Mark Tapson covers the Candace Owens/Ben Shapiro controversy. Candace is apparently bidding to expand her market while otherwise exposing herself as something of an ignoramus. A cat has her tongue on precisely whom she was talking about in the tweet below.

It makes perfect sense to me that Tucker Carlson served as the medium for Owens’s explication of her message, such as it is. For some reason or other, Israel leaves Carlson cold. He prides himself on keeping cool about Israel’s ordeal.

Joel Pollak provides background in the Breitbart column on understanding the dispute. Pollak harks back to the roots of “America First” isolationism in the Second World War, when some Democrats and Republicans (Pollak says “conservatives”) opposed U.S. involvement — even to save the Jews of Europe. I would say some blamed the Jews for urging American support of Great Britain. Pollak rightly adds: “The debate ended when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.”

Lynne Olson’s Those Angry Days is illuminating popular history on this subject. Among many other things, it helps readers understand the dark places America First isolationism took Charles Lindbergh. Carlson leaves a lot unsaid — for example, he calls the Hamas massacre of Israelis and others “a foreign tragedy.” I think the case of Charles Lindbergh may help one to fill in the blanks.

Carlson does not acknowledge the fact that some 30 Americans were killed in the Hamas massacre of October 7 or that Hamas took nine more hostage. NRO’s Philip Klein reminded viewers who may have forgotten.

TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk provides an example of something other than ignorance. The term “kookery” might be apt. Jeffrey Scott Shapiro noted Kirk’s kookery in the October 18 Washington Times column “Defaming Israel: Charlie Kirk floats theory Netanyahu let Hamas slaughter Jews to consolidate power.” Owens, naturally, takes up the defense of Kirk with Carlson (he was just asking questions). Kirk’s kookery doesn’t warrant repetition here — see Shapiro’s column — but it should at least be noted.