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Mamdani’s campaign coming to an end

Zohran Mamdani has a hard time keeping it together when he thinks about Sept. 11 and its aftermath. Not — judging by his performance the other day — when he contemplates the impact of two screaming jetliners on the Twin Towers; nor when he remembers the sacrifice of hundreds of courageous firefighters that day; nor when he thinks about the toxic, smoldering ruins where there had once been a thriving commercial center. No, the front-running candidate for New York City mayor loses it when he recalls how someone may have looked askance at his hijab-wearing aunt. Or so he would ...

Democratic Socialist Party debuts in NYC

Big news from Argentina is the electoral victory of the Advancing Liberty party of President Javier Milei. Milei initially won the presidency in 2023 brandishing a chainsaw as a message of how he was going to cut the runaway government that has been destroying the lives of Argentinians. Big government power has been a tradition in Argentina. Now Milei is turning things around. Economic growth is picking up from stagnation, and inflation is down from over 200% to a little over 30%. A victory for his party in midterm elections was seen as crucial for his ability to carry on with ...

Strengthening America requires strong allies

President Donald Trump’s slogan has long been “America First,” and his movement is all about making America great again — language the president’s foes misunderstand as meaning “isolationism.” In fact, strengthening America requires strengthening our friends as well — and Trump sets an example for those leaders in Latin America, Asia and Europe who want to make their nations great again, too. There’s no paradox here: A robust international order is impossible if America has to sacrifice its own industrial capacity, and our people’s economic security, to global ...

National sports betting was bad bet

In 2018, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down a federal law banning sports gambling, thus allowing individual states to decide whether to allow it, or not. It didn’t take a genius to predict what might happen, especially when politicians can find new sources of revenue beyond income, property and sales taxes. Last week, more than 30 people were indicted as part of a national sports betting scandal involving high-profile figures, including Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier. Billups was charged in a scheme involving rigged poker ...

American folklore more than scary stories

It is 6:14 p.m. on a Thursday. You’re hiking along the Forbes Trail, nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains somewhere along the Westmoreland-Somerset County lines. It is 19 minutes until sunset, and you have just over a mile to go, mostly uphill, before you are out of the deep forest and in the clearing. The mountain range, which stretches from Maine to Georgia and is documented to be one of the oldest in the country, shares characteristics across the approximately 420 counties. It is rugged, often mist-covered with deep hollers and rugged peaks that cling to a rich tapestry of ...

Proposal is deposit insurance for billionaires

Politicians in Washington have the shortest memories. Maybe that’s why they so seldom learn from their sometimes catastrophic mistakes. It was less than 20 years ago that the U.S. economy was flattened by the mortgage and banking crisis. Anyone remember? The experts said that the odds were tiny that the housing market could crash; that the federal housing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would never need a bailout; that mortgage-backed securities were as good as gold. Then they crashed overnight spectacularly and devastatingly. Banks made riskier and riskier housing loans to ...