President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering seriously at least two men for the critical position of secretary of state. One, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has divided the Trump team between those who think it is a good idea and those who think Romney’s severe criticism of Trump during the campaign disqualifies him. The other […]
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West has forfeited role of world leader
WASHINGTON — Twenty-five years ago — December 1991 — communism died, the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disappeared. It was the largest breakup of an empire in modern history and not a shot was fired. It was an event of biblical proportions that my generation thought it would never live to see. As […]
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Current gun laws failed to stop horrific act of irresponsibility
Historically — by labeling them “the end to hunting in Maine” — all proposed gun laws have been defeated. I don’t feel that the outcome on Question 3 matters, because laws don’t prevent gun crimes. In December 2006, investigator Phil Dugas from the Maine Wardens Service described what he said was the greatest display of […]
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Work together to end culture of poverty
Weltanschauung is a German word that can’t be accurately translated into English. Roughly it means, “view of the world.” It is a person’s mainly unconscious expectations of how the world is. My mother’s view was, “In good times or bad, disaster is about to strike. May God protect me.” A friend’s view is, “I’m generally […]
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Can Democrats quit identity politics?
For the Democrats, no activity is immune from reflexive accusations of sexism and racism, not even soul-searching. The initial postelection debate on the left has brought some tentative breaks with the party’s oppressive and self-limiting identity politics. And they have been met, predictably, with a furious counterattack wielding all of the usual rhetorical weapons of […]
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Italy’s future unsettled as economy falters
WASHINGTON — Italy may be the next stop on the world’s journey to more economic nationalism. First we had Brexit — Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Then we had the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president, pledging to put “America first” in his policies. Now Italy may be treading down […]
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Book highlights laborers during the 1930s
A best-selling sports book, “The Boys in the Boat,” describes the unlikely path of working-class blokes to gold-medal glory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. There’s lots about rowing, but what struck this reader most was author Daniel James Brown’s account of the tough lot of laborers in the Northwest during the Great Depression. This is […]
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Russia’s cyclic war in Ukraine continues
Intense combat suddenly erupts in eastern Ukraine. Russian-backed rebels — using Kremlin-supplied heavy artillery, mortars and machine guns — launch a series of attacks on Ukrainian military positions. Other rebels raid neighborhoods or probe Ukrainian defenses around the Black Sea port of Mariupol. Then the violence stops. All appears to be quiet on Europe’s eastern […]
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Recount undermines the election’s integrity
I oppose the recount. There are, to my mind, only two reasons to re-examine ballots in a presidential campaign, as Green Party candidate Jill Stein has raised money to do. The first is in the event of error or fraud, but there is no evidence thereof in the 2016 election, as Stein herself has admitted. […]
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Castro’s death brings moment to review history
Fidel Castro led rebel guerrillas that, allied with political movements, ejected the U.S.- supported dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. The revolutionaries held that democracy meant economic and social rights, and they turned to distribution of wealth. That brought on a storm of trouble, especially from the United States. Castro’s death has provoked a flood of remembrances […]