Crude oil, the lifeblood of the global economy, is returning to its expensive past. While President Trump's economic revival has put more money into the pockets of U.S. consumers, efforts to restrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran is pinching the supply of oil. Americans are likely to relive the pain of a decade past, but ending the Islamic regime's menacing behavior will be worth the price.
Compromise can be a great idea, the averaging of demands and agreeing in good faith to make a half-measure work. Like many theories, it doesn't always work in practice. The man with one foot in a fire and the other in a bucket of ice water is, on average, warm. But he's usually not very comfortable.
The Democratic charge against Brett Kavanaugh will trigger shudders far beyond the long arm of the U.S. law. The clashing narratives of Brett the choir boy versus Brett the serial molester will only widen the dark gulf of suspicion between men and women. Following the new FBI investigation of lurid sexual misconduct tales, the U.S. Senate will render a verdict on this chapter of he said-she said chronicles. The cultural struggles over sexual ethics will surely continue.
Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have had a strong personal relationship for years. And why not? The Russian president and the Israeli prime minister share certain similarities, though the comparison can't be taken very far.
The circus continues, without the elephants but with an abundance of monkeys. The U.S. Senate, which long ago surrendered its reputation as "the world's greatest deliberative body," settles now for producing the greatest noise, flash and spectacle in town.
The prophet Daniel entered a den of lions — it wasn't his idea — and left them purring like kittens. President Trump is nobody's idea of a Bible hero, but he, too, stepped into a skeptical crowd of "world leaders" and transformed their derisive laughter into warm applause, thus demonstrating once more that there's more than one way to skin a cat, though sometimes the cat won't stay skinned.
We're in new territory now. The old rules no longer apply. All the things we learned in a more innocent time have been declared "inoperative," to invoke the genius term from the Watergate era. These changes in the rules are not likely to turn out well for anyone.
There's more at stake in Washington this week than the philosophical composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Brett Kavanaugh is fighting for his name and reputation against the inquisition engineered by the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate, and what is struggling to survive is nothing less than hundreds of years of law, precedent and guarantees of justice inherited from Anglo-Saxon legal tradition. If destroying a reputation without evidence wins the day, the cornerstone of the American judicial system — the presumption of "innocent until proved guilty" — will crumble.
President Trump has made several less than stellar Cabinet appointments. Scott Pruitt was an expert deregulator who did good work at the Environmental Protection Agency, but he splurged government money on travel and other expenses, and was eventually compelled to resign. Tom Price seemed a smart choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services — he is, after all, a doctor, and presumed to be familiar with health care policy — but he too had expensive tastes, and indulged them at government expense. He too was forced to resign.
A piece of land in Louisiana has been designated by the federal government as a critical habitat for a rare frog, although the dusky gopher frog does not live there, and never has. Nevertheless, frog trouble might be ahead for human people who do.
Hurricane Florence hurled furious wind and drenching rain on the Carolinas, but it was the water that fell on saturated ground that caused epic destruction. As the overflowing rivers, streams and estuaries recede homeowners are deluging insurance agents with pleas for a check large enough to cover clean-up and repairs.
Christine Blasey Ford apparently thought all she was signing up for was her 15 minutes of fame. Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer didn't say anything about having to take questions and corroborate her account of a teenage date night gone horribly wrong.
Defiance and dirty dealing from an enemy is expected, collusion with an enemy to reinforce its effrontery is not. Thanks to John Kerry, President Trump will face an extra formidable Iran when patience meets effrontery next week at the United Nations. The former U.S. secretary of State is conducting shadow diplomacy designed to foil the president's aims in dialing back Iran's nuclear ambitions. Mr. Kerry had his chance to quell the Islamic republic's threats, and blew it. He only delayed dealing effectively with them. His continued attempts in overtime only weaken America.
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