Charles Krauthammer Announces He Has Terminal Cancer
[guest post by JVW]
Sad news from someone who fought the good fight in the media for a number of years. Here is his statement in full:
I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me.
In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen. That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications – which I have been fighting in hospital ever since. It was a long and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.
However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over.
I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, whose efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.
Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life’s work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.
I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.
Here’s wishing him peace and comfort in his remaining days.
– JVW
When the time is appropriate we will take a look back at his career.
JVW (667e84) — 6/8/2018 @ 10:40 amvery classy Mr. Krauthammer
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2018 @ 11:01 amIf he keeps the same doctors, that’s for sure.
Is he not even trying to get a second opinion? If the doctors were taken by surprise by bad news, it could also be tere could be some good news that would surr[prise him
What about the newly realized potentialties of immunotherapy? You look for any – even an insignifiifacnt fraction – of T cells that seem to be attacking teh cancer and you multioplky them outside the body and re-inject.
I am sure his insurance (and savings) does not limit him. He has the possibility of checking things out – or just getting second opinions..
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/8/2018 @ 11:06 amHe’s a brilliant man, Sammy. I bet he has given your good points a lot of thought but isn’t publicizing that aspect of his fight.
Dustin (06043b) — 6/8/2018 @ 11:28 amClass act all the way. Hope however he chooses to spend his last days, that they are a joy and comfort to him.
I still remember the day the doctors told us my mother’s treatment was no longer working and she only had a sort time left (she died five weeks later). We transitioned to hospice assistance and took Mom home to die. Luckily I was able to spend most of my time with her since she was diagnosed (lung cancer, even though she was a non-smoker) the previous year.
Cancer is a horrible way to go but if you have to find something to, for want of a better phrase, be thankful for, it’s not like a sudden heart attack or accident where you are denied a chance to say goodbye and express love and gratitude.
harkin (2fa2ca) — 6/8/2018 @ 12:13 pmharkin (2fa2ca) — 6/8/2018 @ 12:13 pm
I agree, harkin. The time left for Mr. Krauthammer is to be treasured.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2018 @ 12:35 pmAt least he has health insurance unlike many other americans. And no worrys about preexisting conditions or what will happen to his family.
rasa22 (8e00ca) — 6/8/2018 @ 1:16 pmDr. K is a mensch. May flights of angels sing him to his rest in due course. He will be missed.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2018 @ 1:19 pmGreat American, he will truly be missed.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/8/2018 @ 1:42 pmHis self deprecating humor was politically incorrect but lol funny.
4. Dustin (06043b) — 6/8/2018 @ 11:28 am
He isn’t publiciiing it, but I am not sure he consulted ,more tahn the “best
dictros, which mesans the ones with the best reputation, which does not mean with the best ideas and dedication.
He sounds like he trusted his doctors, but what he describes:
That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications
And
I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end,
sounds like they didn’t know what they were doing, or the hospital didn’t. Even if the complications had nothing to do with cancer.
The whole thing sounds like the doctors didn’t know what they were doing – they didn’t accurately forecast the prognosis. I think he was relying purely on their reputation.
Now Jimmy Carter was different. And what’s more, he actually found the right doctor. (Ted Kennedy did consult some others but probably was still trapped in the same circles. We don’t know waht John MCCain is doing)
here, the doctros handled the case – until they gave up. Did they consult other doctors? Did they ask him to try other doctors? No, they maintained control of the case, and then recommmended he accept death.
They may have their good reputation in part because they never let another doctor succeed where they failed (But they sometiems snatch cases themselves and succeed)
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/8/2018 @ 1:52 pmOne of the clearest-thinking conservatives out there, and his sense of humor can sneak up you. It’ll hurt to lose his voice in the conservative movement.
Paul Montagu (e6130e) — 6/8/2018 @ 1:57 pmSo thats it. No doctors would ahve a second opinion. He maybe believes so mcuch in the existence of quacks, he’s not checking out other things. There is no state of the art here. the cutting edge is experimental – if delaying things for decades can be called experiemntal
Now tghis about weeks. We;ve seen this movie before. With Kings County Da Kenneth Thompson and with former first ady Barabara Bush. Someoie announces they will die soon and then they die even sooner, maybe the next day.
Because the medical treatment kills them. It’s overdoses of anti-pain medication, which does not take account of decreased liver or kidney function and then throws everything into a tsailspin. We’ve seen this movie before.
This also ignores preventing pain, through administration of Vitamin B1. Practically everyone with advanced cancer gets beriberi.
Kratthammer says he has weeks, but if he follows medical advice it could be less than two weeks, even maybe two or three days.
His doctors are ignoramuses – they have shown themselves to be by his description of the histry of medical treatment.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/8/2018 @ 2:00 pm12. Gee Sammy. Who p|ssed in your wheaties today?
Gryph (08c844) — 6/8/2018 @ 2:17 pmMr. Sammy is both sincere and earnest Mr. Gryph
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2018 @ 2:19 pmWhat a terrible loss. We need Krauthammer’s intelligence and integrity now more than ever.
When my time comes, I hope I can face it with the same dignity and equanimity.
Dave (bc2f7e) — 6/8/2018 @ 3:01 pmTerrible. Horrible. And Kelly Sadler could not be reached for comment, of course. Over the years Krauthammer spoke admirably about a big government investment he believed enriched the nation, spurred progress in industry and academia, inspired the young and enlightened everyone: America’s space program. Regardless of your politics, his voice will be missed– but never forgotten.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2018 @ 3:36 pmbecause Krauthammer was wise, even when mistaken, whereas McCain is diligent at being wrong, and makes you embarrassed when he comes to the right conclusion,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2018 @ 3:48 pm14. You can be earnest and sincere and still be a mean cuss. I do not accept that any doctor has the ultimate responsibility for healing me; that responsibility rests solely with oneself. I use the services of a doctor to aid in my own informed consent. Until and unless I give that consent, no doctor can do anything to or for me.
That said, doctors are human too. If Sammy was wronged by a doctor at some point in his life, I am well and truly sorry for that. That is, however, no excuse for such poor behavior with an utter dearth of information about what really happened here.
Lighten up, Francis!
Gryph (5efbad) — 6/8/2018 @ 4:06 pmplus mccain’s nasty bitter and wholly lacking in dignity
but you know what
that’s just his thing
sort of a 3-ring binder of how not to die that man
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2018 @ 4:31 pmI would never purchase a Cindy Crawford couch, Jennifer Lopez Glo perfume, or even a George Foreman grill.
The same with books written by pundits, but having such respect for this man, I purchased his, glad I did.
Filled with tidbits from his life, and quotes like this where his humor shines thru:
“IN DEFENSE OF THE F-WORD I am sure there is a special place in heaven reserved for those who have never used the F-word. I will never get near that place.”
― Charles Krauthammer, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics
His task may soon be finished here, but I am sure there is a special seat reserved at that big table in heaven for him,
Roxy (11db1c) — 6/8/2018 @ 6:18 pmMay he be received with joy in the arms of God’s mercy.
I agree with previous posts. One only needs to look at the graceless way 82 y/o McCain is exiting life at 82, with Dr.K’s classy behavior to see who is the greater man.
Both are Neo-cons. Both are Never-trumpers. One has class. The other doesn’t.
I’m sad Dr. K is leaving us. McCain -not so much.
rcocean (1a839e) — 6/8/2018 @ 6:36 pmGodspeed Mr. K.
