As Goes the Post...

What’s happening at the Washington Post isn’t because of Jeff Bezos, its billionaire owner. He may be an evil man who’s made some bad choices, but the massive cuts of 30 percent of the workforce announced Wednesday are less due to his venality than the economics of newspaper publishing.

The business model that financed newspapers in the distant past broke apart 30 years ago, and since then, one by one our newspapers have been failing all around us.

I’ve reported on this hundreds of times over the years at Bnet, 7x7 and Substack, among other channels. With the rise of the Internet, the revenue sources driving newspapers, which were subscriptions, classified advertising, local business ads and newsstand distribution, started to dry up.

Online replacements replaced all of those elements in ways that were not under the newspaper owners’ control. For example, a free service, Craigslist, dominated classified advertising, and online banners raised ad revenue for search engines like Google that grew far larger than any newspaper could ever hope to be.

This decline in newspapers has been spreading since the mid-1990s and has reached the point where it is threatening elite institutions like the Post. This is one more factor aiding the rise of authoritarianism, unfortunately, which thrives in places where a free press is weakened, reducing the accountability that checks power and helps keep democracy alive.

"This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations," former Executive Editor Marty Baron said in a statement Wednesday. "The Washington Post's ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever."

HEADLINES:

• Supreme Court Clears Way for California Voting Map (NYT)

• News of federal agent drawdown met with skepticism, calls for more action (MPR)

• Immigration agents draw guns and arrest activists following them in Minneapolis (AP)

• Minnesota teachers sue to keep ICE off school property (WP)

• Minnesota suburbs push back against ICE’s warehouse search (Axios)

• Several states move to ban local cooperation in immigration arrests (WP)

• A judge stands up to Trump, delivers a win for the rule of law (The Hill)

• Don’t Look Now, But Dems Are Winning the DHS-Funding Fight (The Bulwark)

• U.S.-Iran nuclear talks back on after Arab leaders lobby White House (Axios)

• How Americans’ top concerns compare to more than 100 other countries, according to Gallup (AP)

• Trump Is Doubling Down on All the Wrong Things (Atlantic)

• Bezos orders deep job cuts at ‘Washington Post’ (NPR)

• Trump ― who has called female journalists “loud,” “piggy,” “ugly,” “insubordinate,” “terrible,” “obnoxious,” “stupid and nasty” and “totally unprepared” in recent months ― just chastised another one for not smiling. Trump is facing heavy criticism over his latest comments. [HuffPost]

• Mickey Lolich, Hero of the 1968 World Series, Dies at 85 (NYT)

• What to know about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of ‘Today’ show’s Savannah Guthrie (AP)

• Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I. (NYT)

• Moltbook: Swarm Intelligence Or AI Slop? (Forbes)

• Video: World’s fastest humanoid robot Bolt unveiled in China, runs 10 meters per second (IE)

• OpenAI gets a Meta-style makeover with ads (Axios)

• The Unsettling Rise of AI Real-Estate Slop (Atlantic)

• Software stocks face an AI reckoning (Business Insider)

• Pet Iguana Assumed He’d Move Out Of Starter Tank By Now (Onion)

MUSIC VIDEO:

“Minnesota” - Marsh Family adaptation of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”

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)

 

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:

• Speaker Johnson faces tough choices on partial government shutdown and debate over ICE (AP)

• Trump questions if GOP can overcome voters’ ‘psychological’ midterms hurdle (The Hill)

• Texas delivers stark warning to Republicans in critical election year (BBC)

• After His Democratic Victory in Texas, a New Working-Class Star Rises (NYT)

• Bondi announces two more arrests in Minnesota church protest (NBC)

• The two federal immigration agents who fired on Alex Pretti have been identified in government records. [ProPublica] 

• She Ran DHS. Now She’s Watching It Mishandle Minnesota. (Politico Mag)

• Don’t discount American democracy’s resilience (Silver Bulletin)

• Americans’ gun rights under threat by Trump, allies fear (Telegraph)

