My friend Jeff Goldberg goes to great lengths in this new article to get us to take Michael Oren and his new book (‘Ally‘) seriously and not be led astray by the book’s publicity campaign or the opeds Oren himself has written in support of it, which are apparently far less nuanced than the book itself. And yet, in Jeff’s interview, Oren comes off as precisely the over-clever asshole Goldberg wants him not to be. We hear again and again from Oren’s defenders (and to be clear, Goldberg isn’t really defending him, as much as he’d clearly like to) that the former Israeli ambassador wanted to write a book about the fatal shortcomings of President Obama’s Iran diplomacy and yet somehow accidentally wrote a book in which he not only psychoanalyzes President Obama but all of American Jewry. The latter are too conflicted and defensive about their identity as Jews not to give thanks that they were born in the same era as Benjamin Netanyahu, the embodiment of the Jewish people who brings together both Maimonides and Herzl into one unified, deluxe Jewish person. (I hate it when that happens!) Because there is no possible reason other than a psychological one why American Jews might not genuflect at the Netanyahu altar.
Just as hosts, networks, businesses and even entire countries cut ties with Donald Trump, Republican primary voters in Iowa are buying in big time, sending Trump soaring to second place in Iowa in the latest Quinnipiac poll of Iowa.
Trump is tied at 10 with Ben Carson. And admittedly Cruz and Paul and bunched close at 9. But still.
Clever new pressure campaign over sex-trafficking concerns hits backpage.com where it hurts.
Obama on back-to-back SCOTUS wins and more: It was “a really good week.”
Police are investigating a fire at an historic black church in Greeleyville, South Carolina, one in what appears to be a string of fires in black churches in the South over the last two weeks.
Newly non-Crazy ™ Rand Paul had a 45 minute private sit-down meeting with outlaw and ‘friend of the Negro’ Cliven Bundy.
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author of New York Times bestseller ‘Salt Sugar Fat’ Michael Moss will chat with Prime members in The Hive (sub req) Monday, July 6 at 2 PM Eastern. Moss is an expert on the food industry, having worked as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He focuses on the industry in the context of health, safety, nutrition, politics, and corporate interests. ‘Salt Sugar Fat‘ won the 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Writing & Literature, and Michael Pollan called it “a Fast Food Nation for the processed food industry.”
Michael will be answering questions about his book, his reporting, and the politics and economics of what we eat. Please drop your questions here at or before 2 PM on Monday July 6!
The “judicial tyranny” gets really long-in-the-tooth when you’re forced to argue that it is “judicial tyranny” when a Court will not overrule the legislature and executive.
The founder and owner of Hobby Lobby is building the new national bible museum, right on the edge of the National Mall, to join the Smithsonian, the national science museum and all the other real museums.