Opinion category, Page 587
Editorial: Public health orders that hurt the bar business require a chaser of aid
Gov. Tom Wolf has set last call for alcohol Wednesday at 4:59 p.m., because at 5 p.m. on the biggest drinking night of the year, bars and restaurants have to stop pouring. The new order is aimed at cutting down on the spread of covid-19 over Thanksgiving. The Wolf administration...
David Wassel: Dissecting the 2020 election
At first blush, the Democrats prevailed, although with considerable nuance and caveats. Here’s a rundown. Vice President Joe Biden didn’t win the broad sweep of states that was advertised. But only the 270 Electoral College vote threshold, which he crossed, matters. Democrats didn’t win expected Senate seats, denying them a...
Letter to the editor: Trump and the definition of insanity
Insanity is best defined as doing the same thing over and over and over, expecting different results each time. That President Trump and his bevy of so-called lawyers have now asked Georgia to recount the results of the state’s certified election for a third time clearly indicates to me that...
Pat Buchanan: What Trump will leave in Biden’s inbox
Dismissing President Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election remains undecided, Joe Biden has begun to name his national security team. Right now, it looks Democratic establishment all the way. Antony Blinken, a longtime foreign policy aide, is Biden’s choice for secretary of state. Jake Sullivan, one of Hillary Clinton’s...
Letter to the editor: Fighting for America
So here we are. A divided nation. As we have always been. We will never be “united.” That is how our republic (we are not a democracy) is designed. If we were all “united,” there would be no individual thought or freedom. Unity to the left means you must “think”...
Editorial: Pa. counties need health department authority
The coronavirus pandemic is one big stew pot. The sometimes confusing information that emerges points to a lot of cooks stirring the soup. On the state level, there is the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which coordinates information from 67 counties — plus hospitals and nursing homes and personal care homes...
Letter to the editor: Republicans not party of Lincoln
The Republican Party should fess up. They are not the self-styled party of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War and presidential election of 1864, the Republican Party of Lincoln outlined a platform of 11 principles. Among these planks: • Resolved, to “forever prohibit the existence of slavery within … the...
Jonah Goldberg: Why forgiving student debt is a bad idea
One good rule of thumb is to judge parties and politicians by their priorities. Politicians often pretend to be for every good thing under the sun, so the best way to judge them is to look at which things they actually work to achieve or spend political capital on. This...
Tom Purcell: Thankful despite cancellation of family feast
My family canceled Thanksgiving this year — my favorite holiday since I was a kid. Usually, 30 to 40 people gather at my parents’ house and sit next to each other at three tables. But in this year of covid-19 — aptly named, because I and everyone I know has...
Kate Boulton: To help end overdose, we have to transform probation
As an increasing number of criminal justice policymakers acknowledge that we can’t punish our way out of the overdose crisis and as America faces a broader reckoning around our criminal legal system, we must address community supervision and its role as a driver of mass incarceration. For people who struggle...
Letter to the editor: Poor execution of Pa. travel restrictions
The value of requiring residents traveling outside of Pennsylvania to have a covid-19 test or quarantine upon return is one I’ll hold opinion on. The exception I do take is to the timing of this and to the lead time provided for compliance. The announcement of this policy was made...
Letter to the editor: Clarifying Jeannette budget details
The article “Jeannette officials OK preliminary budget with no tax hike” (Nov. 13, TribLIVE) lists budget costs of the four top departments in the city: police, $2 million; sanitation, $928,000; fire, $560,000; and streets, $527,000. I would like to clarify the sanitation department costs. On the revenue side of the...
Letter to the editor: Karl Marx, Joe Hill — friends of the worker
Regarding Grove City College professor Paul Kengor’s column “The new activists — no criticism, no dissent” (Sept. 17, TribLIVE) concerning his book “The Devil and Karl Marx”: If I could afford an agent and a publisher to promote it, I could write a book called “The Devil and Donald Trump,”...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Nov. 23
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Nov. 23....
Editorial cartoons for the week of Nov. 23
Editorial cartoons for the week of Nov. 23....
S.E. Cupp: Vengeance? No. Consequences? Yes. How to handle the post-Trump era
Much has been written about the art, ethics and prudence of revenge. It’s possible Jerry Seinfeld put it best. In an episode aptly titled “The Revenge,” Seinfeld tells George Costanza, “The best revenge is living well.” To which George dismissively scoffs, “There’s no chance of that.” The topic of revenge...
Rep. John Joyce: American innovation promises covid-19 hope
For centuries, America has been the land of promise, and we have led the way in lifesaving advancement. In the span of my medical career alone, I have witnessed remarkable innovation — from groundbreaking discoveries to new therapeutics and even cures for deadly diseases. In 2020, America’s scientists and researchers...
Editorial: Life lessons from Lucy’s kitchen
We should all live like Lucy. Lucy Pollock, 98, of Latrobe spent the last months surrounded by the love of her family and friends. And how those friends grew in that time. During the coronavirus pandemic, when people stayed home in lockdown and baking bread became the closest thing many...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s ‘Star Wars’-like rise to power
Letter-writer Mark Gostkowski (“A ‘Star Wars’-like ending to Trump presidency,” Nov. 17, TribLIVE) opined that the coming end of Donald Trump’s presidency is similar to the destruction of the Sith lord Darth Sidious in “Return of the Jedi.” I contend that Sheev Palpatine, senator of Naboo and secretly Darth Sidious,...
Letter to the editor: Voting a precious duty
Being an American, and living in the greatest and freest nation in the history of the world, is a privilege and blessing often taken for granted. Contrary to lying anarchists and socialists intent on misrepresenting America’s founding and current events to instigate unrest in the short term — and destruction...
Letter to the editor: Dangerous popularity contest
Politics is one of the least trusted professions in America, yet politicians are constantly involved in popularity contests. The dichotomy is deliciously ironic. How do you become popular within such a play? Act out what the audience wants you to be, not what you really are. That type of character...
Editorial: Vaccines great but pandemic not done
The vaccines are coming. In the last two weeks, two major pharmaceutical companies have made announcements about their covid-19 vaccines. Pfizer’s testing is showing a 90% efficacy. Moderna’s is 94.5%. Both are in the homestretch of a race with a huge jackpot — potentially millions of lives in America alone...
Letter to the editor: Covid-19 testing useless without follow-up
According to Wikipedia, in 2017, there were 143.3 million taxpayers in the United States. Last year, the IRS audited one out of every 220 taxpayers. Everybody fears an IRS audit because auditors tend to find things that could cause you a hardship, such as a fine or jail time. Sometimes...
Letter to the editor: Let’s give Joe Biden a chance
President-elect Biden’s favorite phrase is “possibilities for a brighter future.” As the most enduring democracy in the entire world, we, as a nation, have opportunities to build a lasting pathway of progress toward many common goods. Of course, this won’t be easy as divisiveness among our people has become a...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Time for Trump to accept his loss
Most times when you lose an election, that’s all there is to it — you lost. You are not alone, because the arithmetic in a two-party system means that about half of the candidates in a general election lose, but it still catches some candidates by surprise to be a...
