Dear Jolter,
I’ve been in bed all week with a fever, so my fevered brain asks: Who among you wouldn’t think that allowing Michael Wolff into the White House — to embed a liberal in the West Wing — would end in this monster self-inflicted cluster-whatever for the Trump White House? Amateur Hour was okay for Ted Mack, but shouldn’t be with the president and his top aides. I’m sure each ego, Steve Bannon’s in particular, believed he could “control the process” and be profiled as a genius while his competition was denigrated.
More: No one but no one would think the Obama White House would have welcomed a conservative journalist into its midst for any reason, least of all to write some tell-all book. To quote Needle-Nose Ned Ryerson, am I right or am I right or am I right?
About those egos: As the year began, if for whatever reason you were up for an administration job — you’d better not have posted a disloyal tweet or Candidate Trump-mocking Facebook post in 2016. If you were a contingency hire and the White House loyalty police found an innocuous retweet, you were toast: Be gone by close of business. Loyalty reigned supreme. Except, as this Wolff book exposes, for the arbiters of loyalty themselves, the very people who took glee in canning or blackballing others (including some exceptionally talented conservatives) over the random comment. To the victors go the spoils, indeed, but mama mia, was there ever a more disloyal bunch than the crowd running the Trump White House?
The New Issue Is Out
The January 22, 2018 issue of National Review is out, hot off the presses, and available for digital subscribers. One the cover: John J. Miller’s profile of Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Another goodie between the covers is Ed Whelan’s take on the Trump Administration and the federal judiciary, which begins thusly:
Donald Trump deserves thunderous acclaim from conservatives for his outstanding record of judicial appointments during his first year as president. But his conspicuous successes should not obscure the many obstacles on the long path to genuine transformation of the federal judiciary. Those obstacles have seriously impeded judicial confirmations and threaten to continue to do so. But if they are cleared or eluded, and if Republicans retain control of the Senate after the 2018 elections, President Trump will be positioned to make a huge enduring impact on the courts during his first term.
Check out everything, but I want to give a little extra attention to Julie Kelly’s piece on Congressman Lamar Smith, the lefty-despised Texan who will be retiring at the end of this term.
Editorials
1. Attorney General Jeff Sessions takes the cuffs off federal prosecutors enforcing federal laws on marijuana. This led to a hue and cry. And that in turn led to this editorial calling out the wrong-headed criticism of the AG. Here is a slice:
Cory Gardner, a Republican senator from Colorado, had harsh words for Sessions. “With no prior notice to Congress,” Gardner griped, “the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in [Colorado] and other states.” This critique rings hollow. It was Congress that established this law, and it is Congress that must repeal it. Indeed, if anyone is “trampling,” it is the legislature of which Gardner is a part. We have long argued that the prohibition of weed is a fool’s game, and we have long urged that it be ended. We have held to this view through a host of administrations, and we hold to this view today. Nevertheless, we believe also that the Constitution must be strictly obeyed, and that congressional inaction presents no magic veto power to the executive. This, put simply, is not Jeff Sessions’s call.
2. NR urges support for the protests in Iran. From the editorial:
The United States government should zealously support the protests against the tyranny of this regime. That would be a pointed departure from the approach of Barack Obama, who remained shamefully inert at the beginning of his term, despite the regime’s brutal crackdown on its people and the subsequent discovery of its secret nuclear facilities. Thus far, President Trump’s remarks are a good start. He has publicly criticized the regime ever since the protests gained steam, and tweeted that “the US is watching.” The Left has chided Trump on the grounds that his supporting the protesters will undermine their cause by allowing the regime to claim that the hated United States is fomenting their movement. But Khamenei is viciously anti-American, and he will blame the protests on the U.S. no matter what.
All Things Bannon and Breitbart
1. Curb, I’d like to introduce you to Steve: Take a look at Rich Lowry’s new column, “The Trumpist Gets Trumped.” Here’s a slice:
At the beginning of 2016, it seemed that Steve Bannon could be a figure like Karl Rove or David Axelrod, a political strategist with outsize influence over policy who existed at the very top of our national politics for years. Instead, he’s been kicked to the curb more brutally than any presidential aide in modern history.
