Latest news with #RenéeGraham
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'For frequent travelers, the costs add up'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 'I'm taking a stand against jacked-up airline fees by taking the middle seat' Blake Fontenay at USA Today Ordering a "plane ticket now is like buying a car — after you've made your purchasing decision and are ready to get on with the rest of your life, you're bombarded with decisions about add-on fees," says Blake Fontenay. Choices "must be made about how many bags you want to check, whether you want 'priority seating' and whether to add" insurance. Shouldn't "everybody get refunds if flights are cancelled, regardless of whether they've made an impulse buy for travel insurance?" Read more 'Remember the real victims of Jeffrey Epstein' Renée Graham at The Boston Globe President Donald Trump is "not a victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy. He's not a victim at all," says Renée Graham. Those "who most deserve empathy and answers are the girls — now women — victimized by Epstein and others. Trump is "getting what he deserves." The "focus shouldn't be on the president's latest attempt to use victimhood and lies as a shield from responsibility, but in inching closer to some small justice for the victims and survivors." Read more 'It's okay to go no-contact with your MAGA relatives' Sarah Jones at Intelligencer Young adults are "going no-contact with parents and other relatives, often because of politics," says Sarah Jones. The "usual narrative pits liberals against MAGA elders." Sometimes the "act of knowing a person leaves you with no choice but to move on without them." Though "shunning won't work as a political strategy, there are still natural consequences for the way we speak and behave." Politics "never stopped at the family front door. Why pretend otherwise?" Read more 'Ivy leaguers aren't auto workers' Dominic Pino at the National Review Why "do graduate students at private universities get to pretend they're auto workers or electrical workers?" says Dominic Pino. Thousands of "U.S. grad students at elite universities" are "now members of traditionally blue-collar unions." Graduate "students at public universities are sometimes allowed to unionize depending on state laws." Ivy Leaguers "can be transformed into auto workers and unions can coerce graduate students into paying them, as long as three out of five unelected lawyers agree." Read more Solve the daily Crossword
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump's authoritarian manipulation of language
To be clear, I'm not some finger-wagging prude when it comes to coarse language. But Trump's public use of profanity without apology or repercussions points to how he has upended language over his decade in the political spotlight — a hallmark of authoritarianism. Advertisement Part of this, of course, is the outrageous behavior of a self-proclaimed king ( Advertisement How Trump deploys language is no less insidious. In 'The Language of the Third Reich: LTI — Lingua Tertii Imperii: A Philologist's Notebook,' It's no mistake that Trump officially brands his most ludicrous policies with cheery, rah-rah titles. In April, there was ' Whether or not people like it doesn't matter. Repeating 'beautiful' makes even those who recognize it as a lie end up reinforcing the exact opposite of what it is. Trump loves a catchphrase — the shorter and punchier, the better. I don't know if it was Trump or the show's producers who came up with 'You're Fired' on 'The Apprentice,' which, in retrospect, all but launched Trump's political career. But in the end it didn't matter. He used it often during his first presidential run and its familiarity gave supporters another connection to him. It was an easy slogan for a T-shirt or sign and gifted Trump followers something mean that they could yell at reporters covering rallies. Advertisement MAGA has become an indelible part of the national lexicon. So have 'alternative facts,' 'on both sides' and 'shithole countries.' This also includes the way Trump has bastardized the phrase 'woke' into a slur that has never meant what he and his minions think it means. And his white followers don't know what DEI is, but they understand how Trump uses it — as a threat to white male supremacy that must be eradicated. When Trump swears, he isn't just coarsening language. It becomes yet another way of torching the decorum once expected of presidents. He erodes the line between public and private speech and infuses our vocabulary with the phrases and expressions he wants us to use. Authoritarianism leaves its stain on everything, including language. And Trump wants his reach, even down to our usage of words that sound like his own, to be absolute in his obscenity of a presidency. Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
The hideous legacy of the conservative Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade
After experiencing severe headaches in February, Adriana Smith (no relation to Penny Smith), a registered nurse in Atlanta, went to the hospital twice. Days later, she was found unresponsive in her home. Smith was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain dead. Advertisement Smith, 30, was two months pregnant with her second child. But because of Georgia's draconian six-week abortion ban, Smith, against her family's wishes, was kept on life support for four months to keep the baby alive. On June 13, her son, weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces, was delivered prematurely via an emergency Cesarean section. Advertisement 'He's expected to be OK,' April Newkirk, Smith's mother, told an Atlanta TV station about her grandson, Chance. 