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☆ Biden Is Still Losing. His Campaign Should Stop Acting Like He Isn’t. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In February, there was a flurry of discussion about whether Joe Biden’s advancing age and seeming weakness in a matchup with Donald Trump meant that he should step aside. “The Drumbeat for Biden to Step Aside Will Only Grow Louder” ran one headline from that period, from Robert Kuttner in the American Prospect. All it took was Biden giving a passable State of the Union address: Thereafter his poll numbers marginally improved, the optimists on the Democratic side seized the rhetorical initiative, and the “should Biden step aside?” discourse faded into background noise. But it’s also quite consistent; since last fall, both candidates are bouncing around within a very narrow range. ), because voters aren’t paying close attention yet (but don’t they already know both of the candidates quite well?

Persons: Joe Biden’s, Donald Trump, Biden, Nate Silver, Ezra Klein, Robert Hur, Robert Kuttner, Kuttner, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, it’s, he’s Organizations: Democratic, Trump, Electoral College Locations: Georgia, Michigan, Arizona , Nevada , Pennsylvania, Wisconsin

☆ Opinion | Salman Rushdie Is Not Who You Think He Is
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I feel as if I’ve always known who Salman Rushdie is. In August of 2022, more than 30 years after the fatwa, a fanatic with a knife attacked and tried to kill Rushdie. His latest book, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” is about the attack and its aftermath. This is what I now understand after reading “Knife,” what I now understand after I went and read, for the first time, “The Satanic Verses”: I have never known who Salman Rushdie is. How many people out there do I wrongly think that I know?

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, I’ve, Salman Rushdie, ”, Ruhollah Khomeini, Rushdie, it’s, It’s Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Locations: Iran

☆ Opinion | This Conversation Made Me a Sharper Editor
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But it’s the crucial step in the creative process that takes work that’s decent and can turn it into something great. [You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.] Adam Moss is widely known as one of the great magazine editors of his generation: He remade The New York Times Magazine in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and during his 15 years as editor in chief of New York magazine, shaped that outlet into one of the greatest print and digital publications we have. It’s a celebration of the hard, human work that goes into the creative act. It’s a book, really, about editing.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, Adam Moss, he’s Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, New York Times Magazine, New York

☆ Opinion | Why It’s So Hard to Build in Liberal States
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There is so much we need to build right now. The housing crunch has spread across the country; by one estimate, we’re a few million units short. And we also need a huge build-out of renewable energy infrastructure — at a scale some experts compare to the construction of the Interstate highway system. [You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.] Jerusalem Demsas is a staff writer at The Atlantic who obsesses over these questions as much as I do.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Locations: Jerusalem

☆ Opinion | What if Dario Amodei Is Right About A.I.?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Back in 2018, Dario Amodei worked at OpenAI. He and his colleagues decided to study it, and they found that the A.I. Amodei is now the chief executive of his own A.I. company, Anthropic, which recently released Claude 3 — considered by many to be the strongest A.I. And he thinks we’re on the steep part of the climb right now.

Persons: Dario Amodei, didn’t, “, Ezra Klein, Claude, —, we’re Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Locations: OpenAI

☆ Opinion | Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Verge blames search engines. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another. A shame closet is that spot in your home where you cram the stuff that has nowhere else to go. But as the shame closet grows, the task of excavation or organization becomes too daunting to contemplate. The shame closet era of the internet had a beginning.

Persons: Inboxes Organizations: Wired, Technology, Google

☆ Opinion | Will A.I. Break the Internet? Or Save It?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Do a Google search, and there are so many websites now filled with slapdash content contorted just to rank highly in the algorithm. Facebook, YouTube, X and TikTok all used to feel more fun and surprising. And into this weakened internet came the flood of A.I.-generated junk. TikTok videos of A.I.-generated voices reading text pulled from Reddit can be churned out in seconds. content will break the internet as we know it.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, Nilay Patel Organizations: Facebook, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google

☆ Opinion | How Should I Be Using A.I. Right Now?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There’s something of a paradox that has defined my experience with artificial intelligence in this particular moment. So I wanted to understand what I’m missing and get some tips for how I could incorporate A.I. This conversation covers the basics, including which chatbot to choose and techniques for how to get the most useful results. But the conversation goes far beyond that, too — to some of the strange, delightful and slightly unnerving ways that A.I. responds to us, and how you’ll get more out of any chatbot if you think of it as a relationship rather than a tool.

Persons: Ethan Mollick, University of Pennsylvania who’s, “, Ezra Klein, chatbot Organizations: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google

☆ Opinion | The Rise of ‘Middle-Finger Politics’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald Trump can seem like a political anomaly. You sometimes hear people describe his connection with his base in quasi-mystical terms. But really, Trump is an example of an archetype — the right-wing populist showman — that recurs across time and place. And there’s a long lineage of this type in the United States too. And why does this set of qualities — ethnonationalist politics and an entertaining style — repeatedly appear at all?

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, —, There’s, Boris Johnson, Javier Milei, “, Ezra Klein, John Ganz, David Duke, Pat Buchanan Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, ”, Republican Party Locations: Brazil, Britain, Argentina, United States

☆ Opinion | Birthrates Are Plummeting Worldwide. Why?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For a long time, the story about the world’s population was that it was growing too quickly. Fertility rates have declined dramatically, from about five children per woman 60 years ago to just over two today. About two-thirds of us now live in a country or area where fertility rates are below replacement level. Why, as societies get richer, do their fertility rates plummet? For a long time, a big, boisterous family has been associated with a joyful, fulfilled life.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Locations: Silicon Valley

☆ What a Second Joe Biden Term Would Look Like - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden gave a raucous State of the Union speech last Thursday, offering his pitch for why he should be president for a second term. It’s the clearest picture we have yet of Biden’s campaign message for 2024. But while he listed off all kinds of proposals, it’s not as easy to parse what a second Biden term might actually look like. [You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.] You can listen to our whole conversation by following “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.

Persons: Biden, Aaron Retica, “, Ezra Klein, I’ve, Locke, — Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Biden

☆ Opinion | Fine, Call It a Comeback
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

So far, the Biden team has been more sure-footed attacking Donald Trump’s threat to democracy than it has been defending Biden’s incumbency. By virtually any measure save food prices, Biden is presiding over a strong economy — stronger, by far, than most peer countries. As Noah Smith has noted, the Biden economy looks far better than Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America”: Unemployment is lower, inflation is lower, interest rates are lower, stock market returns are better. The most recent Times/Siena poll found that 74 percent of registered voters rated the economy either “poor” or “fair.” By a 15-point margin, voters said Trump’s policies helped them personally. In November of 2020, unemployment was 6.7 percent and Trump had just turned a White House celebration into a superspreader event.

Persons: Joe Biden, you’re, he’s, Here’s, that’s, Biden, Donald Trump’s, Noah Smith, Ronald Reagan’s, they’re Organizations: Union, Trump Locations: America ”, Siena

☆ Opinion | How America’s Two Abortion Realities Are Clashing
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +65 min

mary zieglerWell, I think it’s much easier to ban abortion than it is to enforce a criminal law against abortion. mary zieglerNo, I think that’s right. If our abortion politics don’t reflect our abortion views, what does that tell us about the health of the democracy? We’ve seen upwards of 10 states — I think it’s 14 or 15 that have changed their definition of abortion in abortion restrictive states since Dobbs. So, the idea is that abortions that are presented as life saving either are not abortions or are simply pretexts for abortion that’s elective.

Persons: ezra klein, Ezra Klein, ”, overturns Roe, Wade, we’ve, Dobbs, Mary Ziegler, mary ziegler, Roe, they’ve, they’re, didn’t, isn’t, —, We’ve, ezra klein Let’s, mifepristone, Z, They’re, mary ziegler That’s, Comstock, hasn’t, it’s, ezra klein There’s, Kate Cox, kate cox, mary ziegler —, she’d, there’s, you’ll, don’t, you’re, You’re, That’s, I’ve, I’m, they’ll, Ezra, you’ve, that’s, There’s, what’s, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, You’ve, It’s, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Trump, mary ziegler There’s, Glenn Youngkin, Glenn Youngkin’s, mary ziegler It’s, we’re, Donald Trump, Roger Severino, Gene Hamilton, Hamilton isn’t, He’s, Stephen Miller’s, Jonathan Mitchell, Biden, — there’s, Josh Prager’s, Jennifer Holland, Daniel K, Williams, Wade ”, Linda Greenhouse, Reva Siegel, ezra klein Mary Ziegler Organizations: New York, Alabama, Republican, U.S, Supreme, for Life, Environmental Protection Agency, mifepristone, and Drug Administration, Republicans, State, Washington State Patrol, Democratic, Catholic Democrat, Wall Street, Act, Virginia Republicans, Republican Party, Leadership, Heritage Foundation, Health, Human Services Department, Trump, Washington Post, New York Times, HHS, Human Services, Department of Justice, Court Locations: Alabama, America, St, Louis , Missouri, East St, Louis , Illinois, Dobbs, Ohio, United States, Texas, mary ziegler — Texas, Kansas, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Florida, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, New York, California, Vermont, New Jersey, Missouri, Idaho, Virginia, Colorado, Roe

☆ Opinion | Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Beauty, Human Evil and the Idea of Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Marilynne Robinson is one of the great living novelists. She has won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Humanities Medal, and Barack Obama took time out of his presidency to interview her at length. In recent years, Robinson has tightened the links between her literary pursuits and her Christianity, writing essays about Calvinism and other theological traditions. Her forthcoming work of nonfiction is “Reading Genesis,” a close reading of the first book of the Old Testament (or the Torah, as I grew up knowing it). No matter one’s faith, Robinson unearths wisdom in this core text that applies to many questions we wrestle with today.

