Posts Tagged ‘Mitch McConnell’
WORDLE AND BETRAYAL 
Wordle, an online word game, offers insight into what drives Congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to betray this nation. Wordle players get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Feedback helps. Enter PLACE, and if E comes at the end of the mystery word, the letter shows up on a green tile.…
Read MoreLEGITIMATE POLITICAL DISCOURSE 
Physicists and sci-fi authors often posit alternate universes. Parallel selves or others inhabit space we believe to be ours. Fantasy? Not in America. Last Friday, the Republican National Committee censured Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyoming) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) for serving on the House select committee investigating January 6. According to the RNC, they “are…
Read MoreOPEN AGAIN
As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, theories abound on what a re-opened America will be like. As to my outlook, I turn—as in the past—to a favorite comic strip. Some people believe the nation will be better—purged?—after experiencing over 600,000 Americans killed by the virus. “Pearls Before Swine,” written and drawn by Stephan Pastis (San Francisco…
Read MoreTHE JURORS AND THE COMMANDMENT
Go outside, wet your index finger and hold it up. Now you understand why an important commandment in the Torah failed to impact the Senate trial of Donald Trump. Trump “won” 43-57. Of course, conviction requires a two-thirds majority. Seven Republicans voted their conscience. Forty-three cast votes based on which way they saw the political…
Read MoreNEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN NOR HEAT
The unofficial motto of the U.S. Postal Service long has been, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” What does? An American president hellbent on making a mockery of the Constitution and democracy. Polls indicate that Donald Trump badly trails Joe…
Read MoreTHE OTHER F-WORD
On December 17, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) stated re the upcoming trial of impeached president Donald Trump, “I’m not an impartial juror.” On January 16, Chief Justice John Roberts swore in the Senate. McConnell pledged to “do impartial justice.” Anyone for cognitive dissonance? Then McConnell doubled down. Before preliminaries this past Tuesday, he…
Read MoreGUILTY ME
Not to demean or dismiss America’s recent mass shootings in California, Texas and Ohio, but I want to point the finger at the next culprits: me and my family. You can take President Trump’s word. Last Monday, he cited several factors contributing to the nation’s wave of mass shootings: the Internet and social media, “gruesome…
Read MoreRUBY-RED TURNS BLUE
Last Tuesday, ruby-red Alabama turned partially blue. Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a special senatorial election. Pending a requested recount, Jones heads to Washington. His 20,000-vote margin of victory was small, but the election’s message may—pardon the expression—be huge. To begin, changing demographics may soon reverse populism’s recent gains. The percentage of…
Read MoreTRUMP THE UNITER
Many Americans view Donald Trump’s presidency as off to a rocky start. Yesterday’s Gallup’s daily poll showed Trump with a 43 percent approval rating, quite low for a president two weeks into the job. But one day, if courage overtakes ideology, historians may see Mr. Trump as having rescued America from political stagnation. Last June,…
Read MoreFAKE NEWS
One of my favorite comic strips is “The Knight Life” by Keith Knight. Tuesday’s included a schoolteacher’s statement: “Facts are overrated!! All you need is a loud mouth & some Macedonian teenagers!!” Websites with fake news created by kids in Europe abound—fake news many Americans give credence. On December 9th, Yahoo News (real) reported that…
Read MoreAFTER SCALIA, WHAT?
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has stirred quite a political spat. Republicans, like presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demand that President Obama not nominate anyone to the Court given that the 2016 presidential election is less than a year off. This line of thought…
Read MoreQUESTIONS
The election is over. We can all take a breath. But that breath better be short. Because looking back—and forward—a lot of questions come to mind. 1. If the nation is as bad off as so many people believe, why did President Obama win? Discontent should have swept Mitt Romney into the Oval Office as…
Read MorePOWER
HBO’s Deadwood (2004-06) offers an intriguing look at power. Two of the series’ main characters, both based on real people, and a character in an old movie reveal a lot about America in the late nineteenth century and America today. Al Swearingen (British actor Ian McShane) runs Deadwood, a South Dakota gold mining camp, with…
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