'He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him.' On June 17, Smith was removed from a ventilator, ending another sorrowful chapter in the Republican war against women's bodies. It should also be noted that Smith received more medical attention after she was declared brain dead than she did in the days before her boyfriend woke up to find her gasping for breath. During two visits to the hospital, Smith was given medication but no tests that might have revealed the danger that was discovered only when it was too late to save her. In 2019, Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, the law that mandated that Smith's body should be kept viable because she was pregnant. It was Everything changed three years ago this month when the conservative-led Supreme Court unsettled nearly 50 years of settled law by overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to severely curtail or prohibit abortion. More than 20 states now have abortion restrictions or bans. Of course, the overturning of the 1973 law that legalized abortion did not end the procedure. Women still need health care, and abortion is health care. In fact, abortions have Advertisement Among those unable to seek care elsewhere are some women who have faced dire consequences. According to a These laws aren't pro-life, nor do they protect women or children. On the day that Smith was taken off life support, This Saturday, Smith Advertisement This is an excerpt from , a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham. . Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Boston Globe
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Stop tone policing protesters
Which brings me to all the protester policing happening in America these days. Advertisement I'm not talking about the literal policing — including thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines deployed to American streets by President Trump — of protesters. I'm referring to this weird tone policing of people for what they're wearing or carrying at protests against Trump's unconstitutional mass deportations and his other odious policies. Not long after people took to the streets earlier this month in opposition to workplace raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in and around Los Angeles, there were complaints about some protesters carrying Mexican flags. 'I think the visuals of carrying [Mexican flags] are terrible, honestly,' Advertisement Kinzinger, who was one of only two Republicans on the Democratic House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, is certainly no Trump fanboy. But he, and others with similar beliefs, are the ones playing into Trump's narrative that there's only one way to be an American. They seem to believe that the optics of another nation's flag at a protest against the Trump administration is as harmful as families and communities upended by swarms of people with covered faces who look and act more like kidnappers than government agents. It's a handy distraction that Republicans are only too happy to amplify as a means to shift focus away from the monstrous anti-immigration policies crafted by When Republicans call protesters 'insurrectionists,' as 'I hold the Mexican flag with pride because I'm Mexican American and I'm proud of my culture and my people,' protester Advertisement Trump is recklessly trying to detain and deport as many immigrants as he can as fast as he can. He's threatening to expand a travel ban to an But there's also this — people fighting for their rights and challenging a fascistic government do not have time for someone else's idea of respectability. As Kepner said in 'Before Stonewall,' asserting one's whole self is the only path forward. If someone holding the flag of another nation at an anti-ICE protest is all it takes to convince someone that that person or those they represent are less deserving of fair treatment, then those offended never cared about the rights of others in the first place. Equality isn't won by conformity or putting someone else's fragility and comfort ahead of your own rights. Freedom isn't pretending to be someone other than who you are to gain acceptance. Regardless of what flag they wave, protesters are only demanding that this nation live up to the red, white, and blue values of its own. This is an excerpt from , a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham. . Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
House Republicans ignore those who saved their lives during the Jan. 6 insurrection
Advertisement And so long as House Speaker Mike Johnson — or any Republican — has the gavel in their hands, that's where it will probably remain. This is yet another move by Trump, ably assisted by a spineless GOP, to memory-hole what happened when thousands of his followers, who he directed to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, stormed the building in an attempt to upend democracy by stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Biden. At a recent news conference, Advertisement When asked by a CNN reporter why the plaque, which had a March 2023 installation deadline, had yet to be displayed, Johnson — who was in the Capitol during the insurrection and was later one of 'My folks were here on Jan. 6. They were part of what went on. They were assaulted,' For years, Trump has been making up stories to rewrite the narrative of what stunned millions witnessed in real time on television. With his incessant Trump-washing of history, he has mendaciously called Jan. 6 ' Advertisement In one of the most grotesque acts of any president in modern history, Trump, on his first day back in office, granted clemency to more than 1,600 people convicted of crimes connected to the insurrection. And earlier this month, his administration agreed to In the insurrection's aftermath, perhaps there shouldn't have been a rush to clean up what Trump's mob left in its brutal wake. The most apt memorial of this attack should have been the broken windows still unrepaired and boarded up; instead of replacing damaged furniture, those spots should have remained empty; marks on items scarred by the rioters' extinguished cigarettes should be visible. All of them were symbols of democracy's fragility. Every Republican should be reminded of what happened in the Capitol whenever they walk into the building — and how their complicity is fostering Trump's ongoing insurrection against the truth and democracy. By refusing to install the memorial, House Republicans are hiding the crimes of Jan. 6 at the scene of the crime, as they choose fealty to a tyrant over a public acknowledgment of the men and women who saved their lives. This is an excerpt from , a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham. . Advertisement Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
