Category Archives: Symbols
FBI Flipped the Bird At Congress
William McGurn says in the in the WSJ that FBI Director Christopher Wray flipped the bird at Congress. Wray refused to provide information about applications for FISA warrants used to spy on Americans.
Flipped the Bird at Congress
He says it’s classified information. And besides, he’s preparing a report for the Inspector General.
Congress can wait.
Republican Leaders
Republican leaders told President Trump they had a plan to get things done in Congress. They didn’t. And the swamp remains.
So Trump made a deal with Chuck Schumer to raise the debt ceiling and free up billions for hurricane victims. Now he’s looking at Schumer for more deals.
Republican Leaders
Here’s what Rich Lowry has to say about that:
The idea that Trump, who has been too inept to help his own party in Congress, will team up with perhaps the most deviously shrewd Democrat in the country and come out on top is difficult to credit. Schumer will milk Trump for whatever he can get — every tactical advantage, every bit of new spending — so long as he doesn’t give away anything important and doesn’t materially boost Trump’s political standing.
National Review’s Jonathan Tobin thinks the Republican party means nothing to Trump. Maybe for good reason:
Trump is unbound by any loyalty to the party that nominated him or to men such as House speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell. To the contrary, he regards them as foes in a cold war against a political establishment he neither likes nor trusts.
Hate Group Members
The extremist hate group thing seems a little trumped up to me.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members. The SLPC is the media’s go-to choice for hate stats. They even publish this helpful hate map.
But their definition of hate seems broad. They label some Christian groups that don’t share their views on LGBT issues, like the Family Research Council, as hate groups. Then again, I suppose the Klan also considers itself a Christian group not big on the LGBT agenda.
Anyway, I found the FBI figure of 2,200 Klan members quoted in Newsweek archives. So I went with it.
No Statue of Limitation in Identity Politics
Tear ’em all down.
Mark Lilla is a liberal history professor at Columbia. He blames identity politics for Democrats’ failure to win elections. The professor thinks the left focuses too much on what keeps us apart rather than on what brings us together. He says his conservative students make arguments based on ideas and principles. But his liberal students make their arguments based on identity.
Here’s a link to his latest book The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. And here are a couple of reviews from The Guardian.
Congressional NFL Brain Damage Study
A recent study of deceased NFL players found that 99% suffered brain damage. We think Congress can do better.
