Featured Commentary category, Page 132
Reps. John Joyce and Abby Finkenauer: Rural broadband key to 21st-century success
When was the last time that you unfolded a map for directions before a road trip or required a postage stamp to send a photograph to a friend? More likely than not, you have turned to a phone, tablet or other device to complete these simple tasks. In the 21st...
Jonah Goldberg: Warren, Trump may have a lot in common
Culturally, Elizabeth Warren is a lot more like Donald Trump than you might think. Hold on. I know: Going by their personal lives, their demeanors and their ideological agendas, they’re apples and oranges. But apples and oranges actually have a lot in common: They’re both fruits, they’re round, and they...
S.E. Cupp: Did Democrats get a blueprint for defeating Trump?
While Democrats are celebrating a number of significant local electoral victories in unlikely places, Republicans are left struggling to keep the political shrapnel from grazing their cult commander, President Trump. And not doing it particularly well, either. Don Trump Jr. was on Fox News Tuesday night working hard to insist...
Colin McNickle: Wolf spins tangled overtime threshold web
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” was the admonition of Sir Walter Scott in his 1808 poem “Marmion.” Change the word “deceive” to “intercede,” and the quote becomes most apropos to describe Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to increase the threshold for which...
J. Matthew Landis: Don’t thank me for my service; serve with me and defend DACA
I proudly served my country for 10 years in the Army, first with the field artillery and later as a helicopter pilot, serving two tours in Iraq. I come from a family with a long military history, and I am proud to have put my life on the line to...
Jonah Goldberg: Cancel the primaries
The Democratic primary campaign started in January, but it already feels as if it began in the late Jurassic period, and the first votes are still three months away. Primaries are a lot like Christmas: The shopping season begins way before, and things rarely live up to expectations. (I mean...
Earl Tilford: The strategic effect of Operation Kayla
Raids, like Operation Kayla — named for murdered humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller — resulting in the death of Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi and other ISIS terrorist leaders, are usually small affairs with limited results. Nevertheless, such meticulously planned and superbly executed raids also can have significant strategic implications. Roughly five decades...
Ashley Klingensmith: Casey should work to give Congress vote on tariffs
Pennsylvania was once known as “the steel capital of the world.” We have grown and diversified beyond that distinction some time ago, but steel remains a sizable component of the commonwealth’s economy. More than 30,000 workers are directly employed in the industry, producing more than $20 billion in economic output....
Walter Williams: Disproportionalities — whose fault?
Jews have been awarded 40% of the Nobel Prizes in economics, 30% of those in medicine, 25% in physics, 20% in chemistry, 15% in literature and 10% of the Nobel Peace Prizes. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been just over 900 Nobel Prizes awarded. Since Jews...
John Stossel: Libra, Bitcoin show promise
House members summoned Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to Washington, D.C., and grilled him — harshly — about his plan to create a new currency, Libra. I liked it when Zuckerberg said, “I actually don’t know if Libra’s going to work, but I believe that it’s important to try new things.” He...
Carla Balakgie: Before Thanksgiving, vending industry commits to ‘better’ choices
With Thanksgiving just a fortnight away, tables across America will soon be teeming with turkey and all the trimmings — and the potential for Americans to overindulge. At the same time, millions of those same people are trying to be more mindful about their overall nutrition, including snacking. In fact,...
Benjamin Allison: Killing Baghdadi not defeat of ISIS
On the night of Oct. 26-27, the caliph (commander) of the Islamic State (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died in a U.S. raid on his compound in Idlib, Syria. The leader of the deadliest terrorist group in history is dead. Now what? For months, experts have warned against the notion that...
Ron Klink: Nancy Pelosi’s drug plan misses the mark
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed one of the most ambitious health care reforms since the Affordable Care Act. She hopes her plan, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, will reduce the “out of control” prices that are “crushing Americans at the pharmacy counter.” I served four terms in Congress...
Pat Buchanan: The day Nixon routed the establishment
What are the roots of our present disorder, of the hostilities and hatreds that so divide us? When did we become this us vs. them nation? Many trace the roots of our uncivil social conflict to the 1960s and the Johnson years when LBJ, victorious in a 61% landslide in...
Joel Pfeffer: ‘Public charge’ proposal could thwart hopes & dreams
Before Ellis Island was a museum that hosted tourists and middle-school field trips, it was a gateway to America for thousands upon thousands of hopeful immigrants — and the site of intense question-and-answer sessions. These early 1900s interviews included some fairly straightforward questions: What country are you from? What is...
Jonah Goldberg: Apology is Trump’s best option for avoiding impeachment
In l’affaire Ukraine, the president is guilty as charged. And the best strategy for him to avoid impeachment by the House and perhaps even removal by the Senate is to admit it, apologize and let voters make their own judgment. It’s also the best way to fend off a disaster...
Gary Alexander: New focus needed to end Pa.’s opioid epidemic
President Trump’s October 2017 national declaration to combat widespread deaths related to opioid abuse promised swift and pragmatic solutions. After all, drug overdoses killed a record-breaking 72,300 Americans during 2017, a 10% increase from 2016. This equates to more than the yearly death tolls from HIV, car crashes and gun...
S.E. Cupp: Trump defenders going after U.S. war hero is new low
Trying to keep up with the ever-changing positions of President Trump’s loyalists is hard work. Last week, Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade, Fox News guest John Yoo, CNN contributor Sean Duffy and others suggested that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukrainian-born American, war hero and Purple Heart...
Peter Morici: Voters as responsible as politicians for dysfunction
In the snows of New Hampshire, yet another American president could emerge pledging to fix Washington — the political gridlock and the pervasive influence of “evil” special interests and K Street lobbyists. And relieve the worst burdens on middle class prosperity — skyrocketing health care costs, tuition and student debt,...
David Ayers: Marriage & the gender gap in higher ed
A significantly lower percentage of young men are now obtaining college degrees compared to women. We have known this for some time now. As Jon Birger pointed out in his 2015 book “Date-onomics,” , and as the mass media trumpeted widely, among Americans in their 20s with college degrees, women...
John Stossel: Rand Paul’s call to end America’s wars
Four years ago, the media were talking about a “Libertarian Moment.” I had high hopes! Sen. Rand Paul ran for president, promising to “take our country back from special interests.” But his campaign never took off. He “shouldn’t even be on the stage,” said Donald Trump at a Republican presidential...
Elijah Bray: Marsy’s Law dangerous to our freedoms
On Nov. 5, voters in Pennsylvania will face an important choice: whether or not to approve an amendment to the state Constitution. The benign title of the legislation, the Pennsylvania Marsy’s Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment, belies the dangerous language contained within the measure. Pennsylvania voters from across the political...
Walter Williams: Gun grabbers misleading us
Gun control did not become politically acceptable until the Gun Control Act of 1968 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law’s primary focus was to regulate commerce in firearms by prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers. Today’s gun-control advocates have gone much...
Cal Thomas: Charlie Chaplin’s philosophy — no more billionaires
He was the Bernie Sanders of his day. Charlie Chaplin, the iconic actor and at the time a well-known political leftist (some said communist), delivered a speech in San Francisco in 1941 prior to America’s entry into World War II. As recounted in the biography of her parents, actress Fay...
Pat Buchanan: When will we leave the Middle East?
“Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand,” said President Trump in an impassioned defense of his decision to cut ties to the Syrian Kurds, withdraw and end these “endless wars.” Are our troops in Syria, then, on their way home? Well, not exactly. Those leaving northern Syria went...
