Commentary

Firefighters are silhouetted against an engulfed home while keeping the flames from jumping to an adjacent home on Glenrose Avenue during the Eaton fire on Jan. 8, in Altadena, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Comment: What Shakespeare’s plays reveal by wildfires’ light

‘All the world’s a stage,’ with our possessions and homes subject to the same theatrical impermanence.

Firefighters are silhouetted against an engulfed home while keeping the flames from jumping to an adjacent home on Glenrose Avenue during the Eaton fire on Jan. 8, in Altadena, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Comment: With GOP senators cowed, Trump will get his Cabinet

Few Republicans, after drawing the line at Gaetz, seem willing to confront any of Trump’s nominees.

Comment: Congress cleared way for Trump’s tariffs; in 1977

The final hurdle for Trump’s tariff whims hangs on how the Supreme Court rules on two cases.

Comment: Quick action on Trump’s ‘one big’ bill faces headwinds

Even if split in two, enough opposition divides even Republicans on tax cuts, the debt ceiling and more.

Comment: Trust and Carter receive their eulogies

Carter once promised he would never lie. Trump’s second term proves how little such declarations matter.

Comment: Blaming everything but climate change for wildfires

To listen to Trump and others, the disasters’ fault lies with a smelt, DEI and government space lasers.

Comment: 5 questions Democrats must answer in 2025

The party needs to evaluate its leaders and check them against what the electorate truly supports.

FILE - Old-growth Douglas fir trees stand along the Salmon River Trail, June 25, 2004, in Mt. Hood National Forest outside Zigzag, Ore. The results in early 2023 from the government’s first-ever national inventory of mature and old-growth forests identified more than 175,000 square miles of the forests on U.S. government lands. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Comment: The struggle over the Department of Everything Else

The Secretary of Interior leads an agency tasked with managing public lands, resources and Tribal affairs.

FILE - Old-growth Douglas fir trees stand along the Salmon River Trail, June 25, 2004, in Mt. Hood National Forest outside Zigzag, Ore. The results in early 2023 from the government’s first-ever national inventory of mature and old-growth forests identified more than 175,000 square miles of the forests on U.S. government lands. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Comment: Disaster relief no place for political football

President-elect Trump should buck his history of delaying aid to counties that voted against him.

Comment: Investors will sit at end of line for Boeing’s rebound

Boeing can rebuild culture and company, but shareholders shouldn’t count on big dividends for awhile.

Comment: King’s call to fulfill dream still ours to heed

Join in a two-day celebration and commitment to service with events in Everett on Jan. 19 and 20.

Comment: Meta’s rule changes put America first on global soapbox

Aiming to please the incoming U.S. president, the changes may not sit well with other countries.

Comment: Whooping cough vaccine needs more promotion

At the same time pertussis cases are increasing, vaccinations have declined. Those are bad trends.

Comment: A torch passed even as a flame is extinguished

The importance of ritual, following the death of a president, serves the nation and honors the man.

Comment: Deportation is one thing; preventing return another

For many who could be deported, the dangers of ‘home’ countries and lure of the U.S. are worth the risk.

Comment: What Democrats should take from rise of podcasts

In reaching out to nontraditional voters, the party has to resist narrowing its message to fit its mores.

Comment: What Musk, X’s critics misunderstand about free speech

Musk isn’t bound by the same rules that apply to the government. But he should be held to his own rules.

Comment: As AI changes nature of work, adjust pay for labor

Low-skilled jobs will become more common and will need more middle-class standards of compensation.

Comment: What U.S. needs is a Department of Effectiveness

Musk can achieve the efficiency he promises not by breaking government but by working with it.

Comment: Don’t believe hype on these three workplace trends

The headlines about return-to-office, AI and DEI may not fully explain the context regarding each.