“Baby-killers.”
“Pedophiles.”
“Fword-ing Democrats.”
​“Socialists.”

Those were some of the epithets hurled at me and my fellow poll watchers at the early voting site outside the supervisor of elections office on 301 Boulevard this past weekend. People who support another party’s candidate think it’s perfectly OK to curse out your fellow citizens for performing a civic duty.  

​The “pedophile” slur was uttered by a thin, heavily-tattooed woman who has obviously drunk the QAnon Kool-aid. Trying to reason with her about the absurdity of that group’s fantasy world was like talking to a wall. It only made her more agitated and set her off on a new tangent of Deep State ranting. READ MORE

As an opinion page editor for 30 years and a policy center director for 10, I moderated in excess of 75 candidate debates for local and state offices in Manatee, Sarasota and Pinellas counties. These debates were presented on auditorium stages before large audiences, on live TV without audiences, and in informal town-hall settings with no stage.

Not once in all of those years of moderating did I allow a candidate to hijack the debate as totally as Chris Wallace did in Tuesday night’s (Sept. 29) presidential debate. READ MORE

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s like incredible.”

--Candidate Donald Trump, on the campaign trail in Iowa, Jan. 23, 2016

President Donald Trump was getting antsy, cooped up in his Trump Tower residence where he’d gone for the long holiday weekend to get away from Melania. He needed to get out, among his adoring fans, to soak up some adulation and breathe in the Manhattan air that he missed holed up so much of the time in the White House. Thankfully, she hadn’t wanted to come along.

While he paced, he noticed the handgun on the end-table next to the living room sofa.  READ MORE