ON THE FRONT LINES [ 02/09/25 ] PUBLISHED WEEKLY

FEDERAL BUDGET

As Republicans in Congress look for ways to slash spending, some legislators are floating new taxes on college scholarships, an end to student loan repayment plans and a big hike in taxes on university endowments. The ideas affecting higher education are among many in circulation among House committees that are exploring ways to cover the cost of extending and expanding tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term.

Washington Post: NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

 

“The Trump administration this week eliminated much of the federal government’s front line of defense against foreign interference in U.S. elections,” (the Washington Post reports) [...]  alarmed state election officials and election security experts, who warned that safeguarding Americans from foreign disinformation campaigns will be difficult if no one at the federal level is doing that work.”

Trump’s executive order reauthorizing sanctions against international criminal court (ICC) personnel reflects a disgraceful effort to ensure that no American, or citizen of an ally such as Israel, is ever investigated or prosecuted.

 

US-Panama relationship was ‘very strong’. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board

 

Quote of the Day February 9, 2025 at 10:51 am EST
“I don’t think there’s any plans to invade Canada.” — National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, on Meet the Press.

THE CULTURAL WORLD ACCORDING TO TRUMP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is firing members of the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and naming himself chairman. He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag.

ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT

 

Parents pull kids from childcare as immigration fears hit US’s youngest

 

Childcare workers also nervous to go to jobs due to deportation threats as Ice raids rampant in Trump era

MEANWHILE

 

Early Traders Had Speedy Profit on Trump Coin
February 9, 2025 at 7:06 am EST By Taegan Goddard

 

“The curious trade came a little past 9 p.m. on Jan. 17 — a $1,096,109 bet less than two minutes after the soon-to-be president of the United States posted on his social media account that his family had issued a cryptocurrency called $Trump,” the New York Times reports.

“In those first minutes, a crypto wallet with a unique identification code beginning 6QSc2Cx secured a giant load of these new tokens — 5,971,750 of them — at the opening sale price of just 18 cents each, starting a surge in the $Trump price that would soon reach $75 per token.”

“This early trader, whose identity is not known, walked away with a two-day profit of as much as $109 million.”

THERE IS NO "FAIRNESS" IN NEWS

 Matthew Dowd

"I have said this many times over the last few years:  the goal of any news organization should not be “balance”.  The goal should be truth.  Balance should not be the pursuit.  Truth must be the North Star."

Yes sir! You  hit the nail on the head. Too much pussyfooting around under the guise of "fairness". There is no "fairness" in news; that's what alternate truth was // is all about. Bullshit. #newsjunkie

Not 9/11 but 12/14

It's getting closer & closer

15,000 news locusts

I've always wondered what would have happened if 15,000 journalists focused their attention on a real story of import; how history might have been changed. 

From Morning Media Newsfeed:

"At the 2012 Conventions, 15,000 Journalists Search for a Story (HuffPost / The Backstory) Scoops and valuable, legitimate nuggets of insight and information are hard to come by in Conventionland, yet reporters who swarmed the halls en masse in Tampa are all at it again in Charlotte, where the Democrats kicked off their election kabuki Tuesday [...] "

Listening Heads, an essay > On the art of the television interview

As an admitted news junkie, I watch a lot of news; probably more than I should for my blood pressure & good humor.

And at least three times this week, I watched 'talking heads' answer questions put to them by anchors, only to be asked a follow up question they've just answered.

Not only did I find this annoyingly stupid but it clearly pointed to an age-old problem: we don't listen to each other. It's not good for business, it doesn't foster good friendships or personal relations, it's bad for politics but there's no excuse for it in the television news interview.

Those who have been employed in television know it works in the background:

A producer/associate producer/writer will pre-interview a booked guest before they appear on the set for their live, spontaneous, probing Q & A with the anchor. In this way the interview is focused & the guest is sort of rehearsed.

The member of the production staff assigned to this pre-interview, takes notes, hones the Q & A to fit the time allotted for the segment & then provides those notes -- probably in bullet form -- to the anchor who will read down the list (usually while you can't see them because the camera is focused on the guest who is answering the previous question).

Sometimes one of the bullet points is a follow up question -- which may have already been answered by the guest -- but guess what? The anchor asks the question anyway.

And if you watch carefully, you will see in the eyes of the 'talking head', a glint of anger, frustration and the question: 

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" which, of course, they can't say out loud so they labor to repeat what they just said in a different form, wasting both their time & mine as the viewer.

Like a lawyer who should never ask a question without first knowing the answer, the television pre-interview is a form of TV homework.

And this kind of preparation is also used for entertainment shows. Craig Ferguson (Late Night with Craig Ferguson) makes a point of ripping up his interview notes & cavalierly throwing them away whenever a guest sits down on his sofa & his interviews suffer for it. 

But the best of the entertainment or news anchors and interviewers use the notes as -- exactly that -- but LISTEN to what their guests have to say. Then they may ask a meaningful follow up which can take the interview into an entirely different, un-rehearsed & possibly news-making direction.

Finally, we see the following all too often:

Interviewer: Did you kill Mr.'X'?

Interviewee: Yes, I did.

Interviewer: We've run out of time. Thank you very much for sharing your story. (Turning to audience) Coming up: 'the clown who ate his nose'. Please stay tuned for that! 

Music & dissolve to an animated graphic with a clip showing the clown eat his nose, leaving me to wonder why I should hang around. 

Channel click.