National Commentary

2025-04-25 5:30 AM

A Nation Surging Right Needs Our Higher Angels

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-11-14

As for the election: With the tsunami of blaming that has flooded us since last week, what are we to think? Blame the Democrats for not figuring out the U.S. electorate? How about the electorate for not figuring out what

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Love & Resistance

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-11-14

Our nation, the United States of America, and with it the planet as a whole, has entered into the most hazardous period in its history with the election last week of Donald Trump as its next president. The City of

The LGBTQ+ Reach: October 10, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-10-10

Election Anxiety Looms Large, Especially for LGBTQ+ Youth The election is less than four weeks away, and I don’t know about you personally, but I am stressed. And without exception, so are most others I know, LGBTQ+ or not. In fact,

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A Penny for Your Thoughts - News of Greater Falls Church: October 10, 2024

Penny Gross • 2024-10-10

Senator Slick and Governor Good Guy faced off in the vice presidential debate last week. Expectations were not high – a vice presidential debate generally checks boxes about each campaign’s strategy and gives the secondary candidates some air time, but

The LGBTQ+ Reach: October 3-9, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-10-03

Trans Immigrant Awarded $930M in McDonalds Discrimination Suit On August 15, a jury in a D.C. Superior Court ruled that the Burke, VA-based company — owner of a McDonald’s restaurant franchise in D.C. — must pay $700,000 in punitive damages and

A Penny For Your Thoughts - News of Greater Falls Church: October 3-9, 2024

Penny Gross • 2024-10-03

Health care professionals say that, for every day spent in a hospital, it takes three days to recover from the experience. So, recovery from a ten-day hospital stay would take about a month under normal circumstances. Emergency abdominal surgery for

The LGBTQ+ Reach: September 26 - October 2, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-09-26

NOVA Pride LGBTQ+ Soccer League Seeks Local Expansion NOVA Pride Football Club (NOVA Pride FC), a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ+ and allies soccer club in the Northern Virginia region, is seeking to expand after a successful first season earlier this year, culminating in

The LGBTQ+ Reach: September 19-25, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-09-19

HRCF Releases 2024 Climate Report On Tuesday the The Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its annual 2024 HRCF LGBTQ+ Climate Survey report, finding that LGBTQ+ Americans remain the most politically engaged group in the country.The report found that 95.7 percent of

The LGBTQ+ Reach: September 12-18, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-09-12

Sarah McBride Wins DE House Primary On Tuesday, Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride won the Democratic Primary for the state’s only U.S. House seat for the state, winning 80 percent of the vote in a resounding win against two challengers. McBride came

The LGBTQ+ Reach: September 5-11, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-09-05

Equality Caucus Files SCOTUS Brief On Tuesday 164 members of the U.S. Congress filed an amicus brief “to defend transgender Americans’ right to access medically-necessary healthcare in the upcoming Supreme Court Case U.S. v. Scrmetti,” challenging Tennessee’s anti-Trans SB1. “Decisions about healthcare

The LGBTQ+ Reach: August 29 - September 4, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-08-29

The Effect Of Trump Court Appointees In 2022, Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed into law “The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” a cynically-named anti-Trans bill which made prescribing or administering puberty blockers to minors a felony punishable by up

A Penny for Your Thoughts - News of Greater Falls Church: August 22-28, 2024

Penny Gross • 2024-08-22

Growing up, I had the good fortune to have close relationships with my grandparents. My maternal grandmother could wring the necks of chickens for dinner, or drive trailers to Yellowstone and back. My paternal grandmother always packed a lunch for

The LGBTQ+ Reach: August 22-28, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-08-22

Harley Caves to “Anti-Woke” Activists On Monday, Harley-Davidson announced that they were caving to pressure from “anti-woke” activists, led in part by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck, who posted a call to action on X (Twitter) last month accusing the company head,

A Penny for Your Thoughts - News of Greater Falls Church: August 15-21, 2024

Penny Gross • 2024-08-15

Hooray! It appears that joy is returning to the political stage! After an almost ten year slog through the dystopian cynicism and relentless negativity of the MAGA movement — which trades on the politics of fear, and the overwhelming message

