Opinion category, Page 617
Timothy L. O’Brien: William Barr only claims to respect the rule of law
Attorney General William Barr is famously unflappable, the legal technician and savvy Washington insider unswayed by lesser minds or weaker wills. But on Tuesday, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining the past 19 months of his tenure, Barr’s legendary composure dissolved several times. His anger flared at moments when...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: With campaign lagging, Trump has a Pence dilemma
When President George H.W. Bush faced an uphill reelection fight in 1992, aides discussed ways to change the political calculus and give his candidacy a much-needed boost. Now, Donald Trump faces a comparable situation and a similar option. In the case of Bush, several top advisers, including the candidate’s future...
Editorial: Nursing homes need continued covid attention
Pennsylvania has 693 nursing homes. According to the state Department of Health, all of them have now had at least one round of covid-19 testing. Every resident, every staff member, have reportedly been tested for the disease that is at its most lethal among the aging population. Personal care and...
Ann Sanders and Theodoros Papazekos: Congress must boost SNAP benefits to address hunger crisis
The economic downturn accompanying the pandemic has cost millions their jobs, and millions more have faced reduced hours and wages. The problem is perhaps particularly acute in Pennsylvania. As of June, our state unemployment rate of 13% was the ninth worst in the country and far worse than its peak...
Letter to the editor: Masking the country’s bigger problems
I look at people’s eyes above the masks, filled with fear or numbness. What a fine excuse to take a step farther back from having to associate with their fellow human beings. In the digital world we no longer have to deal with social interaction, which can cause distress because...
Letter to the editor: Memories of Vietnam
Reading Howard Bronder’s letter “Fireworks remind vet of soldier friends in Vietnam” (July 7, TribLIVE) was very uplifting. In Vietnam, I was stationed way up north around Dong Ha, Quang Tri. I share your story very well. The movies “Platoon” and “First Blood” show how it really was. You mentioned...
Letter to the editor: We the people … surrender?
When “democratic socialism” comes, we’ll deserve forfeiting America’s signature quality. Not just liberty itself, but our understanding that effort, pride, motivation, failure and success are as essential to the joy of freedom as the outcome. With socialism, effort is secondary. Obscenely taxed workers fund communal support and $93 trillion Green...
Letter to the editor: Send message to officials via your tax payment
Sometimes it seems Pennsylvanians cannot win against Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. They are simply too powerful. However, citizens can express their outrage in subtle ways. Wolf closed all public schools in March, citing public safety. Maybe they will reopen this fall. Many property owners are now...
Letter to the editor: Wolf’s decisions hurting Pa.
Once again, dictator Gov. Tom Wolf has made a decision that has negatively impacted the state’s economy. He painted that penalty over the entire state without regard to the counties that are faring well with the covid-19 numbers. He closed all bars and clubs that don’t serve food and placed...
Editorial: Child care helps babysit the economy
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, there is plenty of debate about opening schools and opening businesses and opening the economy. There are all these questions about getting the millions of people who have been laid off or furloughed back to collecting a paycheck instead of an unemployment check. There has...
Jay Ambrose: Nancy Pelosi is wrong on Trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the coronavirus “the Trump virus,” explaining that the president has caused deaths with his initial, ho-hum reaction to it. The verbal assault should be no surprise. After all, she said Republicans “were trying to get away with murder” on a police reform bill and...
Pat Buchanan: American ‘stormtroopers’ — a bright shining lie
With the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse under nightly siege from violent radicals, and Portland’s police hard-pressed to protect it, President Trump sent in federal agents to secure the building. The reaction from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “The use of stormtroopers under the guise of law and order...
Alana R. Sacriponte: ‘The 8-Second Exchange’ on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
As a graduate student looking for a summer job, my mom suggested I apply to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I considered it odd at first. It was 2008 and cash had lost much of its prevalence already. Did people still carry coins? Didn’t everyone use EZPass? I took my mom’s suggestion,...
Wendell W. Young IV: Pa. families need Toomey to lead in covid-19 debate
As President Trump and some lawmakers, including Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, debate whether or not additional federal support is necessary to manage the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic, I encourage them to spend just one day with Pennsylvania workers and their families before they make up their mind. They...
Letter to the editor: Raising taxes during pandemic is wrong
We’ve been struggling through this pandemic for months. Now we have over 40 million people out of work, and some may not go back to work. People are having a hard time feeding their families and paying bills. And through these hard times, school boards are raising taxes. Maybe they...
Letter to the editor: Don’t stop for the far-left plot
Stop signs should be voluntary. Blind obedience to stop signs is a sign of weakness and a lack of fortitude. It is unacceptable and un-American for the government to force me to stop when I don’t want to. I have perfectly good reasoning abilities and judgment. I don’t need the...
Letter to the editor: Today’s Liars Club taking us down
In my formative years, youth had good, clean rules to live by — rules that didn’t have to be written down to be remembered. We were guided by this question: Would what we did make our parents and others who we respected and loved proud of us? The boys in...
Timothy L. O’Brien: Sinclair pulls the plug on Fauci propaganda — this time
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is one of the largest television station operators in the country, with 191 stations in 89 markets broadcasting to 629 channels. For the most part, the company operates in small, conservative metropolitan locations. Most viewers aren’t likely to be aware of the Sinclair brand, because the...
Editorial: Tax credit grows Pennsylvania agriculture
Pennsylvania might have been made famous by coal and oil, iron and steel, but the industry that actually built the state was agriculture. Rolling hills and wide fields and their crops and livestock have been the powerhouse of the Keystone State since its Colonial days and remain a major building...
Tom Purcell: Laughter really is best medicine
I missed it again. So did the rest of America. July 1’s unofficial International Joke Day came and went without fanfare. That’s regrettable, because we could all use a good belly laugh right now — which gave me an idea. The other day, after hearing more doom-and-gloom news while driving,...
Jonah Goldberg: There’s idiocy on all sides in ‘law and order’ road show
As the Trump administration takes its “law and order” show on the road after a dress rehearsal at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and a soft opening in Portland, Ore., let me just say I’m disgusted with almost everybody involved. Let’s start with the Portland demonstrators. Contrary to heroic PR...
Matt Smith: Liability safe harbor needed for safe, sustainable reopening
Since the beginning of the covid-19 crisis, Pittsburghers from across the region — including our region’s manufacturers, hospitals, small businesses and nonprofits — continue to come together to look for ways to protect our neighbors, friends and families. In fact, many businesses and other organizations have altered their operations to...
Letter to the editor: How is Germany dealing with covid-19?
I recently read that there were 159 new cases of covid-19 in one recent day in Germany with a population of 80 million; there were 15,300 new cases in one day in Florida with a population of 21.5 million. That prompted me to check numbers in other states: Approximately 3,000...
Letter to the editor: Fearing Trump’s leadership
George Will and I do not agree on much, but I’m in complete agreement with the comments in his July 16, 2020 opinion piece, “What national decline looks like.” Will states, “The nation’s floundering government is now administered by a gangster regime.” President Trump seems to require absolute loyalty, and...
Letter to the editor: We must work to end racial injustice
My parents raised me without prejudice. A female friend and former boss once told me, “You don’t see color.” Every life matters to God. Every life matters, but no lives matter unless Black lives matter. I pray the love of power can be transformed by the power of love. Seeing...
