MARC A. THIESSEN COLUMNAdvance for release Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, and thereafter(For Thiessen clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)For Print Use Only.By Marc A. Thiessen
 WASHINGTON - For more than a year, support for another presidential run by Donald Trump steadily faded among Republicans as more and more GOP voters decided that, while they admired the former president, they were ready to move on. But in the wake of revelations that President Biden also stored classified documents in his home and office, support for Trump is rebounding. Republicans repulsed by Democrats' hypocrisy are rallying around the former president.
 In October 2021, the GOP nomination seemed to be Trump's for the taking - a Quinnipiac University poll found that 78 percent of Republican voters wanted him to run again. But by June 2022, that share was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult survey. Last July, a New York Times-Siena College poll found support for a third Trump nomination had slipped to 49 percent - a 29-point slide in nine months.
 Trump then got hit by a double-whammy: the news that he had unlawfully kept hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, followed by the disastrous showing of many of his handpicked candidates in the November elections. While many thought the August FBI raid on his home was excessive, there was also a sense that this was yet another self-inflicted wound. And many correctly held Trump responsible for the GOP's disastrous midterm performance, blaming him for costing Republicans winnable races across the country by endorsing unelectable candidates. More and more Republicans were becoming open to supporting a different standard-bearer.
 Meanwhile, Trump's midterm record stood in stark contrast to that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who won reelection overwhelmingly, helped in part by support from independents, women and Hispanic voters. When Trump lashed out at DeSantis after the election, he alienated many in the MAGA movement who love both of them. Trump's November announcement that he was seeking a third term landed with a thud. And his call in December to "terminate" the Constitution and declare him the "RIGHTFUL WINNER" of the 2020 election was bizarre and off-putting. A YouGov poll found just 35 percent of Republicans favored Trump for 2024, while 42 percent said they would prefer DeSantis - a reversal from the previous month.
 But then something else happened: News broke that classified documents from Biden's tenure as vice president had been found in a D.C. office Biden had used and at his Delaware home. Significantly, it emerged that Biden had kept this information from voters in November. In the wake of the Biden documents scandal, Republicans are rallying around Trump again. A Jan. 14 YouGov poll found that 59 percent of Republican voters say they want Trump to run again in 2024 - a 14-point bounce since Dec. 10. (Though, more Republicans also said they thought DeSantis would be more likely than Trump to beat Biden.)
 What changed? A swing bloc of Republican primary voters appear to feel they were duped into abandoning Trump. They were told that the former president's handling of classified documents was irresponsible, only to find that Biden had been similarly irresponsible. And while Democrats have tried to stress the differences between Trump and Biden's cases, most on the right are not buying the distinctions. Both men had classified documents in their homes, but only Trump's residence was raided by the FBI.
 Why are the Biden revelations helping Trump? What Democrats don't seem to understand is that most Republicans - including many who would prefer a different 2024 nominee - don't share the left's hatred of the former president. They admire his historic accomplishments in office, and they believe he was treated unfairly, first with former special counsel Robert S. Mueller's III investigation into possible collusion with Russia (which turned out to be little more than a conspiracy theory) and then his impeachment trials. But Trump's loss to Biden, his conduct after the 2020 election and his disastrous 2022 midterm performance had convinced many that it was time to move on.
 Now, the Biden scandal seems to have changed that - at least for the moment. Recognition and concern are growing on the right that Democrats are going after Trump not because they care about the integrity of classified information (or his shady New York business dealings) but because they want Trump to be convicted of a felony to prevent him from winning office again. His supporters feel that their country is becoming a banana republic, where the legal system is weaponized for political purposes.
 The Democrats' strategy of relentlessly pursuing Trump is backfiring. Instead of ignoring the former president, and letting Republicans come to their own conclusion that they need another standard-bearer (which many were realizing), Democrats want to make that decision for them. As a result, they are pushing GOP voters back into Trump's arms, making it more likely he could again secure the Republican nomination - and the presidency.
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 Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter, @marcthiessen.

Democrats' pursuit of Trump is backfiring - and boosting his support

What the Hell Is Going On?

National Magazine Award, 2010

Peabody Award, 2011

The Post-American World (translated into 30 languages)

From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

In Defense of a Liberal Education

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

FAREED ZAKARIA COLUMNAdvance for release Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, and thereafter(For ZAKARIA clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)For Print Use Only.By Fareed Zakaria
 What should we think of the fact that Donald Trump, Joe Biden and now Mike Pence have all turned out to have classified material sitting in their houses? Before I answer that question, let me tell you a few facts. One 2004 essay put the number of classified pages in existence at about 7.5 billion. In 2012, records were classified at a rate of 3 per second, making for an estimated 95 million classifications that year alone. Today, no one knows how frequently information is classified. And as of 2019, more than 4 million people were eligible to access classified information, about one-third for top secret records, the highest general designation.
 The real scandal is that the U.S. government has a totally out-of-control system of secrets that represents a real danger to the quality of democratic government.
 Let me acknowledge a political point. It is true that people glossed over these issues when Trump was found to be holding onto classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home, but they have begun to discuss them now that President Biden also appears to be guilty of the same offense. Some of this double standard is political bias. But Trump's behavior was also a major issue, particularly his refusal to turn over the documents and defiance of direct requests from the Justice Department. That is an important difference, though it doesn't change the larger point. Given how crazy the classification system is, the wonder is that we don't find more top secret documents littered throughout the houses of government officials.
 In 1998, then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from the time that it was created in 1976, wrote a book titled "Secrecy: The American Experience." In it, he lamented the rise of the "culture of secrecy" within the U.S. government, which he believed was both bad for foreign policy and dangerous to democracy. On the first point, Moynihan argued that many of the government's biggest mistakes were a result of its reluctance to share information and subject its analysis to outside criticism.
 Remember that the intelligence community was largely created to assess one question -- the nature of the Soviet threat. It got this wrong. In the late 1950s, for example, it claimed that the Soviet Union was significantly ahead of the United States in missile technology and deployment, a very consequential but totally false assertion. More broadly, it got the state of the Soviet economy in the 1980s dead wrong, claiming it was sturdy when, in fact, it was collapsing. After the Cold War, in the late 1990s, the intelligence community's central directive was to establish whether Saddam Hussein was trying to develop weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It got that wrong, as well.
 Moynihan argued that secrecy had become a form of regulation and bureaucratic control. People in government viewed information as power, didn't want to share it, and developed elaborate mechanisms to horde it. They covered up mistakes, embarrassments and illegal activities by classifying the problem away. Richard Nixon's solicitor general wrote in 1989 about the publication of the Pentagon Papers, top secret documents about the Vietnam War released while the war was still being waged: "I have never seen any trace of a threat to the national security from the publication. Indeed, I have never seen it even suggested that there was such an actual threat. . . . It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive overclassification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but rather with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another."
 Democratic governments demand transparency. Accountability and control are impossible when citizens know so little about what the government is doing -- and when it has the power to block access to any of that information.
 This problem has become much, much worse in the digital era. Timothy Naftali, a New York University scholar and former director of the Nixon Library, told me, "We now have a tsunami of classified documents -- tens of thousands of emails, PowerPoints, all kinds of stuff -- all stored somewhere in the cloud, but we still have a tiny staff of people at the National Archives for the declassification process." He estimated that it could take five years for a request to declassify a single document to even make it to the agency that has to decide whether to do so. Another scholar, Matthew Connelly of Columbia University, points out that the U.S. government spends about $18 billion a year on classifying and protecting information and just $100 million on declassification.
 Most presidents come to office promising to open up government secrets. Yet once they get into office, they prefer the cozy system that keeps their actions hidden from public scrutiny and assessment. What we have now is a vast military-intelligence secrecy complex that just keeps growing -- a recipe for bad decision-making and unaccountable government.
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 Fareed Zakaria's email address is fareed.zakaria.gps@turner.com.

