THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Barack Obama pops off

Barack Obama promised no "popping off" when he flew to California for another vacation -- his second within a month -- minutes after Donald Trump was sworn in as his successor. But he learned that promises are hard to keep. Published January 30, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Running on empty

When a government raises spending and cuts taxes, it increases the debt. When it increases the number of people getting food stamps and other forms of welfare (which the Obama administration did for the past eight years), doesn't that also increase the national debt? What about some of the wasteful spending programs both parties continue to fund? Published January 29, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The real danger isn’t Trump

There has been a lot of talk about how President Trump is horribly likely to cause some sort of nuclear detonation in the world. The awful truth, though, is that in recent years we've been closer to a nuclear bomb going off than ever before, including during the Cold War years, and we could currently face a manifestation of that reality. Published January 29, 2017

EDITORIAL: The graveyard vote

President Trump, like many of his critics in the media, speaks fluent hyperbole. When he exaggerates or stretches figures that may not have been carefully checked out, the critics, nearly all of them guilty of telling the occasional tall tale themselves, cry "fraud" and call him a "liar." But it's possible to be mistaken, or even dead wrong, without telling a lie. A lie is telling something that the speaker knows is a lie. Published January 29, 2017

EDITORIAL: The dark view of the president

The hatred of Donald Trump grows darker, more frightening and more irresponsible. A Secret Service agent assigned to protect the president put up a boast on her Facebook site that she wouldn't "take a bullet" for this president. The ABC television network inserts a promotional blurb for a coming movie about a presidential assassination into a real-life interview with Mr. Trump. A teacher in Dallas (which knows about presidential assassinations) projects a photographic image of the president at his inauguration in her classroom, shoots at the image with a water gun and screams "Die! Die! Die!" Published January 29, 2017

Islamic State terror by air

The Islamic State -- or ISIS, or ISIL, as some people call it -- is the most painful of the headaches Barack Obama bequeathed to the new president. He called it "the junior varsity," as if it were a mere annoyance beneath his concern, but it is proving to be not so junior and an accomplished varsity. Now the junior varsity is experimenting with drones capable of delivering small bombs. Published January 26, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Don’t bury group name

The first word of Thursday's most important Washington Times article (as determined by the piece's top-left, front-page placement) was "watchdog" ("Watchdog sees need for election fraud probe"). This term refers to the group that provided the news peg for this story, so one would think that identifying it and describing its actions would have been pretty basic and important to the credibility of the article. Published January 26, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Women still angry, only older

I have often wondered what happened to the nasty young women who spit on servicemen like me when we came back from Vietnam. Published January 26, 2017

Obama’s retirement relieves strain on American taxpayer

Barack Obama is the gift that keeps on giving. Merely by finishing his term, he's saving the American taxpayer millions. Lots of millions. His frequent vacations lent new meaning to the word "tourist." Getting there might not have been half the fun, but it was some of the most expensive fun. Published January 26, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Beware Vladimir Putin

Some suggest that a personal animosity toward Hillary Clinton motivates Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Mr. Putin's 'reset button' comment on the Hillary tiding suggests the man does not take her seriously enough to merit a personal animosity. Published January 25, 2017

Donald Trump redeeming campaign promises

The elites thought they were entitled by divine right (though many deny an authentic divinity) to run things forever, and Donald Trump gave them the shock of their lives just by winning the election. Now they're getting a more painful aftershock. The man actually meant those campaign promises. Published January 25, 2017

Environmentalists should pay for Gold King Mine

The Obama administration engaged in a relentless pursuit of environmental justice on behalf of the American people -- with one exception, when its own agencies did the despoiling. In the days before handing over the hero's cape, the Environmental Protection Agency issued itself a last-minute pardon for its toxic spill at Colorado's Gold King Mine, and refused to pay valid claims of $1.2 billion. Published January 25, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: There’s time and place for dissent

"On the outside, looking in" (Web, Jan. 23) hit the nail on the head. Members of Congress are elected first and foremost to work for the interests of their districts. Gratuitously disrespecting the new president by not attending the inauguration and grandstanding over the decision to do so does nothing to help constituents, and in fact makes it harder for these members to have their voices heard when it really matters. Published January 25, 2017

Kerry O’Grady vows not to ‘take bullet’ for President Trump

Craziness is in the air: The mis- and malfeasance of Kerry O'Grady, the special agent in charge of the Denver office of the Secret Service, has posted on social media her considered opinion that Mr. Trump is "a disaster." Published January 25, 2017

Secret Service agent, Democrats hindering Donald Trump

The Democrats have introduced a deadly strain of citizenship in the wake of the tumultuous presidential campaign: If you don't like the outcome of an election, pay no attention to the law and substitute your own do-it-yourself presidency. Published January 24, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Deliberate inauguration obstacles

I attended the first Obama inauguration and tried to attend last Friday's event. I have no doubt the crowd on the mall at Mr. Obama's was larger, but I am surprised at the absence of media coverage of the obstacles that prevented many people from attending Mr. Trump's inauguration. Published January 24, 2017

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: News media still trying to divide

I am very perturbed by the news outlets that continuously admonish our newly elected president, Donald Trump, for every word he utters. Like all American citizens, President Trump has the right to think and speak his peace. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, members of the news media want him to talk like a politician and adhere to their way of thinking. It's a pathetic commentary on the state of the media that they try to influence the public with their opinions while they deny us ours. Published January 24, 2017

Chinese globalism

A Chinese proverb runs: "Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom." Xi Jinping, president of the world's most populous nation, told the annual World Economic Forum last week at Davos what they longed to hear: Globalization lives. But taking Mr. Xi's words at face value suggests that neither doubts nor wisdom ran deep in Davos. That doesn't bode particularly well for the international order. Published January 24, 2017

Donald Trump’s Job One is restoring confidence of Americans

Promises are easy to make and hard to keep. Donald Trump made more than a few from the western front of the Capitol when he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. The first one was perhaps the most important -- taken as an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Published January 23, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Use Russia with caution

Does President Trump trust communist Russia but distrust our intelligence agencies? Will he stand up to Russia, an adversary of the United States, a country that wants to spread its totalitarianism to Europe, the Middle East and North America? Published January 23, 2017