Year: 2025

This morning as I sat in the doctor’s waiting room, I looked around at my fellow patients and wondered who these people were. They looked old, worn out, and a lot like the old people I knew growing up, a generation I frequently dismissed as a “bunch of old guys” with whom I had little…

I spent thirty years teaching history in colleges and universities and am hard pressed to recall one instructor or assistant professor who would have signed the “compact” for higher education offered by the Trump administration. Oh, there might have been one or two driven by politics or their contrarian nature, but most junior faculty would…

All of us, regardless of political affiliations or sentiments – whether Democrat, Republican or independent – should take a long hard look at the state of our politics. We must temporarily ditch our political beliefs and personal thoughts about single issues to take stock of what is happening in the United States today. We must…

Many of us – those who are politically concerned, at least – are at a loss to know what to do to correct the nation’s rush to dismantle democracy in favor of authoritarianism. To call what’s happening fascism is no longer speculative but an empirical truth. The United States is becoming a fascist state. And…

The recent tragedy of the Kirk killing has put a spotlight on right wing efforts to break down the separation of church and state so that *Christian nationalism and MAGA politics merge to become the ruling party in the United States. If successful, it means a return to the Middle Ages where church and state…

This quote always comes to mind when I think about many of my good friends and politics since 2016. For years, especially during my time in the North Georgia mountains, I hung out with people who became good friends; we visited and helped one another, shared dinners and cocktails and in time, formed a “neighborhood”…

For the last weeks and months, I’ve lost my way. Much of this time I have simply tried to hide from a news cycle that each day brings more news of atrocities here and abroad. My morning coffee routine has become a time for despair and disbelief; our government has become increasingly authoritarian, challenging the…

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy the hype around Trump’s “diplomacy” to end the Russo-Ukrainian War. He’s “role-playing” and enjoying every minute of it, reveling in the attention and adulation while he snickers in private about how Zelensky and the European allies kiss his fat posterior. The positive appraisal of yesterday’s White House meeting…

If you randomly picked individuals off the street and briefed them about the background and outcome of the curious Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, they would most likely confirm that it was a fraudulent performance by two grandstanding leaders. No matter how ill-informed they might be, they would understand that Putin and Trump are two con-men…

Even the most ardent Trump supporters must be concerned about the uncertainty of things during the first six months of this administration. For many, partisans, moderate voters and independents, the ensuing chaos and barrage of controversial actions raise questions about political and personal motivations, competence and the continued virtue of the American brand. Think of…