The culture of government secrecy is out of control

Yale College, BA

Harvard University, PhD

2018 Finalist team, Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

2018 George Polk Award

2010 Urbino International Press Award

2013 Overseas Press Club Award for Foreign Affairs Commentary

Lifetime Achievement Award, International Committee for Foreign Journalists

Legion D'Honneur awarded by the French government

2004 Edward Weintal Prize

2000 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary

As The Post’s foreign editor, Ignatius supervised the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

The Paladin

The Quantum Spy

The Director

Bloodmoney

The Increment

Body of Lies

The Sun King

A Firing Offense

The Bank of Fear

SIRO

Agents of Innocence

DAVID IGNATIUS COLUMNAdvance for release Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, and thereafter(For Ignatius clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)For Print Use Only.By David Ignatius
 WASHINGTON - With little public fanfare, the United States and Israel this week staged a massive military exercise in the Mediterranean clearly meant to simulate a strike against Iran. It was a reminder that no matter what else is happening in the world, the poisonous kettle of the Iranian nuclear program keeps bubbling.
 "Juniper Oak 23," as it was dubbed, was the largest joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise ever, according to Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman. What caught my attention was that it involved all the weapons systems that would be needed for a U.S.-Israeli assault against Iran's nuclear facilities.
 The simulated operations included "electronic attack, suppression of enemy air defenses, strike coordination and reconnaissance, and air interdiction," which are "exactly what the United States and Israel would need to conduct a successful kinetic attack on Iran's nuclear program," wrote Bradley Bowman and Ryan Brobst, two analysts with the pro-Israel Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They noted that the exercise included "three successive waves of attacks" by B-52 bombers.
 The Biden administration would doubtless rather focus publicly on other military issues, starting with the war in Ukraine and the "pacing threat" posed by an increasingly powerful China. But Iran is a problem that doesn't go away, even as three successive American presidents have tried to reduce U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.
 The joint show of force is a boon for Benjamin Netanyahu, newly elected again as Israeli prime minister. Israeli media showed him Wednesday intently watching video transmissions of the exercises, sitting next to Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli chief of staff.
 Netanyahu's new government is fragile, and his proposals to reduce the power of the Israeli judiciary have drawn fierce criticism, including massive street demonstrations in Tel Aviv and other cities. At such a delicate moment, the Biden administration probably wouldn't want to do Netanyahu any favors. But this week's exercise shows that U.S.-Israeli military cooperation is largely impervious to internal politics in either country.
 According to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American operations in the region, the exercise involved roughly 6,400 U.S. troops, 12 ships and more than 140 American aircraft. The Israelis contributed more than 1,500 troops, a Centcom statement said. Over four days, U.S. and Israeli forces dropped more than 180,000 pounds of live munitions.
 In addition to the B-52 strategic bombers, the American arsenal on display this week included F-35 deep-penetration fighters, the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier strike group, HIMARS rockets, armed Reaper drones and KC-46 tankers that could help Israeli or U.S. planes refuel on a mission over Iran.
 Juniper Oak was a show of 21st-century combat power, involving "all aspects of warfighting - some of which are seen and some of which are not," said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the Centcom commander. Kurilla said in a statement on Thursday that the exercise had included simulated operations in space and cyberspace.
 U.S. and Israeli military officials would not confirm officially that Juniper Oak was planned with Iran as a potential target. But that has been an open secret ever since the two countries began organizing the exercise in November.
 The show of force comes as the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have stalled. The administration hasn't formally withdrawn from its diplomatic efforts. But State Department spokesman Ned Price said this month that "a return to compliance with the [Iran nuclear deal] isn't on the agenda . . . because the Iranians turned their back on it."
 Iran has pressed ahead with its nuclear enrichment program, ever since President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, and now has breakout capability, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "They have amassed enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons, not one, at this point," Grossi said this week.
 In the nuclear realm, deterrence is the essence of good strategy. And that's the baseline for assessing this week's rehearsal for a military attack on Iran. President Biden has said the United States will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and that he would use force as a "last resort" to stop Tehran from going nuclear.
 This week's exercises makes that U.S. threat a little more credible - and, if the logic of deterrence holds, reduces the likelihood of an actual conflict. That's the theory, at least. What Juniper Oak suggested was that a military action, if it ever came, would likely be massive.
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 Contact David Ignatius on Twitter @IgnatiusPost

The U.S. and Israel remind us that the Iran threat still looms

Harvard College

Kings College, Cambridge

1977 Pulitzer Prize for commentary

1979 National Magazine Awards: Finalist in the essay and criticism category

1978 National Headliners Award

1980 Silurian Award for editorial writing

1985 The Washington Journalism Review named Will best writer, any subject

1997 Named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal

The Pursuit of Happiness and Other Sobering Thoughts

The Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions

The Morning After: American Successes and Excesses 1981-1986

Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home 1986-1990

The Leveling Wind: Politics, the Culture, and Other News, 1990-1994

The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric

With a Happy Eye, But ... America and the World, 1997-2002

One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation

Statecraft as Soulcraft

The New Season: A Spectator's Guide to the 1988 Election

Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball

Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy

The Conservative Sensibility

American Happiness and Discontents

GEORGE F. WILL COLUMNAdvance for release Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023, and thereafter(For Will clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)For Print Use Only.By George F. Will
 BALTIMORE - At the Space Telescope Science Institute, on the Johns Hopkins University campus, a constant torrent of data pours in from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, enabling cosmologists to write ancient history. Not the history of the Greeks and Romans, who lived a mere blink ago. Rather, it is the history of (BEG ITAL)everything(END ITAL).
 Everything began, cosmologists currently think, with a bang - the Big Bang; if (BEG ITAL)it(END ITAL) does not deserve to be a proper noun, what does? - 13.7 billion years ago. All the material in the universe, including us, is - literally - stardust (cue Nat King Cole's rendition), meaning residues of the explosion. The light gathered by Webb's mirrors expands our knowledge of how stars form. And perish: This is not going to end well.
 Launched 13 months ago, Webb is orbiting 940,000 miles away. With its 18 mirrors and its five sunshield layers unfolded, it is a tennis-court-size engineering masterpiece. To function, each mirror must, after being hurled into space on a shuddering rocket, retain this exquisite precision: If each mirror were the size of the continental United States, each should not vary more than 2 inches from perfect conformity with the others.
 Furthermore, the mirrors left Earth the "wrong" size: They were designed to contract in space to achieve a precise shape at the temperature out there: minus-388 degrees Fahrenheit.
 The wavelength of light is "stretched" as the universe expands; hence the analysis of light can date the light's source. Above the filter of the Earth's atmosphere, Webb has already gathered light that has taken more than 13.4 billion years to reach its mirrors, light from the earliest galaxy yet confirmed: It formed only 350 million years after the Big Bang.
 The U.S. lunar expeditions, the last of which was in 1972, were feats of individual bravery and engineering ingenuity. They were, however, without the scientific fascination that has driven space exploration since the discovery in 1965 that the universe is permeated with background radiation. This seems to confirm the Big Bang theory.
 Scientific propositions are, however, testable and hence theoretically falsifiable, so even familiar ones are contingent. The Big Bang theory postulates that the universe was inflated from a microscopic speck in a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, at a temperature of trillions degrees centigrade. And is still expanding.
 If so, Copernicus's supposed impertinence - demoting Earth (and us) from the center of the universe - was, we now know, nonsensical: There is no center in an expanding universe without an edge.
 Astronomer Adam Frank says Webb, which was expected to support the Big Bang theory, has revealed "the existence of galaxies so old that the very origins of the universe have instead been called into question." As has, some say, the theory of an expanding universe. Not so, says Frank:
 For most of the previous 2,500 years, the universe was considered timeless and unchanging. Even by Albert Einstein, who, Frank says, "assumed that the universe now must look like the universe a trillion years in the past and future." By proving that galaxies formed before they had previously been expected to exist - "just a few hundred million years after the cosmic expansion began" - Webb has done what, Frank says, science should do, which is "force us to confront false assumptions we hadn't even known we'd made." Doing so, he says, the telescope has confirmed the essence of the Big Bang theory: "cosmic evolution." The universe has a history. As we learn how to write it, we learn about our place in it.
 Earth is "biophilic" - conducive to life - only because the Big Bang led to molecules of water and atoms of carbon, which are necessary for life. They need not, however, have been included in a post-Bang universe. For some theologically inclined people, this fact means that we are not a cosmic fluke but a cosmic imperative.
 Our sun, however, will expire in approximately 5 billion years. About when our wee Milky Way galaxy with its 200 billion stars will collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy. The universe, as portrayed by the light that Webb gathers, is breathtakingly beautiful, and unimaginably violent.
 Earth is biophilic only somewhat (volcanoes, earthquakes, viruses, etc.), and only briefly, as measured by the cosmos's clock. But what distinguishes us from trees and trout and every known (so far) thing in the universe is what Webb exists solely to satisfy. The Webb Space Telescope speaks well of us precisely because it has, and needs, no justification beyond the purity of its service to curiosity.
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 George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

