Cal Thomas stories, Page 5
Cal Thomas: Democrats and Republicans — not a dime’s worth of difference
When he ran for president a second time in 1968 on the American Independent Party ticket, Alabama Gov. George Wallace said, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican parties.” Granted that Wallace, who had been a Democrat, was attempting to attract votes for that nascent...
Cal Thomas: Crowning Trump king
The crowning of Charles III as king of England and the shrinking realm of the United Kingdom was not the only coronation taking place in the world. Increasingly, evangelical Christians in the U.S. are treating Donald Trump as their king. While the scenarios are different, it reminds me of when...
Cal Thomas: The debt limit — same old song
The very term “debt limit” makes a mockery of any kind of responsible budgeting. Each time the government reaches the “limit” it gets raised with the familiar scenarios that include threats of a government shutdown (an idea that increasingly appeals to some conservatives) and the claim that the “full faith...
Cal Thomas: In France, this should not be surprising
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is behaving like many other politicians. Following massive demonstrations against his enactment of a law raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, Macron seems to be taking a page from America’s Democratic Party playbook — if you can’t beat them, bribe...
Cal Thomas: Kindness could go a long way in politics
From the beginning politics has always been a contact sport with competing interests attempting to achieve power over each other. A friend recently said to me he has never seen it so bad as it is today. The friend appears to be in his 50s, so he missed the divisions...
Cal Thomas: For Trump, character matters
Leaving aside all the sometimes legitimate and sometimes illegitimate responses from defenders of former President Donald Trump following his indictment by a New York grand jury, there is something that would have made all the difference for the 45th president had he focused on it as his top priority, rather...
Cal Thomas: Trump should follow LBJ’s example
If, as seems likely, Donald Trump is indicted by a New York grand jury for reportedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and if, as also seems likely, Trump is also indicted by a Georgia grand jury for trying to force election officials to overturn that state’s vote...
Cal Thomas: Read Joe Biden’s lips — more new taxes
President Joe Biden has announced he will raise “some taxes” in the budget he is proposing this week to Congress. Biden again claims no one making less than $400,000 a year will pay more taxes. The federal government receives record amounts of revenue, but spends and borrows in ways that...
Cal Thomas: On Ukraine — pay any price? Bear any burden?
“…we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” — John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961 Those were simpler, though not less dangerous times. The Soviet Union was seen as America’s No....
Cal Thomas: Monitoring the foreigners buying our farmland
While the military is focused on foreign objects flying over American and Canadian territory, a more disturbing threat to our national security is occurring on the ground. Federal, state and local governments are behind in their response to the acquisition of American land by people and companies associated with the...
Cal Thomas: Biden and Sanders, a fading star vs. a rising star
We’ve heard it all before. In fact, a recording of last year’s State of the Union could have been replayed, saving President Biden a trip to Capitol Hill. Numbers can be selectively used to hide reality and advance one’s political agenda. Both parties do this, but Democrats and their media...
Cal Thomas: Trial balloons
KEY LARGO, Florida — Say the words “espionage” and “communism” to a younger generation and they might think you’re talking about spy novels and Cold War history. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thinks both words describe contemporary threats. During a visit to a town made famous by the 1948...
Cal Thomas: Inhumanity in Memphis
No adjective is sufficient to describe the reaction one gets from watching five Memphis police officers beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to within an inch of his life. He later died of his injuries in a local hospital. “Inhumane” and “senseless” are as close as it comes. While Nichols was accused...
Cal Thomas: A surprise resignation in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Like Halley’s Comet that only comes around every 75 years, the resignation of a top politician from office is a rare occurrence. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has quit and not for the usual reasons of scandal or the all-purpose excuse “to spend more time...
Cal Thomas: Lisa Marie Presley and the other side of fame
“I’m gonna live forever, baby, remember my name” — (from “Fame”) The death at age 54 of Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, got me thinking again about the two-edged sword that is fame. Poems, books and movies have addressed fame, how some people lust after it and how it...
Cal Thomas: Barn doors and horses
After months of ignoring the problem and demonstrably false claims by his Homeland Security secretary that the southern border is “secure,” President Biden is finally visiting the area this week as part of a trip to Mexico. Last week, the administration announced it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians...
Cal Thomas: Where have all the intellectuals gone?
The new slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives lacks something besides its slim majority and the battle over leadership positions. It lacks intellectual depth. The Reagan administration may have been the last one to challenge Americans to think for themselves and for that matter, just to think. Perhaps...
Cal Thomas: A new year but nothing new
People speak of a new year as turning the page, or starting out fresh, or forgetting the past. At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t. In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish...
Cal Thomas: An old debt carries over to a new year
”Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” — Herbert Hoover “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” — Benjamin Franklin Eighteen Republican senators voted for the monstrosity known as the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, thus forever relinquishing their claim to belong...
Cal Thomas: Congressional lame duck quackery
There is little Republicans and Democrats in Congress agree on these days, but spending (and borrowing) money is as nonpartisan as it gets. House Democrats apparently have decided to leave their majority with a spending spree. They’ll do it the way they usually do. In a script familiar to an...
Cal Thomas: On turning 80
“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.” (Psalm 90:10) A TV ad for a dietary supplement features a woman who says, “Age is just a number and mine is unlisted.” Mine is not unlisted and a simple internet search can reveal it, so I...
Cal Thomas: Biden’s misplaced emphasis on one gun
We now know at least one of the priorities of the Biden administration during the remaining weeks Democrats control the House of Representatives. The president says he would try to “get rid of assault weapons.” Speaking to reporters at his Nantucketholiday house, Biden said: “The idea (that) we still allow...
Cal Thomas: Thanksgiving to whom?
Merriam-Webster has announced it is adding about 500 new words to its seventh edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. I doubt most people will ever use them in conversation or in writing, but they will be beneficial when playing the board game. Meanwhile, the corruption of the English language...
Cal Thomas: Mike Pence, a man of integrity
If former Vice President Mike Pence is ever in need of a character witness, he could not do much better than one statement former President Donald Trump made to him. In his new book “So Help Me God,” Pence quotes Trump as pressuring him to overturn the results of the...
Cal Thomas: Toxic Trump must leave the stage
“I don’t believe in living in the past. Living in the past is for cowards. If you live in the past, you die in the past.” — Football legend Mike Ditka “The future is now.” — Football legend George Allen Former president Donald Trump appears ready and eager to announce...
