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Doyle McManus: Trump has big plans for California if he wins a second term. Fasten your seatbelts

Politics / Op Eds /

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is running against California — again.

In his campaign to win a second term, the former president frequently excoriates the state as a terrifying dystopia — the inevitable product, he claims, of Democratic policies.

"The place is failing," he told a conservative conference last month.

"It has become a symbol of...Read more

LUCKENSON JEAN/AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: The US can't cruise its way through the Haiti crisis

Politics / Op Eds /

Tens of thousands of Americans visit Haiti every year, despite that nation descending into gang-fueled anarchistic chaos. They just don’t really know they are there.

That’s because they’re hermetically sealed off in a place called Labadee, a so-called private destination of the Royal Caribbean Group located on Haiti’s northern coast. In...Read more

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Editorial: The clock ticks for Chinese ownership of TikTok. Good

Politics / Op Eds /

There are any number of reasons to despise TikTok, the mind-numbing entity best known not for keeping friends in touch but an endless stream of short-form videos algorithmically tuned with unerring precision to satisfy the tastes of the user. Excessive consumption has become known as “doom scrolling,” a reference to the overstimulated ...Read more

LUCKENSON JEAN/AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Tyler Cowen: Why is Haiti's economy so much worse than its neighbor's?

Politics / Op Eds /

As Haiti continues its descent into chaos, the Dominican Republic continues to prosper. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola and a lot of history, and yet the Dominican Republic now stands as one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America.

An obvious question presents itself: What explains this this stark divergence?

One approach ...Read more

Clarens Siffroy/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: A helping hand for Haiti: We can and should protect those forced to flee

Politics / Op Eds /

Imagine that the Jan. 6 insurrection had succeeded. Perhaps the Oath Keepers who had been standing by with weapons caches ready to go had mounted a full-scale assault, capturing the Capitol and taking some lawmakers hostage, or even killing some. Maybe they did hang Mike Pence, and in the aftermath, the presidential results went uncertified, ...Read more

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Editorial: Why it's smart for universities to bring back the SAT requirement

Politics / Op Eds /

The SAT and ACT are making a small but important comeback after the tests were widely dropped as a requirement for college applications during the pandemic.

Most schools went test-optional, meaning students could submit scores if they wanted but not doing so wouldn’t count against them. The University of California won’t consider test ...Read more

Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

Jackie Calmes: One Trump puppet stands between Ukraine and the aid it needs

Politics / Op Eds /

Speaker Mike Johnson in just months has all but cemented his place among the weakest House leaders in its history. Alas, the Louisianan nonetheless holds enough power that he's single-handedly blocking one of the most crucial matters of our time: bipartisan U.S. aid to Ukraine for its defense against Vladimir Putin's murderous expansionism.

It'...Read more

Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Robin Abcarian: Flamin' Hot Cheetos and iPhones are ruining my kid and yours

Politics / Op Eds /

With apologies to Allen Ginsberg:

I am seeing the best minds of our middle-school generation destroyed by Flamin' Hot Cheetos and iPhones,

Teenagers on the cusp of young adulthood dragging themselves out of bed each day to mainline TikTok and Snapchat,

Measuring themselves by the yardstick of uber-filtered Kardashian perfection and falling ...Read more

Alex Slitz/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

Commentary: Fani Willis' prosecution of Donald Trump may be alive, but it isn't well

Politics / Op Eds /

Special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s resignation Friday from the Georgia racketeering prosecution of Donald Trump and others was the right decision and, indeed, a virtually forced one. Judge Scott McAfee’s resolution of a defense motion to disqualify Wade’s boss, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, left no practical alternative.

But ...Read more

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Martin Schram: Through America's Looking Glass

Politics / Op Eds /

It probably hasn’t dawned on you yet. But it will. Because what happened to Alice is happening to us all.

