A still weakly told story leading up to 2020 elections seems to be the flight of 2016 Trump voters from the president's base and thus the increasing likelihood of more challengers lining up to run in a Republican primary.

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - It is difficult to discourage and impossible to manage Justin Amash because he, unusual among politicians, does not want much and wants nothing inordinately. He would like to win a sixth term as congressman from this culturally distinctive slice of the Midwest. He does not, however, want it enough to remain in today's Republican Party, which he has left because that neighborhood has become blighted. Amash, 39, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, also has left that once-admirable faction because he does not define freedom as it now does, as devotion to the 45th president.

Election security is a bipartisan issue

It's time to recognize election security as fundamental to America's national security. Today, America's elections are under attack from hostile foreign actors like Russia and Iran. That's not a talking point. It's a fact.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has warned China that it must respond "humanely" to the protests in Hong Kong if it wants a trade deal, for the first time suggesting that the United States would impose costs on Beijing if it launched a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on the city. It's about time. China is in a much weaker position in Hong Kong than many realize. It claims to be showing "restraint," but the fact is if China could easily crush the protesters, at a cost acceptable to Beijing, it would have done so by now.

WASHINGTON — Someday, in the not-so-distant future, sea-level rise could claim Mar-a-Lago. Perhaps President Trump — by then no doubt disgraced, shunned and all but forgotten - would still be around to see his beloved Florida resort wiped out by a "Chinese hoax."

I posted the saddest picture I have ever seen on my Facebook page a few days ago. It is a picture of a wide open sea except for small iceberg the size of a Volkswagen. And on it sat a mama polar bear hugging her baby.

Recent letter was meant as sarcasm

The Herald-Dispatch recently published a letter I had written. To clear up any misunderstandings, I wanted to plainly state that it was fully intended to be sarcasm. In fact, the original title I suggested was "Sarcastic Note Concerning Store Owners of Bygone Era." However, I'm afraid there may have been some confusion as to the intended message of this author since it was published with the title of "Bare chested and barefoot welcome" in the Aug. 1 edition of the newspaper. In reality, the article was meant to reveal the absurdity of today's societal mindset that basically believes the special rights of "protected" people groups should trump the rights of others (such as private business owners) by labeling certain acts as discrimination or a hate crime.

CHICAGO - Given its surplus of violence and scarcity of resources, Chicago surely has bigger things to worry about than the menace, as the city sees it, of Laura Pekarik's cupcakes. Herewith redundant evidence of regulatory government's unsleeping solicitousness for the strong.

WASHINGTON - The erratic Trump administration has had just one consistent policy principle, one guiding North Star: punitive and often sadistic treatment of nonwhite immigrants.

"You're going on another trip?" asked a friend. True, Maury and I were ready for another adventure. But the question made me think. Why do people travel, and what are the advantages of visiting places far from home? Here are a few thoughts on this topic.

Marshall football should retire '10'

Someone told me that they retire basketball jerseys at Marshall University (Hal Greer, John Taft and so on).

There is discrimination of all sorts, and that includes racial discrimination. Thus, it's somewhat foolhardy to debate the existence of racial discrimination yesteryear or today. From a policy point of view, a far more useful question to ask is: How much of the plight of many blacks can be explained by current racial discrimination? Let's examine some of today's most devastating problems of many black people with an eye toward addressing discrimination of the past and present.

The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal published this editorial on Aug. 11 regarding gun-control legislation:

John Kasich didn't warm many hearts at the Statehouse last week. The former governor addressed the proposals of his successor, Mike DeWine, for expanded background checks on gun sales and "safety protection orders" to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Kasich took credit. He told a Toledo Blade reporter, "We plowed the ground on that, and they ought to move quickly."

WASHINGTON - One of the everlasting social forces in directing human behavior - shame - has become part of the 2020 presidential race.

"A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." - Benjamin Franklin

Tribalism. That, says the former op-ed page editor of The New York Times, is what holds sway in American politics these days. And it's hard for members of one tribe (left or right) to change the minds of those on the other side.

