Politics
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Editorial: Sickening Iowa presidential poll an insult to voters
The Iowa pollster being slammed by Team Trump is quitting. Too late, the damage is done.
Her dismal prognosticating on the eve of the election became a major story. Iowa was swinging over to VP Kamala Harris? A red state going blue? The timing was atrocious and arguably manipulative.
Pollster Ann Selzer got it wrong! She’s moving on to “...Read more
Editorial: A thousand days of hell: Ukraine war continues as Trump presidency looms
As the Ukraine war, launched by the imperialist invasion by Russian despot Vladimir Putin, passed its 1,000-day mark this month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s troops are newly empowered by the Biden administration to use long-range ATACMS missiles to attack targets in Russia, which they did. And Moscow responded by launching its own new mid-...Read more
Editorial: Trump should bring on a great American housing boom
Most Americans, from both parties, say the government needs to increase the supply of affordable housing. For President-elect Donald Trump, that should offer a good opportunity to summon his instincts for development — and self-promotion — to get America building again. Call it the “Trump Building Boom.”
The problem is clear: For more ...Read more
Erika D. Smith: Newsom Is too elitist to lead states' fight against Trump
California Governor Gavin Newsom knows a political opportunity when he sees one. That’s why it should come as no surprise that the ambitious lame-duck leader of the nation’s most liberal state has wasted no time picking a fight with President-elect Donald Trump.
Already, Newsom has announced that he’s convening a special legislative ...Read more
Editorial: The plan to cut the federal government down to size
Donald Trump lost his attorney general nominee on Thursday as Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid an ethics probe and doubts about his confirmation odds. But the news wasn’t all bad for the president-elect, as his effort to force savings and efficiency on the federal leviathan came into clearer focus.
In a Wall Street Journal...Read more
Robin Abcarian: Nancy Mace's shameless exploitation of America's first transgender congresswoman
I realize that South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace is an attention-hungry partisan, trying to make a name for herself as a culture warrior by demonizing the first transgender woman to be elected to Congress.
And I understand that giving Mace's proposal to ban transgender women from women's bathrooms in the Capitol any oxygen is ...Read more
Editorial: Let's not let political chaos distract us from the unfolding climate catastrophe
With so much chaos in the world, from the United States’ slide toward authoritarianism to the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine, you could be forgiven for not being focused on what’s going on this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
World leaders are gathered there for the annual United Nations climate talks. Their task at the summit, known as COP29,...Read more
Nolan Finley: Musk hopes to make budget cutting cool
If Donald Trump doesn't kill Elon Musk before Musk offs Vivek Ramaswamy, together the three best bros have a chance to achieve something every administration promises, but none has delivered: Rid the federal budget of waste, fraud and inefficiency.
President-elect Trump tasked Musk, the X and Tesla chairman and richest man in the world, and ...Read more
Editorial: No free pass -- Judge Merchan should keep Trump's conviction on the books
We commend Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for standing firm and opposing the dismissal of the hush money/Stormy Daniels case that resulted in Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions in New York last spring.
Now Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan should do the right thing and stay Trump’s sentence until he ...Read more
Commentary: Did greed or misplaced generosity lead to working-class fury?
“Here is the reality,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders in his analysis of Donald Trump’s strong electoral victory and support from some traditional Democrats: “The working class of this country is angry, and they have reason to be angry. We are living in an economy today where the people on top are doing phenomenally well while 60 percent of ...Read more
Commentary: Biden still has time to nudge the federal budget closer to sanity
The U.S. fiscal outlook has dramatically deteriorated since the last time we ran a surplus in 2001, and President Joe Biden — like Democratic and Republican presidents before him — shares some responsibility for our high and rising debt. But it’s not too late to start turning things around.
During his time in office, Biden approved more ...Read more
Melinda Henneberger: Turkey with Trumpers? Unless there are other problems, eat it and be glad
A friend recently showed me some messages she’d received from a couple of relatives, one of whom she had planned to see on Thanksgiving. Ostensibly, these were political messages, castigating her for her failure to support Donald Trump.
But really, they were just old-fashioned bullying — taunting, ridiculing, calling her names. She never ...Read more
Commentary: Wildfire smoke is polluting California and beyond. Here's how to protect yourself
The Santa Ana winds caused a massive wildfire this month in Ventura County, with stunning visuals of orange skies in Oxnard reminiscent of 2020 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Although the Mountain fire is now just about contained (as is the Sandy fire in Monterey County), it was the most destructive fire to hit Southern California in six years...Read more
Tyler Cowen: RFK Jr. would put the economy at risk, too
President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services has provoked a lot of objections, many of them explaining how he would be a danger to both scientific progress and public health. But too little has been said about the economic damage he could do as leader of one of ...Read more
Matthew Yglesias: If Trump dismantles the Education Department, he'll regret it
After winning the presidency by focusing on immigration, inflation and a vague notion that life was better in 2019, Donald Trump is widely expected to proceed with plans to … eliminate the Department of Education. It’s hard to see how this makes sense — for him, his party or the country.
The Department of Education is not above criticism,...Read more
Commentary: What's missing from the Latino vote debate? The voice of Latinas
Postelection analyses continue to ignore the political and economic power of Latinas. The big story about the Latino vote is that the electoral bets the Trump and Harris campaigns made to galvanize men of color paid off for MAGA extremists. But both candidates’ willful neglect of Latina voters is another threat to American democracy.
Many are...Read more
Editorial: California voters rejected an anti-slavery measure to end forced prison labor. Now what?
Proposition 6, the ballot measure that would have amended the California Constitution to prohibit involuntary servitude in prison, failed. That’s troubling. Do voters really believe forced prison labor is acceptable?
The state Constitution (like its federal counterpart) has long outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude except “to punish ...Read more
Commentary: The fights over culturally divisive issues in schools? They cost billions that could be spent helping kids
Education policy received little to no attention during much of the presidential campaign. But, in the final phase, Donald Trump was asked during a “Fox & Friends” interview how he would fix schools. His reply: “No transgender, no operations.… There are some places, your boy leaves the school, comes back a girl.”
That was a lie. But ...Read more
POINT: A federal shield law is needed to protect the press
Like it or not, the Constitution’s First Amendment gives the media special protection in the American republic. That amendment says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press.”
With one of the recent presidential candidates unconstitutionally threatening to shut down media outlets or take away their (...Read more
COUNTERPOINT: Reporters shouldn't have more First Amendment rights than the rest of us
Do reporters have more rights under the First Amendment than ordinary Americans? Should they?
The answer to both questions is “no.” Unfortunately, a bill passed by the House of Representatives and is sitting in the Senate wants to change that.
The PRESS Act would allow the media to operate outside the law and withhold information vital to ...Read more