The Webb Space Telescope is telling humanity the history of everything

Trinity College 

Oxford University

Princeton University

2009 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race (Free Press, 1999)

Last Dance in Havana: The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution (Free Press, 2004)

EUGENE ROBINSON COLUMNAdvance for release Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, and thereafter(For Robinson clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)For Print Use Only.By Eugene Robinson
 WASHINGTON - The people of New York's 3rd Congressional District thought they were sending to the House a successful Jewish businessman who had attended an elite prep school, starred on the volleyball team at Baruch College, earned a graduate degree at New York University, worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, founded his own thriving asset-management firm, and served his community by running an animal-rescue charity.
 Instead, they got none of the above.
 They got Rep. George Santos (R), or "Anthony Devolder," or "Anthony Zabrovsky," or "Kitara Ravache." Whoever he might be, he is not remotely the man those voters believed they were electing.
 Santos defrauded his constituents, morally if not legally, and effectively disenfranchised them. More of his fabrications are revealed almost daily. His presence in the House chamber, where so much history has taken place, defiles and dishonors the institution - yes, that is still possible - and he should be promptly expelled.
 This is something that Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on. Almost every member of Congress I've ever met, from either party, at some level understands holding elective office as a sacred trust. To accept a brazen charlatan such as Santos as a colleague is to mock the hallowed place they love to call the "People's House."
 The excuse for doing nothing that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Santos have offered - that the people of his district decided Santos should represent them, and their will is sovereign - holds no water. Those voters chose a fictional character, a figment of Santos's fertile imagination. Their will was not honored, but instead thwarted, by his myriad lies.
 If Santos had, say, claimed a college degree that he fell just short of earning, or exaggerated his athletic prowess or his business acumen, I would understand a decision to let voters render their verdict in 2024. He would hardly be the first member of Congress to burnish a résumé. But I am aware of no precedent in which a representative or senator forged an entire gleaming persona out of patent lies.
 There is no shame in capping one's formal education with a high school equivalency diploma; Abraham Lincoln, who served a term in the House, never went to college, either. But to then claim both undergraduate and graduate degrees is indeed shameful, and dishonest, and perhaps pathological.
 And given where his district is, it was unforgivable for Santos to falsely claim on his campaign website that his mother "was in her office in the South Tower" of the World Trade Center at the moment of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Santos said on Twitter that 9/11 "claimed my mother's life." He told voters that although she survived the attacks, she later died of cancer - implying that the illness was caused by toxic dust and debris from the towers' collapse. There is no evidence that Santos's mother worked at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and immigration records appear to show she was not even in the United States at the time.
 In the parts of Queens and Long Island that Santos represents, many voters would have personally known office workers or firefighters who died on 9/11 or in the aftermath. For Santos to lie about having a personal connection to a tragedy so deeply felt by so many New Yorkers is cynical and sick.
 I realize that calling for Santos to be expelled might sound quixotic. Yes, I know that Republicans have only a nine-seat House majority. I know McCarthy needed Santos's vote to become speaker and will need his continuing support to keep that hard-won gavel. And I know there is a good chance that if Santos were tossed out, the seat might well go to a Democrat in a special election.
 But even then, Republicans would still control the chamber. And McCarthy's position is already precarious, since any member of the GOP caucus can force a vote on his ouster. Also, there is a practical question: How can McCarthy or anyone else in the House trust anything Santos ever says?
 The House Ethics Committee is investigating Santos but usually moves at the speed of molasses in winter. Local and federal prosecutors, meanwhile, are following the money - looking into Santos's personal and campaign finances - and McCarthy might be waiting to see what those probes unearth before taking any action.
 If so, that is a mistake. It is already beyond dispute that injury has been done to the people of New York's 3rd District, who are denied the representative they voted for. As speaker, McCarthy has a binary choice: Either he moves against Santos in defense of the House's integrity - or he proves that it has none.
 - - -
 Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

George Santos is a fraud. Expel him from the House.

2004 2nd place in the National Headliner Awards

2006 3rd place in the National Headliners Awards presented by the Press Club of Atlantic City

2002 & 2003, the Dallas Observer named him Best Columnist at a Daily Newspaper

A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano (1993)

Contributer to Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul (2000), of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.

RUBEN NAVARRETTE COLUMNFOR IMMEDIATE PRINT AND WEB RELEASE(For Navarrette clients)By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
 SAN DIEGO - Columnists should not offer solutions to policy issues because having a stake in the debate makes it impossible to fairly assess plans without favoring your own. 
 Still, readers want to know my solution to the immigration crisis. 
 One wrote: "I read another article you wrote about the failures of President Biden's immigration plans. While I may not disagree with your observations, I am still waiting for your solutions."
 It's not that such readers actually value my opinion. Most of the time, they're just trying to shut me up. Since I'm in the center, both liberals and conservatives want me to pipe down. I've excoriated Biden for his atrocious handling of the U.S.-Mexico border - which includes expanding the punitive policies of President Donald Trump. In response, Biden defenders and Trump defenders alike take offense and demand to know what I would do differently. 
 Of course, I have my own 20-point plan. Doesn't every American? The immigration debate brings out the inner policy wonk in everyone, though some proposals are better-thought-out than others. Immigration is one of those issues where not knowing or understanding much about the topic doesn't disqualify you from having a strong opinion. 
 See: The Fox News lineup of prime-time hosts. 
 While many of the alternatives seem half-baked, my plan has spent plenty of time in the oven. It's solid, and it's a good omen that elements of it tick off the absolutists on both the right and the left. It begins by calling on Americans to do something they don't like to do: be honest about the "problem" we're supposedly trying to solve. 
 With more members of Generation Z taking sabbaticals from the workforce, and more employers needing to replace them, the real "immigration problem" is that we don't have enough immigrants.
 That's the kind of straight talk you get from a Mexican American journalist who has covered immigration from three states in the Southwest over three decades. I've seen this issue from every angle. And since I'm not hobbled by partisan loyalty, I see it clearly. 
 Another reader wrote: "You're in an excellent position to design immigration policy. Please share your thoughts."
 My plan would go a long way toward securing the border, easing the refugee crisis, welcoming more immigrants legally, getting workers to fill jobs Americans won't do and fixing a broken system.
 Yet, recently, I recalled another reason I don't like publicizing my plan: Whenever I put out my ideas, many readers mistakenly assume that I'm asking them to share theirs with me. 
 No, thank you. If you have an immigration plan, and it comes from the left (meaning it's probably "woke" and impractical) or the right (so it's likely barbaric and cruel), keep it to yourself. I'll do the same. 
 Even so, I will share what I consider to be the best proposal on my list and something I've never heard from anyone else:
 Let's accept that we're not going to give immediate and automatic U.S. citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants. Instead, let's give them the three things they say they want most: driver's licenses so they can go to work and take kids to school, the ability to travel back and forth to home countries to visit relatives, and a shield against deportation as long as they don't commit crimes. 
 There would be no ban. If they want citizenship, they can pursue it on their own. But obtaining it wouldn't be quick and easy, the way many Democrats want it to be. 
 I bet conservatives are smiling. Their resistance to comprehensive immigration reform is about a reluctance to pay the piper. The Republican Party - which once preached a lovely sermon about taking responsibility for one's actions - won't take responsibility for its decades of picking on immigrants. When people say "citizenship," Republicans hear "voting." They can't let millions of undocumented immigrants vote because the GOP would get the electoral spanking that is so overdue. 
 However, right-wingers will probably not look as kindly on what comes next. Since these newly legalized individuals would not immediately enjoy all the privileges of U.S. citizenship, including voting for their representatives in government, they should not have to pay taxes - local, state or federal. If they become citizens on their own, they can start anteing up then.
 Consider it: No taxation without representation.
 Say, that's a catchy phrase. You could build an entire nation on a principle like that. 
 - - -
 Navarrette's email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, "Ruben in the Center," is available through every podcast app.

Readers demand an immigration solution from a columnist - and may regret it

Barney thinks Cynthia's Twitter handle is inappropriate, so she changes it.

Barney & Clyde

The trainer responds after Joe criticizes her work.

Fort Knox

Lizzie has something bold to tell her company, if she can just remember it.

Reply All

Has Drew given any more thought to becoming a drummer in a rock band?

Reply All Lite

Barney was not prepared for Cynthia and Katy's origami project.

