President Trump Delivers Speech Tonight. Topic: TBA. Needed: Rogue Iranian Colonels. Half House Dems Want to Ban Israeli Aid. Blanche Hearing. Walz: Illegal Alien Rapist Was Having a Bad Day. More
Big Speech tonight. President Trump is scheduled to deliver a primetime address to the American people. We aren’t certain yet what he wants to talk about. Townhall speculates on what the promised “really big news” might be. CBS suggests the president will allege Chinese meddling in U.S. elections.
“‘Scared s–tless’: Republicans brace for Trump’s primetime speech” is the Politico headline. The subhead:
Rehashing grievances about the 2020 election could motivate the Republican base and press GOP lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act.
Of course, if that’s the case, it might be the Dems who are scared—uh—witless. President Trump has indicated the speech will focus on “free and fair elections,” leaving us to wonder if he will return to 2020.
Rocky day on Capitol Hill yesterday as Trump AG pick Todd Blanche was grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and almost half of House Democrats voted to end aid to Israel, revealing a shift from the party’s traditional support of Israel.
Here are live moments from the Blanche hearing. Politico seems to be pulling for Senator John Cornyn, whose defeat in the GOP primary was largely the fault of President Trump, to sink the nomination. But an editorial in the Wall Street Journal suggests that a confirmed AG might be a stabilizing force:
Mr. Blanche comes across as a lawyer doing his best to deal with an impossible client, who in this case is the President. The best argument for confirming him is that a permanent Attorney General might have more stature to reject the wild ideas that are sure to come.
And Hilarity Ensued. Once again, Senator Mazie Hirono, perhaps not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, did not disappoint.
Iran has a red line—U.S. targeting of (remaining) infrastructure. While preferring diplomacy, President Trump leans towards military escalation. Hugh Hewitt proposes in his “Morning Glory” column that what we need is a few rogue Iranian colonels to crack Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. Iran is already on its third-tier leadership of men, many of whom were retired and none of whom were important enough to be in the death bunker with Iran’s late Supreme Leader:
Imagine how utterly ruthless a benched and passed-over killer must be, and how many grudges he must hold against those who put him out to pasture in the first place.
It only takes a few people to crack the whole of the IRGC tyranny. Trump says to the public that he isn’t going to rush that takeover. But who knows what he and the Israelis see and hear courtesy of their intelligence communities. The allies certainly had all the information they needed on February 28. Don’t doubt that they have more and add to their collection every day.
Unfortunately, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Senator Chuck Schumer’s Senate minority is “helping Iran and other adversaries by obstructing vital defense and intelligence bills.” The resumption of military action in Iran, with the consequent effect on the economy, has us wondering about the midterms. There was some good economic news about consumer prices, but will Americans feel it in time for the midterms?
“Who Has the Midterm Upper Hand?” asks Karl Rove this morning. Rove notes that the party out of the White House usually gains seats but that this is not a sure thing:
These various advantages on each party won’t be totally predictive. The strengths and weaknesses of individual candidates will matter too. A Republican campaign may prevail with better strategy and strong fundraising, organization and voter targeting, or a candidate who convinces swing voters he has a vision for the economy. A Democrat may lose by being too ideologically extreme for his state or district, or because the Republican seems more authentic, approachable, hardworking and caring.
Candidates who shine in these areas can outrun their party—providing victory in races that the fundamentals suggest should be losers. Given the stakes, that’s why this midterm election is so interesting and consequential.
Captured by Socialists. Joel Kotkin explains in City Journal that cities, including Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles, have become new political battlegrounds for a socialist resurgence:
As Tom Edsall observed recently in the New York Times, this is not a working-class movement or driven by “people of color.” Portland and Seattle are among the whitest big cities in America, and most unions, particularly outside the government sector, remain tied to the more centrist Democratic establishment.
On the same theme, “Democrats Fall for Socialism Again” is the headline on Matt Continetti’s column. Subtitle: “The party’s rage against Trump strengthens the millennial Jacobins who don’t share its interests.” Continetti runs through the policies over which socialists and average voters are at odds:
The DSA calls for demilitarizing (i.e., opening) the border, giving amnesty to every illegal immigrant, and ending immigration controls, detention and deportations. That is not meeting voters where they are—it’s running in the opposite direction.
Voters are critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and open to reforming it. But they haven’t abandoned immigration enforcement. In an April poll by the left-leaning Center for American Progress and Blue Rose Research, 61% of voters agreed that illegal immigration is a “big problem” and supported stronger border security. A May Harvard-Harris poll showed that 80% of registered voters, including 71% of Democrats, support deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. Immigration was President Trump’s strongest issue.
The FBI alleges in an affidavit that drugs were found in the van involved in the Houston ICE shooting. Meanwhile, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had a baffling response to the Trump administration’s deporting of an illegal alien convicted of raping a child whom Walz had pardoned:
“Did that make us any safer? Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable,” Walz asked – days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that he revoked the legal status of Tou Lue Vang, a 42-year-old from Laos.
“Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day? And I want to be very clear, these are horrific crimes. They often are,” Walz added, according to KTTC.
It was an even worse day for the monster’s child victim.
What do they teach our children? Might we infer something from the tone of the special event put on by a powerful education union:
The Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) hosted a Marxist, virulently anti-Israel conference last weekend which openly celebrated terrorism, introduced fledgling activists to “the growing BDS movement,” and called on its members to support Iran’s “axis of resistance” and prepare for violence against the United States and Israel.
More parents are wanting to take control of their children’s education. “Tennessee’s Religious Charter School Test,” about state approval of a Christian charter school, could become the next landmark Supreme Court case on religion and public education, might interest these parents.
One More on Education: “Mom, Dad, I Want to Be a Welder” in the New York Times. … One More on Illegal Aliens: “No English, No Problem — Until the Crash Happens,” by Brian Lonergan in Chronicles, is about people who should be alive today but aren’t. … How’s Your Testosterone, Missy? A New York Times headline: “Hegseth Plans to Screen All Troops, Including Women, for Low Testosterone.” … Elegy for the Fedora: Joseph Epstein laments that the fedora has been replaced by the baseball cap:
Something is lost with the disappearance of the fedora as the masculine headwear of choice. That something is a certain formality, adultness and seriousness that the fedora conferred on its wearer. The fedora marked a distinction between boyhood and manhood; the baseball cap renders all men ageless.
And finally, is “The Odyssey” sexist? Actress Lupita Nyong’o, who appears in Christopher Nolan’s movie adaptation of the 3,000-year-old poem, says it is. In “The Odyssey Hullabaloo,” Victor Davis Hanson, our favorite classicist, writes that the ancient epic’s women tell a far different story.
