Latest news with #Today'sOpinions
Washington Post
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The Vietnam War remade us. Do we even remember it?
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: It's 50 years since the Vietnam War ended, and as Keith Richburg writes, living memory of the disastrous conflict is disappearing. For the baby boomers, Vietnam reshaped the U.S. military and the American public's relationship with government writ large; for younger generations, Keith writes, Vietnam is 'better known for beaches and backpackers than the war that bears its name.'
Washington Post
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Is a ranked-choice conclave too much to ask?
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: Pope Francis died early Monday, and now the whole world is, ironically, evaluating the papacy of the man who redefined it by asking, 'Who am I to judge?' E.J. Dionne does not find the pontiff wanting. He writes that Francis 'moved Catholicism's center of gravity,' and that anyone who argues the pope divided the church misses the fact that the church was plenty divided already — Francis merely made visible the splits.
Washington Post
18-04-2025
- General
- Washington Post
America's 250-year-old promises, not always kept
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: Two hundred fifty years ago tomorrow, the American Revolution began in Lexington, Massachusetts, 'a bucolic crossroads,' historian and reporter Rick Atkinson writes, 'of 750 people and 400 cows.' Things would eventually get bigger.
Washington Post
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
A Korean adoptee's 30-year search for answers
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: In the 1950s, to recover from economic devastation brought by back-to-back wars, South Korea devised what would become a lucrative adoption industry. Two weeks ago, an investigation by the South Korean government revealed that the profitable scheme was built on coercion and deception of vulnerable parents. In a heart-wrenching essay, Laura Manley, born in South Korea and adopted 30 years ago by an American couple, shares the saga of her life — and her birth mother's. What began as a love story between her birth parents turned tragic when her father suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm that effectively left her mother to raise a newborn alone — 'nearly impossible in a society deeply rooted in patriarchal and traditionalist values,' Manley writes. Manley's mother was persuaded to leave the child in the care of an orphanage for what she believed would be a few months; those months turned into sorrowful years when the child was sent to the United States for adoption without her birth mother's knowledge. Manley's narration of their long-awaited reunion is enough to leave you misty-eyed, as she presses South Korea to deliver the justice 'that so many families, including mine, have waited too long to see.' From Democratic pollster Evan Roth Smith's analysis of Musk's influence on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Despite Musk spending an estimated $20 million to support the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel, Smith's polling reveals that the billionaire had negligible positive persuasive power: Only 4 percent of voters reported that Musk's endorsement made them more likely to support Schimel. In fact, Musk's aggressive campaign had the opposite effect: Voters were more likely to support the liberal candidate because of Musk's opposition to her. As Democrats strategize how to reclaim power, Smith suggests they capitalize on Musk's unpopularity — the bad impression he leaves on voters could be their good luck charm. Eduardo Porter knows what it's like to grow up in the 'Third World.' So he also knows what it's like to revere America's status as 'the most affluent and powerful nation on Earth.' Eduardo finds Trump's whining that America has been at the 'mercy of other countries with big manufacturing industries' — his rationale for levying hefty tariffs on all those swindlers — confusing and ahistorical. 'It was, after all, the U.S. Treasury that pushed the core ideas that shaped the era of globalization,' Eduardo writes. The norms of liberal international trade and macroeconomic discipline? Straight from Washington's financial manifesto. If Trump is eager to see what happens when ill-prepared countries overbet on domestic production, Eduardo advises that he study up on 1970s Latin America — and heed the debt, corruption and stymied innovation engendered by overly ambitious protectionism. It's a goodbye. It's a haiku. It's … The Bye-Ku. No substitute for The U.S.-made world order Sold in the trade war *** Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to Drew, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
Washington Post
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
