WASHINGTON — The decision by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley to have Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell question Christine Blasey Ford may well be remembered as a brilliant — and quite possibly pivotal — choice. No doubt, allowing Mitchell to ask questions instead of Republican senators served a defensive purpose, avoiding the spectacle […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal a weapon against Chinese imperialism
As China’s Communist government sees it, the “neo-NAFTA” U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is far more than a revised North American trade arrangement. It is an act of strategic warfare aimed at China. Beijing has got this one right. The Trump administration’s USMCA gives Washington a powerful economic and diplomatic tool for achieving the U.S. and its key […]
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Connie Chung: I, too, was sexually assaulted – and it’s seared into my memory forever
Dear Christine Blasey Ford, I, too, was sexually assaulted – not 36 years ago but about 50 years ago. I have kept my dirty little secret to myself. Silence for five decades. The molester was our trusted family doctor. What made this monster even more reprehensible was that he was the very doctor who delivered […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The privilege that comes with being a male
Let’s get something straight: Men are not the victims here. It is a foolish and offensive line of reasoning, so naturally it has caught traction on the political right. Indeed, for some, it is an article of faith as the confirmation of would-be Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh becomes ever more deeply mired in accusations […]
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Kavanaugh a threat to the rights of LGBTQ+ people
Soon, the U.S. Senate will likely vote to either confirm or reject Brett Kavanaugh as the next Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, his decisions will have an enormous impact on the lives of marginalized people. I remember exactly where I was when I found out that […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Democrats deal in delay, deceive and destroy
Who believes another FBI investigation of Brett Kavanaugh will be the end of it? If the FBI finds nothing to support Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party, will it be enough for Democrats to vote to confirm him? Republicans say the investigation is limited to her charge […]
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A whole lot of lies add up to big trouble
Brett Kavanaugh’s fraught relationship with the truth took another hit Sunday, when a classmate from Yale called the Supreme Court nominee’s claim of being a moderate drinker in college a “blatant mischaracterization.” Under oath, Kavanaugh said that he was too busy being angelic — studying and playing sports — to get stumbling drunk. “On many […]
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Kavanaugh has a right to be angry
Brett Kavanaugh may have saved his Supreme Court confirmation with one of the most memorable statements in modern congressional history. After his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered a compelling, sympathetic performance earlier in the day, Kavanaugh entered the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with his chances hanging by a thread. Commentators speculated about how he’d inevitably […]
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Mitch McConnell makes it clear moral fitness does not matter
When Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the U.S. Senate, accused those questioning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of playing politics with the nomination, his was the voice of experience. For me, it was McConnell’s third strike. Actually, it was after the third strike, but you’re only allowed three strikes. To be […]
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Seth Carey shouldn't be elected DA because of a slogan
Slogans can be a powerful tool for communicating, but they’re a poor substitute for thinking. Those Republicans who wasted their primary vote on Seth T. Carey, GOP candidate for district attorney of Prosecutorial District Number 3 (Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties), might want to ruminate on whether they made a wise choice by voting for […]