Sign of the Times?

Jules Verne wrote three stories about balloons – now balloons are back floating across the sky above us. What on earth can China be thinking? After a fighter jet shot down a balloon over Lake Huron China shrugged, said we’d sent ten spy balloons sailing across China – so now the problems not just spy…

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Take Me Away

Sometimes I wonder why I watch the nightly news. Earthquakes killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Aid was slow in coming, and builders are blamed for shoddy construction. Russia launched a new offensive. Ukrainian forces, short of ammunition, fell back. Several US airliners had near crashes and collisions. A train carrying dangerous…

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Mired in the Muddle

We lost the Vietnam War, Reagan stepped forward, ran for President, and Establishment Republicans – who then ruled the GOP – beat him. Then Jimmy Carter beat them. Four years passed, Reagan ran again, whipped the Establishment Republicans, whipped Jimmy Carter, and we won the Cold War. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed,…

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State of the Union

Gary, on Talking About Politics, made a good point about Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech: ‘Biden got the last laugh.’ Old-fashioned politeness – when you’re disagreeing with someone on the other side of the aisle – is a virtue. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s anger, jeering, offended people – and helped Biden. Political disagreements are…

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Three Tribes

It’s an old story. In the Bible. Tribes battling in the Holy Land. Today, in our Holy Land, in Washington, three tribes rule: Democratic Politicians, their cousins Republican Politicians, and Showmen. Joe Biden’s the face of the first tribe; Kevin McCarthy’s the face of the second; Trump’s the face of the third. The first two…

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Choosing Between Evils

An old-fashioned conservative, seven years ago in the Republican primary John cheered for Ted Cruz, scowled at Donald Trump; then a quirky thing happened: That fall, staring at Trump and Hillary on a debate stage, having to choose between two evils he picked Trump and, in the next breath, in his eyes Trump was no…

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Twisted Legacy

Narrow face, scar running down his nose, ending in a huge bulbous bump, living on Park Avenue Roy Cohn dodged the draft at the end of World War II; political gamesman, finagling, after he got a law degree he cut a deal, got a patronage job as Assistant US Attorney, landed in ‘The Trial of…

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History Repeating Itself

Throwing his hat in the ring Josh Stein’s off and running for Governor; I got a surprise that day I met him years ago: Sitting on opposite sides of a table disagreeing, we argued – the surprise I got was his old-fashioned, soft-spoken, courtesy. I met Stein’s Republican opponent a decade later – Mark Robinson…

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Big Lawsuit

A year ago the Republicans in the state legislature drew all the Republican Congressional districts they could. Democrats sued. And the State Supreme Court – controlled by Democrats – threw out Republican districts, drew districts that elected more Democrats. Unhappy Republican legislators sued, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule only state legislators can draw…

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A Little Screwy

Over the years American courts have ruled no to school prayer, no to saluting the flag, no to saying the Pledge of Allegiance – all to ‘protect people’s constitutional rights.’ Now a Colorado businesswoman’s landed in a lawsuit in the Supreme Court because she won’t build gay marriage websites and, oddly, the same people who…

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