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Infrequently Asked Questions: Amid Misery in Gaza, Some Things Don't Compute -- Part 1
That Gazans subsist in misery is indisputable, and Benjamin Netanyahu's apparent decision to dispute it is incomprehensible. It's dishonest, and it undermines Israel's government's credibility. Those who maintain that Israel, despite the impossible position in which Hamas' genocidal invasion has put it, must nevertheless do all it reasonably can...Read more
The Sydney Sweeney Jeans Ad Praising Her Genes is Genius
How nice to have the Sydney Sweeney "great genes" controversy. It is happily of no consequence, which is just what we need for escape from unhinged behavior spilling out of Washington.
Donald Trump's sending nuclear subs toward Russia, a likely distraction from his tangle with Jeffrey Epstein, is something I don't want to think about. Not far...Read more
Fort Dix To Hold Thousands as Trump Militarizes Detention System
As announced in a letter from the Department of Defense, the Trump administration plans to use Fort Dix, the U.S. Army post that is part of the triservice Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, to detain immigrants. The South Jersey military base will hold up to 3,000 beds for use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
With this expansion to Fort...Read more

Trump Drives Wedges Into His Own Movement
Remember when then-candidate Donald Trump said during an Iowa campaign rally in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and...Read more

Trump Destroys Our Source of Information About Jobs. This is Beyond Irresponsible.
I spent much of the 1990s as secretary of labor. One unit of the Labor Department is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I was instructed by my predecessors as well as by the White House, and by every labor economist and statistician I came in contact with, that one of my cardinal responsibilities was to guard the independence of the Bureau of ...Read more
Laura Loomer Strikes Again
Laura Loomer, the right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist who describes herself as "pro-white nationalist" and who is so far out there that she herself could not make it through the vetting process for a job in either the Trump campaign or the Trump administration, has some new scalps to add to her collection. She is the self-appointed ...Read more
Dishonor, Depravity and Ghislaine's Impending Pardon
When Donald Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 gangsters upon returning to the White House, he proved that he is capable of any depraved act to protect himself. So while everybody should be outraged by the prospect of a presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, nobody should be surprised. There is no dishonor too low for him.
The 63-year-old Maxwell ...Read more
Israel No Longer Has a Right to Exist
In certain traditional societies, troublesome individuals who were perceived as threats to communal harmony were labeled as "witches." To restore calm, accused witches were sometimes reintegrated into society via a ceremony of ritual cleansing. Other problematic people, particularly those whose socially unacceptable behavior persisted, were ...Read more
Why Sometimes the Forest Needs a Little Fire
Unless you're roasting marshmallows, it's hard to think of fire in the woods as a good thing. We all watched wildfire devastation play out earlier this year in Southern California, and many dealt with poor air quality as smoke drifted into the United States from fires burning in Canada. The National Interagency Fire Center reports that since Jan...Read more
That's Not on the Menu
"I'll have a small decaf black coffee, no sugar, and a croissant," I told the woman behind the counter.
I was in a nice place, a coffee shop and restaurant. In back of the place is a store that sells a lot of French groceries, and I go there to buy French caramels and cookies.
The 20-something woman behind the counter mumbled just a little, ...Read more

Kamala Harris Makes the Wrong Decision
Deciding to run for political office is an incredibly tough, personal decision. It requires an unusual combination of courage, ambition, determination and self-confidence – plus a solid check on reality and a good sense of timing.
It’s hard to get it right. Many people make the mistake of running for office when they have no chance of ...Read more
There Won't Be Nannies
When Elon Musk and his first wife talked about how many children they would have, Justine reportedly said she wanted one or two. "But if I could afford nannies, I'd like to have four."
Musk reportedly replied: "That's the difference between you and me. I just assume that there will be nannies."
And that's also the difference between the tech...Read more
The Harvard Fight: Money v. Principle
"No government -- regardless of which party is in power -- should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue," Harvard President Alan Garber said in April. He's right. That is not a principle that should be negotiable.
Reports have surfaced this week that ...Read more
Just Sayin' -- Obama's Tracks Led to Trump
Happy 64th birthday (Monday) to the 44th president, Barack Obama.
Effortlessly cool, the first Black president proved a soaring speaker up there with John F. Kennedy, and the bringer of the Affordable Care Act.
Also on the record: Obama never played hard against Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and others. That flaw cost us dearly.
Everyone is...Read more
Gaza Is a Moral Reckoning for Israel -- And for You and Me
Some outrages are so outrageous that I don't even want to talk about them. But that's when we must speak out.
Indeed, let's rage against our government's wholly unprincipled embrace of (and direct participation in) the Israeli government's ongoing massacre of the Palestinian people.
-- Israel's ruthless, two-year invasion of Gaza has already...Read more

These Flying Taxi Companies Want to Soar Over Gridlock -- For the Cost of an Uber
DETROIT — On a recent morning downtown, Eric Allison hopped into the backseat of a sleek six-propeller air taxi and began to explain his company's vision for the future of transportation.
Imagine pulling up your Uber app, said Allison, the chief product officer for Joby Aviation, and ticking a "Joby" option. A car soon arrives and shuttles ...Read more
Gabbard Jabber: Our -- Gulp! -- Head of National Intelligence Just Says Anything
Early on in "Fiddler on the Roof," Yente the Matchmaker tries to sell a villager on Rachel, the shoemaker's daughter, as a suitable wife for his son. "Rachel?" the man responds incredulously. "But she can hardly see! She's almost blind!"
"Tell me the truth, Avram," Yente parries, unperturbed. "Is your son so much to look at? The way she sees, ...Read more
News for the 'Downwardly Mobile Elite': You're Still Elite
A dear millennial friend and I once had a fraught conversation. It came back to me upon reading that the demographic most receptive to socialist candidates and their far-left agenda was the urban "downwardly mobile elite."
My friend, the son of hard-working immigrants, possessed an Ivy League degree. He was miffed that a couple he knew ...Read more
Court Strikes Down NIH's Unlawful Termination of Research Grants on Topics Including DEI and Gender Identity
The National Institutes of Health -- the world's largest public funder of biomedical research -- began an ideological purge of its grants in February. Without warning, hundreds of research projects were abruptly canceled.
The NIH targeted research that was purportedly connected to "gender identity" and "diversity, equity, and inclusion," or ...Read more

The Silencing
A recent casualty of Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism is Eduardo Porter, one of the most thoughtful and intelligent critics of this heinous regime.
Last week, Porter wrote his last column for The Washington Post. In a widely-circulated email, he explained why he was leaving the Post:
“Jeff Bezos and his new head of Opinion are ...Read more