Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants rise and fall. A scary lesson is that sometimes they take their countries and their people down with them. It’s increasingly clear that Trump’s fall is coming. Will we survive it? While we were in Czechia, two-thirds of voters…
Gwyn and I just returned from a 12-day journey through 1,000 years of history in Germany and Czechia (which they prefer over “Czech Republic”) – and a look at both countries’ Nazi and Communist pasts. Our Viking cruise took us from Berlin to Prague, along the not-very-mighty Elbe River, through medieval towns, rustic countryside, spectacular…
My daughter Maggie and I were in New York Saturday, so we braved the cold, hiked up to Central Park and joined tens of thousands of people in a No Kings protest. Like thousands of demonstrations by millions of people across the country, it was a peaceful, even joyful, event. Trump calls his opponents “domestic…
In 15 years as boss of the Senate, Phil Berger has done incalculable damage to North Carolina’s public schools and to our state’s future. The day he conceded, Wake County’s school board was wrestling with – and rejecting – budget cuts that would have eliminated 130 special-education teachers. That’s just one consequence of Berger cutting…
Senator Thom Tillis told “wealthy potential donors” on a Zoom call last month that Phil Berger “had become too power hungry” and “had to go.” That scoop comes from Eduardo Medina, a Durham-based reporter for The New York Times, who has done some of the best reporting on Berger’s abrupt and stunning fall from power.…
“Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” – Donald Trump on Robert Mueller A reader – a decorated Vietnam veteran – wrote me about meeting Robert Mueller once and spending “a delightful afternoon discussing our times in Vietnam. [His much more dangerous than mine.]” He said, “Trump’s insult to Mueller will go down as yet another pathetic…
Presidents and Secretaries of Defense have a history of lying to us about wars. Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara lied about Vietnam. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Now we’re expected to believe two of the biggest liars in history – Donald Trump and his…
Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education” last week. “Does NC Really Need Another Commission to Study Public Education?” asked Public Schools First NC. Yes, we do – if we want to break the political logjam that has blocked education progress in North Carolina for too…
North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who are the key swing voters and who will decide the 2026 election – really, really dislike the GOP. That’s good news for Democrats this year. The poll we did last month of 1,069 voters across the state found they…
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…
Gwyn and I just returned from a 12-day journey through 1,000 years of history in Germany…
My daughter Maggie and I were in New York Saturday, so we braved the cold, hiked…