Volkswagen Executive Oliver Schmidt just found out the cost of his dishonesty: 7 years in prison. “Schmidt, a citizen of Germany,” The New York Times writes (Dec. 6), “is the highest-ranking Volkswagen employee to be convicted in [a scheme to defraud U.S. consumers and regulators by participating in] the company’s efforts to rig pollution tests on hundreds of thousands of...

Two months after the D-Day invasion by Allied forces, with the wind at their backs against German forces, CBS radio correspondent Charles Collingwood wrote an extraordinary story for radio broadcast: “The French Second Armored Division entered Paris today after the Parisians had risen as one man to beat down the German troops who had garrisoned the city. It was the...

work-around: a plan or method to circumvent a problem. After watching Senator Al Franken’s resignation speech yesterday, my cynical self reminded me that too many men in powerful positions appear genetically incapable of taking full, unconditional responsibility for their actions. As this is likely the last speech he’ll make on the Senate floor, Franken sounds both serious and deliberate. He...

“If Jesus Christ [got] down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him,  ‘Hold on a second. I need to check with the President if it’s true.’ ” – Trump voter, CNN New Day, November 20 This is how low truth and trust have plummeted in the eyes of some voters. Writing about the...

“Knowing what you know about Russia, was it really a good idea for the Obama administration and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to approve a deal giving the Russians control of 20 percent of our uranium supply? . . . Why did Hillary’s office and the Obama administration sign off on giving the Russians a fifth of our uranium? . . . What...

That’s how CBS This Morning host Gayle King described her reaction to the news that co-host, and PBS correspondent Charlie Rose is the latest to be called out and admit to sexual misconduct charges leveled at him. Sitting alone at their morning table, and looking into the camera with sober faces, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King discussed their reactions to...

What should be done about men who do not directly and blatantly sell the favors of their offices for money and so place themselves within the penalties of the law? How do we deal with those who, under the guise of friendship, accept favors which offend the spirit of the law but do not violate its letter? – Senator J....

Seventy-nine years ago, on Halloween eve, director Orson Wells pulled off one of the great media hoaxes of all time with a radio broadcast that scared the beejesus out of millions of listeners who believed that Martians had invaded New Jersey. (New Jersey?) A front-page story in The New York Times read: “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as...

“Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide, and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership in either the legislative branch or the executive...

One day – (hopefully), many, many millennia in the future – some grad student will be green-lighted for a doctoral dissertation on President Trump’s tweets to examine, and perhaps shed light on the current “dark age” of American politics, starting here: “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest — and you all know it! Please...