A Cloud to Keep Your Eye On

For years – for decades – I’ve expected ‘The National Debt’ to the sink the economy but the crash never came; it defies common sense but, somehow, no matter how much the politicians spent the chickens never came to roost. Hardly a soul even noticed when President Trump didn’t mention the debt in his State…

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The FISA Memos

When you watch the politicians arguing on CNN and FOX about the FISA Memos you can’t make heads or tails of what’s going on. To Republicans their Memo proves the FBI used political research paid for by Democrats to get a warrant to wiretap the Trump campaign – or one-time Trump advisor, Carter Page –…

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Steve Bannon’s Three Temptations

The main character in Michael Wolff’s book isn’t Donald Trump it’s Steve Bannon: The book begins with Bannon having dinner with Roger Ailes and ends with Bannon standing on the steps in front of the Breitbart townhouse in Washington explaining the next move in his war on ‘The Swamp.’ Bannon’s story twists and turns: A…

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What Makes a Wave Election?

What creates a wave election? Two things. Here’s one: In 1988, 1990 and 1992 Congressman David Price, a popular Democratic incumbent in a Democratic district, received over 100,000 votes in each election and won easily. Then, in 1994, a wave election came along that favored Republicans. Democrats didn’t vote and David Price received 76,000 votes…

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‘I would NEVER…’

President Trump’s single most popular tweet in 2017 (according to ABC News) was: Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old” when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ So did Donald Trump, who’s not known for his subtlety, just make a back-handed insult? Or did he just do what he said…

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Like a Politician

Hardly anyone likes politicians drawing districts to elect themselves but, to rip apart the Congressional Districts Republicans drew, Judge James Wynn spun a tale full of fictions. Judge Wynn described the Republican Plan as a vicious extreme ‘partisan gerrymander’ that would assure Republicans win 10 of North Carolina’s 13 Congressional seats for years and cited…

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Fixing the Slips?

President Trump said over and over that his tax cut is the biggest in history but, then, the press reported the Treasury Department had ranked every tax cut (as a percentage of GDP) since 1940. Was Trump first? No.  Was he second? No. Where did he stand? Last. Seventh out of seven. Which leads to…

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One White Hot Story

Brian Ross had a ‘confidential’ source, an insider close to Michael Flynn – so at 11 o’clock last Friday morning Ross (of ABC News ) dropped a bombshell: Michael Flynn was going to testify Trump had ordered him to contact the Russians before the election.  The world turned upside down. Twitter and Facebook exploded. The…

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After Six Years of Howling…

The politicians are hollering, again, about redistricting – about the new State House and Senate district maps drawn by the federal judges ‘Special Mapmaker.’ But look beneath the surface: What’s surprising is how few districts changed. And how little those districts changed. The News and Observer analyzed the new maps: One district changed from .4%…

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A Place Miracles Still Happen

When Kate McClure ran out of gas on an exit ramp in Philadelphia, Johnny Bobbitt, a homeless man, walked toward her car in the darkness, said, Lock your doors, then walked to a gas station and returned with $20 in gas. Bobbitt, a paramedic, had moved to Philadelphia for a job but the job fell…

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