A taxing situation

What would you think of an individual or a company that earned a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in one year, paid nothing in taxes and still received a $3.5 million refund? Am I speaking of Donald Trump? No, it is The New York Times Company. Forbes magazine studied the newspaper’s 2014 annual report, in […]

 

Faith and the VP debate

In every election cycle since Jimmy Carter introduced “born again” into the political lexicon, a politician’s faith has been an object of curiosity and contention. At an appearance in Iowa in January, Hillary Clinton responded to a question about her faith, saying she is a Christian and a Methodist and that to her “the most […]

 

Advice for second debate

Donald Trump scored a gentleman’s “C” in his first debate with Hillary Clinton. She was programmed, like one of those androids from the film “Westworld,” spewing out well-rehearsed sound bites, smiling (sometimes condescendingly), and even tossing in a few wiggles. It was all designed to make her look warm and wonderful. As the saying goes, […]

 

It’s time for Trump

Now that all of my inside-the-beltway, elitist, morally superior friends and colleagues have weighed in with their self-righteous denunciations of Donald Trump, it’s my turn. After initially opposing his candidacy for president, I have come around to another point of view. The election of Hillary Clinton will perpetuate and probably worsen everything many people hate […]

 

More terror, more denials

In Florida Monday, following the bombings in New York and New Jersey, Donald Trump referred to the captured bombing suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, as an “evil thug.” He then added, “Hillary Clinton is a weak and ineffective person and I will tell you, if you choose Donald Trump, these problems are going to go away […]

 

Questions Lester Holt should ask

Next week’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could determine the outcome of the election. As polls show Trump leading in some swing states and closing the gap in others, it appears the only burden he must overcome is the one Ronald Reagan shared, looking presidential enough that voters trust him with so […]

 

The ‘Deplorables’

Every now and again secular progressives rip off their mask and tell conservatives what they really think of them. At an LGBT fundraiser last Friday in New York, Hillary Clinton one-upped President Obama, who said of conservatives during the 2008 presidential campaign: “And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns […]

 

Hillary Clinton channels Nixon

One wouldn’t think Hillary Clinton and former President Richard Nixon would have a lot in common, but in responding to FBI investigators that she “could not recall any briefing or training by State related to retention of federal records or handling classified information,” Clinton took a page straight out of Nixon’s playbook. In a March […]

 

The EU’s taxing problem

Economics was not one of my favorite subjects in college, so I avoided economic courses. But I do know a few things about human nature. If you tax income at too high a rate, corporations will look elsewhere for relief. Take Ireland. In 1991, Apple Corporation cut a deal with the Irish government so that […]

 

Trump calls for an oath to America

Loyalty oaths have been tried in the past, but eventually were struck down by the courts as either too vague, or an unconstitutional violation of free speech. These applied, as far as I can tell from reading their history, only to American citizens. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested something different. He wants to […]

 

Where there’s smoke there’s fire

The prize quote of this incendiary political year may go to Hillary Clinton. In response to Donald Trump’s charge that the Clintons set up a pay-for-play arrangement that granted big contributors access to Clinton while she was secretary of state, Hillary Clinton said, “My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside […]

 

To ID or not to ID?

Every election cycle we must endure challenges and allegations about fraud (conservatives) and discrimination (liberals) when it comes to voter ID laws. This year is no different. A federal court ruled that the Texas Voter ID law passed in 2011, requiring voters to present official photo identification, discriminated again poor, minority and disabled voters and […]

 

What the past can teach us

While we shouldn’t live in the past, we can certainly learn from it. We are not the first humans to walk the Earth and yet too many, especially the young, suffer from the conceit that history is just a boring subject in school. PBS is rerunning episodes on its award-winning series “American Experience” on modern […]

 

Those ‘old, tired ideas’

Reacting to Donald Trump’s speech Monday to the Detroit Economic Club, Hillary Clinton said her Republican opponent tried to “make his old, tired ideas sound new.” As opposed to her old, tired ideas of higher taxes on the wealthy with government as redistributor. Let’s consider some important quotes from the economic club speech. “… the […]

 

Ransom By Another Name

You’ve probably heard the very old riddle: When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar. An updated version might go like this: When is a ransom not a ransom? When the Obama administration says it isn’t. President Obama and his State Department want us to believe that $400 million in foreign cash that […]

 

The Third Coming Of Ben-Hur

Since Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” grossed more than $600 million worldwide, Hollywood has slowly begun to look at faith-based movies as a way to fatten their bottom lines and reach a demographic they have mostly ignored for decades. Last week in Los Angeles, the show business publication Variety co-sponsored another […]

 

Hillary’s recycled speech

Environmentalists should be pleased with Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, because it was largely recycled talking points we have heard for decades. Putting aside the theatrics designed to make Hillary Clinton appear to be something she is not — the white pantsuit was a nice touch, as white is […]

 

Email leak outs DNC

Thanks to WikiLeaks, which has released nearly 20,000 emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee — with promises of more to come — we have proof the party that styles itself as inclusive, diverse and tolerant isn’t. Among the delectable tidbits on which Republicans are feasting are these: one male DNC staffer wrote another male […]

 

Trump’s acceptance speech

Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention was too long — 75 minutes — and too loud. Modulation is the key to good public speaking. One’s voice should rise and fall like the tide, which allows really important points to be made whether the volume is low or high. His adult children are […]

 

Cause and effect

In 1926, speaking about the Declaration of Independence on its 150th anniversary, President Calvin Coolidge noted the unique philosophy behind the creation of the United States: “We cannot continue to enjoy the result, if we neglect and abandon the cause.” Speaking at a news conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following the murder of three police […]

 

Pence is salt to trump’s pepper

The announcement by Donald Trump of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate had not yet been made official last Thursday, but that didn’t stop the hard left from hauling out its familiar and overused rhetoric. Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, released a statement which said, “If Trump picks extreme right-wing […]

 

May And Trump: A Replay Of Thatcher And Reagan?

Is Britain’s new prime minister, Theresa May, Margaret Thatcher reincarnated? There are similarities. May is certainly as tough as the Iron Lady. As home secretary for longer than any of her predecessors, she has strongly opposed uncontrolled immigration. The Home Office introduced visa restrictions that require non-European Union immigrants living in Britain for fewer than […]

 

The Race Narrative

In just the last few days, two African-American men were shot and killed by non-African-American police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana and five non-African-American police officers were shot and killed in Dallas by an African-American man who declared he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” The gap in our racially divided country has […]

 

Free Pass For Hillary

FBI Director James Comey has given Hillary Clinton something better than a get out of jail free card. He’s protected her from indictment by recommending to the Department of Justice that she not be prosecuted for her and her staff’s “extremely careless” handling of emails on private servers that included documents classified as “top secret,” […]

 

Hillary Clinton And Identity Politics

Have you heard that Hillary Clinton is the “first woman” ever to be nominated for president by a major political party? Of course you have. The media have repeated the line so often it is broken news. Hillary Clinton’s nomination and the euphoria in the press (one NPR female reporter said she has seen women […]

 

Campaign Conversion?

Following a meeting between a group of evangelical leaders and Donald Trump last week, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, was interviewed by Pennsylvania pastor Michael Anthony. Dobson told Anthony that Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ” and is now a “baby Christian.” Dobson was vague about the […]

 

Britain To EU: Good Riddance

Maybe it was those college courses on the history of Europe that soured me on the idea of a united continent. How could a conglomeration of nation states noted for invading each other, pillaging and warring against each other form a union? How could a continent with different languages, cultures and money become a united […]

 

Tribune Content Agency

Ranking right up there with the line, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?” is this recent headline in The Washington Times: “Honesty issues aside, voters still back Hillary Clinton, poll shows.” Though Clinton’s negatives appear higher than that of any Democrat running for president in, perhaps, all of history — […]

 

Logic-free zone

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) recently disclosed that a congressional investigation has found at least 72 employees of the Department of Homeland Security listed on the U.S. terrorist watch list. In other news, President Obama used a memorial service for the victims of the Orlando massacre to advocate for more gun control laws. Anyone else see […]

 

Hillary Clinton: The most qualified?

“Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.” — Frank Sinatra, as Maj. Bennett Marco “His brain has not only been washed, as they say … It has been dry-cleaned.” — Khigh Dhiegh, as Dr. Yen Lo These lines from the 1962 classic film “The Manchurian […]