NJRob (3406ce) — 6/8/2018 @ 7:13 pm@19/@21:
‘Krauthammer is a supporter of abortion legalization, but opposes euthanasia; an opponent of capital punishment; a critic of the intelligent design movement and an advocate for the scientific consensus on evolution, calling the religion-science controversy a “false conflict;” a supporter of embryonic stem cell research using embryos discarded by fertility clinics with restrictions in its applications; and a longtime advocate of radically higher energy taxes to induce conservation. Krauthammer… supported relaxing the Bush administration’s limits on federal funding of discarded human embryonic stem cell research.’ -source, wikibio
______
‘McCain’s capture and subsequent imprisonment occurred on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi. McCain fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft, and nearly drowned after he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him. McCain was then transported to Hanoi’s main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton”.
Although McCain was seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to treat him. They beat and interrogated him to get information, and he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a high-ranking admiral. His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.
McCain spent six weeks in the hospital, where he received marginal care. He had lost 50 pounds (23 kg), was in a chest cast, and his gray hair had turned as white as snow. McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi. In December 1967, McCain was placed in a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live more than a week. In March 1968, McCain was placed into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.
In mid-1968, his father John S. McCain Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially. McCain refused repatriation unless every man taken in before him was also released. Such early release was prohibited by the POWs’ interpretation of the military Code of Conduct which states in Article III: “I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy”. To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured.
Beginning in August 1968, McCain was subjected to a program of severe torture. He was bound and beaten every two hours; this punishment occurred at the same time that he was suffering from dysentery. Further injuries brought McCain to “the point of suicide,” but his preparations were interrupted by guards. Eventually, McCain made an anti-U.S. propaganda “confession”.He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, “I had learned what we all learned over there: every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”Many U.S. POWs were tortured and maltreated in order to extract “confessions” and propaganda statements; virtually all of them eventually yielded something to their captors.McCain received two to three beatings weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.
McCain refused to meet various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory. From late 1969, treatment of McCain and many of the other POWs became more tolerable, while McCain continued actively to resist the camp authorities. McCain and other prisoners cheered the U.S. “Christmas Bombing” campaign of December 1972, viewing it as a forceful measure to push North Vietnam to terms. McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years until his release on March 14, 1973. His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.’ -source, wikibio
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2018 @ 7:16 pmWe all would have been better off if he would have been Citizen McCain.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/8/2018 @ 7:52 pmThis is so sad. And it’s difficult to watch such a fighter give up the fight.
LJ (4032db) — 6/8/2018 @ 8:28 pmI will pray that Krauthammer finds Christ before he passes. I hope someone close to him will introduce him to Him.
NJRob (b00189) — 6/8/2018 @ 10:25 pmAgreed on all counts. And when Sammy goes off on a topic, you just have to let it go. I remember one time when he misunderstood something a pundit (Matt Ridley) wrote, and I got the pundit to check me, told Sammy, and Sammy still wouldn’t back down.
He is just an unusual and well meaning chap. I honestly don’t think there is a bad bone in the fellow.
It is sad that people have to use this sad thread to bash other people dying, though. But not surprising, sadly. And not just here.
We are not a healthy society.
Simon Jester (9becef) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:28 amP.S. I think his family will be okay, financially, but still: I bought some more copies of his latest book for friends.
Simon Jester (9becef) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:29 amSammy was fine, just fine. He could have been clearer that he was criticizing the medical community and their protocols, not Mr. Krauthammer, I suppose, but that’s about it. It’s the guys who took this as an opportunity to take potshots at McCain who are out of line.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:40 amI think so, too, nk. He really does mean well, and I am glad for his contributions. And folks can hate on whomever they wish. But I will miss Dr. Krauthammer, and it is clear that he is well respected by almost everyone here.
Simon Jester (9becef) — 6/9/2018 @ 6:03 am29. Sammy “The Fink” Finkelman doesn’t know enough about Charles Krauthammer’s situation to criticize his doctors. What Sammy knows is what Krauthammer chose to tell him (and the general public). I wish he would show 1% of the class that Krauthammer had.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/9/2018 @ 6:53 amDon’t do that, Gryph. We like Sammy, here. For, among other things, because he never attacks other commenters. Never. Not even when they attack him.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2018 @ 7:17 amWill McCain die before he needs 15 lawyers to lessen his time behind bars?
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:12 amIndeed.
Patterico (115b1f) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:19 amNon lawyer Americans prefer deep state hacks like McCain wear orange jumpsuits.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:35 amDon’t be so negative, mg. Be positive and encouraging. Tell us what you have contributed to make the world a better place so other deep state hacks like McCain can follow your example.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:45 amMy largest contribution is I am not a lawyer.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:03 amI did a crime and did my time. Unlike the political hacks and their lawyers.
@ Patterico (34) & Simon Jester (#27): You’re correct. Yet I confess to being at least mildly surprised, and pleasantly so, that neither on this post nor the previous, much happier one about the newly graduated Lauren, has anyone veered wildly off-topic to talk about what (or, rather, who) we talk about here in comments most of the time since roughly mid-2015.
The total number of comments in the last couple of days, though, has dropped by what, 80%?
But in particular, on the post about Lauren, I’m encouraged that your readership, collectively and apparently individually, have some quantity of innate decency to confine themselves to a happy topic. And on this sad one, most have the decency not follow the old social norm of not speaking ill of the recently dead and dying (which means, oftentimes, simply not speaking).
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:49 amAlthough it cuts against our host’s, or any practically any blogger’s, desire to define his own agenda for writing, this situation perhaps suggests that some posts, on other topics than he-who-demands-to-be-the-center-of-all-attention might be at least partially immunized from spoilage by the presence of even a generic “Here’s your daily post about that guy in the WH” in reasonable temporal proximity, as a lightning rod of sorts.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:53 am33. To say that Sammy doesn’t have enough information about Krauthammer’s relationship with his doctors to be pissed at them, isn’t an attack. It’s a simple fact. And I stand by that fact.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/9/2018 @ 11:50 am@28. P.S. I think his family will be okay, financially, but still: I bought some more copies of his latest book for friends.
Krauthammer: Net worth: $8 million (source, celebritynetworth.com)
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2018 @ 12:13 pmMaybe Sammy or a member of his family has/had cancer. It can make every cancer patient’s journey seem personal.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2018 @ 3:33 pmI’m glad people are supportive of Lauren and of Charles Krauthammer. It’s nice to see us agree again.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2018 @ 3:35 pmOT-Congrats to Justify – Triple Crown Winner.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2018 @ 4:20 pm” And on this sad one, most have the decency not follow the old social norm of not speaking ill of the recently dead and dying (which means, oftentimes, simply not speaking).
Beldar (fa637a”
It’s nice to see us agree again.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2018 @ 3:35 pm
Don’t consider complying with Beldar’s “old social norm” of simply not speaking as agreement on Krauthammer. Of course as to Lauren I wish the best of life and good fortune.
