Wednesday, February 04, 2026

Remember to Dance




Watching my young granddaughters twirl with the late afternoon sunlight, I momentarily forgot what I was going to write about for this news cycle.

They were performing a sort of improv combination of gymnastics and ballet and I was their only audience.

They also were doing it without a care in the world, not about Trump stealing the election or climate change or runaway AI chatrooms. They don’t know about any of that stuff yet, nor should they.

Now is their time to dance in the sunlight. There will be plenty of time to confront the abundant darkness around them in the future.

I harbor thoughts like these all the time, but usually in the context of the rest of us who are not naive kids but aging adults. We still need to dance in the sunlight (or its equivalent) too. I think especially of my peers in the news business trying to find new angles on the stories they report, write informative yet catchy headlines, and promote their work on social media.

Sometimes they should take a break and just dance, twirling around the room like my granddaughters. But if we’re not careful, life has a way of emptying the music out of us over time to the point we no longer remember how to jump, twirl, stretch or skip. Our movements become stiff and labored and we just sit and watch the young enjoy life.

One way or another so much gets lost in the process. We stop taking risks in life and in love, trying to avoid the pain — but then nearing the end, as we look back on it all, we remember bit by bit what it was like before we got beaten down.

The country songwriter says, “I could have missed the pain…but I’d have had to miss the dance.”

Don’t miss the dance.

(The original version of this one appeared four years ago.)

HEADLINES:

  • Thune rejects Trump’s call for GOP to take over and ‘nationalize’ elections (The Hill)

  • Trump’s New Threats to American Elections (Atlantic)

  • Border czar to pull 700 agents from Minnesota (NYT)

  • Federal officers in Minneapolis to get body cameras ‘effective immediately’ (BBC)

  • More federal prosecutors leave Minnesota US attorney’s office (ABC)

  • The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks (Atlantic)

  • 10 Years of Trump, and the Alarm Keeps Going Off (The Bulwark)

  • House GOP wins key vote to advance funding bill, end partial shutdown (The Hill)

  • Colleges See Major Racial Shifts in Student Enrollment (NYT)

  • MAHA has reshaped health policy. Now it's working on environmental rules (AP)

  • ‘We will protect them from the digital Wild West.’ Another country will ban social media for under-16s (CNN)

  • French police raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday, and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in April related to a widening investigation into the platform, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. [Reuters]

  • Trump’s Board Of Peace Could See US Firm Gain 300% Profits In Gaza: Report (NDTV)

  • Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked (Guardian)

  • US shoots down Iranian drone that ‘aggressively’ approached an aircraft carrier, military says (AP)

  • Iran risks Trump’s ire with new diplomatic demands, provocations (Axios)

  • Sheriff probes possible ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, while pacemaker data could speak to timeline (CNN)

  • Thousands of Epstein documents taken down after victims identified (BBC)

  • A bots-only social network triggers fears of an AI uprising (WP)

  • Humans are infiltrating the social network for AI bots (Verge)

  • AI chatbots are not your friends, experts warn (Politico)

  • Moltbook, the AI social network freaking out Silicon Valley, explained (Vox)

  • The Problem With Using AI in Your Personal Life (Atlantic)

  • ICE Agent Scores Easy Win By Deporting Own Family (Onion)

 

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Tuesday, February 03, 2026

Democracy Under Siege

From the Times:

“President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters.”

“During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.”

“Mr. Trump’s remarkable call for a political party to seize the mechanisms of voting follows a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections, as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat.”

Meanwhile, pollster and author Nate Silver has a guardedly hopeful piece out called “Don’t discount American democracy’s resilience.”

He argues that the “U.S. has a highly popular democratic tradition, even as it battles an authoritarian element.”

Silver cites the overwhelmingly negative popular response to the Trump administration’s overreach in Minneapolis as an example of how democracy will ultimately prevail in this unprecedented confrontation with an authoritarian threat.

HEADLINES:

 

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Monday, February 02, 2026

Where the Words Go

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.” — Willa Cather

___________________________________________________________________________

A few years back, one of my grandchildren mentioned that whenever she writes a story, “I let the pen go where the pen wants to go.” She was nine at the time.

It was one of the better insights I’ve learned from children.

Most writing teachers will tell you to focus on the structure of your story; they may even advise you to work from an outline. There is nothing wrong with that advice, especially for school or work assignments. But there can be downsides to having too detailed of a plan. 

Sometimes you just have to work yourself into the right mood. The one where you can just let it flow. Out there beyond where any known form of outlining can take you.

So how do you get there? Methods vary. Some people meditate. Some pour a drink (not recommended.) Some light up a joint (really not recommended, you’ll never get started.) Some nap. Some exercise. The very best way for me is to meet up with a friend. 

Sometimes it’s just listening to a child.

Anyway, once you’re writing you’ll know you’re on the right track if — to paraphrase my granddaughter — the story is going where the story wants to go, and you do too.

(Thanks to Sophia.)