Lizzie wouldn't say no to a classy certificate acknowledging her contributions.

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Machu Picchu residents demand resignation of president

Travel to Machu Picchu blocked amid nationwide protests

Machu Picchu depleted of tourists amid nationwide protests

Residents outside of Machu Picchu demand 'Dina' resignation

A small rail cart replaces train transport in Machu Picchu

<html><story><text>
 MACHU PICCHU, Peru - If it were a normal day, thousands of tourists would be stepping off the train and into this picture book town high in the Andes, the gateway to the ancient Inca ruins.
 But on this day, the 15th-century citadel was closed shut, its magnificent stone terraces bereft of visitors. The tracks that bring tourist trains to one of South America's most visited attractions had been removed or blocked, cutting the town off from the rest of Peru. And the hotels and restaurants and handicraft market that ordinarily buzz with paying customers were silent.
 Then a man in the central plaza began banging a large drum. People carrying bright red and white Peruvian flags formed a crowd. And a woman with a megaphone called on neighbors to demand that their country's government - and the world - listen to them.
 "Good morning, neighbors," shouted Irma Pereyra, 49, who sells artisanal crafts in the market. "Today begins a radical strike!"
 Peru has been roiled by weeks of protests demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte. After the death toll passed 50 last week, the people who rely on Machu Picchu tourist money to feed their families voted to take a stand.
 The town of about 7,000 people, often marketed as Aguas Calientes, agreed last Friday to declare a "total strike," shutting down all businesses in solidarity with the nationwide demonstrations. They urged the country's Ministry of Culture to close the ruins to the public, to keep protesters from neighboring towns from invading their ancestral sanctuary. Ministry officials closed the citadel Saturday, citing the safety of tourists.
 The UNESCO World Heritage site, which generates tens of millions of dollars for Peru each year, was only just recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. The severing of the rail link had already slowed the flow of tourists to a trickle and cut off the town's only supply route for food and fuel. Now the strike brought the local economy to a standstill, indefinitely.
 But the sacrifice will be worthwhile, people here say, if it sends a message to a central government that has long benefited from the town but ignored its demands. Under Peruvian law, the municipality of Machu Picchu receives 10 percent of the revenue from the park. But for years, townspeople say, corrupt politicians have allowed big businesses to monopolize tourism here, leaving little to trickle down to the people.
 "This democracy is no longer a democracy!" dozens chanted as they marched past shuttered hostels, restaurants and massage parlors toward the entrance of the ruins. They covered the shuttered gate with a black-and-white anti-corruption flag and circled around.
 "If there isn't a solution," they chanted, "we'll take over Machu Picchu!"
 David Moreno Riveros, a strike leader, said he wouldn't allow it to go that far. That night, he told the crowd, townspeople would meet with their mayor and decide whether to continue the strike.
 He argued that they should. Weeks of protests and at least 56 deaths had not brought down Boluarte. If they could make a statement at the globally beloved marvel, Moreno hoped, governments, organizations and individuals abroad might start paying attention.
 "We are here," Moreno shouted. "But no one is listening to us."
 Without trains, the only way Washington Post journalists could reach the town was by foot.
 We traveled at night, to avoid roadblocks. First, our driver, Pit Bull, steered our Toyota SUV around the sharp turns of mountain roads littered with boulders planted by protesters. The following morning, led by a 62-year-old, chain-smoking guide, we began our hike: Nearly seven miles along the unused train tracks, followed the entire way by a small black stray dog.
 We passed empty camp sites and restaurants and, occasionally, people with wheelbarrows or burlap bags to carry food and supplies to their town. A trek that normally involves a quick train ride that costs locals about $1 now required a two- to three-hour walk each way.
 "Tourism maintains us all," said Carlos Soncco, 54, who ordinarily runs a small bar in town. "The strike hurts us all."
 Juan Carlos Durán, 39, sells postcards at the entrance to the ruins. On Monday morning, he was hiking hours to buy chicken to sell back home.
 After nearly three hours, we arrived in the town of Machu Picchu, its hotels and restaurants densely stacked over narrow streets along the Urubamba River. The municipality, a 20-minute walk from the ruins, was established only a few generations ago, in 1941, 30 years after American explorer Hiram Bingham III brought the site to the world's attention.
 The site soon began to draw tourists, and the town grew. But in recent years, the people have grown frustrated by what they see as a market controlled by the railroad and large hotel owners. Tourists increasingly book their travel through agencies, not local businesses, and many visit and return to Cusco on the same day. Few tourists spend much time in the town, locals say.
 The pandemic shut tourism down for seven months. When the citadel reopened, the government capped the number of tourists at 2,244 per day. After the town's residents protested, the limit was raised to 4,044, but locals say it's not enough.
 Peru's rural poor believed they finally had their champion in Pedro Castillo, the left-wing former schoolteacher who was elected president in 2021. But once in office, he proved inept, chaotic and allegedly corrupt. When he tried in December to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, Congress impeached him.
 Boluarte was his vice president. Since she succeeded him, his supporters say she has been captured by the right wing.
 On Tuesday, Boluarte called for a truce with protesters. But she also accused some of ties to "radical groups that have a political and economic agenda based on drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling."
 Hours after she spoke, on the tracks just outside the town of Machu Picchu, residents burned cardboard coffins emblazoned with "DINA" and accused her of murder.
 But their protests are coming at a high cost.
 With businesses closed, people are struggling to make rent. Some have begun making a communal meal in the town plaza each day to help feed newly needy families. Food scarcity has sent prices soaring. Tomatoes, which cost about 75 cents per kilogram, now cost more than $2.50.
 Felícitas Vilca Ochoa, a 62-year-old who sells juices in the market, said she has thought about leaving Machu Picchu in search of a new source of income elsewhere.
 Yushara Roque, 33, kept her shop open. She felt she didn't have a choice - she had just used the last of her savings to pay her bills that day. She supported the idea behind the protests, she said, but she didn't see the point.
 "From here, I don't think we can do anything," she said, breastfeeding her 6-month-old.
 After three days of protests, the people of Machu Picchu packed the town theater Monday night to make a decision: Was it worth continuing the fight?
 Mayor Elvis La Torre gave a word of caution. Tourists were canceling plans to visit. The town was in crisis - and the strike was making it worse.
 "Our children need to eat," he said. "We are killing the line of gold, and that will bring serious consequences now and in the months to come."
 But as resident after resident rose to speak, it was clear their minds were made up.
 Even if they lifted the strike, Pereyra said, tourism wouldn't return to normal levels and the town would continue to struggle. This was their chance to demand change.
 "Machu Picchu is its people, and the people need to be able to benefit from our marvel," she said. "It can't only serve the big ones. Tourism needs to benefit us."
 The vote was unanimous: The strike would continue. The crowd cheered: "El pueblo unidojamás será vencido" -" The people, united, will never be defeated."
 The next day, officials said, a humanitarian train would carry residents most of the way to the nearest towns to buy food and supplies. But when the day came, no train arrived. We found an alternative way of getting back: A small wooden rail cart powered by a motor bike. It had transported the mayor earlier that day.
 ---Video Embed CodeVideo: Residents of Machu Picchu closed businesses and marched through the streets in solidarity with nationwide demonstrations on Jan. 23.(The Washington Post)Embed code: &lt;iframe src=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/7dfe1d4b-ff91-4f7c-92fa-1d1c43f4e5a0?ptvads=block&amp;playthrough=false&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;Video: The only way for Washington Post journalists to reach the town of Machu Picchu was by foot and assisted by a small black stray dog.(The Washington Post)Embed code: &lt;iframe src=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/a2dfb4bf-e142-4b6b-9ded-391d9887aa18?ptvads=block&amp;playthrough=false&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;Video: Machu Picchu, usually buzzing with thousands of tourists, sits quietly tucked away in the Andes mountains as nationwide protests have limited travel.(The Washington Post)Embed code: &lt;iframe src=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/0f608c27-64a9-43ef-9a0b-5cb59807fe59?ptvads=block&amp;playthrough=false&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;Video: Outside of Machu Picchu, residents burned cardboard coffins emblazoned with "DINA" following protests demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte.(The Washington Post)Embed code: &lt;iframe src=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/e18b5fbf-ee4a-46c1-9c52-36bd14145b32?ptvads=block&amp;playthrough=false&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;Video: With no trains operating, Washington Post journalists leave Machu Picchu on a small wooden rail cart powered by a motor bike.(The Washington Post)Embed code: &lt;iframe src=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/a038c58a-9393-4f98-90f3-be368a169c61?ptvads=block&amp;playthrough=false&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; data-category-id=&quot;vertical&quot; data-aspect-ratio=&quot;1.7778&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</text>
 </story></html> peru They depend on Machu Picchu to survive. They shut it down anyway. Americas Samantha Schmidt Michael Robinson Chavez ellipsis

