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Useless allies

During the campaign, Kamala Harris received support from Republicans collectively known as “never Trumpers.” At the top of the list was Lynn Cheney, a former Congress member from Wyoming, who inveighed against Donald Trump’s potential changes to foreign policy. She was joined by her father, former Vice President Richard Cheney, whose hardline views concerning foreign policy are quite militant. Now, they justify their dislike for Trump by mentioning Jan. 6, 2021, and wrapping themselves in the flag while waving the Constitution. Forget the elder Cheney and his boss, George W. ...

November’s broken hearts in U.S. history

The most tragic rhyme in American history falls in November’s time, one century apart. President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863; President John F. Kennedy died in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. These events reach over endless bends in a profound dialogue like the mighty Mississippi River, cutting through North and South. Just coincidence the picture-perfect Yankee president, Jack Kennedy of Massachusetts, was slain on the losing side of the Civil War? Texas was the largest Confederate slave state, known for its violent swagger. Sixty-some years ago, Dallas ...

Yes, nukes!

One thing Hollywood is very good at is scaring the bejesus out of Americans -- even when they’re merely spreading false fears. A famous movie in 1979 called “The China Syndrome” chronicled a nuclear power accident that could kill tens of thousands of Americans with radiation poisoning. The title came from a spooky fairy-tale scenario in which the nuclear material would melt the earth right through to its core and then all the way down to China. Despite causing few deaths, the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania that year further panicked Americans about the safety of ...

Pressed for information

As we get closer to the end of the administration of Gov. Jim Justice and transition to the incoming administration of Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey, I’m looking forward to a change in how state government communicates with the public and press. For example, once again the West Virginia Department of Human Services decided to take something that should not have been all that controversial and make matters worse all because of their dislike of media scrutiny. On Tuesday, DoHS announced the closure of the West Virginia Children’s Home in Elkins effective Dec. 31 due to issues ...

Trump’s gains among minorities historic s

Did anyone expect, when they heard the candidate’s announcement at the base of the Trump Tower escalator in June 2015, that nine years later, he would be elected to a second term with sharp increases in Republican percentages from nonwhite people -- Latinos especially, but also Black and Asian people? Opponents and commentators blandly call President-elect Donald Trump a racist without bothering with documentation — although, in my view, being a racist is one bad thing that Trump is not. He’s a New Yorker with minority ancestry (German, Scottish) who has mingled with and made ...

Don’t pardon Hunter

While all eyes are on Mar-a-Lago and the goons Trump is nominating to besmirch high government offices, there is another potential threat looming to the rule of law, and it comes not from MAGAworld but from the sitting president. I’m referring to the possibility that President Joe Biden might pardon his son Hunter Biden. Ana Navarro, a panelist on “The View,” urged the president to do it, saying, “Joe, since they’re talking smack about you anyways, you know what? Maybe pardon Hunter. Pardon Hunter because we, basically America, just pardoned a criminal who was convicted of ...