When President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he could not have foreseen today’s Republican Party.
Federal Social Security and Medicare entitlements as they exist today are in deep trouble and can’t sustain themselves under current law while at the same time 78 million Baby Boomers like me hurtle toward retirement.
Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump and the Russians colluded to rig the 2016 presidential election so far has borne little fruit. The Democrats and their media allies would love to find some Russian collusion and interference. I can help them discover some, bu…
On the day Donald Trump was elected, a 20-gallon tank of gas cost a Mississippi driver $36. Today, The American Automobile Associations says that same 20 gallons costs $52.
We all have bad days. Whether you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or someone cut you off on the way to work, it can make getting through the day difficult. What can make it even more difficult is when we look at each moment as a competition to the top.
Gina Haspel, almost certainly the next director of the CIA, is almost certainly the most qualified person available. She’s spent 33 years at the agency, rising through the ranks to deputy director, garnering the admiration and support of her colleagues but having an unfortunate association a…
Repeal of Prohibition in 1933 instantly reduced crime by reducing the number of criminalized activities, including some that millions of Americans considered victimless activities and none of the government’s business. Now, America is going to become more law abiding, the Supreme Court havin…
Mississippians have been talking about a state lottery for more than 25 years and still don’t have one — a decision that studies and industry estimates claim keeps between $100 million to $150 million out of the state’s general fund revenues and continues to send state taxpayers across state…
Following the 2016 election, President Barack Obama rightly warned the Trump transition team “we only have one president at a time.” It was a reminder that there can be just one person articulating American foreign policy so world leaders will have no doubt as to the United States’ intentions.
Yes, we’re talking about the heirs of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart – the mega-company that assorted interest groups and media types love to hate.
In the aftermath of the Kanye West dust-up, my heart goes out to the white people who control the Democratic Party. My pity stems from the hip-hop megastar’s November announcement to his packed concert audience that he did not vote in the presidential election but if he had, he would have vo…
If you’re like most people, you think you’re the only one. Everything was fine for the first twenty years of your career. You were focused. You were happy. You were going up the ladder. Then, you hit an age. Maybe it was thirty or forty or fifty. But, suddenly, everything changed.
James Comey wants everyone to think he’s a good boy.
From Scotland, where Adam Smith pioneered systematic thinking about economics, comes an adjective, “carnaptious,” that fits people who are allergic to economic euphoria. It means cantankerous. Let’s think carnaptiously about this fact: The interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds recently ros…
Confused about the 2018 elections in Mississippi? You likely aren’t alone.
The “wall of protection” conservative media has erected around President Trump may be crumbling.
Before the massive growth of our welfare state, private charity was the sole option for an individual or family facing insurmountable financial difficulties or other challenges. How do we know that? There is no history of Americans dying on the streets because they could not find food or bas…
Remember the serious discussion of state pension funds during this year’s legislative session?
One of the number one reasons people are hesitant to switch jobs is because of their vacation time. They start with one or two weeks of vacation each year at their company. Then, as they stay at their job for a few years, more days are added on. After a while, they may find that they have ea…
Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president — cheer up; they are all temporary — was one that concerned something about which he might not have thought as deeply as the subject merits. During an episode of government of, by and for “Fox & Friends,” he said: He won…
Our republic is under stress. So much so, in fact, that if you’re not worried about its future, you probably haven’t been paying attention.
About 333 years before the birth of Christ, historians believe Alexander the Great marched his troops into the Phrygian capital of Gordium in what is today known as Turkey.
To be vulgar once earned societal disapproval, ostracism from polite company and — in my grandmother’s era — put a young person in danger of having his mouth washed out with soap.
Just within the past week or so, some shocking professorial behavior has come to light. In the wake of Barbara Bush’s death, California State University, Fresno professor Randa Jarrar took to Twitter to call the former first lady an “amazing racist.” Jarrar added, “PSA: Either you are agains…
Americans, it’s time to stand up and be counted … or not.
