Politics
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Jackie Calmes: President Trump's Jan. 6 pardons broke his promise to the nation
Promises made, promises kept, President Donald Trump liked to crow during his first term, sometimes deservedly.
He's only days into his second term and already he's making that claim after a torrent of executive orders. In no case is his boast more justified, if shameful, than for his Day 1 blanket order pardoning 1,583 rioters who stormed the ...Read more
Editorial: Trump sets ambitious regulatory agenda
During his first term, Donald Trump pledged to kill two federal regulations for each new one imposed. In the spirit of the president’s hyperbolic manner, he now proposes during his second term to eliminate 10 federal rules for each new regulation.
“Already, preparations are underway to slash massive numbers of job-killing regulations — ...Read more
Nolan Finley: Executive orders a shortcut to autocracy
With a few exceptions, I agree with the objectives of nearly all of the executive orders President Donald Trump has signed during his first few days in the White House.
From declaring an emergency on the porous southern border to ending former President Joe Biden’s restrictions on energy production, most of the orders reflect things that need...Read more
Editorial: Consequences for Trump: Outrageous pardons of violent Jan. 6 mob should sink his awful Cabinet picks
President Donald Trump, who ignored the sound advice of his strongest and closest allies not to pardon the cop-assaulting felons of Jan. 6, should have his wild instincts curbed by the Republican Senate in saying no to the worst of his Cabinet nominees.
We are looking at you, Pete Hegetsh for defense and Bobby Kennedy Jr. for health and human ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Meet the architect of Trump's attack on birthright citizenship, a California lawyer facing disbarment
Donald Trump's flurry of first-day executive orders aimed at remaking American government in his image may have Americans' heads spinning, but one stands out from the rest for its sheer audacity.
That's the order to rescind "birthright citizenship," which is constitutionally granted to almost all children born within the U.S. borders.
...Read more
Melinda Henneberger: Sure, 'a person could get discouraged' by Trump. Except that we really can't
For those of us who stiffened at Elon Musk’s stiff-armed salute, who saw the billionaires seated in First Class and felt sorry for the true believers in steerage, who took in Melania Trump’s hat and thought, “Well I would hide my face, too,” Monday did not scream “golden age” but “golden calf.”
From the open grift of the fill-my...Read more
Trudy Rubin: King Trump threatens to tear America apart
When the Rev. Father Francis Mann read the last benediction at Donald Trump's inaugural ceremony, he ended by saying, "Americans kneel to God and to God alone."
But in President Donald Trump's second inaugural speech, and in the executive orders he's issued since, it is clear he expects Americans and the world to kneel to him.
Not since George...Read more
Commentary: I documented the 2007 San Diego wildfires. The official death toll is wrong. Here's why
Oct. 21, 2007, is a day many of us in San Diego will never forget. I was at Ocean Beach enjoying a warm sunny day with my family when we saw thick black smoke in the distance. At the time I had an infant 7 months old.
Within hours, the county was up in flames. One fire grew to four, including the Harris Fire near the U.S.-Mexico border where I ...Read more
Editorial: Restoring fiscal control can't wait much longer
Since the start of the new year, the bond market has been urging Congress to come to terms with America’s spiraling budget problems. Soon it might be demanding immediate action.
Long-term yields have hovered around 5%. If they stay there, the government’s inflation-adjusted cost of borrowing will likely exceed the economy’s rate of growth...Read more
Commentary: Trump must take proactive approach to AI and jobs
Artificial intelligence is rapidly disrupting America’s job market. Within the next decade, positions such as administrative assistants, cashiers, postal clerks, and data entry workers could be fully automated.
Although the World Economic Forum expects a net increase of 78 million jobs, significant policy efforts will be required to support ...Read more
Commentary: DEI, a euphemism for discrimination, is on the way out
Shortly after his swearing in, President Donald Trump reinstated his ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the federal government. The move was a much-needed correction to former President Joe Biden’s platform of racial preferences and discrimination.
It also mirrors stances that elected officials across the country were already ...Read more
POINT: In 2nd inaugural, Trump skips 'carnage,' embraces optimism
The New York Times called it “A Grim Picture of America.”
Politico labeled it “American Carnage, Part 2.”
However, for most Americans, President Donald Trump’s second inaugural address was a positive, hopeful vision of his America First politics. And the days when negative media coverage could convince them otherwise are long gone.
...Read more
COUNTERPOINT: Trump's empty words ignore the heavy price Americans could pay for his presidency
As Donald J. Trump returns to the role of U.S. president, many Americans ask themselves a simple question: Will his administration protect their pocketbooks, their way of life and their health?
While we want our government to do just that, Trump focused his first speech as the 47th president of the United States on fear-mongering and culture ...Read more
Commentary: Do stowaways on airplanes expose a security risk?
Earlier this month, two bodies were found in the wheel well of a JetBlue airplane that departed from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The bodies had already begun to decompose, suggesting that the people had died some time before they were discovered. The National ...Read more
Commentary: No, I am not a better doctor since my cancer diagnosis
A few months ago, I had an experience much more familiar to me as a writer than a physician: getting rejected. I had written a piece about my experience as a woman trying to hide her cancer diagnosis. No one wanted to publish it. One major online news outlet suggested a different essay altogether: Write about what I didn’t know about breast ...Read more
Catherine Thorbecke: Trump's bigger China cyber threat isn't TikTok
If a conflict between the U.S. and China were to emerge, potentially over Taiwan, Americans would have a far more serious threat to their everyday lives than TikTok propaganda. In a worst-case scenario, they may not be able to put gas in their cars or turn on their lights.
Chinese hackers are burrowing into the networks of major critical U.S. ...Read more
Commentary: What California's response to Trump's threatened mass deportations is missing
President Donald Trump’s chilling promise to target migrants for mass deportation should have motivated California’s governor and Legislature to take substantive steps to protect our immigrant community. But Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed “ immigrant support network” and $25 million fund for the state’s legal defense miss the mark.
...Read more
Editorial: Disengagement is no answer to Trumpian excess
As Donald J. Trump roared out of the gate with a barrage of radical executive orders, blathering rhetorical weaves and handing out ill-considered pardons to boot, many Americans of our acquaintance succumbed Monday to uncharacteristic cynicism. Metaphorically speaking, although in a few hardy cases also literally speaking, they took a walk by ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Inside the Bakersfield raids that showed how Trump's immigration policies will sow chaos
On Jan. 7, the phones of immigration advocates in Bakersfield, California, began lighting up with calls from immigrant farmworkers. The messages said the U.S. Border Patrol was conducting an indiscriminate dragnet in the area, pulling over vehicles presumed to be carrying immigrants to work and taking dozens into custody.
To the advocates, this...Read more
Editorial: Presidents are issuing more pardons. That's not a good thing
Maybe you’re mad about President Joe Biden’s parting gift of a preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the Biden family. If not, you’re likely frustrated that President Donald Trump issued mass pardons for people arrested for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Instead, we’d argue you should be unhappy about a growing ...Read more