Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump is intimidating and threatening judges. You want to know who has a history of actually doing that? Chuck Schumer, of course! And it wasn’t…

Representative Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Cory Booker celebrated themselves for sitting on their butts for several hours and accomplishing nothing. That sounds like every day. But this was special -…

Peter Dutton brands China as Australia’s top security threat, while Anthony Albanese strikes a cautious tone, citing complex trade and regional ties. With less than a week until the polls, China has…

LONDON—A lettercard penned by one of the Titanic’s most well-known survivors from onboard the ship, days before it sank, has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction.In the note, written to the…

A game-changing concert.

A fast fall from grace.

Last week, after their absurd attempt to make a martyr of Salvadoran deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Democrats seemed to realize they had committed a political blunder. As Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) put it, “I don’t know if that’s the right issue that Democrats should be focusing on right now.” Many polls, including a CBS survey released Sunday, indicate that most Americans support the deportation of people living in the country illegally. Yet, when a Wisconsin judge was arrested for aiding an illegal alien in his effort to escape immigration officials, the Democrats repeated their mistake. “Judges are responsible for upholding our country’s laws. It is beyond egregious for a former judge and his wife to engage in evidence tampering.” If any reader managed to miss this story, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday and charged with two federal crimes involving obstruction of a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent his arrest. The specific “individual” was Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally. Judge Dugan foolishly assisted his futile attempt to avoid apprehension at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18, and her subsequent arrest inspired a number of Democrats to issue irresponsible statements like this one from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.): Americans are watching with outrage the stunning news that Trump’s FBI has arrested a sitting judge in Milwaukee for alleged obstruction of an immigration arrest. While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.  We must do whatever we can to defend the independent judiciary in America. Conspicuously absent from this portentous nonsense is any justification for Dugan’s obviously illegal behavior. Raskin is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and often reminds us that no one is above the law. He has never mentioned any exception for county judges. Nor has Raskin’s counterpart on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also denounced Dugan’s arrest in an overwrought statement: “The Trump Administration continues to test the limits of our Constitution … When immigration enforcement officials interfere with our criminal justice system, it undermines public safety.” Durbin is a little confused. It was Judge Dugan who “interfered in our criminal justice system” by personally conducting Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through an exit outside of which she knew no federal agents would be waiting. As reported by KKTV.com, “Dugan is accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest.” He was only apprehended because he turned the wrong way after leaving the building. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Democrat Governor, Tony Evers, condemned President Trump and his administration: In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt and they are found guilty by a jury of their peers … Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor. Most of this is hot air and at least one of Evers’ claims is a lie. The Trump administration hasn’t disobeyed any order issued by “the highest court in the land” or any other court. His irresponsible statement has, however, encouraged another Wisconsin judge to ignore federal immigration law. As reported in Wisconsin Right Now, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Monica Isham sent an email to all her colleagues, part of which reads as follows: “I have no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process, as BOTH of the constitutions we swore to support requires.” Judges Gone Wild This kind of lawlessness is not, of course, restricted to Wisconsin. On the same day Judge Dugan was taken into custody, the DOJ arrested a former Doña Ana County judge in New Mexico. Jose Luis Cano and his wife Nancy Ann Cano were charged with “evidence tampering related to the federal investigation and prosecution against Cristhian Ortega-Lopez.” This character is a Venezuelan national living here illegally and has ties to Tren de Aragua. He is charged with “being an unlawful alien in possession of firearms and ammunition.” U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico succinctly summed up the real problem: Judges are responsible for upholding our country’s laws. It is beyond egregious for a former judge and his wife to engage in evidence tampering on behalf of a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member accused of illegally possessing firearms. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to dismantling this foreign terrorist organization by disrupting its criminal operations in New Mexico. That starts by prosecuting those who support gang members — including judges. Incredibly, despite obvious evidence that Ortega-Lopez is a flight risk and a serious danger to the community, the local magistrate judge ordered him released on “conditions.” This makes two judges arrested and two judges who, for all intents and purposes, refuse to adhere to their oaths of office. All four, and many more, see themselves as part of “the resistance.” But what are they resisting? It isn’t just President Trump or even the will of the people. It’s the rule of law. The Democrats insist that no one is above the law. But neither Judge Dugan nor her fellow travelers believe it. This, to coin a phrase, is worse than a crime — it’s a blunder. READ MORE from David Catron: No Census Reform, No Election Integrity Inflation Cools Off: Media Hardest Hit The post Is Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan Above the Law? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

