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Trump’s second time around

According to the Frank Sinatra song, “Love is lovelier, the second time around.” We’ll see how that works out in the second coming of Donald. J. Trump, now president of the United States for a second time, following a four-year “intermission.” The two terms will be a contrast in policy, personnel and persistence. This time, the Republican Party is unified if they can keep it. Trump will also not be constrained by a pandemic. In his Second Inaugural Address, the old/new president decided to mostly turn from the dark side, displayed and disliked by many in his first ...

Presidency inaugurates an old con

Right before his inauguration, Donald Trump issued a $TRUMP meme coin featuring a defiant him pumping his fist after an assassination attempt. Shortly after their release, the market capitalization for $TRUMP coins passed $5 billion. Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett once called bitcoin “rat poison squared.” Jamie Dimon, chief at JPMorgan Chase, noted that “it’s got no intrinsic value,” adding, “I remember when Beanie Babies were selling for $2,000 a pop.” Beanie Babies. Back in the 1990s, crowds pushed their way into toy stores to get in on Beanie Babies. TV hucksters ...

Transparency needed from social media platforms

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken a lot of heat since he announced last week that he is pulling his company out of the fact-checking business and curtailing content moderation on its platforms. The criticism is understandable, given the uncertainty over how Meta’s new rules will handle misinformation and otherwise harmful material. Keep in mind, however, that the company’s content-moderation strategies — and indeed those of practically all social media platforms — have not worked as intended. As Zuckerberg noted in a video about the changes, Meta’s automated content ...

Maintaining stability of the dollar

The Federal Reserve’s premature victory lap over inflation reveals a worrisome misunderstanding of the predicament we still find ourselves in. Unprecedented government spending and debt, combined with mounting fears that the debt can’t (or won’t) be repaid, played a misunderstood role in inflation’s rise several years ago. As such, fiscal policy must be part of the solution. Otherwise, expect the recent acceleration of inflation to stick around or get worse, bringing trouble for the new administration. The pressure on the Fed to declare the race over and continue lowering ...

Trump routs America. Americans yawn

The Supreme Court’s narrow vote to permit a New York state judge to formally pronounce a practically meaningless sentence on Donald Trump pursuant to a jury verdict convicting him of 34 felonies was hailed by some as promising news, that there remain institutional guardrails constraining the 47th president from doing anything he wishes after taking office. The truth is different: The once and now-again president will have virtually no guardrails limiting him. This is because he has effectively routed every civic institution that might have provided one, and he’s got a depleted ...

Trump was right about Seth Meyers

If you’re a late-night host with an affinity for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, you’re probably going to love being the target of a Donald Trump Truth Social tirade, uncorked in the middle of the night. Seth Meyers is a millionaire socialist who preaches on TV about how Trump won with a “fake woke boogeyman,” so “anyone suggesting Democrats can win elections by throwing trans people under the bus, let me just say ‘(bleep) off.’” The preaching is more important than anybody laughing. This was Trump’s hot take: “How bad is Seth Meyers on NBC, a ...