Recent Honesty Commentaries

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Truth and the GOP
Note: I am currently out of town. A new post will appear on Wednesday. Thanks for your continued support. The first pictures released by NASA from the new James Webb space telescope give us a spectacular view of how galaxies looked 13 billion years ago. Nothing we’ve ever seen from our planetary past comes close to what we are seeing...
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July 15, 2022
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Hearts of Darkness
“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”–Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness “You back-stabbing son of a bitch. You go against Trump y’all known, y’all mother are sitting up there lying like a damn dog.” “You’re going to swing for f***ing treason, you communist f***.” And I’m guessing that these are only a small example...
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July 8, 2022
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The United States vs. Donald Trump
If Attorney General Merrick Garland is looking for grounds for bringing criminal charges against Donald Trump and his allies in their attempts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, he should begin with Tuesday’s compelling testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a former local elections worker in Fulton County, Georgia, and end with the shocking statement Trump made to former Acting Deputy...
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June 24, 2022
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How Frighteningly Close We Came on January 6
Tonight, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol will present its case to the public. Over the next few days, the presentation will lay out a timeline of events before and after the attack took place using testimony by many with direct knowledge of events. A New York Times story...
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June 9, 2022
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How Far They Have Fallen
The lead story in Sunday’s New York Times sums up how far Donald Trump has usurped many Republican state legislatures, political leadership in Congress and how far the Republican party has fallen off the radar of credibility and responsibility to the country. “At least 357 sitting Republican legislators in closely contested battleground states have used the power of their office...
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May 24, 2022
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Our Bitter Harvest
“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.” —Richard III, Act I, sc. 1 In March 1954, Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson spoke to a crowd of supporters about the poison that had infected much of the American public by a demagogic United States Senator. “We are witnessing the bitter harvest from the...
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May 20, 2022
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What Kind of Country Do We Want?
What are we doing to one another? What’s happened to our sense of honesty and respect for each other? Why must we tear apart the fabric of our democracy by fear, distrust and anger? We live in a democracy where we are free to express our thoughts, our ideas, and vote for those we trust to lead us forward. “If...
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May 9, 2022
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And The Four Others Who Stand Up For Democracy
The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award is distinguished by a ship’s lantern. “The lantern elicits immediate recognition and evokes the shared cultural symbols of light and truth,” designer Edwin Schlossberg says. “Light is the beacon of warning, of safety, of hope in the wilderness. A lantern symbolizes the search for an honest man. It lights a dark path,...
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April 29, 2022
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Profiles in Courage
In 1877, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a former distinguished Confederate officer, was the hugely popular Democratic Senator from Mississippi. So revered for his commitment to duty and integrity that a Washington reporter said of Lamar, “he would be a conspicuous personality anywhere, with a character and quality of his own.” Lamar was now faced with an impossible choice in the...
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April 26, 2022
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What Makes a Leader?
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” — John Maxwell, American clergyman Liz Cheney is smart, disciplined, honest and fearless. A rock-sold Republican from Wyoming, Cheney is one of only two House Republicans who sit on the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. Adam Kinzinger is the other. However, it is...
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April 12, 2022