Rev.Hoagie (c5d6cf) — 6/9/2018 @ 4:31 pmi like the frank comments about John McCain i think they add a nice perspective
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 4:39 pmi learned today if you have a friend in California
if you have a friend in California and they have a pet you can send them petfood using the amazon and the tax will go to your home state not to California
cause pet food is taxed in every state except Alaska/Delaware/Montana/New Hampshire/Oregon
so this works for a lot of stuff but not people-food cause California doesn’t tax people-food
i think that’s fun cause whenever i get annoyed with california i can displace some of their tax revenue by helping out friends there
and that’s just good for america
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 4:50 pmi’m a go to the new scarpetta later this month it used to be in chelsea now it’s over by the flatiron
it’s kind of a thing (in NY it’s in The James) but my thinking is more that i reflected on how i’ve never done an iconic italian food meal in NY if you don’t count Little Italy where they have those creepers hawking tables on the street (tacky) plus the food is meh
i might watch moonstruck before i go but of course that’s dated in a charming way what can only foster unrealistic expectate
plus I’m a get to go see Madison Square and the Flatiron which i never seen my whole life
i made a reservation for 2 just in case but I kinda hope I get to go by myself for so I can explore and take pics
plus NG sent me a new blazer to wear!
I’m very excited i haven’t been to NYC in 2 years cause of the company did a trabble freeze while we went through a re-org
you have to treat every trip til NY like it’s your last you know, so for me that just means being mindful and reading up about the stuff I’m likely to encounter
so i already started reading up and in the park next to the restaurant there’s a monument to this guy, who is dead
guess what he’s the guy they named Fort Worth after!
so for sure i’m a get a pic
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:02 pmoopers every trip *to* NY i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:04 pmThe Worth Monument is the second oldest monument in New York.
see how fun this is
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:05 pmHow long will it be before the good people on the left are celebrating Mr Krauthammer’s impending demise?
The Dana who will be looking for it (ad65b0) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:24 pm#27- “We are not a healthy society.”
Well, if you are invested in Twitter/Facebook, MSM, Hollywood& celebrities, no. Spend some time in rural fly over country, with family and friends, authentic Christian believers, and discount the vocal minority with oversize voices in the first mob, it’s still America.
The Clinton crime family was rejected. The deep state is being exposed. Elite opinion is glaring in its vapidity. This is a good thing to the normals what aren’t self righteous nevertrumpers.
The propagandists want you to think America is unhealthy. The truth is only a small part of the population that is sick is given prominence in the press; normal isn’t news.
Don’t despair, and God Speed Mr. Krauthammer.
the Bas (ab264c) — 6/9/2018 @ 5:29 pm42. I said upthread, in one of my first comments on this subject, that I was sorry if Sammy felt for whatever reason like a doctor had wronged him. That’s all the qualification my further commentary on this matter should need.
Gryph (5efbad) — 6/9/2018 @ 6:41 pmhttp://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/06/trump-nails-trade
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2018 @ 7:17 pmI can do without Canadian Bacon.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 7:36 pmSome people should look to get their own blogs. Or maybe Twitter or Instagram.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2018 @ 7:52 pm55. The food is great. The movie, not so much.
Gryph (5efbad) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:14 pmSelf appointed elitist never disappoint.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:17 pmAs they say in ecclesiastes ‘for everything there is a season’ it looks like krauthammers will regretably come to an end. And we’ll be the lesser for it.
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:19 pmwhen did you get all capital N
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:26 pmNew phone. Pikachu.
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:28 pmDana@51
I have already seen it via Twitter….
However it was no worse than anything Happyfeet ever said about John McCain.
I think Sammy was responding to Krauthammer’s apparent acceptance of death: I’ve known several people who were in similar situations to his and they all struggled against oncoming death until the very end. Obviously I have no knowledge of the details but my instinct would be to tell him to keep trying…anything…sometimes the doctors are wrong, so maybe they are wrong in your case.
kishnevi (27beb6) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:10 pmand i don’t even like John McCain i actually think he’s kind of a cowardly turd-lick
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:08 pmOT-Congrats to Justify – Triple Crown Winner.
Paul Montagu (7f4224) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:32 pmDoes that apply if the horse was funded by George Soros?
I can do without Canadian Bacon.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 7:36 pm
Hey, I heard you can hunt feral pigs around Kona that feed on macadamia nuts and it infuses their flesh with the flavor. Know anything about that?
Pinandpuller (3ce1be) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:41 pmwhen did you get all capital N
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2018 @ 8:26 pm
Gentrification.
Pinandpuller (3ce1be) — 6/9/2018 @ 10:42 pmAs a matter of fact, Pinandpuiller a high school buddy has a farm in the Kona area with macadamia trees and assorted fruit and sweet potatoes. Plenty of fat so rendering the fat off slowly makes the hogs taste great and is less filling! The nutty flavor comes through with the help of the smoke. I toss in some Kiave once my coals are hot. The hunting is similar to shooting fish in a barrel.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/9/2018 @ 11:01 pmYou are doing a public service amigo. I’m hoping to do some axis deer hunting at some point.
If Disco had John McCain’s doctor we’d still be dressing like this.
Pinandpuller (3ce1be) — 6/9/2018 @ 11:50 pmDo you know about the all girl Led Zeppelin Tribute Band Zepparella? When the Levee Breaks
Pinandpuller (3ce1be) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:02 amIf you don’t like the Samantha Bee, try the Samantha Fish
Pinandpuller (3ce1be) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:17 amIs that like the fish on airplane?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/secrets_travel_fast_in_dc.html
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 5:58 amDang, the Wolfe caper is a warning for me to date more age-appropriate, but in the working/lower settings I mix in, that’s GILFs not MILFs.
urbanleftbehind (a564d3) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:32 amAbsolutely.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:02 amThere can come a time in the cancer journey where the prospect of death is a welcome relief. Fighting cancer can be hard — every day and every minute. For some, feeling like you don’t have to fight anymore isn’t giving up. It can bring peace.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:09 am74. My maternal grandfather passed away 30 years ago this year from pancreatic cancer. Like most cancers of that type, by the time it was diagnosed he didn’t have but a few months left. His doctors gave him options for treatment in order to possibly prolong his life, but Grandpa chose not to use any of them.
Some nine years earlier, my maternal grandmother passed away from breast cancer. She was a fighter until the very end. And Grandpa decided not to pursue treatment after seeing what his beloved wife went through. This is why I believe that the absence of context in Krauthammer’s statement concerning his doctors is so important.
It’s entirely possible (though I can’t stress enough that I don’t know one way or the other) that Charles Krauthammer made a conscious decision — contra his doctors’ advice — to forego further treatment. If that is the case, then the only ethically sound thing for his doctors to do is to respect his wishes.
I don’t think Sammy is a bad guy. At no time was it ever my intention to suggest that. I think it bears repeating though, that when it comes to criticizing Krauthammer’s doctors, or doctors writ-large, we don’t have the whole picture here. It is enough for me to simply know that Charles Krauthammer, whom I have the utmost in admiration for, is at peace with whatever the future holds for him.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:25 amTwo headlines:
Paul Montagu (7f4224) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:42 am1. Russia is Attempting to Influence US Election, Divide Transatlantic Alliance
2. Trump Again Calls for Readmitting Russia to G7, Blames Obama for Crimea’s Annexation
The second headline is quite the combination of illogic and dishonesty. Russia has been consistently hostile to American and European interests since Putin put his little green men into the Crimean region of Ukraine (actually, before then). It’s hard to think of a single thing that Putin has done to merit reentry to the G7. Fortunately, after insulting his his host and refusing to sign a joint declaration, I don’t believe Trump has the political goodwill with our six other democratic allies to make that happen.
tariffs for me, not for thee:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2018/jun/09/milk-canada-us-trade-war
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:44 amyes, we detailed what a hive of scum and villainy, the atlantic council was back in 2013, and crowdstrike, just happens to be a affiliate of theirs,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:48 amI completely agree that Sammy is not a bad guy, Gryph. He sees and feels things in a different way sometimes, but to his credit he really tries to understand ideas and people. I think it can be a struggle for him sometimes but he still tries. We can all learn that from him.
