We’ve heard a great deal about so-called “real Americans” in this presidential campaign.

It was a theme of this summer’s Republican National Convention, where speakers like Hulk Hogan and UFC CEO Dana White used the phrase to praise Donald Trump and his supporters. And more recently, the former president and his running mate, JD Vance, ...Read more

It has been a long night of terror for American pluralism and democracy. The Republican Party since 2016 has burrowed ever deeper into authoritarian terrain. You don’t have to be a political scientist to register that reality. Democratic political parties aren’t awash in lies and they don’t nominate criminals and coup plotters to ...Read more

It’s good news that Instagram has launched stricter controls for teen accounts, strengthening privacy settings for those under 18. Underage users’ accounts are now automatically set to private mode. The platform is also implementing tighter restrictions on the type of content teens can browse and blocking material deemed sensitive, such as ...Read more

When I lived in the Sonoran Desert, I came to know it as a place of majesty and tragedy. The pink sand desert has incredible biodiversity and a vibrant border culture. But it can be an unforgiving place with coyotes, scorpions, rattlesnakes and, yes, temperatures in the 120s. In fact, temperatures in Phoenix surpassed 110 degrees 55 times this ...Read more

I often hear people say that humans are superior to other animals and see them behave as though this were somehow true. But can humans regrow body parts, fly among the clouds or navigate thousands of miles without maps or GPS?

Not only do other animals frequently surpass us in their physical capabilities, they often do so in the ethical arena ...Read more

Legalizing marijuana isn’t as hot-button an issue in this election as abortion or immigration, but both presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have weighed in, and for once, they’re in agreement.

Both, however, are missing a big point.

Last month, Trump posted on the Truth Social platform: �...Read more

Oh my gosh! They were just so darn nice to each other.

You may have expected nice from Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Midwestern Everydad and running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris. A former high school teacher and assistant football coach, the guy's a good egg.

But what the heck was going on with former President Trump'...Read more

It’s baseball playoff season and since California stole the Dodgers and the Giants from New York, we have no issue copying two excellent ideas for education just enacted into law by the Golden State. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany legislators, please pay attention.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to bar private colleges ...Read more

Assembly Bill 3206 is why people hate politics.

Signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend, the bill creates an exemption to a decades-old state law banning the serving of alcohol after 2 a.m.

But don't head down to your local dive bar just yet to raise a toast: This applies only to a private club at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, which will ...Read more

Like most presidents, Joe Biden is using the final few months of his tenure to brag about his accomplishments. In fairness, he has stuff to be proud of, in both policy and politics, but it’s entirely possible that one of his administration’s most important legacies will be a little-noticed program it announced last week: a worldwide ...Read more

This election day, voters will have a direct voice in deciding whether to preserve or enhance abortion rights in 10 states, including six in which abortion is outlawed or seriously restricted.

As it happens, new data points arrive almost weekly to inform voters what's at stake in these ballot campaigns. To put it bluntly, the health of pregnant...Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris ticked off her presidential campaign checklist with a visit to the southern border last week. She talked with members of the Border Patrol and made boilerplate promises of getting tough on immigration.

Sorry, Kamala, you don’t get points for promising to close the barn door after the horses have escaped.

Harris, ...Read more

As the 2024 presidential campaign season heats up, with Vice President Kamala Harris emerging as a formidable contender, it's a moment to reflect on the enduring power of the feminist mantra that has shaped generations of women in politics: "The personal is political."

This potent idea, popularized by trailblazers like Shirley Chisholm and bell...Read more

If his lips are moving, he's lying.

The New York Times fact-checked Donald Trump's 63-minute jabbering at a recent Las Vegas campaign stop and found 64 false, inaccurate or misleading remarks — one a minute. That mendacity wasn't even a record. A contender for the distinction would be Trump's 64-minute August news conference at Mar-a-Lago ...Read more

The storms speak and their voices are growing more violent, more vehement.

This storm — Helene — may be the most furious yet. It raked glancing blows through the Caribbean and along Mexico’s coast before slamming into Florida’s Big Bend at Category 4, with 140 mph sustained winds that tore buildings into scraps of wood and plaster. ...Read more

In contrast to the scattered, angry, erratic, openly demagogic man at the top of the ticket, Sen. JD Vance was calm and clear and presentable in Tuesday night’s debate against Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Vance probably even won on points, if you judge these things like a high school debate...Read more

In his first-ever bid for political office, former actor Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966, defeating two-term incumbent Gov. Pat Brown in a landslide. There was good reason for Democrats to fear that a radical right-winger had taken control of what even then was the nation’s most populous state.

The onetime New Deal ...Read more

Next month, the votes of New Yorkers may possibly decide which party controls the House of Representatives for the 119th United States Congress. The margin between the majority Republicans and the minority Democrats is just a handful of seats on Long Island and points north.

What that means is that the two parties and their candidates have to ...Read more

Somebody pour these two guys a couple of bourbons. They earned it.

JD Vance and Tim Walz treated Americans Tuesday night to something they hadn't seen in awhile — a civil, substantive debate in a presidential campaign.

Ohio Sen. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Walz, the two men seeking to be the next vice president, went toe-to-toe in a spirited ...Read more

It’s hardly news when Donald Trump says something objectionable, outrageous and disqualifying for occupying the highest office in the land.

But his statement over the weekend at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, regarding police struck us as worthy of highlighting — and condemning. Speaking in the context of giving police more latitude to ...Read more