An immediate cease-fire in Gaza isn’t about giving in; it’s smart strategy. Continuing the war fuels a vicious cycle of retaliation, breeding deeper hatred and leading to more civilian casualties – all of which results in more future Hamas fighters. Real, lasting peace won’t emerge from civilian suffering.

A cease-fire isn’t a solution in itself, but it is a necessary step toward constructive negotiation. It's not about capitulation; it's about recognizing the limitations of military action and the need for political solutions. A cease-fire is a step towards a sustainable resolution in Gaza.​

Schiff’s censure is a devastating attack on institutional comity masked as a political stunt. It is undisputed that Trump’s campaign (Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman) gave internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative while Russian intelligence was helping his campaign. Marco Rubio’s Senate Intel Committee investigated these contacts and found that the Russian government wanted Trump to be president, Russian intelligence viewed Trump’s campaign as easily manipulated, and that Trum’s advisers were eager for help from Russia. While this may not have amounted to a “coordinated conspiracy” with the Russian government, Schiff was right to flag this, and to argue over the semantics of how he characterized Manafort’s behavior is a charade.

The contrast could not be any sharper. Biden laid out his policies for bringing America forward in the world in the face of incredibly challenging issues. Rather than engage with those issues (or the topics which Chris Wallace attempted to showcase), Trump was his usual nasty self and primarily resorted to name calling. America was left with two choices: a seasoned policy expert on the on hand, and a carnival barker on the other.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote since 1975 is 67 days (2.2 months), while the median is 71 days (or 2.3 months).

There were 269 days between Justice Antonin Scalia's death and the 2016 election (well beyond the time typically needed to confirm). There are only 42 days between now and the 2020 election, and President Trump still has not submitted a nomination. There is no plausible way the Republicans can claim to hold a thoughtful, legitimate, or thorough confirmation process before the election. 

In 1971, 61% of U.S. households earned the "middle-tier" of income - i.e., between two-thirds and 2X the median income. By 2015, only 50% were in the middle-tier.

And the middle class is not just smaller, its fortunes have also dwindled in comparison to the upper class. U.S. median household income (adjusted for inflation) is essentially unmoved since the late 1990s, while average home prices have continued to rise. Between 1974 and 2017, workers' share of the national income fell from 64.5% to 56.8%. Between 1979 and 2016, the top quintile of wage earners enjoyed a 27.4% increase in real wages, compared to 3.41% for the middle quintile. Between 1956 and 2016, union membership dropped from 28% of all workers to 10%. And between 2000 and 2019, the labor force participation rate dropped from 67.3% to 62.9%.

The middle class is getting sucked dry.