HEADLINES:

 

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Sunday, February 01, 2026

Generational Protest



On Friday, my 12-year-old granddaughter, Daisy, was named Student of the Month and the award noted her courage.

Also on Friday, she stayed out of school in solidarity with the people protesting in Minneapolis.

For six decades, I have covered events, including demonstrations as a journalist. For the great majority of that time, I followed the code of ethics for journalists to not get involved in activities that might suggest a bias or otherwise compromise my objectivity.

When I was young and just starting out, I saw no contradiction in being a journalist and an activist at the same time. I wrote about being arrested in a civil rights demonstration, for example, in my college newspaper.

Now I am old, frail and retired. Recent events have compelled me to return to the position I held as a much younger man.

Friday afternoon, I attended an anti-ICE protest with Daisy. It is now time to be a citizen.

HEADLINES:

 

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Saturday, January 31, 2026

Trump's Roundup

Please visit my friend and colleague Mark Fiore’s Substack page. Here is part of his latest work, “Attacking press freedom."



Trump is arresting independent journalists in an attempt to crack down on those covering anti-ICE protests.

But resistance to ICE tactics is growing across the nation and the coverage will continue.

HEADLINES:

  • The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis (New Yorker)

  • Bay Area residents and businesses join in nationwide protests against ICE (SFC)

  • Berkeley businesses close, students protest as city joins ‘ICE Out’ national strike (Berkeleyside)

  • Bruce Springsteen sings ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ in Minneapolis as protest song hits No. 1 (NBC)

  • Noem says her response to Pretti shooting may have been wrong (Politico)

  • Justice Department says it opened civil rights investigation into Pretti’s shooting (WP)

  • ‘It’s All Just Going Down the Toilet’: Police Chiefs Fume at ICE Tactics (NYT)

  • ICE detainee’s death ruled a homicide by medical examiner (NBC)

  • Fearing ICE, Native Americans rush to prove their right to belong in the US (AP)

  • Journalist Don Lemon released from custody following his arrest in connection to Minnesota church protest (CNN)

  • Fulton County official slams 2020 ballot seizure as FBI director says there was ‘probable cause’ (ABC)

  • Warner: ‘Why is Tulsi Gabbard at an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County?’ (The Hill)

  • Senate Passes Spending Package but Partial Shutdown Looms (NYT)

  • US government partially shuts down despite last minute funding deal (BBC)

  • Trump names Kevin Warsh as his pick to replace Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve (CNN)

  • Rise of the Trump Loyalist (Atlantic)

  • Justice Department is releasing millions of pages of documents in Epstein investigation (CNN)

  • Trump threatens Canada with aircraft tariffs, decertification over Gulfstream approvals (CNBC)

  • Trump tightens screws on Cuba, threatening tariffs on oil suppliers (WP)

  • Map shows what would happen to Gaza under the US ‘master plan’ (Al Jazeera)

  • US military action in Iran risks igniting a regional and global nuclear cascade (The Conversation)

  • Cut off from most communication, Iranian protesters share rare stories of determination and dissent (AP)

  • MAGA’s War on Empathy (Atlantic)

  • Washington Post Plans Cuts to Reshape Newsroom (NYT)

  • In this US county, measles starts to feel like next pandemic (BBC)

  • White House Melts Down Over Bruce Springsteen’s Anti-ICE Song (Daily Beast)

  • Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age (NYT)

  • Scientists Enter a Mysterious Remote New Zealand Cave, What They Found Dates Back 1 Million Years (Daily Galaxy)

  • What technology takes from us – and how to take it back (Guardian)

  • Moltbot Gets Another New Name, OpenClaw, And Triggers Security Fears And Scams (Forbes)

  • How big a threat is AI to entry-level jobs? (Economist)

  • How the A.I. Boom Could Push Up the Price of Your Next PC (NYT)

  • Culinary Students Given Live Baby To Learn How To Care For Bag Of Flour (Onion)

LISTEN: 

Bruce Springsteen performs ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ at First Avenue solidarity show

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Friday, January 30, 2026

Dry Run(s)

(I wrote the following a year ago today. Since then, there have been multiple dry runs.)

1/30/25

One of the ways to interpret the Trump administration’s flurry of early moves is that they are part of a dry run, a test of how much chaos each pronouncement causes.

Yesterday’s sudden announcement rescinding the previous day’s freeze on all federal aid payments is a case in point. Since there was a great deal of chaos, the White House backed down — for now.

But in so doing the Trump team gained some valuable intel about how easily they can freak out the population, elected officials and the media. So now they can file those insights away for use at a future time when the specific goal may be to deliberately create chaos as part of a larger strategy involving the centralization of executive power.

Trump is set on gaining absolute power. He doesn’t care how much fear and panic his moves cause others, in fact he intends to use that fear and panic in his drive to establish himself as an autocrat. To quote Joe Biden, this is not hyperbole.

