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Hmmm, Where Have We Seen This Before?
From NPR’s Morning Edition today.The pull-quote at the beginning of my current cover story says:Many people are discouraged about America. But the closer they are to the action at home, the better they...
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Hmmm, Where Have We Heard This Before? (Super Tuesday Edition)
Headline on an editorial-page essay in this morning’s NYT:From the essay itself:In the presidential primary on Tuesday, Texas Republicans seem set to throw themselves behind the two candidates [Trump...
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A Small Bit of Positive News From China
Rhodes House, in Oxford, which this fall will welcome its first class of Rhodes Scholars from the Chinese mainland WikimediaIt’s a darkening time in China. Discouraging reports arrive about: the short-...
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On Being Wrong About Trump
Scott Audetta / ReutersA triumphant Donald Trump, and a less-content Chris Christie, as the votes came in tonight. (Scott Audetta / Reuters)Congratulations to Hillary Clinton! And to Ted Cruz on his...
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The Photographer Who Was Roughed Up at the Trump Rally
Everyone has seen the video of a security agent manhandling a photographer at a Donald Trump rally in Virginia. For those who haven’t seen it, details and clips are available from Mother Jones...
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Dinosaurs Join the Boiled Frog Wars
For background on why no one should use the “like a frog in a pot of slowly warming water” metaphor ever again, check out the collection here. Two perfectly fine variations: 1) say it’s a mythical...
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Hmmm, This Sounds Like Something I Would Agree With
From Thomas Friedman in the NYT, emphasis added:… what will be required to produce resilient citizens and communities [is] forcing a politics that is much more of a hybrid of left and right.It is the...
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Local Success, National Paralysis: How Does it Balance Out?
FDR signing the G.I. Bill into law in 1944. That’s what a national-level effort looks like. (Wikimedia)The GOP/Fox last night was genuinely depressing. Donald Trump has brought the other candidates...
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The 40 Seconds John Kasich Will Think About for the Rest of His Life
John Kasich waving good-bye to his presidential hopes as he leaves the stage in Detroit last night. Jim Young / ReutersThose seconds come in the segment from last night’s debate that you see in the...
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Orbital View: All the Ships at Sea
Just because it's interesting and beautiful, take a look at this visualization of shipping traffic around the world. It’s a promotional video for a commercial tracking service called FleetMon, but...
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Stirrings of Spring: Beer Camp 2016
Springtime beer in foreground, bare wintry branches (plus bamboo) to the rear. (Ansel Adams)Last summer my wife Deb and I stopped through Chico, California, to hear the story of how Sierra Nevada,...
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Another Small-Plane Parachute Save
The pilot, Louis Obergh, and his daughter Rachel in front of the airplane that came down under parachute. (Photo Victor Alcorn.)Thanks to many people who have written in, over the past 24 hours, about...
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Who Invented the Parachute That Has Been Saving Small-Plane Pilots?
The phased-deployment model for the kind of parachute that saved a father and his teenaged daughter this past weekend over Long Island. This illustration is from the presentation of the prestigious...
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With the PBS NewsHour, in Greenville S.C.
Nighttime photo of the Liberty Bridge, over the Reedy River, in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. This was the focus of a long struggle to revive the city’s downtown. (Rosales and Partners /...
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After the ‘Nice’ Debate: Trump's Shape-Shifting Power
"Little Marco"? That was last week. It's the nice Donald Trump now, from the candidate with a greater dramatic range than anyone else in the race. Carlo Allegri / ReutersTwo points about the state of...
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Trumpus Ignoramus: A Candidate and the Genius of Know-Nothingism
Making America Great, 1850s version: the Know-Nothing Party at work. (Wikimedia commons)Yesterday I noted that Donald Trump was by far the supplest and most gifted TV performer of all the presidential...
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Why Sarah Palin Knows More Than Trump
Good thing he didn’t challenge her to a game of Jeopardy! ™ (Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters)After the latest GOP debate, I noted that Donald Trump was remarkable for his very high-level performance skills,...
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Trump Supporters Make Their Case
Joe Skipper / ReutersTrump at a rally on March 13. By the way, America is already great again. (Joe Skipper / Reuters)In these past few days I’ve argued that Donald Trump is an increasingly impressive...
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Shifting Back to Better News: What's Happening, Apart from the Primaries, in...
Ohio Statehouse, in Columbus, last year. No, this story is not about the Ohio primaries! (Deborah Fallows)A big theme of our March issue cover stories (main story here; “11 signs of success” checklist;...
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Trumpus Ignoramus: A Candidate and the Genius of Know-Nothingism
Joe Skipper / ReutersMaking America Great, 1850s version: the Know-Nothing Party at work. (Wikimedia commons)Yesterday I noted that Donald Trump was by far the supplest and most gifted TV performer of...
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