praised for his “integrity” for recommending against indictment of Mrs. Clinton after recounting a sequence of her likely illegalities.) As was foreseen, the response of the solid anti-Trump press after the election was not that public grievances against Washington must be based on something, but rather that there were more racist, sexist, gun-happy, Bible-thumping, lager-lout philistines than had been appreciated.
In office, the fallback position of the irreconcilables has been that he could not get anything done. Yet he has dismantled the entire self-garrote apparatus promoting global warming and impeding off-shore and shale-oil production, and is dismantling and reversing the welter of financial regulation designed to promote the Dodd-Frank myth that Congress had lacked the authority to prevent the economic calamities created by official inflation of the housing bubble up to 2008, (with the full approval of the Congress). There is steady promotion of charter schools over the ignorance factories of the state school systems reduced to mockery by the teachers’ unions to which the Democratic Party is bound from sandal to mortarboard.
In foreign policy, though, it is early. The Iranians shriek that the Americans and Russians are replacing them in the Middle East with the Turks; Assad now knows that gassing civilians can be hazardous; Hamas pretends to accept Israel’s right to exist, and the North Koreans denounce China, which created this Frankenstein Monster and sustained it to irritate the West, and which is now reducing trade across the Yalu. The direction, however tentative, is away from the universal contempt for the Obama policy of simply ordering, like a dancing master, that America’s friends and enemies change roles and places.
Now it is Trumpism, and not the corrupt left, that is advancing in ant-like, unpublicized, but constant forward movement, every week. The House health care vote confirms Republican solidarity, just six months after Speaker Ryan declined to share a platform with candidate Trump. Trump’s followers, who knew it would be a slog, are solid at near his electoral result in the mid-forties in the polls. His outnumbered media supporters and talk-show and social media backers are in place, despite some grumbling about the Syrian Tomahawk attack from the magnificent Ann Coulter and some others. The intellectual left has gone all the way to the end of the diving board. Michael Kinsley (as intellectual as left-wing journalists get in the U.S.) declares the president a fascist, as if mentioning the side on which his hair is parted. Christopher Browning in the New York Review of Books, with a few pro forma distinctions, laboriously likened Trump with Hitler, at such length that the unwary might imagine that there was a comparison to be made.
align=”right” The party of Jefferson and FDR is unrecognizable, but it can still be distinguished from a liberal ISIS. The president’s shortcomings are overly notorious, but his enemies are no longer of this world. He will win, and change the nation for the better.
The bizarrerie of the intellectual right is illimitable. My dear and esteemed friend George Will, after an acrobatic exercise in the columnar snobbery that Trump was unaware that Andrew Jackson died 16 years before the start of the Civil War, (Jackson was concerned about the danger of civil war throughout his presidency, as George knows and Mr. Trump was alleging), has fled into the television embrace of Rachel the Madd and Mika Buzzfeed at MSNBC, the most astonishing flight since Joachim von Ribbentrop went to Moscow. They have all walked the plank; President Trump has induced self-destructive political bilharzia in the deranged effigies of once-serious and important people. I still love them, but I grieve for them.
The rank and file Democrats have plumbed new depths of scatological banality. The party chairman, Tom Perez, occupies a post once held by serious people like James A. Farley and Larry O’Brien. But Perez cannot speak a public sentence without assimilating the president to excrement. The people won’t have it. The self-targeted Democratic torpedoes, which Trump had the tactical intelligence to goad and then to consign to due process, were the lies about collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and the challenge to the president’s constitutional authority over immigration, (reinforced by ninjas smashing and burning at Berkeley, and the mobbing of travelers at airports around the country and overseas). The torpedoes will come home on those who launched them in the next few months, warhead-first and at high speed. Then, frenzied partisanship will start to give way to the instinct of self-preservation, and the locked-arm solidarity of the Never-Trumpers will start to break up. The party of Jefferson and FDR is unrecognizable, but it can still be distinguished from a liberal ISIS. The president’s shortcomings are overly notorious, but his enemies are no longer of this world. He will win, and change the nation for the better.
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Thankyou, Lord Black. I EARNESTLY hope you are right on all counts.
The missing ingredient in the transformation of which you so encouragingly write is the resolute will of the Republican base and ordinary voters generally to replace the corrupt timeservers in the Republican seats in the Congress (= most of them) with genuine patriots who love their country and want truly to serve the needs of their fellow-citizens.
Are we ever going to see the likes of Paul Ryan ousted in Wisconsin – and so on across the nation?
