Politics
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Martin Schram: Searching for a lost truth
URGENT. Attention must be paid. The world’s leaders and chroniclers, who have wasted a year flailing but failing to fully recognize what really happened on Oct. 7 and ever since, have just one last chance to finally get it right.
We are talking imperatively today to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President Joe Biden and ...Read more
Editorial: Lying low: Vance and Trump know they are spreading dangerous lies about Springfield
A week ago, the city of Springfield, Ohio, entered the national consciousness as a place where supposedly Haitians were eating pets (which was never true). Now, there is real terror in Springfield, but it’s not coming from the local Haitian population.
It comes from the forces that Ohio’s own senator, JD Vance, the GOP candidate for vice ...Read more
Editorial: Mark Robinson should quit the race for NC governor. If not, the GOP should shun him
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson only has one decent option now: Quit the race for governor.
But despite a damning CNN report Thursday on his shocking internet postings from years ago, Robinson said he won’t take the decent option. Instead, he’s staying in the race and compounding the damage from the CNN report by denying it.
Robinson ...Read more
Commentary: We need the United Nations in the peacekeeping business again
Each September, the United Nations General Assembly kicks off its annual session with high-level meetings and pomp and circumstance in New York. This is the forum where the world’s countries come to talk to one another about shared problems and promises.
Headlining this year’s assembly is the Summit of the Future, calling for greater ...Read more
Editorial: Mexican 'rapists' seems so mild compared to what Trump says about immigrants today
In 2015, Donald Trump shocked the political establishment and many Americans when he came down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his first presidential candidacy and attacked Mexican migrants:
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said at the time.
...Read more
Editorial: St. Louis is becoming an immigration magnet. And, yes, that's a good thing
Among the most damaging and distressing developments in St. Louis’ modern history is its epic population loss over the past half-century. In light of that continuing crisis, new data showing that the city and surrounding region has become a top urban magnet for immigrants is unambiguously positive news.
What’s even better about that good ...Read more
Commentary: Boeing may have done wrong, but we all need it to succeed
The past few years have been rough flying for Boeing, with much of it self-inflicted.
Their machinists recently voted to strike, after executives offered a significant pay increase and job security for their manufacturing and assembly workers in the Seattle area. The downstream impact of the strike will be felt across its entire supply chain ...Read more
Editorial: Trump's welcome SALT switch: Restore the tax break back to what it was
Donald Trump is a late convert to restoring the federal income tax deduction of state and local taxes (SALT) that were capped at $10,000 when he signed his big Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2018. But Trump’s support is still most welcome and his fellow Republicans in Congress should follow his lead. The current law is simply unfair, putting an ...Read more
Editorial: Hand counting Missouri ballots is a horrible idea driven by a conspiracy theory
If you thought the Missouri Senate’s right-wing Freedom Caucus has snarled the state’s legislative process, just wait until it gets a foothold in the running of elections.
State Sen. Denny Hoskins, charter member of the small band of ideological nihilists who repeatedly ground legislative business to a halt in Jefferson City this year, ...Read more
Commentary: In California, all eligible voters, including those incarcerated, should be able to vote
As Californians on parole prepare to vote in a presidential election for the first time, we have a pivotal moment to affirm our commitment to democracy. Every citizen should have the right to vote, regardless of their circumstances — including their involvement in the criminal-legal system.
Yet, despite California’s reputation as a beacon ...Read more
Mary McNamara: From one parent to Republicans: Stop using our children as political footballs
My husband and I have three children. This makes us many things: Proud, exhausted, delighted, occasionally irritated, perpetually anxious, often overwhelmed by love and strangely aware of the varying quality of chicken strips in grocery store freezer sections.
It does not, however, make us better people, more engaged citizens or entitled to ...Read more
Editorial: A safer 'net for kids: The Kids Online Safety Act is worth passing
Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat or some yet-to-be-released app sure to enrapture its users, it’s pretty clear — to us, at least — that too many young people are now spending too much of their time falling all the way down shallow-yet-deep online rabbit holes designed by profit-hungry companies to draw them in.
You don’t ...Read more
Francis Wilkinson: Springfield shouldn't be a maga war zone
“We cannot let the bad guys win,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday. DeWine announced that he was sending 36 state police officers to patrol schools in Springfield, Ohio, and protect, at long last, the town’s besieged residents.
Bad guys have been terrorizing Springfield. Dozens of bomb threats have been made against local schools and...Read more
Commentary: California's AI safety bill is under fire. Making it law is the best way to improve it
On Aug. 29, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1047— the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act — and sent it to Gov. Gavin Newsom for signature. Newsom’s choice, due by Sept. 30, is binary: Kill it or make it law.
Acknowledging the possible harm that could come from advanced AI, SB 1047 ...Read more
Editorial: Restraint, respect needed from those who aspire to lead
Politics can be a rough-and-tumble enterprise, a dominion where those with thick skin, steel jaws and bare knuckles thrive. Nobody expects the candidates competing in hotly contested races to resolve their differences with pillow fights.
But in a country where mental health services are sparse for those who need them and nearly everyone has ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: JD Vance to Springfield, Ohio: 'You're expendable'
As a vice presidential pick, JD Vance has been a big mistake, as even some of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago mafia and media friends concede.
A younger version of Trump, Vance brings no new voters to the Republicans' side; their ticket is MAGA squared. He's likely lost more than a few votes, by maligning millions of "childless cat ladies" — not ...Read more
Commentary: How to save a democracy
The presidential debate has come and gone. The sitting American president is rattling the saber of long-range weapons for Ukraine. The sitting Russian dictator is expelling the West’s diplomatic staff. The outgoing president of Mexico has pulled off the largest-ever change of a judicial system in a substantial democracy. The prime minister of ...Read more
Commentary: Harris and Walz: Gunning for the Second Amendment
Vice President Kamala Harris is a gun owner. Apparently that fact is supposed to make other gun owners less leery of her stance on Second Amendment issues.
There’s just one problem. Harris is a gun owner who’s also currently an integral part of the most anti-gun administration in American history.
As President Joe Biden’s right-hand ...Read more
George Skelton: California voters are fed up with crime and, apparently, the response by Democrats
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders vehemently oppose an anti-retail theft measure on the November ballot. But they're being ignored by California voters who support the proposal overwhelmingly.
Maybe voters don't know about the governor's and lawmakers' strong opposition. Or maybe they do and don't care....Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: This bellwether county picked 11 straight presidential winners. Here's how it views Trump vs. Harris
PORT ANGELES, Wash. — In a far corner of the continental U.S., amid the salty air and green-carpeted mountains of the Pacific Northwest, lies a unique place with an unparalleled record of political precision.
Clallam County, Washington, which takes its name from its Indigenous peoples, has voted for the winner in every presidential election ...Read more