7 of our top opinion columns this week: ICYMI
In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.
1. Trump tax cuts hiked the deficit, now $1 trillion, so guess what Republicans want for 2020
By The Editorial Board
"In hindsight, the (2017) tax cuts look mostly like an effort to reward key GOP constituencies, to punish blue states by capping the deduction for state and local taxes, and to give just enough of a jolt to the economy to ensure that any recession is pushed back beyond next year’s election. That wasn’t much of a rationale then. And it certainly is not much of one now."
2. Criminal justice system could learn a thing or two from baseball
By Kevin Davis
"The 2019 World Series put a magnifying glass on the now customary deep dive into data analytics known as Moneyball. Its use revolutionized the game, creating a system that resulted in better real-time data tracking and that matched information previously seen as useless with an entirely new strategy. In the criminal justice system, a similar approach to data could result in an even more critical win."
3. Amazon loses in Seattle, which joins other liberal communities chasing jobs away
By The Editorial Board
"Liberal groups in communities blessed with abundant, high-paying jobs are doing all in their power to chase them away. ... Some progressives are too quick to bite the hand of free enterprise that feeds them. Sure, tech companies can have some negative consequences on their communities. But these are outweighed by the positives, as will be readily apparent someday when the unemployment rate is higher. "
4. I was born as the Berlin Wall fell. 'Socialist' millennials should learn about the USSR.
By Jon Hartley
"I was born on Nov. 11, 1989, as the Berlin Wall was being torn down, marking the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. ... Exactly 30 years later, however, amid the rising popularity of presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, nearly half of Democrats in my generation, the so-called millennials, describe themselves as 'socialist.'"
5. This Veterans Day, know that the U.S. military is losing to the war called suicide
By The Editorial Board
A generation ago, the military suicide rate was lower than in the civilian world, as well it should have been. Service members were a specialized population, screened for health and emotional problems and exempt from societal tribulations over finding a job, housing, health care and other issues that trouble those outside the military.But that changed after about 2003."
6. Christian comedian John Crist's sexual misconduct is latest downfall. How do we stop this?
By Dave Willis
"As a follower of Christ, I also believe there is a spiritual component here that legislation and man-made measures alone will never solve. We need to repent (which basically just means we need to turn away from the wrong choices and turn toward a better way). We need to replace lust with love. Lust looks at people as objects to be used. Love views people as souls to be cherished."
7. Veterans Day disgrace: Stop deporting immigrants who served, make them American citizens
By Mark Takano, Juan Vargas and Raúl M. Grijalva
"The Department of Defense estimates that about 25,000 immigrants are currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. It is up to Congress to do everything it can to prevent the deportation of more non-citizen veterans by enacting sensible reforms that will help America keep our promise of naturalization to these men and women, protect them from deportation, and bring deported veterans home."
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Silicon Valley, Veterans Day, John Crist's misconduct: Top columns
