Washington seems to be in the grip of hyperpartisan gridlock these days. Important bills are passed on party-line votes (when they are passed at all) and the investigative committees of Congress appear to be sideshows, unable to agree on basic facts. Many Americans despair that Republicans and Democrats seem incapable of coming together to do […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The Indo-Pacific Quad confronts China
U.S. Pacific Command still calls itself PACOM, but it appears INDO-PACOM — India-Pacific Command — might be the acronym of the future. Pentagon and State Department studies now routinely refer to the “Indo-Pacific region,” as do the defense and foreign policy papers authored by their counterparts in Japan and Australia. “INDO” obviously contracts Indian Ocean, […]
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Trump did exactly what he said he would do
Farmers keep asking why Donald Trump is hurting them on trade when they helped elect him. The better question is: Why did they help elect him? Candidate Trump promised a trade war, and he delivered. No hidden agenda there. Farmers and ranchers had a choice between trade-friendly Hillary Clinton and a man threatening their precious […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Climate change is driving immigration across the globe
The chasm between Trump administration policies and reality is most evident in its open war on illegal immigration and its stealthy campaign against climate science. Climate change is one of the most potent drivers of illegal immigration, both directly (to escape flooding, drought and other weather-related disasters) and indirectly (to flee violent conflicts sparked by […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
U.S. should maintain presence in Syria
The isolationist spirit — a reluctance to become involved in foreign entanglements — goes back in U.S. history to Thomas Paine and his 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense” and to George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address. In modern times, the isolationist spirit had a strong pull against U.S. involvement in World War I and World War II, […]
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‘Routine inspection’ was certainly not routine
Shaun King is a controversial guy. As an activist and journalist, he’s been prominent in the Black Lives Matter movement, defended the Palestinians and attacked the Republican Party. On Monday, apparently as a result of his politics, King was briefly detained at JFK Airport by an agent of U.S. Customs and Border Protection while returning […]
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Who gets the funds? Kids or elderly?
WASHINGTON — To those paying attention, the recent strikes for higher teachers’ pay in West Virginia and Oklahoma are a harbinger of things to come. You can attribute the strikes to the stinginess of the states’ political leaders. After all, average annual teachers’ salaries in these states ranked respectively 49th lowest (Oklahoma at $45,276) and […]
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Don't talk with Mueller, Mr. President
The chief threat to Donald Trump at the moment isn’t that he’ll fire Robert Mueller, but that he’ll cooperate too readily. The president’s legal team has been roiled and his White House advisers divided by his determination to sit down for a deposition with Mueller’s team of prosecutors. Rarely has someone who is supposed to […]
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Put down the phone, take a breath and look up
Have you ever seen the moon? You will likely answer that you have, many times. But a new short video by filmmakers Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh may have you reconsidering whether you’ve ever actually seen it at all. Their names will be unfamiliar to you. A check of the authoritative IMDb website turns up […]
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Poof, and it's gone …
We joke about having five seasons in Maine. And it always gets the attention of folks out of state when we talk about mud season. But it isn’t always a laughing matter. In my 39th spring since settling in Maine, I still miss spring. Sometimes, spring here hardly lasts long enough to clean the dried […]