Archive for 2017
A Temptation He Can’t Resist
“I was all set to terminate. I looked forward to terminating. I was going to do it,” Trump told the reporter. But he didn’t terminate so, in the next breath, he was telling the reporter, “I get a call from Mexico yesterday, ‘We hear you’re going to terminate NAFTA.’ I said that’s right. They said,…
Read MoreThe Pond-Skater
David Brooks, the columnist, felt a sea-change. Last fall, before the election, liberals saw Donald Trump as a buffoon who couldn’t possibly win the election then, on Election Night, right in front of their eyes, the clown turned into a dragon. After the election – as the dragon headed for Washington – the shaken liberals…
Read MoreNo Quit in Him
To show strength, he said he’d ordered an aircraft carrier to sail straight north to North Korea – then the Pentagon released a photograph of the carrier sailing straight south away from Korea. He pounds the Washington Politicians but, despite his threats, his wall’s stuck in Congress, his immigration plan’s stuck in the courts, and…
Read MoreNo One Minds
Last year Trump tore into NAFTA. And said China was a no-good currency manipulator, NATO was obsolete, Obama’s Iran Agreement was the ‘worst deal ever,’ and Obama’s Paris Climate Change Agreement was a ‘hoax.’ And he said he was going to fix them all and ‘Make America Great’ – and the crowds at his rallies…
Read MoreBeer, Politics, a Quick Death
Years ago, around the time of Prohibition, the politicians in Raleigh passed a law that said, A brewer can’t deliver his own beer. And with that one law the politicians created a new industry which blossomed: The Beer Wholesalers (or Beer Distributors). Eighty-odd years passed and that old law, still on the books, put hand-cuffs…
Read MoreA Death Ray?
I’d love to know why that North Korean missile blew up. Was it North Korean bungling? Or did the Pentagon zap it with some super-secret electro-magnetic death-ray? I like to believe it was a death-ray – because then saving ourselves from Kim Jong-un would be as simple as pushing a button. However, just before that…
Read MoreHardly a Soul Blinked
After the Congressional Special Election down in Georgia, President Trump exclaimed, Great victory. (He meant for Trump.) At the same time the Democrats were saying the same thing: They said they’d won a great victory. And defeated Trump. Somebody wasn’t telling the truth. And Sean Trende, of Real Clear Politics, put his finger on who:…
Read MoreFour years on
Four years ago this week, an extraordinary young woman I had come to know was brutally murdered. Stabbed to death in her own home. By a man she and her husband had befriended and helped. Four years on, I still struggle with the monstrous evil here. We know that human beings do cruel, senseless, horrible…
Read MoreSellout or Step Forward?
Governor Cooper’s office calls the HB2 repeal “an important step forward for LGBT rights” even though it “wasn’t a perfect compromise or the Governor’s preferred solution.” LGBT leaders call it a “sellout” and an “insult.” This is the oldest debate in politics. Not liberal/conservative. Or Democrat/Republican. But “compromise” versus “all or nothing.” The Governor had…
Read MoreIs That All There Is?
This is a great bill, he said. There’s a great plan… the plan gets better and better and better, and it has gotten really, really, really good. It was like listening to a high-school boy urging a girl to go to the prom with him: This will be great. Really great. It just gets better…
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