If not, there are very constrained limits to what President Trump can do. For instance, he can’t enforce his travel ban lawfully and constitutionally unless a majority in the Congress offers to do what they should have been doing these now many weeks gone by – instituting impeachment proceedings for the District Court judges who held up the President’s executive order limiting travel from terrorist-prone countries. Those judges behaved entirely unconstitutionally and illegally and all lawyers know it.
President Trump’s glorious accomplishments to-date:
Abortion funding – eliminated internationally, on the chopping block domestically
Border Wall – under construction
CAFE standards – going, going, going
Coal – a friend in the White House, what more does one need
Dakota Access – approved for completion
Diseased illegal aliens – bye bye, being deported, don’t go away mad, just go away
Economic Confidence – at historic highs
FBI – incompetent Director “fired”, to be replaced by a “law enforcement” officer
Federal Judges – a slew of conservative Judges nominated, confirmations inevitable
Guantanamo Bay – open for business and ready for new ‘guests’
Gun control – dying the ugly death it deserves, gun sales climbing
H1B visas – going, going, going … hire American, buy American
Industry – bringing their factories back to the US
Invading hordes of diseased illegal aliens – at the lowest level in 17 years
Jobs (real “jobs”) – roaring back … Bayer, Carrier, Ford, Hyundai, Sprint/Softbank, etc
Military micromanagement – no more leftist prepubescent weenies telling Generals how to wage war
Muslim terrorists – being denied entry and hunted down
NAFTA – under renegotiation
ObamaDeathCare – repealed and replaced in the House, on to the Senate
Paris Climate Accord – deader than environuts remaining two brain cells
Red lines in the sand – we don’t need no stinking red lines, we got Tomahawks
Regulations – two eliminated for every new one added
Religious freedom – ended the America-hating Democrats war on religion
Sanctuary cities – being defunded, sanctuary supporting politicians likely to be jailed
SCOTUS – originalist confirmed, three more tee’d up and ready to go
Taxes – being cut
TPP – deader than Lying Crooked Hillary’s political future
Veterans care – no longer being wait-listed to death, able to see real, outside doctors
Wookie lunches – gone, gone, gone to the pigs
XL – approved for construction using American steel
Democrats and Entitlement Monkeys – in utter disarray and wee-wee’ing themselves daily!!!
Good list of the actions, but in addition there is now an awareness and healthy questioning of the media’s honesty and promotion of their own agenda. Voters are more aware of “pay for play” within Congress and Federal agencies. There is no longer automatic trust that the FBI, for example, is looking out for us. Trump has brought the concept of trust but verify into the average household. He has educated grassroots voters and given hope to small donors who overcame corporate domination in elections. He started “the Movement” and made the average, hard-working America feel they have not been forgotten…nor looked down upon (as Obama did.). Intangibles, yes…but perhaps most important of all.
Thanks, I’ll add those to the list!!!
Wait, I thought Trump was Hitler. No? Oh yeah, he’s incompetent. And the White House is in chaos. He’ll be impeached! And the list grows . . . . .
Paraphrasing Scott Adams Blog:
1. Trump is Hitler
…
2. Trump is incompetent
…
3. Trump is effective, but I don’t like him.
4. Trump is a phony, a showman and a political bungler. All are good reasons why I don’t like him.
I wouldn’t buy a used car from Trump.
Hillary! 2020
Good. Go broke following your fascist party leaders, those noble plantation owners of the left. Good luck to you! They don’t even have any good ideas left, much less direction to maintain a stable party platform.
He did not start the movement. WE are the movement, Trump is the vehicle.
the tip of the spear
Dearie, I’d believe that you “are the movement” if any of you Trump fans had bothered to knock on my door and ask for my vote last fall. You didn’t. Think really, really hard about why you failed to do that.
So what did you do when it was time to vote? Go boo hoo hoo nobody knocked on my door so I’ll just vote for the other guy who didn’t knock either. Don’t give us your sorry excuse.
I submit for consideration as an add to your list of accomplishments the fact that prior to Comey’s firing there were NO LEAKS!
Ponder what no leaks really means in the progress of #DRAINTHESWAMP. ;)
To the Honorable Lord Black,
Wonderful article sir! Well done indeed! I will be looking forward to reading more of your work.
Ooops meant for JamesDrouin
That’s a great point! Trump was getting pounded for all the leaks before, and now that there are NO leaks, he takes, as I heard punditry pronounce, he takes Washington “by surprise.” And I guess that’s a bad thing, hehehe.
Good point.
I think one of the reasons Trump has relied on Ivanka and Jared is simply because he knows he can trust them.
