Editorial

by BYRON YORK B eginning in the months before Donald Trump took office, and extending well into his presidency, the media and political world took a set of vague but serious accusations of wrongdoing involving the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia and created a 24/7 frenzy of talk about secret evidence, potential criminal charges and allegedly grave damage to national security. Fed by leaks originating in federal law enforcement, the intelligence community and interested lawyers, ostensibly responsible observers engaged in wild speculation — COLLUSION!!! — that was terribly damaging to then-President Trump. And here was the punch line: Nobody knew what the evidence was. It was secret, classified, grand jury, ongoing investigation, whatever. All the talk was based on little bits of information, and no one, at the time, had the big picture. The secrecy cloaking the details of the case allowed anti-Trump speculation to flourish.

by DANNY TYREE “A nxious parents are no longer allowing their kids to go to slumber parties,” announced a blurb in the August 16 “New York Post.”

by JOE GUZZARDI T he July Bureau of Labor Statistics report was a blockbuster.

I was watching an old documentary the other day about classic Hollywood stars. Henry Fonda, a man who epitomized the stalwart, decent American was the narrator, and he walked us through several decades of famous (and sometimes infamous) actors, from Charlie Chaplin to Natalie Wood.

I can’t imagine looking in a mirror and wondering where my dark brown eyes came from or finding a new mole on my arm and not knowing if I have a predisposition to skin cancer.

by BYRON YORK Y ou’ve probably heard Republicans say the Inflation Reduction Act — the massive spending bill just passed by Senate Democrats — includes provisions to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents. The number seems too big too believe. The IRS has just 93,654 employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Why would Congress, in one bill, increase the IRS workforce by something like 92 percent? It doesn’t seem possible. It certainly doesn’t seem wise.

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