I am sorry about your grandparents. We are fortunate that cancer treatments have improved in recent years, especially in alleviating suffering. Having had similar experiences myself and in my family, I’ve learned that people react to the prospect of death in surprisingly different ways. I’m sure we’ve all seen it. Some accept it quickly while others never stop fighting. One thing I learned about cancer is that, at the end, doctors give up before patients because the doctors have no more to offer. IMO, ultimately the doctors don’t matter except for pain relief. Of course, there may be doctors somewhere willing to try one more thing but that doesn’t mean the patients have the strength or the will to do it.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:51 amPaul, I think Obama and Trump have weakened our traditional Western alliances, albeit for different reasons. Sometimes they aren’t the best allies but at least they share most of our values, which makes them far better than the rest of the world. I doubt it is in the American interest to bully and alienate them, but that seems to be the intent of recent Presidents. We’ll see how well America does going it alone.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:00 amIt’s unclear to me what the venue of Coats’ speech has to do with Coats’ comments. It’s also unclear to me the problem with Crowdstrike. Their conclusions (that Putin and his operatives hacked the DNC) were confirmed by our intelligence community. It’s also unclear why Mr. Alperovitch, who is Chief Technology Officer at Crowdstrike and is a senior nonresident fellow on the AC, causes Crowdstrike to an “affiliate” of the AC.
Paul Montagu (7f4224) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:14 amWith Obama, DRJ, I can’t think of an alliance with any country that was strengthened under his watch, except maybe Cuba and Burma. But I don’t recall Obama insulting our six allies the way Trump just did, and there’s no good reason to readmit Putin into that group. “They should be at the table” isn’t a reason, it’s an opinion from a shallow, factually deficient man.
Paul Montagu (7f4224) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:22 am79. My grandfather’s death was a good death. Not only was there hospice care at home, but his hospice nurse was his daughter-in-law’s sister. He passed away surrounded by family. It was a good life, but not long enough. It never is, is it? He was a farmer, canned a lot of pickles, made use of an old-fashioned sausage press…my only real regret is that I didn’t have more time.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:29 amI think Obama went out if his way to antagonize Great Britain, Paul, starting with the Churchill bust and continuing throughout his Presidency. Remember how Obama always called the Falklands the Malvinas?
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:31 amYour Grandfather reminds me if my Dad, Gryph. I would love to have him here so he could tell me stories, especially about growing up on the farm, but it was hard to coax him to tell stories about his life. He was a humble man and did not like to talk about himself.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:37 amRemember how Obama always called the Falklands the Malvinas?
That at least could be viewed as a gesture of being nice to Latin America. And some of his other supposed insults, like the Churchill bust, were apparently way overblown.
kishnevi (bb03e6) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:56 amOverblown? Obama did not want the Churchill bust. He admitted it in 2016. It was his choice, of course, but add in his other gaffes and insults regarding Britain and it looks like a pattern. He didn’t make much of an effort when it came to Great Britain.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:19 amAlso, I don’t think the best way to befriend Latin America is to antagonize Great Britain. So much for diplomacy, plus my initial link in comment 84 included a senior Obama adviser saying they did it intentionally to mock Britain.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:22 amAnd some of his other supposed insults, like the Churchill bust, were apparently way overblown.
kishnevi (bb03e6) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:56 am
Overblown? Perhaps. The bust was in fact removed, so at least it wasn’t an outright lie. It’s not as if reporters manufacturer crap out of thin air, right?
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/315486-trump-attacks-time-report-for-mistake-about-mlk-bust
random viking (6a54c2) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:23 amIf you caught the rambling, hyper Snowman on CNN, he should be drug tested.
Now. Immediately.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:25 amOur traditional western alliances are supposed to help the people of those countries. Not the government hacks they shove out on the world stage.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:36 amWho is the Snowman?
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:58 amFrosty
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:06 amHeh.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:14 amAsk Netanyahu about that.
NJRob (b00189) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:15 amPut the pressure on these so called allies. What do these countries do to help solve the Worlds problems? They try squeezing every drop of American exceptionalism out of us. GFY Canada.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:32 amIt’s also not the best way to befriend Latin America by going the extra mile for ‘Italians who speak Spanish and act French who deep down inside want to be British’ (old joke about Argentines).
urbanleftbehind (a564d3) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:49 amI would say the lesson go back further:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:07 amIn re the passage on thr other thread: ‘a house divided against itself cannnot stand’
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/06/08/short-lesson-theresa-may
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:19 amEurope formed the Union to destroy American business. The Euro, Airbus, were direct attempts to dethrone our economy.
I was told way back in college that any three midwestern states can grow all the worlds food.
Yet the world suffers starvation from unaffordable food, due to tariffs. Germany, Italy, Spain, England, have too many holidays, very short work weeks, state subsidized industries, and they want the 45to 55 hours a week Americans to work for them
That ended yesterday
EPWJ (9ad12e) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:25 amJust too much category error, the Germans currently have an army, that the interwar reichswehr resembled:
https://mobile.twitter.com/MrBeagleman/status/1005854115778449408?p=v
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:42 amHow do you know Adam was a Canadian?
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:54 amWho else could stand next to a naked woman and be tempted by a piece of fruit.
Is they want to confront russia, but they can’t come up with a measly 2% of gdp for defense, who are they kidding.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 11:58 amI didn’t misunderstand what Matt Ridley wrote in a book “Genome”
It seems like the entire book is now online:
http://bioinformaticsinstitute.ru/sites/default/files/genome_the_autobiography_of_a_species_in_23_chapters_-_matt_ridley.pdf
Matt Ridley possibly misunderstood or didn’t describe the situation correctly. I’m inclined to think he exaggerated slightly but wasn’t basically wrong.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:16 pmWhen Charles Kratthammer had a diving accident, he knew right away what happened, and had no hope. He said that a number of times. They had just been studying the spinal cord in medical school.
Now they knew because doctors (at least till about 1950) had tried out a lot of things and found nothing worked.
But the difference with cancer is that there is not nearly as much experience.
And now, by 2018, even for paralysis from spinal cord injury, actually there is some possibility of saving some movementm if they do something right away – they experimented and found that with rats.
Even in some cases where they try later.
https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/.premium-israeli-scientists-make-paralyzed-rats-walk-again-1.5464870
Although how long any of that will take to get to people is another story.
Mostly for legal and bureaucratic reasons.
They even tried something else, which is more artificial:
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/spinal-cord-stimulation-allows-completely-paralyzed-rats-walk-again/
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:36 pm62. kishnevi (27beb6) — 6/9/2018 @ 9:10 pm
His current doctors are almost certainly not wrong – speaking about themselves.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:38 pmThis is (not the best example) of charles Kratthammer talking about his accident and what followed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqW7iC42WM0
He thought he would have to quit school.
Like with FDR, hsi condition is probaby worse tahn he lets on, closer to beinga quadreplegic than a paraplegic.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/10/2018 @ 12:48 pmMr. Finkelman’s opinions often deviate from my own, but I do admire his civility, his tenacity in argument, and his energy in research.
I know no details of Dr. K’s situation, nor of his doctors and their efforts on his behalf, except what Dr. K has chosen to share. But for purposes of my own curiosity, the inquiry begins and ends with the question of whether Dr. K has been in position to make well-informed decisions from among the available options. I’ve no cause to doubt that at all, and indeed, as compared to other celebrities similarly situated, more reason to avoid second-guessing his judgments thereupon, as both the patient and a physician himself.
