Politics
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Frank Barry: A garden of heroes that both Trump and Mamdani can support
Democrats have rolled their eyes at President Donald Trump’s plan for a National Garden of American Heroes in Washington, but they’re looking at it all wrong. An outdoor showcase of classical sculpture depicting major historical figures is a brilliant idea — and the best part is: It already exists! It just needs a little TLC, and the ...Read more
Editorial: The Navy's new battleship is a boondoggle in the making
The U.S. Navy says it plans to buy 15 hulking “battleships” over the next 30 years. The number of such behemoths it actually needs comes closer to zero. The sooner Congress recognizes that fact, the better off American taxpayers, and indeed the Navy, will be.
The president introduced the first new warship, dubbed the USS Defiant, in ...Read more
Commentary: 'Heckler's veto' turned commencements into disinvitation season
Delivering a university commencement address used to simply be a unique kind of honor. Speakers stand before a podium, wearing a traditional graduation cap and robe, to offer graduates life lessons and inspirational words as they enter the next phrase of life.
But today, speaking at a university commencement ceremony carries considerable risk, ...Read more
Commentary: The FDA's about-face on flavored vapes will prove deadly for kids
The decline in youth smoking is one of the great public-health achievements of the 21st century, celebrated by conservatives and liberals alike, yet the White House is now in the process of endangering it. Unless it reverses course, millions of American children will suffer the consequences.
Tobacco-related death and disease do not discriminate...Read more
Editorial: Las Vegas shows why rent control isn't needed
If you want to lower rents in the next five weeks, rent control may be appealing. If you want to lower rents in the next five years, it shouldn’t be.
Rents in Las Vegas are dropping. Apartments.com found that Las Vegas rents declined by 0.2 percent in April. Nationally, rents increased by 0.2 percent. Las Vegas was one of just five major ...Read more
Commentary: The puncher's illusion: Winning the first round and losing the war
In the Rumble in the Jungle, George Foreman came in expecting to end the fight early.
At first, it looked that way. He was stronger, faster, and landing clean punches. I watched the 1974 championship on simulcast 52 years ago and remember how dominant he was in the opening rounds.
By the fifth round, that confidence had faded. Foreman was ...Read more
Gautam Mukunda: The American divide exposes the high GDP fallacy
The American economy is a wonder. The Economist observed that average wages in America’s poorest state, Mississippi, are higher than those in Britain, Canada and Germany. American GDP per capita now runs roughly 40% above western Europe. Post-pandemic productivity growth has been significantly faster than that of the eurozone. The consensus is...Read more
Jill Burcum: Minnesota to ICE: No one is above the law
If Washington won’t hold federal immigration agents accountable for misconduct, Minnesota will.
Criminal charges filed Monday here against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro sent this powerful warning to agents across the country:
Lawless behavior will not go unanswered, even if there’s a federal badge on your chest...Read more
Commentary: Trump is copying the worst of FDR's presidency with racial roundups
In 1942, a pregnant Fumiko Hayashida boarded a ferry for Seattle clutching her 13-month-old daughter and a stuffed animal. Her family, owners of one of Bainbridge Island’s largest strawberry farms, was among the first of the more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent shipped to hastily built prisons in the months after Japan’s attack on ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Obama's strong terms curbed Iran. Trump struggles to secure even a weak deal
President Donald Trump, it's well known, is into gold. Every day brings new evidence that he's thoroughly enjoying the "golden age" he pronounced in his inaugural address — as few other Americans are — with stock trades, crypto profiteering and much more, even a new taxpayer-financed slush fund to reward his allies.
As for me, I've gone ...Read more
Editorial: Trump's new slush fund is rank corruption: Department of Justice money for lawbreakers and president's pals
The dollar amount in Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund memorializes this nation’s revolutionary break from a king; if this agreement fully goes through, we might as well be returning to an unaccountable monarchy. The origin of this corrupt pot of cash for the president to pay himself, his family and his political allies, including Jan...Read more
David M. Drucker: America's 'everything is rigged' era is toxic
Everything, it seems, is rigged these days.
Unhappy with the economy? That’s because it’s rigged. Fed up with your healthcare? It’s rigged, too. Frustrated with elected leaders in Washington, Sacramento, Austin or Albany? Rigged, rigged, rigged and rigged.
President Donald Trump arguably kicked off this populist trend of referring to ...Read more
Commentary: Roadside zoos: Keep on driving
As the days grow longer and the sun shines, many of us feel the call of the open road. Whether it’s a weekend getaway or a simple drive through the countryside, the freedom of the open highway is irresistible. But between snack stops and stretch breaks, it’s nearly impossible not to spot fading billboards urging drivers to pull over to see �...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Are dodos and mammoths coming back from extinction? Don't count on it
My inbox started filling up with the supposedly groundbreaking news early Tuesday, breathless news articles about a biological breakthrough that will allow a long-extinct giant bird to walk the Earth in modern times.
My reaction was this: "Not this same old yarn again."
The company promoting its supposed breakthrough is Colossal Biosciences. ...Read more
Editorial: Stomping on IRS audits is an egregious abuse of power by President Donald Trump
Since 2010, Donald Trump has fought with the Internal Revenue Service over his company’s tax returns in which the tax enforcers were reported to have asserted the Trump Organization improperly claimed massive losses, including from Trump’s Chicago skyscraper.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department agreed to end any and all audits of Trump, his ...Read more
Gustavo Arellano: Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt need Latinos, not Trump
With less than two weeks before the primary election, Steve Hilton is leading in the polls for governor, and Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt is making the city's progressive class sweat.
If the former Fox News commentator and the reality television bad boy move on to November's general election, they'll be running as conservatives in ...Read more
Editorial: America must confront the growing crisis among young people
Monday’s act of terrorism against a San Diego mosque, in which two teenagers are accused of killing three people, should deeply disturb every American. Not only because of the hatred allegedly involved, but because of what it reveals about the growing emotional, moral and psychological instability consuming too many young people across this ...Read more
Commentary: The Navy's inexcusable accommodation of Kash Patel
The USS Arizona is a tomb. That should have been enough.
FBI Director Kash Patel took part in what a Defense Department email obtained by the Associated Press called a “V.I.P. Snorkel” near the sunken battleship at Pearl Harbor last summer. To accommodate that event, U.S. Navy SEALs reportedly transported and escorted Patel and his party by...Read more
Commentary: Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran
Nearly three months after the United States and Israel launched their large-scale bombing campaign against Iran and about six weeks since the April 8 ceasefire took effect, President Donald Trump faces an inflection point. Does he return to war? Maintain the ceasefire and U.S. blockade on Iranian ports in the hope of cutting a deal on American ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: Three wrongs don't make a right in case of election denier and Colorado governor
It's entirely possible — as hard as it may be to conceive in these deeply tribal, us-vs.-them times — for two competing notions to be true.
Tina Peters personally enriched herself and betrayed the public trust by perpetrating a harebrained scheme to "prove" the 2020 election in Mesa County, Colorado, was rigged against President Donald ...Read more




















































