What I would like to hear from candidates

January 14, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s strategy of holding on to the two weak articles of impeachment against President Trump was starting to rattle some Democrats, who felt they were losing the political battle. Last Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told reporters, “If we’re going to do it, she should send them over,” adding, “I don’t see what good delay does.” On Friday, Pelosi sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues that announced she was preparing to send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate this week. “I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House ...

Eternal battle: Revenue vs. virtue

January 14, 2020

Donald J. Boudreaux and Adam C. Pritchard Tribune News Service Alcohol prohibition became the law of the land 100 years ago — on Jan. 16, 1920 — following ratification of the 18th Amendment and enactment of the Volstead Act. Progressivism played a driving role, with Americans possessed by reformist fervor set to cure the ills of society by banning the manufacture and sale of liquor. Today, reformers are pushing in a seemingly opposite direction, seeking to undo a longstanding ban on marijuana. What lessons do the demise of alcohol prohibition provide for modern-day marijuana ...

What in the world just happened here?

January 13, 2020

So what in the world just happened here? That’s the question of the moment as we struggle to get our heads around the latest head-snapping episode in the bizarre presidency of Donald Trump. In the last few days, we’ve seen: 1) a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, killing Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force; 2) Trump’s justification of the killing on grounds that Soleimani, architect of hundreds of American military casualties, was planning imminent violence; 3) bellicose threats from Trump to bomb Iranian cultural sites; 4) vows of revenge from Tehran, and, 5) Iranian ...

Cold dogs need warm folks to care for them

January 13, 2020

Rebel is one of the lucky ones. Starved, neglected and chained outdoors in rural Tennessee in the freezing cold, the bone-thin dog likely wouldn’t have survived more than another day or two. But last month, a kind man who was working on a power line nearby noticed him, along with two others, also chained on the property. The man and his coworker gave their lunches to the dogs and poured their bottled water into the dogs’ bowls so they could quench their thirst. Then the man did something that changed the lives of Rebel and the other dogs: He notified humane authorities, who ...

Did Trump walk into a trap?

January 10, 2020

Without (initially) firing a shot, Iran appears to have executed a devastating revenge attack against the United States for the killing of Gen. Qassem Suleimani. Using Iraq’s democratic process, Iranian-influenced members of parliament on Sunday voted to expel American soldiers from Iraq. With that, Iran may have effectively won the battle of influence in Iraq. This strategic coup de grace was delivered not by rockets or suicide vests, but by legitimate votes in a democracy built by the United States. Assuming the Iraqi prime minister signs this nonbinding bill into law American ...

Tone-deaf Democrats risk handing western Pa. to Trump

January 9, 2020

Darrin Kelly, president of the powerful Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council, says that not one of the Democratic candidates running for president has reached out to him to ask about or listen to what union families in western Pennsylvania are looking for in a nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November. “Not one,” he says abruptly. That omission is obvious in just about every proclamation about the energy sector coming from the mouths of most Democratic candidates, whether it is Sens. Bernie Sanders’ and Elizabeth Warren’s pledging to ban fracking, or ...