Viktor Orban’s anti-Merkel crusade will never carry the EU as a whole. That may be the point. BY JAN-WERNER MUELLER Jan-Werner Mueller teaches politics at Princeton. His book “What is Populism?” will be published in September. This Sunday, Hungarians are being asked to participate in what most observers consider a somewhat mysterious, or perhaps outright […]
Pennsylvania’s dithering legislature unfit to address heroin and opioid crisis
With a health problem this severe, and growing this rapidly, you’d imagine Pennsylvania lawmakers might want to do something about it. Think again. Pennsylvanians are dropping like flies, yet these guys in the legislature only want to work six more days in the last three months of the year. In those three months, an estimated 900 Pennsylvanians […]
Will this year’s presidential election be rigged, as Donald Trump has predicted?
POLITICO COLUMN: ..It’s highly unlikely, and that’s true whether we’re talking about scary new threats, like cyber-hacking by the Russians, or old-fashioned ballot-box stuffing of the sort that ostensibly has led Trump to recruit his own poll watchers. We’re much more likely to see the kind of unintentional ineptitude that plagued the 2000 presidential race. […]
Parliamentary elections in Russia
By Slava Tsukerman The results of the Russia’s 2016 Parliamentary elections were published last week. These results shocked some people: in spite of the fact that this year there was more oversight of the electoral integrity than it was in previous years and in spite of the fact that some liberal opposition parties participated in […]
Pharma buys influence
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Gotta hand it to our state legislators. Ten people a day dying from overdosing of anti-pain drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin and fentanyl in Pennsylvania. Maybe you can tweak the laws a bit to slow the epidemic. Changes like limiting scripts to ten-day supply. No “emergency” refills for doses that are […]
[Lancaster Congressman Joe Pitts] received the most money from pain killer manufacturers
LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: A joint investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity found that drugmakers that produce opioid painkillers and allied advocacy groups spent more than $880 million on campaign contributions and lobbying over the past decade as they worked to influence state and federal policies. … The investigation comes […]
LNP EDITORS GOT THIS RIGHT: An answer to the affordable housing crisis
LNP EDITORIAL: …Salisbury Township supervisors have said their goal isn’t to keep people out, but they simply don’t want to build on land set aside for industrial development. That sounds reasonable. But you can’t have industrial development — Urban Outfitters’ massive distribution center off of Route 30, for example — and, at the same time, […]
Why Russians Don’t Smile
By Slava Tsukerman Russians rarely smile but instead exhibit what many would consider a poker face, such a the above photo. There are a lot of historical, sociological and philosophical reflections on the matter. Recently there interesting new research has been performed on the matter, to be discussed below. In Russia it is not acceptable to […]
Drinking to Blackout
NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED: …“It’s pretty stressful here during the week,” explained the guy with the blue concoction in response to my uneasy glances. “So everyone tends to go pretty hard on the weekends.” I hadn’t known it at the time, but this was my first introduction to the aspirational “blackout.” That is, intentionally drinking […]
Help us! Legislature returns.
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: – Pennsylvania’s greatest and most expensive sitcom comes out of recess tomorrow. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives convenes after a summer of campaigning for re-election. The Senate returns next Monday. The Senate convened for a half-day two weeks ago. Embattled Attorney General Kathleen Kane was convicted of high crimes and resigned. While […]
Fentanyl Maker Kicks In Half a Million to Defeat Arizona Marijuana Legalization
By Phil Smith DRUG WAR CHRONICLE: Marijuana legalization advocates have long argued that pharmaceutical companies, who could lose out if marijuana is legally available, are some of the staunchest supporters of marijuana prohibition, and now an Arizona company is making their case for them. Fentanyl (Creative Commons) According to campaign finance […]
LETTER: Paul Ware bemoans losses to his foundation caused by institution he headed
Re: Jamanis Family Concert September 14, 2016 at 4:24 pm Edit Good thing it’s free. Last time I contributed to something by Veri & Jamanis, it cost my foundation millions. Sincerely yours, Paul Ware EDITOR: Paul Ware was the Chairman of the Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music (PAM) and as such the overseer of […]
Commentary: Beemer’s task is to get truth out about porn scandal
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER OP-ED: By Peter F. Vaira …Prosecutors and former prosecutors I have spoken with are offended by the scandal. The full details have been kept secret for too long. The delay in exposing the limits of this scandal appears to many as another instance of lawyers protecting lawyers. This is a quagmire that former […]
Capitolwire: Quinnipiac’s new national presidential poll shows tightening – potentially a toss-up – contest.
Independent voters appear to be the primary reason for the narrowing of the gap. By Chris Comisac Bureau Chief Capitolwire HARRISBURG (Sept. 15) – Nearly three weeks ago, Democrat Hillary Clinton was characterized by many readers of national presidential polls as pulling away from Republican Donald Trump, with the Quinnipiac University Poll, like many other […]