Category: Opinion

Conservative View: Jennifer Rubin – The president’s princelings

In response to the president’s unprecedented attack on a company declining to do business with a family member, Nordstrom’s answered President Donald Trump’s accusation that it was treating Ivanka Trump unfairly. “To reiterate what we’ve already shared when asked, we made this decision based on performance,” the company said in a statement.

Your View: Senate is place for debate, not silenced members

A joy of studying and writing history is the excitement of immersing oneself in frightening or exciting times and then being able to escape back into normalcy by closing a book or shutting down the computer. Historians love to make connections between past and present; sometimes it’s a stretch, other times it’s eerily close.

David M. Shribman: Advice and consent – or combat?

Without issuing an opinion – no ruling on school desegregation, no decision on abortion rights – the Supreme Court is at the center of perhaps its gravest constitutional crisis in eight decades. The stakes could not be higher, the implications could not be greater, the consequences could not be more far-reaching.

Editorial: Kansas should expand Medicaid

Kansas is one of only 19 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and it’s long past time for the Legislature to extend health coverage to 150,000 low-income Kansans by passing House Bill 2064. After three days of testimony from advocates and opponents of expansion in front of the House Health and Human Services Committee, one thing is clear: There are far too many uninsured Kansans who have to live with the grim knowledge that any serious health issue could ruin them.

Jay Cost: President Trump, be the president

Since he was sworn in as the 45th president, Mr. Trump has gotten into a spat with the media over the size of his inaugural crowd, was disrespectful toward the prime minister of Australia, took to Twitter to insult a federal judge, drew a moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, and called out Nordstrom for dropping Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. This kind of behavior is unbecoming of the president of the United States.

Russian reality: Playing straight with the bear, avoiding claws

In considering the evolution of U.S.-Russian ties it is important to remember that there are advantages to good relations with the bear, a neighbor visible with difficulty from Alaska. It is equally important to realize, as the Trump administration is beginning to understand, that it is not easy to achieve those good relations, given the nature of Russia and whoever governs it, whether Peter the Great or Vladimir Putin.

Lindsay Mackenzie: Trump’s lesson in American history

Nearly three weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency many would have assumed that his campaign rhetoric would fade to be replaced by something more tempered and nuanced; whether because of mainstream Republican influence or merely through the mechanics of governing a country as diverse as the United States. This hasn’t happened.

US Marine captain writes stinging op-ed: ‘We lost the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan’

An active-duty US Marine captain wrote a stinging op-ed for the Marine Corps Gazette, going through all the problems he sees with the Department of Defense and the Marine Corps in addition to recent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Let us first begin with the fundamental underpinnings of this delusion: our measures of performance and effectiveness in recent wars,” he wrote.

Column: Rubio’s important speech

Mitch McConnell’s decision to silence Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor drew massive media attention – and outrage among partisans of all stripes. By contrast, few people paid much attention to the speech Florida Sen. Marco Rubio gave in the aftermath of the shushing of Warren.

Editorial: A resounding no to ban

So President Trump has gotten his first real lesson in the separation of powers – you know, an important part of the Constitution that he swore to uphold on Inauguration Day. And he’s really not happy about it one bit.

Ambrose: DeVos did her homework on schools

It was a close vote Tuesday, just 51 to 50, but Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate as the new secretary of education, and now we can get on with the rescue of our schools. The Obama administration was micromanaging them to death and Congress intervened, but there is far more to do and she will likely help do it.

No sanctuary for defiant cities

I don’t know what’s more irritating – the fact we have millions of illegal aliens running loose in this country, or the legions of our own citizens who see nothing wrong with having undocumented people here.

‘So-called judges’ trump Trump

From left: Judge Richard Clifton, Judge William Canby and Judge Michelle Friedland from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. David Cole is National Legal Director of the ACLU, which has filed several challenges to President Trump’s executive order on refugees.

Commentary: Judge’s information questionable

Judge James Robart, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State, believes there is no basis for President Trump’s executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terrorism-plagued countries. In court last week, Robart questioned Justice Department lawyer Michelle Bennett about the administration’s decision to confine the moratorium to Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran.

