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The Washington Post: Trump’s treatment of lawmakers can damage his presidency

A common feature of Donald Trump’s two terms as President is that he can’t stand political prosperity. When events are going in his direction, he has an uncanny habit of handing his opponents a sword. The latest example came Sunday after GOP leaders dragged several holdouts across the line to vote aye and start debate over the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill. The vote was 51-49, but Mr. Trump couldn’t leave victory alone. Instead he unloaded on the two GOP dissenters, Rand Paul of Kentucky and especially Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Mr. Trump dumped three ...

State’s hostility to fossil fuels continues

CHAUTAUQUA—Suppose that you want to lay and connect a natural-gas line. According to press reports: Under longstanding New York law, a natural-gas utility may not charge you for this if the connection is within 100 feet of an existing natural-gas line. Yet now some protest that it’s wrong to make existing customers subsidize new customers. Hmmmm. This subsidy has continued for decades? Why the protest now? Moreover, government frequently subsidizes—or requires subsidies of—economic activity? Why protest this one? ≤ ≤ ≤ Somehow, just somehow, one suspects that ...

Being bitten by travel bug

Of all the bugs I’ve known – from ants to aphids, from fleas to fruit flies – I like my travel bug the best. I was bitten early. After college, when I absolutely couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my life, I embraced my travel bug and became a stewardess. It was the perfect solution. I realize how lucky I was to see a lot of this country and many other parts of the world. I never took it for granted. Recently, I was talking to a well-traveled friend about this, sharing some old experiences. We agreed that it’s truly the people you meet that make travel worthwhile, ...

Throwing the cures out the door

On April 29, the New York State Assembly passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act. This was followed by Senate passage on June 9 and as I write this the indications are that Gov. Kathy Hochul will soon sign the bill into law. If the bill becomes law New York will join Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, California, and the District of Columbia who already have assisted suicide laws. The legislation will permit a terminally ill adult age 21 or older and expected to live six months or less because of a terminal illness who also has the ...

Nuclear important facet of grid

Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the New York Power Authority to develop and execute a plan to build a “zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant” at a to-be-determined location in Upstate New York. I applaud this decision, and I am glad to see the governor finally acknowledging the need to bolster our grid’s reliability with nuclear energy, just as the Assembly Minority Conference has repeatedly called for since the passage of the deeply flawed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Per the governor’s announcement, “candidate locations will be ...

The separation of church and state

It was drilled into me at an early age that part of being an American was the belief in the separation of Church and State. Of course, the foundation of that belief goes back to the earliest history of the country when immigrants came here from Europe to escape religious persecution. That principle was codified in the Constitution of the United States with the words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....” Having said that, it worries me that today some are beginning to equate religious affiliation with ...