Featured Commentary category, Page 54
Laura Washington: Nikki Haley is on the rise. Can she take on Donald Trump?
“‘The rise is real’: Haley’s breakout is jolting 2024′s undercard race,” an Oct. 29 Politico report was headlined. That is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina legislator and governor, United Nations ambassador and now the Republican presidential candidate to watch. Haley is surging in the 2024 GOP primary sweepstakes; in...
Darrell Owens: Veterans need VA’s community care program
For veterans transitioning from military to civilian life, the lack of support for the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has been a point of contention for years, with delays in care and unwarranted denials for service members. This November we celebrate Veterans Day and those who served in uniform —...
Edward Wood: Commercial pot push comes with great risks to public safety
The camel stuck its nose into Pennsylvania’s tent in 2016 when the Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law. It didn’t take long for the beast to try to crawl all the way in. Senate Bill 846 now seeks to “legalize” so-called recreational marijuana. It will make a bad situation...
Jim Pieffer: Medicaid underfunding a major factor in nursing home crisis
Thanks to the Tribune-Review and reporters Brian C. Rittmeyer and Julia Maruca for their series “Nursing Home Crisis,” (Oct. 29, TribLIVE). They shined a light on a problem that’s been years in the making. Many of the heartbreaking situations described in the series can be traced back to a staffing...
Cal Thomas: Matthew Perry and the cult of celebrity
I never saw an episode of “Friends,” but that is probably because I am from the television era that began with black- and-white pictures and television screens so small you had to draw a chair up to the box to see a flickering image. Back then, celebrity was a byproduct...
Gary Franks: Can new speaker pass legislation? Putting God first can help
I wish newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson great success in what has turned out to be a difficult journey for the Republicans. For now, the speaker’s chair is no longer vacant. Did everyone get what they wanted? Or did everyone lose? Let’s review. The MAGA Republicans bullied their way...
Bruce Ledewitz: The rage of the essential worker
The other day, I did something most of my fellow liberals have never done — I had a serious conversation with an essential worker. He could have been a grocery clerk, a construction worker, a health care aide or innumerable other job classifications. He could have been female or male,...
Peter Morici: Fed’s quest for a soft landing is like hunting for unicorns
The Federal Reserve is hunting for a unicorn by holding U.S. interest rates steady and hoping that’s enough to bring inflation down to 2% without a recession. Historically, soft landings are terribly scarce and perhaps only exist in the eye of the beholder. The challenges policymakers face in the coming...
Robert T. Smith: Devotion to segregation
There is but one race, the human race. Divisions of this one race have occurred due to geographic ancestry, behaviors, activities and interests, and through all manner of other shared groupings. We humans seem prone to segregation that has been encoded into the human race’s psyche. We can see this...
Elwood Watson: Matt Gaetz is right about the new Republican Speaker
Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected speaker of the House, is the most unabashedly Christian nationalist speaker in history. That Rep. Matt Gaetz is so deliriously happy should tell you quite a bit about the latest speaker. During an appearance on Steve Bannon’s far-right “War Room” podcast last week, just...
Cal Thomas: Dracula and spending cuts
Among the top priorities for newly selected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was his announced intention to form a bipartisan panel to cut massive spending that has led to an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt. The pragmatist in me cheers, but the cynic in me says asking Congress to cut...
Salewa Ogunmefun: An easy fix to make next year’s primaries accessible to all
There has been a lot of conversation recently in Harrisburg about moving the date of next year’s primary election because the election date coincided with the Jewish holiday of Passover. Competing proposals in both legislative chambers have sought to temporarily move the date earlier, between three and five weeks. Yet,...
Michael Reagan: Americans are being hurt by the politics of hate
“The more we learn about the 2020 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE president in the oval office.” How could Republicans in the House struggle for three weeks and then unanimously elect a man who said this kind of irresponsible stuff...
