Conviction
You already know what you think today. There’s no point in my attempting to share some witty insight. And there’s no point in competing with news this pervasive. Talk amongst yourselves. See you Monday.
That photo of Trump and Epstein on a plane? If you really want to believe, it’s probably an AI fake.
Multiple people on my timeline recently shared the photo of Donald Trump and famous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on a plane, shown below, which is a fake: How do I know it’s fake? As soon as I saw this, I was suspicious. Why? Because while I’ve seen other photos of Trump and Epstein together — as…
A bad day for cynicism, corruption, and evil
For years now, it’s been hard to be a citizen. Cynical and corrupt people appeared to be succeeding in using modern media tools to bamboozle and subvert the political desires of normal, rational folks. In short, it has seemed as if there’s no penalty for lying, deception, and outright lawbreaking. I have wanted to believe…
The Twitter endgame
We’re not paying enough attention to the financing of Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase. It explains why he’s flailing now, and points to a shocking future for the social network. Where did Musk get the money to buy Twitter, and why does it matter? Of the $44 billion it took to buy Twitter, about $24 billion…
A Trump accountability innovation: How to take credit for winning and blame others for losing
You may have thought the results of yesterday’s midterm elections were about the candidates who were running and the voters who were voting. Nope. They were about former President Donald Trump, who has decided this is his moment to return to the spotlight. In an interview with a new news organization, NewsNation, on Election Day,…
Why does the DOJ use so much passive voice in its Mar-a-Lago filing?
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a response to a recent Donald Trump request regarding the raid of Mar-a-Lago. Its filing is full of passive voice, a means of expression I’ve continually railed against. Why is it passive, and should the DOJ be writing in the active voice instead? Here’s a passage from the DOJ’s…
The prospects for Trump Media & Technology Group: A realistic assessment
Yesterday, I posted a satiric take on the deck for Trump’s just-announced new media venture. Today, I deliver a serious assessment of what’s actually likely to happen with it. Let’s start with the credentials that let me make this assessment. Those of you who know me as a commentator on writing may not know that…
Revealed: Talk track for the Trump Media & Technology Group pitch deck
You probably read yesterday that Donald Trump is launching a media company, including a social networked called Truth Social, that will be publicly traded through a SPAC merger. You may even have seen that Insider found a copy of the pitch deck for this new media venture. But pitch decks are just slides. In a…
A tax on the stupid
Donald Trump thinks you’re very dim. When I was a graduate student in the mathematics department at MIT, I heard this saying: Gambling is a tax on the stupid. Unless you have an actual edge (like a card counter), the house always wins. There is no system that will beat the house. You might win,…