Posts by Gary Pearce
Political Shots Fired
The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My Facebook page blew up with posts claiming the assassination attempt was “fake,” “fishy” and “staged.” Trump and his enablers, still in tuxes and evening gowns, wasted no time blaming Democrats and “left-wing extremists.” This is what 10 years of…
Read MoreObama 48-Trump 39
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack Obama would beat Donald Trump by a resounding 48-39%. It’d be a whuppin’. A North Carolina poll done by the same firm two months ago showed that Obama would beat Trump here by 48-41%. It’s a clear sign of…
Read More“Conservative Successes”?
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the most stunning defeat in North Carolina politics in modern times. His column this week – “Let’s Not Miss Our Chance to Continue North Carolina’s Conservative Successes” – shows he’s out of touch with voters across North Carolina. On the…
Read MoreRise and Fall
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…
Read MoreRolling Down the Elbe
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…
Read MoreNo Kings, No Violence
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…
Read MoreBerger Hurt Schools
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…
Read MoreDethroning the King
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.…
Read MoreMueller – Not Trump
“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…
Read MoreWar Games
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…
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