Jim Warren: Misinformation about the Israeli-Hamas war is rampant. Here’s how to fight it
The fog of the Israeli-Hamas war is made more intimidating by the thick mist of misinformation. What are smart news consumers, and impressionable students in classrooms nationwide, supposed to do as rampant falsehoods spread? NewsGuard, the anti-misinformation company I work for, is toiling 24/7 with a tsunami of wrongheaded claims...
Michael Peregrine: Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre has particular relevance for our political climate
The Saturday Night Massacre refers to the extraordinary clash between the commitment to democratic principles and the outer limits of presidential power that created the most memorable constitutional crisis of the Watergate era. And it carries exceptional relevance for today’s political climate. The defining moment of the “massacre” was the...
Rebecca Saltzman: Americans fall victim to Jew Derangement Syndrome
There’s just something about the Jews. (I’m Jewish, so I can say that.) For thousands of years, from the Romans to the Nazis to Kanye West, we have possessed that je ne sais quois that drives people mad. To paraphrase Regina George, “Why are you so obsessed with us?” In...
Nick Hayes: College students, be smart on Halloween
Many universities and college campuses maintain unique, decades-long Halloween traditions. While most emphasize inclusion, engagement and creativity, others can promote excessive partying, heavy drinking and drug use. As communities gear up for the holiday season, it’s a good time to begin knowing the risks associated with heavy drinking and recreational...
Cal Thomas: What’s needed is renovation
Some popular shows on PBS and cable TV are about renovating old houses - taking dilapidated, out-of-fashion and dreary houses and turning them into modern, functioning, and attractive places in which to live. Renovation is precisely what is needed in our country whose national debt, open borders and as we’ve...
Peter Morici: Fiction writers demanding money from AI chatbots are lost in fantasy
Fiction writers are in an uproar that artificial intelligence will intensify competition. They want large-language models to either stop training on their literature or to be paid royalties. Like the Luddites weavers in the 18th century, who broke into factories to smash textile looms, these writers want special status to...
Julie M. Norman: Hamas and Hezbollah — how they are different and why they might cooperate against Israel
As Israel prepares for a massive military operation against Hamas in Gaza, risks of an escalating regional conflict loom large. The most critical additional threat to Israel is from Hezbollah, the militant group and political party based across Israel’s northern border in Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah are both backed by...
Pat Browne and Jason Kavulich: How to get the most out of expansion of Property Tax/Rent Rebate program
When Gov. Josh Shapiro recently signed historic legislation creating Act 7 of 2023, he kept a promise he made to older Pennsylvanians by delivering a major expansion of the Property Tax/Rent Rebate (PTRR) program. The governor recognizes this program serves as a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people in...
Nathan Benefield: Shapiro must reset his legislative strategy
The recent sexual harassment scandal rocking Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has made many headlines. And though Shapiro must take these accusations seriously, there could be a silver lining for the governor: Appointing a new head of legislative affairs offers the opportunity to reset his relationship with lawmakers. So far, Shapiro...
Michael Reagan: Republicans, our new national joke
The world is going to hell and taking America’s wealth, military power and geopolitical influence with it. Thanks to the terrorists of Hamas, we’re slowly being pulled deeper into a war in Israel that could set the whole Middle East on fire. And remember the bloody war in Ukraine? It’s...
Peter Mansoor: 9/11 offers awful lessons for what could happen with a Gaza ground invasion
After the invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday vowed to destroy Hamas. “We are fighting a cruel enemy, worse than ISIS,” Netanyahu said, comparing Hamas with the Islamic State group, which was largely defeated by U.S., Iraqi and Kurdish forces in 2017....
Allison M. Prasch: Biden’s Middle East trip has messages for both global, domestic audiences
President Joe Biden’s decision to travel to an active war zone and the scene of an unfolding humanitarian crisis spoke volumes, even before his arrival. The White House has stated that Biden’s purpose is to “demonstrate his steadfast support for Israel” after Hamas’ “brutal terrorist attack” Oct. 7. But Israel wasn’t...
