Featured Commentary category, Page 29
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Why I voted third party and I’m not sorry
I’m a progressive Californian, a Black man, and I did not vote for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris this year or Donald Trump. I voted for Claudia De La Cruz, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for president. The decision was easy. With two exceptions over the past four decades...
Victor Peskin: ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leader doesn’t mean those accused will face trial anytime soon
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Nov. 21, 2024, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and one leading Hamas official. Those named in the action are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the Palestinian...
Erran Carmel: Crypto is soaring after Trump’s election — but is it a good ethical investment?
An estimated 18 million Americans are invested in cryptocurrency, according to the Federal Reserve. And the United States just elected a pro-crypto president. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have become a trendy digital asset. Supporters claim crypto subverts capitalism because it bypasses traditional bankers. Crypto can offer quick riches along with...
F.D. Flam: Trying to quantify everything is hurting our decisions
The usual rule of thumb is that stories sell; data doesn’t. But new research suggests that’s not necessarily true. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that numbers are dull and uninspiring, numbers dominate our decisions — on what to buy, whom to hire and where to donate money. A paper published...
Counterpoint: Reporters shouldn’t have more First Amendment rights than the rest of us
Do reporters have more rights under the First Amendment than ordinary Americans? Should they? The answer to both questions is “no.” Unfortunately, a bill passed by the House of Representatives and is sitting in the Senate wants to change that. The PRESS Act would allow the media to operate outside...
Point: A federal shield law is needed to protect the press
Like it or not, the Constitution’s First Amendment gives the media special protection in the American republic. That amendment says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press.” With one of the recent presidential candidates unconstitutionally threatening to shut down media outlets or take away...
Tyler Cowen: RFK Jr. would put the economy at risk, too
President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services has provoked a lot of objections, many of them explaining how he would be a danger to scientific progress and public health. But too little has been said about the...
Dan Bartkowiak: As voters reject marijuana, Pa. policymakers should avoid the failed experiment
One big takeaway from the 2024 election cycle has largely escaped notice in the Northeast: Voters decisively rejected every state ballot initiative to legalize the sale and marketing of marijuana for recreational use. This rejection marks a clear victory for families over the marijuana industry’s addiction-for-profit business plan. In Florida...
Matthew Yglesias: If Trump dismantles the Education Department, he’ll regret it
After winning the presidency by focusing on immigration, inflation and a vague notion that life was better in 2019, Donald Trump is widely expected to proceed with plans to … eliminate the Department of Education. It’s hard to see how this makes sense — for him, his party or the...
Lisa Jarvis: Bird flu is about to crash flu season. It could get ugly
It’s been nearly eight months since avian flu was first detected in U.S. dairy herds, and cases in both cows and humans continue to pile up. That slow burn of infections through our nation’s livestock, a new vessel for the virus, has never been good for public health. It creates...
Peter Morici: Trump’s long to-do list includes increasing border security, extending tax cuts
A full inbox awaits President-elect Donald Trump when he returns to the Oval Office. Most individual tax reductions in the 2017 tax overhaul expire at the end of 2025. He has promised to extend and enhance those. But even if he let those lapse, the federal deficit would rise from...
Rachel Marsden: Trump’s shock and awe cabinet picks are everything that America needs
Many of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees just don’t have the gravitas or institutional experience in dealing with giant bureaucracies to serve effectively, critics say. That whining you hear is the sound of progress. Trump, who has spent his entire business career in real estate taking a wrecking ball...
Cal Thomas: Trimming obese government
Fifty years ago when Ron Paul (father of Sen. Rand Paul) was running for Congress from Texas, a billboard featured an obese Uncle Sam with the caption “let’s put big government on a diet.” Since then, the federal government has grown even more obese. To seriously address the problem, President-elect...
Beth Dale: Working together on gun violence
Schools in Pennsylvania are back in full swing, but with the excitement that comes with a new school year comes growing concern to ensure our school communities are kept safe from gun violence. In March, a statewide survey found that nearly half of Pennsylvania parents are more worried about gun...
Lawrence McCullough: Pittsburgh arts rise to the political moment
A hallmark of live theater is presenting plays that offer audiences the opportunity to examine important social issues of the day in a fresh, often provocative light. That recently transpired in an unexpected manner when Fowlerville Community Theatre’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” was menaced by a masked...
Colleen Friend: My school district has saved over a million dollars by going solar. With Solar for Schools, your district could be next
As a superintendent for Carlisle Area School District, I have a lot to balance. CASD encompasses 77 square miles, with seven elementary schools, two middle schools and a comprehensive high school boasting its own Career and Technology Center. We educate approximately 5,200 students, and our student body is diverse and...
Conor Sen: Trump inherits an economy at a tricky time
Donald Trump will inherit, to all appearances, a solid economy when he assumes the presidency in January. After all, the stock market is at record highs, unemployment is low by historical standards and gross domestic product has been expanding at a healthy pace of around 2.5% so far this year....
Jonathan Levin: Trump is stuck with the Fed’s Powell. Will he make peace?
U.S. bond markets have had a minor meltdown since former President Donald Trump pulled ahead in prediction markets and then won a second term, putting upward pressure on mortgages and other household borrowing costs. If the move continues, it could be a major source of disappointment for voters who trusted...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Defeated Democrats face an uncertain future
In the wake of their sweeping election defeat, it didn’t take long for Democrats to turn on one another, seeking explanations — or scapegoats. Some faulted defeated presidential nominee Kamala Harris for tactical errors in her hastily constructed but lavishly financed campaign. Others blamed President Joe Biden’s ill-considered insistence on...
Tyler Cowen: Trump’s tariffs won’t work, just as McKinley’s didn’t
Donald Trump’s return to the White House means that one of his signature issues will soon return to the center of Washington’s economic policy agenda: tariffs. And while the evidence of their harm continues to grow, which is why economists like me oppose them, economists like me should also admit...
Cal Thomas: Trump’s chance to change taxation
If any constitutional amendment can be hated, it would be the 16th Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, it allowed Congress to “levy income taxes without apportioning them among the states based on population.” At first the collection of revenue came from the...
Lainey Newman: Trump made sweeping promises to the American people. It’s time to see if he delivers.
Republicans have made their bed — now they have to sleep in it. The party has won a decisive victory this election cycle, taking control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court has a conservative supermajority made up of three justices appointed by Trump...
Commentary: 7 crucial things to remember as we look back at the election
At the heart of American democracy is a shared principle that has guided our nation for nearly 250 years: The people decide. Elections don’t just happen in a vacuum every two or four years. They are a collective effort requiring all of us to participate and be engaged citizens —...
Renaud Foucart: How the Trump presidency might change the global economy
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election — and his threat to impose tariffs on all imports to the United States — highlights an important problem for the global economy. The U.S. is a technological powerhouse, spending more than any other country on research and development and winning more Nobel...
Jamie Goldenberg, Emily P. Courtney and Joshua Hart: Existential terror of hurricanes can fuel climate change denial
As TVs across Florida broadcast the all-too-familiar images of a powerful hurricane headed for the coast in early October, people whose homes had been damaged less than two weeks earlier by Hurricane Helene watched anxiously. Hurricane Milton was rapidly intensifying into a dangerous storm, fueled by the Gulf of Mexico’s...
