Nancy Pelosi will probably return as speaker of the House and should. A proven master at running the legislature, she’s plug-and-play ready and able to steer Democrats through these chaotic times. That Pelosi is a woman is not why she should be speaker. That she is relatively old, at 78, is not why she should […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Some suggestions to help Trump in 2020
The midterms suggest that President Donald Trump needs to double down on populism, just not the sort that’s been his signature to this point. Trump is both too populist and not populist enough. His populism is largely, although not entirely, a matter of style — combative, lacerating, emotive, unpredictable and grandiose. This sensibility is a […]
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The shame of the Catholic Church
One doesn’t have to be Roman Catholic or even Christian to recognize the great good the Catholic Church has done. America would be worse off were it not its pro-life stance and numerous acts of charity. But good works are sometimes diluted or even overwhelmed by evil works, and it is the evil works of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Trump's absence at Asian summits another sign of American retreat
NEW YORK — It’s easy to get distracted by the circus of the Trump presidency. But what is its larger effect? For an answer to that question, take a look at three gatherings this past week on the other side of the planet. Attended by all the major Asian countries, the ASEAN and East Asia […]
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Democrats are trying to steal an election in Florida
WASHINGTON — Republican Gov. Rick Scott leads Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 12,562 votes in the Florida Senate race. A margin of victory that large has never be overturned in a recount. According to FairVote, the average vote shift in statewide general election recounts is a meager 282 votes. “The biggest swing came in Florida’s […]
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For this I give thanks . . .
No other country has a holiday for giving thanks, the radio announcer said. While most NPR people are well informed, I was sure the guy didn’t know what he was talking about. I had lived in Canada, which observes Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. So, I looked it up. Turns out seven other […]
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A surprise, and a plea
“What a revoltin’ development this is” is a quote made famous on 1940s radio and 1950s TV by William Bendix in “The Life of Riley.” It was my reaction last Wednesday when the election results became known. Having worked the Bristol polls Tuesday morning and early afternoon, I knew that turnout was exceptionally high, especially […]
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So now Michelle Obama finally tells her truth.
There has always been about her a sense that she did, indeed, have a truth of her own and that it was, if not at odds with the one her husband expressed with high-flown eloquence, more real and more rooted, as befits a girl from the South Side of Chicago. “You wait till Barack gets […]
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America's wealth floods into already wealthy cities
When Amazon chose a Queens neighborhood across from Manhattan for one of its new headquarters, James Corden remarked on “The Late Late Show,” “I gotta say, I really think this could be the thing that finally puts New York on the map.” That was a joke. New York is already the capital of finance, media, […]
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Georgia's governor-elect won fair and square
In the overtime of the 2018 elections, the left can’t decide whether it opposes casting doubt on election results or insists on it. In the case of the Georgia gubernatorial election, narrowly lost by African-American activist Stacey Abrams, it’s unquestionably the latter. A cottage industry has grown up around declaring the outcome a stain on […]