Politics
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Editorial: Threatening the FBI -- Director Chris Wray should stay and Kash Patel must never take over
Donald Trump’s Saturday night announcement that he’s going to nominate a new director of the FBI, the woefully unqualified and completely unfit Kash Patel, is premature by a few years because the director’s position is not open. Director Chris Wray was nominated by Trump in his first Oval Office stint and confirmed 92–5 by the Senate, ...Read more
Editorial: Palm Springs brutally displaced hundreds. They're finally getting a measure of justice
They were children when their families’ Palm Springs homes were bulldozed and burned as part of the systematic destruction of a community. Now they’re in their 60s or older, and their loss is finally being acknowledged.
The mostly Black and Latino families affected had found a haven on a 1-square-mile tract of land known as Section 14. ...Read more
Commentary: Making sense of the 2024 elections as a 21st-century paradigm shift
Where do we go in the aftermath of our recent elections? As MAGA forces mobilize to swiftly implement Donald Trump’s agenda, the Democrats are counseled to look in the mirror to understand how they ceded the working class to Trump’s now bigger-tent Republican Party.
The thing is, one cannot truly comprehend today’s new political landscape...Read more
Editorial: Hezbollah deal bad news for Hamas, good for world
It wasn’t a good Thanksgiving for Hamas. Not that the terrorist group celebrates the American holiday, but it has to be feeling particularly un-thankful as its chokehold on horror seems to be slipping following the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.
“I do think that Hamas is feeling the pressure. They’re feeling the pressure because one of ...Read more
Editorial: Palm Springs brutally displaced hundreds. They're finally getting a measure of justice
They were children when their families’ Palm Springs homes were bulldozed and burned as part of the systematic destruction of a community. Now they’re in their 60s or older, and their loss is finally being acknowledged.
The mostly Black and Latino families affected had found a haven on a 1-square-mile tract of land known as Section 14. ...Read more
Commentary: Learning to make a difference between elections
For most Americans this election has brought exhaustion, divisiveness and, for many, fear and deep pain. After the election Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic: “Americans must stay engaged and make their voices heard at every turn.” And Liz Cheney tweeted, “Citizens across this country … must now be the guardrails of democracy.”
But ...Read more
Editorial: Chicago suburbs were guinea pigs in a huge fluoride experiment. Now what?
Say this for Illinois: We love our fluoride.
Back in the 1940s, three Chicago suburbs were among the guinea pigs in an experiment to uncover the benefits of fluoridated drinking water. The mineral occurred naturally in west suburban Aurora, so its water system became a baseline. Then Evanston added fluoride and Oak Park went without. Over 15 ...Read more
Juan Pablo Spinetto: Latin America's push to work less solves the wrong problem
Latin America is considering shorter working hours. As noble as the goal of improving working conditions may be, however, the region’s governments also run the risk of deepening its serious labor informality and low productivity.
Colombia and Chile have already passed legislation cutting the legal working day to 42 and 40 hours per week ...Read more
Commentary: A kinder and gentler mass deportation
There is an argument that the single most important issue resulting in Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris is the illegal immigration that the Biden-Harris administration not only tolerated but encouraged. The problem had grown untenable by Trump’s first victory in 2016 and was a key issue then as well.
Yet from the beginning, the ...Read more
Robin Abcarian: Welcome, Matt Gaetz, to Cameo, land of the GOP has-beens
Did you see that former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who lasted less than a Scaramucci as President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the Justice Department, has a new side hustle? He's now offering customized videos for a fee to fans on the website Cameo.
I mean, why not? Politicians are well versed in the art of selling themselves. And Gaetz is ...Read more
Commentary: Older adults need protection from financial abuse by family members
A mentor once told me that we take better care of our pets than we do older victims of mistreatment. As a researcher, I have sat across from people, including grown men, crying while recounting harrowing experiences of discovering and confronting elder financial exploitation within their families — by siblings, sons and daughters, nieces and ...Read more
Commentary: Trump v. the ocean
For those of us committed to protecting the ocean, it’s always been clear that restoring healthy seas will be the work of our lifetimes, and that of others who’ll come after us.
Unlike the majority of Americans, I believe the Biden administration did a decent job, particularly in responding to the climate emergency we’re currently living ...Read more
Doyle McManus: Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence czar? The Trump Cabinet pick most likely to fail
WASHINGTON — Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to oversee the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, is a woman of strong views, vigorously expressed.
A former Bernie Sanders Democrat, she now says the Democratic Party is controlled by "an elitist cabal of warmongers" that includes "rogue intelligence and law enforcement ...Read more
John M. Crisp: Will the US ever elect a woman president?
Will the U.S. ever elect a woman president? I first considered this question in a column I wrote in August of 2016. Hillary Clinton, Yale-educated lawyer, former first lady, former senator from New York and former secretary of state, was running for president. Her opponent was a guy named Donald Trump, a reality TV star and a businessman of ...Read more
Commentary: Why we should care about arts education in public schools
Donald Trump has big plans for schools in his second term, which include gutting the Department of Education. His proposals have major implications for public school funding, and you can bet that arts education will be at the top of the list of cuts.
Support for the arts is an increasingly partisan issue, with conservatives calling for an end ...Read more
Bryan Clark: Trump's reelection means an assault on universities. It's time to prepare now
BOISE, Idaho -- The American university system has been at the center of our country’s intellectual innovation and technological and financial prosperity over the past century. The reason for that success is the academic freedom that has been rigorously maintained in higher education, despite changes in the country’s political winds.
But ...Read more
Commentary: Trump shouldn't return to maximum pressure on Iran
As President-elect Donald Trump staffs his national security team, speculation is swirling about how the incoming Trump administration will manage some of the most difficult international security problems of the day. While much of the attention thus far has been devoted to the war in Ukraine, the Iranian nuclear issue isn’t far behind on the ...Read more
Commentary: An impassioned plea to Generation Next
As this election cycle draws to a close, I'm experiencing a whirlwind of emotions — hope and worry, resolve and trepidation, clarity and uncertainty. But above all, my abiding faith in the power of our collective voice and the sacredness of our vote fuels me.
I'm a member of Generation X, a son of the African diaspora, a husband, a father and...Read more
Editorial: A small but important win for FDA under fire
Given how the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority is better known for limiting the authority of federal regulatory agencies than supporting them, this week’s small victory for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is an especially welcome one.
The justices served the nation’s interest by essentially doing nothing — declining to ...Read more
Editorial: A strong economy helps incumbents, right? The University of Chicago disagrees
Republican Donald J. Trump’s decisive win in the Nov. 5 election has inspired handwringing among Democrats about how a convicted felon who tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat could beat a mainstream candidate like Vice President Kamala Harris. Now along comes the University of Chicago with an explanation that not only makes some sense ...Read more