Kristi Noem’s attractive. Long brown hair. Glossy lips. A MAGA superstar on Trump’s list of picks for Vice President. Last weekend she went on Face the Nation to sell her new book – sunk herself. In her book, telling a story about meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Noem said, “I’m sure he underestimated me…” The problem: She never met Kim Jong Un. Margaret Brennan, the host, put her on the spot – Noem could have said, I made a mistake, but, rambling, evading, she couldn’t bring herself to say the word mistake. She also told a story in her book about getting a threatening phone call fr ..read more

Two things have been true throughout American history: We love to protest, but we hate protesters. And bashing protesters is always good politics. Protesting is deep in our DNA. Protesters settled the country. The American Revolution was the ultimate, violent protest. Ever since, we’ve cycled through protest and repression. When abolitionists protested slavery, Southern slaveowners tried to silence them, then seceded from the Union and started the Civil War. When freed slaves exercised their rights, the Ku Klux Klan whipped, terrorized and lynched them, and politicians passed Jim Crow laws an ..read more

It used to be Democratic politicians marched in a phalanx behind Israel. Joe Biden did. For years. Now a new generation of Democrats smile at Hamas. Frown at Israel. And Biden, shifting with the political winds, has taken to straddling the fence. To be safe Israel has little choice but to eliminate Hamas – but it can’t do that unless it captures Rafah, Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza. Watching protests – out to stop Israel – on college campuses, afraid he’d lose votes he needs to defeat Trump, Biden told Israel not to attack Rafah – sent aid to both Israel and Gaza. For 50 years Joe Biden’s ..read more

You’d have to look a long time to find a grander Trumpster than Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s one of a kind. And so’s he. Both have huge social media ‘Followings’ and like Trump, Greene knows how to set her followers on fire – she just did with three words, Oust Mike Johnson. When she said that some folks, shaking their heads, sighed, We’ve seen enough chaos. But that doesn’t matter to a Trump superstar using social media. What does matter? Igniting followers and getting publicity. And a vote to kick out Johnson does both. Making backroom deals in Washington politicians and lobbyists have wre ..read more

Before North Carolina Republicans got down to business in the legislature, they got down to some serious partying. First there was the incident at the December wedding of Rep. Destin Hall, who wants to be Speaker next year. One of his groomsmen fell off a truck and was injured so badly he was hospitalized for two weeks and lost sight in one eye. The Assembly reported that a celebrant was caught on tape saying, “You need to get the alcohol out of the car.” Then last month was the Kentucky Bourbon Throw-Up sponsored by a Republican dark-money group, Greater Carolina. WRAL reported, “A social me ..read more

Luther fled Worms – the emperor condemned him. Made him an outlaw. Luther fled into hiding in the Thuringian Forest – fate reared its head a third time: The emperor had to leave Germany to go to Spain to fight his war with the King of France. Didn’t set foot in Germany again for ten years. After a banquet in the Vatican, wine flowing, Leo had a fever. Died that night. Luther translated the New Testament into German. The Reformation rolled across Germany, the emperor’s sister converted to Protestant; defying popes, nobles seized church lands. Protestants and Catholics fought wars. A decade lat ..read more

A peasant’s son Martin Luther never knew the year he was born. Believing children were wicked his father whipped him, his mother caned him. Luther’s harsh life led him to take refuge in the cloister. The Saxon prince started a college – Luther moved to Wittenburg, taught about St. Paul. Believed, like Paul, truth and God were one thing, not two separate things. Staring at the rot in the medieval church shook his head. He wasn’t alone. An ambassador wrote the Holy Roman emperor ‘people here hate priests.’ Luther nailed a proclamation on the door of Wittenburg church denouncing indulgences – a ..read more

After Rodrigo Borgia died, soft-spoken but cunning Leo de Medici became pope, after bribing cardinals ended up strapped for cash. A German prince said he wanted to be an Archbishop. Leo told him that would cost him 12,000 gold ducats – 1000 for each of the Apostles. The prince frowned: How about 7000, one thousand for each of the 7 deadly sins. Leo settled on 10,000 – a thousand for each of the 10 commandments; cut a deal with the prince to sell indulgences – granting sinners forgiveness – in Germany. Leo split the money with the archbishop. Church bells rang, acrobats juggled in town squares ..read more

It was a time, Tom Hanks wrote describing the end of the Middle Ages, when dukes and serfs paid popes to keep from going to hell. The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire. He’d read A World Lit Only by Fire, William Manchester’s last book, five times. Popes hid in catacombs in Rome during the 1st century – by the 15th century popes had more power than they ever dreamed of, more power than kings. Selling church offices, forgiveness for evils, pardons, they lived like Roman emperors. When pardoning murderers raised eyebrows a cardinal shrugged, God would rather a sinner ..read more

Planned Parenthood’s spending a ton of money – $10 million – to elect pro-abortion candidates in North Carolina. Eyes locked on white suburban women it’s running digital ads, knocking on a million doors to elect Joe Biden, the Democrat candidate for governor, and break the Republican super-majority in the state House and Senate. The first time George Holding ran for Congress, before the general election, sitting in my office Arthur Finkelstein laid a poll on the table, pointed to one number: That’s the key, he said, white suburban women – swing voters. Most were married, raising children, wor ..read more