General
Hard News and the Search for Clicks
I read down the list of headlines on the newspaper’s website until I came to one that read: Trump’s inaugural address echoes anti-Semitic isolationists and a Batman villain. Fact, I wondered. Or opinion? According to the newspaper it was fact. Hard news. When Donald Trump said his inauguration was about taking power away from Washington…
Read MoreTrump’s Speech
Donald Trump didn’t mince words: “We are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another,” he said, “we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to the people.” “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost……
Read MoreFour Tribes
A year and a half ago – when the election began – the Democrat Washington Politicians battled the Democratic Outsiders and the Republican Washington Politicians fought the Republican Outsiders. So where are the four tribes now? Hillary’s gone. But both the Democratic Washington Politicians and the Democratic Outsiders are carefully watching Trump waiting for him…
Read MoreThe Old World
Back in 1789 there was nothing in the federal Treasury worth stealing but Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams it was only a matter of time: He didn’t see, he said, how the Constitution would stop a scoundrel (or a group of scoundrels) clever enough and ruthless enough to cajole (or buy) 51% of the votes…
Read MoreTrump Dump
There’s a lot to talk about as Trump takes office. An “illegitimate” President? Congressman/civil rights hero John Lewis touched a nerve here. Trump & Co. went nuclear. But the Russian hacking stories will persist. As will the golden-showers stain. Trump supporters say, “Get over it. He won. He’s President. Show him some respect.” Really? This…
Read MoreLimited Power
When the election began Millennials trapped in dead-end jobs faced a choice between a Democrat Washington Politician and a Socialist (who could only come from Vermont) and the Millennials chose the Socialist. On the other side of the aisle working class families sitting at kitchen tables in small towns staring at stacks of bills faced…
Read MoreA New Wrinkle
‘Sallie told David who told Harry who told Joe that Sergie said’… It sounds like gossip flying around a sewing circle of old women but it wasn’t – it was a story about Donald Trump and the Russians told by a former MI6 agent in a ‘report’ that caught fire (on one website) then rolled…
Read MoreThe Professor
Looking back the first warning sign was his crowing: For years, the professor wrote, he’d traveled the world. He’d set up elections in strange places like Sudan. Along with his Danish colleague he’d designed the first model – measuring over 50 moving parts of the political process – to determine whether elections were fair. He’d…
Read MoreThe Clash
The election proved just about everyone’s fed up with Washington politics but the first day of the new Congress the Washington Politicians proved they didn’t get the message: Foolishness usually starts at the top in Congress but this time it started at the bottom with the Republican back-benchers who, out of a clear blue sky,…
Read MoreThe Times and Trump
When North Korea said it was going to test an intercontinental ballistic missile that would reach the U.S. Donald Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and roared, ‘North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!’ Reading Trump’s tweet…
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