Craig Calcaterra

For three years, Donald Trump has courted and enjoyed the support of the “alt-right,” which is a euphemism for white supremacists, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis. They played a very large role in his election, with their temporary, barely sanitized public image providing putatively respectable cover for base racism, anti-Semitism and fascism.   After his election, torch-carrying neo-Nazis […]

An awful lot of journalists were fired between 2015-17 because their companies went with a “video strategy” influenced strongly by Facebook’s claimed video ad revenues and Facebook’s direct encouragement of their media partners to pivot to video and away from a written product. That didn’t pan out the way anyone expected, however. Video engagement was […]

There’s a column at the National Review today which provides a good look into how blinkered and deluded conservatives are and how deeply buried in their ideology they have become.  ​The premise is not a bad one: “We’re all in this together! What’s good for my brother is good for me! Shared prosperity makes life better […]

Photo by William Yeung via Wikimedia Commons Two weeks ago I wrote a story about the history of the namesake for the University of North Carolina’s football stadium. The upshot: in 1898, William Rand Kenan Sr. — for whom Kenan Memorial Stadium is named — led a white supremacist paramilitary force which rode through Wilmington, […]

Last week I wrote a rundown of some of the many, many lies Brett Kavanaugh told under oath during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. An NBC News report from last night reveals that he may very well have told another one. A pretty damn serious one, in fact.  ​​The story surrounds the claims of […]

I came from a couple of small and disadvantaged towns that did not have some prefabricated assembly line of future leaders. The people who came from those places and who did, in fact, accomplish things did so because they sought to transcend geography or race or socio-economic status or family history. They had to. They […]

As an attorney with 11 years of trial experience, I found Christine Ford’s testimony about her alleged attempted rape by Brett Kavanaugh to be convincing and compelling. Any lawyer with even half that experience would, if they were not being nakedly partisan, agree. Contrary to what random people on the Internet will tell you, this […]

Most people will watch the Brett Kavanaugh hearing today in order to see whether Christine Ford or Kavanaugh is more believable as they testify about the alleged sexual assault that has led us here. As they weigh the witnesses’ credibility, they should remember that they need not rely solely on the “he said, she said” […]

Photo by William Yeung via Wikimedia Commons  On Saturday the University of North Carolina football team will host the Pitt Panthers in their home opener, kicking off the Tar Heels’ 92nd season in Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill. Almost none of the 40,000+ fans who will show up have any idea who the stadium […]

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is nearing confirmation to become the next Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As you likely know by now, he has also been accused of sexual assault when he was in high school. The story of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, can be read in The Washington Post.  The […]