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 ALBERTSON, N.Y. - Sitting in the basement of an American Legion building, an American flag tucked in the corner and the sounds of a church rock band playing above, a group gathered for a local Republican club meeting to discuss one thing: Rep. George Santos.
 "Every day that he's still there, we are suffering. I mean, he's become a joke on late-night talk shows, but to us, it's not funny because we deserve a real congressman," said North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, who endorsed Santos during his campaign but has since called on him to resign.
 Santos's (R-N.Y.) constituents say they once saw him as a fresh face for the Republican Party, a promising candidate who could flip New York's 3rd Congressional District from Democratic control. During his campaign, Santos touted his success as a businessman and his lineage as a first-generation American with roots in Brazil. He promised to work to reduce inflation, combat crime and secure the U.S.'s southern border.
 But Santos's tenure in Congress was thrown into disarray before it even started, when the New York Times reported he fabricated large parts of his résumé, including that he had an MBA from New York University and worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs - none of which is true.
 What has followed has been a consistent drip of new details, seemingly every day, that have painted the picture of Santos as a serial fabulist, ranging from small embellishments to statements now subject to investigation by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York. He has faced calls from his Republican colleagues in the House to step down, as well as from local Republican officials.
 Santos has admitted to some embellishments about his past, but has said he won't resign his seat.
 Caught in the middle of the drama are the 746,449 constituents in Santos's district, which spans parts of northeastern Queens to towns along the North Shore on Long Island. In interviews with The Washington Post over several days, residents who supported Santos said they both regretted their choice and were resigned to his status as a member of Congress.
 But the prevailing sentiment, among both Republicans and Democrats, was raw anger and a sense of being cheated.
 "George Santos deceived us. He deceived Republicans and he deceived Democrats," said Jody Kass Finkel, the co-founder of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, a nonpartisan group of residents calling for Santos to resign. "He's a liar. He's a cheater. And he's probably a criminal."
 In Manhasset, a town that exemplifies the places where Santos won overwhelmingly, salons, clothing boutiques, and artisan bakeries and cafes line old brick storefronts. The town is located a handful of train stops from Manhattan, where many residents in this area work. On the outskirts of town sit spacious, multimillion dollar homes, country clubs and private schools.
 Joe Biden won the district by nine percentage points in 2020. But in 2022, concerns over public safety, immigration and the economy propelled Santos into his seat over his Democratic opponent Robert Zimmerman, flipping the seat from Democrat to Republican control.
 Despite Santos's indiscretions, several Nassau County voters admitted they thought it was better to have a Republican hold the seat than open it up to another election and risk losing it a Democrat.
 Henry Golis, an Albertson resident who is involved with the Albertson/Roslyn Heights Republican Club, said he voted for Santos for his views on securing the southern border and boosting the economy. He said recent reports about Santos's fabrications were "shocking" but stopped short of calling for his resignation.
 "The damage is already done. He already stated that he wasn't going to resign," Golis said. "He's going to see this play out. And now it is the responsibility of Congress where he is now, to do what they want with them."
 Several Republicans in Congress have called for Santos to resign or have expressed caution about working with him. House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) called Santos a "bad guy," and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) called him an "impostor."
 Despite the calls for resignation and overall concerns, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not joined calls for Santos to step down and assigned him seats on two committees. McCarthy has a slim, four-vote majority in the House, and earlier this month, Santos voted to support him on all of the 15 ballots McCarthy needed to win the speaker's gavel
 "I try to stick by the Constitution. The voters elected him to serve," McCarthy told reporters on Jan. 11. "If there is a concern, and he has to go through the Ethics (Committee), let him move through that."
 Santos has said he will continue to serve in office, but maintaining that posture for two years of his term could be tenuous.
 He is under investigation by federal prosecutors who are looking into his finances and whether he broke any laws while running for office. And Brazilian authorities have announced they are reviving a 2008 case that involved Santos and a stolen checkbook. Law enforcement officials initially suspended the case after they could not locate Santos but have said they will reinstate fraud charges against Santos and seek a "formal response" from the New York congressman.
 "We're in this vulnerable position of being represented by a fraud and a con man, and that really means we're not represented at all," said Kim Keiserman, 51, a registered Democrat and member of the Concerned Citizens of NY-03. "He's really a pariah on both sides of the aisle, so there's just no scenario under which he can be an effective legislator or, you know, a real voice for our district."
 Several people who told The Post they voted for Santos said they regretted their decision, or expressed anger at Santos for fabricating parts of his personal and professional story.
 "I'm completely outraged by the whole thing, that someone would lie on their résumé to that extent and then call it an embellishment. I think it's a complete outrage," said Anthony Raimondi, a 62-year-old resident from Manhasset.
 Asked if he would vote for Santos again, Raimondi replied "Definitely not."
 Back at the meeting in the American Legion basement, former Rep. John LeBoutillier (R-N. Y), who broke party lines endorsing Santos's Democratic opponent, compared Santos to former president Donald Trump, calling them "two peas in a pod."
 "These guys lie about anything, " he said. "It's sad to say this is what we as a party have become."
 Some in the group asked LeBoutillier why Republicans in Congress had not immediately taken up a vote to remove Santos from office.
 His answer was simple: "Kevin McCarthy so far has not been willing to throw him out."
 After the meeting concluded, people lingered in the room, with some saying they now had a better understanding of the news reports about Santos and the intricacies of Congress. Others remained steadfast that the national political implications of removing Santos from office would do more harm than good.
 "My heart says yes [Santos should be removed or resign], but my brain says [McCarthy] can't because they need the seat," said Howard Abbondondelo, an Albertson resident. "But I won't invite him over for Thanksgiving dinner, that's for sure."
 
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 </story></html> santos In George Santos's district, voters feel a mix of regret and resignation Politics Camila DeChalus ellipsis

