Opinion

As a former Army officer, the last several weeks have been difficult. My friends' social media posts are reflective of the confusion and anger racking many who served in Afghanistan as they attempt to process the chaotic evacuation and crumbling of the Afghan state. The comments take many forms, but if I could sum up one principal theme, it would be a sense of betrayal. Betrayal that so many years of hard work could be lost so suddenly, that Afghan allies could be left behind to their fates, that a 20-year mission seems to have ultimately had no purpose. As a veteran who served in Afghanistan and was provided a brief view of the sacrifices being made there, I understand the sentiments of my fellow service members. The president's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan has raised a number of painful questions about our actions, our lives and our sacrifices. But as we reckon with the fallout of the withdrawal, we must step back from our reflexive feelings and ask ourselves: Was this …

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In American politics, issues on which both parties have yet to establish a firm position are rare, representing a significant opportunity for whoever moves first. In 2021, one such area is cryptocurrency regulation. Cryptocurrency may still be a minor issue for some voters, but with the crypto market now valued at more than $2.5 trillion, its importance is only going to grow—in both economic and electoral terms. Moreover, our research team at Redfield & Wilton Strategies recently found that many voters are already aware of cryptocurrency, making the political stakes even higher. We polled almost 10,000 Americans across ten politically salient U.S. states, and what we found was that very few respondents—ranging from 8 percent in Florida to 14 percent in Georgia—hadn't heard of cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, over four in 10 people polled in key states said they'd read or heard "a moderate amount" or "a lot" about the topic. And voters aren't just aware of cryptocurrency; they are …

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It's back-to-school season, but the country never got a summer vacation from the culture wars over K-12 education. The U.S. has become bitterly divided over whether its schoolchildren should be taught critical race theory , how they should learn history and whether " patriotic education " is a problem or a solution. While education-reform movements of the past few decades featured a narrow-minded focus on raising proficiency scores and closing the "achievement gap" along racial and class lines, these new debates are a reminder that there's more to education than standardized tests. Schools have a profound effect on the values instilled in children. Of course, in a country divided over what those values should be, an education in San Francisco is bound to differ from one in deep-red Texas. But ideally, schools would not be in the business of incubating baby social activists or molding conservative firebrands. Instead, they would cut through partisan battles, ensuring some set …

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Since the passage of the Texas Heartbeat Act and the Supreme Court 's declining to hear a last-minute challenge to it, abortion advocacy groups have shifted into overdrive to discredit not just the law itself, but those who have worked for its passage. Planned Parenthood went so far as to make public the personal contact information for an employee of Texas Right to Life in court filings about the case. A Rasmussen Poll showed that more Americans approve of the Texas Heartbeat Act than oppose it, a finding consistent with Americans' overall discomfort with the extreme permissiveness of our nation's abortion laws. In fact, the vast majority of Americans have consistently said they support abortion's legality only in the first three months of pregnancy, or in exceptional cases. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world, including North Korea, China and Cuba, that legally permit elective abortions after five months of pregnancy (the Washington Post …

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Diabetes and obesity (aka " diabesity ") kill vastly more Black and Hispanic Americans than any other groups , yet this most deadly form of systemic racism isn't being discussed. This isn't just a cultural phenomenon; it is part of how U.S. cities were designed. Minority communities are less likely to live close to a green grocer or a supermarket selling healthy, quality foods, as a direct result of the segregation laws and redlining of housing areas in the 1930s. When it comes to the food we eat, the Jim Crow era never ended. After COVID-19 and its links to diabesity and death, it must. Those links are bidirectional. There is growing evidence to suggest that the presence of COVID can trigger diabetes . That link is even more dangerous after stay at home orders, sedentary lifestyles and stress eating leading to weight gain (a risk factor for diabetes) for many. A WebMD study found that on average, people gained an average of eight pounds over the course of the pandemic, …