The LGBTQ+ Reach: August 8-14, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-08-08

A Veepstakes To Remember Unprecedented. Unprecedented was chosen as dictionary.com’s “People’s Choice Word Of The Year” in 2020. Over the last eight years, we’ve heard that word used a lot. A President was impeached — twice — and convicted of 34 felonies

Former President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on June 17, 2024. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Trump’s Cynical Attempt to Pit Recent Immigrants Against Black Americans

new york times syndicate • 2024-07-28

By Paul Krugman, The New York Times Former President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on June 17, 2024. “Until now, most of the anti-immigration sloganeering coming from Donald Trump and his campaign has

The LGBTQ+ Reach: July 25-31, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-07-25

144 Out Athletes at Paris Olympics On Friday the 2024 Olympic Games begin in Paris, France. This year’s Games boast 10,500 athletes from 206 teams, representing 195 countries and territories (and refugees). According to Outsports, which tracks the performance of out

Editor's Weekly Column: The Genius Quick Transition to Harris

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-07-24

Whoa, what a week! Those inclined to comment on the nation’s political state of affairs hourly or even more often on social media have produced tons and tons of content in just the last couple of weeks since the near-miss

Senator Kaine Statement On President Biden

FCNP.com • 2024-07-22

Richmond, VA – Today, Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement regarding President Biden: “As I have been saying for weeks, President Biden is a patriotic American who has always put the needs of our country ahead of himself. For more

Beyer Endorses Harris for President

FCNP.com • 2024-07-22

July 21, 2024 (Alexandria, VA) – Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) issued the following statement today: “President Joe Biden is a great American. Today he made a hard decision few others could have made, showed his character, and put his country first.

Beyer Statement On Historic Commercial Fusion Contract

Statement From Congressman Don Beyer

FCNP.com • 2024-07-22

Editor’s Statement on News of Biden’s Withdrawl

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-07-21

Look, this is a very sad development as I see it, but there can be no doubt that whomever the Democratic candidate is, that person must be backed to the absolute hilt to stop Trump!

Editor's Weekly Column: Vance Is 'More Dangerous Than Trump,' Memo Says

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-07-17

“The only valid family is a working father married to a stay-at-home mother and their children.” This particularly toxic line comes right out of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 document that is a blueprint for how Trump and the GOP,

The LGBTQ+ Reach: July 18-24, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-07-18

The Elephant In The Room It’s hard to write about anything without mentioning the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday at an election rally in Butler, PA, which left one attendee dead and two others severely injured. Political

Trump v Biden 2020 Presidential Election

Editorial: Are Freedom & Democracy Compatible?

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-07-17

Super rich financial backer of Trump and J.D. Vance, Paypal founder Peter Thiel, gay and married since 2017, recently wrote that he has found “freedom” and “democracy” to be incompatible, and that he prefers “freedom.” Of course, that is based

The LGBTQ+ Reach: July 11-17, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-07-11

Project 2025 On July 3 the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, said that the U.S. is “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Roberts and the Heritage Foundation

A Penny for Your Thoughts - News of Greater Falls Church: July 11-17, 2024

Penny Gross • 2024-07-11

“When the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.” That declaration, uttered by disgraced former President Richard Nixon in a 1977 television interview, was stunning in its simple dismissal of what had been a basic tenet of the U.

Editor's Weekly Column: Who Is Sowing Division In the Democratic Party?

Nicholas F. Benton • 2024-07-10

The saying goes, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Another way of putting it is, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.” Who and what is behind the current dust up over the viability of

Beyer issues Statement On President Biden

FCNP.com • 2024-07-08

July 7, 2024 (Alexandria, VA) – U. S Rep.Don Beyer (D-VA) issued the following statement today correcting an unsubstantiated report that he favored asking Biden to drop out. “I support President Biden. I support the Biden-Harris ticket, and look forward to

The LGBTQ+ Reach: July 4-10, 2024

Brian Reach • 2024-07-03

The Beer Hall Putsch In November 1923, Adolf Hitler launched an insurrection to overthrow the democratic government of Germany. Munich police killed more than a dozen Nazi stormtroopers as they marched into the city. At the time of the attempted coup,