Biden still remains the Democrat to beat Trump

July 3, 2019

During the Thursday debate, Kamala Harris went straight for Joe Biden’s jugular over his alleged failures on race matters. The day after, however, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the black mayor of arguably America’s blackest city, Atlanta, endorsed Biden for the Democratic nomination. And according to The Daily Beast, a Democracy Corps poll had Biden’s favorability with African Americans up by net 18% after the debate. What gives? Didn’t the Twitter left just declare that Harris had eviscerated Biden? As usual, it interpreted events according to its own assumptions — and ...

Kids shouldn’t be used as political pawns

July 2, 2019

When faced with two women who each claimed to be the mother of the same child, King Solomon announced he would slice the child in two and give half to each claimant. One woman was pleased. The other wailed in sorrow, and begged the king to give the child to her opponent. Solomon understood that the woman who wanted to save the child even though it meant she’d lose him was the true mother. There are no Solomons among us today. Children are once again being used as pawns and commodities in our immigration debate, and the adults are fighting to gain philosophical and ...

Justices saw through ploy for question

July 2, 2019

In a stunning victory for the rule of law, a bare majority of the Supreme Court agreed that the Commerce Department had not adequately justified the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. But the decision says more about how poorly the Trump administration covered its tracks than it does about the court’s willingness to rein in the administration’s worst excesses. The decision handed down Thursday is procedurally complicated but will probably have the effect of blocking the addition of a citizenship question to the census. The Census Bureau was going to ask every ...

Economic independence costly

July 2, 2019

This week, let’s put down our midsummer cookout plates long enough to remember sacrifices made across generations to secure independence, peace and prosperity. We might also reflect on how British trade interference with goods like stamps and tea helped spark the Fourth of July holiday. As 2019’s trade wars drag on, perhaps you’ve noticed some signs of government interference while shopping for that cookout. Tariffs make government-favored products into winners, but overlooked products and those caught in the retaliation lose out. The new patio furniture you’re sitting ...

People don’t change due to shunning

July 2, 2019

Adam Sutton The Baltimore Sun On June 21, I woke up to the news that the president had called off a missile strike on Iran at the last minute. A missile attack that was a consequence of the Trump administration’s decision to turn away from a diplomatic agreement with Iran. In place of the diplomatic agreement, President Donald Trump has implemented a “maximum pressure” approach defined by tough economic sanctions and belligerent rhetoric that amounts to telling Iran they are a horrible country and only when they do exactly as the USA wants can we work together. Earlier in the ...

Questions he would’ve liked to ask the Democrats

July 2, 2019

The likelihood I would ever be invited to serve on a network panel questioning the Democratic presidential candidates is equivalent to an invitation to take the next trip to the moon. Still, as I tortured myself watching the two “debates,” which were not really debates, but mostly a show of memorized sound bites, I thought of unasked questions that ought to have been put to them all. Question 1: Some of you have, or had, the power to change many of the things you now say are wrong with America. Why didn’t you? Question 2 (for Joe Biden): You and Barack Obama, for a time, ...