How to #Romanticize watching your 401(k) dwindle away
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: If, through the pollen clouds this weekend, you think you glimpsed a woman in a preternaturally flowy sundress riding sidesaddle on her lawn mower, don't rush to check the expiration date of your Zyrtec; it was probably just Monica Hesse, #Romanticizing her life. This is the trend Monica can't seem to escape on TikTok and other social media, where she is served women — always women — dressing up to de- or re-grout, or incorporating candles and Mason jars — always Mason jars — into a workaday kitchen routine. And yes, Monica writes, the uniform is 'nonnegotiable'; many creators 'have at least one video in which they indignantly explain that ethereal dresses are actually the most practical attire for unclogging a drain.' What are these women trying to teach us as they glamorize the tasks nobody instinctively wants to do? Should we fret that the trend has evolved to exalt almost exclusively stay-at-home life? Is it survival — or submission? Monica was also my and Molly Roberts's guest on our most recent episode of the 'Impromptu' podcast, where we discussed another somebody's attempt at romanticization: President Donald Trump's order that the Smithsonian museum system expunge exhibits that reveal the United States to be as complicated a place as it is. We each bristle at that idea, and share in some pride at how the country — especially via the Smithsonian — has had a pretty good track record of taking a hard look at itself in the mirror. In an excerpt from the conversation, you can read the bit where I worry we're approaching Russia's museum culture. But you'll have to listen for the best idea: Monica's proposed 'Garden of American Harriets.' Chaser: One of Trump's other big rewritings of history — his 'Gulf of America' push (discussed on another 'Impromptu' episode!) — is inspiring copycats across the world. Keith Richburg plots where names might be changing, from the East Sea to Aotearoa. Until now, our writers have not been very bullish on Trump's tariffs, and … okay, they're still not on board — but some readers are, 401(k) figures be damned! Eugene Dunn of Medford, New York, is not 'one bit nervous,' which sounds pretty great right now. David Lipton of Toms River, New Jersey, says 'we have become a very impatient society' — and that it'll probably just take a little time for the tariff gravy train to get going. Salena Zito recently went reporting where you'd expect more people than just about anywhere else to be on board with the tariffs: a Pennsylvania steel plant full of workers shielded by them. Trump's taxes got big smiles at the mill, where he enjoys generous support, but the fungibility of workers' 'America First' sensibility surprised Salena, especially when she encountered the fervor with which workers wanted their mill bought by a Japanese company. Karen Tumulty traces Trump's love for tariffs back to another instance of Japanese ascendancy: in the 1980s, when the country's carmakers threatened to supplant the domestic auto industry. Legendary Chrysler Corp. CEO Lee Iacocca at the time thought the answer was tariffs; Trump watched along and thought, bingo. Chaser: Max Boot likens Trump's foreign policy to a dangerous philosophy from even further back in history — the 19th-century 'spheres of influence' thinking that set the stage for World War I. From Will Leitch's essay on the New York Yankees' 'torpedo bats,' the fruit of MLB's lack of specification as to where the thickest part of the bat goes; a physicist recently figured out that maybe the bat should be biggest where it usually hits the ball — Nobel incoming, no doubt. Now the Yankees are firing off early-season dingers, and the torpedo bats have been decried as fraudulent and ruinous. But Will makes it clear: 'There is nothing illegal about these bats. Maybe they work, maybe they don't, but one thing they definitely aren't is 'cheating.'' Then he zooms out to find a sorta-silver lining of the scandal: 'Baseball looms largest in the fan's imagination when we've all decided there's something wrong with it.' Even — especially — when there isn't. Last week, Trump fired a handful of top intelligence community officials; this came right after he met with right-wing conspiracist Laura Loomer, who advocated the firings. It does not take CIA-level analysis to see some dots here that might deserve connecting. Indeed, the Editorial Board writes that Trump needs to provide some answers. David Ignatius looks at those firings and a few other recent, highly political shake-ups made within the IC and sees bad omens. Politicization is rarely good anywhere, but David says that within the intelligence world, it is a uniquely 'special poison.' It's a goodbye. It's a haiku. It's … The Bye-Ku. Patriarchy smashed With recalibrated bat Mason jar shards rain *** Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