The first few months showed how few people he could trust.
hey, shooting: you are absolutely correct, thank you for a great post
the best part of the Trump effect is general, as you say, “awareness and healthy questioning” not only of “the media’s honesty” but of the filthiness of American politicians
yes, Trump has “brought the concept of trust but verify into the average household,” and “given hope to small donors”
he has made “average, hard-working Ameridan feel they have not been forgotten…NOR LOOKED DOWN UPON [emphasis/caps mine]
YES!!! DAMMIT!!! now, gents and ladies, let’s respond, let’s get this movement of getting rid of political correctness, especially regarding the mohammedan BS, going–LET’S DO OUR PART
The best part is now America can laugh again. Everyday the Dems provide us with the best comedy ever produced. An embarrassment of riches.
I tried to encapsulate that in the bottom one, and it’s certainly worth laughing at:
Democrats and Entitlement Monkeys – in utter disarray and wee-wee’ing themselves daily!!!
and it’s all free
Great list of things to make America great again.. I only hope the president has the attitude of Ronald Reagan who didn’t care who gets the credit as long as it’s good for the country. The MSM will never give Trump the credit for doing good thing just like they’ll never admit the truth about Reagan.. Screw them. The country will do fine without them. They don’t have the power they use to have thanks to the internet, conservative talk radio and fox news and fox business channel and other more conservative outlets with Mark Levin and Michelle Malkin
Want to wind up a reporter???
News media – is it Fake News or Very Fake News
I’m so old I can remember when they called it “truthy”.
Fake News has been around since dirt was new.
Thomas Jefferson in 1807:
“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”
and, even better:
“I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.”
This is awesome! Thanks for taking the time to write and post it. May I have your permission to re-post it on other sites?
Absolutely … also, feel free to add to it as and when another accomplishment is achieved (I added the Fake News / Very Fake News yesterday when a reader reminded me of that).
Pity the media cannot stop their screaming long enough to realize what is happening right under their noses. Or maybe that’s the point, no? PDT is getting things done under the media’s noses while they focus their energy elsewhere? It’s all too delicious. As someone said further down in this section, no one in the WH leaked that Comey was to be fired! Amazing.
Democrats and Entitlement Monkeys – in utter disarray and wee-wee’ing themselves daily!!!
News media – is it Fake News or Very Fake News
The wall isn’t being built so you can stop your lies
You ‘misread’ my post, try it again. Also, it’s a well publicized fact that people of your ‘mental stature’ are frequently able to improve their reading comprehension if they move their lips while reading, so you should try that as well. If you’re unsure of the proper amount of lip movement, ask your boyfriend(s) for ‘feedback’.
Oh, and don’t miss the one at the bottom, it’s got your name on it.
President Trump’s glorious accomplishments to-date:
Abortion funding – eliminated internationally, on the chopping block domestically
Border Wall – under construction
CAFE standards – going, going, going
Coal – a friend in the White House, what more does one need
Dakota Access – approved for completion
Diseased illegal aliens – bye bye, being deported, don’t go away mad, just go away
Economic Confidence – at historic highs
FBI – incompetent Director “fired”, to be replaced by a “law enforcement” officer
Federal Judges – a slew of conservative Judges nominated, confirmations inevitable
Guantanamo Bay – open for business and ready for new ‘guests’
Government – the swamp is being drained, but it’s a big swamp with lots of nasty critters
Gun control – dying the ugly death it deserves, gun sales climbing
H1B visas – going, going, going … hire American, buy American
Industry – bringing their factories back to the US
Invading hordes of diseased illegal aliens – at the lowest level in 17 years
Jobs (real “jobs”) – roaring back … Bayer, Carrier, Ford, Hyundai, Sprint/Softbank, etc
Military micromanagement – no more leftist prepubescent weenies telling Generals how to wage war
Muslim terrorists – being denied entry and hunted down
NAFTA – under renegotiation
News media – is it Fake News or Very Fake News
ObamaDeathCare – repealed and replaced in the House, on to the Senate
Paris Climate Accord – deader than environuts remaining two brain cells
Red lines in the sand – we don’t need no stinking red lines, we got Tomahawks
Regulations – two eliminated for every new one added
Religious freedom – ended the America-hating Democrats war on religion
Sanctuary cities – being defunded, sanctuary supporting politicians likely to be jailed
SCOTUS – originalist confirmed, three more tee’d up and ready to go
Taxes – being cut
TPP – deader than Lying Crooked Hillary’s political future
Unemployment – dropping to lowest level in decades
Veterans care – no longer being wait-listed to death, able to see real, outside doctors
Wookie lunches – gone, gone, gone to the pigs
XL – approved for construction using American steel
Democrats and Entitlement Monkeys – in utter disarray and wee-wee’ing themselves daily!!!
Dude, the border wall isn’t under construction. Ann Coulter even said you are being lied to. HAHA
MORE LIP MOVEMENT!!!
