Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Like a Fish Needs a Treadmill
Arizona’s Jeff Flake, who occupies the US Senate seat once held by Barry Goldwater, shares his famous predecessor’s dismay for profligate government spending. “Let us be honest with ourselves,” Goldwater wrote in 1960, when federal spending totaled $92 billion. “Broken promises are not the major cause of our trouble. Kept promises are.”
Let’s Stop Joining Groups
Lately, because of Obama’s recent attempt to punish Israel while pretending to be an innocent bystander by abstaining while 14 other nations did his back-stabbing for him, the United Nations has been very much on my mind.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Jennifer Holliday Backs Out of Inauguration, Apologizes to Gay Fans
Tony Award-winning singer Jennifer Holliday has decided not to sing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, caving in to significant pressure from gay and lesbian fans who were outraged by her decision to put patriotism over politics.
The Patent and Trademark Office’s Assault on Free Speech
In 1929, Chief Justice William Howard Taft convinced Congress to finance construction of “a building of dignity and importance” for the Supreme Court. He could not have imagined what the court will ponder during oral arguments this Wednesday. The case concerns the name of an Asian-American rock band: The Slants. And surely Taft never read a friend-of-the-court brief as amusing as one filed in this case. It is titled “Brief of the Cato Institute and a Basket of Deplorable People and Organizations.”
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Obama Does It Again
With just one week left before he leaves office, Barack Obama is still attempting to “fundamentally transform” America. [Thursday] night, the White House announced another major change to American foreign policy by terminating the “wet foot-dry foot” policy toward Cubans fleeing the repressive Castro communist regime.
No Hearing Loss for Trump Nominees
As the Senate continues to hold hearings on President-elect Trump’s cabinet nominees, Senate Democrats reveal their priorities. Among yesterday’s hearings were hearings on General James “Mad Dog” Mattis (USMC, Ret.) for Secretary of Defense (DOD), and Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Mattis’s hearing spanned the issues of military readiness, threats to U.S. security, including discussions about the threat Russia poses to U.S. interests and threat to NATO given its military presence in the Baltics and role in the Middle East. The former Marine Corps general spoke about — as we have — the importance of the military’s focus being on military readiness. He said, “My concern is on the readiness of the force to fight and to make certain it’s at the top of its game.”
The Trump Cabinet’s Good Opening Week
And a reminder of Barack Obama as an inspirer of young Americans.
A Call for Secession — From the Left?
Quite possibly one of the most surprising reversals of narrative as a result of the election of Donald Trump is the rise of a leftist secession movement in the United States. Prior to Trump’s election many — myself included — theorized secession as a possible extension or argument of the Tea Party movement. However, the calls for states’ rights — 10th Amendment “reserved powers” and secession — are now the mantra of fringe leftist groups in California, Oregon, and Washington states. These supporters of secession have branded the movement as “Calexit.”
A Fable for Our Times
A lot of people are at a loss when it comes to figuring out why in the waning days of his administration Barack Obama is doing some of the outlandish things he’s been passing by presidential fiat, including emptying our jails, banning oil drilling in the Arctic, transferring millions of acres in Nevada and Utah to the federal government, not to mention supplying the knife with which the U.N. stabbed Israel in the back.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Obama’s Lost Legacy
President Obama delivered his farewell speech the other night on national TV. It was one of his best. The man knows how to write and deliver a speech. No one can ever deny that he’s good with words. Unfortunately, what President Obama actually accomplished as president is another story.
Why the Media Lose to Trump
The best thing that happened to Donald Trump all week is that BuzzFeed published the raw Russia dossier about him.
Goodbye to One Selfie President, Hello to Another?
On Feb. 12, 2015, President Obama made a selfie-stick video for BuzzFeed. You may remember it — or perhaps not — because if there’s one thing Barack Obama delivered during his eight years in office, it was plenty of celebration of himself. The country was treated to Obama slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, sharing his Final Four brackets, fantasizing about what superhero powers he’d most like to have, and on and on. His fascination with himself was inexhaustible. Except the selfie day was different — because it was just hours after the president learned that another one of ISIS’ American hostages had been killed.
Clapper Calls Trump
The fallout from President-elect Donald Trump’s contentious press conference [Wednesday] continues. First, the good news.
Budget Resolution: This Too Shall Pass!
President Obama has been unwilling — and soon, unable — to undo his policy blunders like Obamacare, but Congress is giving his successor a chance to try. In the wee hours of this morning, the Senate took the first step of a journey that Republicans have been on for the last seven years: the repeal of Obamacare and the defunding of Planned Parenthood. For all of the question marks heading into last night’s marathon session, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered on his biggest promise — to pass a budget resolution that would clear the decks for rolling back Obama’s worst atrocities.
Sore Losers
If you caught Donald Trump’s press conference earlier this week, you saw a fascinating spectacle. The incoming President of the United States did not filibuster answers to run out the clock like Barack Obama does. Like a New Yorker, he gave short answers, direct answers, then moved on. He was not afraid to pick a fight.
Hollywood vs. the ‘Fascist’ Election Result
Critics of the Hollywood left chuckled when Hillary Clinton lost the election. Those dramatic videos full of celebrity ardor for the Clintons flopped. Rarely has there been a more pronounced disconnect. It turned to belly laughs when those celebrities responded by making more videos.
The Comforting Fictions of Obama’s Farewell Speech
Watching President Barack Obama’s soaring 2008 Democratic National Convention speech in Denver, I never imagined the kind of turmoil his presidency would incite. Almost everything has changed in the subsequent years, and yet his farewell speech to the nation was brimming with the same brand of haughty lecturing.
The Intelligence Community, Russia and Trump
On Wednesday, in his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump came out swinging — against some of the media (while praising others), against the policies and performance of the Obama administration, and against the intelligence community.