If I am reading Trump’s behavior correctly, and I believe I am, we are witnessing a dry run for how to suspend the constitution during an upcoming, unspecified national “emergency.” Trump is probing for weak spots in the government bureaucracy and testing the various levers at his disposal to see which option will best help accomplish his ultimate objective.

So that’s why it is my opinion that what we’ve seen to date is a dry run.

***

To develop an effective strategy to counteract Trump’s drive for absolute power, pro-democracy Americans need to get out in front of the firestorms he is constantly creating that are diverting public attention from his ultimate goal.

The difficulty of fighting multiple wildfires simultaneously is indeed an appropriate metaphor for what faces Democrats or anyone else in the opposition at the moment. As we saw in L.A. recently, officials could not make much progress toward containment until they could establish burn lines at the perimeters of the multiple fires and pull together huge amounts of resources from all over the place to finish the job.

What complicates this metaphor when we apply it to Trump is that he is the one setting the fires.

HEADLINES:

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Thursday, January 29, 2026

Caffeinated

There is so much we cannot control in these times that our only sensible choice is to continue (or reinstate) the small daily rituals that bring us comfort. One of these for me is drinking coffee. On certain days, I grind whole beans, filtering the grounds, and drinking the coffee black.

As I do so, I remember passing the piles of coffee beans on the side of the road in Central America and Southeast Asia. At the time I traveled there, I was gathering follow-on research from Circle of Poison, the book I wrote with Mark Schapiro.

Part of that research indicated an ugly fact: The pesticides we were researching could work their way systemically inside the coffee plant and end up as deposits in the beans -- the two flat sides of each pair nestled like a peanut inside the purplish-reddish shell.

None of the scientists we interviewed believed the tiny residues that ended up in our cups, after shelling, grinding, filtering and boiling, represented a significant health threat to coffee drinkers.

So, almost counter-intuitively, I found myself arguing in media interviews that there was no danger from drinking coffee. In fact, it had never been my intention to focus on American consumer safety. My motivation was to highlight the dangers to Third World farmworkers who sprayed those pesticides on the coffee plantations.

As a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and a journalistic world traveler, I'd seen many examples of these dangers, including from overhead crop dusters. On several occasions I was coated by clouds of pesticides like paraquat and malathion while doing my research; in fact I was hit by malathion so often I knew its smell.

But the unwanted chemical showers I received was nothing of consequence when stacked against the daily experience of farmworkers and their children. I was a visitor who could choose to be there and get sprayed or not.

They did not have that choice.

Over the years, there has been some progress around the world in curtailing the use of dangerous pesticides, but the syndrome we wrote about remains.

So it goes. Now I am resuming my coffee ritual, As the coffee tastes good but the memories are bittersweet.

(I first published a version of this during the pandemic.)

HEADLINES:

  • After town hall attack, Ilhan Omar condemns ‘terrorizing’ immigration push and criticism from GOP (CNN)

  • Two agents who shot Minnesota man on leave as Trump says he will ‘de-escalate’ (Guardian)

  • Greg Bovino, CPB commander who led immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is set to leave city. Who is he, and what led to his departure? (Yahoo)

  • 2nd Amendment backlash follows portrayal of Alex Pretti by some Trump administration officials (ABC)

  • Trump tells Minneapolis mayor he’s ‘playing with fire’ if federal immigration law isn’t enforced (CNN)

  • Republicans turn on Noem, demand resignation (Axios)

  • How a low-profile Border Patrol chief became the face of Trump’s immigration policy (WP)

  • The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center (New Yorker)

  • US Fed holds interest rates despite White House pressure (BBC)

  • F.B.I. Search in Georgia Tied to Criminal Investigation Over 2020 Election (NYT)

  • Repeated government lying, warned Hannah Arendt, makes it impossible for citizens to think and to judge (The Conversation)

  • What Should Americans Do Now? (Atlantic)

  • Trump warns Iran ‘time is running out’ for nuclear deal as US military builds up in Gulf (BBC)

  • Rubio defends Trump on Venezuela while trying to allay fears about Greenland and NATO (AP)

  • Ease of Destruction (Atlantic)

  • Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees (TechCrunch)

  • UPS Says It Is Cutting Up to 30,000 Jobs (NYT)

  • America is leaving the WHO. It’s an act of self-sabotage. (WP)

  • HHS Wasn’t Worried About South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak. It’s Now Enormous. (Mother Jones)

  • Parkinson’s disease symptoms can show up decades before a diagnosis. (WP)

  • The WaPo Extinction Event (Puck)

  • Astronomers used AI to find 1,400 ‘anomalous objects’ from Hubble archives (Verge)

  • Replacing Factory Workers With AI Robots May Not be Cost Effective (ET)

  • The Math on AI Agents Doesn’t Add Up (Wired)

  • Clawdbot has officially changed its name for very predictable reasons (Mashable)

  • What Went Wrong With OpenAI’s Year of Agents? (The Information)

  • ICE Agent Stuffs Sock Under Mask To Give Himself Chin (Onion)

 

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