THE COMPLETE TWS ARCHIVES: Charles Krauthammer

A library of Charles Krauthammer's columns published over the years in The Weekly Standard.

The Weekly Standard  "It's with great sorrow that we learned in recent days of the turn in Charles Krauthammer's health. Charles has been a contributing editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD since the magazine's founding in 1995. We're proud to have published dozens of articles from him over those years. Charles has been more than a good colleague; he's been, for many of us, a friend, a mentor, and a role model. We are thinking of Charles, his wife Robyn and his son Daniel, during this difficult time.

-Stephen F. Hayes

Robert De Niro’s Juvenile Stunt at the Tonys

National Review

"The Tony Awards should have been a celebration of The Band’s Visit, the beautifully underplayed musical about Egyptian musicians striking up fumbling temporary friendships with the residents of a dusty Israeli village, which captured ten awards including Best Musical, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the spectacular new chapter in the kid-magic saga, which won Best Play and five other trophies.

"Instead, all anyone is talking about is Robert De Niro, whose moronic ad-lib made the front page of the New York Post and was a top trending topic on Twitter this morning. CBS switched off the sound as De Niro, who was on hand to introduce Bruce Springsteen (whose Broadway show this season has also been a huge success) interjected, “I’m gonna say one thing: F*** Trump. It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump’; it’s ‘F*** Trump.'” The audience exploded in applause.

"Broadway depends on tourists for a huge percentage of its ticket sales. Does it really want to broadcast an image of being hostile to the 40 percent or so of the country that supports the president? CBS was obviously prepared for editorializing and allowed nothing of what De Niro said about Trump to be heard by the TV audience. It didn’t just blank out the F word; it blanked out the entire Trump comment because it was completely inappropriate and didn’t belong. This was wise, but alas the public has a way of finding out things.

"The people who should be most furious with De Niro are not Trump or his fans. The people who should be most furious with De Niro are the Tony honorees. This was their big night, the single opportunity they have each year to promote their craft to millions of TV watchers. Instead, De Niro had to unleash a childish, pointless rant and steal their spotlight. Shame on him." . . .

Mairead McArdle: Robert De Niro Busts Out Profane Rant against Trump at Tony Awards  
. . . "The actor, who was presenting an award to Bruce Springsteen, called on listeners to vote in the November midterm elections. “Bruce, you can rock the house like nobody else and even more importantly in these perilous times, you rock the vote, always fighting for, in your own words, truth, transparency and integrity in government,” De Niro said of his good friend. “Boy, do we need that now.” . . .

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle said on Monday that she's sure she shouts words in the shower like "f—k Trump" and other insults recently hurled at the president.

Read of the day: Sharyl Attkisson knocks one out of the park with devastating analogy

Thomas Lifson  "Sometimes an analogy is the best way to change minds.  Commitment to one side in a debate can lock minds into a framework.  But take the same principles and apply them to an analogous situation where the locked in prejudices don't apply, and the blinders can fall away.

"That is exactly what Ms. Attkisson has done with a column in The Hill.  She takes on the ridiculous reasoning applied to justifying the FBI spying on the Trump campaign and applies it to bank robbery.  She begins:

Once upon a time, the FBI said some thugs planned to rob a bank in town.  Thugs are always looking to rob banks.  They try all the time.  But at this particular time, the FBI was hyper-focused on potential bank robberies in this particular town.

The best way to prevent the robbery – which is the goal, after all – would be for the FBI to alert all the banks in town.  "Be on high alert for suspicious activity," the FBI could tell the banks.  "Report anything suspicious to us.  We don't want you to get robbed."

Instead, in this fractured fairytale, the FBI followed an oddly less effective, more time-consuming, costlier approach.  It focused on just one bank.  And, strangely, it picked the bank that was least likely to be robbed because nobody thought it would ever get elected president – excuse me, I mean, because it had almost no cash on hand.  (Why would robbers want to rob the bank with no cash?)

Stranger still, this specially-selected bank the FBI wanted to protect above all others happened to be owned by a man who was hated inside and outside the FBI.

So, to protect this bank owned by the guy the FBI hated, the FBI secretly examined a list of bank employees and identified a few it claimed would be likely to help robbers – or, at least, would not stop a robbery.  How did it select these targets?  By profiling them based on their pasts.

These particular bank employees, the FBI said, were chosen because they worked long ago with customers who might have known bank robbers in the past – maybe not the particular robbers planning a bank robbery this time, but different people who knew people who were thought to have robbed banks in the past ... or, perhaps, people who thought of robbing banks at some point but never got around to it. 

"It gets even better, making the absurdities of the justifications for the spying obvious.  Read the whole thing."

Gennifer Flowers: Why Bill Cosby And Not Bill Clinton?; "He's Not A[s] Good Of Liar As He Used To Be"

Real Clear Politics

"Gennifer Flowers, who had a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton before he was president, revealed Tuesday night to FOX News' Laura Ingraham that her tryst, in hindsight, "was definitely sexual harassment."

"Flowers also said Clinton's health problems have hindered his abilities to tell lies like he used to be able to.

"Well, my first impression was he is not as good of a liar as he used to be," she said of his controversial interview with NBC's Craig Melvin that was on aired on Today. "He’s not on his game where that’s concerned. And I think Bill is afraid."

" 'He's nervous. That's why he is acting that way, and, you know, probably, he has some health problems and it has affected his ability to respond as well as he used to be, and tell lies as good as he used to," Flowers added.

"Flowers also asked if Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein are facing legal ramifications why not Bill Clinton." . . .

Bill Clinton: Norms of ‘What You Can Do to Someone Against Their Will’ Have Changed

The former president's comments are shocking, and particularly tone-deaf in the era of #MeToo.

. . . "Clinton’s comments seem to suggest that he believes there was a time in which doing anything against someone’s will was acceptable or normal. 

"Clinton also defended ousted Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned from the U.S. Senate amid sexual harassment allegations. Clinton said, as part of his comments on Franken, that “maybe I’m just an old-fashioned person.' ” . . .

Hypocrisy and the left

Elise Cooper  "Obstruction, resistance, and lewdness are the leftists' approach.  No matter what President Trump does, he will always be criticized.

"The Democrats and mainstream media say President Trump is anti-women.  Yet Samantha Bee calls Ivanka the "C"-word.  The Democrats and mainstream media say they are in favor of diversity, yet late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel rolled footage of the first lady reading a children's book, and the audience laughed at her accent.  When she read, "... ask lots of questions about this and that," the audience laughed louder.  For further comic effect, Kimmel repeated, "About dees and dat."

Video added by TD

"The Democrats and mainstream media call President Trump a warmonger after his statement about North Korea being met with fire and fury; many had the attitude of Representative David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, who said in a tweet, "This is not a time for escalating rhetoric that threatens to bring the world to the brink of war."  But now they criticize him for his diplomatic moves.  Even Bill Maher argues against the liberal trashing of this meeting by cable news networks, quoting one of them as saying, "Well, we'll just be giving Kim the respect he and his family has [sic] always craved."

"Anyone who looks at the picture of Merkel and Trump being circulated by the left sees their insincerity.  I wonder, if it was reversed, if people would accuse him of bullying her.  The way she is leaning forward with a stern face, hands on the table, and Trump sitting down.  I guess the Germans forgot that even though they were so brutal, the U.S. was still willing to help them to become an economic power.  Why is she not being accused of bullying?  President Trump only wanted a complete removal of the trade barriers and a fair playing ground.  But when have the Germans ever been fair?

"It is all about hating President Trump and the first family.  Hypocrisy seems to be the Democrats' and the leftist media's middle name. "

The author writes for American Thinker.  She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.