News you can use
News you can use
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Carmen, who had cancer, has recently died. Carmen is one of my Mazatlan friends. I just learned of her death. I grew to love Carmen and looked forward to seeing her each year. But that was not always the way. My first Mazatlan vacation, time passes in a blur, but it had to have been at least a dozen years ago, Carmen met Kathy and me at the airport in the resort van. The price of a “free” pick-up at the airport was a promise to give half a day to the time-share sales staff. Carmen’s job was to shuttle us into a commi...
For the Democrats, no activity is immune from reflexive accusations of sexism and racism, not even soul-searching. The initial postelection debate on the left has brought some tentative breaks with the party’s oppressive and self-limiting identity politics. And they have been met, predictably, with a furious counterattack wielding all of the usual rhetorical weapons of identity politics — lest fresh air penetrate the intellectual and political hothouse where transgender bathroom issues loom incredibly large and it is for...
Two months before joining the government in an entry-level position, President-elect Donald Trump has been learning the ropes and is busier than a bartender 10 minutes before midnight at a Times Square Applebee’s on New Year’s Eve. A large amount of time was spent selecting a cabinet of deplorables from his basket of deplorables and making sure the two sons from his first marriage, Uday and Qusay, had the proper security clearances. Their safari trophies were also expedited though customs. Trump cleverly kept America’s enemi...
It’s 3 a.m. and Donald Trump can’t sleep. Restless, he tosses back and forth between Egyptian cotton sheets. The sweat builds on his forehead. His teeth grind. A tinpot dictator in some far-flung land has made a joke about his hands. The rage builds. He reaches for the phone glowing silently on the nightstand. In the darkness, Melania reaches out to steady his (perfectly adequately sized, he thinks) hand. “Don’t do it,” she warns. “You’ll regret it.” But she’s already too late. His deeply tanned face flushes crimson r...
Former Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher recently gave a speech identifying the Federal Reserve’s easy money/low interest rate policies as a source of the public anger that propelled Donald Trump into the White House. Mr. Fisher is certainly correct that the Fed’s policies have “skewered” the middle class. However, the problem is not specific Fed policies, but the very system of fiat currency managed by a secretive central bank. Federal Reserve-generated increases in money supply cause economic inequal...
President-elect Trump’s transition team knew that nominating Jeff Sessions for Attorney General would set off controversy. Democrats and their allies in the press have at key times in the past called Sessions a racist — they’re now using the Alabama senator’s full name, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, to heighten the Old South effect — and now, as they oppose Trump at nearly every turn, they’ve turned to race again. Here’s why the effort to stop Sessions is likely to intensify as his confirmation hearings near. Session...
Wow, what a surprise the Electoral College was! Who knew that a candidate could win the race for the presidency even though he didn’t get a majority of the actual national vote, like Donald Trump did? Somehow, that possibility evaded all the advisers buzzing around Hillary Clinton, who constantly and smugly assured everyone that they were the modern experts with the superior grasp of data, so worry not about Trump defeating Clinton. They are the same ones who are now bitterly complaining about the unfairness of the E...
Where was all this passion during the campaign? Now, opponents of Donald Trump are incensed and outraged. Students are walking out of classrooms and campuses. Two protest marches will descend on the capital in January. A meeting of liberal activists was “intense, angry and unforgiving,” reports The New York Times. “This is a crisis of unparalleled dimension,” warned Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. His fears are certainly justified, but hey, folks — elections have consequences. Clinton f...
Breaking news: An amazing new school for political activists is training thousands of people to be community organizers. They’re using Saul Alinsky’s classic manual, “Rules for Radicals.” The Grassroots Leadership Academy gives how-to lessons in everything from mounting successful protest actions to recruiting middle-of-the-road voters. But, wait — who’s that hiding behind Saul Alinsky? Good grief, it’s the Koch brothers! Yes, this “grassroots” outfit has been set up by the gabillionaires Charles and David Koch to train cad...
By now you’ve probably heard that Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed by fellow theater-goers at a performance of the musical “Hamilton,” an unlikely hip-hop sensation that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and other Founding Fathers. Then, at the end of the show, the cast respectfully addressed Pence and asked him to protect the rights of all Americans — in all their diversity. Donald Trump immediately demanded that the cast of “Hamilton” apologize to Pence. Twitter responded with the hashtag #NameAPence...
In 1978 Max Baucus was elected to the U.S. Senate starting a record 35 years of representing Montana. In 1978, Pat Williams was elected to the first of a record nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also in 1978, something happened in New York City that foreshadowed a political event in Montana 38 years later. In 1978 the ABC television network canceled the prime time show “The Six Million Dollar Man.” “The Six Million Dollar Man” was a successful science fiction television series starring Lee Majors...
For many, myself included, personal religion is a very touchy subject. For instance, at a dinner party, it is not merely something that I dislike bringing up, but strive to avoid. This is because, since childhood, I have witnessed the way many people tend to manipulate religion’s invariably political arm — congregations — for the sake of social rather than spiritual capital. Indeed, a substantial number treat whichever house of worship they choose to attend as a sorority rather than a portal to the divine. However, while...
