Stephen Tuttle | Author

Oct. 24, 2020

Every presidential candidate makes plenty of promises. Most are fantasy or folly — that pesky Congress often intrudes — some are absurd, and some can actually be accomplished. 

During the 2016 campaign, according to an Associated Press count, candidate Donald Trum... Read More >>

Patience Required

Oct. 17, 2020

It's going to be a very long election night. Voter fraud will have nothing to do with it.

Every state has some form of early, mail-in voting this year, and only Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana still require a reason to request a mail-in ballot. The other 45 s... Read More >>

Made Things Worse

Oct. 10, 2020

The Michigan Supreme Court, in a 4–3 decision supported by the four Republicans on the Court, with dissenting opinions from the three Democrats, has ruled Governor Gretchen Whitmer does not have the authority to continue issuing emergency orders under the Emergency Powers of Governo... Read More >>

Spinning out of Control

Oct. 3, 2020

He said scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were wrong when they first issued their mask recommendations. He resisted and contradicted their suggestion that businesses and schools should close. He denied that there were shortages of personal protective equip... Read More >>

Warts And All

Sept. 26, 2020

Project 1619, a product of New York Times Magazine writers, is a potential public school curriculum that attempts to redefine early U.S. history by making the assertion that slavery and Black Americans were the keystone to our creation and development. 

It posits our country'... Read More >>

Unlocking Trouble

Sept. 19, 2020

Unlock Michigan is likely to unlock trouble. It's awash with potential for unintended consequences. 

The idea is that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has far exceeded what should be her authority, using a 1945 emergency powers law to unilaterally make decisions during the ... Read More >>

Serving No Cause

Sept. 12, 2020

On May 25, George Floyd died in Minneapolis with a police officer's knee on his neck. The protests have not stopped since.

Additional violent interactions between police officers and African Americans, some obviously justified and others questionable, have kept the unrest roiling.... Read More >>

In Sickness and in Heat

Sept. 5, 2020

So, now it's “herd immunity.” That seems to be the latest Trump Administration COVID-19 strategy. At least the steps they're now taking are pushing in that direction.

Their reluctance to recommend masks and social distancing, their insistence on in-person teaching for ... Read More >>

Do Sports Bring Us Together?

Aug. 29, 2020

We are told sports are a kind of societal glue, a unifying and uplifting communal necessity, especially during challenging times.

It's more likely sports are an ephemeral distraction — valuable but not critical. That's especially true at the professional and top college leve... Read More >>

A Counterfeit Issue

Aug. 22, 2020

In 2016, the problem was all those illegal immigrants voting, remember? Millions and millions of them we were told. To be fair, the voter fraud commission that President Trump launched did find one green-card holder who had tried to vote. And on average, each year, there are about 20 pros... Read More >>

A Racist and A Park

Aug. 15, 2020

Former Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle recently explained he wouldn't wear a mask because “this whole thing is because of those n****** down in Detroit.”

Well now.

Undeterred, he pushed all-in, repeatedly using the vilest of racial epithets ... Read More >>

Emerging Truths

Aug. 8, 2020

It's been nearly seven months of COVID-19, and we're still struggling just to slow it down. It has disrupted lives, destroyed businesses and the jobs that went with them, putting 40 million Americans out of work. Children have been out of class for more than twice as long as a normal summ... Read More >>

Debunking Defunding

Aug. 1, 2020

“Defunding” the police means different things to different groups. For some, it is synonymous with reforming the police. For others it means a diversion of some funding, now used by law enforcement, for social and mental health workers. Still others hope for a Utopian future i... Read More >>

The Parties Are No Party

July 25, 2020

The Republican Party was born on March 20, 1854, in Ripon, Wisconsin. Their first presidential candidate was John C. Fremont, the first Republican elected president was Abraham Lincoln. Democrats got their start earlier, forming officially in 1828. Andrew Jackson was their first president... Read More >>

A Health Experiment

July 18, 2020

There is near unanimity regarding getting kids back to school. We all know it's important on multiple levels. 

We know in-person classrooms with on-the-spot individualized instruction is most effective. We know some children, especially those left out of the di... Read More >>