President Trump’s glorious accomplishments to-date:
Abortion funding – eliminated internationally, on the chopping block domestically
Border Wall – under construction
CAFE standards – going, going, going
Coal – a friend in the White House, what more does one need
Dakota Access – approved for completion
Diseased illegal aliens – bye bye, being deported, don’t go away mad, just go away
Economic Confidence – at historic highs
FBI – incompetent Director “fired”, to be replaced by a “law enforcement” officer
Federal Judges – a slew of conservative Judges nominated, confirmations inevitable
Guantanamo Bay – open for business and ready for new ‘guests’
Government – the swamp is being drained, but it’s a big swamp with lots of nasty critters
Gun control – dying the ugly death it deserves, gun sales climbing
H1B visas – going, going, going … hire American, buy American
Industry – bringing their factories back to the US
Invading hordes of diseased illegal aliens – at the lowest level in 17 years
Jobs (real “jobs”) – roaring back … Bayer, Carrier, Ford, Hyundai, Sprint/Softbank, etc
Military micromanagement – no more leftist prepubescent weenies telling Generals how to wage war
Muslim terrorists – being denied entry and hunted down
NAFTA – under renegotiation
News media – is it Fake News or Very Fake News
ObamaDeathCare – repealed and replaced in the House, on to the Senate
Paris Climate Accord – deader than environuts remaining two brain cells
Red lines in the sand – we don’t need no stinking red lines, we got Tomahawks
Regulations – two eliminated for every new one added
Religious freedom – ended the America-hating Democrats war on religion
Sanctuary cities – being defunded, sanctuary supporting politicians likely to be jailed
SCOTUS – originalist confirmed, three more tee’d up and ready to go
Taxes – being cut
TPP – deader than Lying Crooked Hillary’s political future
Unemployment claims – at the lowest level in decades
Veterans care – no longer being wait-listed to death, able to see real, outside doctors
Wookie lunches – gone, gone, gone to the pigs
XL – approved for construction using American steel
Democrats and Entitlement Monkeys – in utter disarray and wee-wee’ing themselves daily!
it will be…
Phase 1 – virtual wall is 70% complete. Radio Broadcasting the US immigration policy is Spanish has reduced illegal immigration by 70% across the Southern border.
Virtual wall? Haha omg you poor poor zombie
The part I liked the most about this article is the author’s way of conveying his utter contempt for the left and Democrats, which I wholeheartedly share!
One quibble: the Democratic party is in no shape or form the party of Jefferson. Their lineal connection is tangential at best, and ideologically there is no relation at all.
Conrad Black is an ex-criminal who served jail-time in the U.S. and who is pond-scum.
His opinion means NOTHING.
As much a criminal as martha Stewart.
And yet Hillary’s, Bill’s and Obama’s opinion count for something? May I remind you, Conrad never encouraged and abetted the racial murders of white cops. True fact. You should be reminded that Identity Politics is a legacy of Hitler. It would be wise of you to weed your belief garden occasionally.
Rick Taylor cares enough about Mr. Black’s opinions to come here and read ’em.
What more needs to be said?
Poor little snowflake
Hillary would be serving jail time if she were not protected by the establishment and entitled to “elite” privilege.
A railroaded, notoriously corrupt criminal charge. But, hey, selling government access for zillions in foundation “donations” and deliberately hiding federal business on private servers…all just fine, right? You are a perfect specimen of the insanity Black talks about in this piece. Keep it up. It’s working so well for you.
“(Jackson was concerned about the danger of civil war throughout his presidency, as George knows and Mr. Trump was alleging),”
Actually Mr. Black, Andrew Jackson tried to pass a bill allowing him to send federal troops into South Carolina. A move that would have accelerated the start of the Civil War by 2 decades. I guess we can’t expect a British Lord to know American history.
Black knows the USA. He spent years in jail there.
He actually spent time in prison, not jail. But it’s okay for you to bring your ignorance to the debate if it makes you feel superior.
So did Jesse Jackson Jr, Dan Rostenkowski, and a litany of other Democrats, but you’d still vote for them I’m sure.
You may not be aware but there are countries where where there are no Republicans nor Democrats. I live in one of these.
And you’re probably better for it.
And WE’RE probably better for it. FTFY…
There is a large number of people who have never spent time in jail only because they are Democrats.
He was born and raised in Canada, and i don’t think he is the Lord of Fleet Street.
His Wiki biography lists him as “Baron of Crosshabour” and a non affiliated life peer. And his biography on his website lists him as a Canadian born peer.
