Author: Lance Garrison
Did Donald Trump just say that he’s hoping for an economic crash? Not exactly. But what he did say was arguably even worse, especially once you put it in context.And Trump’s evident panic over recent good economic news deepens what is, for me, the biggest conundrum of American politics: Why have so many people joined — and stayed in — a personality cult built around a man who poses an existential threat to our nation’s democracy and is also personally a complete blowhard?So what did Trump actually say on Monday? Strictly speaking, he didn’t call for a crash, he predicted…
Jan. 11, 2024 – What you already know: Physical activity helps ease high blood pressure. What you may not know: Researchers have found that one type of exercise – and one single exercise in particular – helps lower blood pressure especially wall.A 2023 review of 270 prior studies including nearly 16,000 people found that a program of isometric exercise reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number) by 8.24 mm Hg (or milligrams of mercury, a measure doctors use for blood pressure), and diastolic blood pressure by 2.5 mm Hg. Isometric exercise brought bigger blood pressure benefits than aerobic exercise (a blood pressure…
To the Editor:Re “The Case for Disqualifying Trump Is Strong,” by David French (column, Jan. 6):Many constitutional scholars, including Prof. Laurence Tribe and Judge J. Michael Luttig, have argued convincingly that the literal meaning of the text of the 14th Amendment clearly disqualifies Donald Trump from being elected again as president. No objective observer can doubt that Mr. Trump gave “aid or comfort” to the insurrectionists.Despite this I was ambivalent about the wisdom of the courts’ applying the 14th Amendment to prevent Mr. Trump from becoming president again. It would be less credible to be denied the presidency via the…
I have great respect for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He has served the United States honorably and heroically for decades. He earned a Silver Star during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He commanded American forces during the successful counteroffensive against ISIS. He has done his job admirably, helping shepherd the United States through two of the most dangerous international military crises in decades. Nonetheless, he should resign or, failing that, be fired.Temporarily dropping out of the chain of command for a medical issue and handing over his responsibilities to his deputy without notifying the commander in chief is…
January is a time to redo, revise and recommit. It is also the time to return things.We can click the return button first on the season’s passive-aggressive and otherwise unwanted gifts. An upgraded espresso machine, perhaps not so necessary. Farewell, too, to the aspirational dress purchased but never quite fit into without a squeeze.By some estimates, returning purchases in America reached record levels in 2022; the portion of purchases returned has jumped twofold, to 16 percent from 8 percent of sales between 2019 and 2022 And returning things online has become so easy — just scan the downloaded QR code!…
Some 25 million Americans watched with heavenly joy (or as the case may be, in Ohio, infernal dread) as the Michigan Wolverines defeated the Washington Huskies in the college football national championship on Monday. This was Michigan’s first national title since 1997, and only its second since 1948.For Jim Harbaugh, the Wolverines’ head coach since 2015, Michigan football is a family affair. Celebrating on the field after his team’s victory, Harbaugh, who was a star quarterback for the Wolverines four decades ago, was joined by his mother, Jacqueline, and his father, Jack, a former assistant coach at Michigan; his oldest…
Finally, there’s the question of institutions that are supposed to represent impartial expertise, from elite universities and media to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the F.B.I. Trump’s detractors, including me, often argued that his demagoguery and mendacity did a lot to needlessly diminish trust in these vital institutions. But we should be more honest with ourselves and admit that those institutions did their own work in squandering, through partisanship or incompetence, the esteem in which they had once been widely held.How so? Much of the elite media, mostly liberal, became openly partisan in the 2016 election —…
Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for the fifth Republican presidential debate, held in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday night. In this special feature, Times Opinion writers and contributors rate the candidates on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 means the candidate didn’t belong on the stage and should have dropped out before the debate even started, the way Chris Christie did; 10 means the candidate can head into the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary with the wind at his or her back. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought about the debate. Nikki Haley Average: 5.1/10 Did better →…
When you need insulin to manage your diabetes, that often means learning how and when to give yourself injections. The good news is that it’s easier and less painful than ever before.Kathy Bostrom, 68, has been handling injections herself for more than 15 years. She says the shot quickly becomes no big deal once you get the hang of it.“Syringes have come a long way since I started my journey,” says Bostrom, who lives in Mills River, N.C. The bigger challenge for her is “the testing, remembering to record it, and eating the right foods.” I was nervous, especially the…
I wish Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis had shown a quarter as much contempt for Donald Trump as they did for each other.Oh, they faulted Trump for not appearing onstage in Des Moines on Wednesday for the final Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses. He arrogantly skipped it, just as he’d arrogantly skipped all the others.When pressed, Haley and DeSantis made clearer than they did in the past that he indeed put himself before the Constitution when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was no beautiful display…