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Columns/Opinion

Protection protocol anything but

In the eight months since the Trump administration began implementing its euphemistically named Migrant Protection Protocols, the government has returned more than 35,000 asylum seekers to Mexico to wait out the slow legal process that will determine whether they’ll be allowed to live in the U.S. or be returned to the countries they fled. Another 18,000 are biding their time in similar conditions under a separate “metering” policy that limits the daily number of asylum applications the government will accept at ports of entry. As The Times’ immigration reporter Molly O’Toole ...

Stop the mental health data mining of our children

No, no, no. Hell, no! That’s my response to the latest trial balloon floated by the White House to join with Silicon Valley on a creepy program monitoring “neurobehavioral signs” to (purportedly) prevent gun violence. President Trump’s old friend, former NBC head Bob Wright, has been pushing an Orwellian surveillance scheme called “Safe Home” — “Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes” — that would cost taxpayers between $40 million and $60 million. The Washington Post reports the plan could incorporate “Apple Watches, Fitbits, ...

Looking for love in wrong place: The online snake pit

Some scandals reported as shocking are shocking for reasons other than those implied in the coverage. One would be the online scam that bilked millions from businesses, the elderly and women looking for romance. Federal prosecutors say this is one of the biggest online swindles in U.S. history. The fraud centered mainly on Nigerian nationals who would impersonate American servicemen stationed overseas. They’d strike up intimate conversations of the you’re-the-woman-I’ve-been-waiting-for variety. Once the conmen sensed ardor and trust, they would ask the women to send them ...

When will latest ‘lost’ generation come to its senses?

There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll lends credence to that way of thinking, especially where Generation Z/millennials (those born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) and Generation X (those born in the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s) are concerned. The poll of 1,000 adults earlier this month found that “younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago.” The poll ...

Deficits come home to roost

Last week, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office updated its estimates for the federal budget deficit. CBO now estimates deficits in excess of $1 trillion for next year, and every year thereafter for the next decade. Twenty-one cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed, and that will remain true for the next 10 years (the outer boundary of the CBO estimate). These annual deficits add to the total debt the federal government owes. As a nation, we owe $22 trillion today, of which $6 trillion is owed to federal trust funds, like Social Security. At the end of ...

Farmers need a bill of rights

Jim Goodman And Anthony Pahnke Chicago Tribune On Jan. 11, 1944, in his annual State of the Union address, President Franklin Roosevelt noted that while the Constitution guaranteed a set of political rights, they were in some respects inadequate. To ensure equality, Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee: Full employment with an adequate income Freedom from monopolies and unfair competition Adequate housing Adequate health care Social Security Fair incomes for farmers Adequate education Many items from the Economic Bill of Rights have emerged in ...