Trump the War President?
Nothing seemed to be going right for Donald Trump during the first 11 weeks of his presidency. Federal courts blocked his attempts to ban citizens from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
Category Archives: Opinion
Rich Lowry: We are still paying the price for Obama’s policies toward Russia
How else to explain a newly elected president looking the other way after an act of Russian aggression? Agreeing to a farcically one-sided nuclear deal? Mercilessly mocking the idea that Russia represents our foremost geopolitical foe? Accommodating the illicit nuclear ambitions of a Russian ally? Welcoming a Russian foothold in the Middle East? Refusing to provide arms to a sovereign country invaded by Russia? Diminishing our defenses and pursuing a Moscow-friendly policy of hostility to fossil fuels? All of these items, of course, refer to things said or done by President Barack Obama. To take them in order: He reset with Russia shortly after its clash with Georgia in 2008.
What a US president wants and what he must do are two different things
US President Donald Trump walks on the south lawn after arriving at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 9 April 2017. [EPA/Olivier Douliery] Donald Trump may want the United States to be less involved in the world but the reality is that the US is deeply involved, writes George Friedman.
APNewsBreak: FBI is reviewing terrorism-related tips
The FBI has been reviewing the handling of thousands of terrorism-related tips and leads from the past three years to make sure they were properly investigated and no obvious red flags were missed, The Associated Press has learned. The review follows attacks by people who were once on the FBI's radar but who have been accused in the past 12 months of massacring innocents in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, injuring people on the streets of New York City, and gunning down travelers in a Florida airport.
Donald Trump to sell attack planes to Nigeria for Boko Haram fight
The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to U.S. officials. Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency.
Trump security adviser urges Russia to rethink Syria support
In this Feb. 10, 2017 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Yahoo News in Damascus, Syria. Syria decried a U.S. missile strike early Friday, April 7, 2017 on a government-controlled air base where U.S. officials say the Syrian military launched a deadly chemical attack earlier this week.
Straight To Work
Now that Judge Neil Gorsuch will officially become an associate justice of the Supreme Court today, it is now time to put the partisan battle that preceded his confirmation in the rear view mirror for just a moment to look at the effect his joining the highest court in the land may have on pending judicial matters. As has been chronicled in detail, Mr. Gorsuch will take the place of the late Antonin Scalia, and most pundits expect the newest justice to mirror Scalia in his judicial philosophy.
And The Filibuster?
With Thursday's change in U.S. Senate rules to end debate on the nomination of a Supreme Court justice with a simple majority of votes, instead of the previous requirement of 60, the Republican majority in the Senate put to bed the filibuster as a tactic for any judicial or executive branch position that requires Senate confirmation. As The Washington Post reported, "The long-anticipated rules change now means that all presidential nominees for executive branch positions and the federal courts need only a simple majority vote to be confirmed by senators."
Trump’s Syria switcheroo: The Donald drowns in the swamp he promised to drain | Mulshine
A big issue in the campaign was whether the U.S. should get involved in what was turning into a nasty war in Vietnam. Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson campaigned as the peace candidate against Republican Barry Goldwater .
AmeriCorps is a pathway from prison to success
As an AmeriCorps alumnus, I am deeply concerned about the president's proposal to eliminate AmeriCorps. Simply put, AmeriCorps changed my life and has helped provide a pathway out of poverty for countless other young people like me.
Our View: Keep ethics, elections boards separate
House Republicans last week rushed through legislation that rewrites a law struck down in court as unconstitutional to merge the state ethics and elections boards into a single panel. The new bill leaves in place an eight-member panel with membership equally divided by the two parties, but the governor would get to make all eight appointments, choosing four from six nominees provided by each chairman of the state Democratic and Republican parties.
John Hood: Learning and winning go together
It was during the 1988 presidential election. Like many conservative and libertarian students of the day, my friends and I at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were looking for a leader to follow in the footsteps of the president we all revered, Ronald Reagan.
Nelson Price: President Trump deserves equity
Every indication is the Russians tried to interfere with our elections. There is now proof they did and by invitation.
Bill Lewis: Because I said so
I'm thinking about starting my own fake news website. They seem to be all the rage these days, and I'm pretty sure it would be a whole lot of fun just making things up and posting them online for the world to see.
Budget passage must become state’s priority
Without an approved budget in place when Pennsylvania's fiscal year begins on July 1, Harrisburg should not be permitted to spend money outside the realm of vital services. If a budget isn't passed and signed into law by 11:59 p.m. June 30, the Pennsylvania Treasury's power to release money for salaries and other routine expenditures should cease until the Legislature and governor complete their budget-preparation work.
The – enemies’ are at home
Flexing his populist credentials, President-elect Donald Trump had been bitter about the enormous US trade deficit and what he called China's "currency manipulation". Tough words were exchanged between Washington and Beijing as a noisy sideshow to the US presidential election.
Four surprises from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting with Xi
Yves Tiberghien is director, Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, and a senior fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada This week's Mar-a-Lago summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China has been heralded as the most significant bilateral summit in decades. The world paused to witness the mighty clash between the two most powerful men on Earth and the painful confrontation of the declining superpower with its rising challenger.
Yearning for the days of moderate politicians: Letter to the editor
Sen. Jeff Merkley speaks -- and speaks and speaks -- on the floor of the Senate, holding the floor from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning in opposition to President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination. Senator Merkley's action Thursday on the floor of the U.S. Senate was disgusting and embarrassing.
Rheta Johnson: Minor a major force for Mississippi, journalism
The late Chicago newspaperman Mike Royko said - I paraphrase - that every columnist has five good ideas. Mississippi muckraker Bill Minor died last month at age 94. Those alliterative words sound good: Mississippi muckraker.
M. Scott Morris: Victory not enough for Sen. Wicker
In a Daily Journal opinion piece on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker bashes Democrats for their objections to then-nominee Neil Gorsuch. He accuses his opponents of playing politics by not voting to put a qualified judge on the U.S. Supreme Court.