I’ve written at least half a dozen columns about Gov. Paul LePage during his tenure as Maine governor, most of them critical. Now that LePage is on his way out thanks to term limits, it seems a good time to evaluate his tumultuous eight years in office with the advantage of perspective. On the positive […]
politics
Posted inMaine, sj-web
SunJournal.com: Local tragedies and political drama dominated 2018's web traffic
LEWISTON — Tragedy. That best describes the stories that got the most traffic on SunJournal.com in 2018 — stories about drownings and killings. But there was also crime: Leading the list was the story of the day federal, state and local law enforcement officers raided local buildings and confiscated piles of marijuana plants. And a […]
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Posted inPerspective, sj-web
The 11 most consequential political trends of 2018
President Donald Trump again dominated 2018 politics, but the year was also notable for what happened, what didn’t happen and what it could all mean in 2019. Here’s The Washington Post’s list of the political trends that defined the year in politics: 1) Trump’s mounting falsehoods Trump’s false or misleading claims more than tripled during […]
Posted inMaine, Politics
Paul LePage leaves note of protest on Jared Golden’s election certificate
In defiance of a voter-approved, ranked-choice election law Maine’s outgoing Republican governor wrote that the Democratic challenger’s victory over incumbent Republican Congressman Bruce Poliquin race was “stolen.”
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Jared Golden getting ready to take office next week in Washington
They won’t give Maine’s next congressman the keys to his office until Wednesday, but his new digs in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill are ready. They’re a little sparse, though. Pictures of the still-vacant office taken this week show empty shelves, gleaming desktops and computers showing only screen savers. One stands out […]
Posted inNation / World
Donald Trump says US forces will stay in Iraq, possibly deploy to Syria if needed again
President Trump said he has no plans to withdraw American forces from Iraq, a week after announcing a surprise pullout of troops from Syria and ordering the Pentagon to bring home roughly half of the American forces deployed to Afghanistan. The decision allows the United States to maintain a presence in the heart of the […]
Posted inNation / World
Donald Trump makes unannounced visits to U.S. troops in Iraq
AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq (AP) — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, leaving behind a partially shuttered U.S. government to greet American troops helping hold off extremists in a country where thousands of Americans died during the recent war. It comes a week after Trump stunned his national security advisers by […]
Posted inNation / World
Why is Donald Trump tweeting about Brett McGurk?
WASHINGTON – In a May 2017 Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was flanked by perhaps the two most important U.S. officials coordinating the fight against the Islamic State. One was Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The other one was Brett McGurk, a State Department official whom Mattis introduced as “President Trump’s […]
Posted inBusiness, Nation / World
Donald Trump makes Fed Chairman Jerome Powell the scapegoat for market downturn
Nobody was happier to take credit for surging stocks than President Donald Trump, who touted and tweeted each leg up. Now the bull is on life support and the search for its potential killer is on. And while many on Wall Street share the president’s frustration with the man atop his markets enemies list, Federal […]
Posted inNation / World
White House and Congress prepared to ring in the New Year with the shutdown
As the partial U.S. government shutdown enters a third day, lawmakers have left Washington for the Christmas holiday with no sign of urgency to resolve the fight over President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall money. Unlike shutdowns of the past, Congress and the White House aren’t racing to reopen the government. Offices of congressional […]