Politics
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Mark Z. Barabak: Here's why Jeffrey Epstein's tangled web is conspiratorial catnip
These are salad days for the likes of Joseph Uscinski, who spends his time peering down rabbit holes and poking in the dark spaces where weird and woolly things grow.
There are loads of conspiracy theories out there, the granddaddy of them all being the conjecture surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination. But most tend to fade and be ...Read more

Noah Feldman: ICE deportation plans betray a post-Holocaust promise
A new memo outlines plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport potentially thousands of immigrants to countries that are not their own. The Trump administration’s assiduous efforts to send people to places like Libya and South Sudan are clearly intended to scare noncitizens, both those in the U.S. and those who might contemplate ...Read more

Commentary: Grow the economy? Not with these immigration restrictions
According to the White House and congressional Republicans, the new budget law will spark economic growth of more than 3%. Reaching that goal, however, will be made far more difficult by a provision they see as central to the law: the $150 billion-plus it adds to immigration enforcement. The administration’s agenda of sharply lower immigration...Read more

Matthew Yglesias: Bipartisan outrage over Epstein is just what America needs
The controversy over the mysterious “Epstein Files,” which President Donald Trump’s administration first pledged to release and then decided not to, has Democrats back in touch with one of America’s great political traditions: anti-establishment conspiracy theories. Not only is this good for the party, it is also — dare I say it — ...Read more

Robin Epley: Tick tock, Kamala -- California's getting tired of waiting. Are you in or out?
California is not a consolation prize for losing the presidency, and a Kamala Harris run for governor isn’t going to inspire an electorate that is fed up with the Democratic Party’s staid-and-afraid status quo.
That being said, if Harris is going to run for governor of California — good God, get on with it already.
The former Vice ...Read more

Martin Schram: Trump's ultimatum – a source revealed
President Donald Trump was tightly wound and unspooling with rapid rambling and redundancy, in his Oval Office event. He was working hard to convince a doubting world that he’s finally getting tough with America’s Number One enemy, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who he always told you was his friend.
On our news screens, last Monday, we saw...Read more

Editorial: Should Florida cut property taxes? This state may offer a cautionary tale
Homeownership has long been a hallmark of the American dream. And property taxes are part of being a homeowner. Recently, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of eliminating property taxes.
For Floridians who are homeowners, the end of property taxes seems like a dream come true. But the question is: At what cost?
That’s the ...Read more

Commentary: Even if you think Sean Combs is guilty, his conviction should give you pause
The verdict against Sean “Diddy” Combs early this month sent shock waves through the feminist community. Despite harrowing testimony and video evidence of violence, jurors acquitted him of sex trafficking and racketeering. Combs and his team celebrated, while many Americans mourned the death of #MeToo.
There was some consolation for those ...Read more

Editorial: At a Coldplay concert, a kiss cam catches a cuddle and ruins lives
If only the couple caught canoodling Wednesday night on the Jumbotron at the Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, had simply done what everyone else does in those moments at the arena or the ballpark: Thrown their hands in the air, cheered, hooped and hollered.
Then they likely would have escaped attention afterward, and Coldplay ...Read more

Commentary: Trump and history
As we approach the 250th anniversary next year of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War that ensued, many Americans will look to the past, eager to understand how fewer than 3 million people residing in 13 colonies along the East Coast would, in two and a half centuries, become a vibrant and thriving nation ...Read more

Commentary: Trump's MAGA spell is broken. Even his base knows he is a lame duck
For an entire decade now, Donald Trump has been immune to alienating his supporters — a base so loyal they’d drink bleach if he told them it would own the libs (and some probably did ).
Stormy Daniels? A spiritual growth opportunity for evangelicals to witness a modern-day King David. Inciting a Capitol riot? Boosted his Q-rating (not to ...Read more

Commentary: California can fix Trump's EV mistake
When he signed his budget bill into law on July 4, President Donald Trump dealt a heavy blow to America’s electric vehicle industry, ending most federal support for U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing and hobbling automakers’ $100 billion effort to catch up with China, the world’s new automotive manufacturing superpower.
Now California ...Read more

Gustavo Arellano: The forgotten godfather of Trump's scorched earth immigration campaign
He inveighs against illegal immigration in terms more appropriate for a vermin infestation. He wants all people without papers deported immediately, damn the cost. He thinks Los Angeles is a cesspool and that flying the Mexican flag in the United States is an act of insurrection. He uses the internet mostly to share crude videos and photos ...Read more

Commentary: Labor change will hurt workers, spare violators
Across the country, millions of workers are being cheated out of the minimum wage or overtime pay they’ve earned. It’s an unlawful but not uncommon practice known as wage theft. The sorely insufficient funding for the U.S. Labor Department’s enforcement divisions has long hamstrung its efforts to combat high rates of employer non-...Read more

Editorial: Florida attorney general fans weather conspiracies, at our risk and for his benefit
Trafficking in conspiracy theories can be dangerous for politicians. Just look at what’s happening with the Jeffrey Epstein files.
President Donald Trump spent years stoking dark narratives in which he was the only person who could destroy the “deep state,” and now his followers are refusing to accept his word and the word of Attorney ...Read more

Lara Williams: Stop playing whac-a-mole with forever chemicals
The more you learn about PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — the worse it gets. Though improvements in monitoring and remediation techniques are welcome, what the world needs first and foremost is a universal ban on the chemicals. In fact, we needed it yesterday.
There are more than 10,000 PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,...Read more

Mary Ellen Klas: Trying to pay for college? Your options just got worse
The message from the Trump administration to working-class Americans who want to go to college is: You’re on your own. It is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s broad effort to scale back spending on the poor and middle class in order to finance tax breaks for the rich.
It’s also a dramatic reversal in the American compact with ...Read more

Commentary: Farmers protest unjust an immigration system
During the Great Depression, my great grandfather and other farmers in Wisconsin organized penny auctions to help prevent some of his neighbors from losing their property to foreclosure.
On the day a farm was put on the auction block, farmers in the area closed down the roads around the farm — the only people allowed to enter were the farmer ...Read more

Jonathan Levin: Powell's caution on tariff-driven inflation is right
President Donald Trump has taken to routinely maligning Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as “too late” because interest rates have been on hold at 4.25%-4.5% since he took office.
On Tuesday alone, he characteristically took to social media to demand three percentage points of rate cuts — something that is never going to happen ...Read more

Commentary: Heat domes -- cooking animals is cooking us all
As temperatures soar into the triple digits and roads buckle beneath our tires, the United States finds itself locked under a suffocating heat dome. But this isn’t just another scorching summer. It’s a consequence. So, please, let’s go vegan.
Animal agriculture is disastrously unsustainable. Methane from cows, deforestation and water-...Read more