Politics
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John M. Crisp: Betty Rollin's principled death raises a question
Betty Rollin, writer and national correspondent for NBC, ABC and PBS, died on Nov. 7 at age 87.
Rollin was known for two memoirs: Her account of her breast cancer diagnosis and mastectomy, “First, You Cry” (1976), contributed significantly to a growing openness about breast cancer and the need for early detection; “Last Wish” (1985) ...Read more

Doyle McManus: Is Biden in trouble with Democrats over Gaza? Not as much as it looked
When Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack, it opened a dramatic divide among Democrats over a war that has claimed thousands of civilian lives.
Progressive activists staged protests across the country, demanded an immediate cease-fire and accused President Joe Biden of complicity in genocide. A handful of ...Read more

George Skelton: Did Newsom give Democrats a glimpse of a younger, robust alternative to Biden?
One big question after Thursday night's hyped red-vs.-blue states debate is whether California Gov. Gavin Newsom is helping President Joe Biden or hurting him.
Or maybe he's having no impact on the president. Maybe Newsom is just helping himself. Or not.
Sure, Newsom is locked in as a dedicated Biden surrogate, loyally defending the president ...Read more

Editorial: Corporate America needs to embrace a new office-worker model
More than three years out from the pandemic’s onset, when America’s office workers suddenly had to do their jobs from their homes, a substantial majority of those employees have no desire to turn the clock back to 2019.
It’s clear in survey after survey. Bosses intent on herding their workforce back into the office have met consistently ...Read more

Commentary: Why the senior poverty rate keeps rising
When it comes to seniors’ economic security, America is in poor shape. This October, an annual assessment of pension systems worldwide gave the United States a barely passable C+, ranking the country’s retirement security apparatus below Kazakhstan and just a slight notch above Colombia, two far poorer nations. How can this be?
Similar to ...Read more

Editorial: Argentina's Milei must show he can govern
Argentina’s new president-elect, Javier Milei, met officials from President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington last week. Having campaigned as a Trump-style scourge of the elite, who sees climate change as a “socialist lie,” he said closer alignment with the U.S. will shape his foreign policy and that he was “very comfortable” ...Read more

Commentary: How to break the cycle of aiding Gaza only to see it destroyed again
I arrived in Palestine and Israel just months after Hamas’ election victory. It was July 2006, and Israel’s first Gaza war (with Hamas) and second Lebanon war (with Hezbollah) were just finishing. My wife and I were living in East Jerusalem, where our two kids would learn to walk and over the years form indelible memories in Israel and the ...Read more

Commentary: Ukrainians won't submit to Russian rule. The horrors of the Holodomor help explain why
The last Saturday in November this year marked Holodomor Memorial Day, the 90th anniversary of the Great Famine when Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s autocratic regime ruthlessly starved 4 million Ukrainians to death.
This horrific event is part of the historic backdrop shaping Ukraine’s response to Russia’s war. This experience is why, even ...Read more

Commentary: A Gen Zer offers advice to President Joe Biden as he gears up for his reelection bid
If Joe Biden wins in 2024, he will make history by being the oldest person elected to the presidency. That month, he’ll turn 82. There is no shortage of people who doubt Biden’s ability to campaign. Polls and pundits are quick to connect Biden’s age with low approval numbers.
Even the former chief strategist for Barack Obama when he ran ...Read more

Tyler Cowen: The YIMBY movement needs to go commercial
The YIMBY movement has so far focused on the deregulation of the residential housing market. In California, for instance, a variety of legal changes have made it easier to build more densely. In the commercial market, there is no real YIMBY movement — and not just because offices tend not to have backyards. What would “Yes in My Backyard” ...Read more

Editorial: DeSantis team's cruel words about trans student athlete embarrass Florida
It was with unnecessary and great cruelty that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration weighed in on the removal of five employees at a Broward County high school over a transgender female athlete’s participation in sports.
DeSantis has gone above and beyond to vilify LGBTQ+ people in the past two years, except this time the perceived enemy isn�...Read more

Commentary: Just ask Taylor Swift: Data make the case for movie theaters versus streaming
The rise of streaming platforms has forced Hollywood to question everything — and the uncertainty grows more urgent now that the strikes are over and film projects are resuming. Recent research points toward some answers.
We studied IMDb user review data from the two years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and found that for 86% of major ...Read more

Commentary: How to break the cycle of aiding Gaza only to see it destroyed again
I arrived in Palestine and Israel just months after Hamas’ election victory. It was July 2006, and Israel’s first Gaza war (with Hamas) and second Lebanon war (with Hezbollah) were just finishing. My wife and I were living in East Jerusalem, where our two kids would learn to walk and over the years form indelible memories in Israel and the ...Read more

Commentary: Universities' shifting policies toward speech are not only hypocritical but also illegal
The acrimonious discourse around the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israelis and Israel’s response to the Hamas attack is causing havoc in higher education. Not only have universities, thus far, failed to punish student speech celebrating the killing of Israelis, but universities also have sought to render such speech costless for students by ...Read more

Editorial: California Gov. Gavin Newsom trounced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on his own turf
Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas it was not.
Thursday night’s debate between two of America’s best-known governors — Democrat Gavin Newsom of California and Florida Republican Ron DeSantis — was intended to be a prime-time look at the sharp red-blue political divide in this nation.
But host Sean Hannity and Fox News executives set ...Read more

Martin Schram: Covering Kissinger's century
President Richard Nixon was work-vacationing in his Western White House estate at San Clemente and not far away, the White House press corps was about to be briefed by the world’s most famous anonymous authority on all foreign policies.
Which is to say, another ritual Vietnam War policy/press corps kabuki was about to start.
It began the ...Read more

Editorial: In debate with Newsom, how could DeSantis lose? Hannity pitched him nothing but softballs
Fox News host Sean Hannity set Gavin Newsom up, and let Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knock him down. The duo ganged up on California’s governor and, unfortunately, Newsom sometimes responded with weak defenses. But we give him credit: He was game for a fight Hannity and DeSantis were determined he wouldn’t win. He was articulate and quick-...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: 'That's a lie!' 'You are just jabbering!' It was heat and not much light in Newsom-DeSantis debate
The prodigiously hyped debate between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis was never going to be more than a diversion, a brief sideshow running parallel to the main attraction — the actual campaign for the White House.
California's Democratic governor is not a candidate for president, as he has oft stated and reiterated several more times Thursday ...Read more
Robin Abcarian: How did Gov. Newsom fare against his Florida rival, Gov. DeSantis?
What the hell was that?
Ostensibly, Thursday's debate between California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is not running for president, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is, was supposed to be an exploration of the ideological differences between the two chief executives.
After all, one is the embodiment of progressive, blue-state policies and a high-...Read more

Mark Gongloff: Do 70,000 people really need to be at a climate confab?
How many people do you think it takes to hammer out a global climate agreement? 500? 5,000? 50,000?
Apparently, the correct answer is 70,000. That’s about how many people are expected to turn up in Dubai over the next few weeks for COP28, the latest United Nations climate confab, which started on Thursday. This is up from 49,704 at COP27 ...Read more