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 CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. - The last of the atmospheric river is passing through, with one more storm scheduled for this evening, and there goes a dragon's tail of thrashing green-white onrushing waves, a king tide swollen by roaring rains and splintered timber from the sinky old piers. All of it is disappearing over the horizon line of a blue-gray-violet Pacific no clouds can seem to dull the color of, and trickling back come the golfers, looking so incredibly small and artificial in their sweat-wicking pastel polos.
 For three solid unrelieved weeks, the pileup of cyclonic storms has obscured the Northern California coastlines with dense drifting fogs and white mist thrown off huge waves. Yet something has come incredibly clear: the difference between contrived, equipment-laden sports and the marvelous things mammals can do with nothing but a second skin.
 The neat-mown Pebble Beach Golf Links is a trifling backdrop to the clouting storm waves, which have made the beach look like the dragon has taken jagged-toothed bites out of it. Vertical sand cliffs and black rocks are marked with staked signs saying, "BEACH CLOSED, HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS." Yet just over there, a guy in a thin rain jacket is standing with a fishing rod on a promontory that explodes with sea spray, in hopes of snaring rockfish. On a sandy path, another guy in a windbreaker has decided to use an aged bare cypress limb to do chin-ups.
 And out there, three wetsuit-hooded surfers are just visible in the frigid waters, their boards bowing and curtsying in the swells. One of them catches a last foaming ride and then flips on his back and strips his suit down to his bare chest, lolling in 54-degree water that would make a normal man hyperventilate and lose dexterity within 15 seconds. He strolls out of the shore break with his tea-green board under his bare arm.
 Californians, man. Don't ever call them soft.
 According to the National Weather Service, this has been the wettest 22-day stretch since 1862. Santa Cruz has seen more than 22 inches of rain; in the Sierras, the snowpack is 200- to 300-percent above the usual level, and when the runoff came down from the hills to meet the onrushing Pacific surf tides last week, it threatened to cut off the entire Monterey Peninsula. The highway that normally would have carried folks from coastal towns to the San Francisco 49ers playoff game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara was totally shut down, thanks to a sinkhole the size of a slot canyon.
 For days it rendered the jewel-like, overpriced golf courses in the area mostly unplayable. Rogue waves chased duffers off the oceanside 14th hole at Monterey Peninsula Golf Club, which sits just behind Pebble. At Spyglass and Cypress Point, holes stood barren, no one willing to shell out exorbitant sums for the privilege of getting their hats blown off and pants cuffs caught in an undertow.
 Meanwhile, not 20 yards across the dunes, a gaggle of surfers ride a rock-scored break called Cobblestones at Spanish Bay, having paid nothing more than the $11 fee to pass through the gates of 17-Mile Drive in their jeeps.
 At storied old Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, you can stand at a railing on a lighthouse bluff and stare straight down upon some of the best big-wave riders and daring athletes on the planet. It's one of the world's greatest free amphitheaters. The atmospheric river made it fierce with flood runoff and shattered timber, and the view of the wrecked beaches and piers was mournful - and dangerous seeming.
 "There's a lot of wood in the water," said Grant Washburn, a 30-year veteran of the coast known for his mastery of the big wave break Mavericks. Also, a little-known side effect of storm surfing in brown-grey water is, "You get a sinus infection almost every time," Washburn says. "Makes you sick. It's impossible to do without getting a ton of water in the nose and ears."
 Still, on even some of the worst days the water has been pocked with surfers. Young John Mel, the phenom son of legendary surf titan Peter Mel, was captured by a Santa Cruz Instagrammer with his leap from the Steamer Lane rocks into a maelstrom. He flailed to the outer break, where he dropped into a frothing washing machine and zigzagged it on his gun. Washburn could only admire the kid's "raw excitement for the whole thing."
 All of it has bedazzled this tourist from the East, who crossed into California on Dec. 29 having driven all the way across the continental states, just in time to meet the storm in the teeth. A rented wooden vacation cottage shudders in the gusts, and the woodpecker scarers attached to the shingles thwack like machine guns. In the local village, an American flag is so shredded that its tangled threads are inseparable from a clematis vine, and old cypress trees lay splintered and toppled, buzzsaws cutting them away from the roads. The little cottage is safer, as it happens, than the architectural marvels perched on the rocky seaward verges of Big Sur, one of which took a 50-foot wave straight through its plate glass window.
 Golf? Football? How labored, unnatural and contraption-heavy they seem against the atmospheric river. Just walking around here is a risky endurance sport, but with sheer outdoors-habituated hardiness, the locals defy the signs and fill the scourged beaches every day, stepping heedlessly over the warning signs and salt-bleached logs of ruined piers. A mother trails three racing towheaded boys, one of whom stares undaunted at gigantic piles of sharded redwood and cypress, and says, "Mommy, I want a stick." The wood mixes with kelp skeins the size of Shaquille O'Neal's upper arms, torn from the ocean floor to the delight of the feeding otters.
 Outstripping even the surfers, it's the animals that show you true natural athleticism. The unsinkable otters laze buoyant on their backs in the pounding white water, and the seabirds hover and settle gently on the point of a rock in the gale, balancing on thin bare legs. Beat that for coordination, you think, as you lean into the wind along a one-way coastal road lined by wind-tortured trees that curve into . . . well, let's just say a lot of vastness remains in this country, epic and open valleys seemingly still unmarked, where a human is simply an ever-diminishing dot.
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 </story></html> jenkins On California's coast, humans ride out nature's rage Sally Jenkins ellipsis Sports

