Opinions
February 25, 2016, The Bridgton News, Page 11B
Pope receives sickle, hammer and cross sculpture explanations for how or why he got from there to here. He’ll solve every problem by getting the “most amazing people” to do this and “the smartest people” to do that. He’ll “negotiate tremendous deals” and everything will be wonderful. I’m with him on immigration and it’s not unrealistic to deport all those here illegally and build a wall to prevent them from coming back. I support his suggested morato-
rium on Muslim immigration too unless they can be thoroughly vetted — which isn’t likely considering how the San Bernardino killer from Pakistan was “investigated.” If that’s the best the State Department and FBI can do, then we better just stop for now. First impressions can be lasting impressions. My BS alarm went off as soon as I got a look at the Donald’s
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The Supreme Court and election returns be the replacement justice could lead into some sensitive areas that the Republican establishment might just as well skip over lightly during the election season: Abortion, gay rights, Obamacare and affirmative action. Most importantly, a Supreme Court with a new majority could undo its permissive position
on the role money plays in American politics (Citizens United). A new, moderate justice could reverse the judgment of the Republicanled Supreme Court that has allowed big bucks to become such a major impediment to our democracy. Were Justice Scalia alive today, he (an “originalist”)
might well object to Mr. McConnell’s threat to depart from constitutional procedures. Were Talleyrand alive, he might well say that the only thing worse than a mistake is an intentional violation of a constitutional directive. Henry Precht is a retired Foreign Service Officer.
(Continued from Page 8B) majority. By the time you read these lines, you might know the name of the president’s nominee and how shrewdly calculating and politically savvy the president was in his selection. A wise choice by him could also have the effect of increasing the Democratic voter turnout, or drawing support from Republican voters and senators or both. Plus, an adroit nomination confronted by highly negative Republican rhetoric on the Senate floor might help convince voters that the GOP was the primary source of the highly unpopular, toxic gridlock in Washington. In fact, if voters looked into the back-story of this drama, they might already be convinced of the iniquity of the Republican leadership. There is a long line of presidential appointees to federal courts (as well as nominated ambassadors and other presidential appointees) whose names lie unconfirmed on the Senate floor. It didn’t use to be that way. It used to be that a popularly elected president was recognized — albeit often grudgingly — as having the right to choose his team. Only nominees accused of extreme flaws would be rejected in the old, distant days of relative legislative harmony. The exceptions to that rule were rare; the unanimous approval of nominees Dan Harden, Sunrise Management/Winter Carnival chairman (left) and Brendon was more common. Cook, president of the Bridgton Community Center. A debate over who is to
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hair and it never quieted. He seems like a loose cannon and as much a narcissist as President Obama. I can’t help but think of him as Mussolini with an orange pompadour. It’s looking more and more likely that November will bring a choice between Bernie or Hillary and the Donald. God help us. Tom McLaughlin of Lovell is a retired middle school U.S. History teacher.
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lowed that with a trip to Cuba in 1989, where he tried to meet with Fidel Castro, who snubbed him. Bernie met with the mayor of Havana instead. Until very recently, the Donald talked like a liberal Democrat, favoring abortion, Obamacare, eminent domain for private projects, and donating money to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other liberals. Now he claims he’s prolife and he will repeal Obamacare, but he offers no
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Prayer is right, of course, as anyone who has studied history knows. John Paul II and Benedict XVI learned that first-hand, but it’s becoming painfully clear that Francis hasn’t. Neither has likely Socialist/Democrat presidential nominee Bernie Sanders who spent six months on a Stalinist kibbutz in Israel during the sixties. In 1988, he chose to take his honeymoon in the Soviet Union just before it disintegrated. He fol-
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(Continued from Page 8B) and the swastika? Would the pope receive, let alone keep, a Fascist, racist, or Nazi sculpture with a crucified Christ on it? Of course not. Yet the hammer and sickle represents more human suffering than all of them combined. The number of people enslaved and murdered under the hammer and sickle dwarfs the number of people enslaved and murdered by any other doctrine in history.”