The last several weeks have seen a steady drumbeat of wild allegations by a news organization and some Republican politicians that threaten the integrity of Special Counsel Robert Mueller III and his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In a speech, Donald Trump, Jr. appears to be part of a coordinated effort by suggesting a conspiracy in a...

work-around: a plan or method to circumvent a problem. After watching Senator Al Franken’s resignation speech yesterday, my cynical self reminded me that too many men in powerful positions appear genetically incapable of taking full, unconditional responsibility for their actions. As this is likely the last speech he’ll make on the Senate floor, Franken sounds both serious and deliberate. He...

It takes a lot to get Nuclear Peace Activist David Krieger worked up. That’s why I was surprised by his recent essay, Decoding Donald, where Krieger – founder and president of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – writes forcefully about the unequivocal threat posed by Donald Trump. “You really pulled no punches in your critique and ultimate solution for dealing...

One week from tomorrow, December 12, Alabama voters go to the polls to vote for a replacement for Senator Jeff Sessions who was appointed U.S. attorney general. According to a CBS News poll, Republican Roy Moore is leading Democrat Doug Jones by 6 percentage points — 49 percent to Jones’s 43 among likely voters.  In the same poll, 71 percent...

“If Jesus Christ [got] down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him,  ‘Hold on a second. I need to check with the President if it’s true.’ ” – Trump voter, CNN New Day, November 20 This is how low truth and trust have plummeted in the eyes of some voters. Writing about the...

The E.T. is looking at the few, the ignorant, and the humbly-challenged of Trump’s “best people” from his administration. Mick Mulvaney – currently head of the Office of Management and Budget, will temporarily do double-duty as interim director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the departure of Richard Cordray who served as the bureau’s first director. Remember the banking excesses...

What should be done about men who do not directly and blatantly sell the favors of their offices for money and so place themselves within the penalties of the law? How do we deal with those who, under the guise of friendship, accept favors which offend the spirit of the law but do not violate its letter? – Senator J....

On a quiet Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas – a town with a population less than 700 – Devin Kelly, a former Air Force logistics worker, walked into the back of the church armed with a semi-automatic military-style weapon and killed 26 people. “Department of Public Safety Spokesman Freeman Martin said Kelley moved around...

In his latest book, The American Spirit, historian David McCullough had the rare privilege of addressing a joint session of Congress in 1989. McCullough has observed much in his 84 years, and written much more about the past in books, and the present in speeches, and what he observes, he relates in stories that make the past come alive. On...

2007, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA = 32 dead; 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newton, CT = 27 dead; 2016, Orlando, FL = 49 dead; Las Vegas, NV = 58 dead, more than 500 injured. According to The Wall Street Journal (Oct., 2015), The United States “leads the world in mass shootings.” Survivors of mass shootings frequently suffer post-traumatic stress. Think...