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 Hilary Gamble, an associate professor at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama, had for months seen TikTok as a powerful teaching tool for students in her classes on media and culture. She often punctuated her lessons with TikTok videos from young creators, whose commentary on books, philosophy and current events always felt fresher than textbooks - and which the students, relating to the videos' language and style, could follow at home.
 Then last month, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) announced that TikTok was banned from all state-owned devices due to fears that the app, which is owned by a company based in China, threatened to expose Alabamians to "Chinese infiltration operations." "Look, I'm no TikTok user," Ivey, 78, said in an announcement, "but the evidence speaks for itself."
 Auburn banned TikTok from its WiFi network, blocking Gamble from showing anything from an app with more than 100 million U.S. users and an unavoidable presence in modern culture. The university's 16,000-follower TikTok account also stopped posting videos about school spirit and campus life.
 But Gamble's students quickly figured out that they could still scroll TikTok all they wanted just by hopping onto their phones' data plans. "They're rolling their eyes, basically," she said. "I had a couple students who were like, 'What? I didn't know it was banned. I've been on it all day.'"
 Alabama is one of the more than two dozen states that have banned TikTok on government-owned devices, nearly all of them within the last two months, as part of a snowballing government panic over a wildly popular app best known for its viral jokes and dance routines. On Thursday, Maine became at least the 28th state to ban TikTok on state devices, citing unspecified risks to the "sensitive and confidential data that we are entrusted to protect."
 The state officials - and TikTok's critics in Congress, who are now pushing for a nationwide ban - have offered no evidence for their sweeping claims that the company poses a "clear and present danger" to American fans, perhaps by abusing Americans' data or skewing its video recommendations in line with the geopolitical goals of the Chinese Communist Party.
 But it's not exactly clear whether the largely symbolic bans are anything more than political grandstanding, given that the number of devices covered in each state is relatively minuscule. At Pennsylvania's treasury department, officials last month passed a ban covering all of the agency's devices: 500 laptops and desktops and 40 cellphones. None of the devices had TikTok installed, though two of the phones had installed the app more than two years ago for "research purposes," a spokesperson told The Washington Post.
 In any case, the bans suggest officials are trying to pull TikTok into the center of a culture war over what has become one of the most popular and influential social media platforms in America.
 Some tech experts argue that the sudden explosion of the bans, coupled with doubts over TikTok's actual harm, is more a reflection of government groupthink - and an overreaction to an app they don't entirely understand.
 "This is the U.S. adopting a Chinese attitude toward the internet: We're going to block things we don't want you to see because everything's a national security threat," said Milton Mueller, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project. "It's really a dangerous attitude - not just for American values of free expression but for this whole idea of an open and interconnected internet."
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 'Weaken and manipulate'
 Before the recent ban wave, few states had sought to pass any rules related to TikTok since 2020, when Florida's department of financial services and Nebraska passed limited device bans during then-president Donald Trump's failed crusade to outlaw the app nationwide.
 That changed suddenly in late November, when South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) ordered the app banned on all devices owned by one of America's least populous states. South Dakota's tourism department deleted its 62,000-follower account showing off the state's natural beauty. So, too, did the state's public broadcaster and its public universities, which had used the app to share information with a young audience they might not reach anywhere else.
 Two months before the ban, Noem had enthusiastically endorsed one of TikTok's most viral stars, the 7-year-old "Corn Kid," by designating him South Dakota's "official Corn-bassador" and tweeting that he had visited "South Dakota's very own @Corn_Palace!!!"
 But after the ban, Noem, an early entrant to the 2024 Republican presidential race, told a Fox News audience that the Chinese government was using TikTok to "destroy the United States of America."
 "Listen, China hates us," she said. They're "manipulating their algorithms to gather information on American citizens to use against us. Here in the state of South Dakota, we've taken action."
 Noem's office shared the executive order with the Republican Governors Association, where officials from other statehouses were eager to follow. "The governors are very competitive, so if there's a good idea in one state, they want to make sure they're doing it as well," said one official involved in the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
 Within the next few weeks, more than a dozen other Republican-led states issued similar restrictions. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said his ban would defend the state "against a Chinese government that wields TikTok to attack our way of life." Maryland issued an "emergency directive" banning the app due to fears of "algorithmic modification to conduct disinformation or misinformation campaigns" and "cyberespionage."
 Several states' orders closely echoed the ones that had come before it, including Oklahoma's, which was almost identical to the order Noem had written 750 miles away. Idaho, which said the Chinese government could "control TikTok's content algorithm" and "perpetrate influence operations," used many of the same words and phrases that Texas had used a few days before. Some governors' orders also garbled in the same way the name of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the cross-government panel, known as CFIUS, that has for three years led negotiations between TikTok and the United States.
 A few states expanded the net to cover more than just TikTok. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) banned all apps owned by Chinese entities, specifically calling out 20 Chinese shopping, messaging and social-networking apps, including Ding Ding, Meituan, Qzone, Renren, Tencent QQ, Toutiao, WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Youku and Zhihu. (An official in Ohio's Department of Administrative Services said the agency didn't know whether any of the apps had ever been installed.)
 Democratic governors in Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina and Wisconsin joined their Republican counterparts in calling for bans. And in states where governors did not pass full bans, some agencies passed their own, including Louisiana's Secretary of State. In West Virginia, the state auditor's office passed a ban and the agriculture commissioner's office pledged not to create a TikTok account, given that, as an agency spokesman said, "we are a targeted industry of foreign actors."
 Some public university systems, including in Texas, Georgia and Alabama, have banned the app on campus WiFi networks, going even further than their governors required; students who try to open the app see only, as one student described it, a "perpetual loading screen of doom." After Idaho enacted a ban, citing the "sinister motives of a foreign government" that "seeks to weaken and manipulate our country," Boise State University administrators ordered a purge of all traces of TikTok's logo from campus websites and magazines.
 The University of Florida this month told its 58,000 students over email that it was "strongly discouraging" them from using TikTok. A spokesman said the university has also stopped posting to its several TikTok accounts, with a combined 375,000 followers, devoted to campus life, enrollment and sports. Their last videos include students celebrating graduation, recounting school traditions and sharing their favorite study spots.
 But it's unclear how successful the measure will be. One first-year UF student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to affect her school performance, said her classmates had laughed off the email as "so silly" and "out of the blue."
 "I've seen a couple of people delete TikTok as a distraction," she said. "Nobody's deleting TikTok because the university told them to."
 Some cities have joined the ban rush, including Charlotte, which moved to block TikTok on city-owned phones last month after Republican state lawmakers warned of "a security threat for North Carolina." Cleveland County, the third-most populous county in Oklahoma, also voted this month to ban TikTok on county devices, with one commissioner telling the Norman Transcript newspaper that they would "not participate in helping the Chinese Communist Party gain access to government information."
 But not every local official has been convinced of the danger. In Rapid City, S.D., city council members this month voted down a TikTok ban proposed by a Republican mayoral candidate, saying the bill - which would have covered 300 city-owned devices - was an unsubstantiated distraction from the actual business of running the city.
 "We've got housing issues. Crime is increasing. We've got city departments, a civic center, a library, a landfill," councilwoman Laura Armstrong told The Post. "Frankly, we have more important and pressing matters to address."
 After researching TikTok, Armstrong said she had found the discussion devoid of actual evidence. Talking about Chinese surveillance schemes felt like "going down the rabbit hole" toward "media McCarthyism," she said - a reference to the anti-Communist scare campaigns of the 1950s.
 "My dad's a former police officer and my husband's an attorney. The need for evidence has been drilled into my head my whole life," she said. "Those who don't study history are bound to repeat it."
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 'Nationalistic fears'
 To TikTok critics, the bans are a sign that state governments are getting tough on a possible threat. Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee at the Federal Communications Commission who has become the company's loudest media critic, said the app is a Chinese Communist "propaganda arm" dependent on an "algorithm feeding you content from Beijing" - making it easier to ban than, say, an app like Facebook, in which users build up networks of family and friends.
 "Is this thing so important to some segment of young users that we can't go so far as to ban it?" Carr said. "If anything, TikTok is uniquely situated to be banned without the backlash from the user base. They can just flip over to another short-form social media app."
 But Mueller, the Georgia Tech expert on internet governance, said he has been dismayed to see how much some local lawmakers have been "entirely misled." After fielding questions about the topic from a state legislator hoping to push his own ban, Mueller began researching the app's possible risks and came away feeling the panic was overblown.
 "We kept asking people: Give us a scenario in how you use TikTok data to threaten our country," Mueller said. What he heard most often were cinematic, speculative cases - a U.S. intelligence official might have his TikTok viewing patterns used for blackmail, for instance - or the same kinds of threats that arose from every social media app, and which a single app's arbitrary ban would not resolve.
 He cautioned local lawmakers to think through the dangers of the United States - an internet pioneer with some of the world's strongest protections for free speech - banning a service that tens of millions of Americans use to express themselves, he wrote in a report co-authored by Karim Farhat.
 "If nationalistic fears about Chinese influence operations lead to a departure from American constitutional principles supporting free and open political discourse," he wrote, "we will have succeeded in undermining our system of government more effectively than any Chinese propaganda could do."
 Blocking taxpayer-funded workers from accessing entertainment apps is the kind of rote, bureaucratic micro-decision that information-technology staff often perform without gubernatorial involvement. Federal employees and members of the U.S. military are already banned from using TikTok on government devices.
 But some lawmakers hope these bans will mark a step toward a more aggressive goal: banning TikTok for everyone nationwide. A House bill introduced this month by 19 Republicans, including the serial fabulist George Santos (N.Y.), proposes to block federal funding from any "institution of higher education" that refuses to ban the app. And last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced a bill that would block Americans from using the app they called "digital fentanyl" - likening TikTok to the deadliest drug crisis in American history - and ban any social media company operating from a "country of concern," a loosely defined list that Congress could change at any time.
 These state bans create "more momentum for precipitous change at the federal level . . . even though very few people are pausing to ask whether they make sense," said Jon Bateman, a former cyber-strategy director in the Department of Defense who now researches U.S.-China tech policy for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank. "How many bills do you see on the other side, suggesting caution or deeper analysis? When the political energy is so one-sided, it just closes down debate."
 Adam Kovacevich, the founder of Chamber of Progress, a left-leaning tech industry group that counts Facebook parent Meta among its members, said the state bans on TikTok are "low-hanging fruit" for government officials who want to convey their suspicions and show off their political bona fides of being tough on China, critical of tech and protective of American families.
 "It's a low-cost way for a policymaker to express their concern about TikTok without risking blowback," Kovacevich said. "The one thing that does tend to unite politicians, left and right, is China."
 But Carl Szabo, a vice president at the tech industry group NetChoice, whose members include Meta and TikTok, said the bans have distracted from bigger and more important issues such as the country's lack of data-privacy and algorithmic-transparency rules that would protect users of every app, not just TikTok. "Some people may consider this attack on TikTok as sufficient to address the bigger conversation that's not being had," Szabo said.
 "CFIUS is taking its time and doing a deliberate and deep investigation into these accusations," Szabo added. "Until that information is provided, we shouldn't use a single company as a punching bag for anger against the Chinese Communist Party."
 He also expressed alarm at the ease with which government officials were citing unspecified national-security concerns to shut down a platform used by tens of millions nationwide.
 "You start with one app saying it's a national-security threat, then it's another and another, and you don't know if it's politically motivated or otherwise," he said. "That's why we have the First Amendment. ... There's a danger that comes from the government deciding what is and isn't protected speech."
 Those worries, however, have not stopped members of Congress from working to ratchet up the pressure against TikTok. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi earlier this month urged the TV network ESPN to stop letting TikTok sponsor college-football halftime shows.
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 Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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 </story></html> tiktok-ban As panicked states and colleges ban TikTok, students roll their eyes Tech Drew Harwell ellipsis

