President-elect Donald J. Trump took a well-documented victory lap last week after negotiating a deal with the Carrier Corporation to keep 1000 jobs in Indiana, reversing the company’s plan to ship the jobs overseas to its Monterrey, Mexico, factory. Trump was effusive on Twitter, crowing: “Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state.… Continue Reading
I’ve already written a fair amount about the 2016 presidential race, particularly the Democratic primary. I also imagine that lots of folks are probably exhausted from wall-to-wall Trump coverage. “He’s a demagogue!”; “He’s speaks for a disempowered bloc of struggling white Americans!”… Continue Reading
The Obama Administration has done everything in its power to bury its long-awaited report on civilian casualties from illegal, extrajudicial drone strikes by releasing it on the Friday afternoon of a long holiday weekend.… Continue Reading
THE DEBATE
Back in January, when the football playoffs were in full stride and the NBA was in midseason, I wrote a piece exploring how the recency effect and sports analytics affect assessments of great athletes throughout history. … Continue Reading
By now it is widely understood among Sanders supporters that the mainstream media has been relentlessly pro-Clinton in its coverage of the Democratic race.… Continue Reading
Michael Hayden, CIA Director from 2006 – 2009, claims in a recent New York Times op-ed that the US drone program is “the most precise and effective application of firepower in the history of armed conflict.” … Continue Reading
Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist, intellectual, and political activist, wrote in his seminal book “Manufacturing Consent,” that the mass media “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function,… Continue Reading
President Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in 2008 in large part due to his opposition to the Iraq War Resolution, which Clinton supported.… Continue Reading
The recency effect as applied to social psychology refers to the principle that the most recently presented items or experiences will most likely be recalled better than those in the more distant past. … Continue Reading
Welcome! This is a new site where we explore politics, current affairs, and pop culture from a Generation X perspective. The photo above is me at the incredible Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State. … Continue Reading