While you’re giving thanks this week, take a moment to express your gratitude to the generous folks who are helping to receive and resettle Afghan refugees. They represent the very best of the American spirit: good-hearted and open-minded, a spirit that might flicker and fade in Washington, D.C., but that flourishes in communities across the country.
Remember when Joe Biden ran for president in what commentators called the “centrist” lane of the Democratic primaries? The idea was that a “moderate” like Biden, unlike rival Bernie Sanders, would not push radical plans to completely change American society.
Every time I hear somebody say that America’s contemporary political climate is uniquely violent, I wonder, “Where were you during the Nixon years?” Too young to remember the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy? The Chicago police riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention? The killings at Kent State? A “Weatherman” bomb factory detonating in Greenwich Village? Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army? The 1992 Los Angeles riots ...
You’d think at some point the folks who lead the North Carolina Republican Party might experience just the tiniest twinge of sheepishness.
The $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law on November 15 attracted the votes of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington and has attracted praise from many North Carolina leaders, as well — once more illustrating the fact that bad ideas can also be popular ideas.
It is ironic when Democrats complain about sensational use of language.
After last year’s lockdown it’s great to once again gather with family for the holidays. Some will be traveling “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house.” During the holidays our already crowded and inadequately maintained roads will be strained, especially since speeding has surged in our state.
American leadership has grown extremely old. It is unprecedented. It offers challenges and it gives a distinct advantage to the folks who have been doing the same thing for thirty plus years.
Amazing to read that over 4 million Americans quit their jobs in September — part of a mass labor pullout being called the Great Resignation. The social and economic chaos unleashed by COVID-19 has apparently jumbled pre-pandemic assumptions.
How much does the United States owe to immigrant families whose children were separated from them as part of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” approach to border crossings that began in May 2018? Is it $450,000 per person affected by the callous policy, a figure recently reported by the Wall Street Journal? More? Less?
In the North Carolina House of Representatives it takes 61 votes to pass a state budget bill — assuming all 120 members are present and voting. It takes the same number of votes to amend such a bill, say to add an item, delete an item or to increase or decrease the amount of spending on any provision.
When Carolina Journal first reported first-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s intention to abandon his current district next year to run in an adjacent one, CJ quoted Cawthorn as saying his decision was part of “a strategy to increase conservativism in North Carolina.”
The state budget that the General Assembly finally passed last week tells us something about Senate Leader Phil Berger: He has not changed his mind. This budget contains a further $2 billion dollars in corporate tax cuts coming on the heels of a decade in which our corporate tax was all but eliminated.
I’ve always thought of Eric Clapton as the Frank Sinatra of my generation: a consummate musical artist who’s also kind of a jerk.
The Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has quickly morphed into a defining cultural moment. The opposing sides are cheered on by cable talking heads, legal experts, political ideologues, and even the U.S. president. In a potential return to the mob rule that kicked off the shooting saga, some are threatening more violence.
Economists tell us that the current high rate of inflation is not forever. And it’s not all bad, certainly not for workers whose rising wages play a part in the climbing prices. How seriously Americans are taking it may be reflected in this Wall Street Journal headline: “Retail Sales Rose by 1.7% in October Despite High Inflation.”
President Joe Biden’s plunging public approval rating isn’t his problem. It is a reflection of his problem.
Can Joe Biden do the job?
As Democrats regroup to try to pass their $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, pressure grows for shining the light of fiscal responsibility on all this.
Maybe you remember the classic 1975 film, Network, where the anchor Howard Beale, throws open a window and shouts, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Political freeloaders. They are to the left of us. They are to the right. These are politicians who grandstand, who vote against their constituents’ interests, knowing that their tougher colleagues will do the hard work.
It’s about time.
North Carolina is responsible for some important “firsts” in our nation’s history. We were the first state to instruct delegates to vote for independence from England. As our license plate boasts, aviation began here when the Wright brothers completed their first flight in Kitty Hawk.
