Charles Krauthammer has passed away at the age of 68 due to abdominal cancer, on the longest day of the year. I want people to look at this post and then ask “Who’s this Charles Krauthammer?” Play the video below. Then read his book “Things That Matter.”
Go with God sir.
We miss you already.
BZ
Charles Krauthammer, 68-year-old columnist, journalist, scholar, author of “Things That Matter,” Fox News panelist and correspondent, a Harvard Medical School graduate, a board certified psychiatrist, Pulitzer prize winner, a man who is fluent in French and Hebrew — may have but a few weeks to live.
From FoxNews.com:
Fox News star Charles Krauthammer reveals he has weeks to live in heartbreaking letter
by Greg Wilson
Charles Krauthammer, the beloved and brilliant Fox News Channel personality who gave up a pioneering career in psychiatry to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning political analyst, on Friday revealed the heartbreaking news that he is in the final stages of a losing battle with cancer.
The 68-year-old’s incisive takes on politics of the day have been missing from Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” for nearly a year as he battled an abdominal tumor and subsequent complications, but colleagues and viewers alike had held out hope that he would return to the evening show he helped establish as must-viewing. But in an eloquent, yet unblinking letter to co-workers, friends and Fox News Channel viewers, Krauthammer disclosed that he has just weeks to live.
Charles Krauthammer wrote on June 8th:
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.
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.
Things that matter?
I’d say Charles Krauthammer matters.
BZ
It has taken me a good 24 hours, since appearing on Ken McClenton’s radio show Monday night (please see his The Exceptional Conservative site here), to calm down sufficiently to craft this post. I vacillated back and forth a number of times; do I take the high road? Do I mince words? Do I attempt to remain as diplomatic as possible? Or do I provide my opinion in a completely unexpurgated fashion?
I have decided to be as gracious as I have been for the eight years under the most Leftist and authoritarian United States regime in my seven decades on the planet.
Historically, the US had a 30-year tradition of supporting Israel at the UN. With one resolution the United States has cast Israel to the proverbial curb.
“Friends don’t take friends to the security council.” — Benjamin Netanyahu
A “no” vote from the US was a vote to stop the resolution. The US abstained. Let’s get some background. From USAToday.com:
U.S. abstains on U.N. vote condemning Israeli settlements
by Doug Stanglin
In an unprecedented diplomatic rebuke of Israel, the United States abstained Friday on a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, allowing the highly charged measure to pass.
The resolution was approved 14-0 with the one abstention. The vote was greeted with loud applause in the packed Security Council chamber.
Because the UN then and now has historically been aligned against Israel.
The measure demands Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It declares the establishment of settlements by Israel has “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”
In abstaining, the U.S. brushed aside calls for a veto by president-elect Donald Trumpwho, in an unprecedented move, managed to delay the vote a day by weighing in with Egypt, the initial sponsor of the resolution.
To continue:
The American Jewish Congress also expressed dismay with the move.
“In the strongest terms possible, the American Jewish Congress is deeply disappointed with the Obama administration for shamefully abstaining on today’s anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution,” the group said in a statement. “By the U.S. abstaining, President Obama abandoned long standing American foreign policy of vetoing one-sided resolutions against Israel at the United Nations, and in doing so, he steps away from his presidency, turning his back on the unbreakable bond with our great ally Israel.”
Even worse, the US Ambassador to Israel, Ron Dermer, says that Barack Hussein Obama is behind the resolution. From Breitbart.com:
Israel’s U.S. Ambassador: Obama Administration Behind United Nations Gang Up Against Israel
by Jeff Poor
Monday on CNN’s “New Day,” Israel Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer told fill-in co-host Don Lemon that the Obama administration was responsible for a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned some Israeli settlement construction to be adopted last week.
In that vote, the United States abstained. Dermer argued that despite that abstention, it was the Obama administration that orchestrated the vote, calling it “outrageous” and “shameful.”
Let’s watch the video. Please notice that Don Lemon cuts Dermer off.
Then let us note the input of Charles Krauthammer, not the most consistently-reliable supporter of Donald Trump.
John Bolton has said “I cannot think of a worse way for the Obama administration to go out. It’s a needless tragedy and reflects Obama’s sick ideology.” Obama still has two additional weeks to disadvantage Israel. His abstention, representing the United States, only gives rise to the empowerment of anti-Israel forces. As an aside, I believe the Trump administration has made a grievous error by not acquiring the services of John Bolton in any was possible.
The United States funds a full quarter of the UN every year, to the tune of $8 billion dollars in “mandatory payments.” The rest of the planet contributes when it feels so motivated. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Meh. The truth is this: the United States — meaning YOU, the American Taxpayer — supports the United Nations, pays for the upkeep of the building, security, and provides budgetary patches when other nations find themselves “hard pressed.”
