Featured Commentary category, Page 132
Jonah Goldberg: Get ready for a nasty presidential campaign
Here’s a fun New Year’s prediction for you: The 2020 presidential campaign will be even uglier than the 2016 contest. In part, that’s due to President Trump’s incumbency. In 2016, Trump almost surely did not think he’d win. Throughout his campaign, he would drop hints about an “exit strategy.” Exiles...
S.E. Cupp: Anger is eating at Americans from the inside
In the days between Christmas and New Year’s, our country suffered a double tragedy: a shooting at a Texas church and, on the seventh night of Hanukkah, a stabbing at a rabbi’s house. Whether fueled by mental illness, irrational anger, pure unadulterated hate or a combination of those things, these...
Peter Morici: Don’t miss out on another banner year for stocks
The U.S. equities are wrapping up a banner year. The S&P 500 index is up well more than 25% but sadly many small investors bailed out too early. In 2019, the financial press was full of warnings about Trump’s tariffs, estimates of job losses instigated by Chinese retaliation, and criticism...
Andy Carter: Pa.’s hospitals are fighting for nurses’ safety
There are some stories that haunt you for a long time. I’ll never forget one from Laura, a registered nurse, who shared about a time one of her patients strangled her. Or, one from Elizabeth, also a registered nurse, who recalled times when she was hit, had objects thrown at...
Mark Hendrickson: What’s wrong with a tax on billionaires?
Among the many radical economic plans offered by various Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have proposed an annual wealth tax on billionaires (and other “ultra-rich” Americans). Sanders has bluntly stated, “There should be no billionaires.” These proposals are hugely problematical. They probably are unconstitutional and certainly...
John Stossel: Popcorn, iPhones & butter all better in 2020
I learned three new things this year that made my life better! I share them with you here, hoping they make your 2020 easier. My “life hacks” are about popcorn, iPhones and butter. Weird? Maybe. Now I report on how politicians wreck just about everything, but at ABC’s show “20/20,”...
Walter Williams: Colleges dupe parents & taxpayers with ‘diversity’
Colleges and college students have also been around for centuries. Yet, college administrators assume that today’s students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors. Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive budgets to accommodate. According to Minding the Campus, Penn State’s Office of Vice Provost for Educational...
William Kerr: Remembering Apollo Patrolman Leonard C. Miller
Jan. 3 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Apollo Patrolman Leonard C. Miller, who sacrificed his life for the community. This date is celebrated not because Leonard Miller died, but because he lived. Miller was a friend and colleague, and the life of this young man — who...
Pat Buchanan: Is ‘Little Rocket Man’ winning?
As of Dec. 26, Kim Jong Un’s “Christmas gift” to President Donald Trump had not arrived. Most foreign policy analysts predict it will be a missile test more impressive than any Pyongyang has yet carried off. Kim cannot want war with the United States, as this could result in the...
Kristin Buccigrossi: NFL, how could you honor Michael Vick?
My blood has been boiling for the past few weeks toward the NFL with its choice to honor Michael Vick as a captain at the Pro Bowl. While some say that time can heal all wounds and that people can learn from their mistakes, I do not believe that Vick...
Jonah Goldberg: If this has been super-decade, why are we still so angry?
There is a strong case to be made that things are getting better. In 2010, Matt Ridley made the case in “The Rational Optimist” that things were better than they appeared. Writing in The Spectator, on the cusp of 2020, Ridley offers an update: We’re finishing the best decade in...
Elizabeth Holtzman: Senate trial must produce more evidence to determine Trump’s guilt
House and Senate Republicans are vociferously denouncing Sen. Chuck Schumer’s sensible request that four likely eyewitnesses to President Trump’s Ukraine actions testify in the Senate impeachment trial. They say the request for witnesses shows the House did not do a thorough job in its impeachment inquiry. It should have obtained...