“The stone the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone.” Psalm 118: 22 One of the most famous of all Shakespeare quotes — “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” (As You Like It) — would be made more relevant to modern times by replacing “stage” with “screen.” Few people today attend the theater, but everyone is fixated on screens, from dwindling cinemas and TV sets to the omnipresent smartphones. Last Saturday, I watched Pope Francis’ funeral and burial procession. Being a dramatist myself, unworthy of Shakespeare though with a longer historical perspective, I saw more than a glorious religious ceremony. I saw the opening scenes in a mental film I would entitle The Cornerstone. “And upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” And, Amen, they have not. Fittingly, the above quote from Psalm 118 was featured in last Sunday’s Mass reading. Many theologists interpret the cornerstone line as prophesying the Messiah. Jesus Christ would be rejected and crucified by the people so He could become the Light of the World. In a similar way, Christianity, specifically Catholicism, has long been the main object of derision if not outright vilification for the secular Left. Its depreciating messenger, Hollywood, has slammed and mocked believers over the past 50 years. To the low point that Mel Gibson, who’d earned his industry a billion dollars just on Lethal Weapon 1-4, was rejected by every major studio on his little Christian passion project. Gibson had to raise the money himself. He made The Passion of the Christ for a measly $30 million in 2005, and reaped the earthly reward of $620 million worldwide. He embarrassed Hollywood in the worst way — showcasing both its anti-Christian zealotry and contempt for the traditionalist audiences it was supposed to entertain. Consequently, when he later debased himself in an ugly drunken rage, Hollywood pounced and banished Gibson. And it has continued to bash Christians, in particular white Christians. The hateful message hit the jackpot this weekend. The number one movie in America is the anti-Christian vampire film Sinners. Set in early-30s Mississippi, the movie of course highlights white racism as fueled by Christian oppression of blacks. Naturally, crucifixes are ineffective against the vampires, and in one scene a vampire mockingly recites the Lord’s Prayer. The cross has cinematically lost all holy force in the half century since The Exorcist wielded it (“The power of Christ compels you!”). But the filmmakers got away with their sacrilege. Sinners has grossed $160 million worldwide, although on a budget of $90 million, excluding promotion costs. On the other hand, Angel Studios animated tale of the Christ, The King of Kings, has earned close to $60 million on a $20-million budget. Its $20-million opening weekend set the record for the biggest debut of a faith-based animated film. Its Message will outlast the temporarily higher and mightier, as it did the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire. And the proof of this was on my TV screen showing the sacred celebrations inside and outside the Vatican honoring Pope Francis. Like other conservative Catholics, I’d made my criticisms of the late Holy Father, some in this magazine. But they’re those of a man crying in the wilderness compared to what unveiled on screen Saturday. And I’m not responsible for shepherding the oldest institution on the Earth and half a million clergy like Pope Francis was. No amount of Sinners patronage could approach the 400,000 people gathered in St. Peters’s Square on Saturday, 250,000 for the funeral Mass. These included 250 cardinals, 400 bishops, and 4,000 priests from around the world, with the rest of the crowd non-clergy worshippers. Every major leader attended, among them U.S. president Donald Trump, Ukrainian resident Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer (who doubtless hated to be there honoring Christianity other than to flatter Trump), Argentinian president Javier Milei (who’d called his countryman Pope Francis “a communist son of a bitch” but revered him on this day), and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, a more conservative Catholic leader than Pope Francis, especially on immigration. The Mass reflected the full glory and tradition of the Church’s two thousand years, dating back to Jesus Himself, as bestowed to St. Peter. “Thou art Peter,” Jesus said. “And upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” And, Amen, they have not. And all the magnificent classical art and beauty and architecture of St. Peter’s Church seemed to whiteout every CGI image ever put on screen. After the Mass, Pope Francis’s coffin was reverently loaded into a white car. Which drove out of the Vatican gate into the not so eternal city of Rome, the first papal funeral car to do so since 1903 for the burial of Pope Leo XIII. Around 150,000 people lined the streets en route to Francis’ burial site, the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Then followed what will be a key scene in my mental film, The Cornerstone. The Pope’s coffin-bearing car drove past the Roman Colosseum, where 2,000 years ago, Christians were fed to the lions. Impressive as it architecturally is, the Colosseum is also a crumbling pagan structure, a shadow of the sacred magnificence the car had just left. The contrast couldn’t be more stark or significant. