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National Columnists

Strengthening America requires strong allies

President Donald Trump’s slogan has long been “America First,” and his movement is all about making America great again — language the president’s foes misunderstand as meaning “isolationism.” In fact, strengthening America requires strengthening our friends as well — and ...

National sports betting was bad bet

In 2018, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down a federal law banning sports gambling, thus allowing individual states to decide whether to allow it, or not. It didn’t take a genius to predict what might happen, especially when politicians can find new sources of revenue beyond income, ...

American folklore more than scary stories

It is 6:14 p.m. on a Thursday. You’re hiking along the Forbes Trail, nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains somewhere along the Westmoreland-Somerset County lines. It is 19 minutes until sunset, and you have just over a mile to go, mostly uphill, before you are out of the deep forest and ...

Proposal is deposit insurance for billionaires

Politicians in Washington have the shortest memories. Maybe that’s why they so seldom learn from their sometimes catastrophic mistakes. It was less than 20 years ago that the U.S. economy was flattened by the mortgage and banking crisis. Anyone remember? The experts said that the odds ...

What world’s richest country can’t afford

Undermining the principles that made America wealthy is no way to fix poverty. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently participated in a town hall. Sanders appears to be passing the socialist leadership torch to AOC. Don’t expect her to support collective ownership ...

Obama challenges Trump’s remap power grab

Friends who are frustrated by the current White House regime still ask me, “Where is Obama?” As if he might miraculously arise again in the political skies like Mighty Mouse singing, “Here I come to save the day!” Dream on, I point out. Having served two full terms, Obama has maxed ...