General
Getting the News
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary sources of news are (Question 51 – see more below). They said: 29% Online news websites 26% TV (broadcast or network) 20% Social media Sad to say, only 5% said their primary sources are once-mighty newspapers like The News…
Read MoreGoosesteps
This man was face-to-face with evil, and what he saw echoes today. Richard Sonnenfeldt was a German Jew who escaped the Nazis, emigrated to the United States, fought in Patton’s Army and became, at age 22, chief American interpreter at the Nuremberg trials of top Nazis. Here’s what he wrote about them: “The mediocrity, the…
Read MoreTalking About Politics on WUNC
Carter Wrenn and I were on WUNC’s Due South this week talking about the decline of civil discourse – and how two adversaries became friends and blogging partners. You can listen here. We told how we met negotiating rules for the debates between Jim Hunt and Jesse Helms. “There was ice in the room,” Carter…
Read MoreQuit the Questionnaires
This is the best move I’ve seen in a while: “Democrats Confront the Party’s Questionnaire-Industrial Complex.” How many hours and how much agony do Democratic campaigns waste responding to multi-page, mind-numbingly detailed interest-group questionnaires loaded with political dynamite? Jonathan Martin reports in Politico that, “Majority Democrats — a group of young Democrats that have won…
Read MoreTax Big Tech
Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the history of the planet, is wrecking what used to be one of the greatest newspapers ever – one that held politicians and the powerful to account. He laid off 300 of the 800 journalists at The Washington Post. He “decimated the organization’s sports, local news and…
Read MoreA Champion for Democracy
For a quarter century, Bob Phillips championed better government, fair elections and healthy democracy. He retired last month after 25 years as executive director of Common Cause in North Carolina – building one of the biggest, most active and most effective state chapters in the country. Never flashy or addicted to the spotlight, Bob labored…
Read MoreNamaste
We see two scenes on our screens today. In one, masked, combat-armed government goons intimidate, assault and murder innocent citizens. In the other, 18 Buddhist monks are on a Walk for Peace – 2,300 miles over 120 days from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. Some of them walk barefoot. All of them walk swiftly,…
Read MoreA Hope for 2026
The year 2025 gave us government based on hate, malice and cruelty. But, in politics, the pendulum always swings. As Scripture says, “and now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.” Here’s hoping that 2026 brings us a restoration of hope, civility and compassion. That’d be a good…
Read MoreTwo Bags of Cash
It’s hard to tell how much of this is truth and how much is fiction but here’s the tale: A team of undercover FBI agents out to jail grifters bribing politicians to make money got a tip: Talk to Tom Homan – he can get you ICE contracts if Trump wins. Undercover agents taped Homan…
Read MoreA Deadly Cloud
There’s a cloud over Trump’s head – most people don’t like how he’s doing his job (the Gallup Poll). Democrats have loathed him for years but now so do Independents. Republicans still love him but their love’s getting thinner. Pundits tell us that’s happening because he blundered when it comes to handling issues – like…
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