FDL Review

The 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) -- who identifies as a "democratic socialist" -- was based on the premise that the top 1% of income earners take advantage of the rest of the population. Senator Bernie Sanders Regarding income inequality, Sanders' campaign site unabashedly reads, "The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time." Considering the amount of weight that Sanders gives the issue of income inequality, it is surprising that he himself raked in over $1 million last year. For VT Digger, a left-leaning local outlet,  Elizabeth Hewitt and Anne Galloway write , For the second year in a row, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ income topped six figures.   A recent financial disclosure report shows the junior Vermont senator made nearly $1.06 million in 2017. Most of his income — $885,767 — came from ...

Charles Krauthammer, who passed away on Thursday at 68, was not just a columnist -- he was a luminary. I came to this conclusion after devouring his bestselling 2014 book, "Things That Matter," which was given to me by my stepfather. Charles Krauthammer Krauthammer, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist by profession, always had the most incisive, thought-provoking, and intellectually-rooted approaches to the issues of our time. Whether I was reading his columns or listening to him on a Fox News panel, I knew that I was tapping into a deep repository of knowledge. Nothing will come close to replenishing the gaping black hole left by Krauthammer's loss, but even so, we can rejoice in the knowledge that his brilliant words will persist even though their writer is no longer with us. For those who are unfamiliar with Krauthammer's writings, his intellect was on full display in "Judging Israel," an essay that he penned for Time  in 1990. In the pie...

In an executive order signed on Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to develop facilities for migrant families, effectively ending his administration's controversial family separation policy. In the executive order, Trump decreed that the U.S. government will still "maintain custody of alien families during the pendency of any criminal improper entry or immigration proceedings involving their members," indicating that instead of jailing parents and releasing the children into alternative care, families will be kept together and detained in new or repurposed facilities. Section 3-C of the executive order, which regarded the new facilities, read, The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law.  The Secretary, to ...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has canceled the Senate's August recess, citing Democratic obstructionism of President Donald Trump's nominees. Sen. Mitch McConnell According to McConnell's statement, he hopes for the Senate to "make additional progress on the president’s nominees," something that is sorely needed. According to a CNN report , as of December 31, 2017, Trump nominated 502 individuals to serve in his administration. Only 300 of them were confirmed, a 59.8% success rate. For comparison, in Obama's first year, 68.7% of the nominees were confirmed, and in Bush's first year, 66.5% were confirmed. Trump has had more success with his judicial appointments. According to a report by Above the Law , his administration "set a record for the most-ever federal appellate judges confirmed during the first year of a presidency." However, this statistic can deceptively mask the breadth of the Democratic obstructioni...

President Donald Trump has steadfastly exceeded expectations with regards to the economy. Unemployment is at its lowest level since April 2000 , the stock market is still at unprecedented heights, home sales are strong, consumer confidence levels are at their highest in nearly two decades, and companies are expanding their operations within the U.S. (and paying their workers more). The economy is so good that even the liberal New York Times acknowledged that they "ran out of words to describe how good the job numbers are" in a recent headline . President Donald Trump President Trump's success with economic matters comes from his Reagan-esque, laissez-faire approach to the markets. He has swept away costly Obama-era regulations, which generally ran roughshod over the principle of checks and balances as well as the rule of law and ultimately hurt the economy. The speed at which this Trump-led deregulation has occurred represents nothing short of a capitalistic mir...

In elections conducted last month, Hungary granted two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly to the Fidesz Party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Support for Orban's party is still growing, according to a poll that was conducted by the Nezopont Institute and reported on by the Hungary Journal. They write that Fidesz's "popularity has reached 54% among decided voters this month," indicating that they have gained as many as 400,000 new supporters since the elections. Despite the clear support for Orban, liberals in Hungary and around the world have argued that Fidesz stole the election from the fractured opposition parties. Douglas Wake, for example, argued that Fidesz "constricted the space for genuine political debate." Prime Minister Viktor Orban However, liberals haven't stopped at tarring Orban and Fidesz with allegations of electoral misconduct -- some go as far as to argue that Hungary's prime minister is an anti-Semite. ...