TheNextReport

Donald Trump's investiture as President of the United States will be barely noticed in the annals of American history, as will his presidency. The institution of the inaugural address has traditionally been a message of hope for the country -- not so with Mr. Trump.  Filled with canned platitudes and implicit threats, his inaugural speech will be remembered for its absence of substance or a meaningful vision for the country. Instead of the inspiring words of John F. Kennedy, the soaring rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson, Trump painted a bleak, dark portrait of a country where we have: “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” Mr. Trump ha...

Ethics and the GOP. If the American people suspected that the two terms were mutually exclusive they needn’t wonder any longer.   Yesterday, the leadership of the House of Representatives decided at a rare night-time  meeting  to demonstrate its adherence to conservative principles by voting to strip the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics. What would motivate these people to meet unannounced, during a weekend, under cover of darkness, in order to clamp down on a suppos e dly impartial ombudsman acting in the public interest? The OCE is an independent, non-partisan entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against m embers, officers, and staff of the United States House of Representatives. It was created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison.   No one expected the mind-bending negative reaction that would greet legislators when the doo...

Yes, he said that.  Donald Trump is ready to play God, the all-embracing figure upon whom the fate of mankind rests.  Now waiting in the wings of the most powerful office in the world, he is convinced that he is the ultimate negotiator, the powerhouse deal maker who pretends that he is willing to see his adversary's point of view. A passionate believer in his own myth, he is certain he will win in the end, because in the high stakes game of Chief Executive he thinks he holds all the cards. For an individual with all the manufactured sincerity and charm of a used car salesman, it's quite an accomplishment, especially when his opponent is Vladamir Putin. What's Donald's trump card? Nothing less than nuclear war. Though not yet sworn in as president, Mr. Trump arrogates to himself the right to toy with the nuclear weapons regime that has successfully kept humankind from destroying itself since 1945. Is the diplomatic dance being played by these ego-maniacal demagogues ...

The results are in: The Electoral College has met to confirm the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. What an example for mankind--the world's most innovative culture, its most vibrant democracy, the steward of the most terrifying military arsenal chooses a loud-mouth semi-literate braggart to lead them. In the mysterious world of international poetry, Russia and the United States are referring to each, other as "frenemies." Now that the FBI, CIA and the office of National Security has verified that Russian hackers broke into secure American computer networks to tilt the presidential election in behalf of Donald Trump, it would appear that the president-elect has a serious problem to explain to the American people.  This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government according to President Obama. Just what is behind this odd non-rapprochement between the U.S. and the former Soviet state? It is no secret that Russian leader Vladamir ...

The Electoral College has confirmed the election of Donald J. Trump to the office of the presidency. The tenor of the campaign, as well as the personal conduct of Mr. Trump—before, during and since the election—has called into question the fitness of the president-elect to assume the office of the presidency when the president is inaugurated on January 20. On December 2, Christopher Suprun, an elector from Texas, announced his intention to withdraw his electoral vote for Mr. Trump, citing his objection to the president-elect's continuing involvement with his domestic and foreign business interests, his disturbing lack of discipline, his deficiency in foreign policy experience, his dalliance with national security matters, and other actions. Opposition to Mr. Trump is bi-partisan. During the campaign, more than 50 Republican former national security officials and foreign policy experts co-signed a statement opposing him. Mr. Trump has, in his words and actions, ignored s...

The Emperor did a victory lap today, according to cable news, visiting and speaking in several of the states that had given him the slim margin of votes needed to win the White House. Nauseated, I quickly changed the channel. In a moment I had turned the speech back on, unable to avoid that voice ringing in my ears, compelling me to face once more the twisted results of the presidential election. There was Donald the 1st attacking the media, calling them liars. The signal was clear -- a highly questionable political victory and another threatened death knell for the First Amendment. I remembered our history. One of the first actions the beast from Austria took in 1933 was to grab control of the media -- news papers and radio at that time. Without a free press and an independent judiciary democracy is dead. During the 1930's the rightists in Germany dismantled the multi-party system then in place, a move that not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced ...

Ever since he began his quest for the presidency, Donald Trump has made Twitter his digital platform of choice for launching the kind of strategic messages he cherishes most--attacking his critics and praising himself. Not long into his run for the White House, The Donald got hip to the potential impact of social media. Those who were assigned to monitor Trump discovered his habit of staying up all night reviewing the comments of his critics and firing off tweeted reposts. It was clear that the billionaire real estate magnate did not react very well to criticism; Twitter became a valuable weapon he could use to respond instantly to what he perceived as unwarranted criticism and personal slander, even if only limited to 140 characters. Mr. Trump shot his tweets fast and furious Friday night, responding to Broadway actor Brandon Victor Dixon after the star of the hit musical "Hamilton" gave an impromptu speech in the direction of VP elect Mike Pence who had attended that ni...