Author: Jeff

I attended a recent Bernie Sanders/AOC “Fight Oligarchy” gathering in Los Angeles.  Thirty-six thousand attended.  In my mind, I was transported back to the late sixties and early seventies, when I came of age politically.  Back in those days, we protested the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon.  The hippies of that era had a way of making protests fun adventures. It was the same at the Bernie/AOC rally.  I saw one lady dressed up as the Statue of Liberty; there were all kinds of t-shirts with clever political slogans printed on them. I attended with one of our student interns…

Tariffs on.  Tariffs Off.  Tariffs mostly put on hold — unless you are China — for a while, anyway. Markets — up and down, up and down.  Then up again. Rumors of insider trading by those close to the president.  We’ll see. Consumer prices?  Nobody seems sure yet.Can a Venezuelan immigrant with alleged gang ties be deported without due process — or by accident, even?  Yes, no, maybe. More firings. Elon riding high, riding low, riding high again. Navarro?  Mostly low, it seems. Back and forth.  Up and down.  Over, under, round and through.  One theory has it that Trump’s…

It seems clear Team Trump wants to crush the traditional role of federal judges. If a judge offers up a ruling the Trumpsters don’t like, that means that judge is a left wing lunatic, should be impeached — or at a minimum, appealed. Judges aren’t supposed to set policy. They are there to decide if a proposed measure is lawful or not. If Team Trump wants to slash payrolls and eliminate agencies, they should ask Congress to vote to approve all that.  Congress is in charge of the purse. The Republicans in both the House and the Senate are in…

Greetings.  Welcome to OUR NATIONAL CONVERSATION, or ONC for short. My name is Jeff Hall, founder of ONC. I’m a newspaper guy going way back, and, like many, I’m saddened by how partisan our media ecosystem has become. ONC is mostly run by students — America’s future leaders.  Together we write articles, post videos, record pocasts and more.  We even wrote a book, “Let’s Fix America,” available on Amazon. Our team is devoted to nonpartisan dialogue, with the hope that civil, intelligent and respectful conversations will eventually lead to good public policy outcomes. We recognize this sounds naive.  We know…

I think the theory behind all the tariffs is that if we make it harder for outsider countries to penetrate US markets, that will incentivize American businesses to build factories. That I get. What I don’t get is why this all has to get done overnight.  American companies can’t build and staff factories overnight.  This is going to take time. Why not tell everyone two years in advance the tariffs are coming, and that Step One Tariffs (10%) will start in a year and Step Two Tariffs (another 25%) will start in two years? That would give companies — and…

Putin is considering a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine. This is a start. While I am very much in “wait and see” mode when it comes to Trump and Elon Musk, we need to be fair-minded and give credit where credit is due. The idea that the U.S. would simply pay billions and billions year after year for a war with no end in sight was unsustainable.  It’s time to try something new. Good luck with this, Mr. President.  And bravo to Zelensky.  He and his people have carried quite a load in recent years. Now, Mr.…

People living near the Canadian border will now start paying 25% more for their electricity.  Why is this good for America?

I consider myself pretty open-minded, but I have an impossibly hard time understanding why men who turn themselves into women should be able to compete in women’s sports.  Sorry.

The Democrats’ protests during Trump’s address to congress made them look silly — and made Trump look stronger. This was “manna from heaven” for the Republicans, as pollster Frank Luntz put it. Democrats need a message — and a strategy. I think the response from Elissa Slotkin, Democratic senator from Michigan, was the better way to go.

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