• Trump’s chaotic governing style is hurting the value of the U.S. dollar (WP)

• Amazon lays off almost 2,200 Seattle-area employees (Seattle Times)

• A crisis emerges across the US as ‘forever chemicals’ quietly contaminate drinking water wells (AP)

• Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Kremlin security official, said that the world was getting very dangerous, but that Russia did not want a global conflict. (Reuters)

• With New Memoir, Newsom Wants Americans to Know He Struggled Growing Up (NYT)

• US and India reach trade deal, Trump says after Modi call (BBC)

• Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it (Guardian)

• Stop Meeting Students Where They Are (Atlantic)

• Modi to Kevin Rudd: How Epstein files set off a storm far beyond the US (Al Jazeera)

• Clintons Capitulate on House Epstein Inquiry, Agreeing to Testify (NYT)

• I Don’t Give a Shit About Jeffrey Epstein (Journal of the Plague Years)

• Trump says Kennedy Center is closing for 2 years for ‘complete rebuilding’ (ABC)

• The most important sound at this year’s Grammys? Free speech. (WP)

• The Man Who Broke Physics (Atlantic)

• Microdosing for Depression Appears to Work About as Well as Drinking Coffee (Wired)

• Disney’s price hikes are working so far (Business Insider)

• A Surprisingly Humane SNLSketch About Changing Your Mind (Atlantic)

• ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Drops First Trailer and Miranda Hasn’t Changed a Bit (The Wrap)

• When a robot topples: China’s Xpeng deals with fallout from humanoid’s public plunge (South China Morning Post)

• Viral AI personal assistant seen as step change – but experts warn of risks (Guardian)

• Insiders sounded alarms. Then Musk’s chatbot exploded with sexual content. (WP)

• Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I. (NYT)

• White House Aide Fired After Telling JD Vance About Super Bowl Party (The Onion)

 

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:

• 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and father return to Minnesota from ICE facility in Texas (AP)

• Judge ordered 5-year-old released, but data shows ICE is detaining more kids (WP)

• Federal Agents Just Arrested an Army Veteran—After He Protested ICE Outside a Church (Mother Jones)

• Mike Johnson told not to count on Dems’ votes to end shutdown (Axios)

• Democrat Taylor Rehmet wins a reliably Republican Texas state Senate seat, stunning GOP (NBC)

• What a swing House district in Colorado shows about Republicans’ immigration fallout in the midterms (AP)

• Judge Who Ruled Against Trump Administration Cleared of Justice Dept. Complaint (NYT)

• Maria Corina Machado says transition is “unstoppable” from remnants of Maduro’s regime (CBS)

• Maple Leaf Makeover (Business Insider)

• Israel opening Rafah crossing in Gaza as dozens killed in attacks (Al Jazeera)

• Iran’s supreme leader warns of regional war if US attacks (BBC)

• Iranian missiles pose deadly threat to region, gulf allies warn U.S. (WP)

• They Said They Weren’t Close to Epstein. New Documents Show Otherwise. (NYT)

• Who wants to live forever? (Financial. Times)

• Missing Link Between Parkinson’s Protein And Damage to Brain Cells Discovered (ScienceAlert)

• SNL mocks Trump’s border czar and Minneapolis ICE operations (WP)

• Stop panicking about AI. Start preparing (Economist)

• The Bots That Women Use in a World of Unsatisfying Men (Atlantic)

• Google helped Israeli military contractor with AI, whistleblower alleges (WP)

• TikTok Blocks Mentions Of Jeffrey Epstein (Onion)

 

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:

• ‘Worst-case scenarios’: How Democratic election officials are preparing for potential Trump intrusion in the midterms (CNN)

• Another government shutdown has started, but a Senate breakthrough over DHS funding means it may be brief (Yahoo)

• Protesters take to streets nationwide to decry ICE tactics in Minneapolis (WP)

• ‘This isn’t America anymore’: Thousands rally against ICE in SF’s Dolores Park (SFGate)