This, obviously, has much to do with Trump himself, who is volatile, jealous of media attention, and insistent that loyalty runs only one way, up to him. But Bannon played his hand badly. He had no idea how to effect his dream of a protectionist, isolationist administration spending massively on infrastructure and raising taxes on the rich. His vision lacked support within the administration and in Washington more broadly.
2. David French thinks the curb-kicking is one of the best moves of Trump’s presidency. There are three main reasons, and here’s one:
First, Bannon is the public figure who has done more than any other person to introduce the evil alt-right into mainstream American life. He bragged about turning Breitbart into the “platform” of that movement, backed one of its most prominent politicians in Paul Nehlen, and relentlessly promoted its foremost apologist, the noxious Milo Yiannopoulos. He was also reportedly one of the driving forces behind perhaps the worst moment of Trump’s term so far: the president’s decision to equivocate following the alt-right rally and terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Va.
3. About this Nehlen character: Teddy Kupfer analyzes how quick Breitbart has been to un-pin its pin-up boy: “Now, however, public pressure has forced it to declare Nehlen beyond the pale and cut ties with him. Coming from a website that vows not to be cowed by the mainstream media, that’s a significant concession.”
4. Before the Wolff-book insanity overtook the chattering classes, Rich Lowry found good reason to kick Bannon in the teeth, the very things through which he was lying about NR.
5. Michael Brendan Dougherty chortles at the newfound respect the MSM has for the guy who wears two shirts:
Steve Bannon couldn’t get voters to believe Roy Moore. He couldn’t keep his post in the Trump White House. But there’s one class of people credulous enough to believe tales of Steve Bannon’s amazing work ethic, foresight, wisdom, and power. One group ready to immediately credit his concern for the sanctity of the election and sovereignty of America when it comes to Russia — the media.
6. As Mona Charen counsels, don’t dance on Bannon’s grave. Not yet anyway.
Nine NR Pieces You Oughta Check Out or Mom Says You Won’t Get Dessert
1. So many to choose from, but that’s just what Kat Timpf did, rating the eleven most ridiculously PC moments of 2017.
2. Heather Wilhelm looks at Silicon Valley, thinks dicey dudes, and thinks that’s a place where a wall should be built.
3. Titus Techera has a really worthwhile, and maybe even unsettling, piece titled “Dave Chapelle and the Art of Telling Ugly Truths.” Here is a slice:
There are truths we leave unsaid, which is where comedy does its work. But uttering the truth is getting more and more dangerous in America. Telling the truth is now done in a mood of anger, if not hatred; almost never in fun. Chappelle knows this, and his Netflix specials as a whole are a reflection on his career, which is threatened by the change in public mood over the past decade. Does comedy even have a future? Sociologically, it’s now liberal class contempt. Real comics, unlike late-night TV hosts, cannot abide that. So it must be very strange to be Chappelle: You climb to the top only to see the entire edifice threatening to collapse.
4. Will a nuked-up North Korea see itself through 2018? Victor Davis Hanson lays out four scenarios for how the US and the international community might deal with Rocket Man.
5. If you’re not reading Andy McCarthy on the Mueller investigation and its corollaries, you are doing yourself a disservice. Check out this title-says-it-all piece, “As the Dossier Scandal Looms, the New York Times Struggles to Save Its Collusion Tale.” From it:
It has become increasingly clear that Steele’s claims about Page are, at best, highly dubious; more likely, they are untrue. Aside from the fact that Comey has been dismissive of the dossier as “unverified,” Page has vigorously and plausibly denied its allegations about him. The Annapolis grad and former naval-intelligence officer insists he is not even acquainted with the Russian officials with whom he supposedly had traitorous meetings. Moreover, if the Russian regime truly wanted to make insidious proposals to Trump, it had emissaries far better positioned to approach him; it strains credulity to believe the Kremlin would turn to Page – barely known to Trump and, years earlier, derided as an “idiot” by a Russian intelligence operative who tried to recruit him.
6. And then there is this Andy piece, Beating a Hasty Retreat from the Steele Dossier. A slice:
In light of the significant questions that have been raised about the Obama Justice Department’s use of the dossier, it is understandable that the Fusion GPS founders who produced the dossier would want to downplay its significance in triggering the FBI’s Russia investigation. But that was not the tune they were playing at the time the FBI’s investigation was actually triggered. Back then, they couldn’t say enough about the Trump treachery Steele had purportedly uncovered, and with Election Day fast approaching, they wanted that story told far and wide.