In other words, we pay for other nations to excoriate us, vote against us, rail against us, with little if any benefit to us. You. Me. We pay for that. We pay for that.
This was what some quantify as a “gratuitous act” by Barack Obama. I say it is this: a final act by a lame-duck president that speaks to his core values because, for once, he absolutely answers to no one for anything and has a last-chance gasp to express his disdain for Israel with no repercussions whatsoever.
Is the UN completely irrelevant when, for example, New Zealand votes in favor?
Bolton says that US contributions to the UN should be voluntary and not assessed or mandatory.
I couldn’t agree more.
Israeli President Netanyahu has declared that he is not going for the proverbial “two-state solution” with the Palestinians. Instead, he said he will re-assess Israel’s relationship with the UN, to include funding issues. For decades, Israel has pursued a policy of constructing Jewish settlements on territory including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem which was captured by Israel in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbors, also called the Six Day War. Egypt, Jordan and Syrian forces along with those of Iraq, Kuwait and Algeria were on the cusp of an Israeli invasion; Israel, vastly outnumbered, conducted air strikes and gained tactical advantage.
John Kerry, in response to negative comments and feedback from the abstention, said
“The truth is that trends on the ground, violence, terrorism, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation, they are combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing any reversible — an irreversible one state reality that most people do not actually want.
Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state or they can separate into two states. But here is a fundamental reality. If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both. And it won’t ever really be at peace.
Moreover, the Palestinians will never fully realize their vast potential in a homeland of their own with a one state solution.”
According to Kerry, it is Israel’s duty to create the “Palestinian State” by giving up its own home soil and it is every bit arrogant to declare in a Stentorian voice that “Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, not both.”
What of those massive Muslim states surrounding the miniscule Israel? Why is it they cannot find it within themselves to donate land to their Muslim brethren? Why is it Israel’s “duty”? Easy answer: anything to hurt the nation of Israel; anything to hurt or help eliminate the Jews.
Obama continues his haughty talk at the end of his presidency. If you recall, some persons were intimating that Barack Hussein Obama would do his best to enable a third term — illegal, of course, under the 22nd Amendment. He has as much said he’d hold sway, stemming from his Monday comments (“I could have won a third term”) that, had he run for a third term, he would be president now. The naked arrogance of his statement is stunning. Specifically:
I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it. I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is a good one.
Not only is that a direct slap in the face to Hillary Rodham Clinton (essentially set up as Obama’s proxy), whom Obama typified as “the most qualified presidential candidate ever,” but it also flies against actual facts. Under Obama, the American voter has consistently rejected the stance of the Demorats (including Mr Obama) for the past eight years by (2008 to 2016) as they lost 63 seats in the House and 10 seats in the Senate. Let that sink into your Mark I, Model I Brain Housing Group for a moment or three.
Barack Hussein Obama created Bernie Sanders and Donald John Trump. And those states Trump won would have been the same states won under an Obama candidacy. All the people who were confident of an “Obama win over Trump,” if you didn’t predict the Trump victory and what did happen, you’d fail at what would have occurred. Cake? Eating it?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Republicans (from 2008 to 2016) gained 900+ seats in state legislatures, along with 12 governorships across the US — meaning that 2/3rds of the governors in the nation are now Republicans.
Further, Mr Obama can be proud of the fact that in his “home town,” run by Leftist Demorat Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago boasts a wonderful 770 homicides to date as opposed to 492 in 2015. Go team! Let’s not only conduct what amounts to genocide on black babies by way of abortion, let’s also try to kill the bulk of young black males in Leftist urban rat cages. Good times. One reminder: Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Chicago’s Police Superintendent, Eddie Johnson, wants even more restrictions. Because what you’ve done to date has been effective?
Yes, that clearly indicates the wide-ranging success of Barack Hussein Obama and obvious support for his plans and policies. The Demorat party is in weaker shape now than it has been since the Depression in the late 20s.
Hmm. Kind of like current US military forces.
Obama ran on being a “middle-of-the-roader” and turned out to be anything but. Those of us, like myself, who took the time to examine Obama’s formative years knew this was untrue. Obama’s “legacy” and “signature” piece of legislation, ObamaKare, is about to be revisited and changed markedly.
Then there’s this, a third of the Senate will be up for election in two years — and the heavy majority of them are Demorat seats. They involve states where Trump either won or won big.
Worse yet, the Demorats are deflecting. Their loss to — my God, Donald Trump of all people — is due to hacked elections, the Russians, “fake news,” too much Fox News exposure, tidal pull, sunspots, delayed borborygmus, paint thinner and women hating women. Everything except the truth: Hillary Clinton was the worst possible candidate at the worst possible time. Again, see my comment above: my God, Donald Trump beat her for Christ’s sake.
