WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, wants the federal government to guarantee a job for every American willing and able to work. The proposal sounds compassionate and enlightened, but in practice, it would almost certainly be a disaster. The fact that it’s taken seriously is evidence that many Democrats, like Republicans before them, embrace loony […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Rosenstein allows Mueller probe to go astray
Rod Rosenstein is doing a star turn as principled defender of the law, but he’s performed abysmally as deputy attorney general, and President Donald Trump would be fully justified in firing him. The leaked questions that special counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump in a prospective deposition are, if accurate, a sign that Mueller […]
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On North Korea, Trump should refuse to take the bait
WASHINGTON — The prospect of winning the Nobel Peace Prize is understandably tantalizing for President Trump. After all the contempt he has faced from the political establishment, watching liberal heads explode at the suggestion by South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he deserves the award must be gratifying. It would be even more gratifying to […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Do we really need to ‘understand’ Trump supporters?
This is for Rose. She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, […]
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Immigration issue poisons democratic politics
By William Galston Special to The Washington Post Center-left political analysts want to believe that economic stagnation and income inequality form the heart of the contemporary populist surge, but the evidence does not bear this out. In Britain, the pro-Brexit campaigners’ shift of focus from economics to immigration and sovereignty proved decisive. Immigration did more […]
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Regional services facing cuts at the county level
Do you know how much of your property taxes are used to support county government? Farmington residents pay roughly 5 percent of their property taxes toward county operations. So, what do residents get for that 5 percent? County government in Maine provides regional services. Franklin County government is now more than 180 years old and […]
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The true heroes
At Fenway Park on Monday night, I didn’t have to listen long to hear someone call Xander Bogaerts a hero. He had hit a grand-slam home run that put the Red Sox ahead of my Kansas City Royals 6-3 on a cold and rainy night. The score and the Red Sox victory over the Royals […]
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Media dinner entertainer was simply rude, vulgar
To be vulgar once earned societal disapproval, ostracism from polite company and — in my grandmother’s era — put a young person in danger of having his mouth washed out with soap. Today, vulgarities are now mainstream. People speaking in a way that “would make a sailor blush” are now on primetime television and words […]
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Trump pushing immigration crisis to appease base support
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has claimed that the group of migrants that recently made its way from Central America to the United States symbolizes out-of-control immigration, lawlessness and violence besetting the country. “Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming,” he tweeted last month. This week, he added: “The migrant ‘caravan’ that is openly defying our border […]
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Democrats need their own version of 'America First'
“America First” would be a harmless phrase were it not loaded with dark undertones. It harks back to the America First Committee, a group advocating U.S. neutrality in World War II. Some members were Nazi sympathizers, while others simply wanted to keep America out of another bloody conflict in Europe. The attack on Pearl Harbor […]