And other obvious questions — Senator Ron Johnson pretended he was on a call to avoid questions about his Chief of Staff trying to deliver a slate of phony electors to VP Pence on January 6, 2021. A reporter noticed the screen on the phone was turned off. Republican voters in Pennsylvania chose Dr. Mehmet…

The fourth January 6th hearing — A thug is, very specifically, a criminal who engages in physical violence or violent threats to intimidate others into doing things they do not want to do. In Trump’s case, he was not personally committing physical acts of violence against those who disagreed with him. However we are hearing repeated…

They are methodically going after everyone — Women, 55% of the population. LGBTQ, at least 10% (sounds low to me). Black, 13.4%, Latino, 18%. The Northeast and California. They’ve written off New York City. They are ignoring young people. This week the Texas Republican Party convention basically announced hatred for virtually everyone not in an incredibly narrow…

Everyone wants to be the former There is a great mythology being created right now, right here. It made it to the august pub, The New Yorker, with an article about the creative middle class. The article cycles back to 2008 and tech pundit Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true fans hypothesis, which says we can make a…

He may have decided, but Trump did not pardon him — The third hearing was not the easiest thing to watch. Not only did it clarify the range of crimes conducted by the ex-President, but it introduced us to yet another crazy lawyer who somehow got close to the President, leaping past an army of loyalists with a totally crazy scheme…

There are far better uses for the technology — Note: I’ve been periodically writing articles highlighting potential good news about the climate and sustainable energy. I’ve added links to a few recent ones in this piece. A little optimism is not a bad thing! Machines that drive themselves show up in the news, mostly when something goes wrong. For…

Desperation, lies, myths, and crazy lawyers — So far, as these hearings go on, it is quite apparent that Trump did not want to hear anything, no matter how compelling or based on facts, that implied in any way that he lost. I’m not a psychiatrist, but it seems quite obvious that a person who totally defies…

It is still reverberating — I’m not going to hash out the many shocking things we learned last Thursday night. If you watched, you know. If you didn’t, you probably don’t care, but you should. I had to take a few days to think through my response and to see if their impact was lasting…

It’s surprisingly gratifying — I started my newsletter about the writing life, The Grasshopper, in March of 2022 and have published two weekly posts since. One is a more formal issue dealing with various aspects of writing and creativity. The other is more random, a blog post type of thing. So far, I have…