Peter Morici: How tribalism corrupts our democracy
My grandfather, a buttonhole maker, believed his first responsibility was to be a provider. His union supported that role and the Democratic Party was the workingman’s champion. Some New Deal policies benefited him, but with a grade-school education, I doubt he ever gave great thought to how fair trade laws...
James Thrasher: Division I athletics all about the money
During an episode of Lebron James’ online show “The Shop,” California Gov. Gavin Newsome signed into law a bill allowing California student athletes to sign endorsements while in college. The NCAA Board of Governors, having studied this issue for years, responded by announcing that college athletes can “benefit from the...
Lawrence McCullough: Educational theater boosts STEM with STEAM
The first email I opened this morning notified me I’d just put a little more STEAM into the world. An ecology play I’d written some years back had been licensed by a science teacher at Our Lady Help of Christians School in Victoria, Australia. Using class students as performers, “Home...
Colin McNickle: Beef up ‘Local Share’ gambling dollars reporting
“Pursue your happiness,” read the “Welcome to Pennsylvania” interstate border signs. But “Pursue some transparency” would be a better slogan considering the commonwealth’s spotty record of holding accountable how some recipients of gambling taxes spend that money, finds an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Keystone State gambling...
John Stossel: Big hearts better than big government
This week, children may have learned about that greedy man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is selfish until ghosts scare him into thinking about others’ well-being, not just his own. Good for the ghosts. But the way Scrooge addresses others’ needs matters. Today’s advocates of equality, compassion, increased spending on education, health...
Walter Williams: Virginia gun owners in a Second Amendment battle
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam apologized for his medical school blackface stunt, but he will have much more to apologize for if he signs into law a bill that attacks Virginia citizens’ Second Amendment rights. The measure is Senate Bill 16, which would ban “assault” firearms and certain firearm magazines. Since...
Jonah Goldberg: We have 2 moon parties, no sun party
Here’s a theory for why our politics are so confusing these days: Neither party wants to be a majority party. From an ideological perspective, majority parties are, by nature, weird. For instance, the long-dominant FDR coalition included a strange mix of blacks and segregationists, corrupt city machines and the reformers...
Pat Buchanan: Is impeachment backfiring on Democrats?
“We’re gonna impeach the (expletive deleted).” Thus did the member from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, declare last January to be the goal of the 2019 House Democratic Caucus. Last Wednesday night, Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the goods. The House impeached President Trump on a straight party-line vote. Not one Republican signed...
S.E. Cupp: Roger Ailes, #MeToo & the cost of coming forward
Last Monday night, I went to a special screening of the new film “Bombshell,” which tells the true story of the downfall of late Fox News honcho — and verifiable sleaze ball — Roger Ailes. Having worked inside the corridors of Fox myself years ago, Jay Roach’s stylized, nuanced and...
Peter Morici: Giving the Fed better tools to manage financial crisis
Three times since August, the Federal Reserve has cut the federal funds rate — the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans and that strongly influences the short-term rates they charge businesses. However, Chairman Jerome Powell has made clear the Fed won’t lower rates further as long as the...
Baruch Stein: A world without American aid to Israel
Several Democratic presidential contenders have discussed cutting aid to Israel if their demands are not met. The latest confrontation in Gaza provides an opportunity to understand what that means. Approximately 450 rockets were fired at Israel between Nov. 12 and 14. More than half landed in open areas between towns....
Steve Bloom: Protect taxpayers to fix ‘brain drain’
It’s a lovely family reunion. Dad and Mom — now Grandpa and Grandma — sit facing their kids, and their kids’ kids, reminiscing about old times and laughing about the trials of parenting. Then, in mid-sentence, Grandpa stutters and freezes — his face replaced by an hourglass on a black...
Keith Williams: Contracts show fight for teachers’ rights isn’t over
Would you sign a contract you know is unconstitutional? How about one that violates teachers’ rights of free speech and free association? My guess is you wouldn’t. And that you’d be outraged if someone did. Well, that someone is in your backyard. More than 20 Pennsylvania school districts — including...
