Politics
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James Stavridis: What Colin Powell would say about the Pentagon DEI purge
The Defense Department has been roiled by the Donald Trump administration’s desire to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs his administration believes are divisive and unfair. This has manifested itself in closing offices focused on DEI; rescinding a variety of internal directives; restoring the names of military bases originally ...Read more

Editorial: Trump administration's Signal breach was a dangerous error. Treat it as such, Mr. President
Imagine you’re a senior manager for a company. You and other members of your corporate braintrust, working in different locations, hop on a group text to discuss strategic plans relating to your chief competitor, but you mistakenly add to the group a business reporter with whom you’ve spoken in the past. That reporter then blows the cover on...Read more

Commentary: Why no more Education Department is good news for parents of special-needs children
President Donald Trump’s recent executive order laying out a plan for dismantling the federal Department of Education represents good news for families nationwide. As the mother of a child with special needs and a former member of the National Council on Disability, I can attest that the benefits will extend to children with disabilities as ...Read more

Editorial: Hold accountable officials who recklessly compromised national security
Everyone involved in the nation’s defense — from the newly enlisted up to and including the military’s top brass — should be incensed that members of the Trump administration carelessly discussed pending operations against the Houthi militia in Yemen over Signal, a commercial messaging app.
Such recklessness not only appears to violate ...Read more

Editorial: Leaking secrets: Trump cabinet Signal chat fiasco is an alarm bell
The country should thank The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeff Goldberg, for showing that the entire top echelon of the Trump administration was reckless and careless in discussing secret classified military matters on the non-secure commercial messaging app Signal.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made the blunder of including Goldberg in...Read more

Commentary: Gavin Newsom has lots to say. Is it worth listening?
Gavin Newsom has a new political podcast, in case you hadn't heard, and he's not the only one who's talking.
California's gallivanting governor has made national headlines and stirred no small amount of discussion among fellow Democrats by undertaking a series of cross-partisan conversations with the likes of MAGA megastars Charlie Kirk and ...Read more

Commentary: Why liberals should celebrate the end of diversity statements at UC
Amid the Trump administration’s assault on higher education and academic freedom — shaking down institutions like Columbia, targeting pro-Palestinian scholars and students for deportation and dispatching chilling letters meant to silence dissent — last week brought an unexpected but welcome development: The University of California ...Read more

COUNTERPOINT: Wrong time, wrong president for mandatory national service
There could not be a worse time to implement a required national service for young people.
In a nation that has turned individual freedom into a fetish, such an idea would always be a hard sell. Now, with an autocratic president and his sidekick car salesman slashing federal jobs, it would be a disaster.
Forced service would further sap ...Read more

POINT: A case for mandatory national service
As someone who firmly believes in libertarian/conservative values and principles, I fully understand that compulsory national service could seem like an infringement upon one’s personal freedom. However, I still think it is worth exploring under specific guidelines.
When most people hear the term national service, they automatically think of ...Read more

Matthew Yglesias: Democrats need more combative centrists
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is under fire from progressives for not having a clear plan to fight President Donald Trump. He certainly deserves some criticism — but for an entirely different reason: He doesn’t have a clear plan to help Senate Democrats regain a majority.
For House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the path to a ...Read more

Editorial: Kneecapping Social Security could mean misery for millions
How do you say, “I am going to break Social Security” without actually saying “I am going to break Social Security”?
Donald Trump doesn’t have to have to say a thing. A leaked memo says it all.
Starting March 31, the Social Security Administration will shut off its phones to newly disabled claimants and new retirees, people trying ...Read more

Mark Gongloff: Spring is here! Prepare to be miserable
A go-to argument of the modern breed of climate-change deniers is that carbon dioxide is good for plants and what’s good for plants is good for humans. Well, sure, a greener planet actually could be beneficial for humanity. But let's not ignore the many not so beneficial effects. Seasonal-allergy sufferers could give you at least one.
Hay ...Read more

Commentary: Who will pick up the global leadership America has abandoned?
In only a few weeks, the United States has walked away — or rather sprinted — from decades of global leadership. It’s unrealistic that another power will fully replace the role America has played in shaping global affairs, but some are navigating how to fill some gaps.
Europe and China both have incentives to step up, for different ...Read more

Commentary: Tariffs, tribute, bootleggers and baptists
Since resuming office, President Donald Trump has not for one minute parted from his promise to leverage tariffs to ignite a new “golden age.” At times, he seems to be working continually to stimulate major trading partners into arrangements that make America great again.
However, anyone attempting to follow the bouncing tariff proposals ...Read more

Lisa Jarvis: What we're getting right fighting the overdose epidemic
Last fall, when initial data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a surprising drop in drug overdose deaths, the universal response was relief. We were finally getting something right in addressing the opioid epidemic, which accounted for most of the decrease and has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
That progress...Read more

Editorial: Democrats' filibuster flip-flop
Democrats were against the filibuster before they were for it.
The left continues to rage against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for casting a vote to avoid a government shutdown. He and a handful of other Democrats, including Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, voted to break the filibuster on the funding bill.
It’s unclear why some ...Read more

Commentary: Is Europe stepping up to the plate?
Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s pressing problems on the battlefield and President Donald Trump’s brazen unpredictability have done what no other combination has done before: shocked Europe out of its peace dividend slumber. An increasing number of European leaders are now asking themselves whether the Continent can afford to ...Read more

Editorial: A third Trump term? What would Archie Bunker think?
A classic episode of “All in the Family” features Archie Bunker taunting his wife’s liberal cousin, Maude, by denouncing Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As Maude begins to fume, Edith begs her husband to stop and notes that “his whole family was for Roosevelt.” Archie brushes it off: “That was for two terms, but that was it. We didn’t ...Read more

Gustavo Arellano: Near death, Pope Francis rallied back. We need his voice more than ever
For the past month and a half, the world has waited for what seemed like the inevitable passing of Pope Francis.
The spiritual and titular leader of 1.3 billion Catholics was hospitalized for a severe respiratory infection that turned into double pneumonia and partial kidney failure — a scary diagnosis for the healthiest person, but a ...Read more

Frank Barry: Call 'migrants' by their true name -- Immigrants
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s Juliet asks, making the point that what matters is a person’s essence, not what we call them. That’s true in love. In politics, not so much.
People entering the U.S. at our southern border are now routinely called a name — migrant — that is contributing to the nation’s toxic political ...Read more