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” said Jesus. “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The next Pope literally has a true cross to bear. READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: King Charles’ Easter Message Accelerates Britain’s Fall Donald Trump, Easter Warrior The post The Cornerstone of the World appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Most of the media failed to report on a tremendously important development last week: King Abdullah of Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood in his country. If Trump can bring [Saudi Arabia] into the Abraham Accords … he could achieve more stability in the Middle East than has existed for about a century. We last heard of the Muslim Brotherhood (“the Brotherhood” or “al-Ikhwan”) six years ago when Egyptian President al-Sisi threw out his Brotherhood-backed predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup. The history of al-Ikhwan is more interesting. In March 1924, a Royal Air Force officer, John Bagot Glubb, rode a camel into Iraq from Syria. The mission of the tiny force he commanded was to protect the nomadic tribes of southern Iraq from raids by “al-Ikhwan” — the Brotherhood —  that emanated from what was then called “the Nejed” and is now Saudi Arabia. (Glubb later commanded the army of Transjordan against the Israelis in the 1948 Israeli war of independence.) Glubb, as he wrote in his 1960 book, “War in the Desert,” found that al-Ikhwan, a Wahhabist group, had no problem with killing Iraqi Muslims or any Christians or Jews that got in their way. Their murderous nature was quite ecumenical. Flash forward about six decades to the modern version of the Muslim Brotherhood. As history tells us the Palestinian branch renamed itself Hamas. There are significant ties between the MB and Hizballah as well. It is not clear how they obtain funding or arms, but those commodities must be coming from Iran, which is one reason behind Abdullah’s action against them. Abdullah has also prohibited any Arab residents of the Gaza Strip emigrating to Jordan. He, like all the other Arab leaders, wants no part of the strife they would bring. Jordan is one of the few Arab nations that is generally regarded as an ally of the West. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Abdullah, a former special forces helo driver, understands that Iran is the main danger. There is a report that President Trump is enabling Saudi Arabia — perhaps as an incentive to join the “Abraham Accords” — to buy about $100 billion in U.S. arms. If Trump can get them to join the Abraham Accords — Trump’s greatest diplomatic achievement of his first term — it would, in effect, place Saudi Arabia with Israel and the U.S. in opposing both Iran and the Palestinians. The Saudis, of course, are terrified of Iran but they always play a double game. In 2023 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (“MBS”) reportedly told then U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken that he does not personally care about what he referred to as the “Palestinian issue,” only about the Saudi people. Blinken, under orders from then-president Joe Biden, ignored the opening by the Saudis which could have resulted in their joining the Abraham Accords. Biden resented Trump’s accomplishment and failed to add any nation to the Accords. Saudi Arabia is the most influential Arab state. If Trump can bring it into the Abraham Accords or into any agreement recognizing the legitimacy of Israel, he could achieve more stability in the Middle East than has existed for about a century. On the other side of the coin, French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that France would likely recognize a Palestinian state in June. He didn’t define what land the so-called Palestinian state would consist of nor what its government would be. Macron wants to curry favor with France’s enormous — and growing — Muslim population. But he has never come up with an answer to Charles de Gaulle’s 1958 question when de Gaulle asked, “How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?” Macron doesn’t understand that the idea of a “Palestinian state” died on October 7, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking at least 250 hostages of several nationalities including Americans. If he goes ahead with his purported plan, Macron would further divide NATO and put France in opposition to both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. He would make France a de facto ally of Iran. Macron, being French, is genetically incapable of being on the right side of history. So where do we go from here? Trump could put much more pressure on Macron with further tariffs on French goods, which would probably be counter-productive. France needs the U.S. market for its wine, cheese, and cars. If Trump threatened higher tariffs, Macron could conveniently forget his idea of recognizing a Palestinian state. It remains to be seen if he will. Trump is now preoccupied with stopping Russia’s war on Ukraine in which he has met with no success. As I have written elsewhere,  Trump has been treating Ukraine as if it were the enemy. It is not: Russia is. As Biden proved with his constant pressure on Israel to end the war there, pressuring our ally — even Ukraine — is not the way to end a war. After meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky at the pope’s funeral, Trump said that he has realized — finally — that Putin doesn’t want peace. He said, “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” That’s a reorientation of Trump’s thinking that should lead to a lot more pressure on Russia. The president needs to refocus on the Israel-Hamas war and getting our remaining hostage — Eden Alexander — back to safety. Jordan’s action in banning the Muslim Brotherhood should be endorsed by the president. The MB is a Pan-Islamic quasi-terrorist organization that still has influence in the Arab world. Getting Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords — even by bribing it with arms sales — would be an enormous step in the right direction. READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Trump Versus the Courts (Again) Deporting Mahmoud Khalil The post Jordan Takes a Bold Step. Trump Should Follow Up. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

