“I’m not going to give you a question. I am not going to give you a question. You are fake news.” When Donald Trump shouted this out at Jim Acosta of CNN News during his recent press conference, it was not a case of the pot calling the kettle black. It was a case of the pot calling the meal a kettle. That’s so because the president-elect is definitely the “pot”. He is one the primary proponents of so-called “fake news” in today’s synthetically saturated media environment where … [Read more...]

It is the year 2017 and the social media rules. For many, this form of electronic or internet-based communications has become the principal source for information and means of relating with one another. A problem with this is that the communications through this media is sometimes not so social. For a variety of reasons, the “not so social” media can be harmful to America and Americans. The “not so social” media ranges in form from anti-social to unsocial to asocial. Antisocial … [Read more...]

“ …the people back there, the extremely dishonest press…Very dishonest people…How about – I mean how dishonest.” Those were the remarks of President-Elect Donald Trump at his first “Thank You Tour” rally held in Cincinnati, Ohio to celebrate his presidential election victory. “Dishonest” may be a nice term compared to some of the other epithets that Trump used about the press during his campaigns to become the Republican nominee and the President of the United States. In that time period, … [Read more...]

One nation under God. That is our sincere wish for the United States of America and its citizens this holiday season. Let us repeat that wish. One nation under God. What would create such a nation? Its God would not be a Christian God, a Muslim God, or a Jewish God. Its God would be ecumenical and non-denominational. Its god would welcome all - even those who do not believe in a divine being - unless it’s Bette Midler. Getting to God is the easy part - especially if one recalls … [Read more...]

In case you missed it, the United States of America just held a presidential election. One of the biggest stories from that election is that around 40% - over 90 million voters - of the voting eligible population did miss it. They did not cast a ballot. What does that say about the state of our American democracy? Is it doomed or in grave danger, as some commentators such as author Neil Gabler and former CIA officer Evan McMullin who was a conservative independent presidential candidate in … [Read more...]

On December 1, the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presidential campaign staffs met in a forum at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government to review and analyze the results of this year’s presidential election. This forum which has been held at Harvard after every presidential election since 1972 is usually quite collegial in nature. This year it was any thing but as Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton campaign communications director, and Kellyanne Conway, Trump campaign manager, engaged in … [Read more...]

We wrote our first Thanksgiving blog for the Huffington Post in 2012 shortly after the presidential election of that year. Near the end of that blog, we observed, “One other thing we see as we look at our country is a citizenry that is more divided in values and perspective than it has been in the past.” If that was true in 2012, it is ten times more true in this 2016 election year. This divide was widened considerably during the combative and contentious presidential contest. It continues to … [Read more...]

Throughout the primary and general election campaigns, Donald Trump constantly carped and complained about our rigged political system. The truth is that the system is not rigged in terms of illegal voting or vote tampering. That’s not to say that there is not an occasional violation at the ballot box or voting machine. But, that is the exception rather than the rule. On the other hand, to put it in sailing parlance, the rigging of America’s political ship of state and states is not always … [Read more...]

As supporters of Hillary Clinton, we were surprised and saddened by Donald Trump’s victory. But, the American people have spoken through our electoral process. They wanted change and that is why Trump won. Therefore, we will accept the results even though we are not happy with them. It is time to do what we can to move past disgruntlement and to work as Americans to bring Americans together rather than to divide them. President –Elect Trump made that point in the opening of his … [Read more...]

Donald Trump has gotten a lot of media coverage with his preposterous claims that the American presidential election system is rigged. What Trump really means is that unless he can manipulate that system to win or to his own advantage then it must be rigged. Don’t take our word for it. Take Donald’s. During the Republican primaries, Trump referred to the primary process as a “rigged, disgusting dirty system.” In his first appearance at a rally in West Virginia after he won the … [Read more...]