Many of our cell phones have been battered this election season with a torrent of pleas for moolah. I vote mostly Democratic/Independent, so my flogging by fundraisers comes from Democratic candidates and liberal-leaning causes. For 17 days (Oct. 14-30), I logged the source of 83 of such texts on my Verizon cell phone account and observed a often overly aggressive system …
Vice President Kamala Harris has continued her sorely conflicted relationship with President Joe Biden since her campaign began. Like an estranged couple, she and Biden hang out in the same house politically but don’t often mention each other and don’t go out together. Harris’ campaign would benefit from an appropriate Joe-Biden-friendly approach, made clear to me with “there is not a thing …
Many Americans complain about things Donald Trump has said or done as he pushes for a return to the White House. My objection here to his loose mouth is, however, more personal than political. I respond to some of his ill words on behalf of both my late Dad and my own namesake, a soldier from Slope County, N.D., who …
What most surprises me about the steady run up in gasoline and diesel fuel prices since late 2020 is that any American adults are surprised by the increases. Huge changes in the U.S. economy always affect demand for fuels, thus their prices. U.S. fuel prices plunged when the recession of 2008-09 hit, slamming the economy, and the same thing happened …
Amidst Congress’ partisan hostility, Americans who favor U.S. Supreme Court reforms can’t expect expansion or other structural changes soon. In fact, months before President Joe Biden named his commission in April to broadly evaluate possible judicial system revisions, he declared he wouldn’t “turn the Supreme Court into just a political football” with abrupt changes, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared …
As 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic ravaged Americans’ health and economy, distrust of our election system infested the bloodstream of U.S. democracy. The result is a nation with voter flu, even leading to a feverish mob physically attacking Congress in session, enraged about imagined ballot fraud and a stolen presidential election. My own service as a foot soldier in the 2020 election …
With President Trump’s election eve choice of Amy Coney Barrett for the U.S. Supreme Court, another partisan fracas has ensued in the U.S. Senate. Regrettably, Trump has succeeded in casting most anything he can as partisan combat, generally with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell riding shotgun. And it’s become clear Trump will get his strictly partisan win with the Barrett confirmation …
On this USA Independence Day weekend, let’s wish the District of Columbia further political independence from its mama on Capitol Hill. Here’s a tip of the hat to D.C. leaders’ persistence in securing recent passage of a partisan House of Representatives bill granting the District status as a state with full voting representation in Congress. The reality is, however, D.C. …
Hoping to avoid COVID-19? Survive it if you get it? Who’s your state’s governor? In many states, that may matter. Our individual odds for surviving COVID-19 are emerging as somewhat of a crapshoot, dependent on countless ways we can avoid or contract the virus and, if you get it, to a large degree how healthy your heart and lungs are …
This story is a century or so too late in the telling and is missing pieces needed to qualify it as bona fide North Dakota history. But it’s as honest a story as my cousin, Jeannette Wolff Miller, can tell about her wonderfully resilient house plant, a torn petticoat in St. Paul, a young woman taking a train to her …