One reason I joined the National Press Club in 1995 was that on various occasions before Hong Kong’s handover I’d darkened the door of the FCC. I hoped that the NPC’s substantial oblong bar might be cousin to the FCC’s main bar with diverse central casting characters including criminal barristers of the Rumpole flavour, cargo shippers, pilots, politicians and others seeking what was in the wind as journalists’ tongues loosened, and vice versa.

There’s been much media commentary related to the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, widely regarded as one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in history.  g to go into the wayback machine for my take on it, below, a piece written in 2007 for the late Gatsby Magazine, one of the international magazines I wrote Letters from Washington columns for. It’s a stab at divining the self-righteous mentality that popped open Pandora’s Box with the March 20th, 2003 invasion of Iraq under the false pretenses of Saddam Hussein harboring weapons of mass destruction and being in league with Al-Qaeda. This was amplified by journalists and politicians who should have known better, some of whom likely did.

As June ran out I received this brief text, bolded below, from a politically conservative friend of mine: Best Pride Month Ever, Prayer protected, Filibuster protected, Gun rights protected, Federalism protected, Unborn lives protected --- These are familiar conservative talking points, not that there's anything wrong with that. I thought I'd calmly reflect on these issues, point by point. On the other hand, maybe I'll start a fire. We'll see.

After a sick and sordid 50 year career of cheating, stealing and lying, corruptly conning banks, employees, associates, vendors, and ordinary people out of their money, ruining thousands of lives, running multiple businesses into bankruptcy, and so much more (sexual predation, incitements to mob violence, etc), mob boss wannabe Donald Trump, now buried under a mountain of lawsuits and pending criminal indictments, I believe, is certain to face trial and likely be convicted of serious crimes. Viewer discretion advised.

President Biden can shore up the journalism on which democracy depends. He can cease government threats to journalists and prove he values government transparency. Stopping the prosecution – persecution – of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accomplishes this. Assange remains imprisoned in London as the US seeks his extradition on specious charges, including actions journalists routinely engage in. The morning of …

Are you mourning this year’s lack of Carnival’s spiritual cleanse, its satirical sorting of society’s woes to give us perspective? I am. And so I retreat now to past frolics. It’s hard to overstate how rotten the past year has been, in so many ways, or the dim prospects it left us, as we await whatever next escapes Pandora’s Box.

Now at least 12 GOP senators are on board with overturning the election, over 100 House Republicans, and Pence has joined the chorus. Analyze each of these Republicans and they fall into 3 distinct and often overlapping categories.

Thomas Neuburger has written political analysis for numerous publications for nearly two decades. You might have come across him as his nom de plume, Gaius Publius. He has long been a professional writer, venturing into fiction, poetry, essays and non-fiction books.

(A guest post by Elliott Negin, with Intro by Skip Kaltenheuser) You might already know Elliott Negin, whose writings I worked into with Dance with the One that Brought You — BERNIE! on NPR’s red-baiting of Bernie, and Scott Pruitt’s Doublespeak Clarifies Him, on yet another disastrous industrial strength Trump appointee hellbent on ransacking the environment. If not, it’s never too late.

John Grisham, meister of legal thrillers, must look at the Dark Money flying about Supreme Court nominees and think, “You stinking thieves, give me my book plots back!”