Clearly we all wish the man well in his remaining days; and his consequential life will continue affecting us, for the better, long after he’s gone.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/10/2018 @ 1:27 pmIn addition to the damage to conservatism done by today’s politics/politicians, I am also saddened by the impact on civility. Some people are clearly convinced that the only way to stand up for America and American interests is by repeatedly telling the world off in the most offensive manner and using the most offensive messengers to do it. We don’t have to be ugly Americans to be proud Americans.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 1:48 pmWho is the Snowman?
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:58 am
Larry Kudlow.
Pinandpuller (f86641) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:06 pmI thought that might be who he was talking about since Kudlow was on CNN today and has a cocaine history. Typical Narciso. Why be clear if you can be cryptic.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:11 pmDrug tested, religious tested and means tested. All up in it.
Pinandpuller (f86641) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:19 pmHey that was disco duck. Not me. So obama who actually admitted to using coke in thw 80s. Or aaron sorkin.?
Narciso (99c50b) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:19 pmKudlow at least sought a higher power.
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:48 pmYet the world suffers starvation from unaffordable food, due to tariffs. Germany, Italy, Spain, England, have too many holidays, very short work weeks, state subsidized industries, and they want the 45to 55 hours a week Americans to work for them
Actually that’s mostly Africa, and Africa mostly because of the corruption, crime, and civil war.
kishnevi (de99b8) — 6/10/2018 @ 2:54 pmI also remember how Merkel reacted when she learned that we were bugging her cell phone, DRJ, and how Brits reacted to Obama’s comments that UK would be put in the “back of the queue” on trade talks, but what Trump pulled this weekend was pretty damn insulting.
Paul Montagu (c66aed) — 6/10/2018 @ 3:05 pm108. Quadriplegia is a tricky thing, medically speaking. It involves loss of limb function in all four limbs, but can happen to varying degrees.
I don’t believe Krauthammer made any secret of the fact that he was paralyzed from the neck down; by that definition, he was most definitely quadriplegic. Specifically, his spinal cord was severed at the C5 vertebra.
His injuries back then didn’t really seem to slow him down. He stayed with his Harvard Medical School class, and not only graduated in 1975 as a phychiatrist, but he contributed to DSM III and researched what came to be known as “secondary mania.” He is fluent in Hebrew and French, and was feted on numerous occasions as one of the most influential commentators in America.
There are a lot of things I don’t agree with him on, but as a philosopher and a physician, he was a mensch. Godspeed, Mr. Krauthammer.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/10/2018 @ 3:40 pmi’m big enough to hope that the hot and horny men and women of the sleazy corrupt fbi are having a fabulous summer
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:03 pmscrew the malvinas that’s just one more island for the sleazy nazi british to ass-jack people’s civil rights on
they’re not really allies you see
because they’re disgusting totalitarian fascists (with bonus leggy meggy all up in it) (the bastard prince is expected to have her bred by the end of the month) (chop chop, bastard prince)
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:11 pmA week ago:
“A senior WH official said it would be impossible to hold the summit on 6/12.”
I seem to remember a huge argument on whether that was a 1) accurate, or 2) fair characterization of what was said at the briefing.
One side has been borne out to be correct, and the other side incorrect.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:15 pm117 — all Trump did this weekend was remind the world that there is no such thing as “always” allies or “always” enemies.
The only constant is US interests.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:16 pmOne side has been borne out to be correct, and the other side incorrect.
you’re being entirely too nice Mr. shipwreck if you ask me which nobody ever does and you know what that’s ok I have sushi coming so I’ll be just fine
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:20 pmsushi’s one of those things where i’m always curious to find out what i ordered
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:22 pmthere’s a metaphor in there somewhere
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:22 pmI was the first to go down the “x in contrast to y” path in re Charles Krauthammer, 2 or 3 threads ago. This is a tragedy. I did enjoy his weekly column (Wednesday’s, Chicago Sun Times) back in earlier adulthood. But just as one can be drafted into aside because of skin color, Krauthammer gets unfairly and innacurately painted with the brush meant for Kristol and jonah Goldberg.
urbanleftbehind (a564d3) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:26 pmso
is harvardtrash stalwart Mr. pompy-pomp gonna feel a deep-seated harvardtrash need to backstab Peter Navarro cause of his accuracy-based comments about eyebrow boy?
amazon turdlord jeff bezos’s wapo sez:
so if pompy-pomp fails to denounce Mr. Navarro he’s a cultist for time immemorial done and done
that’s the kind of pressure a coward like John McCain could never withstand – he’d have twattered a DENOUNCE! toot and also sweet if he were Mr. pompy-pomp
the next 24 hours will tell us if Mr. pompy’s made of the sterner stuff
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:32 pm@115.Kudlow at least sought a higher power.
A steam shovel.
Economist Is Said to Enter A Six-Month Drug Program
By SYLVIA NASAR – NYT, 7-4-1995
Lawrence A. Kudlow, the former Wall Street economist, went to Minneapolis yesterday to check into a long-term, residential drug treatment program at Hazelden Foundation, his wife, Judith, said. Mr. Kudlow, 47, agreed to undergo the six-month Hazelden program, where Kitty Dukakis, Eric Clapton and other well-known people have sought help, after three shorter treatments in the last two and half years for cocaine and alcohol habits, his wife said yesterday.
Fifteen months ago, Mr. Kudlow made a highly public confession of his drug problem [a $10,000/month cocaine habit] shortly after he was forced to resign as chief economist at Bear Stearns. He also made a fresh career start as a conservative political commentator for television and magazines and said he believed that he had overcome his addiction. But over the weekend, court papers filed by Mrs. Kudlow indicated that he may have lost his battle against cocaine. In a filing on Thursday, she petitioned the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan for a divorce and an order to prevent Mr. Kudlow from tapping their Bear Stearn’s retirement account to pay for a weeks-long cocaine binge. “The defendant will use such money to buy cocaine,” she stated in an affidavit, “and in so doing will likely suffer a fatal overdose and will dissipate the only remaining liquid marital assets.” Mr. Kudlow could not be reached for comment yesterday. A Hazelden spokesman said the treatment center could not say whether or not a patient had checked in because of Federal regulations.
Mr. Kudlow’s apparent setback comes a time when he appeared to have turned his career around. After losing his $800,000-a-year Wall Street job, Mr. Kudlow landed quickly on his feet. His disclosure of cocaine problems in an interview with The New York Times prompted an outpouring of sympathy. He landed a consulting position at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. And Mr. Kudlow, who was President Ronald Reagan’s budget director and considered one of the brighter lights in the New York Republican Party, regained his political footing. He became economics editor of the conservative magazine National Review and started dispensing political advice again, sharing a platform with Gov. Christine Whitman of New Jersey. Indeed, Mr. Kudlow had urged her to cut taxes sharply, an issue that helped sweep her into office.
As recently as several weeks ago, Mr. Kudlow seemed to have regained his former professional stature. He shared a dais last month with Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, when he addressed New York’s financial elite. A few weeks earlier, Mr. Kudlow was appointed by Jack F. Kemp, Secretary of Housing under President George Bush, to a commission to study how best to cut taxes. Always immaculately dressed and ready with a clever line, Mr. Kudlow seemed always to be racing between television studios and from speech to speech. There were occasional signs of stress: the client presentation at Montgomery Securities that he missed or missed deadlines at the National Review. In the end, the occasional slip turned into something far more frightening.
