Recent Commentaries

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Why I Continue to Write About Trump
He is an angry, arrogant, bigoted, unprincipled narcissist who was elected to the U.S. presidency by the slimmest of margins. He is the most illiterate, contradictory, and inarticulate individual who has ever held the highest office in the land. According to the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), he has more than 3,000 conflicts of interest....
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May 22, 2020
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The Apostate
“a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.” — e.g. Neil Cavuto Neil Cavuto is the Fox News anchor/commentator who talks about all things business. However, following President Trump’s press conference on Monday, Cavuto abruptly switched gears to address a continuing controversy in the president’s remarks. “A lot of good things have come out about the Hydroxy, things have...
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May 19, 2020
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All The President’s Lies
Let’s begin with the president’s go-to guy and maestro of misinformation, Sean Hannity. “Wow, huge massive developments in the biggest abuse-of-power, corruption scandal in American history. Dozens of top Obama officials have unmasked, surveilled Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn… all roads lead directly to Barack… we’ll call out the liars.” Well, not all the liars, Sean. What is “Obamagate“? “What is...
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May 18, 2020
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Is This Acceptable to You?
Last Sunday, on the CBS News show 60 Minutes, I was shaken by a report by Scott Pelley in which the Trump administration cut funding to a key scientist researching the cause and cure for the coronavirus. His name is Peter Daszak, and his job involves working with Chinese research officials in Wuhan, China, the area of the first outbreak....
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May 15, 2020
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It Ain’t Over Until…
While Attorney General William Barr announced that the Department of Justice was dismissing the case against President Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, one overlooked detail has emerged. According to one federal judge and two former DOJ attorney’s, Barr’s dismissal is only a recommendation to the court. The judge overseeing the case is the official arbiter who makes the...
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May 13, 2020
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In Like Flynn
William Pelham Barr. Remember that name. History certainly will. There are three standards of justice. There’s “white justice,” where white people can benefit in the legal system because they are not part of a minority. Black or minority justice, is exemplified by a recent shooting where Gregory and Travis McMichael — who shot Ahmaud Arbery as he was jogging down...
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May 11, 2020
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A Few Silver Linings
Former computer scientist Jim Mitchell is another local resident who shared his perspective on the virus and living under quarantine conditions. Mitchell started programming for computers in 1962. During his career, he “worked on programming language design and implementation (FORTRAN WATFOR, Mesa, Euclid, C++, Java), interactive programming systems, dynamic interpretation and compilation, document preparation systems, user interface design, distributed transactional...
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May 8, 2020
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It’s Getting Better
Continuing to share local individuals’ experiences with the Covid-19 virus, and the quarantine orders issued by California state governor Gavin Newsom, Maureen (Mo) Masson worked as a private duty nurse in Los Angeles before joining the Air National Guard to help treat burn patients returning from Vietnam. Her last military assignment was in Desert Shield before retiring in 1992 as...
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May 6, 2020
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We’re Not There Yet
Last week, an experimental drug, remdesivir, was found to shorten the recovery time for those infected with Covid-19. Now that a clinical trial has confirmed the positive effects, the FDA has given the go-ahead to use the drug on virus patients. It’s a small light at the end of a long tunnel. The number of reported cases has dropped as...
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May 4, 2020
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How Are You Doing?
With the Covid-19 virus roiling financial markets, creating staggering unemployment numbers, and people tiring of stay-at-home orders, I reached out to several local individuals to share their experiences. Salud Carbajal represents California’s 24th district in Congress. A former Marine and county supervisor, I have known Salud for more than ten years. During that time, I have observed him at a...
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May 1, 2020

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
When Democracy Comes Dressed as Patriotism
The current American political order is starting to feel like a collision between the films Seven Days in May and All the King’s Men. One...
Who Watches the Algorithm?
We are building machines that may soon judge, persuade, police, diagnose, hire, fire, and even help governments decide whom to trust. Yet we still have...
He Just Does His Job
I’ve been listening to and watching Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia for more than a year now: his speeches, his questions in Senate hearings,...
Why Donald Trump Has Pulled Me Back In—Again
Last August, I wrote that I was “stepping back from the chaos” of Donald Trump. I meant to write about his presidency only when his...
Scott Pelley Responds
During a contentious staff meeting at 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley spoke out sharply, criticizing the judgment and decision-making of CBS News editor in chief Bari...
The Clock is Still Ticking. But Now It’s Ticking for CBS
I began watching 60 Minutes when it premiered on September 24, 1968, when Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace introduced a new kind of television journalism:...