Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Iran Deal Was Not About Iran, Newsday, October 22, 2017. "President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new strategy for confronting Iran offers a modicum of hope that the United States will stop kicking the can down the road in the Persian Gulf. But to do that, we have to recognize the point of the Iran nuclear deal wasn’t to restrain Iran. It was to restrain the United States."

Down to Davy Jones' Locker

Deep-Six the Jones Act, Newsday, October 12, 2017. "In response to Hurricane Maria, the Trump administration waived the restrictions the Jones Act imposes on shipping to Puerto Rico. The Sept. 28 decision was the right move, though a belated one. The act is a costly failure, and the administration’s short-term waiver was of a piece with its broader protectionism."

The Conservative Dilemma in Britain

Are Britain’s Conservatives Dead?, Daily Signal, October 4, 2017. "A year ago—even six months ago—Britain’s Conservative Party was riding high. It had won an unexpected victory in the 2015 election. Then, in June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union—a result that delighted most voters on the right, and quite a few on the left too. And at the start of the summer, the Conservatives looked set for a smashing, historic victory in the elections of June 2017. Well, that didn’t happen. The Conservatives won a narrow victory, but the margin was so close, and the collapse against expectations so catastrophic, that the victory felt—feels—like a loss."

A Brutal Conference

Conservative Gloom in Manchester, Weekly Standard Online, October 6, 2017. "The nicest thing you can say about this year’s conference of Britain’s Conservative party in Manchester is that at least it’s not Birmingham’s turn. Manchester may draw more lefty protesters — the 2015 conference in Britain’s second city made me feel like Aragon at Helm’s Deep, surrounded by unwashed orcs — but at least it retains some of its brickwork grandeur. Birmingham, by contrast, was heavily bombed during the war — I mean modernism’s war on humanity, not the Second World War — and no city has made the deadly results of fascination with reinforced concrete more brutally obvious."