“He had slips but he was sober for big intervals,” Mrs. Kudlow said in a telephone interview. “He was doing everything. He was going to A.A. He was going to church. He was seeing his counselor. He was determined to overcome this, but it just overpowered him.” According to Mrs. Kudlow, her husband initially resisted the idea of long-term treatment, which is expensive, disruptive and almost impossible to hide, even though two monthlong and one weeklong treatment program had not been enough. Instead, he turned more to drugs.
In the end, she said she decided to act. Mrs. Kudlow, a former press secretary for the Department of Justice and now a painter, said she did not intend to end her marriage to Mr. Kudlow. The divorce action, she said, was a legal device to keep him from using the money to buy more cocaine. As it turned out, she added, it also helped convince Mr. Kudlow that he had to take drastic measures.
“It came down to saving his life,” she said. “I have no intention of divorcing him, but I had to take a hard line.” What happens now? Mrs. Kudlow said she looks forward to life together with him but a very different one from the fast-paced, high profile existence the couple shared in Manhattan. She said in the affidavit that she planned to sell their apartments to pay for Mr. Kudlow’s treatment and to begin a new life outside of New York City with her husband.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:32 pmthe next senator of Arizona once had a wicked-ass drug problem all up in it herself Mr. DCSCA
licked the straw every damn time that one
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:37 pm@129. A resnort state, Mr. Feet.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:51 pm122.117 — all Trump did this weekend was remind the world that there is no such thing as “always” allies or “always” enemies.
The only constant is US interests.
Rev.Hoagie (c5d6cf) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:54 pmshipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/10/2018 @ 4:16 pm
Someone once told me to be nice to everyone you meet but always have a plan to kill them if it becomes necessary. I thought he was kidding at the time. Now I’m older and not so sure.
The only constant is US interests.
From floating an Ali pardon to blurting out Russia rejoin the G7, the only constant is a failing memory; dementia.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 5:14 pmSounds familiar rev, no i was speaking of turning to Christianity, I don’t think Obama turning to rev wright is quite the same thing, but he sold the publishers a perfectly woke CV born in Kenya the son of the finance minister, and that shorthand was unchallenged for 17 years.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 5:23 pmSWC # 121 – you are absolutely right,
A week ago I said: If Trump does make the June 12th meeting happen – I wonder if the New York Times will say that “Trump accomplishes the impossible”
https://patterico.com/2018/05/27/this-open-thread-does-not-exist/#comment-2122373
bendover (1b807d) — 6/10/2018 @ 5:27 pmThere used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today’s politicians. He has obviously achieved nothing.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 5:49 pmCharles Krauthammer
All of this for a single encounter with Kim who is scheduled to be on a plane a scant 5 hours after the initial handshakes?
I at least now understand DJT’s remarks as to knowing what he needs to know in the first few minutes.
Ed from SFV (76ec9e) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:05 pm@136. It’s a Kim Win from the start– hell, he even had Air China lend him a jet. But Boeing has to be just ‘plane’ pleased: both these twits flew into Singapore aboard 747s.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:15 pmWell back then. Albright partied like a bobby soxer. 19 years we find ourselves with the hangover:
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:20 pm
Ed @136
kishnevi (4777d8) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:34 pmI am sure they’ll hold the plane at the gate for Kim if he runs late.
I don’t have a single person on my “block” list.
DCSCA is close to be No. 1.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:52 pmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/public-safety/former-cia-officer-kevin-mallory-found-guilty-of-selling-secrets-to-china/2018/06/08/918a0b82-69ad-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?noredirect
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 6:54 pmHaas among others may regret what they did in 2008 and 2012
http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/06/experts-vs-trump-on-singapore.html
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:22 pmThe problem is that Trump gave no good reason why the other six democratic nations should not be our best allies. The issue about tariffs is a pointless pissing match.
Trump also gave no good reason why Putin should reenter the G7, only that he should be there. Trump was the Troll at the Summit, and he only served to piss off our best allies and unjustifiably elevate a Russian dictator who has been consistently hostile to our interests.
Paul Montagu (c66aed) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:22 pmThe g7 is a joke, it makes the league of nations, seem ebullient, take merkel has imported a million persons who are incapable of working and hostile to the nation, they train with wooden rifles, and that’s the powerhouse in the group, they threw out their nuclear power and are dependent of Russian natural gas to get through their next cold snAP.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:32 pmThen take terrible theresa who is banana peel from handing the country to a raging trotskite, islamist sympathizer, have the strikes stopped in Paris yet?
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:36 pm145
kishnevi (916796) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:44 pmWhich perhaps is why Obama was right in preferring Latin America to UK.
Well he thought Marxist revolution would get it rughr, this time,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 7:49 pm@143: Nineteen months later, Paul Krugman’s still probably shorting the market.
random viking (6a54c2) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:12 pmI see Trudeau’s eyebrow is trying to leave Canada.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:14 pmDo they want to be syracuse in this scenario:
https://pjmedia.com/trending
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 8:36 pm@140. The bread is always fresh; the skies are always blue and it never rains… in East Berlin.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:17 pm@149. They didn’t burn the White House but Canadians did save American bacon back in ’80. Somebody should get our Captain a DVD of Argo for the flight home before he apologizes.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:27 pmNo silly rabbit the wall for keeping out of west berlin
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:30 pmhttp://dailycaller.com/2018/06/10/democratic-congressman-trump-trudeau-trade-dispute
narciso (d1f714) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:56 pm136. All of this for a single encounter with Kim who is scheduled to be on a plane a scant 5 hours after the initial handshakes?
It’s a Kim Win. He’s no wimpy; he’ll gladly trade the USS Pueblo on a Tuesday for a Pyongyang McDonald’s today.
“You must remember, the Americans are a very strange people. Whereas other countries rarely forgive anything, the Americans forgive anything. There isn’t a more profitable undertaking for any country than to declare war on the United States and to be defeated.” – Prime Minster Count Rupert Mountjoy [Peter Sellers] ‘The Mouse That Roared’ 1959
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:14 pmThey didn’t burn the White House but Canadians did save American bacon back in ’80. Somebody should get our Captain a DVD of Argo for the flight home before he apologizes.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 9:27 pm
I think you dropped a letter:
Pinandpuller (aa705c) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:24 pm@156. More like a hint, PP.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/10/2018 @ 10:30 pmTrump’s aides admit he routinely destroys official records that must, by law, be preserved:
Meet the guys who tape Trump’s papers back together
Basically the same thing Hillary set up her private email server to facilitate.
But President Trump is above the law, so I guess it’s OK for him.
Dave (445e97) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:57 am“Basically the same thing Hillary set up her private email server to facilitate.”
Dave, you’ve got to be kidding … right?
bendover (8f3556) — 6/11/2018 @ 6:22 amI always assumed the private server was to allow her to selectively (and unlawfully) edit the records of her official correspondence for political purposes. And that’s exactly what she ended up doing.
What’s your explanation?
There was never any requirement to use a State Dept. server for private/unofficial correspondence.
Dave (da11b7) — 6/11/2018 @ 1:46 pm@160. She learned nothing from the 1990’s.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 2:19 pmWhere does Article I impose an obligation on the President to preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that [he] touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records? This is just another bullsh!t unconstitutional law.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 4:35 pmOr Article II.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 4:36 pmArticle II, Section 8, Paragraph 18:
The Constitution, as you know, also requires the President to see that the laws are faithfully executed.
