Commentary Magazine Podcast

Though it is particularly true of New York City, it’s apparent across this country: The political class has lost its enthusiasm and affection for the nation. They are focused not on revivifying and reinventing it, but on divvying up what’s left while you can. It’s not just a Democratic fixation, either. The GOP’s obsession with relitigating the 2020 election prevents them from looking forward, and that needs to be throttled out of the party.

New positive COVID tests are at or approaching historic lows across the United States. Deaths and hospitalizations are reaching rates associated with a typical flu season. The pandemic is on the eve of its conclusion. The only question is when elected officials will acknowledge it. Also, the Democratic Party’s advocates in the press have discovered the real problem with anti-Semitism: it detracts from the progressive project.

Today we try something new: Each panelist chooses a topic. We talk about the effort to equate anti-Semitism with Islamophobia. We talk about whether the Biden administration will hold China accountable on the virus. And we talk about the state hijacking of a commercial European jetliner. Give a listen.

Street violence targeting American Jews is on the rise across America. It is being provoked and condoned by progressives within the Democratic establishment, and the party is doing nothing about it.

Today's podcast goes over the latest in the ideological war of the Left against Israel, the political hijinx over the January 6 commission, and what on earth is going on with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Give a listen.

All the news is good. All the trends are great. Why are the media focusing their sympathetic attention on people who seem to want to live in perpetual lockdown? And why isn't the Biden administration turning on Israel (yet)? Give a listen.

The first podcast of the week takes up the continuing assaults on Israel's defensive action against Hamas in Gaza and the continuing confusion over the lifting of the masking rules by the federal government. Give a listen.

Today's podcast asks what changed that made it possible for the president to announce the end of masking for vaccinated Americans? Was this the result of the "science" or a naked political move to distract from the bad news of the week? And why are liberals clinging to their masks? Give a listen.

Inflationary signals are glowing red hot, and it’s starting to scare the markets. Will the Biden administration and Democrats be similarly spooked? Also, the contrived effort on the part of Trump critics to use the conflict in Israel to run down the Abraham Accords, which misunderstands their purpose.

On today's podcast, I read my exchanges yesterday with my sister from her bomb shelter in Tel Aviv to give listeners a real-time sense of what it's like to be under rocket attack. And then we express our outrage at the liberal effort to blame Israel for the assault upon it before we take up the ouster of Liz Cheney from House leadership and what it portends about the Republican future and Donald Trump. Give a listen.

Today's podcast takes up the catastrophic error made by the Centers for Disease Control in assessing the risk from outdoor transmission of COVID, as detailed by David Leonhardt in the New York Times. Then we go into the catastrophic error made by Joe Biden on pumping unemployment money into the economy, which he tried to correct on Monday. And then into the potentially catastrophic error made by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in assuming the West would come to their aid when they're firing hundreds of rockets at Israel. Give a listen.

Today's podcast exults in what can only be called exit-velocity numbers about the pandemic and a shift in tone from the panjandra of the public-health community given the good news. Then we tell you the truth about what's going on in Jerusalem before making fun of liberals trying to explain the reasons for the bad jobs report. Give a listen.

On today's podcast: Unfortunate job numbers—job creation expected to be around 1 million coming in at 266,000 instead—may be the perfect expression of how intrusive government policy in the form of direct unemployment benefits from the federal government are actually encouraging people to stay home rather than go out to work. More bad policy is in the potential offing through the infrastructure proposals. More bad policy is being made by the notion of waiving patent rights for the vaccines. Give a listen.

Joe Biden’s administration has inexplicably decided to abrogate the intellectual property rights of vaccine manufacturers to satisfy a fringe progressive demand. Why? And the New York Times has all but declared the pandemic behind us as vaccination rates in the U.S. crater.

The long knives are out for Liz Cheney within the GOP, but does ousting this meddlesome priest from her role in leadership really serve Republican interests ahead of the 2022 midterms? And Joe Biden supposedly revamps his vaccine strategy, but his statements make it plain that the administration has no idea what to do about declining demand for inoculations.