Less than one year into his tenure, Joe Biden has already demonstrated a masterful reverse-Midas touch by driving public trust in government to unprecedented lows.   That creates a calamitous paradox for a man whose entire tax-and-spend agenda depends upon boosting government trust, not eradicating it.   Conversely, that dynamic…

In A.D. 286 the Roman emperor Diocletian split in half the huge Roman Empire administratively – and peacefully – under the control of two emperors. A Western empire included much of modern-day Western Europe and northwest Africa. The Eastern half controlled Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and northeastern Africa.…

It has become common in some circles to call the Jan. 6 Capitol riot an "armed insurrection." That leads to a few questions: How many rioters were armed? And what weapons did they have? What were the arms in the "armed insurrection"? The Justice Department maintains a website listing the defendants and the federal charges against…

Only a little more than half of the current world's 7 billion people are citizens of fully consensual governments. That lucky 50 percent alone enjoys constitutionally protected freedoms. Most are also Western. Or at least they reside in nations that have become "Westernized." Migrants, regardless of their race, religion or gender, almost…

Democrats are quarreling over the price tag of their Build Back Better bill, but the real problem is what's in it. The bill coerces workers to join unions, imposes racial preferences on every facet of life and redistributes money from workers to takers.  Fortunately, this bill is in limbo. Moderate Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin insist the…

Remember the media cheers for Sen. John McCain when he stopped the effort to repeal Obamacare? McCain was a Republican frustrating a Republican policy goal, which was enough to earn the highest praise in some media circles. "It was a stunning moment," The New York Times reported, "a flash of the maverick John McCain, unafraid of going…

There was a time not very long ago when political parties never would have entertained the idea of jamming through any massive, generational reform without some form of buy-in from the other party.  Today, Democrats argue that the filibuster's imaginary threat of "minority rule" has compelled them to use (really, abuse) the budgetary…

Remember when President Joe Biden stunned the political world by threatening to veto a bipartisan $1.1 trillion traditional infrastructure spending bill that he, Joe Biden, had just encouraged the Senate to pass? It was a bizarre moment, but Biden was accommodating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who planned to use the bipartisan bill as a hostage to force…

Deterrence is the ancient ability to scare somebody off from hurting you, your friends or your interests – without a major war. Desire peace? Then be prepared for war. Or so the Romans believed. It's an easily understood concept in the abstract. But deterrence still remains a mystical quality in the concrete since it is only acquired…

President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer have based the future of the entire Democratic agenda on a trick. And now many Democrats are increasingly concerned – terrified, actually – that the trick won't work. Democrats have huge New Deal- and Great Society-style ambitions…

The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking. In empirical fashion, scientists advised us to examine evidence and data, and then by induction come to rational hypotheses. The enemies of "science" were politics, superstition, bias and deduction. Yet we are now returning to our version of medieval alchemy and astrology…

Two leading House Republicans, Reps. Steve Scalise and James Comer, are asking the Food and Drug Administration for documents that might relate to GOP suspicions that President Joe Biden has politicized the process of administering vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, Scalise and Comer point…

Joe Biden’s catastrophic mismanagement in Afghanistan shouldn’t surprise anyone.  It merely extends his five decades of uninterrupted stubborn, curiously arrogant incompetence.   Consider the assessment of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, which by now has become familiar to many Americans, but which nevertheless bears…

California once was run by conservatives and mostly centrist Democrats. True paleo-liberal governors like Pat Brown greatly expanded the welfare state. But they also believed in pushing integration and building freeways, dams, aqueducts and power plants, while preventing forest fires, directing the mentally ill into state hospitals, and ensuring that…

China's leaders must be trading high-fives as they watch the American left push policies that will cripple American competitiveness.  While China is cracking down on students wasting time on video games, America's racial equity warriors are trying to ban advanced placement math, competitive entrance exams and school honor rolls. Americans don…

It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country. In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a guide last week for "Inclusive Communication," cautioning against using words like prisoner, smoker, illegal immigrant, disabled or homeless, which the agency says could imply blame or stigma.  The guide's opening line says, "We must confront the systems and policies that…

The casualties of Joe Biden’s incompetent Afghanistan debacle extend far beyond that nation’s borders.   Just seven months into his presidency, Biden’s ability to lead has evaporated both at home and overseas.  In terms of public trust, his approval rating has collapsed to 41% in a matter of days, and continues its…

For nearly two years, Americans have engaged in a great woke experiment of cannibalizing themselves. American civilization has invested massive labor, capital and time in an effort to constantly flagellate itself for not being perfect. Yet America's resilience and its resources are not infinite. We are now beginning to see the consequences of what…

Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is wasting no time taking sides in the school mask wars. Even before taking the top job, she told NBC's "Today" that she intends to mandate masks for all public school students in the state. She's got President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on her side, but the science is against her. There…

For four years, Democrats and much of the media demanded former President Donald Trump resign or the 25th Amendment be deployed to remove him from office. The complaints largely stemmed from grievance over the 2016 election but magnified as Trump's behavior got more combative and mean while in office. Now, having defeated Trump, President Joe Biden…

Remember when American presidents were criticized for showing excessive strength in the Middle East?   It wasn’t long ago.   When President Donald Trump made good on multiple predecessors’ empty promises by relocating our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, establishment voices like Joe Biden expressed outrage and predicted…

There's a fascinating question in a new Fox News poll that suggests the political dynamics at work in 2022 and 2024 will be far different from 2020. If that is the case, it is good news for Republicans. Here is the question: "If you could send just one of the following two messages to the federal government right now, would it be 'lend me a hand…

Americans are growing angrier by the day, but in a way different from prior sagebrush revolts such as the 1960s Silent Majority or the Tea Party movement over a decade ago. The rage this time is not just fueled by conservatives. For the first time in their lives, Americans of all classes and races are starting to fear a self-created apocalypse that…

If a conservative is merely a liberal who has been mugged by reality, paraphrasing the late Irving Kristol, then expect former Senator Barbara Boxer (D – California) to sport a MAGA cap soon.   Last week, Ms. Boxer was literally mugged in Oakland, California, and recounted shouting in her bewilderment, “I was yelling at the kid…

It was always going to be a Herculean task to inoculate, with an untried vaccine, a multi-ethnic nation of 330 million people across a vast continent – in an era when the media routinely warps the daily news. Many African Americans understandably harbored distrust of government inoculations after the infamous Tuskegee experiment. Nearly…

Far-left Congressional Democrats Cori Bush (Missouri), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts) slept in the rough on the Capitol steps over the weekend, surrounded by cases of bottled water, pizza boxes, staffers and fawning press. These Democrats, who are part of a group who call themselves "The Squad," are protesting…

President Joe Biden recently passed his six-month mark in the White House. It might end up being the high-water mark of his presidency. Biden's job approval rating is positive, about 52% in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. That is, of course, higher than the ratings of Biden's predecessor, President Donald Trump, who never exceeded 47% approval…

"Americans' Confidence in Major U.S. Institutions Dips," reads the headline of a new Gallup public opinion survey.   In light of accumulating experience, can that headline come as any surprise?   Just this week, the Biden Administration openly acknowledged that it’s working with tech giant Facebook to limit what…

In the old days, Democrats had predictable agendas, supposedly focused on individual rights, the "little guy" and distrust of the military-industrial complex. The left, often on spec, blasted the wealthy, whether the "lucre" was self-made or inherited. The old-money rich were lampooned as idle drones. If the rich were self-made…