Dave (e017d2) — 6/11/2018 @ 4:50 pm@162. Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978 | National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1978-act.html
Specifically, the Presidential Records Act:
-Defines and states public ownership of the records.
-Places the responsibility for the custody and management of incumbent Presidential records with the President.
-Allows the incumbent President to dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value, once he has obtained the views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal.
-Requires that the President and his staff take all practical steps to file personal records separately from Presidential records.
-Establishes a process for restriction and public access to these records. Specifically, the PRA allows for public access to Presidential records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) beginning five years after the end of the Administration, but allows the President to invoke as many as six specific restrictions to public access for up to twelve years. The PRA also establishes procedures for Congress, courts, and subsequent administrations to obtain special access to records that remain closed to the public, following a 30‑day notice period to the former and current Presidents.
-Requires that Vice-Presidential records are to be treated in the same way as Presidential records.
Related Executive Orders:
-Executive Order 12667 – Issued by President Reagan in January 1989, this executive order established the procedures for NARA and former and incumbent Presidents to implement the PRA (44 U.S.C. §§ 2201–2207).
-Executive Order 13233 – This executive order, issued by President George W. Bush on November 1, 2001, supersedes the previous executive order. The Bush executive order also includes the documents of former Vice Presidents.
-Executive Order 13489 – Issued by President Barack Obama on January 21, 2009, restored the implementation of the PRA of 1978 as practiced under President Reagan’s Executive Order 12667 and revoked President Bush’s Executive Order 13233.
Proposed amendments
-Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, passed by the House on March 14, 2007.
-Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act of 2017, named after President Trump’s “covfefe” tweet
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 4:54 pmAny documents that come into possession of the
Dave (e017d2) — 6/11/2018 @ 4:58 pmKingPresident or his staff, in the course of their official duties are the property of the United States.Well, the necessary and proper clause has been litigated and found not to give Congress plenary power; whether Congress has the authority to impose a records act on departments it has created is besides the point; how the President does his job is defined by Article II not Congress; Presidents cannot waive the Constitution for future Presidents; and the history you listed should tell you that this was a horsesh!t “we gotta do something!” response to Watergate.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:09 pmAny documents that come into possession of the King President or his staff, in the course of their official duties are the property of the United States.
Says who?
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:10 pm“Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn’t violating the law.“
Therefore, no violation of law.
No mention that any docs had a “C” designation either, which for Hillary means “clutter”.
random viking (6a54c2) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:11 pmPlenary power, no, but the power to make the laws for the government of the United States is what the plain language of the clause says.
Are you really arguing that
Dave (e017d2) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:33 pmKingsPresidents should be free to excise any embarrassing or impolitic documents from the official government records? I’m not trying to misrepresent your position, but if there’s a limiting principle, it’s not clear where you think it would be.@167. And once again, 3M tape is involved. History rhymes. 😉
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:38 pmBreaking– Trump tweets: Larry Kuddlow suffers heart attack.
Drug test him. Now. Immediately.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:40 pmAre you really arguing that Kings Presidents should be free to excise any embarrassing or impolitic documents from the official government records?
Absolutely. Under the Constitution, they are free to shred anything that is the work product of the White House at their sole discretion and Congress has no authority to do anything about it.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:46 pmThe law.
Did Hillary’s classified emails become her private property upon receipt too?
Dave (e017d2) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:46 pmHillary was not the President. Her office and duties are purely creations of Congress and as defined, limited and regulated by Congress.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:50 pm
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:50 pmarewereBut you haven’t told me which Article I power Congress is necessarily and properly exercising with the Presidential Records Act. Regulating interstate commerce in paper shredders, maybe?
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:55 pmI guess you’re just letting the suspense build before providing a citation to the executive’s enumerated power to shred…
🙂
Dave (e017d2) — 6/11/2018 @ 5:56 pmWatch Trump’s eyes as he moves about. They search out the camera locations like a magnet.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 6:01 pmI wonder who will design Trump National in North Korea?
mg (9e54f8) — 6/11/2018 @ 6:11 pmanother take on the subject:
http://www.journal14.com
Narciso (d1f714) — 6/11/2018 @ 7:19 pmLOL — historic summit in Singapore with the Norks. Like him or dislike him, you have to give Trump credit for pulling this off, regardless of what comes from it.
But the blaring headline at CNN????
“NORTH KOREA CONTINUES TO INVEST IN NAZI-STYLE PRISON CAMPS”.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:02 pmNazi style, snorfle, well juche is small scale maoism ‘its what they do’
narciso (d1f714) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:05 pmLOL — historic summit in Singapore with the Norks. Like him or dislike him, you have to give Kim credit for pulling this off, regardless of what comes from it.
Kim Wins- across the board.
“You must remember, the Americans are a very strange people. Whereas other countries rarely forgive anything, the Americans forgive anything. There isn’t a more profitable undertaking for any country than to declare war on the United States and to be defeated.” – PM Count Rupert Mountjoy [Peter Sellers] ‘The Mouse That Roared’ 1959
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:13 pmIt’s the ‘Seinfeld Summit’… a show about nothing.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:17 pmNo, that was the other instance:
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2018/06/11/flashback-cbs-applauded-clintons-94-noko-deal-no-longer
narciso (d1f714) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:23 pm185 — just keep hopin DCSCA. Maybe Bernie will pull it out for you in the 2020 primaries.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 6/11/2018 @ 8:57 pmI gotta love the way the Left roots for America’s enemies when the GOP is in the White House. Of course, when THEIR guy is in, any criticism of The President is tantamount to treason.
Kevin M (752a26) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:03 pmHow does it feel to be a Nazi sympathizer, DCSCA?
Kevin M (752a26) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:04 pmTrump has a tough row to hoe. What makes the chubby little dog-eater important enough to even be called names by the President of the United States is his nukes. Otherwise, he’d be nothing from nowhere. He’s not going to give them up easily. Likely not at all.
nk (dbc370) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:06 pmThis is so sad, I wish him peace.
pikcat (68734b) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:06 pmAnd the million man army, and 40’000 mortars in range of the capital.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:10 pm@187. Fox compares Jong to Gorby! Another Kim Win!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:27 pm@189. Trumpian!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:28 pmLee Kuan Lee would have loved to see this historic moment take place in Singapore.
mg (9e54f8) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:36 pmLee Kuan Yew
mg (9e54f8) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:37 pm@190.Trump has a tough row to hoe. What makes the chubby little dog-eater important enough to even be called names by the President of the United States is his nukes. Otherwise, he’d be nothing from nowhere. He’s not going to give them up easily. Likely not at all.
So the lesson is, if your name is Rodney and leader of Dangerfield, you make nukes, meet POTUS on your terms and get respect. And to hold on to it, you hold on to them.
The 34 year old has played the 72 year old like a grandson talking his grandpappy into selling him his old, ancient, 1965 Mustang for fifty bucks. Kim Wins across the board!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:39 pmThe Bond villain look is now ‘in.’ Another Kim Win!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/11/2018 @ 9:49 pm12. Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/8/2018 @ 2:00 pm
I was beginning to hope maybe it wouldn’t happen, but this turned out almost exactly like I thought.
Charles Kratthammer died today.
Not “weeks.” Not even two full weeks.
