POLITICS & THE ECONOMY
A TRULY PIVOTAL 2024
Every New Year brings hopes and fears but 2024 will play a particularly pivotal role in history. Take November’s election. Donald Trump likely will secure the Republican nomination unless his legal woes and outrageous statements bring some Republicans to their senses—or he’s banned from enough state ballots. The Atlantic’s January/February 2024 issue posits what might happen…
Read MoreFLIPPING IN GEORGIA
Next year, 15 indicted individuals will stand trial in Fulton County, Georgia. They’ll confront racketeering charges regarding overturning the state’s 2020 presidential election results. But 19 were charged. What happened? Four defendants flipped. The prosecution gained four major weapons. Last month, Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, pled guilty. Relatively small potatoes, he received five years’…
Read MoreWHEN DO YOU SHOWER?
According to some people, what time of day you shower says a lot—maybe everything—about you. Such assumptions lead to dangerous politics. Blue-collar workers generally shower at the end of a sweaty day. White- (or other-color-) collar workers often shower in the morning to be fresh for the office—if they go to one—or other location. But…
Read MoreLEADERSHIP GOP-STYLE
The recent GOP debate produced many Donald Trump moments without Trump. More heat than light revealed the GOP lacks something important. Take former VP Mike Pence. Like Trump, he never served in the military. Had he completed Infantry Officer Candidate School (specifics in a moment), he might have defined leadership more wisely. Pence advocates a federal abortion…
Read MoreTHE RABBIS AND THE CONSTITUTION
Given the nation’s political turmoil, Rabbinic thinking can shed light on “loose construction” of the Constitution. A personal experience reinforced that concept. In 1998, I traveled to Israel with a group from New York. On the way to our hotel, we stopped at Mount Scopus for a sweeping view of Jerusalem. It struck me that…
Read MoreIOWA ’23, SOUTHIE ’74
Donald Trump was just indicted on four counts regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Yet he remains the heavy favorite for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination. A pollster and a novelist offer insights. On Tuesday, GOP pollster Frank Luntz told Dana Bash on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that conservative, faith-based Iowa voters “like Donald…
Read MoreTRUMP’S UNKNOWN V.P. HOPEFULS
The media have speculated about the usual suspects regarding Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. But let’s not overlook lesser-knowns heading under-the-radar conservative groups. Here are their selling points they provided in recent interviews. Marry Anne Cross, Make America Christian Again. “America must be Christian in more than name only. The Founding Fathers—the Mothers were busy rearing children,…
Read MoreOLD GLORY WAIVES THE FIFTH
Hey, it’s me, Old Glory aka the Stars & Stripes. With July Fourth coming, I’ve got three important things to say. First: I’m proud that the nation will celebrate its 247th birthday. Many countries have been around longer. Real democracies? We took the first plunge. Second: That said, I could dodge America’s problems, take the…
Read MoreWHOSE TEN COMMANDMENTS?
Texas’ House recently ended its biennial session considering—but not voting on—a Senate-passed bill. It would require all Texas public-school classrooms to post the Ten Commandments. This is as troubling as it is unsurprising. Said Texas State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R), “There is absolutely no separation of God and government, and that’s what these bills are…
Read MoreSALUTING FORT MOORE
From November 1966 through May 1967, I attended Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. On May 11, Fort Benning disappeared. It wasn’t a casualty of Congressional budget cutting but a tribute to decency. Few candidates knew that the post was named for Henry L. Benning, a Confederate brigadier general. It’s hard to square…
Read MoreYOM HASHOAH—A WARNING
Last Monday night/Tuesday, Jews observed (not celebrated) Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—on the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. After World War Two, Jews insisted, “Never again!” Israel built a military to defend the Jewish State. It’s what’s happening in America that disturbs me. Carolyn and I didn’t do anything formal for Yom HaShoah. We discuss…
Read MoreTHOUGHTS, PRAYERS AND BASEBALL
Tuesday night, I went with a friend to the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Dodgers at Oracle Park. The new nature of baseball suggested that something can be done about mass shootings. As a kid in the 50s living in New York, I went to Yankees, Giants and Dodgers games. They lasted about two-and-a-half hours.…
Read MoreTRUMP INDICTED—LOSER OR WINNER?
Donald Trump did not welcome news of his indictment yesterday by that Manhattan grand jury. Politics-wise, he may be better off. Trump wanted the case dropped. On March 23, he attacked Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg as “a Soros backed animal who just doesn’t care about right or wrong no matter how many people are hurt.”…
Read MoreLABELS AND SHACKLES
At the recent CPAC Women’s Breakfast, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R.–Col.) announced that she was about to become a 36-year-old grandmother. Her son, 17, would be a father. She was delighted. Hello, human nature. Boebert’s welcoming a future grandson, the child of two teenagers, strikes me as expressing more of liberal than conservative thinking. Yes, her…
Read MoreISRAEL’S MILITARY CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE
The political situation in Israel has become toxic. Parallels exist in the United States, but one problem hasn’t hit America—yet. As I wrote (January 27) in “Knesset, Congress and Chaos,” Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and his far-right partners seek to gut Israel’s supreme court. The Knesset, rather than pass a law, could overturn a court decision…
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