Wednesday roundup

Damon Linker, writing at The Week, says there in no Left in Israel anymore.

Gantz may have campaigned as the anti-Netanyahu, but his disagreements mostly focused on the corruption investigation and domestic issues. On the Palestinian question and Israel's relations with its neighbors, the former commander of the formidable Israeli military came down quite close to Bibi's positions, and he maintains close ties to sharply hawkish members of the Knesset. This would not change if his alliance ends up forming a government, because any governing coalition would need to include at least some of the same right-wing parties that have been Likud's partners for the past four years. And that's assuming Blue and White doesn't join together with Likud itself to form a national unity government.

Generally speaking, Candace Owens is not among my favorite prominent conservatives, but she absolutely knocked it out of the park in her searing rebuke of Ted Liu and Jerrold Nadler at a House Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday. Good on ya, Candace!

Speaking of Congressional hearings, Attorney General William Barr made news at this one:

Hoo boy. William Barr did his best to cushion this bombshell in friendly terms, but telling Congress that law enforcement spied on the Donald Trump campaign sets off all sorts of issues at the Department of Justice and on Capitol Hill. Barr made this observation while answering questions about his handling of the Mueller report at a Senate Appropriations hearing. “I think spying did occur,” the Attorney General stated, and “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal”.

Bipartisanship can still happen in certain instances, even in 2019 post-America. Two Democrat Senators (Robert Melendez and Jack Reed) and two Republican Senators (Jim Inhofe and Jim Risch) pen a New York Times op-ed saying that Turkey faces a big decision. It's been offered F-35 fighter jets by the United States and a S-400 surface-to-air missile system by Russia. It's gonna be one or the other, President Erdogan. You will not get both.

Sometimes you learn some history from a movie review, in this case David Forsmark's review at PJ Media of The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Kostner and Woody Harrelson. It's the story of Frank Hamer, the Texas marshal who methodically plotted the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. Cool factoid: blues musician Mance Lipscomb served as Hamer's driver at one point, and greatly admired him because another of Hamer's points of focus was going after the KKK and stopping lynchings.