By his own admission, President-elect Donald Trump is a guy who likes to build stuff: A golf course in Scotland. A hotel in Washington D.C. A great, big beautiful wall on the American border with Mexico. But when it comes to his most ambitious building project yet — a badly needed, $1 trillion upgrade of America’s roads, bridges, railways and airports, the nation’s incoming 45th chief executive is running into an challenge tougher than winning over even the crankiest of New York City code inspectors: Finding a way to pay f...
“The Emperor (of Lilliput) holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates, advancing one by one, sometimes leap over the stick, sometimes creep under it backwards and forwards several times ... whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds out longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the blue-colored silk ... and you see very few persons about this court who are not adorned with one of these girdles.” — Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels,” 1726 Never mind that president-...
WASHINGTON — For decades, foreign correspondents have covered countries where people are quite literally begging for true information. During the Cold War and under the worst dictatorships, Russians, Hungarians, Poles and many others would whisper to us in locked rooms or somewhere where the music was so loud the dictatorship couldn’t overhear you. Then they would tell us, often tearfully, about secretly listening to the clandestine broadcasts of Voice of America or Radio Free Europe or, more recently, Radio Free Asia. The...
Thanksgiving may officially be over, but Americans have much to be thankful for. To my liberal and Democratic Party friends (not always one and the same), please enjoy the freedom you have to protest and fear the unknown that is President-elect Trump. While Trump tweets and Vice-President-elect Mike Pence demonstrates calm maturity, political opponents from “Saturday Night Live” to MSNBC, from the Broadway stage to the streets of Portland all have the freedom to freak out, cry, pout and insult them in a variety of fas...
“The Best 25 Inventions of 2016” blares the cover of the Nov. 16 issue of “Time.” I don’t have the space to do injustice to all of them, but some of them just beg for comment. Of course you may wonder why “Time” feels compelled to release its list with more than a month left to go in the year. Isn’t it possible that someone could unveil some brilliant labor-saving device or cultural milestone during the twelfth month? OK, truthfully, Kickstarter startups do tend to get pushed aside by all the holiday hubbub and year-end in...
As hard as the campaign might have been and the transition is proving to be, Donald Trump’s challenges are really just beginning. Governing after a toxic election in which the results awarded him an ambiguous national mandate — his opponent, after all, got more votes — will require finesse, a clear-eyed view of his role in the world, and no small amount of luck. He will soon find that the commitments and promises made during the campaign are going to be very hard to carry out. The new president’s number one priority almost...
Historians all agree that the Pilgrims really did celebrate a first Thanksgiving, but they also agree that it was a one-time event. It wasn’t turned into a yearly celebration until Abraham Lincoln made it official during the middle of the Civil War, some 250 years later. New documents have come to light that may explain why. “Never again,” writes John Alden in a letter found in a newly discovered cache of papers composed by the original passengers of the Mayflower. “Six long hours we have spent looking at the hind end of...
Before year’s end, let’s have one sort of Kumbaya moment as we turn the page on words and expressions that have sort of worn out their welcomes in 2016. We can start with Kumbaya, the 1920s folk song kept alive by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and dozens of other musicians through the decades until politicians and pundits appropriated the term (loosely, “come by you”) to mock fake, usually progressive, group merriment. Speaking of progressives — and we mean you, MSNBC pundits — find a linguistic crutch to replace “sort of.” If you h...
Have you ever had something in your life at which you were afraid to take an honest look? I’m not talking about major life-threatening things here. We generally face up to those after a short dip into denial. What I’m talking about is a niggling fear like that which I’ve avoided bringing under my personal surveillance spotlight for over a year. It terrifies me inordinately to even talk about it. So, here goes. My daughter had knee replacement surgery, second knee, about three weeks ago. She’s doing great, healing more qu...
And now a public service announcement for all you prodigal sons and daughters making the pilgrimage back home for the annual Turkey Day reunion. Prepare for some ultra ugliness out there, people. Expect extra enmity. You are entering enemy territory and should anticipate the landing area will be mined. We’re not talking about the normal stomach spasms associated with tryptophan poisoning by over sampling the turducken or Aunt Hoogalah’s dupamouche. Beware the bubbling casserole dish nowhere near any apparent heat source. This...
Editor, A huge thank you for everyone who participated in the Bobcat/Griz Food Drive. The Bobcats won the football game but the Griz fans certainly turned out when it came to the food and hygiene donations. A special thank-you goes to Sunnyside School that collected nearly 500 pounds of food, 300 pounds of which were for the Griz. Students and staff of Sunnyside, well done! At Havre High School, the Griz fans again won in the food collection against the Bobcat fans. The Key Club of Havre High School would like to say...
We began our service in the Montana Legislature 46 years ago when political differences were as real and sharp as they are today, but when the practice of politics wasn’t as political. Then there were old New Dealers who represented a viewpoint not unlike Bernie Sanders, and there were Barry Goldwater Republicans whose philosophy of the rugged individual would resonate with some of the Tea Party true believers of today. The similarity, though, may end there. The two of us recently invited our fellow former state l...
When, chest puffed out with pride, my father told a law partner his first-born was accepted to Bryn Mawr College, this was the immediate response: “Isn’t that the place where they don’t shave their underarms and dance naked around the Maypole?” Daddy’s friend had it partly right: We danced around that blessed Maypole fully clothed. So when I saw this week that a bunch of Bryn Mawr students were joining forces with their Haverford counterparts and marching down Lancaster Avenue to protest the “white supremacist cops” in th...
