TheNextReport

New Yawk, New Yawk: It was reported today that Donald Trump has had a closed door meeting in New York with Megan Kelley, the Fox News reporter who has clashed with the hair-born moghul over women's issues and other topics during the months of last years' primaries.  Rumor has it that the blonds will engage in a form of civilized discussion to be revealed on Kelly's show tonight. Who here can spell ratings?

There was another deadly rampage in Europe this week. This time the carnage was small, but nonetheless significant, having occurred at the very heart of the European continent. The continuing, centuries-old, conflict between east and west poured its blood all over the headquarters of the European Union, proving once again that old wars, like old civilizations, never die --- they just get buried for a while. The senseless atrocity in Belgium pits a modern multi-national military against a battle-hardened horde of fanatic young warriors driving legions of armed Toyota pickup trucks, hell-bent on recreating a medieval desert kindom where religion ruled the roost. The west had learned how to moderate its fear from the years after 911; and still the west learned until the videos, until the knives, until the invitation to send troops to fight into the desert, and then came the politics...

Then there are those who simply can't recognize the era in which we live. For most of us it's 2016; for certain others it's 516; is it any wonder that they must be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st? The loss of innocent life in praise of primative ideas from an ancient book is truly tragic.

It seems that the GOP presidential front-runner, Dr. Benjamin Carson, has been caught in a lie or two... or three; okay, maybe four. Doctor Ben has claimed in his autobiography, "Gifted Hands," that he was offered a scholarship to West Point. He also stated that he met with U.S. Army’s chief of staff, General William Westmoreland, during Memorial Day 1969. In addition, Carson claims that he was declared to be the most trustworthy student by a Yale University psychology professor. All of this would be admirable, a laudatory set of accomplishments --- problem is, none of it is true.  Certainly more disturbing is Carson's account of himself as a misguided and angry youth who once  stabbed a classmate and who attacked his mother with a hammer. (These latter events have been corroborated by Carson's mother and by his own subsequent statements). Managing to stay out of trouble, Ben Carson turned his life around, found God and went on to become a respected neurosurgeon. T...

The summer of Trump came and went, leaving legions of astute media pundits wondering how they were so wrong about The Donald’s longevity. No one predicted that the billion dollar insulter-in-chief would have lasted this long. Endlessly trumpeting his skills as a negotiator, never missing an opportunity to congratulate himself for his accomplishments, Trump’s most powerful weapon has certainly been his disagreeable mouth. Where did the man acquire his current tools of the trade? One need not look much further than ComedyCentral’s Celebrity Roast program. Trump appeared several times on this show as either roaster or roastee, where he got the chance to practice techniques of off-color, insult humor. The only remaining question: which cabinet post will Gilbert Gottfried occupy in the Trump administration?        

Benny Carson. Could he be the next new host of late nite TV? Is he the reincarnation of Karnack the Magnificent?  Maybe he's the act America's been truly waiting for --- a soft-spoken mister nice-guy; a non-threatening black man you could trust with your daughter; a talented neurosurgeon who's against universal healthcare, who says he can cure America's ills but who hasn't a clue about domestic or foreign policy. Just as Marco Rubio answers the Republicans' need to appear sympathetic to the concerns of hispanics, just as Carly Fiorina is the answer to the GOP's need to court women voters, so does Ben Carson answer their need to appeal to African Americans---a conservative Barack Obama who gets accolades for his calm personality, who can rail against the dangers of gun control, Muslims, climate change and higher education. One of the reasons George W. Bush was elected president was becuse he had an appealing, affable demeanor. Remember him? He was the gu...

As John Boehner prepares to leave the Senate this fall, it is useful to recall the history of the deliberative body that he, as Speaker of the House, spoke for.  Under the direction of Boehner and Mitch McConell, his counterpart in the Senate, the GOP pursued a policy of deliberately blocking legislation, coercing fillibuster,  subverting the legislative process by shutting down the government and forcing the president into legislating by executive action. Immigration, transportation infrastructure, education, environmental regulation, gun control, voting rights, jobs, all fell victim to a gaggle of right wing ideologues who essentially failed in their Constitutional mandate to create laws. By hamstringing President Obama, by blocking the creation of the country's legislative infrastructure, the People's representatives subverted the plan for representative government so painstakingly arrived at by the deliberations of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the other founding father...