The bill known as the “Force Bill” was signed into law on March 1st 1833 along with a compromise bill on tariffs covering imports in order to placate the southern states. The Government of North Carolina then met and rescinded it’s nullification bill in regards to the tariffs imposed by the previous Congress under President Adams. In this instance you are incorrect in assuming that Pres. Jackson’s actions would have caused the US Civil War to erupt twenty eight years earlier. His actions prevented it with a mix of compromise and threats. Contrast that to the lack of effort on the part of Pres. Buchanan to reign in the southern states in the 1850’s. Pres. Jackson was correct in assuming that the revolt against the imposed tariffs, despite his sympathy for the Southerner’s complaints, was simply an excuse to destroy the union. He was prescient in assuming that the next pretext for dissolution of the union would arise over the question of slavery. That his happened in 1861 and not 1833 is a testament to Pres. Jackson’s political skills.
Seems to me Calhoun was more responsible for defusing the “nullification crisis” than Jackson was. Calhoun negotiated the compromise bill on tariffs that let South Caroline repeal it’s nullification law. If Calhoun’s compromise had not passed, then yes Jackson would have used the “Force Bill” to go to war with South Carolina. And maybe Jackson realized that slavery would be the next issue for the dissolution of the union, but he did little or nothing to address the problem. He thought that it would go away on its own, while fighting the abolitionists. Since he made no attempt to disengage from slavery in his own business, he must of thought that it would go away after he died. Which is what happened thanks to the Civil War.
I wonder what Mr. Black thinks about the parlous state of affairs of gun rights in Canada.
They ended long gun registration about three years ago. They also gave up on the gun registry after $2 Billion spent and it was as big a mess as the Obamacare web site. What have they done recently?
Canadians still need a license to purchase a handgun, there is no such thing there as a concealed carry license for ordinary citizens, and using a firearm for self-defense is out of the question.
You can get a concealed carry permit, but I agree it is difficult, but there is no encumbrance on long guns.
What about: “…and using a firearm for self-defense is out of the question.” That is the main sticking point.
Side note, the company that made the big bucks on the Canadian Gun Registry that didn’t work, also were involved in the Obamacare Website that didn’t work. It would seem that Valerie Jarrett’s daughter is married to the son of this fortune. Funny how things work, innit?
Yes, putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to drain the swamp, while tossing bones to the alligators in the Senate and House to keep them distracted, is yielding great progress on fixing this mess in DC. Let them concentrate on the wusskies now since Comey has testified there was no evidence of Trump campaign entanglement with the wusskies on any level. I am sure that with tough questioning Chuckie Schumer can find out which Trump acolyte uses Russian dressing on his or her salads. Inquiring minds want to know!
Thank you Conrad. You and Victor Davis Hansen are the only reasons I occasionally open NR. If not for you two, there would be no reason to subject oneself to the stench of Globalist NeoCon lackeys pretending they speak for a nation while serving their masters, Manhattan Privilege. You would think they would get around to changing the magazines name from National Review to Manhattan Review but that would require honesty. Thank you, again.
NRO…what a shame…completely fooled and buffaloed by the Insidious Bill Kristol. Now all of NRO’s credibility is shot. Kevin Williamson? David ‘President’ French? Really?
Hilariously pompous mistating of affairs.
I suggest instead Trump will be remembered somewhere between the most corrupt and the most incompetent administration in U.S. history.
You don’t mention the 18 days between the moment Sally Yates told Trump Michael Flynn was compromised with suspicious activities in regard to Russia which left him subject to blackmail (see Yates sworn testimony) and when a story in the post prompted Trump to fire him.
Eighteen days. Incompetence? Or is Trump just as compromised as Flynn is?
Good point! Now how did Sally Yates, who as AG had nothing to do with intel gathering, know a single thing about Michael Flynn? You are making the case of Obama spying very clear. According to law, if an American is inadvertently swept up in surveillance he is to be masked. IF unmasked it is unmasked to the person who requests the unmasking only. The identity of that American is not to be widely disseminated.
So I ask again, how would Yates know that unless there was widespread illegal spying going on in the Obama administration?
You are seriously claiming that American citizens suspected of working for Russian spy agencies should not be investigated if they were also working for the Trump campaign?
Are you aware of how insane that sounds?
According to your hero Obama, Russia is our friend. What happened to “the 80’s are calling and want their foreign policy back….” snark? Or Hillary with her plastic “reset” button? Now you libs are peeing your panties with breathless “the Russians are coming” memes. Get a grip.
Obama never hired someone who had received large amounts of money from Russia, ended up registering as a foreign agent, and had according to Yates suspicious contact with the kremlin. Can you imagine you fast your crowd would have impeached him for hiring not only Michael Flynn but Carter Page (who was specifically recruited by Moscow to turn over sensitive documents for money). Not to mention Manafort.
