As that rail and subway strike continued to paralyze travel in Paris and across France into the third week, President Emmanuel Macron made a Christmas appeal to his dissatisfied countrymen:
"Strike action is justifiable and protected by the constitution, but I think there are moments in a nation's life when it is good to observe a truce out of respect for families and family life."
How you respond to an attack defines you. Keep your cool, remain civil, and others will respect the way you handle yourself, even if they disagree with you. Lower yourself to your assailant's level and -- at best -- spectators will dismiss your dispute as a he-said-she-said between two jerks.
Last week the world's second-oldest political party showed, and not for the first time, its capacity to regenerate itself and win an impressive majority in difficult circumstances.
"We're gonna impeach the (expletive deleted)."
Thus did the member from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, declare last January to be the goal of the 2019 House Democratic Caucus.
Christmas is rapidly approaching. Traditional Christmas carols have been replaced by insipid pop ballads played incessantly on “holiday” radio stations. As “Deck the Halls” is now politically incorrect with its reference to donning one’s gay apparel, I took some liberty with the song title to review recent opinion polls.
Big events of the year, including impeachment, don’t materially change the odds in races for president, Congress.
— Impeachment is an unusual occurrence marked by usual partisanship. It is hard to argue that it has dramatically altered perceptions of the president.
— Overall, our outlook for the races for president and for Congress are pretty similar to what they were at the start of the year.
My teenage son is a law-abiding American citizen. To obtain his driver's permit this year, he brought his birth certificate, Social Security card, passport and verification that he completed an approved driver's school course. It took a half-dozen trips back and forth between various government agencies to clear all the paperwork hurdles.
Sen. Rand Paul just wrote a book, "The Case Against Socialism."
Our sources are telling us that President Trump is nearing a decision on how to revive the all-but-dormant American uranium industry. This proposed plan would create a reserve of domestically mined uranium stored in a "Federal Uranium Security Stockpile." One option on the table is for the Department of Defense to purchase uranium through the 1950 Defense Production Act.
Fresh from his triumphal "Get Brexit Done!" campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson anticipates a swift secession from the European Union.
"In ten years or so, we'll leak the truth," the Dead Kennedys sang. "But by then it's only so much paper."
"Quid pro quo" was the accusatory Latin phrase most often used to describe President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call asking for a "favor" from the president of Ukraine.
When speaking to Republicans casually about news and politics, the conversation eventually winds its way to President Trump. The dialogue is typically civil, unlike when trying to talk to hard left Democrats about politics, which is about as satisfying as having a root canal.
Some recent news stories verge on the bizarre -- the House Democrats' futile fuss over impeachment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's acceptance of President Donald Trump's U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade treaty. But they're not as bizarre, or possibly as consequential, as unanticipated developments in the Democrats' presidential nomination contest.
Here is a chilling case of sanctuary chickens coming home to roost.
Congress and the media obsess endlessly over whether President Donald Trump should be impeached.
Why are Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi teaming together to lobby for a tax bill that would provide about 80% of the benefits to Americans who make more than $100,000 a year?
"Jaw-jaw is better than war-war," is attributed, wrongly, say some historians, to Winston Churchill. Still, the words lately came to mind.
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Hopefully everyone’s dinner table discussions were polite. Bloomberg News gave turkey eaters advice on how to keep Thanksgiving dinner civil. That’s the same Bloomberg News promising it won’t investigate presidential candidate Bloomberg or other Democrats.
Sometimes the latest new thing is something antique. That's especially true in American politics, which has had seriously contested presidential elections every four years (with one exception) since 1800 and competitions between the same two durable parties since 1856. We're even on our (lucky?) 13th presidential race since the nominating rules were changed, back in the 1970s, to favor primaries rather than caucuses.
