I know what it’s like to slam my finger in a car door.  The pain is intense.  Yet, at the same time, I curse myself for being stupid. That’s how I feel whenever I watch the 45TH American president on television.  I suffer when he lies; I curse the embarrassment we’ve heaped u

In the opening scene of the film, The Graduate, the operative word was “plastics.”  Today, Dustin Hoffman is all grown up, though that scene remains a movie classic.  For billionaire Jeremy Grantham the new word for this era is “topsoil.”  Necessary to feed a burgeoning glo

An interesting poll came out the other day. (“Poll Watch,” The Week, Feb 8, 2019, pg. 17)  Fifty-five percent of Americans favor receiving a health care plan through Medicare, but only 37% would be willing to raise taxes for it.  Presidential aspirant, Kamala Harris, and Senator

Recently, the super-rich and super powerful gathered for the annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.  There, they received a report from Oxfam.  It said the 26 richest people in the world own as much wealth as half the human race. (“Davos: Skiing past a world in crisis,” T

“Tax the rich.” The chant gets louder as the liberal left begins to flex its muscles  Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) cites history as evidence the rich could pay more taxes.  She reminds us at one point in our history the tax rate was as high as 70%. I’m no economics major, as

Let me assure doubters that mud at the bottom of a pond is as dark and deep as any to be found in a lake.  By mud, I’m talking about power games as they are played from rural Alabama or New York. Near the end of my final term as a county commissioner in a midsize city, I became pri

There’s a university professor in Canada who is teaching an introductory journalism course, unique because it focuses on Donald Trump’s ability to keep the media and everyone else off-balance.  (“From Tocqueville to Trump,” by Joel Stein, Vanity Fair, Feb. 2019, pgs. 36-37.)�

Trump has always been a president untroubled by his contradictions. When the stock market is up, he takes his bow center stage.  When it’s down, he blames Jerome Powell, his appointment as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board.  Conventional wisdom discounts either position.  “…

With the Democrats in control of the U. S. House, President Donald Trump seems to be reviving his base with fiery rhetoric.  We all know who members of that base are — Woebegone innocents of earlier days, a time when, if corn prices flourished, so did the nation. As a kid, my f

Donald Trump doesn’t reason like a typical politician and has no fiscal discipline, says David Hoppe, Paul Ryan’s former chief of staff.  (“Hey, Paul Ryan, What’s Up?” by Anna Edgerton, Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec. 17, 2018, pg. 40.)  Hoppe blames Trump for a looming finan