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As many as 6 million U.S.-citizen children are at risk of having a parent taken away because they don't have permanent legal status. These children live with anxiety, fear, depression and other serious conditions because they don't know whether their mother or father will be deported while they are at school during the day. This is a moral issue. It is not political. It is not partisan. Right now, without further delay, Congress should end the harm to millions of children and create a pathway to citizenship for their parents who are Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and undocumented immigrants including farmworkers and essential workers. It has been 35 years since Congress last updated our immigration laws. We cannot allow another generation to suffer needlessly. Immigration solutions are not only the right thing to do; they are good for business. The U.S. economy would grow by $121 billion annually if Dreamers, TPS holders, farmworkers and undocumented …

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My Opinion, Royal Currency, Dont Dilly Dally, Akido and Chief Of Command caught the eye when the horses were exercised here on Tuesday (Sept. 14). Outer sand: 600m: Wakanda (Kuldeep Singh), Muktsar’s Brave (Md. Farhan Alam) 44. Finished together. Welcome Chakkaram (rb), Bold Arrangement (rb) 48. 800m: Valeska (Yash Narredu), Glorious Sunshine (Nikhil Naidu) 57, 600/42.5. Former finished two lengths ahead. Lady Royal (Nikhil Naidu) 57.5, 600/42. In fine trim. Bossinova (rb) 58.5, 600/44. Shaped well. 1000m: My Opinion (Shahar Babu), Royal Currency (S. Kabdhar) 1-7, 800/53, 600/42. They put up a pleasing display. Glorious Symphony (Nikhil Naidu), Queen Of Venice (Yash Narredu) 1-12, 800/57.5, 600/46. They were handy. Mystical Magician (Yash Narredu), Glorious Legend (R. Rupesh) 1-13.5, 800/58.5, 600/45.5. They worked well. Fort St. George (P. Sai Kumar) 1-18, 800/1-2, 600/47.5. Inner sand: 600m: Glorious Destiny (Inayat) 43. Easy. Beauteous Maximus (Rajendra …

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Forty Members of Congress recently wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and USCIS Director Ur Jaddou expressing concern about the affirmative asylum backlog, which as of April 2021, had reached a record high — nearly 400,000 applications. An asylum application is considered “ affirmative ” when the applicant is not in removal proceedings. USCIS asylum officers adjudicate affirmative applications, whereas in removal proceedings, immigration judges adjudicate them. The applications are considered “defensive” in removal proceedings because they prevent the applicant from being deported. ADVERTISEMENT Currently, USCIS has around 800 asylum officers. Biden plans to hire 1,000 more, but apparently doesn’t intend to use them to reduce the affirmative application backlog. Instead, Biden has proposed a regulation that would authorize asylum officers to adjudicate the asylum applications of aliens apprehended at the border who otherwise would have to be …

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How does one know that autocracy is winning and liberal democracy is failing around the globe? When the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan engages with more countries as each day passes and Taiwan is on the verge of losing another formal recognition, it is clear that the death knell to liberal democracy has been sounded. It was not long ago that we witnessed desperate men in Afghanistan clinging onto the undercarriage of airplanes and falling from the sky as it took flight. And yet there is already discussion and deliberation on recognizing the Taliban. ADVERTISEMENT There are op-eds sanitizing the Taliban as the rightful heirs and that the departure of “imperialist” West was about time. Pieces framing world events in this manner are clearly a sign of the times. The worldview that the West is an evil force and terror outfits such as the Taliban and Hamas deserve our sympathy is no longer fringe in America. This characterization would not be out of …

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If there was any doubt about the value of infrastructure, and the risks of neglecting it, Hurricane Ida wiped it out. The catastrophic failure of the New Orleans power grid , excessively dependent on a single, vulnerable transmission tower, and the contrasting success of the levee system that was rebuilt in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, demonstrate why it’s essential to invest in hard infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, power generation and distribution and water systems) and the devastating consequences of underinvestment. The House of Representatives should take that lesson to heart and pass the Senate’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill — without tying it to the Democrats-only $3.5 trillion reconciliation package . Some progressive members had vowed to defeat the bill — the largest since the 1950s that focuses solely on infrastructure investment — unless it is linked to the Democrats-only $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Procedural …

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