Politics
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Commentary: Mike Pence's story is crucial to the Jan. 6 case against Trump. Can Jack Smith still use it?
Even before special counsel Jack Smith submitted his extensive and revealing recent brief in the Jan. 6 case, it was evident that Donald Trump’s statements to then-Vice President Mike Pence would become a crucial legal battleground.
The brief plows through every snippet of the evidence Smith proposes to use to prosecute Trump for his efforts ...Read more
Editorial: Carbon capture has a place in Illinois' climate-change toolkit, Archer Daniels Midland snafus notwithstanding
Approaching downstate Decatur by car, it’s not unusual to smell the huge Archer Daniels Midland industrial complex before seeing it. The sweet aroma of fermenting grain wafts through vehicle windows and air vents, a sign that ethanol fuel is being brewed. That process, in turn, produces carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that ...Read more
Parmy Olson: Nobel prizes give Google the glow it craves
An executive from a large technology firm has just won a Nobel. On Thursday, the top prize for chemistry went to the head of Alphabet Inc.’s AI efforts, Demis Hassabis, along with two other key scientists, for a years-long project that used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins.
The day before, Geoffrey Hinton, a ...Read more
Lorraine Ali: Elon Musk's courtship with MAGA has driven X into misinformation abyss
Multibillionaires are eccentric. It's common knowledge, like water is wet, fire is hot, "Joker: Folie à Deux" is a terrible film.
From Jeff Bezos to Peter Thiel to Richard Branson to Howard Hughes (adjusting for inflation), they do weird things: shoot themselves into space, invest in treatments to "cure" aging, buy islands and wash their hands...Read more
Andreas Kluth: Vance plays Saruman to Trump's Sauron
“I’m a big Lord of the Rings guy,” JD Vance once told a podcaster. The running mate of former and perhaps future president Donald Trump went on to explain that “a lot of my conservative worldview was influenced by Tolkien.”
It’s always a good idea to re-read the classics, and JRR Tolkien’s trilogy is certainly among them. One mark...Read more
Editorial: Progressive politicians lose the plot on fighting terror
It’s no coincidence that anti-Israel student groups at Massachusetts colleges and across the country called for a “Week of Rage” starting on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas as progressive lawmakers demanded a cease-fire.
The protesters who swarmed Storrow Drive, the “ragers” who reportedly vandalized the John ...Read more
Commentary: Endorsements of presidential candidates speak volumes
There’s only a few weeks remaining before the 2024 presidential election comes to a close — that is, pending election certification, recounts, challenges and lawsuits. Ed Kilgore, political columnist for New York magazine since 2015, estimates that only 4 percent to 7% of the electorate is genuinely undecided.
However, there might be a ...Read more
Commentary: We may face another 'too big to fail' scenario as AI labs go unchecked
In the span of two or so years, OpenAI, Nvidia and a handful of other companies essential to the development of artificial intelligence have become economic behemoths. Their valuations and stock prices have soared. Their products have become essential to Fortune 500 companies. Their business plans are the focus of the national security industry....Read more
Jenice Armstrong: The Republican obsession with women who haven't given birth is just weird
Stepmothers don't get enough credit.
Parenting someone else's offspring can be a really tough job. As a stepmother myself, I understand the challenges that often accompany being part of a blended family, and it's admirable that Vice President Kamala Harris manages to have great relationships with both her stepchildren, who call her "Momala."
...Read more
Commentary: What do Americans think of the Israel-Hamas war now? The polling is surprising
In the year since the attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, much has changed.
Israel launched a large-scale military operation on Gaza, the geographic base of Hamas. The lives of millions of Palestinians have been thrown into destitution, in addition to the tens of thousands killed. Hamas, which governs Gaza, has been ...Read more
Danny Westneat: A big Seattle name is in the election battlegrounds -- helping Trump
Seattle's star socialist is at it again. This time, she's making news with some uncomfortable truth-telling about her own aims that's bound to make many Seattleites squirm.
Former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was out in Michigan over the weekend, stumping for the Green Party presidential campaign of Jill Stein.
Democrats have long ...Read more
Commentary: Political centrism has been getting a second look. Why?
Political centrism has a bad name.
In fact, it has a lot of bad names. Centrists have been denigrated as squishy, weak in the knees, guilty of being sellouts — and worse, unpatriotic.
However, the idea of centrism has been getting a second look recently. Americans are feeling like they are imprisoned for life in the politics of extremism and...Read more
Editorial: Longshoremen strike underscores AI challenges faced by workers
“Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life.” — from the 2004 film I, Robot
More money is always good, but it’s clear now that wages were never the most critical issue leading to the now-suspended three-day strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association. The ILA�...Read more
Commentary: Here's what Kamala Harris must do to appeal to a fractured voter base
As the Nov. 5 election swiftly approaches, the nation’s razor-thin presidential race hangs on one truth. It’s all about the base.
That mantra applies to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. There’s a wrinkle, however, for the Democrats.
Trump has locked up his GOP base. The challenge for Harris is that she must...Read more
Editorial: Penny dreadful? America slowly makes its move to a cashless economy
It used to be common to see Let’s Make a Deal contestants leave the TV game show smiling after winning $100 for every coin they could pull out of their purse or pocket. But as America moves ever closer to becoming a cashless society, it’s just as likely to see contestants who couldn’t scrape up a dime.
About 41% of Americans no longer use...Read more
Jackie Calmes: When Trump talks 'bad genes' and 'racehorse theory,' he is telling us who he is
Donald Trump's fascination with genetics, especially his own "good genes" of the white European sort, as well as the "bad genes" of the you-know-which types, has always been creepy. I won't compare him to Hitler; I leave that to historians and JD Vance.
Here's Vance in 2016, before Trump's election: Writing to a former Yale Law classmate, Vance...Read more
Tyler Cowen: An economist's guide to helping victims of Helene and Milton
With North Carolina still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton landing in Florida, it is natural to ask: What is the best way to help the victims of these storms, and how can society best protect itself from such damage in the future? As an economist, I realize that I come at these questions with a bit of a ...Read more
Noah Feldman: The Supreme Court ghost gun arguments were cringeworthy
Should so-called ghost guns — assembled at home from kits in as little as 20 minutes — be counted as guns for purposes of federal law?
If you have an ounce of common sense, the answer is obviously yes. The relevant law defines a firearm as “any weapon … which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by ...Read more
Commentary: Will voter turnout in November repeat the historic numbers of 2020?
As we race to Election Day, one polling question will gain enormous importance in our understanding of the race — who are the actual voters? Using likely-voter screens, pollsters are now trying to figure out who will vote and who will sit this one out. In most polls, there is usually a small difference in the preference between the total ...Read more
LZ Granderson: Mexico's gun crisis is our fault. Victims deserve their day in US court
The Supreme Court is back at work this week, and among the more important arguments the justices are set to hear is a lawsuit filed by the government of Mexico against American gun manufacturers.
A data leak from the Mexican military indicated that more than 90% of the firearms found at crime scenes in Mexico between 2018 and 2022 originated ...Read more