Politics
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Mary Ellen Klas: This MAGA educator thinks college-educated women make worse moms
Conservatives have made no secret of their desire to dismantle the current university system and replace it with their own, “anti-woke” version that would discourage the advancement of women and minorities.
Scott Yenor, nominated to chair the board of trustees at the state-run University of West Florida, is one of the lightning rods in ...Read more

Commentary: Americans would pay higher taxes to save Social Security
Social Security’s deep popularity among voters has earned it a reputation as the third rail of politics, meaning Congress is afraid to touch it.
But the program’s finances require reform, and soon. The trust fund set up to fill a shortfall between what the government takes in for Social Security and what it pays out is due to run out of ...Read more

Andreas Kluth: America first is quickly becoming America alone
America First, as practiced by President Donald Trump in his second term, will instead — and probably sooner rather than later — amount to America Isolated or even America Hated. How such an outcome will Make America Great Again is beyond me, and should give Trumpies pause for reflection before it’s too late.
With respect to foreign ...Read more

Editorial: Welcome home, Marc Fogel
On Aug. 14, 2021, Russian authorities arrested Oakmont native Marc Fogel, a teacher who had done several stints educating American ex-pats in Moscow, for carrying a small amount of legal-in America medical marijuana into the country.
Three and a half years later — after innumerable pleas from this newspaper, Pennsylvania politicians and ...Read more

Editorial: The irony of the push for 'media literacy' in schools
A study from the News Literacy Project — “Building a national movement to create systemic change in American education to ensure all students are skilled in news literacy before they graduate high school” — finds that only 20 percent of teenagers can accurately distinguish between news, advertisements, opinion and entertainment content ...Read more

Editorial: On South Florida's deadly roads, troopers should save us from bad drivers, not migrants
Drive on South Florida’s busiest highways and you can see how underfunded and understaffed Florida Highway Patrol is.
Cars zigzagging at speeds that can easily exceed 100 mph. Impatient drivers illegally driving over traffic dividers to enter the express lanes on Interstate 95. Traffic impunity reigns in Miami-Dade and many parts of densely ...Read more

Editorial: Trump, who railed about weaponized justice, weaponizes the Adams corruption case
President Donald Trump claims that he wants to end the politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice, or so we thought. But Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, once Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, is doing exactly that in sending a memo to the Southern District of New York ordering the corruption prosecution of ...Read more

Commentary: Medicaid deserves to be 'cherished and loved' -- and reformed
President Donald Trump recently said that his administration will “cherish and love” Medicaid. He’s right. Medicaid provides critical health care services to millions of low-income Americans.
But when such a program has nearly 80 million enrollees and costs taxpayers nearly $1 trillion, some scrutiny is warranted.
The Health and Human ...Read more

Mark Z. Barabak: Gavin Newsom, Trump and the art of the deal
Poor Gavin Newsom. The governor hasn't swallowed this much indigestion-inducing fare since he visited the French Laundry.
In the three weeks since Donald Trump took office, not a day has passed without some presidential assault on democratic norms, executive branch overreach or obnoxious emission from the nation's pot-stirrer in chief.
The ...Read more

Jackie Calmes: Make America safe again? Promise broken
At the windup of his MAGA rallies, Donald Trump liked to mix it up when he got to his crowd-pleasing promise to "Make America Great Again." He'd shout fill-in-the-blank variations as he built to the finale. A favorite: "Make America safe again!"
Promise broken.
Mere weeks into his comeback presidency, Trump's myriad moves are making Americans ...Read more

Commentary: The false promise of dismantling DEI
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order that targets diversity programs, protocols, and practitioners, my phone lit up with calls from pastors, academics, and corporate leaders.
These weren't just concerned professionals seeking guidance; they were Americans watching their country wrestle, yet again, with its perpetual struggle ...Read more

Clive Crook: How did trade become a dirty word?
America’s retreat from liberal trade, if it persists, will rank among the greatest unforced policy errors of modern times. The shift is not just potentially momentous but also, in many ways, deeply puzzling.
The U.S. stands as a global economic champion, and reaps the benefits this provides, because of its unsurpassed ability to constantly ...Read more

Commentary: The seemingly intractable problem that the US can actually solve
Even as incomes rose in 2023, the number of Americans living in poverty went up. More and more people are struggling to afford their basic needs. But this is a problem we can actually solve. With a fully mobilized, multidimensional effort, the U.S. can slash the poverty rate — especially since we’ve done it before.
I grew up in poverty, my ...Read more

Commentary: Is innovation oversold?
Former President Joe Biden supported investments to spur innovation. Even in the waning moments of his presidency, he continued to promote innovation. President Donald Trump’s recent actions demonstrate a commitment to global leadership in science and technology. He also supports innovation, particularly with respect to artificial intelligence...Read more

Jonathan Levin: Trump fanned inflation fears. Now they haunt his presidency
Inflation concerns may very well have delivered Donald Trump to the presidency. During the campaign, he routinely harped on the elevated cost of eggs and bacon and argued that his predecessor Joe Biden — together with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — had enabled an “inflation nightmare.”
Now, he faces public inflation expectations...Read more

Commentary: Remembering the Holocaust amid the rise of white Christian nationalism
It’s not an experience one soon forgets. As an Illinois state representative in the 1980s with Skokie in my district, I visited synagogues and temples where I met Holocaust survivors with numbers tattooed on their forearms, forever reminders of their time in Nazi concentration camps.
That came rushing back to memory last month as we observed...Read more

Commentary: Rod Blagojevich was prosecuted for everyday politics. He deserves his pardon
President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich helps correct an injustice and is a proper use of the president’s pardon power.
Blagojevich was a rare Illinois politician who never took a bribe, gift or loan from any supporter, and he never took a penny from his campaign fund. His main achievements as ...Read more

Commentary: Signposts on the road to authoritarian rule
If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration. For my book “No Democracy Lasts Forever,” I studied how democracies die and are replaced by authoritarian regimes. Almost always the rulers are elected rather than coming to power through a coup, and then they ...Read more

Steve Lopez: In aftermath of fires, consultants might help, but LA needs someone to lead
Two horrific wildfires, four rebuilding committees and three or four consultants (so far) into 2025, Southern California got word that an atmospheric river was headed our way.
When you don't know whether to buy a hazmat suit or build an ark, that's a bad start to the new year. To escape the madness, I began watching "Paradise" on Hulu and ...Read more

Martin Schram: Hamas – through a news screen looking glass
A week or so ago, the presidents and potentates of all the Arab nations were watching and listening to their news screens, just like we all were. And, like us, they too were trying to figure out what they could believe in the confusion of claims they were seeing and hearing – live from the White House.
With an expressionless Benjamin “Bibi�...Read more