The hypocrisy is primarily yours. Either Trump is massively incompetent for hiring people like this on his top security team, or Trump is as compromised as Flynn. Who really knows what Trump would or wouldn’t do for huge sums of money if his friend Putin asked him to.
“Obama never hired anyone who received large amounts of money from Russia…” BBbwwwaaahhhaaaa. What about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband and the Uranium deal. Millions changed hands to the “Foundation” and speaking fees. To paraphrase Animal House, blind, deaf and dumb is no way to go through life young lady..”
1) the uranium deal went through a dozen government agencies and hillary was one of dozens of officials who approved the deal. Were they all paid off (through a legit global charity I might add or only hillary?) There is zero evidence of wrong doing just like every other made up Clinton scandal but you guys have been lying about her since she entered politics. No one expects for the truth to stop you now.
2) hillary was not covertly working with kremlin spies the way Flynn was. She was not pronounced compromised and subject to blackmail and she didn’t register as a foreign agent to Turkey.
If she had you guys would be livid.
You guys hired a scrook. A known scam artist who lied to the students of trump university the same way he lied to you. Trump voters are naive. I worry that you guys also send your banking information to people promising you millions of dollars to be wired to your account from Nigeria.
It’s funny but you accused Hillary of things that she was never found guilty of but Trump is. Trump flipped memberships in his golf course from 100,000 to 200,000 after becoming president. He now calls it the winter White House and that is the definition of pay to play. The money doesn’t go to build wells in Africa. It goes straight into Trump’s greedy pockets.
Where are your complaints?
You guys are deeply naive about this man’s character. He charges through life with no accountability. None until now. If republicans have the stomachs which they probably don’t. He is robbing tax payers blind with his security needs for a wife who does not want to live with him. And weekly golf weekends.
He either hired Flynn out of gross incompetence. Or because trump and Flynn both owe Moscow something. And are subject to blackmail. Putin kills his enemies. If trump has taken money from Putin is he ever going to tell us about it?
Trump needs an independent prosecutor.
“It’s funny but you accused Hillary of things that she was never found guilty of but Trump is.”
What’s funny is that you use the lame metric (“Never found guilty of…”) to absolve the most corrupt person ever to have run for the presidency while While making stupid baseless claims about her political opponent who has never even been accused of any crimes except by the most unhinged fanatics of the extreme left. Come to think it, it’s not funny. It’s pathetic.
The most corrupt person ever to run for the presidency is Donald Trump. Beating out Nixon.
You guys spent hundreds of millions investigating bill and hillary and found blow jobs from an intern and some emails. Nothing else.
Yet trump who (we know) hired a foreign agent for Turkey as his national security advisor (deliberately? Accidentally?) shouldn’t be investigated at all…according to you…
Hmmm.
Tick tock is all I can say. Your emoluments kleptocrat will get his when the American people are done with his greed and never ending chaotic string of lies and weird ties to Russia.
Really? How much did the Clintons rake off for brokering the deal that sold Russia 20% of our raw fissile materials? Probably about the same as they did for selling the Chinese our missile guidance technology.
Zero.
Many many government officials signed off on that deal. Many different agencies.
Were all of the officials paid off? Or did they all receive donations to their global charities in an unproven pay to charity for play..,
Life is simpler now that people pay $200,000 to president Trump to access him in mar-o-lago the winter White House.
Hope you’re saving your pennies ye Trump fans…
“…You tell Vlad that after my reelection I will have more flexibility.”
Quoting someone who used to be famous for something, but is now irrelevant.
Is there ever a moment in the day when you guys aren’t obsessed with president obama?
Obama’s approval ratings are sky high. He never bragged about or was accused of sexual assault. No drama Obama. Respected by friends and opponents alike.
Mr 38 percent and dropping is definitely the anti-obama. The disasters his presidency is unleashing on this country might take a generation to clean up.
Maybe if trump didn’t want to be wire tapped maybe he shouldn’t have been hiring suspected collaborators for foreign governments in his national security team.
You think?
He didn’t hire Obama or Hillary. Who are you thinking of?
Maybe Yates knew because the FBI brought the information to her so that she, as the AG, could inform Trump. When unmasking is done, and the results show an American doing something that they should not be doing, then yes that information is brought to the person(s) responsible for further investigating (or authorizing further investigation) that American person. These are much more reasonable (and accurate reasons) than your accusation of wide spread illegal spying. One last thing, since Trump fired Flynn he apparently agreed that Flynn had done something wrong (wrong enough to fire him) in those contacts.
“Maybe Yates knew because the FBI brought the information to her so that she, as the AG, could inform Trump.”
