General
The anti-democratic (small d) party
Some Republicans have the annoying habit of calling us “the Democrat Party.” It’s an old slur, dating back to the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe “slur” is too strong a word. “Democrat Party” is more an insulting, annoying, derisive epithet. It conjures up “autocrat” or “bureaucrat” or just plain “rat.” When he was Speaker of the…
Read MoreDigging our own grave online
Back in the 1950s, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted that “We will bury you.” Vladimir Putin figured out that if he just gave us the right tools, we’d bury ourselves. A spate of news stories explores how Russian misinformation (fake news) combined with Americans’ own rage and with our addiction to social media to affect…
Read MoreThe good news and the bad news for Democrats in Raleigh’s Mayoral race
The good news: Democrats are fired up and ready to vote. The bad news: They’re fired up at each other and ready to start a civil war. Nancy McFarlane says Charles Francis’s decision to call a runoff will “divide those who share progressive values.” And her supporters say Francis has been known to consort with…
Read MoreTrump’s bully pulpit
Trump puts the “bully” into Teddy Roosevelt’s “bully pulpit.” Trump has 40.3 million Twitter followers. Every morning, he gets up, picks up his cell phone and picks a fight with somebody. This week it’s “Liddle Bob Corker.” Last week it was his own Secretary of State. All the time now, it’s (black) NFL players. His…
Read MoreRace, party and – yes, Trump and the Republican legislature – roil Raleigh politics
The Meeker-McFarlane Era of Good Feelings in Raleigh politics ended Tuesday. It had a good run for 16 years, but it’s over. Not since the days of Tom Fetzer and Paul Coble, who lost to Charles Meeker in 2001, has Raleigh politics been this hot and heavy. Why? First, race. The contest between Nancy McFarlane…
Read MoreNow he tells us
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker uncorked on Trump in an interview with The New York Times, “Bob Corker Says Trump’s Recklessness Threatens ‘World War III’:” “(Corker) charged in an interview on Sunday that President Trump was treating his office like ‘a reality show,’ with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation ‘on the…
Read MoreGays, Skinheads and a Photographer
There’s a photographer in Minnesota who happens to believe gay marriage runs counter to his religion so when a gay couple asked him to take pictures at their wedding he declined. And landed in court. At his trial he argued he had a right – a religious freedom – to say no but the federal…
Read MoreLooking for Something to Believe In?
It didn’t make good sense but, at least, if you tried to look at it through the eyes of a Black Lives Matter protestor, it had a kind of logic behind it when protestors started tearing down Confederate statues. But then, next, protestors went after statues of Columbus and Francis Scott Key – which wasn’t…
Read MoreWhat happens in Vegas…
As the N&O editorial aptly noted, this American carnage won’t end now, especially with Trump and the Republican Party safely locked away by the NRA. By now the pattern is familiar. First, shock and horror. Then frustration and anger over the predictable response by Republican politicians. Thoughts and prayers are sent. Mental illness is blamed.…
Read MorePictures
I opened the newspaper, saw the headline, and thought, Oh, Lord – in black and white right in front of me the New York Times headline roared: Trump threatens to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea. Then, a moment later, further down into the article I read exactly what Donald Trump had said to the United Nations:…
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