We scheduled June 20, at first not knowing it was Father’s Day, for the re-gathering of my kids, grandkids and me post-pandemic. The day offered extra joy because, for the first time, I’d be meeting my great-granddaughter, Ophelia, who was born in December.

We drove the two hours to my daughter’s house and upon reaching the deck of her home, I immediately saw my great-granddaughter playing with her father at the picnic table. She was, at first glance, even more beautiful than the pictures I’d been collecting of her from her birth. …

Most of us go through life and when someone asks, “what’s your name?” and you tell them, immediate reaction is to say “nice to meet you.”

My name leads to other issues. When folks ask my name I typically respond, “B. Jay Cooper.” Now that is easier to pronounce, say, than Georgeanne Pauladunkus, but it’s what happens after that gets more complicated.

For decades some folks call me “Jay” because, I guess, when they hear or see “B. Jay” they immediately think the “B” is silent and I become “Jay.” (“Jay” actually is a name I do not like on…

Both parties, understandably, seek partisan advantage in the debate over voting laws.

Republicans are trying to restrict voting to decrease the number of votes turned out among constituencies they consider more favorable to Democrats.

Democrats seek to stop the Republican efforts to restrict voting in areas that hurt them and to expand programs used during the pandemic (to lessen voters risks to the virus), such as expanding the time to submit and count absentee ballots and Sunday voting. Democrats believe the more voters vote in those areas, the better their changes of winning.

What no one in either party says…

Things are not back to “normal” in this not-quite-post pandemic moment.

While many of us are fully vaccinated, many are not. While new cases are down (thanks to the vaccine), there sill are new cases. While deaths, thankfully, are down, there still are deaths.

That’s why, when I walked into the grocery store the other day, I wore my mask. As I headed to the deli counter, half a big-box store away, I all of a sudden saw people wearing masks — and NOT wearing masks. This was not the normal I’ve been living the past year. When I got…

(The Screaming Moderate occasionally hands out awards for Yos! and Oys!, celebrating those individuals who do good deeds (Yo!) and bad ones (Oy!). The Committee on Yos! and Oys! meets when it feels like it.)

A gigantic Yo! to all those students (grammar, high school, and college) for adjusting and succeeding at distance learning the past year and to those graduates who endured/enjoyed their senior years without the traditional markers (proms, graduations) most of us had. It couldn’t have been easy and it had to take dedication and focus to ignore all the more fun things that surely distracted many…

It’s not often you can predict a death with precision. But this is one time:

The Republican Party will breathe its last on Wednesday.

That’s when Cong. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) will be removed from the caucus’ leadership. Her crime: telling the truth.

This is why the GOP is on the brink of death. The House Republican leadership is officially banning the truth Wednesday. The Republican National Committee already has let the party pass on with its chairman, Ronna McDaniel (nee Romney), who long ago pledged fealty to a different philosophy. Well, not a philosophy really. A man.

To coin a…

When it comes to Fox News’ top-rated entertainer Tucker Carlson, logic, reason and facts no longer exist, if they ever did, during his many hours on-air five nights a week.

He must spend his non-on-air-time coming up with nutty conspiracy theories and other lies. I can’t imagine these dangerous comments just spew forth without forethought.

For example:

• He thinks that if you see a parent outside with a child wearing a face mask, you should call children’s’ services to lodge a complaint of child abuse against that parent.
• He thinks immigration, legal and illegal, is an attempt by Democrats to…

Just as the Derek Chauvin case seemed open and closed to millions of us around the world — thanks to Darnella Frazier’s video of the murder — it apparently was just as open and closed to the jury. Thanks, no doubt, to Ms Frazier’s video, as well.

The verdict was reassuring, finally, that a successful case can be put together against an arrogant cop whose view is that he is the judge and jury. …