[Martin Schram] The making of a presidential president has begun

Pay no attention to that unpresidential man tweeting behind the curtain, almost every day, often before sunrise. His pathological defensiveness, juvenile bullying, taunting, name-calling, distorting and outright lying are unworthy of your respect. Believe me.　Pay big-league attention to that suddenly presidential-sounding man you saw addressing a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. He seemed, for the first time after a month on the job, to be speaking like an adult who realizes he must actu

March 6, 2017

[Other View] A good immigration deal should be humane

President Donald Trump has shown an exasperating ability to send mixed signals on important issues, few more exasperating or important than illegal immigration. The disconnect was on full display Tuesday.At a luncheon, the president told journalists that he supports reforms that would grant legal status to millions of immigrants here illegally who have not committed serious crimes, and perhaps provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers, those brought here as children.In his speech before Congres

March 6, 2017

[Ruth Colker] Anti-immigrant approach stokes hate, solves no pressing problems

Acting on the lurid demonization of immigrants as criminals that kicked off his campaign, President Donald Trump recently issued two anti-immigrant executive orders.　As a result, a Mexican citizen living in El Paso, Texas, was detained when she left a battered women’s shelter where she had sought a protective order against her abusive boyfriend.Daniel Ramirez Medina, 23, and Josue Romero, 19, who are in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly called D

March 6, 2017

[Letter to the Editor] Teachers' recommendation letters

I write in response to the Feb. 26 article “Teacher letters become headache for all,” in which the author portrays a deceitful and deplorable college recommendation letter system replete with students composing and embellishing their own recommendation letters, letters that teachers have a professional and moral responsibility to write and sign.Over the years, I have written many recommendation letters for students whom have earned my word with diligence, respect, integrity and dedication. I hav

March 6, 2017

[Clark Ross] Here's how Trump could 'Make America Great Again'

Donald Trump’s 2016 call to “Make America Great Again” suggested that the country’s economy is paling in comparison to prior times and can be reignited toward a renewed economic prosperity. In the same year, noted economist Robert Gordon published “The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth.”　Gordon argues that the century from 1870 to 1970 was unique. Imagine the improvement in quality of life due to water and sewer systems, public transportation, electricity; provisions of privacy; and time

March 5, 2017

[Other View] Trump's proposed database is shameless propaganda

President Trump declared Tuesday night that “we must support the victims of crime,” which sounds like a sensible and humane notion. But Trump didn’t have all crime victims in mind, just a certain type.　As he explained in his address to Congress, he wants to form a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security called VOICE, for Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, to provide “a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests.” That follows his rece

March 5, 2017

[Justin Fendos] Immigration's dirty secret

The start to President Donald Trump’s administration has been nothing if not contentious. Nowhere has the friction been more obvious than in his push to remake US immigration policy. Trump’s position is clear: He views new immigrants, particularly those from specific parts of the world, as a threat to US security and economics. Although this position may seem like common sense on the surface, it does not reflect the economic reality behind it.Many international news reports have already done a g

March 5, 2017

[Ann Friedman] Fake news on the left

Last fall, as Native American protesters gathered at Standing Rock to stop the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline, several of my friends “checked in” at the protest on Facebook. They were nowhere near South Dakota. They had heard -- through urgent posts by other friends who were not present either -- that fake geo-tagging would protect protesters at the site from monitoring by law enforcement. NPR reported that more than a million people “checked in” at the protest camp, a digital version

March 5, 2017

[Mihir Sharma] Is Indian data turning Chinese?

Being the fastest-growing large economy in the world is India’s destiny, and even the most poorly conceived economic policy imaginable can’t stop destiny. At least, that is, if you believe the government’s statisticians, who said Tuesday that India’s GDP grew at 7 percent in the very quarter that the government withdrew high-value currency notes from circulation.Is India becoming another China, with incredible growth momentum and statistics nobody quite believes? One hopes not. But the governmen

March 3, 2017

[Other View] China's chance to lead

If South Sudan’s famine is “man-made” -- and it is -- then maybe man can also unmake it. Given the country’s unstable government and the US’ uncertain global leadership, however, most of the effort will have to come from China.　More than 40 percent of South Sudan’s 11 million people don’t have enough to eat not because of drought or other natural causes but because of their country’s civil war, which started in 2013. Mayhem and disorder have taken tens of thousands of lives and forced more than

March 3, 2017

[Rachel Marsden] ‘Capitalism’ is still a dirty word in French politics

For those thinking that the French could be on the brink of a collective epiphany, you might want to hold your bets. Even if the people of France wanted a badly needed economic upgrade to bring their nanny-state system into the 21st century, there's no presidential contender willing to give it to them.Any candidate who ever tiptoes into economic reality is promptly vilified and has to maneuver to avoid criticism. And while some say that the French would never go for serious economic reforms, how

March 2, 2017

[Irfan Husain] A tale of two Koreas

The two Koreas seem to exist on different planets: prosperity and democracy in the South, and grinding poverty and repressive dictatorship in the North. These differences were highlighted in the recent assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korea’s dictator, the murderous young Kim Jong-un. Since the two Koreas went their own paths over 60 years ago, the North has become ever more repressive and closed off, with mass starvation an ever-present threat. But at the same time, the

March 2, 2017

[Elly Burhaini Faizal] Is media verification effective in stopping fake news?

China is the only major nation to be able to impose strict internet control. With a strong censorship apparatus, including a reported 30,000 personnel policing the internet, China is the major country with the harshest online control. Using its extensive internet control apparatus, China manages to crack down on online information deemed false or not in conformity with the country’s ideology, communism.Stressing its desire to protect the public from the plague of fake news on social media, Indon

March 2, 2017

[Noah Feldman] Trump's love-hate relationship with the First Amendment

President Donald Trump’s war on the news media violates the spirit of the free press. How far can he go before he violates the letter of the First Amendment? Case in point: the exclusion of CNN, the New York Times, Politico and other media outlets from a White House press briefing Friday. It violates the basic constitutional ideal that the government can’t discriminate among various speakers on the basis of their viewpoints. Under existing case law, however, the exclusion probably doesn’t violat

March 1, 2017