Jim Jatras

On March 31 the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election was held. In line with all polls, the top spot (with about 30 percent of the vote) was taken by Volodymyr Zelensky, a comic actor who played President of Ukraine in a popular TV series, making him the leading candidate for the position he once spoofed.

One can almost hear an audible sigh of relief from the rogues’ gallery of criminal conspirators behind the phony Russiagate collusion story cooked up in the bowels of the US-UK Deep State with the aim of overturning the 2016 election.

It’s just incredible what a hullabaloo can erupt from the garbled account of just one spoken word. All week long the national media and political class have been in a tizzy over what Donald Trump was reported to have said in a closed-door White House meeting with Senators over DACA and immigration policy.

The campaign against memorials to long-dead Confederates seems to have taken a bit of a sabbatical. Perhaps the media have only paused the hype in favor the celebrity groping mania, or maybe pulling down or defacing outdoor art is not a cold-weather activity.

Just picture ‘em – all cuffed and taking the perp walk: California’s Governor Jerry Brown, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee, Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, Washington, DC’s Muriel Bowser, New Orleans’ Mitch Landrieu, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel, New York’s Bill de Blasio . . .”

Every living nation needs symbols. They tell us who we are as one people, in what we believe, and on what basis we organize our common life.

[W]hatever Trump does, he needs to do it soon. The Swamp has a plan to upend the constitutional order. Trump needs one to preserve it. Tweets and rallies out in the real America won’t get the job done.

Just imagine if a deranged Tea Party activist known to rant on social media against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had gunned down a bunch of Democrats. Would Republican officials get away with saccharine expressions of “this is an attack on all of us,” “we stand united,” and similar vacuities?

There is reason to fear that Trump, guided by advisers whose policy proclivities mirror those of his critics, may seek the path of least resistance by further bellicose measures.

If and when catastrophe strikes, in Korea, or Syria, or Iran or any one of the other places where Trump is being encouraged to press the envelope, former Trump critics now hailing the return of “leading from the front” will not take the fall.

A return to the old-timey real-life filibuster would be magnificent political theater and valuable public education on the issues. It would also respect the WGDB’s tradition of affording the minority their right of unlimited debate while allowing for an eventual majoritarian vote to proceed.

As he completes his third week in office Donald Trump has already stunned the world with his “shock and awe” campaign to keep promises made when he was a candidate. The mere fact of a politician doing what he said he would do seems to have unsettled the nerves of his opponents.

Do the DNI report and Congressional calls for new sanctions to poison the well against Trump’s agenda constitute a desperate last stand? Or will they manage to pull it off, crippling Trump before he can even get started?

If there was ever an ideal candidate to demonstrate a “Trump Doctrine” on ending NATO’s profligate freeloading, Montenegro is it.

When Donald Trump takes office, for the first time since Ronald Reagan we will have a president with the stature and vision to put the interests of the American people first.

Every election cycle, we are told that “this” might be the most important ballot we ever cast. What if this time it turns out to be true?

Genuine American exceptionalism and the “America First” policies of Donald Trump don’t mean our withdrawal from the world. U.S. primacy in a multipolar system is something most countries would be prepared to accept, however grudgingly.

In overriding Obama’s veto for the first time to enact JASTA, Congress, whatever the legislators’ individual motivations, put Americans first—for a change.

In view of the ongoing partisan MSM feeding frenzy over Donald Trump’s hot microphone comments about women, the question is raised over what constitutes impermissibly lewd thoughts, words, and actions.

For those who have been paying attention for the past couple of decades, Aleppo Boy is a familiar example of what is known as “atrocity porn,” titillating the audience through horror and incitement to hatred of the presumed perpetrators.

Donald Trump caught a lot of people off guard with his proposal, spearheaded by daughter Ivanka, on child-care benefits. This is not familiar Republican territory.

No one paying attention with even one eye and half an ear can be ignorant of the fact that when it comes to this year’s election the MSM are lying shills for Hillary. But now it seems they’re all suffering from amnesia too.

If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, Scoundrel Time to the nth degree was on full display in Philadelphia last week. The closing days of the Democratic Convention featured an orgy of frenzied flag-waving.

Donald Trump has made it clear from the beginning that he’s in it to win it. He has said that if he ends up losing the presidential race it will all have been for nothing: “If I don't go all the way, and if I don't win, I will consider it to be a total and complete waste of time, energy, and money.”

There will be many, many "next times" unless and until people get really, really sick of this charade and do something about it.

For those familiar with the operational code of the late Soviet Union, the counterproductive skew of American policy has a familiar ring. The Bolsheviks sacrificed the interests of the Russian people in pursuit of their Marxist-Leninist vision.

With his resounding victory in Indiana, the forces denoted by the Twitter hashtag #NeverTrump should fold up shop and accept the inevitable.

This week Donald Trump ignited another furor, this time for asking the simple question of whether America’s commitment to NATO is worth it. The following day, Brussels was hit by jihad terror attacks.

Tuning in last night, one could be forgiven for thinking the United States (or at least Miami) was no longer functionally an English-speaking land.

President Obama’s final State of the Union address was long on themes and short on specifics. It clearly was an attempt to secure a legacy of accomplishment. That attempt is at best questionable.

The Iowa caucuses are under a month away, and the GOP Establishment is in white-knuckle panic that Donald Trump’s candidacy has not imploded.