     If Trivial Pursuit had been designed by economists      If would have had 100 questions and 3,000 answers.     —Ronald Reagan Economics has richly earned its label as “the dismal science,” that is unless it’s being practiced by Professor Thomas Sowell, my nominee for the smartest guy in the republic. Sowell has managed to earn a Ph.D. in economics and work in the field with its charts, graphs, and soul-sapping jargon for decades while still maintaining the ability to think, write, and speak clearly. A truly impressive achievement. Epstein … went on to ask if “the augurs of old exhibited as much confidence as modern economists do”….  My guess is no. One of P.J. O’Rourke’s contributions to the world’s understanding is his spot-on explanation of the difference between mico- and macroeconomics. The late, great P.J. instructed us (quoting from memory as I can’t recall where he said or wrote it): “Microeconomics are things economists are specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics are things economists are wrong about in a general sort of way.” Just so. Some sarcasm here, but a lot of truth as well. And Brit Hume recently reminded us on Fox News that the supposedly savvy economists on Wall Street, home to some of the most jittery people in the republic, have predicted 10 of the last three recessions. Clearly the bulls and bears march to their own drummers, and they aren’t going to share their tunes and rhythms with economists. Or anyone else, come to that. All this came to mind when I read Joseph Epstein’s op-ed piece in last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal. In his column — featuring the insights and humor we’ve come to expect from Epstein’s work — he compares today’s economists to the augurs of ancient Rome. These worthies of the past, having no access to charts, graphs, and impenetrable jargon, examined sheep entrails, flight patterns of birds, or the shape of clouds to determine how the gods were disposed, what the future held, and what enterprises could be expected to prosper and which fail. Epstein suggests that for predictions, current economists, with all their modern mummery, offer little improvement over the old augurs. He went on to ask if “the augurs of old exhibited as much confidence as modern economists do when interpreting their omens.” My guess is no. The talking head economists on whom I’ve abused otherwise good time viewing and listening to (I counsel against this) have shown little in the way of humility. They may be in error, but they’re rarely in doubt when dispensing their opinions. (And we all know what Inspector Callahan said about opinions.) Save for this unseemly hubris, one might be inclined to cut economists some slack, as they face the formidable task of sorting and predicting an almost $30 trillion economy roiled by billions of moving parts. Casey Stengel (and James Thurber before him) famously said: “You could look it up.” And you could. With a minimal amount of research the won-lost records of economists’ predictions are as readily available as the won-lost records of Major League pitchers. The take away is that asking a highly credentialed economist what is over the horizon may be more reliable than asking your maiden Aunt Eunice (who’s lead a sheltered life), but not much. And the old girl may be on to something that Dr. Know-It-All has had his head buried too far up his graphs to notice. It’s said that an economic question posed to 10 different economists is likely to yield at least 15 different answers. No doubt true. This analytical scattershot has less to do with the competence, or lack of it, of the economists involved than with the fact that there is an untold number of schools of economics, holding contradictory views of how the economy works. These disparate starting points — ranging from Marxists on one end to free-market purists on the other with stops in between — drive vastly different conclusions, making the acute observer reluctant to bet the mortgage money or the business on any of them. This deconstruction is useful now that President Trump’s ever-changing and predictability-destroying tariff policies are driving economists to general quarters, taking to the air and the page in an attempt to explain where it will all end. Investors don’t know whether to invest. Banks don’t know whether to lend. And business owners don’t know whether to expand, hold, try to sell, or chuck it all and enter the clergy like their mothers wanted them to. Help is needed. But so far, like in so many other areas, analyses of the amazing moving tariffs by economists has mostly followed a political party line. Democrat economists warn Trump’s tariffs will make life on Earth nasty, brutish, and short again. Republican economists predict the tariffs will lead to peace, prosperity for all, and an end to erectile dysfunction.  (OK, I made that last part up. But you get the picture.) I’ll admit I have no idea how this will shake out. No help forthcoming either from economists or from Aunt Eunice. I’m content to await developments, which will surely follow. READ MORE from Larry Thornberry: Tesla Protestors Are Left-Crazies, Not Liberals The Sweet Science Loses Another Great Champion The post Economists: Like the Augurs of Ancient Rome appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.