Pass sensible gun safety laws now

Now it's El Paso and Dayton. Dozens more killed or maimed by gun violence.

The carnage will diminish only when we pass gun safety legislation like funding gun violence prevention research and criminal background checks for all gun sales.

"No candidate received a polling bump as a result of the Detroit debates," writes Morning Consult analyst Anthony Patterson. That's a big disappointment for the dozen or more candidates struggling to make the Democrats' 2 percent cutoffs for further debate appearances, as well as for the pundits weary after six or so hours of debates and post-debate interviews.

An aerial photo was taken by the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps from Georgia who used the beautiful campus of Wayne High School last summer for their final practice before their Drums Across the Tri-State competition at Laidley Field in Charleston.

WASHINGTON — Regimes, however intellectually disreputable, rarely are unable to attract intellectuals eager to rationalize the regimes' behavior. America's current administration has "national conservatives." They advocate unprecedented expansion of government in order to purge America of excessive respect for market forces, and to affirm robust confidence in government as a social engineer allocating wealth and opportunity. They call themselves conservatives, perhaps because they loathe progressives, although they seem not to remember why.

WASHINGTON — As soon as authorities said they suspected the El Paso mass shooter was the author of a hate-filled, white-supremacist online manifesto, Democrats began blaming President Trump. "He is a racist," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., "and we've seen the consequences of it." Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on Twitter about the president, "Your language creates a climate which emboldens extremists." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., declared that Trump was "directly responsible" for the shooting.

Mass shootings are like climate change and other complex events that have been taken over by politics. You can't have a logical discussion on them anymore.

Elected officials have duty to denounce bigotry

In the wake of the deadly shootings in El Paso and Dayton, another renewed debate has emerged about the role of guns in society, mental health services, hatred and racism.

My husband and I are often asked, "Why are you still living in Huntington?" Since we're not West Virginia natives, no longer have family living in the state and are past retirement age, it's often assumed we would leave. It would be wonderful to live nearer our family, but here are some reasons that keep us anchored here:

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party may not have pulled the triggers, but they still bear some responsibility for the weekend's atrocities. The only way to keep military-style weapons of war out of the clutches of would-be mass killers is to take away McConnell's power - which means electing a Democratic majority in the Senate next year.

This day is

truly sufficient

One secret of a sweet and happy Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for us. We cannot carry this load until we understand the ways that others behave toward one another. Life does not come at us all at one time; it only comes one day at a time.

WASHINGTON — The more we learn, the more Jeffrey Epstein resembles an evil comic book character for the developmentally arrested intellectual - the charming-but-lurid mastermind with a plot to take over the world by impregnating scores of women on a remote desert estate.

I know we are in for a civil war, but I didn't expect it to begin in earnest now. I didn't expect until late November of 2020.

Catholics across the U.S., just as here in West Virginia, are now reading a 103-page book titled "Letter to a Suffering Church," distributed in bulk in thousands of parishes. The author is Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron, formerly rector of Mundelein Seminary just northwest of Chicago.

Atomic bomb's use was necessary

It is clear to me that a recent letter writer has no knowledge or incorrect understanding of history of World War II with Japan. First, the Japanese military were indeed fanatics. They believed their emperor was a god and they were invincible. Most of the Japanese war deaths were attributed to disease and mistreatment of their citizens. We were not on the wining side when we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. The Soviet Union was our ally; there was no tool used against them. They were engaged with the Japanese as well who had occupied Chinese territory. President Truman told Stalin what we were about to do. Dropping bombs on Japan had nothing to do with the Cold War between the West and the USSR. Germany, the USSR and the USA were working to develop nuclear power; it just happen that we did it first.

"Moscow Mitch" was red hot.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the Senate floor Monday, denounced critics (including me) who say his recent blocking of efforts to fortify defenses against another Russian attack on U.S. elections are aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail published this editorial on July 29 regarding an increase in the number of guns found in carry-on luggage at two airports in West Virginia this year:

WASHINGTON — After the second two-night Democratic candidates' "debate," Joe Biden remains a vulnerable front-runner. And it's definitely time to start winnowing the field.