Shut up, Gene?

Some North Carolina Democrats agree with Republican legislators on one thing: Gene Nichol should shut up. Or at least tone it down and turn down the volume. Ted Vaden writes in The Assembly that Nichol is “back in the spotlight, hurling his supercharged invective in a new book that surveys the changes that have occurred…

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GOP Control Freaks

How did the party of freedom, individual responsibility and limited government become the party of censorship, Big Brother and government control? Republican legislators in North Carolina, like their colleagues in other states and like Republican governors Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, want to control many things in our lives. Control what…

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The Danube isn’t Blue

Strauss’ waltz notwithstanding, the Danube River is brown. Its powerful current flows 1,770 miles from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea in Romania, through 10 countries, past four national capitals and through 1,500 years of history. Gwyn and I took an eight-day cruise upriver from Budapest to Bratislava, Vienna, Krems, the Wachau…

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Cooper Drops the Mic – Twice

Just before we left for a European cruise (more on that later), Governor Roy Cooper held a boisterous Veto Rally that highlighted Republican legislators’ extreme abortion bill. The day we came back, he declared a “State of Emergency for public education” in a five-minute video that highlighted Republican legislators’ extreme anti-education budget. Supermajority-sotted Republicans called…

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A Democratic Republic

MAGA Republicans hate to use “Democratic” as an adjective. They won’t even say the United States is a “democracy.” Trump’s election-denier Cleta Mitchell calls the United States “a constitutional republic.” Other Republicans say, “We are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy.” The Founding Fathers clearly said no: We are a democracy and a…

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Dem Blues

While the media obsesses over Anderson Clayton’s age, Democrats should focus on her message. The state Democratic party chair told The New York Times: “People with me all the time are like, ‘I wish you’d stop saying we’ve left Democrats behind.’ I’m like: ‘We have. We’ve left people behind’.” She’s right. Democrats have lost touch…

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Supremely Corrupt

The nation’s high court has sunk to new lows of corruption. Clarence Thomas is bought and paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow: gifts, trips and private-school tuition. The New York Times exposed another scheme that benefits conservative Justices and wealthy special interests. It’s the Antonin Scalia (wouldn’t you know it) Law School at George Mason…

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The Age Thing

The Washington media is all wrong on this Biden age “issue.” Did you catch him at the White House Correspondents Dinner? He’s still got game. Will the media put the age scope on 76-year-old Trump? Have you watched him haul his butt out of a golf cart? Or struggle to construct a coherent thought? Ageism…

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Abortion 2024

MAGA Mark Robinson said he’s “tired” of talking about abortion. Maybe he’d rather make fun of school-shooting survivors (see link below). North Carolina Republicans hope the abortion issue will go away by next year’s elections. Democrats won’t let it go. Governor Cooper’s veto will put heat on Republican legislators who promised not to do this.…

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