On Friday (Jan. 27), President Trump followed through on one of his signature campaign promises. One year ago, this month (Jan. 20), I wrote about candidate Trump’s planned Muslim ban (Fact-Checking a Reader, which has elicited additional response since Friday). Here’s what Trump originally called for as stated in a campaign press release dated December 7, 2015: “Donald J.  » Read...

ci·vil·i·ty formal politeness and courtesy in behavior and speech. Last year, civility took a beating – from rallies to street protestors; from road rage to political rage. Civility was pushed to the back of the bus, and shouted down every time it requested just a little self-restraint and decorum. According to the Zogby Survey on Civility in U.S. Politics conducted...

No one in modern American politics has used social media to influence an audience better than Donald Trump. His tool of choice: Twitter – the technological equivalent of a 1770 broadside. Long before he ran for president, Trump would use social media to preen before a television appearance. “Be sure to tune in and watch Donald Trump on Late Night...

Like millions of voters, I awoke Tuesday to news that – absent public debate or even advance notice – Republican Congressman Robert Goodlatte and others decided that they were going to gut the power of The Congressional Office of Ethics. Front page of The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 3): “House Republicans, meeting as a group Monday night, approved an amendment...

No, this is not the Electoral College. (Actually, it’s the Student Center at The New Hampshire Technical Institute where I spent many a happy day partaking of the luncheon cuisine while chatting with students attending the Contemporary Ethical Issues class led by Professor Stephen Ambra.) The Electoral College is a process, not a location, and a frustrating one to easily...

It didn’t take long for President-elect Trump to show us the difference between what he said during his campaign and what he says now. During the campaign, Trump called President Obama “incompetent.” In last week’s Oval Office meeting, Trump now calls Obama, “a very good man.” During the campaign, Trump said that Obama is “very stupid,” and “the founder of...

“Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.” – old idiom Like more than 60,981,000, I voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not because she would have been the first woman President of the United States, but given two likely choices, she was, far and away, the most qualified grown-up in the room. While many have...

In the waning days of the his campaign, Donald Trump has been setting the table to spur supporters’ anger after November 8th. “Jon A. Husted,” The New York Times reports (Oct. 16), “the secretary of state of Ohio, said it was ‘wrong and engaging in irresponsible rhetoric’ for any candidate to question the integrity of elections without evidence. Mr. Husted,...

Based on newly discovered emails, FBI Director James Comey is re-opening the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s email server. In a letter to Congress, Director Comey could not spell out exactly what is contained in the new documents without further investigation. However, in a statement to FBI employees, the director explained his reasoning in releasing news to the public via Congress....

Twenty-four hours after the police shooting death of Alton Sterling outside a Baton Rouge convenience store, Philando Castile was shot and killed in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Both men were black. Both were killed by police under highly questionable circumstances. Castile had no prior criminal record, was driving a car occupied by his girl friend and her four-year-old daughter. Castile had...