Fox News Is Still the King of the Wurlitzer
Kevin Hagen/Getty Who is primarily responsible for the wide dissemination of crazy right-wing conspiracy nonsense? Facebook? YouTube? Twitter? Nope. It’s good old Fox News: Two of the highest quality studies [found] that sharing of “fake news” was highly concentrated in a tiny portion of the population, was largely done by conservatives, and interacted with age—primarily…
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Husband Pointed a Gun at Black Lives Matter Activists
District Attorney Jackie Lacey speaks Monday at a press conference after her husband was filmed pointing a gun at protesters at her home.Stefanie Dazio/AP For years, Black Lives Matter members have protested against Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, the first African American and first woman to work as the county’s top prosecutor. Lacey has…
The Republican Tax Cut Had No Effect on Growth
A couple of years ago Robert Barro predicted that the Republican tax bill would increase GDP by 1.1 percent in 2018 and 2019. A reader asks: I’m curious what the official numbers ended up being and you seemed like a guy who could find out and might care to. Nothing simpler! Growth clocked in at…
A Virologist Provides Some Coronavirus Perspective
CDC/Planet Pix via ZUMA Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen on the estimate that two percent of the people who are infected with the coronavirus will die: That could certainly change. The China CDC published a report in which they looked at like 45,000 patients and calculated that case fatality rate based on that. Prior to…
Pete Buttigieg Made History. Now He’s Dropping Out.
Michael Brochstein/Zuma After a meteoric rise from little-known midwestern mayor to winner of the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg is planning to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday, according to the New York Times. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor made history as the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential…
Trump Didn’t Appoint a Coronavirus Czar Because He Feared Disloyalty
Donald Trump Mike Pence attend a press conference at the White House on Feb. 29, 2020.Liu Jie/ZUMA The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus epidemic has been haphazard at best. The administration botched the handling of infected passengers on the cruise ship docked in Japan. A whistleblower has alleged that dozens of staffers from the…