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 Nobody is quite sure why a snowy owl, usually found in Arctic regions, decided to relocate to sunny Cypress, Calif. Everyone you talk to has a theory. Some speculate that recent storms blew the bird off course; others think perhaps it is an escaped pet.
 One thing is for sure: For the last six weeks, the white-winged creature dubbed Snowy has been mesmerizing locals, birders and photographers from sunrise to sunset. Groups of up to 60, who come together largely through a Facebook group dedicated to tracking the owl, have been gathering in the streets of the town in Orange County to catch a glimpse of the owl. They snap photographs in almost silence, so they do not spook their newest, most-cherished neighbor.
 There is the man known as the "Owl Whisperer" who has turned his burgundy Toyota Highlander into what he calls an "Owlmobile," venturing out in it each day with binoculars and snacks for passengers he picks up that day. There's the professional photographer with more than 20,000 photos of Snowy. Experts are combing through the pellets the owl coughs up, to see if it is getting the food it needs to survive and looking for clues in the indigestible masses made from the bones and fur of its catches.
 They know Snowy probably won't stay forever, but they're determined to make these moments last.
 People plead daily for the owl's coordinates. "Anyone know today's location?" said one of hundreds of posts flooding the Cypress Snowy Owl Facebook Group, which has almost 2,000 members. "I have driven around trying to find her," wrote another.
 But that's a no-no. "We do not talk about the location to protect the bird," Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez said. This is part of Snowy's mystique - the owl's unexpected appearance is helping people "to create new relationships," she said, as they finally track the owl down.
 The yellow-eyed raptor is "one of the coolest and most educational things to happen to Cypress since I was a kid," said Marquez, who grew up in Cypress in Southern California and describes Snowy as "a gift."
 Roy Rausch, 63, created the Facebook group in early January for fans to share photos and videos of Snowy sightings. Now known by the group as the Owl Whisperer, or Ambassador of the Cypress Snowy Owl, he says one of the "few founding principles" of the thriving online community is that the page is not used to discuss Snowy's whereabouts.
 He's on the forefront of the daily quests for Snowy sightings, letting children use his binoculars to view the bird, sometimes setting up his viewing station at a lower level so youngsters can get involved with the birdwatching. His "Owlcam" - Rausch's cellphone - logs updates for the group.
 Rausch first learned that a rare bird had landed in the neighborhood on Dec. 27, thanks to an "Orange County rare bird alert" from "eBird," a database used to report birds spotted around the world. "I truly did freak out," he said. He grabbed his camera and was on the scene in just five minutes.
 Bird experts have told Rausch that this is the first time in history that a snowy owl has been confirmed in the area. It's important the owl be respected, despite Snowy's fame, Rausch said.
 "I heard a report of one drone, and that person never did it again," professional photographer Brett Banditelli said. Another person drove near the owl "with loud music playing in their car" and got enough judgmental looks that they drove off pretty quickly, he added.
 Banditelli's owl portraits are fueling the craze. He's photographed the bird perching on rooftops or chimneys, and bringing successful kills back to the neighborhood to devour as locals watch from below. He snapped it pecking and pulling at the carcasses of prey.
 Banditelli said that locals are allowing visitors into their backyards so that they can see the bird, while others are giving out drinks to the crowd. One local even trimmed back some trees on his property so that visitors had a clearer view.
 "This is bringing people together," Banditelli said.
 Some in the Facebook group say they are all bound spiritually since Snowy's visit, appreciating nature and simply living in the moment. Some are logging her location with the intensity of a private investigator.
 "She always returns to the same four streets every morning around 6 a.m. and flies west as early as 4:15 p.m. The usual time she flies off is around 5:15," Marquez, the councilwoman, said. "Sometimes she flies to another house and sits perched on the highest point of the roof for another hour and other times she flies off directly for the night."
 Experts and birders are trying to understand more about her diet and whether Snowy can thrive in California.
 "She is eating coots and rats," Marquez told The Washington Post, adding that experts are concerned about the owl consuming rodenticide. Snowy has also been targeted by crows that divebomb as it sits up high. But the raptor is not easily intimidated. "She is not afraid of them," Marquez said. (The community mostly refers to its new neighbor as a female, but Snowy's sex is unknown.)
 Rausch joked that the bird is becoming more aware of her fame in Cypress. While, so far, Snowy is unfazed by the attention - or crows trying to scare it away - Rausch worries that the bird will get "a little full of itself and want to hang out in a more ritzy neighborhood like Beverly Hills."
 "I do realize that the morning will come while searching in the Owlmobile that I will not see my friend," he said. "That will be a sad day but I will soldier on and do my best to follow its journey, wherever it may lead."
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 </story></html> california-owl The rare snowy owl won't stay forever, but this California town is captivated National Jennifer Hassan partner-exclude ellipsis

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 With Wes Moore taking the oath of office as Maryland governor on Wednesday, he is moving into a governor's mansion surrounded by history. Within blocks of the residence is a statue of Kunta Kinte, an enslaved African brought to Annapolis in 1767 and made famous by author Alex Haley; the William Paca House, the former mansion of a previous governor and enslaver; and a statue of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court.
 Moore will be making history himself, as the state's first Black governor and one of only six African American men to ever serve as governor of a state. (A Black woman has never been governor.)
 Here's a brief introduction to the Black governors who came before Moore.
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 Oscar Dunn and P.B.S. Pinchback, Louisiana, 1871-1873
 Both Oscar Dunn and P.B.S. Pinchback served as lieutenant governor to Reconstruction-era Gov. Henry C. Warmoth of Louisiana. And because of an article in the state Constitution requiring a lieutenant governor to serve as acting governor if the governor left the state or was impeached, both men served stints as acting governors of Louisiana.
 Little is known of Dunn's life before his political ascent, but research by historian Brian K. Mitchell shows he was born enslaved, to an enslaved mother. His stepfather purchased and freed Dunn and his mother when Dunn was a boy. As an adult, he worked as a plasterer and a music teacher and found prominence among New Orleans's Black Freemasons.
 Elected as lieutenant governor - the first African American to serve as an executive officer in the United States, according to Mitchell - he also served as acting governor for 39 days when Warmoth was severely injured in a boating accident and left the state. He even made judicial appointments and issued a pardon while acting governor, moves that angered Warmoth, who rushed back to the state to retake the governorship.
 Dunn died on Nov. 22, 1871, at age 49, and Warmoth named a new lieutenant governor: Dunn's political rival in New Orleans's Black Republican elite, P.B.S. Pinchback. (Theories that Dunn was murdered or died by suicide are still put forward but haven't been proved.)
 Pinchback was born in Georgia to a formerly enslaved woman and her former enslaver. He and his siblings had light skin and were raised among their White half-siblings; at least one of his sisters later "passed" as White and encouraged Pinchback to do the same. He didn't.
 After being educated in Ohio and working on gambling boats, Pinchback returned to the South during the Civil War, serving as an officer in the United States Colored Troops. During Reconstruction, he entered politics and was elected to Louisiana's state Senate.
 When Warmoth was impeached in 1872, Pinchback became acting governor for 34 days - Dec. 9, 1872, to Jan. 13, 1873 - the remainder of Warmoth's term. Pinchback was also elected to the U.S. Senate but never seated, amid violent opposition from White Southern Democrats.
 As to which man was the "true" first Black governor in the United States, it may depend on how you define it. Dunn served as acting governor before Pinchback and for more total days. But Pinchback took an oath of office, unlike Dunn, and has generally been referred to as the first Black governor.
 Mitchell, who recently co-authored a graphic-novel-style history about Dunn, told The Washington Post that Dunn was intentionally written out of history by Lost Cause academics, who preferred to put the "first Black governor" label on Pinchback because of his reputation for corruption and dishonesty. Regardless, both men were trailblazers during the brief promise of Reconstruction.
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 L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990-1994
 It would be more than a century until an African American served as governor again, this time in Virginia.
 L. Douglas Wilder has spent most of his long life in Richmond, a city that was once the capital of the Confederacy. Wilder was born in Richmond and raised there, and after serving in the Korean War and going to law school, he started a law practice there. A Democrat, he was first elected to the state Senate in 1969, and then as lieutenant governor in 1985.
 In 1989, he ran for governor, beating his Republican rival by less than half-a-percentage point. When he was inaugurated on Jan. 13, 1990, he became the first African American elected as governor of any state. His grandparents had been born enslaved.
 As governor, Wilder was both commended and criticized for his moderate views, and he spent much of his term cutting the budget and pushing anti-crime legislation. After briefly running for president in 1992, he left office in 1994 after one term, a requirement of Virginia's Constitution. Wilder later served as mayor of Richmond and, at age 92, is a professor at Richmond's Virginia Commonwealth University, in a public affairs school named after him.
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 Deval Patrick, Massachusetts, 2007-2015
 Deval Patrick was the first African American governor to be elected to a second term, serving Massachusetts for eight years. Raised in a Chicago housing project, Patrick first came to Massachusetts as a student at Harvard. After law school, he zigzagged between public and private jobs, working in the Justice Department's civil rights division and in leadership at Texaco and Coca-Cola.
 Patrick had no experience in elected office when he ran for governor in 2006, and the race was the "dirtiest gubernatorial campaign in my memory," former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis wrote at the time. Patrick was subjected to "Willie Horton"-style attack ads linking him to a convicted rapist he once defended.
 As governor, Patrick oversaw education overhauls and gun-control legislation and was an early supporter of same-sex marriages. Like Wilder before, he briefly ran for president in 2020. He is now a managing director at Bain Capital.
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 David Paterson, New York, 2008-2010
 As lieutenant governor of New York, David Paterson took over for Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2008 after Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal. Born and raised in New York, Paterson traces his roots on his mother's side to enslaved people in North Carolina and South Carolina, and on his father's side to the Caribbean.
 As governor, Paterson saw the state through the worst of the "Great Recession." He was also the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a state. He ran for his own term in 2010 before bowing out amid a corruption scandal.
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 </story></html> blackgovernors-repeat The five Black governors who came before Maryland's Wes Moore Retropolis Gillian Brockell ellipsis

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