Persons: Marilynne Robinson, Barack Obama, “, Ezra Klein, Robinson, ” Organizations: Humanities, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Locations: “ Gilead, Idaho, Israel

☆ Opinion | The Wars in Ukraine and Gaza Have Changed. America’s Policy Hasn’t.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Joe Biden’s presidency has been dominated by two foreign policy crises: the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The funding the United States has provided in those wars — billions to both Ukraine and Israel — has drawn backlash from both the right and the left. Richard Haass is an icon of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. He’s recently been making the case that our foreign policy is insufficiently independent — that we’ve become captured by allies that have interests that diverge from our own. His view of this moment is a signal of larger shifts that could be coming in the U.S. foreign policy consensus.

Persons: Joe Biden’s, Israel —, “, Ezra Klein, Richard Haass, He’s, we’ve Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Foreign Relations, Republican, America’s Locations: Ukraine, Gaza, States, Israel, U.S

☆ It’s Not as Easy as Just Getting Joe Biden to Drop Out - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In a recent episode of his podcast, my colleague Ezra Klein made the strongest case yet for replacing President Biden on the ticket with a new Democratic nominee. To that, he said, the Democrats could choose a candidate at their convention this summer in Chicago. How that works is different in different states. Then they go to the convention to choose the actual nominee. What’s different now than in the past is that most delegates arrive at the convention committed to a candidate.

Persons: Ezra Klein, Biden, Ezra, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt Organizations: Democratic, Democratic Party Locations: Chicago

☆ Opinion | Your Questions on Open Conventions, a Gaza Schism and Biden’s Chances
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

[You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.] He is skipping things like Super Bowl interviews, having trouble in press conferences and that if things don’t change, this is not going to go well. And that there is another option for Democrats, that Biden could step aside and Democrats could do what parties have done many times before and go to a convention. And this is something I said we would also do in this little series, which is take questions on it. Our great senior editor, Claire Gordon, has joined me here to sort of be the audience representative and make sure I’m actually answering questions.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, Joe Biden, Biden, Elaine Kamarck, Claire Gordon Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Democrats

☆ Opinion | Here’s How an Open Democratic Convention Would Work
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

[You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.] A full transcript of this episode is available here:Ezra Klein: So last week on the show, I made the argument that Democrats should pick a candidate at the convention this year. This is the way political parties throughout most of American history have picked their nominees for president. But it’s a funny kind of suggestion, because it is somehow simultaneously novel and ancient. So what I wanted to do today was talk through how conventions work — how an open convention works, what kind of politicking happens at it, what kinds of candidates win, how they win and also talk through what would happen this year.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, Joe Biden, Biden Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google

☆ Handwringing over Biden's age has Democrats worried about a repeat of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's refusal to step down
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Read previewAt 81 years old, President Joe Biden is facing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike that he's too old to be president again. Many draw parallels between Biden and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who refused to step down from her lifetime appointment to the court while President Barack Obama was in office. The current Supreme Court is comprised of 6 conservative justices and 3 liberals, though Chief Justice John Roberts is often considered a swing vote. Bill Clinton's choice for Supreme Court vacancy, on Capitol Hill, June 15, 1993. Supreme Court justices are appointed, not elected, and the confirmation of Obama's nomination of Garland was blocked by Republicans in the Senate in the wake of Antonin Scalia's death in 2016.

Persons: —, Joe Biden, Jon Stewart, Ezra Klein —, Donald Trump, Biden, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barack Obama, Ginsburg, Obama, Merrick Garland, shoring, Trump, Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts, Justin Buchler, Pres, Bill Clinton's, Marcy Nighswander, Garland, Antonin Scalia's, Hillary Clinton, Clinton, she'd, Roe, Christian Grose, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Dean Phillips, Grose, Buchler, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom —, Harris, Newsom, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, Robert Hur, I've, flubs, Abdel Fattah al, Nikki Haley, Nancy Pelosi, Peter Loge, Younger, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Phillips, let's, I'm, we'll, Ron Sachs Organizations: Service, Democrats, Business, Supreme, Democratic, Case Western Reserve University, Committee, Capitol, AP, Trump, Wade, CNBC, University of Southern, Research, California Gov, Washington Post, Democrat, Biden, Republicans, GOP, Politico, Minnesota, Time, NBC News, Reuters, US, Judiciary, Washington DC Locations: Biden's, University of Southern California, California, Mexico, South Carolina, Trump, Capitol Hill, Washington

