Politics
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Gustavo Arellano: The grief behind the cascade of online Dolores Huerta photos
The photos currently flooding my social media stream are like a highlight reel of the life of Chicana civil rights icon Dolores Huerta.
The famous 1960s-era black-and-white shot of her looking like a bohemian in sweatshirt and black pants while she holds up a sign proclaiming "HUELGA" in the grape fields of California's Central Valley.
...Read more
Editorial: Kent's grandstanding claims don't withstand scrutiny
Subordinates with different opinions about policies can be helpful. Subordinates with different views of reality aren’t.
On Wednesday, Joe Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a spot President Donald Trump had appointed him to. Kent did not go quietly into the night. He posted his resignation letter on X.
“I ...Read more
Editorial: The US says it's winning in Iran. Time to act like it
It seems increasingly evident that the White House rushed into war with Iran without fully considering the potential consequences. That’s all the more reason to hasten the conflict’s end.
After nearly three weeks of fighting, the U.S. is reaching the limits of what air power can accomplish. Although American and Israeli strikes have ...Read more
Allison Schrager: The Laffer Curve is no longer a punch line
For years it was a punch line. Now the Laffer Curve — which purports to show that tax cuts can increase revenue — is making a kind of comeback. This time around, it is providing more of an intellectual than a policy framework, but that is a useful role as some states and city governments appear eager to test the proposition that no tax is ...Read more
Editorial: Can we agree to stop deporting the nearly innocent?
They were supposed to be the true believers, the ones who could be counted on to take a harsh and unyielding stance toward people living in this country who weren’t entitled to be here.
And in many ways, that’s still exactly who they are. But the four sheriffs and four police chiefs chosen to advise Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Ted Cruz and his GOP colleagues are pushing yet another tax break for the 1%
America's beleaguered 1%, backed by their supporters in Congress, are pleading for your sympathy.
They say they're treated unfairly by the federal tax code, you see, because inflation has sapped the value of their most cherished tax break, the preferential tax rate on capital gains. And they want it fixed.
Inflation, says Sen. Ted Cruz, R-...Read more
Commentary: How America drilled its way out of the oil-supply straitjacket
Three weeks into the Iran War, the main impact so far has been oil prices. The dog that hasn’t barked is oil shortages.
While Chinese motorists were lining up for miles to fill up on gasoline, and Asia has been desperately scrambling to find supply, here in America there’s been nothing like the 1970s oil shortages.
And the reason is one of...Read more
Commentary: Bomb first, debate later: The hidden cost of how America makes war now
For those old enough to remember the first Gulf War, the scenes feel painfully familiar: Smoke rising over Tehran. Babies carried out of a bombed-out hospital in incubators. Missiles striking cities across the Middle East. Oil markets in turmoil as Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz. The war of choice that began with Israeli and ...Read more
Commentary: The US desperately needs functional counterterrorism
On Monday came the latest evidence of dysfunction within the Trump administration’s counterterrorism apparatus, when Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned, citing his opposition to the war in Iran. But the disarray is not new.
In July 2025, Sebastian Gorka, the senior director for counterterrorism on ...Read more
Editorial: Illinois Republicans aren't just losing. They're disappearing
Tuesday’s primary delivered a stark warning for Illinois Republicans: Fewer voters are showing up, and in too many places, there was not enough on the primary ballot that was actually worth voters showing up for anyway.
In well-populated portions of the state, the GOP is steadily vanishing.
Official turnout results won’t come out until ...Read more
Editorial: Force Senate Democrats on record opposing voter ID
The Senate began debate this week on the so-called SAVE Act, which includes a national voter ID requirement. Democrats have vowed to fight the legislation, likely leaving the GOP short of the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the bill. President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to ditch the filibuster to allow passage with a simple ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: Talk about rigged elections. In Montana, Republicans snub voters to anoint a US senator
For months, the senior U.S. senator from Montana pondered his political future.
Or so he said.
Wrapping up his second term and facing a glide path to a third, Steve Daines unexpectedly opted this month against seeking reelection, saying in an aw-shucksy video he planned to spend more time back home in Montana and enjoy more cherished moments ...Read more
Gustavo Arellano: And just like that, the Cesar Chavez myth is punctured. What's next?
LOS ANGELES — An eerie silence had settled.
As word evidently reached activists in the last few weeks that disturbing allegations of sexual abuse against Chicano civil rights icon Cesar Chavez were forthcoming, things started to happen without much explanation.
Groups began to cancel long-planned parades, dinners, lectures and fundraisers ...Read more
Commentary: Address affordability, give farmers a chance
While my mom didn’t coin the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” she definitely liked expressing it while I was growing up. It was also a mantra of her parents on our family’s dairy farm. That’s where our future, as that of most farmers, depends on knowing what to do and how to do it.
For this reason, farmers and ...Read more
Commentary: America is sociologically ignorant and it shows
Sociology, the discipline that studies society, is not mainstream. It is rarely taught in the K-12 curriculum. And many youths are forgoing higher education, a space where people learn how to evaluate evidence for themselves. Sixty-two percent of Americans, hundreds of millions of adults, lack a college degree. Less than half of 18- to 24-year-...Read more
John Rash: Trump's incoherence on Iran leaves the world reeling
To explain the existential stakes of World War II, the U.S. government produced “Why We Fight,” a series of seven films from Frank Capra, who captured America so incisively in movies like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Originally intended for U.S. forces, the films were soon viewed by the public, too.
Eight decades later, in its effort...Read more
Editorial: How many conflicts can we manage?
When a former president speaks of “taking” a sovereign nation like Cuba or floats the idea as a serious proposition, it demands more than partisan reaction. It demands reflection. It demands moral clarity. And it demands that we, as Americans, ask ourselves a difficult but necessary question: How much more are we willing to carry?
We are a ...Read more
Editorial: AIPAC money came with a big downside. But Ill. Gov. JB Pritzker's bucks proved golden
Here’s a quiz question on Tuesday’s primary elections: Who spent the most money in support of a single candidate?
If you answered the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, you’d be forgiven because that big-spending lobbying group got outsized attention as candidates without its largesse cast it as a millstone around the necks of the ...Read more
Commentary: Ukraine's aid against Iran shows who the US allies really are
Wars truly let you tell friend from foe.
With U.S. airstrikes devastating Iran’s dangerous ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities, Iran and its proxies lashed out at American military bases, U.S. allies and sea lanes across the Middle East. Ukraine rushed to our defense. Russia, having enabled the ayatollahs for decades, continued to help...Read more
Editorial: Playing politics with scholarships fails families
States rarely turn down financial aid from Washington. But several Democratic governors are now doing just that, and others may join them. What’s going on? Not surprisingly, the answer involves special-interest politics.
Last year’s omnibus spending bill included a tax credit for donations made to nonprofit organizations that grant ...Read more




















