By statute that would have been a felony. So Sally and her informer should both have their tit in a wringer. But since they are Democrat activists – no harm, no foul…
If the FBI informing their boss of possible espionage were a crime, that would be true. If informing the president of possible espionage were a crime, that would be true. Just saying something is a crime to support your argument is nonsense.
Suggest in one hand and spit in the other. Get back on which fills up first…
“You don’t mention the 18 days between the moment Sally Yates told Trump Michael Flynn was compromised with suspicious activities in regard to Russia which left him subject to blackmail (see Yates sworn testimony) and when a story in the post prompted Trump to fire him.”
Hillary was much more “compromised with suspicious activities in regard to Russia (and numerous other countries and organizations)” than Michael Flynn ever could have been and yet you wanted her to be president. Pretty weak stuff here. You may need a new set of talking points.
There was never a time when hillary was accused of taking money from Putin to changed a political party’s official platform on the Ukraine. Or considering hiring a foreign agent to Turkey like Flynn as her VP or national security advisor. Trump really loved Flynn. I wonder why.
You guys are seriously deluded if you think Trump won’t be sued and mired in controversy throughout his time in office.
He will make the Benghazi hearings look like a cute day in congress.
What an odd take on history to characterize Reagan as only making course corrections on Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Otherwise, good article.
Reagan did not have a GOP Congress, so he did a lot considering that.
Conrad Black spent time in jail because he wasn’t a US Democrat. Hillary is still on the hook for her pay to play issues but pretty sure she won’t see any jail time like Conrad Black… She knows too much.
Well said, Mr. Black. You’re a true friend to America. A product of the best Canada can produce.
As always, a pleasure to read and to learn.
Will and the others are old in a way that has lost promise and so they are (and have been for a decent spell) unimportant as it concerns any national conversation.
Two things that impressed me as illustrative during the campaign were Cruz’s fruitless piggy-backing on Trump’s Carrier comments and Trump’s long-standing instinct that a national people can’t be rallied as such merely for the purpose of war.
President Trump is succeeding and the idiots on the Left and RINO’s cannot stand it. They can all go pound sand. I love it.
Pretty good article…not his best stuff though.
The universities are corrupt and broken. Student loan programs need to be replaced with housing and real estate loans; so gender studies, etc. die.
Great piece from Conrad Black..thanks so much
Conrad Black has been a Trump apologist from the beginning. Trump did not finance his own campaign. Hello, Mercer family!! Trump has taken money from so many people and is now in the process of doling out the favors to the groups, and people, who supported him. It is blatant, naked corruption out in the open for all to see. Now, he has had an investigate (Jeff Sessions) who recused himself from the Trump Russia election scandal fire the person in charge of overseeing the Trump Russia scandal. Trump really wants to run the US in an authoritarian, my way or the highway, fashion just like he runs Trump Corp. Conrad Black had a similar style while running his newspapers before he was convicted of fraud, which in a Trump-like manner still denies. Trump has been accused of fraud as well, and paid out large settlements to calm the storm. So apparently his support of Trump is just an endorsement under the convict’s code. Next thing we’ll hear Black and Trump are building a hotel in Ontario.
What was that again?
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0
Is that all you have? Clinton is irrelevant at this point. Trump is President and he is a crook. Trump really should be in movies, because he is quite the projector.
“Clinton is irrelevant at this point.”
I think you may be on to something. The only cogent sentence in your post.
The thing Trump and his supporters don’t understand is Trump is being investigated, not Clinton. The Clinton Foundation is old news. The fact Bill Clinton was, or is, a dirty dog doesn’t matter now that Trump is in office. He won. Now all that matters is him and what he did or did not do to win, or what he’s doing now to obfuscate the issue. The citation to the Clinton Foundation article is just another diversion in an attempt to deflect attention from Trump and put it on someone else. That is the most basic play in Trump’s playbook. If someone questions him, he throws out a question about someone else. The deplorables may bite, but critical thinkers won’t.
Trump is not being investigated. Well, maybe in your fantasies.
It’s not Donald… Its the 40% of the population who are bereft of any kind of judgement. They elected a narcissist of the first order who is essentially a know nothing. He works from pure ego based on nothing more than his intuition and bluff. He knows nothing about policy such as health care or taxes so long as the final result is victory and he can bask his ego in the glow.
I’ve been advocating dissolving the union for many years. Donald’s election makes it an urgent priority. We liberals and progressives in the blue states starting with California, no longer wish to be a part of a nation that hold such radical, self destructive ideas.
The only comparison that can be made is with Germany circa 1944-45 where the war was so obviously lost yet the true believers still believed in Hitler and believed every lie that came out of Joseph Goebbels mouth. Unquestioningly. And they followed that narcissist into the grave singing Deutschland Uber Alles.
