Posted July 04, 2024in Morain
Political platforms occupy a unique place in American politics. While they possess no real power over their parties’ candidates, they do offer evidence of how their parties’ supporters view what America, or one of its individual states, should be like in order to live up to their opinion of “true”
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Posted June 13, 2024in Morain
Eighty years ago, in June 1944, a massive invasion force landed on Axis enemy soil, opening a beachhead that led the following year to ultimate victory for the World War Two Allied forces. Last week we celebrated the D-Day invasion of Europe with appropriate commemorative events and reminiscing. But the
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Posted June 06, 2024in Morain
The facts are as follows: Last Thursday a New York trial jury of five women and seven men unanimously convicted former President Donald Trump of falsifying business records regarding a hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. The payment, in several installments just before the 2016 presidential election, was
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Posted May 23, 2024in Morain
On June 27, about five weeks from now, we’ll get to watch the first presidential debate for the 2024 election. Or not. The announced changes to the debate process this year are so great that the proposed sequence could end up being sidetracked, for a number of reasons. President Joe
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Posted May 16, 2024in Morain
Where does your primary loyalty lie: as a citizen of America, or as a citizen of Iowa? Probably seems like a meaningless question. But around the nation, more and more states these days are enacting laws in opposition to those of the federal government, placing the loyalty question front and
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Posted May 09, 2024in Morain
Several years ago Kathy and I walked into a restaurant for breakfast in North Carolina. On the wall was a floor-to-ceiling plaque bearing a message about the origins of the Civil War. The restaurant’s owner had selected that method to tell patrons that that great conflict had resulted from a
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Posted May 02, 2024in Morain
The story of our National Weather Service (NWS) is one of catching up and staying ahead. For more than 200 years, meteorologists, both amateurs and professionals, have steadily employed new scientific discoveries to gather atmospheric information and use it to predict pending weather conditions. Without their knowledge and messaging, damage
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Posted April 25, 2024in Morain
Congress may finally be getting it together. Overruling a few outspoken ultraconservative Republican members, the U.S. House by wide margins last Saturday belatedly approved crucial aid for nations and peoples that desperately need it. The favorable vote margins tallied 11 to 1 on one of the measures, 6 to 1
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Posted April 18, 2024in Morain
Tax bills in the Iowa Legislature have always been approved or disapproved by simple majorities. If most legislators want to raise taxes, or lower them, they do it the usual way: take a vote, up or down, and whichever side gets the most votes wins. That’s how democracy works. But
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Posted April 11, 2024in Morain
Our homeowner’s insurance carrier a few weeks ago sent me our annual premium notice for the 12-month period beginning April 10, 2024. The valuations of our house, garage, and personal property had climbed almost 7% higher than they were for the previous 12-month period. That wasn’t a surprise. In fact,
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