Stephen Tuttle | Author
A Theory In Need Of Replacement
Oct. 9, 2021
Thank goodness we have yet another conspiracy theory afloat among the far right. They like to call this one the Great Replacement Theory, allegedly being promulgated by the usual suspects: progressives, the Clintons, the Obamas and the omnipresent George Soros.
Replacement theory go…
Read More >>
Enough!
Oct. 2, 2021
It should have put to rest the nonsensical fabrications of a failed president and his delusional acolytes. It did not.
After 10 months and $6 million, the Great Maricopa County Election Audit in Arizona was finally completed. It was conducted by an outfit from Florida calling itself…
Read More >>
Same As We Were Before
Sept. 25, 2021
Despite some rather dramatic headlines, America is not awash in crime nor has the pandemic increased most crime categories.
According to FBI statistics, crime overall in our 25 largest cities was down nearly 30 percent in 2020 from 2019. As might be expected, because far more …
Read More >>
The Unfriendly Skies
Sept. 18, 2021
A woman on a Southwest Airlines flight refuses to fasten her seat belt or put on her mask. The video, taken by another passenger, shows her standing and repeatedly striking a flight attendant until another passenger intervenes. The flight attendant has a tooth knocked out, three others crac…
Read More >>
Northern Death
Sept. 11, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic marches inexorably toward ignominious Milestones of Death here in the United States.
We've now eased past 650,000 COVID deaths here. Soon enough we will surge past the estimated 675,000 Americans who died in the 1918–19 flu pandemic, and this corona…
Read More >>
Heroes
Sept. 4, 2021
It has been two full decades since we were attacked by crazed murderers hijacking planes and using them as weapons. Calling them “terrorists” affords them more credit than they deserve, a kind of cachet that somehow elevates them beyond what they actually were. We will once agai…
Read More >>
County Knowledge and City Plans
Aug. 28, 2021
Those of us living in Grand Traverse County are incredibly lucky; the Republicans on our county board of commissioners are just about the smartest people alive, and their wisdom extends to subjects far and wide.
A previous board's expertise on energy distribution — specificall…
Read More >>
A Basket Full of Troubles
Aug. 21, 2021
President Joe Biden has a basket full of troubles. Some inherited, some the responsibility of multiple people and some of his own doing. They all promise to be rich fodder for attack politics during the 2022 midterm elections.
Afghanistan Aug. 14, 2021 This is not good at all. With the COVID-19 Delta variant surging, too many are still stuck in a world of make-believe, unwilling to acknowledge science or protect themselves and the rest of us. About 80 percent of all new covid cases are of the delta variant, a mutated and more tran…
Read More >>
Aug. 7, 2021 Where are they? Where did all the employees go? These days it is unusual to pass a business — almost any business — that hasn't posted a “Now Hiring” or “Help Wanted” sign of some kind. Others are posting their vacancies on various online pl…
Read More >>
July 31, 2021 The Washington Post got it partially right: racism is a divisive issue in Traverse City. The “tearing the city apart” component was more than a little hyperbolic. Their recent article connected the appalling “slave trading” on social media undertaken…
Read More >>
July 24, 2021 The country seems to be devolving into near insanity with election deniers trying to delude us and anti-vaxxers trying to sicken us. It might be safer to look at things a little closer to home. Kudos to the Traverse City Housing Commission (TCHC) for their plan to help build 210 aff…
Read More >>
July 17, 2021 The Republican campaign strategies for the 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections are now coming into sharper focus. They will push the notion that Democrats are in thrall to the extreme left and here, they say, is the proof: Democrats support CRT – Crit…
Read More >>
July 10, 2021 There is a housing shortage, at all price points, locally and nationally. Materials needed to build housing are also in short supply, as are capable, skilled trades workers, a product of shutdowns during the height of the pandemic. With supply and demand in play, prices have …
Read More >>
July 3, 2021 We like to celebrate the Fourth of July though we typically do so superficially. We've all been taught the basics: unfair taxation from an oppressive absentee government, the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere, Lexington and Concord, Washington's ultimate vict…
Read More >>
June 26, 2021 Are you woke? Are you part of the woke culture? Do you know what that's actually supposed to mean? In its simplest definition, to be woke is to be aware of social injustice, and to be part of the so-called woke culture is to somehow act to remove that social injustice. One w…
Read More >>
June 19, 2021 The Michigan Legislature is contemplating yet another bad decision. This time they'd like to strip away the right of local communities to regulate short-term residential rental properties. It is, they say, all about private property rights. It would mean Traverse City's somewh…
Read More >>
June 12, 2021 The filibuster, much in the news lately, has an interesting if not usually glorious history. From the French word filibustier, it was first used as a negative descriptor of pirates marauding French colonies in the Caribbean in the early 17th Century. It would…
Read More >>
June 5, 2021 So, what is critical race theory (CRT)? CRT is the notion that categorizing race into subgroups is an artificial construct designed specifically to oppress minorities, especially Black Americans, while maintaining control for an existing, mostly white, power structure, especia…
Read More >>
May 29, 2021 Israel and Hamas have, at least temporarily, finished one of their somewhat regular skirmishes, with predictable results. We've seen this before. Hamas, the elected government in Gaza, almost wholly funded by Iran and declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. and others, finds a reason …
Read More >>
Read More >>
Not Good at All
Where are the Workers?
Teaching our Real History
Livin', Smokin', Drinkin' and Fishin'
Another Depressing Campaign
Will This Bubble Burst?
Dishonoring our Country
Still Asleep
Long-term Headache
Ending the Filibuster
A Full Accounting
The Right to Exist