Opinion

The nightly “news” cannot be expected to offer you an “explainer” on anything happening in Washington. Their ratings gurus would tell them that trying to educate the audience on how Congress works, for example, would result in eye rolls and channel flips to “Wheel of Fortune.”

The Windfall Elimination Provision A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about something called the “government pension offset.” It is a law that essentially says this: If you get a pension from a job that was not covered by Social Security, that pension will be treated just like a Social Security retirement pension and it will be used to offset any benefits you might be due on a spouse’s Social Security record. There is a companion law called the “windfall elimination provision,” more commonly known by its acronym, WEP, which usually reduces any Social Security retirement benefits earned at side jobs by folks who spent the bulk of their life working at a job that was not covered by Social Security.

Arming Ukraine Is Costly and Also Our Only Option In late 1940, Nazi Germany had successfully subjugated virtually all of Europe in barely a year’s time, and turned its eyes to rolling over England, first by bombing it to smithereens and cutting off its shipping and then by invading it if required. Still recovering from the Great Depression and unpersuaded that Hitler’s aggression was any of our business, Americans were tepid at best about lifting a finger to help the United Kingdom, out of cash and staring defeat in the face, defend itself against the Third Reich.

If Joe Biden is their nominee, Democrats will lose the White House next year. That conclusion gets harder to deny with each passing week.

Dear Annie: I consider myself to be a self-aware social media poster. However, there is a family member on Facebook who posts her childcare needs at least once a week. She posts the day and time she needs and has said the names of the children who need a sitter. She has three children.

Today is the 270th day of 2023 and the fifth day of autumn. TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1908, the first Model T automobile was assembled at the Ford factory in Detroit.

Dear Annie: Finding topics of conversation can often be difficult during long visits. Since “Grinding My Teeth” feels that this may be the last time she and her husband will visit with these in-laws, why not take this opportunity to encourage these people to talk about their lives?

Attorney General Merrick Garland offered a “fiery defense” in a “grueling hearing” of a House Judiciary Committee “stocked with far-right stalwarts,” as The New York Times described it. The frontpage story by Glenn Thrush quoted no Republicans on the cover, just Garland, as Thrush said many Republican “insinuations” against Garland “were not supported by fact.”

The Senate finally approved three important military promotions, including the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. of the Air Force. That’s a victory for the Pentagon, but the way it happened is a defeat not only for the Senate but for competent government.

If you’re like me, you’ve gotten a bellyful of AI analysis, speculation and dire warnings over the past few months. Alongside hopes of cancer cures, obedient home robots, personalized tutors, energy efficiency and wildlife preservation, we’ve heard from leaders in the field that AI will definitely ... kill us all. Soooo, that somewhat dims enthusiasm for those tidying up robots.