Bill Clinton sat center-left and was successful. The Demorats have moved left and now resolve to — what? Correct. Move further left. I’d now like to introduce you to the definition of insanity, thank you.
Why did Obama do this? For three reasons. Number one, he is clearly anti-Israel. Number two, he greatly dislikes Benjamin Netanyahu. And finally, because he can and because, as a lame duck, there will be no repercussions.
Barack Hussein Obama, this is your legacy: you are completely reprehensible.
BZ
And then he became Speaker of the House.
Paul Ryan says he doesn’t want to be a presidential candidate.
But for a guy who says he doesn’t want to be a presidential candidate, he’s making a lot of speeches about not wanting to be a presidential candidate. A certain Bill Shakespeare line comes to mind about now.
The GOP is pretty much already convinced that it’s going to lose the presidency.
If it’s Trump or Hillary, the GOP wants Hillary.
If it’s Cruz or Hillary, the GOP wants Hillary.
They just don’t have the testicles to come out openly and say it.
The GOP believes Trump or Cruz lose to Hillary. They’re planning on it.
The GOP is thinking, hell, we may as well lose with “our guy,” whomever “our guy” might turn out to be.
This is American Politics, ladies and gentlemen, politics writ large, and politics writ Establishment. This is the Old Guard Establishment GOP doing everything it can to ensure one of the Usual Suspects gets into the race. The GOP mostly consists of an assload of Surrender Monkeys.
First the GOP was shocked that Jeb Bush didn’t resonate. They were sure he was going to walk right into the presidency. Maybe even Mittens. VP?
Then each one of their other mealy-mouthed do-nothing empty suits fell by the wayside, including Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Lindsay Graham, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore. Hell, my dead cat Mose would have had a better chance at president than Jim Gilmore.
Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Scott Walker, Rick Perry — they persevered a while longer until it shook out to the final three.
Read carefully what Paul Ryan said on Tuesday:
Count me out: I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee for our party to be the president, you should actually run for it. I chose not to do this, therefore I should not be considered. Period. End of story.
So what is Paul Ryan really saying?
He’s saying there needs to be a back up plan, and that back up plan should include someone from the Old Staid Establishment GOP.
Who ran for president.
Hey.
Wait.
Wouldn’t that be a Jeb Bush or a Mitt Romney or a Lindsay Graham or a Mike Huckabee or a Jeb Bush or a Jeb Bush?
Hey, what about Jeb Bush?
You know, I think Jeb Bush might be available. At a moment’s notice. He speaks Spanish. He loves him some illegal immigrants. Syrians too, I’m sure. Come one, come all, no background checks, it’s an “act of love.”
But wait. Paul Ryan said we need a rule. A new rule. Delegates, we need a new rule. A rule that says to be the nominee, you need to have run in the primary. You need to have been an actual candidate.
Speaking of Paul Ryan, there is the Super Chapter 9. Ryan wants to go along to get along. And bail out PUERTO RICO with American tax dollars.
Look, I don’t trust ANY politician any more. Trusting a politician is a fool’s game and this country is already rife with a sufficient number of Free Cheese Fools.
Charles Krauthammer thinks that Ryan is just trying to rebuild the party early, seeing its destruction in progress.
But the bottom line? If Paul Ryan pulls the Lucy Football on his own denial, I won’t be gobsmacked. He’s done it before, he can do it again. Think: speaker.
BZ
P.S.
53% of those polled think Paul Ryan is lying when he says he won’t accept the presidential nomination according to a Fox poll displayed on the Greta Susteren show, Tuesday.
You brought this on yourselves, GOP.
Charles Krauthammer, a very measured man whom I admire, believes so:
Mr Krauthammer is precisely correct; Mr Obama is a man, as president, who purposely chooses “America in decline.” America’s enemies are emboldened, Obama is “concerned,” he “monitors,” and has done roughly nothing to hold America in the good light that he swore would return to our nation under his leadership. We are not respected internationally as he said we would be under his tenure.
Further, we have natural gas and oil reserves that can potentially rid the nation of its festering relationship with the Islamic Middle East. We have the capability to rid ourselves of a great deal of Blood or Conflict Oil.
Yet Mr Obama decides we shall not pursue independence. Instead, he chooses social divisiveness over unity and coherence, class and racial warfare over cohesiveness and singularity of national purpose.
As Mr Krauthammer states, Obama is a man who does not believe in American exceptionalism or American goodness. He seeks to place us completely in line with every other nation, no better than Cuba or Luxembourg or Syria or Zimbabwe or Burma. “American greatness” does not exist in Mr Obama’s sphere of thinking.
This philosophy informs every move Mr Obama makes — or doesn’t make.
Your thoughts?
BZ
P.S.
Please read the Charles Krauthammer piece “Decline Is A Choice” at the WeeklyStandard.com.