Sign up to get our new weekly column as a newsletter. We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. (CNN) Tom Stoppard's play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," begins with the two minor characters from "Hamlet" betting on the toss of a coin. It comes up heads ... and heads ... and heads -- 92 times in a row -- and Guildenstern has to keep handing over his money. "I'm afraid it isn't your day," says Rosencrantz. "Life is a gamble, at terrible odds," says another character near the end of the 1966 play , "if it was a bet you wouldn't take it." This week President Joe Biden continued taking some hard bets, hoping the coins will land his way. He set the pattern in January, days before he took office, by outlining a huge Covid relief package amounting to $1.9 trillion and then topped it last month with a proposal for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. On Wednesday he made another consequential gamble by announcing he would pull all US troops out of Afghanistan , a decision his predecessors were tempted to make, but didn't. Along with new tensions with Russia and China, Biden is facing leadership challenges in the wake of the mass shooting in Indianapolis, police violence in Minnesota, Chicago and elsewhere and the stubbornly high rate of Covid-19 cases. The White House revealed that he would speak to a joint session of Congress on April 28 -- ratcheting up the stakes of the prime-time presidential ritual by scheduling it just two days before his 100th day in office, a milestone that shapes perceptions of new presidents. Read More When Biden goes to the Capitol that was overrun by rioters enraged that he, and not Donald Trump would be certified as the winner of the 2020 election -- and when he enters the House chamber that had to be defended at gunpoint on that chaotic January 6 -- it will be a defining moment, either an opportunity to show that he ...
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Trump knocks Biden timetable for Afghanistan withdrawal
Former President Trump Donald Trump Graham: 'I could not disagree more' with Trump support of Afghanistan troop withdrawal GOP believes Democrats handing them winning 2022 campaign Former GOP operative installed as NSA top lawyer resigns MORE called on President Biden Joe Biden Graham: 'I could not disagree more' with Trump support of Afghanistan troop withdrawal Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley team up to urge communities of color to get coronavirus vaccine Biden to hold second meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure MORE on Sunday to have U.S. troops leave Afghanistan before his planned date of Sept. 11, declaring in a statement that the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks should remain a day of mourning. In a statement, the former president wrote that the U.S. "can and should get out earlier" from Afghanistan and that Sept. 11 "should remain a day of reflection and remembrance honoring those great souls we lost." "Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible," said the former president. ADVERTISEMENT His statement comes in response to the president's declaration this week that the U.S. would withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, upholding a commitment to end America's longest war while at the same time breaking a previously agreed-upon deadline set by the Trump administration wherein the U.S. would have pulled out by May 1. “I believed that our presence in Afghanistan should be focused on the reason we went in the first place: to ensure Afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again. We did that. We accomplished that objective,” Biden said during an address Wednesday. “I've concluded that it's time to end America's longest war. It's time for American troops to come home.” The plan was criticized by some former ...
Biden Administration’s Proposed Rule Props Up ‘1619 Project’ as Model for K-12 American History and Civics
The Biden education department proposed a rule Monday urging the development of “culturally responsive teaching” in American History and Civics and holding up the widely discredited New York Times ’ “1619 Project” as a model for schools to teach children the United States is fundamentally a racist nation. The U.S. Education Department states the proposed rule is in keeping with President Joe Biden’s executive order titled “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” “[T]here is growing acknowledgement [SIC] of the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society,” the education department states in providing background for the proposed rule. “This acknowledgement [SIC] is reflected, for example, in the New York Times ‘ landmark ‘1619 Project’ and in the resources of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History.” The education department elaborated on its proposal, citing the work of Critical Race Theory proponent Ibram X. Kendi, author of Antiracist Baby : Accordingly, schools across the country are working to incorporate anti-racist practices into teaching and learning. As the scholar Ibram X. Kendi has expressed, “[a]n antiracist idea is any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences—that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group. Antiracist ideas argue that racist policies are the cause of racial inequities.” … It is critical that the teaching of American history and civics creates learning experiences that validate and reflect the diversity, identities, histories, contributions, and experiences of all students. Anjali Singh. Regina Brooks ( @reginalbrooks ). Join the conversation On Developing a Successful Book Proposal at the Antiracist Book Festival @antiracismctr . Moderated ...
White House Denies Border ‘Crisis’ After Joe Biden Calls It a ‘Crisis’
White House press secretary Jen Psaki argued the crisis on the Southern border was not a ‘crisis’ even after President Joe Biden described it as such. “There is no change in position,” Psaki told reporters at the White House press briefing Monday. “The president does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other dire circumstances is not a crisis.” On Sunday, Biden spoke to reporters about the crisis on the border, saying it was part of his consideration on the issue of refugee caps. “The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” he said to reporters briefly after playing a round of golf in Delaware. The crisis, Psaki argued, was in Central American countries, where migrants were fleeing poverty, violence, and other dire circumstances. “That is a situation we need to spend our time, our effort on, and we need to address it if we are going to prevent more of an influx of migrants from coming in years to come,” she said. Psaki also said the Biden administration would continue engaging Central American countries in fighting climate change, which she referred to as a “crisis.” “Engaging Central American countries, countries in South America many other countries around the world in climate crisis is certainly our objective and our plan,” she said. The administration argues climate change has fueled more drastic natural disasters in Central American countries, forcing more migrants to the United States. ...
Liz Peek: Biden’s weak poll numbers – here’s why many Americans unhappy with president, radical policies
close Video Biden border coverage draws flak Trump backers speak out in focus group. Do not believe the polls . Liberal news outlets are reporting with smug satisfaction that President Joe Biden is earning rave reviews. A recent headline from NBC News is typical: "Polls show Biden reaping solid approval ratings with popular policies." They want us to believe that Biden’s progressive juggernaut is wildly popular, and that the president’s obvious inadequacies are a figment of right-wing imagination. They want us to think that common-sense Americans are OK with having our schools closed and our borders open , that we are on board with declaring our country racist and allowing riots to wreck our cities. They want us to believe that Biden is way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was. JONATHAN TURLEY: TRUMP VS. WATERS – IN INCITEMENT CASE, SHE MAY BE BEST WITNESS IN EX-PRESIDENT'S DEFENSE It is not true. None of it. For instance, Gallup’s most recent "Satisfaction with the United States" survey shows that 32% of the nation is "satisfied" with the way things are going, while 67% is dissatisfied. At this date in Trump’s presidency, the reading was almost exactly the same: 32% satisfied, 66% dissatisfied. And by the way, that figure reached 45% in February of last year, under Trump, a score not once recorded during President Obama’s eight years in office. CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER That’s one indicator that the country is not entirely copacetic with current events. But, let’s look at those polls. It is true that Biden’s top-line poll numbers look all right. One of the polls cited by NBC is by Quinnipiac, which shows 48% of respondents approving of the president’s job performance while 42% disapprove. More from Opinion John Yoo: Democrats' court packing push is next step in radical march to destroy another American institution Ariz. AG Mark ...
