There’s an old saying in the newspaper business: Doctors bury their mistakes; we publish ours. So, my abject apologies to readers, and U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, for misstating in last month’s column the margin by which Newhouse beat his opponent in 2016. I said it was 1.6 percent, but that was in 2014. In the […]
Hello?
Can the Democrats get their act together for 2018?
A Great Civic Awakening is sweeping across the land, and for this we must thank Donald Trump. Slumbering citizens are rubbing the sleep from their eyes and paying attention to that is doing what to whom in their name. Commendably, they’ve set right to work, marshaling resistance to bad lawmaking. But if you want better […]
The Women’s March eludes network television
Last Saturday at least 600-plus residents of the Methow Valley, population 5,000, marched in Twisp to send a preemptive warning to the nation’s new president the day after he was sworn in. This message seemed to be: We want a president who upholds, not trashes, American values. When citizens take to the streets in protest […]
Here comes the new ‘Objectivist’ order
“… man exists for his own sake … the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose … he must not sacrifice himself to others nor sacrifice others to himself.” — Ayn Rand What do Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, secretary of state-designate Rex Tillerson, secretary of labor-designate Andy Puzder and CIA […]
What we’ve learned so far
Hillary Clinton won the presidential election by more than 2 million votes, or 1.5 percent of votes cast. But we get Donald Trump. Cowboy up, people. Yes, Trump lost. But under rules of the game, he has a legitimate claim to the presidency. Our core strength is that we’re a nation of laws. Trump gets […]
Who are we? The election may tell us something about that
Every four years, we Americans get to say who we are. In two weeks, in an election that seems all about sex, we get to say it again. So who are we? Maybe we’re Carl Paladino, failed Republican New York gubernatorial candidate and state co-chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Here’s Paladino’s idea of who […]
The wisdom of algorithms
“We understand that these limitations will sometimes affect content shared for legitimate reasons … and we apologize for the inconvenience.” — Facebook’s explanation of its censorship It gladdens my Viking heart to inform you that my people have been acting up again. Not in the service of pillage and plunder, but to defend your freedom […]
What Ailes us?
“One thing that qualifies me to run a journalism organization is the fact that I don’t have a journalism degree.” — Roger Ailes The day Donald Trump became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes lost his job. History rarely delights us with such ironic symmetry. No one has done more to […]
Frat boy follies
Despondent over the Republican convention? Cowboy up. You could be Queen Elizabeth II. The 90-year-old monarch, England’s longest reigning, is the human bookend presiding over the demise of an empire that began than more than four centuries ago with Queen Elizabeth I. Last month — thanks to just the sort of buffoonery on display at the […]
Getting what we’ve earned?
“Hurt people hurt people.” – Leon Wieseltier, Brookings Institution fellow Let’s change focus, people. Enough of Trump already. Nothing more can be said about him, or said by him, that will change what we know him to be: unfit for office. But what about those who think he is fit for office? They should compel […]