Some “best estimate”
It is truly sad that he did not attempt to avail himself of some futuristic 21th-Century medicine.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 6/21/2018 @ 4:27 pmOh, good Lord, Sammy. Just put a sock in it on the day the man died. You are odd, but that’s just rude. And I don’t think you are intentionally rude.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 6/21/2018 @ 4:44 pmClosing the new frontier
By Charles Krauthammer – February 12, 2010
“We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this,” says Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency, about ferrying astronauts from other countries into low-Earth orbit. “But after that? Excuse me, but the prices should be absolutely different then!”
The Russians may be new at capitalism, but they know how it works. When you have a monopoly, you charge monopoly prices. Within months, Russia will have a monopoly on rides into space.
By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for us to get into space. We’re not talking about Mars or the moon here. We’re talking about low-Earth orbit, which the United States has dominated for nearly half a century and from which it is now retiring with nary a whimper.
Our absence from low-Earth orbit was meant to last a few years, the interval between the retirement of the fatally fragile space shuttle and its replacement with the Constellation program (Ares booster, Orion capsule, Altair lunar lander) to take astronauts more cheaply and safely back to space.
But the Obama 2011 budget kills Constellation. Instead, we shall have nothing. For the first time since John Glenn flew in 1962, the United States will have no access of its own for humans into space — and no prospect of getting there in the foreseeable future.
Of course, the administration presents the abdication as a great leap forward: Launching humans will be turned over to the private sector, while NASA’s efforts will be directed toward landing on Mars.
This is nonsense. It would be swell for private companies to take over launching astronauts. But they cannot do it. It’s too expensive. It’s too experimental. And the safety standards for getting people up and down reliably are just unreachably high.
Sure, decades from now there will be a robust private space-travel industry. But that is a long time. In the interim, space will be owned by Russia and then China. The president waxes seriously nationalist at the thought of China or India surpassing us in speculative “clean energy.” Yet he is quite prepared to gratuitously give up our spectacular lead in human space exploration.
As for Mars, more nonsense. Mars is just too far away. And how do you get there without the stepping stones of Ares and Orion? If we can’t afford an Ares rocket to get us into orbit and to the moon, how long will it take to develop a revolutionary new propulsion system that will take us not a quarter-million miles but 35 million miles?
To say nothing of the effects of long-term weightlessness, of long-term cosmic ray exposure, and of the intolerable risk to astronaut safety involved in any Mars trip — six months of contingencies vs. three days for a moon trip.
Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It’s like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future. A classic example is the B-1 bomber, which was canceled in the 1970s in favor of the over-the-horizon B-2 stealth bomber, which was then killed in the 1990s after a production run of only 21 (instead of 132) in the name of post-Cold War obsolescence.
Moreover, there is the question of seriousness. When John F. Kennedy pledged to go to the moon, he meant it. He had an intense personal commitment to the enterprise. He delivered speeches remembered to this day. He dedicated astronomical sums to make it happen.
At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA was consuming almost 4 percent of the federal budget, which in terms of the 2011 budget is about $150 billion. Today the manned space program will die for want of $3 billion a year — 1/300th of last year’s stimulus package with its endless make-work projects that will leave not a trace on the national consciousness.
As for President Obama’s commitment to beyond-lunar space: Has he given a single speech, devoted an iota of political capital to it?
Obama’s NASA budget perfectly captures the difference in spirit between Kennedy’s liberalism and Obama’s. Kennedy’s was an expansive, bold, outward-looking summons. Obama’s is a constricted, inward-looking call to retreat.
Fifty years ago, Kennedy opened the New Frontier. Obama has just shut it.
# # # #
Farewell, New Frontier
By Charles Krauthammer – April 20, 2012
As the space shuttle Discovery flew three times around Washington, a final salute before landing at Dulles airport for retirement in a museum, thousands on the ground gazed upward with marvel and pride. Yet what they were witnessing, for all its elegance, was a funeral march.
The shuttle was being carried – its pallbearer, a 747 – because it cannot fly, nor will it ever again. It was being sent for interment. Above ground, to be sure. But just as surely embalmed as Lenin in Red Square.
Is there a better symbol of willed American decline? The pity is not Discovery’s retirement – beautiful as it was, the shuttle proved too expensive and risky to operate – but that it died without a successor. The planned follow-on – the Constellation rocket-capsule program to take humans back into orbit and from there to the moon – was suddenly canceled in 2010. And with that, control of manned spaceflight was gratuitously ceded to Russia and China.
Russia went for the cash, doubling its price for carrying an astronaut into orbit to $55.8 million. (Return included. Thank you, Boris.)
China goes for the glory. Having already mastered launch and rendezvous, the Chinese plan to land on the moon by 2025. They understand well the value of symbols. And nothing could better symbolize China overtaking America than its taking our place on the moon, walking over footprints first laid down, then casually abandoned, by us.
Who cares, you say? What is national greatness, scientific prestige or inspiring the young – legacies of NASA – when we are in economic distress? OK. But if we’re talking jobs and growth, science and technology, R&D and innovation – what President Obama insists are the keys to “an economy built to last” – why on earth cancel an incomparably sophisticated, uniquely American technological enterprise?
We lament the decline of American manufacturing, yet we stop production of the most complex machine ever made by man – and cancel the successor meant to return us to orbit. The result?
Abolition of thousands of the most highly advanced aerospace jobs anywhere – its workforce abruptly unemployed and drifting away from space flight, never to be reconstituted.
Well, you say, we can’t afford all that in a time of massive deficits.
There are always excuses for putting off strenuous national endeavors: deficits, joblessness, poverty, whatever. But they shall always be with us. We’ve had exactly five balanced budgets since Alan Shepard rode Freedom 7 in 1961. If we had put off space exploration until these earthbound social and economic conundrums were solved, our rocketry would be about where North Korea’s is today.
Moreover, today’s deficits are not inevitable, nor even structural. They are partly the result of the 2008 financial panic and recession. Those are over now. The rest is the result of a massive three-year expansion of federal spending.
But there is no reason the federal government has to keep spending 24 percent of GDP. The historical postwar average is just over 20 percent – and those budgets sustained a robust manned space program.
NASA will tell you that it’s got a new program to go way beyond low-Earth orbit and, as per Obama’s instructions, land on an asteroid by the mid-2020s. Considering that Constellation did not even last five years between birth and cancellation, don’t hold your breath for the asteroid landing.
Nor for the private sector to get us back into orbit, as Obama assumes it will. True, hauling MREs up and trash back down could be done by private vehicles. But manned flight is infinitely more complex and risky, requiring massive redundancy and inevitably larger expenditures. Can private entities really handle that? And within the next lost decade or two?
Neil Armstrong, James Lovell and Gene Cernan are deeply skeptical. In a 2010 open letter, they called Obama’s cancellation of Constellation a “devastating” decision that “destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature.”
Which is why museum visits to the embalmed Discovery will be sad indeed. America rarely retreats from a new frontier. Yet today we can’t even do what John Glenn did in 1962, let alone fly a circa-1980 shuttle.
At least Discovery won’t suffer the fate of the Temeraire, the British warship tenderly rendered in Turner’s famous painting “The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838.” Too beautiful for the scrapheap, Discovery will lie intact, a magnificent and melancholy rebuke to constricted horizons.
_______
Armstrong is gone. Cernan, Shepard and Glenn, too. Now Krauthammer has left us as well.
Those of us who support a strong and vibrant manned space program know it is a bipartisan endeavor. It is an investment in ourselves and our future with an incalculable potential for rich returns. And yes, it is inspiring. It beckons to the best in us.
Cronkite knew this. So did Krauthammer. His advocacy will be missed. It is honest writing.
And true.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/21/2018 @ 4:52 pm