Democrats seek investigation into national security adviser

Congressional Democrats on Friday called for an investigation into whether White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions in phone calls with Russia’s ambassador while President Barack Obama was still in office, conversations that may have broken U.S. law aimed at barring private citizens from conducting diplomacy. The White House said President Donald Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn, a show of support coming as the administration scrambled to manage the fallout from reports that Flynn addressed U.S. sanctions against Russia in a phone call late last year.

EDITORIAL: The rant that failed

The Democrats in the U.S. Senate threw everything they could find at Jeff Sessions, including an occasional kitchen sink, but it was not enough. Rant as they might, the mild-mannered senator from Alabama, was nevertheless confirmed by a vote of 52 to 47. One Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, broke from the mob to vote to confirm him.

Kudos to Hyundai for Super Bowl ad saluting the U.S. military

Kudos to Hyundai for its ad at the end of the Super Bowl saluting our active duty members of the U.S. military. It is disturbing that a significant number of Americans are more motivated to protest about refugees and illegal immigrants than they are to help our men and women in uniform, especially our nation’s veterans.

Can’t respect or support many of Trump’s decisions

As an American and registered Republican, I’ve always had respect for the office of our presidency. But, I cannot respect or support many of Trump’s decisions for the following reasons: Banning travel from seven countries does nothing to stop terrorism, it only motivates more people to hate us and join ISIS.

Our Opinion: No one forget

Donald Trump is president in part because many Americans disliked his predecessor’s habit of refusing to recognize the exceptional nature of our government and the American people. Too often, former President Barack Obama cited our nation’s challenges – and there are many – in equating us with other, much more deeply flawed countries.

Country could use more of the Gorsuch approach

Another day, another administration and Senate, another partisan fight that catches a highly qualified Supreme Court candidate in the crosshairs. Democrats complain with some justification that Republicans should have taken up the nomination of well-qualified Merrick Garland late in President Obama’s term.

How to avoid normalizing Trump

Two weeks into his chaotic presidency, Donald Trump is at least being consistent. He is everything the 73 million people who voted against him feared: reckless, managerially inept, immature, inarticulate, narcissistic, dangerously autocratic and a serial liar.

David Horsey: America’s fate is in the hands of Trump’s bizarre inner circle of advisers

Here is something to keep you awake at night: Your future, and the future of the world, now rests in the hands of a tiny team of zealots and opportunistic hacks in the White House who prefer to rule the country by edict and “alternative facts” while ignoring the courts, leaving Congress out of the loop, purging seasoned officials from the government and targeting the independent media. Before you run into the night screaming, it is worth noting that the coup is being managed by a collection of characters who seem unable to pull it off without raising deep opposition.

Your Turn: Feb. 7

Muslim women pray towards Mecca in the Fellowship Hall of the First United Methodist Church during the recent Texas Muslim Capitol Day. A reader is gratified by the outpouring of support extended to the Muslim community.

Avoid going nuclear on Gorsuch

Yes, President Donald Trump ‘s nominee for the Supreme Court , Neil Gorsuch , will be sitting in a stolen seat if he is confirmed. Yet Senate Democrats must resist sinking to the depths Republican senators did in denying the seat to an eminently qualified Merrick Garland , President Barack Obama ‘s nominee to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia , who died in Texas a year ago.

Donald Trump is James Michael Curley in disguise

They named the phenomenon for James Michael Curley, our legendary mayor of Boston , congressman , governor , and jailbird . Writing in the Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, Glaeser and Shleifer explained how predatory class warfare can make for successful politics.

Trump plays NBA star guards’ game

Is he operating according to a master plan that only he, and maybe Steve Bannon, can see? Or is he just doing stuff and seeing what happens? Is there method to what looks to many people like political madness? The best unified theory of Trump I’ve come across is that of Sally Jenkins, the Washington Post sports reporter and columnist. Here’s Sally’s explanation of Trump from a tweet last week: “An old sports strategy: foul so much in the 1st 5 min of the game that the refs can’t call them all.