Politics
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Editorial: Trump administration has not made a case for Venezuela; Congress should act
In September, when the U.S. military began blowing up boats the administration said was carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea with no investigation or convictions, public discomfort was immediate, and criticism sharp. Many military and political leaders alleged a war crime after an especially disturbing, deadly attack on survivors of a first ...Read more
Andreas Kluth: Trump is tying his legacy to whatever happens in Venezuela
Possibly, just possibly, Donald Trump just scored a foreign-policy success that could define his legacy. By striking Venezuela and whisking away Nicolás Maduro (along with Maduro’s wife), the U.S. president removed a patently illegitimate dictator and, in theory, opened the door for a wretched nation to return to democracy and stability. And ...Read more
Editorial: A positive change for Venezuela but a diminishment of US moral authority for years to come
No sooner had the new year dawned than President Donald Trump introduced a new level of stress to the world, grabbing the leader of a sovereign nation without congressional approval, hauling Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, off to a New York jail cell and installing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the de facto viceroy of Venezuela....Read more
Commentary: Trump just removed the last restraints on presidential power
In the early hours of Saturday morning, U.S. forces entered Venezuelan territory and forcibly removed the country’s head of state, Nicolás Maduro. There was no declaration of war by the United States. No authorization from Congress. No imminent threat publicly articulated before the operation was carried out. Instead, Americans were informed ...Read more
Javier Blas: Trump now has his very own oil empire
Let’s do the math. Start with the oil production of the U.S. and add Canada. Then include Venezuela and the rest of Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina and everywhere else in between: Brazil, Guyana, Colombia. Like it or not, all of them are living under the “Donroe Doctrine” — an increasingly belligerent Washington’s sphere of ...Read more
Editorial: Maduro faces justice: Arrest the Venezuelan tyrant, don't take over the country
Donald Trump’s telling of a very large attack against Venezuela and claims that the U.S. will now be running the South American country are at odds with the limited and precise “apprehension mission” in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday as detailed by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine meant to assist the Department of ...Read more
Commentary: Faith and compassion can see us through 2026
We say goodbye to what was a tough year for most of us — tariffs, property taxes, high costs for basic goods, loss of loved ones and an unpredictable business environment. Some small businesses did not make it. We welcome the new year with anticipation and hope knowing that this year will be better than the last. As a sharecropper from ...Read more
Commentary: Democrats could avoid a lot of trouble with a little ego management
As we head into 2026 and Democrats try to figure out how to regain power, their New Year’s resolution should be simple: Manage egos better.
In recent years, they seem to have forgotten the time-tested necessity of placating people. In other words, doing the same basic drudgery the rest of us rely on to get through this chaotic world.
This ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Trump's proposed battleship is a budget-busting folly that will probably never sail
On Dec. 22 at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump — flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan — announced a plan to build battleships that would be "the largest we've ever built."
He said that starting with his first term, he had been asking, "Why aren't we doing battleships ...Read more
Editorial: Europe is losing the space race. More rules won't help
As space rapidly becomes an essential battlefield, Europe risks being left behind. Its current approach to the new space race — regulate first, compete later — is unlikely to help.
Ukraine’s dependence on SpaceX’s Starlink for military communications has exposed a strategic vulnerability that the European Union is now struggling to ...Read more
Marc Champion: 'The West' is near death. It's also worth fighting for
“The West” is a club on life support, skewered on the lance of Donald Trump’s Hobbesian view of the world as a series of protection rackets carved up by countries strong enough to command a seat at the table. With America’s traditional allies now part of the buffet, this seismic development begs a question: Is the West worth saving, and ...Read more
Editorial: The Trump administration misapplies federal law to keep open coal-fired plants in Indiana
The Trump administration is badly stretching the law to keep open coal-fired power plants throughout the Midwest that otherwise would have shuttered under well-thought-out, long-term strategies.
The latest examples are in neighboring Indiana, where the Department of Energy late last month ordered utilities not to close two aging power stations ...Read more
Commentary: Internet access is a human right
Even for the casual observer, it’s probably apparent that modern warfare, both domestic and abroad, is dramatically changing. Scenes this summer of a synchronized fleet of Ukrainian drones descending on a field of Russian warplanes punctuate just how far we’ve pivoted from classic artillery and infantry-based operations. It’s not only the ...Read more
Editorial: Trump's right on this one. Senators should back rescheduling cannabis
It seems Idaho U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch have finally broken with President Donald Trump — on one issue, at least.
But they seem to have picked about the worst one they could have.
As the Statesman’s Kevin Fixler reported, the two signed onto a letter in mid-December objecting to the Trump administration’s plans to move ...Read more
Editorial: The Trump administration misapplies federal law to keep open coal-fired plants in Indiana
The Trump administration is badly stretching the law to keep open coal-fired power plants throughout the Midwest that otherwise would have shuttered under well-thought-out, long-term strategies.
The latest examples are in neighboring Indiana, where the Department of Energy late last month ordered utilities not to close two aging power stations ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: Democrats are on a roll. So why not fight one another?
Democrats are starting the new year on a high.
A series of 2025 victories, in red and blue states alike, was marked by a striking improvement over the party's 2024 showing. That over-performance, to use the political term of art, means candidates — including even some who lost — received a significantly higher percentage of the vote than ...Read more
David M. Drucker: Congress could make itself relevant again. Anytime
I’m going to say something and then I’m going to duck: Being a member of Congress is a taxing profession that doesn’t pay nearly enough based on the expectations and pressures of the job. It’s no wonder Democrats and Republicans are fleeing Capitol Hill in droves.
I ducked because Congress — the House of Representatives and the US ...Read more
Juan Pablo Spinetto: The Year of the Right is looming in Latin America
José Antonio Kast wasted no time. Less than 36 hours after being elected Chile’s next president, the conservative leader boarded a plane, crossed the Andes and paid a visit to his ideological ally, Argentina’s libertarian standard-bearer Javier Milei. As political images go, it was powerful: Right-wing ideals have become the binding glue ...Read more
Editorial: Why is Secret Service dropping the ball on protecting president?
President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail has one job: protect the president. Yet even after a 2024 assassination attempt in which then-candidate Trump was shot in the ear while campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania, there are appalling lapses in security.
In September, the president went to dinner with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ...Read more
Commentary: Nancy Pelosi has distinguished herself as a history-making stateswoman
“The difference between a politician and a statesman,” said James Freeman Clarke, a 19th century American theologian and writer, “is that the politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.”
Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic congresswoman from California and former speaker of the U.S. House of ...Read more




















































