September | 2016 | Praxis

What If Aaron Burr Had Become President?

One common criticism of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is a lack of a political core. Another famous New York politician, Aaron Burr, was so lacking in principle that as Thomas Jefferson’s running mate, he sought to snatch the presidency after the 1800 Electoral College tie. “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections,” (Stairway Press, 2016) looks at the four most controversial presidential elections in American history, and what if the outcome had occurred the other way…

Politico’s ‘Republican Insiders’ Appear to Know Little About Politics

Politico’s “Political Caucus” is one of my favorite destinations for 2016 political coverage. It’s a running series of weekly interviews with a fixed roster of political “insiders” who offer their allegedly unguarded takes on the 2016 election from behind the protective shield of anonymity. I love it because, despite the promise of juicy details from behind the curtain, reading it will teach you nothing about the way politics works or how the presidential campaigns are doing. The Political Caucus does, however, stands a stark and unassailable case that…

Roger Ailes Was Undone by the Women He Disregarded

It took 15 days to end the mighty 20-year reign of Roger Ailes at Fox News, one of the most storied runs in media and political history. Ailes built not just a conservative cable news channel but something like a fourth branch of government; a propaganda arm for the GOP; an organization that determined Republican presidential candidates, sold wars, and decided the issues of the day for 2 million viewers. That the place turned out to be rife with grotesque abuses of power has left…

Liberals Cried ‘Racist’ So Much, the Public No Longer Listens

Conservative commentators and die-hard Republicans often brush off denunciations of Donald Trump as an unprincipled hatemonger by saying: Yeah, yeah, that’s what Democrats wail about every Republican they’re trying to take down. Sing me a song I haven’t heard so many times before. Howard Wolfson would be outraged by that response if he didn’t recognize its aptness. “There’s enough truth to it to compel some self-reflection,” Wolfson, who was the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2008, told me this week. […] “And…

Google Cancels Ambitious Modular Smartphone Project

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended Project Ara, its ambitious effort to build what is known as a modular smartphone with interchangeable components, as part of a broader push to streamline the company’s hardware efforts, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The move marks an about-face for the tech company, which announced a host of partners for Project Ara at its developer conference in May and said it would ship a developer edition of the product this autumn. The company’s aim was to create a…

UN Agency Gives No Indication It Understands Cybersecurity

This week the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), as part of the United Nations, is meeting once again in what has become a regular reflection of current thought in the field of cyber security internationally. ‘Reflection’ is the perfect word to describe what the GGE does because it’s not clear to what purpose the group is moving. It might be a useful exercise to review what we know about cyber security at this point and why the GGE will fail to engage with the most…

According to Political Science Data Models, Hillary Clinton Shouldn’t Be Leading

Donald Trump’s poll numbers have slumped over the past three weeks. His campaign is perpetually being re-configured. Meanwhile, a new survey of political experts by the site PollyVote forecasts that Hillary Clinton will win 347 electoral votes to Trump’s 191. She is, at least tentatively, planning her work as president. To be sure, with just under three months to go, it’s too soon to be hanging the proverbial Oval Office drapes. Trump still has somewhere between a 15 to 30 percent chance of winning, according to various…

Emails Show Newsmax Publisher Getting State Department Help After Big Clinton Foundation Donation

Newly released emails show that a Clinton Foundation adviser asked one of Hillary Clinton’s top State Department aides to provide “‘air’ support” for a Clinton Foundation donor who sought to set up a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Panama to help with a legal dispute. Emails released on Thursday by Judicial Watch show that Clinton Foundation adviser Doug Band forwarded an email to Hillary Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin from Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, a conservative online publication. Despite his ideological bent,…

Roger Ailes Had Fox News Employees Compile 400-page Dossier on Journalist

Two full years before New York magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman published a book about Roger Ailes, a book-length memo about him made the rounds inside Fox News. It has all the markings of “opposition research” about a political enemy — which is precisely how Ailes viewed Sherman. The memo, obtained by CNNMoney from two anonymous sources, is a stunning display of Ailes’ campaign-like strategies. It includes, among other things, property records, voter registration information, and a note that the researchers could find no criminal record…

Cities Allowing Uber, Lyft to Review Public Records Requests About Them

The town of Altamonte, a small suburb of Orlando, is going to pay Uber at least $1 million in taxpayer money over the next year to subsidize residents’ ridesharing trips. But should a journalist or concerned citizen want to learn more about the public transportation-replacing program, their public records request will ultimately end up in the hands of an Uber employee, who will decide whether or not the information is fit for public release. It’s unsettling that a city government will allow a private corporation…

Understanding the present is the key to the future