Americans tend not to be too enthusiastic about having their taxes raised again....But if the American people aren't going to accept it, if the politicians don't have the courage to raise taxes, what are we facing down the road?

What will be interesting to see is whether or not we see from the [Donald Trump] administration initiatives on higher education for this work force, because if those kinds of training opportunities are not provided, then I do think this program begins to look like a defensive holding action, a rear-guard action, buying time for workers who might not otherwise find positions in the 21st century.

I have no doubt about it. I think this is a part of the nature of man, a desire for freedom, for dignified life.

My younger sister retired a few years ago after a 30-year career teaching history and social studies at an inner-city high school.

Our phones do play to our natural nervousness about being vulnerable to each other, but that doesn't mean that we can't we can't pull ourselves together, and say - we need to talk to each because it's in conversation, the most human and humanizing thing that we do, that empathy is born, that intimacy is born, that relationship is born.

And I've been incredibly lucky to have a long career in journalism that has given me a front-row seat to some of the most important moments in modern American political life.

Donald Trump rejected charges of ties between his campaign and Russia, blasted the intelligence community for leaks, and repeatedly attacked the news media. The president said he inherited a mess at home and abroad, but he dismissed the notion of a White House in turmoil.