Issues
A Code
President Trump wanted Mexico’s President to stop saying Mexico wouldn’t pay for the wall so he called him but when Pena Nieto came on the line he told Trump the last thing Trump wanted to hear: He said he could never agree for Mexico to pay for the wall. Trump purred, told Pena Nieto he’d…
Read MoreTake ‘em down
Now that even the morally obtuse Trump has been forced to say white racist terrorism is wrong, we move on to a knottier issue: Should Confederate statues and memorials stay, or should they go? Here’s a case in point. If you drive down Hillsborough Street toward the State Capitol in Raleigh, you come to a…
Read MoreDevilment
It’s called ‘leverage’ and last weekend President Trump tried it by tweeting: “If a new healthcare bill is not approved quickly BAILOUTS for insurance companies and BAILOUTS for members of Congress will end very soon!” The President was saying to the insurance lobby, Get onboard – or I’ll end $7 billion a year in subsidies…
Read MoreThe “Green Thing”
A TAPster of a certain age – and a certain attitude, you can tell – passed along the following tale of two generations. I post it for the benefit of old and young. Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags,…
Read MoreSigns
Twenty-four years ago newly elected President Bill Clinton had a ‘Disapproval’ rating of 51%, and Democrats lost the next election in a landslide. In 1994 Republican gained 54 seats in Congress. President Trump has a ‘Disapproval’ rating of 58% – 7 points higher than Clinton’s – but, like most people, Republican politicians shrug, That won’t…
Read MoreNo One in Congress…
Republicans won four straight elections campaigning against Obamacare – it was that unpopular. But, now, they’ve laid out their own healthcare plan and guess what: Voters favor Obamacare over the Republican Plan by 2 to 1. Who’d have thought it was possible? Can no one in Congress…fix anything?
Read MoreRedistricting
Only a rare politician can resist it and no politician can cure it;—I first laid eyes on it twenty-six years ago when Jack Hawke asked me to drive over to Republican Headquarters for a meeting with a dozen legislators; an hour later standing around a conference room table covered with maps a legislator – enthusiastically…
Read MoreRevelation
They’re mad. They’re livid. They’re out for blood. One angry Republican said, “We got them the House, we got them the Senate and even the White House and they still can’t get it done. If we leave Ryan and McConnell in charge, nothing’s going to change.” That was the gist of the newspaper story but…
Read MoreMore Harm Than Good
I haven’t seen this much howling and gnashing of teeth since I can’t remember when: Mention the word Russia and The New York Times and the Washington Post start hopping up and down and Anderson Coopers turns steely-eyed while, over on the other side of the aisle, Tucker Carlson turns downright snarky. The liberals are…
Read MoreClick Bait
Most times the roots of blindness – whether it’s blindness due to pride or meanness or fear – run down into the clay-footed soil of human nature but the other day Peggy Noonan spotted an odd phenomenon. Noonan wrote: “News bias now is in part a financial decision.” Back in the old days the New…
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