Security analyst: Fact vs. Innuendo in Flynn Affair
The problem with Michael Flynn’s ouster as national security adviser “is not the mishandling of classified information,” as President Trump believes, says Eli Lake at Bloomberg. “It’s about Flynn’s detractors selectively disclosing” such information “and how this represents a chilling abuse of power.” For while Flynn didn’t fully disclose the details of his calls with Moscow’s ambassador, “at at no point has he been accused of working with Russia” to “sabotage the election.” Nor is there any indication of any “quid pro quo deal with the Russians.” The calls themselves “mean very little” and are “not unprecedented.” And suggestions he was susceptible to blackmail are “the weakest reed of all.” No, “Flynn’s enemies waged this campaign by disclosing communications that we should be able to trust the government to monitor with proper discretion.”
Media critic: Did Trump’s Press-Bash Go Too Far?
It was riveting, says Fox News’ Howard Kurtz, and it was also “the harshest indictment of the media ever delivered from the White House.” Naturally, Trump supporters “thought it was a brilliant takedown of a corrupt media.” But while the president “is justified in complaining about an unprecedented flood of illegal leaks that are clearly aimed at damaging him,” that “doesn’t mean the information is wrong.” And his attack on CNN’s Don Lemon for stacking his show with anti-Trump guests “feels like a small argument for the president to make.” What’s clear, though, is that Trump still has “deep-seated grievances about the way he’s been covered.” The best way to get even: “accomplishing some of the big-ticket items on his agenda.”
PC watch: Students Protest ‘Oppressive’ Dalai Lama
Believe it or not, students at the University of California-San Diego are protesting an upcoming commencement speech by the Dalai Lama, reports Kieran Corcoran at Heat Street. They claim the widely respected Nobel Peace laureate’s “presence is offensive because of his campaign to make Tibet more independent — contrary to the Communist government’s position that Tibet is a region of China under their control.” Indeed, they accuse their university of having “contravened the spirit of respect, tolerance, equality and earnestness” by inviting him. All this suggests “China is prepared to take advantage of a newly censorious atmosphere on campus.”
Mideast desk: How Trump Changed the Conversation
The Right was “jubilant” and the Left “aghast” when President Trump said he was not married to a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, notes Jerusalem Post columnist Herb Keinon. After all, for the Left and “much of the international community,” the two-state idea is the “dogma that must be accepted.” Yet 25 years after the Oslo agreements, “all attempts to forge an agreement based on two states have failed.” So “maybe there are other solutions out there, perhaps interim, perhaps even far from perfect, but better than what exists now.” And if “the leaders of the world would begin to open up a bit to other ideas, the Palestinians might realize they will not succeed in their current aim of trying to get the world to foist this so-far unworkable solution on Israel.”
Libertarian: Both the Right and Left Are Hypocrites
Hypocrisy is nothing new, says Jonathan Bethune at The Federalist. “What is new is the degree of cynicism.” Trump’s election “caused the progressive establishment to become unhinged. Principles have become utterly irrelevant.” Yet on both sides, “the class of moderately intelligent, politically aware people” have largely “become partisan ideologues.” These are people “dishonest by nature,” who “often cannot even tell when they are being dishonest.” They maintain “the gang must be defended [so] that the agenda might be defended, even when the gang violates core tenets of the agenda.” But while “there were numerous conservative hypocrites during the Obama years,” leftists now “have crossed the line by calling for violence and then lying to cover their tracks.” Both sides “need to start fighting for ideas again.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
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