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Columnists

Fawning and people pleasing

Do you tend to put others’ needs before your own? Do you have trouble saying no? Do you alter your personality in subtle ways to make yourself more likeable to others? These are signs of fawning, a type of people pleasing behavior that stems from complex trauma or adverse childhood ...

My imaginary friend, Cappy

When I was a little boy I had an imaginary playmate, Cappy. Being the youngest of eight children, and there being a three year gap between my next oldest sibling, a girl, Angel, and me, and being raised in rural Iowa, I had no one to play with. Angel and I, having very little in common, ...

Trump’s troubled appointees face scandals, backlash and low support

Besides the ill-defined Iranian war, DOJ-FBI created Epstein file debacle, tariff fiasco, Venezuela, Ecuador, Greenland and Cuba interventions, special elections turning in Democrats’ favor and the ever increasing cost for gasoline, health care, mortgages, rent, prescription drugs, food, ...

Respectful or not, America enables criticism and dissent

Noah Petersen and Priscilla Villarreal live 1,200 miles from each other, Petersen in Newton, Iowa; Villarreal in Laredo, Texas. They share a key connection despite that distance. Each has encountered government punishment for exercising their First Amendment rights. Both went to court to ...

Democrats be warned: Trump knows your weak spots

Sure, the “No Kings” marches drew millions rightly protesting Donald Trump’s assaults on our democratic institutions. But Democrats must dig deeper and ask how Trump could actually win another term after trying to overturn the 2020 election results with a violent attack on the Capitol. It ...