• Federal Judge Denies Request to Temporarily Block ICE Surge in Minnesota (NYT)

• ICE launches nationwide program for covert surveillance of immigrants (WP)

• I’m a former FBI agent who studies policing, and here’s how federal agents in Minneapolis are undermining basic law enforcement principles (The Conversation)

• Thousands of new ICE watchers hit the streets after two killings (WP)

• DHS keeps making false claims about people. It’s part of a broader pattern (NPR)

• The Trump Administration Arrested Don Lemon Like He Was a Fugitive Slave (The Nation)

• Judge orders 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father be released from immigration detention (CNN)

• Mike Johnson’s majority to erode as Houston elects Democrat (Axios)

• Trump wants to build a 250-foot-tall arch, dwarfing the Lincoln Memorial (WP)

• Trump’s Profiteering Hits $4 Billion (New Yorker)

• U.N. Says It’s in Danger of Financial Collapse Because of Unpaid Dues (NYT)

• RFK’s Overhauled Autism Committee Is Even Worse Than It Looks (Mother Jones)

• Danish veterans stage protest outside US Embassy (ABC)

• Israeli air strikes kill at least 32 Palestinians in Gaza, rescue officials say (BBC)

• Khamenei reappears in public for Islamic Republic’s 47th anniversary celebrations amid protests (Jerusalem Post)

• Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Howard Lutnick face new scrutiny over Epstein ties (Al Jazeera)

• Does Anthropic believe its AI is conscious, or is that just what it wants Claude to think? (ArsTechnica)

• LeBron James Clearly Using Golf Simulator On Bench (Onion)

 

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

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:

• Government funding negotiations hit snag after Democrats announce deal (ABC)

• Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong (Atlantic)

• Former CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested after protest inside Minneapolis church (CBC)

• Shooting Aftermath Leaves Homeland Security Department in Turmoil (NYT)

• Trump’s border tsar suggests possible drawdown in Minneapolis if officials ‘co-operate’ (BBC)

• America at a Boiling Point: Deaths, Threats, Protests and a Town Hall Attack (NYT)

• Trump Shrugs Off the Ilhan Omar Attack (Atlantic)

• More federal prosecutors in Minneapolis are considering quitting their jobs over the handling of the Alex Pretti shooting (Audacy)

• Tim Walz Fears a Fort Sumter Moment in Minneapolis (Atlantic)

• Nervous Allies and Fox News: How Trump Realized He Had a Big Problem in Minneapolis (NYT)

• The powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal to track suspects — and protesters (WP)

• FBI raid in Georgia highlights Trump’s 2020 election obsession and hints at possible future actions (AP)

• Spy Chief Tulsi Gabbard Is Hunting for 2020 Election Fraud (WSJ)

• FBI’s Search of Georgia Election Center Is “Dangerous,” Experts Warn (ProPublica)

• Trump posts discredited conspiracy theories following seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia (ABC)

• Washington Post’s White House team urges Jeff Bezos to halt massive newsroom cuts (CNN)

• Trading houses involved in past bribery run Trump’s Venezuelan oil sales (WP)

• America can strike anywhere — but can it stay anywhere? (DefenseNews)

• Trump weighs Iran strikes to inspire renewed protests (Reuters)

• The cost of health care, not food or rent, is now Americans’ top worry (WP)

• Haitians Are Vital to U.S. Health Care. Many Are About to Lose Their Right to Work. (NYT)

• How NIH ending funding for human fetal tissue research could affect studies (ABC)

• Kennedy Center’s new programming head resigns days after hire was announced (WP)

• 2028 Democratic primary draft #2 (Silver Bulletin)

• Everyone Really Needs to Pump the Brakes on That Viral Moltbot AI Agent (Gizmodo)

• India is teaching Google how AI in education can scale (TechCrunch)

• Health Speculations Swirl After Trump Spotted Wearing Glove Over Head (Onion)