Now. . . not so much.
7. Remember when Democrats weren’t that concerned about sexual impropriety, even in the bathroom of the Oval Office? Jim Geraghty does.
8. The EUrocrats are in a tizzy about Poland, so Warsaw must be doing something right, nie? It’s a really interesting situation, brilliantly explained by Michael Brendan Dougherty.
9. “Then Putin happened.” Staying in Europe, Jay Nordlinger profiles Sweden’s efforts to rebuild its depleted military in the face of an aggressive Russia. From it:
A blunt question: Is there a true Russian threat to Sweden? Is such talk fanciful? Paranoid? Putin has said that “only a sick person” would imagine that Russia would attack Sweden. No one in this country believes that Putin will attack directly. No one believes that Putin wants to plant his flag atop Stockholm Palace. But most people believe — indeed, understand — that if Putin moves on one of the Baltic states, Sweden will inevitably be dragged in.
Podcasts
1. Jay goes Q and A with Yuval Levin. Listen here.
2. John J. Miller interviews Patrick Deneen about his new book, Why Liberalism Failed, on The Bookmonger. Listen here.
3. John also interviewed Laura Sandefer about her book Courage to Grow: How Acton Academy Turns Learning Upside Down. Acton is cool and vital. Learn about it. Listen here.
4. Related: On her podcast, Reality Check with Jeanne Allen, our hostess talks with education guru Michael Block, founder of BASIS Schools. If you want to know about the charter-school movement, listen up. Do that here.
5. Ben Shapiro is the subject of The Jamie Weinstein Show’s new episode. It’s a fascinating conversation. Listen here.
6. Amongst other things, on the new episode of The Liberty Files, David and Alexandra discuss the depravity of Planned Parenthood’s new annual report. Listen here.
7. Where else but on Jaywalking can you hear about Tom Brady and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. That’s on tap for the new episode. Listen here.
Keeping Up with Appearances
Ramesh will be on Face the Nation this Sunday. Schedule your church-going around it.
Eye Candy
1. My amigas at the Independent Women’s Forum have this cool short video of admiration for the aforementioned Ambassador Haley on their Facebook page.
2. Do you hate the “participation trophy” cult? Then you have to watch this Prager University video, featuring Cobi Jones.
Some Stuff from Some Pals
1. Over at Gatestone Institute, Soeren Kern rung in 2018 with this retrospective of Britain’s ongoing “Islamization.”
2. Here’s your 15 minutes of fame, dip-blank: Diablo Valley College professor Albert Ponce encouraged his students to violate U.S. law in order to combat “white supremacy.” The College Fix’s Nathan Rubbelke has the story.
3. At the great City Journal, Steve Malanga explains New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s obsession with all things “progressive.”
Big Bad John Has a Book
I’m talking about Bookmonger’s JJM. He’s produced a collection of some of his greatest hits in Reading Around: Journalism on Authors, Artists, and Ideas. Inside, you’ll find pieces on the ancient epics Gilgamesh and Beowulf; thriller writers Michael Crichton, Daniel Silva, and Brad Thor; science-fiction authors Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein; the horror fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft; movies such as “The Exorcist” and “Red Dawn”; the music of Iron Maiden; the art of Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo; and much more, including pieces on the purpose of libraries, writer’s block, and the conundrum of having a common name. The publication date was this Wednesday — how about you mosey on over to Amazon and order a copy?
A Dios
I do have a fevered brain. Had the fever, chills, etc. so it must have been the flu — I thought. And that swelling in the shin — mama mia I was also getting the gout! Except I wasn’t. Took the week off (was always going to do the WJ) and that’s why some nasty-arse bacteria thought to take up residence in my left leg. The swelling headed north, let’s leave it at that. Wisdom struck: Get Theeself to a Hospital. Drove through the “bomb cyclone” blizzard. Arrived. The doc, having forgotten the bonesaw at home, figured he’d save the leg with modern medicine. So I spent hours getting antibiotics dripped into me while watching old movies, including a 1915 short (Fatty’s Tintype Tangle) by Hollywood’s original alleged perv, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Got to admit: He was funny.
Anyway, God — who invented antibiotics — is good, no? Thanks, Almighty. See you all next week.
Oh Yeah. . .
The new NRO will be revealed the end of January. And there will be much rejoicing!
Best,
Jack Fowler