Politics
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Gautam Mukunda: Big business bought political influence. The bill is now due
Brunswick and Echelon Insights asked registered voters in late June what they would tell America's chief executive officers if they had the chance. Only three percent said anything about politics. Before any CEOs breathe a sigh of relief, the same poll asked about contributing to the president's new White House ballroom. That was the most ...Read more
Allison Schrager: Why GDP is the GOAT of economic statistics
It is an odd confession to make about a statistic, I realize, but then again I am an economist, so I am just going to go ahead: I love GDP. There. I said it.
GDP — for gross domestic product, the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a county’s borders — is in many ways the ideal economic statistic, both for ...Read more
Parmy Olson: Math's AI crisis has a lesson for the rest of us
Math can mean different things to different people. It’s simple sums for children or sophisticated models for hedge fund managers. For mathematicians, it is an act of discovery. Many spend years trying to find new mathematical truths or “proofs,” work that can underpin everything from cryptography and computing to finance and engineering. ...Read more
LZ Granderson: The racism in America's rearview mirror is closer than it appears
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There is nothing wrong with this country that cannot be cured by what's right with it. This state's most famous native, William Jefferson Clinton, said so in his first inaugural speech as president back in 1993. That sentiment permeates his presidential library, which locals told me he still visits regularly. In ...Read more
Editorial: New York unites against Trump's immigration cruelty
In the best tradition of New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Attorney General Tish James are teaming up to help unaccompanied minors facing deportation proceedings without attorneys, a cruel and inhumane situation exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks against immigrants.
There will be $7.25 million in ...Read more
Editorial: Evidence over politics when it comes to childhood vaccines
Parents deserve clarity when making decisions about childhood vaccines. They should not have to choose between political pronouncements and public-health institutions whose credibility has itself been tested in recent years.
The White House’s decision to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines has reignited an important debate ...Read more
Trudy Rubin: Violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians on the West Bank threatens new Mideast flash point
While the world is focused on the failures of President Donald Trump’s warmongering in Iran and “peacemaking” in Gaza, too little attention is being paid to a potential new Mideast flash point sparked by messianic Israeli settlers on the occupied West Bank.
Escalating settler violence against Palestinians — attacking their villages, ...Read more
Nolan Finley: It's right to judge Abdul El-Sayed by the company he keeps
Two key questions are shaping up in Michigan's U.S. Senate race, and both center on Abdul El-Sayed's embrace of the accused antisemitic Internet influencer Hasan Piker.
First, can a political candidate throw his arms around a hater without being tainted by the hate? And second, why is someone who is as purportedly smart as El-Sayed allowing his...Read more
Joe Battenfeld: Have socialists jumped the shark?
The surprise defeat of a far left fringe Democrat in Wisconsin could signal that socialists have finally jumped the shark, paving the way for more electable moderates in the general election.
Francesca Hong, who advocated for abolishing the police and canceling Thanksgiving, lost the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary on Tuesday last week, ...Read more
Gustavo Arellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is
In the grand buffet of problems explaining President Donald Trump's abysmal approval ratings, reserve a tray for Mexican food.
Americans are rightfully frustrated with the myriad consequences of the war with Iran he plunged us into, the rising cost of living, his pharaonic obsession with monuments to himself and his overall doddering state of ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Hegseth is purging people of color. Trump's war is killing them
Need another metric to show that, for President Donald Trump, "Make America Great Again" means regressing to a 1950s-style white patriarchy? Probably not. But here's a good-bad one for you, marking the deplorable progress of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's war on diversity in the leadership ranks of the nation's military:
Hegseth's ...Read more
Commentary: Classroom pets teach all the wrong lessons
Recently, a middle school teacher took to an online forum to share her grief after two students dumped soap into classroom fish tanks, killing 11 baby fish and seriously injuring two larger fish and two frogs. The students’ only consequence was to apologize.
Other educators weighed in with their own stories about animals who were victims of ...Read more
Commentary: The liberal arts college tradition doesn't have to die, just evolve
Many private liberal arts colleges are entering death throes, even as education in the humanities in our tumultuous world is more important than ever. There may be ways to save the tradition, if not all the ivied brick-and-mortar campuses.
There are about 200 “national liberal arts colleges” in the popular U.S. News & World Report ...Read more
Commentary: Black liberation requires investment
By no coincidence, Black August and Black Philanthropy Month are observed at the same time. Both are rooted in a simple truth: Our liberation is never granted; it is built, protected and sustained.
The Black liberation movement commemorated by Black August gave us the blueprint for organizing people who had been deliberately and systematically ...Read more
Mark Gongloff: Puerto Rico's water crisis is a man-made disaster
The average human being can’t survive more than 72 hours without water. In Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens are being forced to go 48 hours without running water in their homes during a hot, dry summer while also enduring a shaky electrical grid.
If such things were happening to a mainland population of similar size — ...Read more
James Stavridis: Putin can't break down NATO's door. He's trying the window
Recent reporting says Russian leader Vladimir Putin is considering testing the resolve and combat responses of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the next couple of years. Despite being outgunned in defense spending and seemingly having its hands full in Ukraine, the Russian Federation already appears to be probing the alliance. ...Read more
Commentary: Americans won't let COVID be erased from our memories
Sculptor Amanda Matthews arrived at the Kentucky COVID Memorial earlier this month prepared, ready to repair her work. Located on the grounds of the state capitol in Frankfort, the sculpture features several figures positioned around a giant silver sphere emblazoned with the state seal and motto: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” It’s ...Read more
Anita Chabria: What's at stake -- legally and politically -- in Paramount merger
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s hard being a global titan these days, when despite beaucoup bucks spent bending government to your will, any little ant of a state attorney general can crawl up your pant leg and bite.
Just ask David Ellison.
After, well, the world seemingly fell in line with his long-planned $110 billion merger of Paramount ...Read more
Editorial: Upper Midwest returns to being a hotbed of moderation in Wisconsin, Minnesota primaries
Some encouraging blows for common sense were struck by primary voters to our north on Tuesday, on both sides of the aisle.
But those looking for compelling evidence that uber-lefty politics won’t play in the Upper Midwest outside of gentrified urban neighborhoods and college towns won’t find it in Francesca Hong’s narrow defeat for the ...Read more
Commentary: Should we talk about Ariana Grande's body?
Over the past week, I’ve been inundated with requests from journalists to talk about pop star Ariana Grande’s body. A week ago, Grande blamed “endless, ongoing public scrutiny” for her decision to step back from the public eye at the end of her current world tour. Online chatter about the role Grande’s visibly shrinking body played in ...Read more




















































