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The changing media landscape

When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that the briefing room is now open to reporters for “new media,” including podcasters and websites, she was acknowledging the power and reach of these outlets, which was demonstrated in the last election when President Trump made himself available to outlets that were ignored by the Kamala Harris campaign. The “legacy media” are in decline and the new media are surging. Part of this has to do with evaporating trust in what many regard as biased coverage by The New York Times - from which broadcast news ...

Trade war: Pain starts with shame

Never mind how Donald Trump’s threatened trade war ultimately pans out. Though a 25% border tax would hurt the economies of Canada and Mexico more, Americans would also feel the ill-effects. But America is already suffering. Start with the shame of menacing and sliming our good neighbors with lies. Even if it’s part of a twisted game of negotiation — Trump has already put off the war with Mexico and Canada by a month — the economic damage is lasting. (Trump’s game is to jump on some small concession to declare victory.) Meanwhile, Made-in-Trump’s-USA is becoming a toxic ...

The bullies and the bros take over

It’s an excellent time for bullies and bros in Donald Trump’s Washington, where the president wasted no time confirming that if he has his way — namely, whatever he wants — it’s going to be all thuggery all the time. There’s a fresh flood of new examples each day. They’re intended to overwhelm us, and it’s working. Here’s one: Trump gleefully stripped longtime public servants of the security protection they’ve needed precisely because they’re under serious threats from Trump loyalists who, taking their cue from Trump himself, threaten revenge because those ...

Why we need birthright citizenship

It’s part of who we are. The White House executive order theoretically ending birthright citizenship grandly proclaims its purpose as “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” As we’ve come to expect from this administration, the proposed change to American law would do the exact opposite. Also in keeping with the Trumpian model, the president’s comments accompanying the signing were false. “Birthright, that’s a big one,” Trump frowned. “It’s ridiculous. We are the only country in the world that does this with the birthright, as you know, and ...

Trump’s epic anti-DEI order

We’re only days into the Trump administration, and we can already identify one of his top five achievements. With one carefully crafted act, the president initiated the end of DEI in the federal government and perhaps in the private sector and educational system as well. It is a breathtakingly bold and wholly righteous move that could bring about a generational change. One way or the other, books will be written about the executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” Trump’s directive repeals a series of executive orders promoting ...

A Dunning-Kruger plane crash

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is in full force these days. It posits that those with less knowledge of a subject have more certainty about the subject. For example, a layman is far more certain about the big bang than the astrophysicist. The armchair aviation expert is far more certain of the plane crash cause than the aviator. Tragedy struck on Wednesday night. An American Airlines flight from Kansas, landing at Washington Reagan National Airport, collided with a military Blackhawk helicopter. All passengers and crew died. Within minutes of the plane crash, some on the right began to ...