I absolutely agree about dissolution. I 100% agree that I would not want to be fellow citizens with someone as abjectly ignorant as you appear.
“Progressive” is such a telling term. Since “liberal” has been so twisted to mean “central planner” they had to come up with something different. Progress is not attempting repeatedly failed attempts at Socialism. It is the exact opposite. And all those who disagree are Hitler? You are truly pitiful.
When I read the first paragraph I was sure you were talking about Obama. Every single word was spot-on. Of course the second paragraph revealed your complete disconnect with reality, so there it was. Rest assured Marshall Gill’s opinion is shared. The Union will continue, and much as we’d love to see delusional idiots like yourself take your leave of the place, we’re certainly not going to let you take pieces of it with you. If you like your socialism, you can keep your socialism, just move to Venezuela, where it’s already in full-effect. And while you’re calling other people totalitarians, please take a look at which of our parties is trying to shut down free speech and impose an all-powerful central government on the country, because it surely isn’t the side you’re accusing of it.
Good lord. You’re quite unhinged. You know that, right?
How quaint of you to compare the Trump administration and its supporters to Nazi Germany. I’m *sure* that’s never been done before. /sarc
Tell ya what. Pick up a weapon and start your secessionist movement.
And stop calling yourself a “liberal.” You’re not even CLOSE to being a real “liberal.”
“Its the 40% of the population who are bereft of any kind of judgement. They elected a narcissist of the first order who is essentially a know nothing.”
Sorry. I lost track. When did the conversation switch to Barry Obama?
Great column Mr Black!
umm.. did you know that Bilharzia is a disease caused by a worm whose symptomns include:
a rash, itchy skin, fever, chills, cough, headache, belly pain, joint pain, and muscle aches but not clintonism, liberalism, or assimilatiion (??) to excrement.
There are no Trump victories. There are only a few areas where he has avoided defeat.
I just like seeing the Democrats assembling their circular firing squads.
There is nothing like reading Mr. Black’s columns and as an added bonus the level of discourse in the comments section is far and away the best and most informed of any available on the internet. Please do let the trolls continue to be blind to American Greatness.
Another fine article by Baron Black.
Bravo, sir.
Black is a brilliant man and has written an excellent article about Trump and his, shall we say, practicality. For an observant Canadian, this piece is really psychological, and intelligent, red-blooded Americans are grateful. Thank you.
There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t get on my knees and thank God that he gave us Trump as president.
The list of accomplishments provided by JamesDrouin, below, illustrates President Trump’s strategy of overwhelming his opponents by creating new initiatives much faster than the Jornolist types can orchestrate their opposition. When President Trump throws a right cross, the MSM ducks right into a roundhouse kick or a head butt, or maybe a left jab. And it’s seven days a week–the poor opposition doesn’t even get weekends off.
” They have all walked the plank; President Trump has induced self-destructive political bilharzia in the deranged effigies of once-serious and important people. I still love them, but I grieve for them.”
Quote of the Month!
Man do I ever hope you’re right. Great piece.
In related news, popcorn is flying off the shelves!
Russian interference via Wikileaks? That’s a given now? How so? I’ve never seen one piece of actual evidence that even comes close to suggesting that and Wikileaks has always said they received their leaks from a whistleblower. Other than this gimme to the left I enjoyed the article.
Go back to Canadia you convicted felon!
You had my attention right up until, “…and of Russian interference via Wikileaks…” then I quit reading. When will “we” learn that perpetuating a lie only helps that lie become ‘truth’ in the eyes of the uniformed? There is NO credible, verifiable evidence that Russia had anything to do with providing information or access to it in order to pass it along to Julian Assange and Wikileaks. We’ve been and continue to be lied to. This cycle of lies must be stopped lest we succumb to the lieberal/progressive/socialist/democrat Alinksy-ism that’s already consumed the lemmings on the left. Stop it! Now!
“The party of Jefferson and FDR is unrecognizable, but it can still be distinguished from a liberal ISIS.”
Yes, because the party of Jefferson and FDR has become the vehicle for a literal existential threat to the United States and Western Civilization. Meanwhile ISIS and their ilk poses no such threat, at least not without the existence and tacit support of the former. ISIS can kill Americans, but it can’t end America. The Left however, though they may not kill a single Patriot, can bring about the utter annihilation of American culture if left unopposed.
ISIS is bothersome to the United States, the Progressive’s and Liberals are downright deadly.
Trump isn’t merely a political phenomenon, he’s a cultural one.
Looks like I am the only one who read this article. And I did not read it
Looks like I’m the only one who read your comment. And I did not read it.
I read it and think it’s excellent.