Our news screens have become our Looking-Glasses. And we are being sucked in by our own news screens. Just as Alice climbed onto her mantle and stepped into the world inside her own Looking-Glass. (That is, her mirror, in “Through the ...Read more

John M. Crisp: The difference between a Trump victory and a Biden victory

Politics / Op Eds /

It’s impossible to predict with confidence who will win the presidency of the United States in November 2024.

President Joe Biden seems likely to win the popular vote. He received 7 million more votes than Donald Trump in 2020, and the fundamental partisan lines that separate our nation seem unlikely to shift significantly in 2024.

But maybe...Read more

Editorial: Chuck vs. Bibi: Schumer's gambit against Netanyahu

Politics / Op Eds /

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — whom we knew back when he was Brooklyn Assemblyman Chuck Schumer and Congressman Chuck Schumer — wants Israel to hold new elections, and makes no secret that he thinks and hopes when they do, Bibi Netanyahu will be turned out. So he conveyed in a Thursday speech on the Senate floor that surprised and ...Read more

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Commentary: Shining a light on school district actions

Politics / Op Eds /

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has become the latest policymaker shining sunlight on school district actions, and with good reason. Nationwide, school administrators are discovering they might be responsible for eye-popping court settlements if they hide K-12 activities from parents.

Consider what happened last summer in California. The ...Read more

Allie Goulding/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Commentary: American business needs a strong democracy, not political retribution

Politics / Op Eds /

The United States continues to have one of the freest and most dynamic economies in the world. U.S. businesses generate jobs, improve living standards and are among the most trusted institutions in American life. They thrive in no small part from operating in our enviable democratic republic and free market economy. But in recent years political...Read more

Angelina Katsanis/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Commentary: Getting guns away from abusers will save lives

Politics / Op Eds /

“273.D.” The dispatch code for domestic violence sends chills down the spines of law enforcement officers, who know these calls to be among the most dangerous. Early on the morning of Feb. 18, police and first responders in Burnsville, Minnesota, saw just how deadly domestic abuse incidents can be. Although they saved seven children and the ...Read more

Shawn Thew/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Jay Ambrose: The test Biden can't pass

Politics / Op Eds /

President Joe Biden recently gave a rough, tough, eyes-ablaze, here-I-come State of the Union speech that some saw as a definitive disposal of his democratically diagnosed mental vacuity. But wait. The speech simultaneously raised all kinds of questions about Biden, and then, not too many days after that, TV sets were once again spreading news ...Read more

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Francis Wilkinson: California shows the US is too polarized for top-two primaries

Politics / Op Eds /

Representative Adam Schiff got what he paid for. As expected, the California Democrat won first place in the state’s top-two primary for the US Senate on Super Tuesday. And just as Schiff wanted, former Major League Baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican, came in second.

As in Louisiana and Washington (Alaska has its own variation), ...Read more

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Editorial: Grade inflation is making learning loss worse

Politics / Op Eds /

Recent test results confirm a dispiriting reality: America’s students continue to lag far behind their peers around the world, and millions are running out of time to catch up. Yet many families remain unaware of the true deficits their children face — in no small part because teachers are often giving students higher grades than they ...Read more

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Editorial: California's rat poison bans aren't working. Wild animals and pets are still dying

Politics / Op Eds /

For at least a decade, California has tried to restrict the use of rat poison so it stops killing all manner of creatures besides rats. So far, it hasn’t worked.

When a wild animal preys upon a rat that has ingested anticoagulant rodenticide, it can end up dead or sickened by the toxin as well. The poisoning continues up the food chain from ...Read more

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Patricia Lopez: Restoring Roe isn't enough. Women deserve more

Politics / Op Eds /

In his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden vowed to restore Roe v. Wade as “the law of the land.”

It was an admirable sentiment and one welcomed by supporters of reproductive rights.

But with all due respect, Mr. President, that’s not enough anymore. Women want – no, are demanding – the most fundamental right of all: ...Read more

 

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Joey Weatherford Gary Varvel Bob Gorrell Joel Pett Bob Englehart David M. Hitch