Politics
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Editorial: Judge tosses Comey, James indictments -- for now
A federal judge has dismissed indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The move should be a lesson for the White House.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, sided with Comey, who had argued that the prosecutor who brought the case ...Read more
Commentary: The high cost of escaping torture
By now, Americans have become familiar with seeing masked federal agents snatching people off the street and outside courthouses. Separations of families of asylum seekers and other non-citizens, and occasionally even citizens, are all part of the malevolence of U.S. immigration policy.
But far less attention has gone to another measure that ...Read more
Commentary: So DEI doesn't work. OK, what would be better?
It is no secret that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are under attack in our country. They have been blamed for undermining free speech, meritocracy, and America itself. The University of Virginia is the latest to settle with the government and walk away from its DEI initiatives rather than defend its programs or find a new ...Read more
Commentary: A broken pipeline -- Costing us our next generation of scientists
Science has always relied on young innovators to drive progress. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still PhD students, founded Google. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, Kizzmekia Corbett, then a senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, led a team of scientists in developing the COVID-19 ...Read more
Editorial: The death penalty should never be a political threat
The U.S. military runs on hierarchy. Orders flow down the chain of command, and discipline keeps everything moving in sync. That structure is what allows the armed forces to act quickly and effectively, even in the toughest situations.
But the system also recognizes a hard truth: Not every order is automatically lawful. That’s why there are ...Read more
Commentary: Giving thanks can be an act of unity
Two stories anchor our oldest holiday. Both took place in times of division and deprivation. And both offer a hopeful note about who we can be when we try.
The first, of course, unfolds in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. After a devastating first winter that wiped out nearly half the pilgrims, the Wampanoag people taught the survivors to ...Read more
Abby McCloskey: The gender wars are heating up -- on the right
More than half a million women left the labor force this year. Many are mothers with young children. It's being called the next she-cession.
This may be a good thing to the extent that it reflects women’s preferences, such as wanting to spend more time with their families, or that it represents the improved ability of a partner to support a ...Read more
Editorial: The president's pardon power needs reining in
The recent presidential pardons of figures who tried to overturn the 2020 election are part of a broader effort to rewrite one of the most sordid episodes in recent memory. The effort should be rejected, and the pardon power — abused by presidents of both parties for far too long — needs to be reined in.
Earlier this month, the president ...Read more
George Skelton: What's lacking among the candidates for California governor
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — To be elected governor of California, a candidate needs six vital assets.
Maybe not the entire six-pack, but almost. They include:
–A salable message. How’s the candidate going to make life better for the voter? Specifics, not just poll-generated platitudes. And beating up on President Trump isn’t going to be ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: California is having its most wide-open governor's race in decades. Why's that?
Today we discuss Texas, overreaction and the voluminous field of candidates for California governor.
Is there anyone who is not running for governor?
I'm not. And neither are my two cats. At least they weren't as of this morning, when we discussed the race before breakfast.
That leaves us somewhat short of the 135 candidates who ran in ...Read more
Commentary: How could Marjorie Taylor Greene make a comeback?
In a video posted to X late Friday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., announced she’d be resigning from Congress in early January, only halfway through her third term. Greene explained the decision in a direct-to-camera speech from her home, saying she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in” and suggesting ...Read more
Mary Ellen Klas: The military is in a bind created by its commander in chief
When President Donald Trump claimed that members of Congress deserved the death penalty last week, he showed yet again that he doesn’t respect the rule of law.The president turned to social media Thursday morning to accuse six Democratic members of Congress of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.” The commander in chief made this ...Read more
Commentary: Why we're mired in an 'affordability crisis'
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell famously described the high inflation that had just started dragging down U.S. consumers in July 2021 as “transitory.” His word choice suggested that elevated inflation, like stormy weather, would soon pass.
But not only have high prices persisted, inflation rates have remained elevated since the ...Read more
Commentary: 5 reasons the GOP is finally bucking Trump
President Donald Trump’s tight grip on the GOP, long assumed to be an inevitable feature of American life (like gravity or the McRib’s seasonal return), has started to loosen.
Republicans are now openly defying him. The man who once ruled the GOP like a casino boss can’t even strong-arm Indiana Republicans into gerrymandering themselves ...Read more
Commentary: Tariffs on trial -- The Supreme Court's hidden battle for balance
On Nov. 5, the Supreme Court convened what may be one of the most important trade cases of this generation.
Justices across the ideological spectrum carefully probed whether a president may deploy sweeping import duties under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The outcome will resonate well beyond tariffs. It strikes...Read more
Commentary: The best deal of all is compassion
Down parkas. Designer handbags. Winter boots. Every Friday after Thanksgiving, crowds barge into stores, elbows flying, desperate to snag the season’s “must-have” deals. Even as more of us shop online—and Black Friday sales creep closer to Halloween—the desire for a deal persists.
Here’s a thought: What if our shopping reflected ...Read more
Editorial: Canada measles outbreak shows that vigilance must not slip
The next outbreak of serious disease is merely “a plane ride away,” public health officials have long warned. The current crop of measles cases in Canada proves that point.
A traveler infected with measles visited a community in New Brunswick with a low vaccination rate, sparking a national outbreak of the disease in 2024. About 50 people ...Read more
Commentary: US rejection of climate science is a call to action for the rest of the world
If there was any doubt that the current U.S. administration is the world’s greatest threat to action on climate change, President Donald Trump removed it on Sept. 23 when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly and called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and a threat promoted by “stupid people.”
He ...Read more
Commentary: Britain's arrogance in exporting the disgraced former Duke of York
The British have, at long last, cast away Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — and rightly so. His shockingly parasitic existence, alleged sexual and financial misconduct, association with Jeffrey Epstein, evasions and astonishing lack of remorse have rendered him an embarrassment even by the indulgent standards of hereditary privilege.
But now, ...Read more
David Mills: The humane way to talk about economics
"I knew that of course most private-equity investors make the U.S. economy stronger," the man wrote, a little indignantly. I'd come across the quote, from The City Journal in 2012, while looking for something else. It's published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and prestigious enough for Barnes & Noble to sell it.
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