The Best Chance to Protect and Preserve U.S. Democracy Might Be Closing Fast

Since the congressional Republicans decided to acquit Trump, instead of removing him (aside: There’s little doubt that Hamilton and Madison would have removed him), the voting Trump out was the next best chance to protect and preserve our republic. But Trump has been working hard to undermine the legitimacy of the election; he’s attempted to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service to hamper mail-in ballots, and he and congressional Republicans have been willing to use Russian assistance to win the election. He’s suggested sending federal forces to polling stations. Basically, he’ll cheat, subvert the elections to win. The question is not what he will do, but what he won’t do. (Prediction: From here on out, Trump will either follow through on his rhetoric and/or do more shocking things to win.)Because of this, I feel the election may not be the best chance to protect our republic–or to be more precise, in order to protect the elections, actions must be taken now. I’ll briefly go over each step in this post. Continue reading “The Best Chance to Protect and Preserve U.S. Democracy Might Be Closing Fast”

What’s the Deal with Chiefs Fans Booing the Players Standing in Unity?

When I watched the game last night I didn’t realize this happened. Only today did I hear comments from Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt. I also watched some clips from ESPN’s First Take. Watt, and probably many others are baffled at the reaction. I was a little perplexed myself. Here the two best, or least bad, explanations I’ve seen: Continue reading “What’s the Deal with Chiefs Fans Booing the Players Standing in Unity?”

2020-2021 NFL Regular Season

For most of the offseason, I’ve been psychologically and emotionally detached from the NFL, primarily because I thought the prospects for an NFL season was incredibly low. But since very few of the players or staff haven’t gotten the virus, once practices started, I have become way more optimistic. In any event, because of that initial detachment, I’m even less confident in my ability to gauge the quality of the teams, but I’m going to take a stab at thoughts about which teams have the best chance to have success and win the Super Bowl.

Off the top of my head, here are the tiers Continue reading “2020-2021 NFL Regular Season”

A Possible Blind spot for the Press

The following tweet resonated with me, and I wanted to comment on it:

Also: the most pervasive bias in political coverage is not left vs. right it’s “follows politics” vs. “doesn’t follow politics” By default, nearly everyone who covers politics falls into the “follows politics” category, which makes it really hard to understand people who don’t
What are possible ways the “follows politics” people (or news junkies, as I call them) have trouble understanding the “doesn’t follow politics” folks? Here are some thoughts off the top of my head Continue reading “A Possible Blind spot for the Press”

Changing Journalism Requires Systemic Changes; Or, the Challenge of Covering Trump, Part 3

I previously wrote about some of the unique challenges the press faces in covering Trump. But I never really touched on the larger structural features in the press that prevent coverage that best serves the public. I want to write about that in this post. Specifically, I want to address criticism of press coverage that I see regularly. What’s interesting, in my view, is that I agree with their criticisms, but my sense is that they don’t seem to understand the obstacles that prevent the coverage they seek. For example, the solution isn’t simply editors and journalists simply choosing a different approach. In my opinion, the problem is systemic and structural; individual journalists are more like cogs in a machine than masters operating the machine. To put it more simply, Continue reading “Changing Journalism Requires Systemic Changes; Or, the Challenge of Covering Trump, Part 3”

Do Whites Not Want to Know About Racism?

That’s what one African-Amerian Seattle sportswriter suggested in the two tweets below, which comment on recent statements made by Pete Carroll. I’m less certain about that claim, and I’ll share my thoughts after the two tweets: