The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 70th birthday on Thursday should be marked by calls to reject the revisionist history of President Donald Trump, who thinks NATO nations rip off the U.S. while relying on its military might. It’s fair to criticize these nations for not meeting goals on upgrading their militaries. But America has benefited […]
Erica Nitschke
Columnist
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Democratic candidates are misleading their voters
Let’s get this clear at the start: The Electoral College is not going away. The Constitution’s provisions for selecting Supreme Court justices are not going to change. And candidates who suggest they can change them are misleading the voters they are wooing. That’s not an endorsement of the current election system, which has produced two […]
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Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Puerto Rico is still in distress long after Hurricane Maria
Recovering from a natural disaster is never easy. But it’s infinitely harder when federal emergency funds for rebuilding are subject to the whims, lies and misconceptions of a hostile president. That’s where Puerto Rico finds itself, hostage to President Donald Trump’s flights of fancy as it struggles to recover from the devastation wreaked by Hurricane […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Gina Barreca: You’re as good as your words
Rambling speeches and bad writing litter our lives. If talk is cheap, it’s because the supply usually exceeds the demand. But the best words, the right words, fit snugly enough to keep out windy disquisitions. We each treasure certain words, jingling them in our imaginations like rare coins. We store them up until we can […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Program shows how to bring Mainers together
With Operation Breaking Stereotypes, students with different backgrounds prove we can be one Maine.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: The White House should come clean on security clearances
Of course it is difficult not to savor the irony in a White House whistleblower’s claim that the Trump administration improperly granted security clearances to more than two dozen individuals. As a candidate, Donald Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton’s use of an insecure private email server to transact State Department business was corruption “on a […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Cutting aid won’t help stop border crisis
President Donald Trump’s plan for the problems at the border would only make them worse.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Running for president in the #MeToo era
The first #MeToo allegations of the 2020 presidential race hit over the weekend, letting the general public in on a secret that apparently was already known in political circles: that former Vice President Joe Biden can be a bit too “handsy” with women and girls. Biden’s behavior didn’t draw much scrutiny until an essay appeared […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: The tragic death of Sandy Hook father carries with it a sobering lesson
In the dark days that followed the massacre at Sandy Hook, one phrase spoke to the sliver of hope and optimism a grieving state was desperately hanging onto: Love Wins. Two words spoke to the enduring belief that whatever hatred might have driven the shooter to commit the unthinkable, the blanket of love woven by […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Asylum laws exist for people like G
I met with G, an asylum seeker from Honduras, in a large open space at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, last month. As a volunteer attorney working with immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it was my job to help her prepare for her initial asylum interview. First, though, I […]