Donald Trump’s recurring criticism of his predecessor is that he just didn’t know how to make a deal. “Obama is not a natural deal maker,” he tweeted in 2016, complaining that there was no accord on Syria. “Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly,” he predicted incorrectly back in 2013. Trump […]
opinion
Posted inOpinion, sj-web
The Chinese threat isn't just trade
We are currently engaged in a high-profile negotiation that may or may not succeed in getting the Chinese to buy more of our stuff. This is a fine goal as far as it goes, although that isn’t very far. It doesn’t matter if China is a mercantilist, revisionist power that buys $14 billion of our […]
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Posted inOpinion, sj-web
America's clown show negotiations are not funny
When bluster ends in capitulation, what do other negotiating partners see? Blood in the water. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, surely absorbed the lesson from the Trump administration’s recent dealings with China. He saw how rashly President Trump waged trade war against China and how rapidly he retreated at the first sign of serious […]
Posted inOpinion, sj-web
Israeli bombs spotlight Iran's Syrian gray zone war
On May 9, the Israeli Air Force blasted Iranian military facilities in Syria. The huge conventional air campaign sent an unambiguous message to Iran’s dictatorship: the decades long “gray zone” and proxy war the clerical regime waged against Israel has left the covert shadows and become an overt war. Tehran can no longer kill Israelis […]
Posted inOpinion, sj-web
The Russia Temptation
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Democrat from Minnesota, uttered a forlorn sentiment at a Center for American Progress conference. She said Democrats can’t spend all their time bemoaning President Donald Trump’s existence, and that her voters care more about soybean exports than Russian bots. She’s right, but good luck getting anyone to listen. If Democrats have […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The complex history of 'In God We Trust'
In his first State of the Union address President Donald Trump sought to link religion with American identity. • • • “Together, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. The motto is ‘In God We Trust,’” Trump […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Mark LaFlamme, The Franklin Journal
Street Talk: The rules of Wiffle ball and how to break them
I was driving through one of Lewiston’s many fine neighborhoods one recent afternoon, when I came upon a loud spat — what we used to call a “row” — involving several preteen boys. The tone and wordage of the disagreement revealed at once what they were arguing about: Wiffle ball! In particular, one boy was […]