Diversity is one of the most important issues companies are focused on today. LinkedIn recently found that over half of companies say they are very or extremely focused on diversity. This is good news, especially when you consider this. The World Economic Forum recently estimated that it wil…
Diversity is one of the most important issues companies are focused on today. LinkedIn recently found that over half of companies say they are very or extremely focused on diversity. This is good news, especially when you consider this. The World Economic Forum recently estimated that it wil…
I am the child of privilege — or so I am being told. I am white, I am male. Put them together and you would think I’ve been sitting on a trust fund — unearned, unappreciated and unjustified. There are people who think that being male has historically been an unalloyed privilege. The many dea…
There he goes again. Despite the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years, including declining rates for minorities, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), affectionately called “crazy Bernie” by some conservative talk show hosts, is again flirting with the idea that the federal government should guarantee…
Last week, one week after the first anniversary of Neil Gorsuch’s ascension to the Supreme Court, he delivered an opinion that was excellent as it pertained to the case at issue and momentous in its implications pertaining to the institutional tangle known as the administrative state. If he …
Okay, so the latest political tantrum from state Sen. Chris McDaniel operates on this narrative – he “demands” that Mississippi television stations stop running ads funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which make the claim that McDaniel is a trial lawyer.
Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation’s Report Card, was released. It’s not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tes…
Income tax season is over for another year, meaning most people are no longer thinking about how much Mississippi and Uncle Sam claim from their wages — which, of course, is just how Mississippi and Uncle Sam like it. It’s a natural thing. We look at our checks, not the list of deductions.
If you’re like me, the adults in your life taught you early on, “Don’t talk to strangers.” You may have even heard the phrase, “stranger danger.” The idea is that strangers can harm you in some way. Staying away from strangers kept you safe from kidnapping or something else bad.
When President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform act in 1996, which he negotiated with then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, the left claimed people would starve. They didn’t. According to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, between 1996 and 2000, the employment rate for singl…
My brother Matt died of AIDS 26 years ago today, passing away in his bed in my parents’ home in Houston.
As state officials scramble for resources to address infrastructure concerns in the wake of the closure of over 100 Mississippi bridges deemed unsafe by federal authorities, the stance of some of those same state officials on collecting Internet sales taxes seems particularly relevant.
South Dakota has become what South Carolina once was — stubborn, pugnacious and wrong. In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede. In 2016, South Dakota’s legislature picked a fight in the hope that the U.S. Supreme Court would reverse a prior decision, thereby handing …
With apologies to Lloyd Bentsen, Mississippians have watched the career of Roger Wicker for a while. Roger Wicker is no Donald Trump.
When World War II ended, Washington, D.C.’s population was about 900,000; today it’s about 700,000. In 1950, Baltimore’s population was almost 950,000; today it’s around 614,000. Detroit’s 1950 population was close to 1.85 million; today it’s down to 673,000. Camden, New Jersey’s 1950 popula…
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Margaret Heffernan. Margaret is incredibly impressive, with a career that includes running five companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, being a college professor, authoring five books, and giving multiple TED Talks. Originally from …
Resolving the conflicts dividing our country will require a devotion to facts, dialogue and compromise.
Mississippi Democrats are hoping for a repeat of the political ‘miracle’ that handed their counterparts in Alabama a U.S. Senate seat last December.
The isolationist spirit — a reluctance to become involved in foreign entanglements — goes back in U.S. history to Thomas Paine and his 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense” and to George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address.
The last mass protest by Mississippi teachers was in 1985. This year, with summer approaching and the Legislature adjourned, there’s no sense that state teachers will ramp up to march on the Capitol for more pay as their counterparts have been doing in other rural states’ West Virginia, Kent…
It’s often thought to be beyond question that black political power is necessary for economic power and enhanced socio-economic welfare. That’s an idea that lends itself to testing and analysis.
I recently had the opportunity to attend South by Southwest in Austin, Texas for the first time. If you’ve never been, SXSW is a giant festival in downtown Austin that draws in thousands of people. Founded in 1987, SXSW has boasted an economic impact to Austin of over $300 M in past years.
Joseph P. Kennedy used to tell his nine children that it doesn’t matter who you are. It only matters who people think you are. Not a bad motto for America’s most famous family. The battle to control the Kennedy image has waxed and waned for most of the past century, but the field has never f…
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has apologized, as has the network, for nothing more serious than her tweet: “David Hogg rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA … totally predictable given acceptance rates.)”
The recent bipartisan budget agreement, which signals that 12-digit deficits are acceptable to both parties even when the economy is robust, indicates government’s future. So does government’s pregnancy, which was announced nine months ago by this tweet from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “In Am…
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