General
A Better Road
It used to be when we had a primary here in North Carolina and no candidate won 50% of the vote there was a runoff between the top 2 candidates. Politicians frowned on runoffs, changed the rule: If a candidate got 40% of the vote, and led, he won. Then politicians changed the rule again:…
Read MoreParsing Words, Stepping Carefully
Donald Trump’s in the crosshairs of the district attorney in New York, the district attorney in Atlanta, and a special prosecutor in Washington. Last week moving a step closer to indicting Trump the Manhattan D.A. asked Trump to testify in front of a grand jury. Does he have a case? Or is he fueling a…
Read MoreA Reason for Hope
It was like traveling back in time, watching John Sebastian’s folk music documentary on PBS: An old black and white video of Judy Collins singing Turn, Turn, Turn, another video of Harry Belafonte crooning Jamaica Farwell, Trini Lopez singing If I Had a Hammer. Old songs rolled on: Where have all the flowers gone, Michael…
Read MoreTwo Enemies
During the Cold War America had one powerful enemy: The USSR. After the Cold War we faced no powerful enemies. Three decades later China started upping its nuclear arsenal, allied with Putin, Putin started a war. Fearing Russia, Germany started to arm. Fearing China, Japan started to arm. About the only thing Biden and Republicans…
Read MoreKindness
In America these days you see wokeness, political wars, media howling, crime soaring – and shake your head, wondering, Where did we go wrong? The other night my wife told me to watch David Muir’s news broadcast from the day before – and I got a surprise: A rail-thin, eighty-year-old, wobbly-legged man’s rent went up…
Read MoreRetribution
On stage, standing at a podium, staring at a battalion of supporters, Trump purred, ‘I am your retribution.’ He then mocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, taking retribution, promised more retribution, ‘I will totally obliterate the deep state.’ No one asked why he didn’t do that when he was sitting in the Oval Office. Ron DeSantis…
Read MoreJekyll and Hyde
“I hate him” – Trump – “passionately.” Put yourself in Donald Trump’s shoes: Did he feel betrayed when he read Tucker Carlson’s saying ‘I hate him’? He’d helped Carlson. Carlson had cheered him. Then Dominion sued Fox News and Carlson’s text message telling coworkers he hated Trump landed in a courtroom. On election night three…
Read MoreA Political Dance…
A young girl walking to a grocery store at night was raped at knife point; pregnant, back in the 1960s, she went to get an illegal abortion, stared at a blood-stained table, left – gave birth to her daughter, put her up for adoption. Nineteen years later the daughter – Rebecca Kiessling – met her…
Read MoreA Trial
Suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, to prove Fox knew Trump’s claims ‘the election was stolen’ weren’t true, Dominion Voting Systems released Fox TV stars’ emails and text messages. Tucker Carlson texted Laura Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham responded: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one…
Read MoreLost Souls
When George Washington was twelve years old his father died; he caught smallpox at nineteen, recovered; leading the Continental Army endured Valley Forge, suffered defeats, won Yorktown, after the Revolution refused to be made King. Abraham Lincoln lost his mother when he was nine; poor, as a boy he worked, handed money he earned to…
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