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We're in the middle of the heat of summer, and the presidential election is just a few months away, so naturally we can't get a moment's respite from, as Post opinion editor Travis Meyer puts it, “the chatterboxes vying for attention by shouting into the void.” Luckily, if they get too annoying, you can technically eat them.
Of course, Travis is referring to cicadas, but maybe not: “If there's anything that brings to mind the term 'super brood,' it's the 2024 election,” he writes, referring to a double appearance of two sets of cicadas this summer.
Travis says the bugs he shot also had red or blue eyes. “Coincidence? I don't think so.”
If insects are unpleasant reminders of our political strife, Opinions curator Rachel Manteuffel has found a soothing balm in slightly larger animals: Rachel has watched a cheetah become best friends with a dog.
This is content popularized by the San Diego Zoo Kids Channel, which also features turtles getting their scrubs back and orangutans playing with bubbles, and it's commercial-free. Sure, Rachel writes, it's “for kids, but it's also great fun for adults, too.”
And we adults need a little fun right now.Unfortunately, SDZK is a special closed-circuit program, and the only place Rachel saw it was at the hospital.
Until it's accessible to the masses, we'll have to be content with finding the bright side of semis. Luckily, Travis shows us the way.
“The noise may be a nuisance, but any re-emergence, whether of insects or politics, represents a healthy ecosystem,” he wrote. “As long as cicada outbreaks and elections continue to occur on schedule, we will know we are on the right track.”
Chaser: George Will suggests some of this year's chaos could have been avoided if jurisdictions hadn't elected prosecutors.
From Megan McArdle's column about the brilliant idea – and utter impossibility – of making drivers pay for causing congestion.
After all, people don't like the idea of ​​suddenly paying for something that's always been provided to them for free, even if it means improving the lives of most people who encounter the service. In a veto-heavy political system like America's, that means the service will remain free. That's why New York Governor Kathy Hochl decided to suspend (pronounced “kill,” Meghan writes) the congestion pricing program that was supposed to be implemented in New York City this month.
This has unfortunate implications for the rest of the country, which is plagued by gridlock: “If congestion pricing can't be implemented in Manhattan, it's safe to say it can't be implemented in the rest of America,” Megan says.
Author Garry Wills writes of his stepmother, Lydia, who was born on a river farm in Italy and brought to the United States as a toddler, “She was a dreamer before anyone else dreamed of such a thing, arriving as a child with no inkling that this country might not be the place for her.”
But during World War II, she developed a deep fear of federal agents, who raided her home to find out if she had sent messages to Mussolini on her personal radio, and this fear prevented her from ever visiting Italy again, because she would have had to meet federal agents face to face to obtain a passport.
How terrible, Wills writes, that today's immigrants — those who have lived in the United States their whole lives and who are indisputably American — still face the same horrors. It is up to the nation's voters to not amplify those horrors for a new Lydian generation by re-electing Donald Trump.
The Chaser: In the latest episode of the “Impromptu” podcast, columnists Karen Tumulty, Leon Krause and Jim Geraghty discuss why bad politics continue to get in the way of good immigration policy.
David Ignatius analyzes the paradox that awaits Gaza: a postwar war that will continue. The editorial board writes that Hunter Biden's conviction shows that there is no dual justice system. Lee Hochsteder writes that the rise of right-wing parties in Europe and the ensuing chaos will please Vladimir Putin.
It's goodbye. It's a haiku. It's… “goodbye.”
Show me the way to harmony!
Hurry! … Traffic jam
Have a newsy haiku of your own? Email me with any questions, comments or concerns you may have. See you tomorrow!
