Writing My State Legislators

Last week I wrote letters to my Pennsylvania state legislators. Why? Because both were hopping mad that Governor Tom Wolf’s Department of Health had issued a statewide mask mandate in the schools to stem the rising tide of COVID-19 infections due to the Delta variant. They issued a press release. Like I said, hopping mad.Continue reading “Writing My State Legislators”

Russia, the Primakov Doctrine, and Implications for the 2020 Election

I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about Russia and the 2020 election, thoughts that are leading me to some chilling places. You may skip over this — “Oh, Allyn’s moaning about Russia again, and it’s all ‘Fake News’ anyway” — but that’s because you’ve never asked yourself the question: “What does Russia want?”Continue reading “Russia, the Primakov Doctrine, and Implications for the 2020 Election”

The Next Secretary of Defense Will Be…?

Reports surfaced today that President Donald Trump is considering Jim Webb, former Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia, to replace Jim Mattis as Secretary of Defense. Mattis, famously, resigned in protest a few days before Christmas due to the president’s abrupt announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria. Webb would be anContinue reading “The Next Secretary of Defense Will Be…?”

Writing My Senator: Judge Brett Kavanaugh

The text of an email I sent this afternoon to Senator Pat Toomey, one of my Senators: I wrote to you a few days ago about Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, raising concerns I had about the accusations leveled against the judge by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. You wrote inContinue reading “Writing My Senator: Judge Brett Kavanaugh”

What If… Gary Johnson Had Won in 2016?

Yesterday evening, scrolling through Facebook, I saw a former colleague of mine from EB Games, M, post the following meme image, without any commentary: I posted a quick reply: “Honestly, what do you think would have been different with Johnson?” I didn’t expect a reply, but one was soon forthcoming. In case that’s not entirelyContinue reading “What If… Gary Johnson Had Won in 2016?”

Writing My Congressman: The American Health Care Act

The Honorable Scott Perry United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Office 1207 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Perry: Yesterday afternoon the Congressional Budget Office issued its report on the American Health Care Act. Their conclusions on the consequences of the AHCA are shocking — 24 million Americans will lose healthContinue reading “Writing My Congressman: The American Health Care Act”

The Travel Ban and the Steve Bannon Playbook

I didn’t go to the protest at BWI yesterday. If I’d found out about it two hours earlier, I might have; I didn’t have anything else happening yesterday. In the last twenty-four hours I’ve seen several writers note that the protests against Trump’s travel ban from seven Muslim countries are a feature, not a bug,Continue reading “The Travel Ban and the Steve Bannon Playbook”

Thoughts on the “Rogue” Government Twitter Accounts

In the last week Twitter has exploded with “rogue” government Twitter accounts, accounts that purport to be “employees… disgruntled by moves the [Trump] administration has made to tamp down on these agency’s abilities to spread their messages… and have taken to Twitter to resist Trump’s authoritarianism.” There are even some (I know of three) thatContinue reading “Thoughts on the “Rogue” Government Twitter Accounts”