On Monday, March 20, the House Select Intelligence Committee heard testimony from FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Rogers. Americans learned that Russia is intent upon undermining American democracy, that it sought to determine the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, and that there were “links” between [read more]
For years, the United States has maintained an incarceration facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. President Obama intended to close it but never did during his eight years in office. Now, Donald Trump has declared his intention to house even more suspected terrorists there. In this podcast, Stephen explains his [read more]
Donald Trump says he wants to drain the swamp in Washington, DC and get things done. It is a good idea. Yet his approach to this involves ignoring expertise and experience and doing things the way he has always done them. It won’t work. In this podcast, Stephen explains [read more]
High-ranking military officers now lead the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department. Yet another is President Trump’s National Security Advisor. Some in Washington are concerned that this is too much, that a civilian government ought not have generals in cabinet positions. Stephen disagrees. In this podcast, he [read more]
Donald Trump has nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court. He is an originalist and a textualist. He’s only 49 and he’s one of the best educated and most experienced Supreme Court nominees in U.S. history. Stephen explains why he thinks Judge Gorsuch is a brilliant choice [read more]
When Stephen expressed his support for the broad purposes of the recent Women’s March but also said he had reservations, he got huge feedback from his listeners. Most of it was positive, and there were some important questions. In this podcast, he answers those questions, which carries him through [read more]
Donald Trump has issued an executive order banning immigration from countries terrorists have used for entry into the United States. The order was badly timed, badly crafted, and badly announced. Yet most Americans would have supported the administration’s intentions for the order had objectives been long-term and had time [read more]
The recent worldwide Women’s March was an impressive display of support for women’s rights and an impressive reaction to the misdeeds of Donald Trump. Stephen wishes he could have joined it. He has said publicly and often that he is as much a feminist as it is possible for [read more]
Donald Trump is raising questions about the truthfulness of news reporting by major media outlets. Even if we disagree with him, we’ve all had reason to question whether the news we get is biased and inaccurate. Stephen believes these are important questions to ask. In this podcast, he lists [read more]
We are all overwhelmed with data passing itself off as information. We are all pressured to form opinions about what we learn. We find ourselves in troubled territory, though, when we confuse opinions with knowledge, when we mistake our beliefs about the facts with the importance of the facts [read more]