☆ Opinion | Building the Palestinian State With Salam Fayyad
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the truth is you don’t need just a partner — you need two partners able to deliver at the same time. So you could see it as a tragedy of history that Salam Fayyad joined the Palestinian Authority in 2002, at the height of the second intifada, just as Israeli society shifted hard to the right. A Western-educated economist, Fayyad is a technocrat at heart. And as the Palestinian Authority’s finance minister, and then as prime minister, he dedicated himself to the spadework of state-building. His theory was that instead of waiting around for the peace process to deliver Palestinian statehood, he would just build a state — institutions, infrastructure, security, sewers and all — and then statehood would follow.

Persons: ” That’s, Salam Fayyad, “, Ezra Klein, Fayyad Organizations: Palestinian Authority, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Palestinian Locations: Israel

☆ Opinion | What Relationships Would You Want, if You Believed They Were Possible?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Almost half of children are born to unmarried women. The number of close friends Americans report having has been on a steep decline since the 1990s, especially among men. We are living out a radical experiment in how we live, love, parent and age — and for many, it’s failing. People want more love in their lives, and opening their relationships is one way to find it. A poll from last year found that one-third of Americans believe their ideal relationship would involve something other than strict monogamy.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, it’s, It’s Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google

☆ Opinion | ‘Why Haven’t the Democrats Completely Cleaned the Republicans’ Clock?’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Political analysts used to say that the Democratic Party was riding a demographic wave that would lead to an era of dominance. All this has made the Democrats’ political math a lot more precarious. And it also poses a kind of spiritual problem for Democrats who see themselves as the party of the working class. Ruy Teixeira is one of the loudest voices calling on the Democratic Party to focus on winning these voters back. But he also warned in that book that Democrats needed to stop hemorrhaging white working-class voters for this majority to hold.

Persons: “, Ezra Klein, Ruy Teixeira, He’s, ”, John B, Barack Obama, Teixeira, Judis, Joe Organizations: Democratic Party, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, American Enterprise Institute, Liberal Patriot, Democratic, Party

☆ Opinion | Gen Z Is Listening to What Netanyahu Is Saying. Is Biden?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

No one could demand that Netanyahu accept a Palestinian state so long as that state would be governed by Hamas. There are older Americans who knew Israel when it was young. We only ever knew Israel as the strongest military power in the region. But we also knew an Israel that seemed to be trying to find its way toward peace and coexistence. They know an Israel that controls Palestinian life and land and intends to keep it that way.

Persons: Netanyahu, Al Fatah, I’ve, Israel, Joe Biden’s, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, David, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel Organizations: Hamas, West Bank, Fatah, Israel Locations: Gaza, Qatar, Israel, America, Siena, An Israel

☆ Opinion: Trump is a strong candidate. Democrats need to take him seriously.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Julian Zelizer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Democrats should not make the mistake of underestimating former President Donald Trump. Moreover, they note, Haley was able to win independent voters who theoretically would be more amenable to President Joe Biden than Trump in the fall. Moreover, the number of Republicans who keep saying they won’t vote for Trump under any circumstances, gives Democrats hope that on Election Day, many voters in the GOP won’t turn out. But these arguments downplay the threat Trump will pose to Biden in November by ignoring several fundamentals. Trump is succeeding even though the United States has never had a major presidential candidate saddled with so much legal baggage.

Persons: Julian Zelizer, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, —, Nikki Haley —, Trump, Haley, Joe Biden, Biden, That’s, — Trump, pollsters, Karl Marx, Lyndon Johnson, Arizona Sen, Barry Goldwater, Simon Rosenberg, Ezra Klein Organizations: CNN, Princeton University, The New York Times, America, Democratic, Trump, GOP, Republican, WWE, Republican Party, Biden, Arizona, New York Times Locations: New Hampshire, United States

☆ Opinion | ‘The Strongest Democratic Party That Any of Us Have Ever Seen’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you’re a Democrat, how worried should you be right now? On the one hand, polls suggest Democrats should be very worried. Biden has a strong record to run on, and Trump has a lot more baggage than he did in 2020. Simon Rosenberg is a longtime Democratic political strategist, the author of the newsletter Hopium Chronicles and one of the few people who correctly predicted the Democrats’ strong performance in 2022. He argues that the Democratic Party is in a better position now than it has been for generations.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, staved, Trump, “, Ezra Klein, Simon Rosenberg, MAGA Organizations: Democrat, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Democratic, ’, Democratic Party

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