Clouds on the Horizon

In a small Virginia church at the end of the Roaring Twenties my grandfather married my grandmother – a month later the Stock Market crashed. During the Great Depression he struggled for a decade.  Hitler marched into Austria and Czechoslovakia, German tanks rolled over Poland, Belgium, France, British soldiers fled Dunkirk. Staring at storm clouds…

Read More

Navalny the Politician

Alexei Navalny was a hero, an inspiring leader and a man of courage, compassion and character who stood up to men of cowardice, corruption and cruelty. He was also a politician, in the best and noblest sense of that much-maligned and despised word. He was a political threat. He would have beaten Putin in a…

Read More

The 13th District Republican Primary

The primary’s heating up in the new 13th Congressional District – there’re 14 candidates in all but four are dominating the race: Kelly Daughtry, Fred Von Canon, Brad Knott and DeVan Barbour. DeVan Barbour and Kelly Daughtry both ran in the primary two years ago. Barbour finished 2nd. Daughtry 3rd. Both are from Johnston County…

Read More

Bombs Falling

Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal told Meet the Press that the Biden Administration has a duty to stop Israel killing civilians. “The United States cannot be backers of this kind of indiscriminate bombing.” To defeat Hitler and Tojo we bombed cities, civilians. If Pramila Jayapal had stood up in Congress in 1944 and told us, Stop…

Read More

Biden’s Pause

Twenty-nine hundred Americans died on 9/11. Twelve hundred Israelis died on October 7. A week ago White House spokesman John Kirby voice purring told Meet the Press about Biden’s “intense effort” to get Israel to “pause” its war with Hamas. “We are still working it really hard, hour by hour, to see if we can…

Read More

Times Have Changed

Britain sinking American ships landed us in the War of 1812. Germany sinking American ships landed us in World War I. Japan sinking American ships landed us in World War II. Today, Iran’s got Houthis and Hamas firing drones and missiles at American ships in the Red Sea – but Biden’s telling Israel to ‘pause,’…

Read More

Politics Takes Control

After Roe vs. Wade for decades Republicans said, ‘Taking an innocent life is wrong. A fetus is alive. We can’t do that.’ After the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Republicans lost elections in 2022 and 2023 – eyes locked on the next election Republican political gurus started telling candidates: Voters don’t like banning abortions…

Read More

A Forgotten Memory

The first speech I heard Ronald Reagan make was six weeks after Russian tanks rolled into Saigon in 1975 and we lost the Vietnam War. Voice mellow, soothing, humble, his speech wasn’t a history lesson it was a reminiscence, a man telling a story he’d watched, lived through, remembering storm troopers goose-stepping into Vienna, the…

Read More

Time to Turn Back the Clock?

Years ago when President Richard Nixon was in the White House politicians could take unlimited contributions and take corporate contributions. Nixon raised millions. Scowling, ruling Congress, Democrats passed laws that limited campaign donations – no one could give more than $1,000 and corporations couldn’t give at all. Thirty years rolled past. The Supreme Court upended…

Read More

A Pause

To destroy German factories during World War II we bombed Hamburg, Berlin, other cities – bombs killed civilians but bombing tank factories meant fewer American soldiers died. Israel didn’t want a war with Hamas but got one – and it now faces the same choice we did: It bombs Gaza, civilians die, but bombs destroying…

Read More