Americans might sometimes wonder what it must have been like to live in “those days.” We read books, watch movies and try to put ourselves in the shoes of people who lived through important days, consequential days, dangerous days, heroic days — days when Americans stood up and did something grand.  “Those days” might refer […]

Demon: 1) An evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell; 2) a forceful, fierce, or skillful performer of a specified activity.  A never-ending cacophony from mainstream and political pundits on social media seems intent on taking down President Joseph Biden’s re-election campaign following his […]

I got upset yesterday – angry, sad, depressed, all the above – and I’m asking myself what made yesterday different from the many times I’ve felt the same emotions since November 8, 2016. As I write this, that date was exactly 2,501 days ago, and any way you slice it, that’s a long time to […]

Fire up the grill! Break out the hot dogs and hamburgers! Mix up some potato salad! Roast some corn on the cob! Bake some apple pie and add a little ice cream on top (vanilla for me, please) for dessert! When the sun sets in the west, as it always does, watch the skies for […]

Without the creative genius of our Founding Fathers, we might not be celebrating July 4 this year as the world’s strongest ongoing republic and leading sponsor of fledgling democracies wherever the spark of freedom struggles to take hold against authoritarian rule. Since 2016, the American experiment in democracy has battled Republican Party forces — led […]

Inspiring words proudly displayed on parchment nearly 250 years ago fueled a revolution among the citizenry of the independent-minded 13 British colonies that forged a republic, a democracy that became known and admired for decades as the United States of America. From the Declaration of Independence — published as a broadside by Philadelphia printer John […]

WARM SPRINGS, GA., March 2023 — More than 400,000 Americans died during World War II while helping beat back a worldwide attack against democracy by brutal dictators. Some 2,500 servicemen and women made the ultimate sacrifice for our country — and democracy around the world — on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Why are these historical […]

Stop worrying about a Red Wave of political mad men and women ending the American experiment of government on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. Join the largest political activist march to polling places across the country during the most critical midterm election cycle in American history. Reach out to family, friends, co-workers with phone calls, […]

We recently returned from a vacation to the Deep South that I’ve decided to write about as a series of vignettes. I realize that’s not much of an inducement to keep reading, but I hope you’ll bear with me. Since our home is now in Virginia — former capital of the Confederacy — one might […]

Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, Republican governors of Texas and Florida, respectively, publicly proclaim their affiliation with the Catholic church. They often wrap themselves and their approach to managing state governments around their Christian faith. So, here’s a popular question Christians often pose to people they perceive as being naysayers to the teachings of Jesus […]

Donald Trump and his dear friend Vladimir Putin are once again running neck-and-neck to inflame as many extremists and like-minded loonies they can round up to fuel their increasingly desperate battles for personal survival. MAGA Man intentionally exacerbated the dreadful situation in eastern Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine by describing Putin’s unprovoked invasion […]

The night Barack Obama won the 2008 election, I gave the news to my mother-in-law, who at the time was dealing with the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia. “Maggie! Barack Obama has been elected president! A Black man is the president of the United States!” Her eyes shone with a light I hadn’t seen in […]

By DUTTON PEABODYEditor Emeritus We always knew Donald Trump was a crook, and we here at The Shinbone Star have been telling you exactly that since the first day we put pen to paper. But it’s always nice to get that affirmation, this time from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who today gave us […]

Spies, Lies and the Drifting Grifter The steely-eyed counterintelligence G-man with the panache of Sam Spade has been dealt a lousy hand. Last week, rumors started surfacing about sold out American spies. Now, our hero’s job is to find out if our country’s secrets are up for sale. The CIA’s counterintelligence center reported dozens of […]

With the Golden Grifter crouching behind a legal wall he hopes will withstand the flood of recriminations soon coming his way, I’m reminded of an old saying in post-World War II Germany, “Alles kaput.” We have a little time to kill before the House January 6 Committee reconvenes or the former president is hauled before […]

It’s time to put the country out of its Donald J. Trump misery. The former and twice-impeached president has dragged this 246-year-old republic through enough abuse — verbal, physical and emotional — in a criminal attempt to deconstruct the American democracy. So, until Trump is indicted, arrested and jailed, this “voice” of The Shinbone Star […]

From Dutton Peabody, editor: Labor Day is the unofficial launch of the fall national election season. With that in mind, we at The Shinbone Star believe it’s our civic duty to provide a “scorecard” of all the major actions and key votes cast — or in the case of most Republicans not cast — by […]

The Dame from Nowhere The bureau’s slumping reincarnation of Sam Spade went to his Georgetown flat last Thursday night feeling smug. The Golden Grifter was finally cornered. Not even that silver-tongued devil himself could finally duck the boxes of secrets he’d been hiding. Agent S was hoping for some down time with the long-legged dame […]