The lawyer for five Proud Boys on trial for storming the Capitol on January 6 said in the courtroom: “Donald Trump called on patriots to stop the steal. We’re calling on Donald Trump to take the stand.” Watching Trump sitting on the witness stand glaring at prosecutors, answering questions, would be entertaining – and if…
I’m old enough to know the problems an 80-year-old man can face. I get why Democrats worry. The gait stiffens, hearing gets iffy and words – names! – can be elusive. But old people know a lot that young people don’t. We know, first of all, what it’s like to be young. Young people don’t…
Jimmy Carter burst onto America my first year in politics, 1976. I had just joined Jim Hunt’s first campaign for governor. Democrats here feared 1976 would be a repeat of 1968 and 1972, when liberal, Northern presidential nominees, Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern, sank the party in the South. Then came Carter. He was different…
They knew it was a lie. They knew Biden won and Trump lost. But they told the lie anyway, nightly and relentlessly. The Fox News crowd – Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham – knew that Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and their crazy conspiracy claims were a crock. They emailed each other…
A decade ago when Republicans took control of Congress they banned ‘earmarks.’ Then Democrats retook control and put earmarks back. Last election Republicans won but, back in power, want to keep earmarks. At dusk, as shadows spread in the closing days of the Democratic Congress last year, hidden in a bill Democrats gave Congressman a…
A Democratic legislator said something that struck me: “Feeling helpless is Democrats’ biggest problem in North Carolina.” Many Democrats are depressed and discouraged, or angry and frustrated, by 2022 – losing the US Senate and Supreme Court races and seeing Republicans get a near-supermajority in the legislature. Those feelings fueled the state party upheaval last…
Sitting in Washington Congressmen and Senators nod, tell lobbyists, I can do that – in the next breath say, By the way, I need a favor too, smiling, ask for contributions. After Watergate Congress, reeling, put limits on contributions to political campaigns – and outlawed corporate donations. Horse trading waned. Time Passed. Lawyers spotted loopholes…
Jules Verne wrote three stories about balloons – now balloons are back floating across the sky above us. What on earth can China be thinking? After a fighter jet shot down a balloon over Lake Huron China shrugged, said we’d sent ten spy balloons sailing across China – so now the problems not just spy…
Sometimes I wonder why I watch the nightly news. Earthquakes killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Aid was slow in coming, and builders are blamed for shoddy construction. Russia launched a new offensive. Ukrainian forces, short of ammunition, fell back. Several US airliners had near crashes and collisions. A train carrying dangerous…
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