Author: Lance Garrison
A president’scabinet is full of great character witnesses. The president chose them.They said yes. They worked togetherclosely. A president’s cabinet is fullof great character witnesses.The president chose them. They said yes. They worked together closely. These cabinet-level appointeessaw Donald Trump up close. And theydecided they couldn’t stand by him. These cabinet-level appointees saw Donald Trump up close. And they decided they couldn’t stand by him. In the history of presidential cabinets, former President Donald Trump’s stands out for two qualities: turnover and dissension. Mr. Trump churned through cabinet-level appointees so fast that at times it seemed like he was still…
The globe is already pockmarked with crises, and here may be another: North Korea is acting in highly unusual ways, leading some veteran analysts to fear it is preparing a surprise attack on South Korea and perhaps on Japan and Guam as well.I’ve seen many false alarms since I began covering and visiting North Korea in the 1980s. I wouldn’t write about this latest warning except that it comes from two particularly credible experts who bluntly conclude that “Kim Jong-un has made a strategic decision to go to war.”That’s speculation without hard evidence to back it up, and they acknowledge…
The Iowa caucuses are over, but we have all of 2024 ahead of us.
Last week I read something that shocked me, even if it really shouldn’t have: Fifteen states — all but one run by Republican governors — skipped the deadline to apply for a new federally-funded program that will provide $120 per child for groceries during the summer months to families of children who already qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school.Some of those states have some of the highest poverty rates in the country, including Mississippi, with the highest rate, and Louisiana, where I grew up, with the second highest. When Louisiana rejected the lunch program, a Democrat was still…
If white people define Black people by our suffering, it’s often because we tell them to.
To steer the economy, the Federal Reserve sets a target for the federal funds rate, which is the rate that banks charge one another for overnight loans. Until 2008, the Fed influenced the federal funds rate by adding or subtracting reserves from the banking system. It did so through the buying and selling of bonds, which is known as open market operations. When a bank buys Treasury bonds from the Fed, it pays with some of its reserves, which are held in what’s basically a checking account at the Fed. Before 2008, when the Fed soaked up reserves from the…
Does it matter? In some corners, discarding the 1.5-degree goal looks like a possibly welcome development, since the target was in many ways flawed to begin with. A global average temperature rise may be a useful shorthand measure of the state of play, but it probably isn’t the best guide to climate disruptions, since temperatures and expected effects vary significantly from place to place. Global average temperature is also not so tightly linked to human activity, since a certain amount of emissions could produce a relatively wide range of warming levels. (That’s why our uncertainty about climate sensitivity is worrying.)To…
By Carolyn Deming Glaviano, as told to Alexandra BenisekI was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis on my birthday. I had some eye pain and went to my optometrist, who then told me I needed to see my ophthalmologist. After being in the eye doctor room for a few hours, and seeing many doctors, a resident told me they think I have MS. She suggested I walk to the emergency department and admit myself into the hospital for an MRI.There was a moment when I was in shock. I kept thinking “no, really, I’m just here for eye pain.” I called my…
To the Editor:Re “We’re Thinking About Pain All Wrong,” by Maia Szalavitz (Opinion guest essay, Dec. 26):Millions of people suffer from pain, which is by far the major symptom about which patients complain.Despite the fact that most pain can be effectively controlled, too many suffer unnecessarily, many intolerably, because of the undertreatment of pain. This has been a serious problem in the United States for decades, according to a 2011 Institute of Medicine report, “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research.”Medical and nursing schools have not done a good job training students to treat…
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable neurological disease. No two people will have the same exact symptoms. When you have this chronic condition, symptoms can range from mild to severe. You could get problems such as fatigue and weakness, blurry vision, mood disorders, muscle spasms, or balance and focus issues.Depending on the type of MS you have, your symptoms may flare up from time to time, or you may get new symptoms. The unpredictable nature of MS can be challenging, especially if you have to juggle a hectic schedule at your workplace, your school, or in your home life, like…