Listen: Ricketts talks politics and family on Axelrod podcast | Regional Government

When Axelrod raised concerns about the dangerous divisions that led to the insurrection at the nation’s Capitol a year and a half ago and the lingering “terror of our politics,” the governor said “we’ll get though it.”

“Use your formidable voice,” Axelrod urged Ricketts. 

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Sen. Ben Sasse called for creation of “a NATO for the Pacific” during his address at the Reagan Library in southern California last week.

And he suggested that the United States should “arm the Taiwanese military to the teeth” in the face of a growing threat by China to reclaim its former island territory. 

It’s time to “sound the alarm for Taiwan,” secure and protect an ally and friend as the United States does in Europe, Sasse said, and assure “free navigation of the seas” in the Pacific Ocean.

“I want us to be America again,” Sasse said. 

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* House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy closed his luncheon appearance in Lincoln in support of GOP congressional nominee Mike Flood to coverage by the news media.  Afterwards, guests whom I asked said McCarthy said nothing that would have been damaging or uncomfortable in print. 

* McCarthy wouldn’t do a newspaper interview while he was in Lincoln, only a brief Lincoln TV appearance and a friendly interview with Omaha talk radio.

* Reminder: Flood and Democratic congressional nominee Patty Pansing Brooks will meet for a one-hour, live televised debate next Sunday on KETV, beginning at 6 p.m.

* Ugly reminder of what might lie ahead in Ukraine: When Russian troops invaded Afghanistan in late 1979 and encountered stubborn resistance that kept the war going on and on, Russia did not leave until early 1989, almost a decade later.

* Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon has signaled his intention to attempt to end selection of committee chairpersons in the non-partisan Legislature by secret ballot when the 2023 Legislature convenes, requiring each senator to make his or her choice public.

* Impossible to accurately predict what a new Legislature will be like, but signs point to a more conservative — and perhaps more partisan — edition next year with a huge turnover and the departure of a number of moderate, independent and essentially non-partisan Republicans, most of whom were legislative leaders.

* Nebraska’s new motor vehicle license plate design is artistic and attractive, but the Capitol mosaic artwork that adorns the new plates appears to be barely perceptible, at least in the modeling unveiled at a gubernatorial news conference. 

* “And what is so rare as a day in June?  Then, if ever, come perfect days.”  — James Russell Lowell.