Botcheck Chrome Plugin identifies propaganda and bots on Twitter

Twitter, Facebook and Google appeared before the US Congress today to explain their difficulties in identifying bots, propaganda and ‘fake news’. Fortunately, others do not seem to have the same difficulties. The latest addition to the plug-in collection is an extension for Google Chrome which monitors accounts for bot-like behavior and propaganda and then flags…

Star Trek: Discovery has the potential to make Star Trek great again

Warning: If you haven’t seen the first three episodes, there are going to be spoilers. After the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, I was on the fence about the new series. The first two episodes were a bit too action oriented for me. I was afraid that they were going to take the…

The Democrats should get a tax cut bill ready, one for people who need it

There is a busy schedule waiting for Congress when they get back from summer vacation. Some in the GOP still want to do something on health care, but in the short term they have to raise the debt ceiling, they have to pass a budget or a continuing resolution and they want to do tax…

The scariest question in American politics might be ‘what happens in 2020?’

Based on the current momentum, it is unlikely that Donald Trump will be on the ballot in November of 2020. Between scandals, investigations, his obvious frustration with Washington, Washington’s frustration with Trump, looming primary challenges and his age (74 in 2020), a second Trump administration probably isn’t in the cards. That still leaves the question…

Can formalizing the stalemate cool things down in North Korea?

Let me say right off the bat that I am not an expert on foreign policy so I could be way off base here but it seems to me that there are three possibilities for the current standoff between the United States and North Korea. 1) At some point, there is a war between the…

If you’re genuinely interested in the world’s economic bottom 50 percent, try the UN podcast

In January Oxfam released a report which stated that “just 8 men own the same wealth as half the world”. This was seized on by the left to make points about income inequality, poverty and the excesses of modern capitalism. However, the 50 percent of the world’s poorest mentioned in the report do not live…

Hamilton 68 website tracks Russian information ops on Twitter

It is no secret that the Russian government has weaponized social media in an attempt to sew doubt, division and chaos among western governments. Now the website Hamilton 68 helps to monitor the stories being pushed by Putin.  The site is an effort of The Alliance for Securing Democracy is “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” whose advisory council…

What the West really needs is a revolution of the rational middle

For most of my life, I’ve considered myself a “progressive”. Over the last few years I’ve changed that description to “moderate progressive” – something US Senator Bernie Sanders said, during the 2016 election, a person could not be.  I do not know if I left the progressive movement or if it left me but at…

Humans Need Not Apply: 15 minute video destroys any hope that your job is safe from automation or will be replaced by a new one

Whether you work in a blue collar, white collar or creative job – the robots are coming for you. The people who say “people worried about that when the industrial revolution happened, but we just came up with new jobs are wrong (or just trying to make you feel better).  This 15-minute video from CGP…