For proof one need look no further than this recent very comprehensive report published in the Columbia Journalism Review. Showing erosion in the industry accelerating in the wake of the pandemic. Including the complete shutdown of nearly 5 dozen news organizations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic alone.

And the very real threat — actually, it’s way beyond a threat now — to local newsrooms poses real peril especially when competent coverage of local issues ranging from vaccines distribution to voting rights is more imperative than ever.

But is finding a way to reverse this exact trend, to attempt…

What do I mean by that? Most of us have probably heard of the concepts of “managing down” and “managing up”, both equally important examples of what a skilled manager of any kind needs to do to effectively communicate with both the people who report to them, and those to whom they report.

President Biden’s job is a little bit different: he needs to manage out. That is, to the people who elected him, and even those who didn’t: Americans.

Why is this so important? Because failure to communicate not just what he’s working on but how and how hard…

Without fully rehashing Trump’s 2nd Senate trial, in which only 7 Republican Senators joined all Democrats voting to convict, let’s start by very quickly taking a step back and asking, first of all, why weren’t most Republicans in the House and Senate willing to impeach and convict Trump?

January 6th remains about the clearest point A to point B line possible ever between Trump and a naked attempt to undermine the U.S. Constitution and overthrow the U.S. government. The culmination of a nakedly premeditated effort to mass his most flammable supporters within shouting distance of the Capitol and then lighting…

One of the things that’s really striking to me about stuff that keeps coming up recently, whether it’s in politics, or the economy, or health, or whatever, or wherever, is that people are doing a lot of noisy, boisterous stuff these days, perhaps with some short term objective in mind, but a lot seemingly just to tear things apart and jump around with no thought at all not one bit about what comes after. And what real destruction they may leave behind the havoc they wreak, which they’re doing sometimes just for fun, or so they say.

Like how did…

Why bother to mount a law-based defense, when you can instead use it as an opportunity to grandstand and spread lies and you’ll still get off?

So in that context, is the fact that over the weekend, a whole handful of the key lawyers Trump had lined up have now backed out, going to make much of a difference?

That’s because, as first reported by CNN, and confirmed by many other news outlets:

“Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting…

Most stories I’ve seen are treating masses of highly coordinated day-traders sending GameStop and other stocks and options soaring, like a fun pastime during COVID-19, which somehow really took off and took on a life of its own. And continues to gain traction as it combines trolling with potentially huge profits for small investors.

I’m not ready to brace for economic collapse, but I think we should take it a bit more seriously than that. After all, the Dow Jones Industrial Average just had its biggest single day loss in months.

What’s happening, as simply as I can express it…

Meaning as close as possible to 100% of the focus of everybody in the federal government should be on two things:

1. Getting vaccines to people
2. Getting money and food and maybe even jobs to people

So while it’s absolutely essential that the Senate proceed — at some point — with Trump’s impeachment trial, maybe not now?

I realize Democrats and some Republicans want to get the Trump years behind them, and not allow him to continue to cast a bloated shadow.

But if Senators can find even one extra hour in the day to do an impeachment trial, maybe they…

In particular, these words:

“Through Civil War, The Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifices, and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed. In each of these moments, enough of us — enough of us — have come together to carry all of us forward, and we can do that now.”

You can read the entirety of President Biden’s inaugural address by clicking here, or you can watch it by clicking here.

My dad didn’t live to see Donald Trump win. He proudly voted for President Obama twice, the second time insisting I take him to his local polling…