“The Tech Ecosystem that surrounds today’s teens is fueling loneliness.” Axios AM

The Thesaurus translates loneliness: as “deserted, forsaken.” I type just having come back from church, while recognizing that fewer and fewer of us return from churches or any religious venue these days. Many, not just teens, are more likely to get swallowed up by the “Tech Ecosystem.”

Today’s church service theme was “eternal happiness”. My wife and I were at Holy Trinity in Oxford, Maryland. In a broader sense the religious pulpit invites variations on this theme each week.

While religious leaders across the full spectrum of the world’s religions underscore eternal happiness, the Tech Ecosystem deals more pointedly with happiness. Google, for example, has a detailed profile of our “likes” and especially weaknesses as too many think their interface is a private affair. It now pinpoints advertising, as our online activity reveals our interests. And to promote happiness many of the ads sell pills.

Google and its peers are not selling eternal happiness—their operating system is organized around profit. Hourly and then daily and, well it all gets rolled up in the quarterly report to Wall Street.

The longer and more profound search should be for “eternal happiness”—a by-product, “internal happiness.” Of course, we can have brief moments of happiness without being concerned with continuity, but is that what we want?

And we can enjoy the fruits of friendship without considering it to be other than in the moment. But, is real friendship on offer?

While I am not a student of the world’s religions, I am led to believe by those who are that sharing our good fortune with others is thematically similar from faith to faith. In my life I have been fortunate to know persons who are generous, and not just at the end of the year when tax calculations are at hand. I cannot think of anyone in the generous category who seems lonely or feels deserted.

And reflecting, it has been my experience that having internalized generosity the downturns in life are much shorter. This is especially true for those whose faith provides an eternal buffer against both the shortness of life and its sometimes bruising offerings.

Most, I guess responding to the secular theme that all truth is relative, find themselves looking for some formula. After all, most prefer happiness to its opposite. The formula seems elusive, maybe it’s because we make it that way.

In the last several years I have seen “He Gets Us” commercials. The He is Jesus. Whether you think him divine or not his teachings lead to ultimate truths, not just situational ones. My take: only ultimate truths will overcome our quite understandable nausea with a culture that deploys artificial intelligence to overwhelm us.
The Counsel of the centuries is free.

Presidents Day

I can recall, although somewhat vaguely when George Washington’s Birthday was changed to Presidents’ Day in 1971. Some argued that Washington was a singular figure and should be recognized accordingly. Others thought all Presidents should be recognized
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Borrowing on sports, we have several Halls of Fame; most players are not recognized. And historians would certainly agree that all Presidents should not be spotlighted.
This year as Donald J Trump’s Vice-President suggests Trump is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), we need to re-think our cancellation of history. Historical literacy has suffered as fewer are taught and social scolds seek to disparage former presidents because they succumbed in some way to the culture of their times.

George Washington was indeed a singular figure and once a year we should all be encouraged to find out why. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln. Nor should we let either celebration of the best to get entangled with days off from work.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

 

 

 

President Trump has decided to go all in. He has signed an Executive Order that will give him and successive White House occupants regulatory control of the independent agencies that are responsible for oversight and regulation of securities markets, communications, elections and trade.

Trump gained office by attacking President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Afghanistan debacle and the Southern border. The White House bungled both challenges. And rising prices were, for many, the swing issue.

Now, Trump is acting like a south-of-the-border autocrat who has taken over his country. America is not Brazil or Argentina or Columbia. America has an unparalleled record of stability and prosperity. Troubling, however, America’s success has turned on it. Humans often have a perverse relationship with success.

I am reminded of Neil Postman’s book: “Amusing Our selves to Death”. He expressed specific concern about “the trivialization of public discourse”.

In recent weeks I have written about the importance of free speech as the President seeks to limit it through the actions of the Federal Communications Commission. He has sued CBS and ABC among others contending they distorted the news.

In both cases his FCC Chair Brendan Carr has opened proceedings against them. The President takes them on and his regulatory chief twists their arm. In the case of the ABC litigation Disney, it’s owner, paid $15m into a Trump library account.

So, Mr. President, what is the problem you are trying to solve by ordering that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FCC give you a veto over their actions?

Surprisingly, when I chaired the FCC, I could have spent much of my time traveling abroad, staying in nice hotels and enjoying excellent meals with interesting companions. In the newly democratizing countries of the former Soviet Bloc they were eager to learn how we regulated various communications media.

Those who had dissented in the post WW2 world of Communist dictators were eager to begin private sector ownership of the media and wanted to assure free speech. The emerging world of democrats—freedom loving patriots—wanted to know how the United States balanced the competing claims in regulating entities that had a license to own radio, television, telephony, and satellite businesses.

The overarching answer was the law which in 1934 created the FCC and specified it operate in the “public interest” and at the same time balanced political power by requiring Commissioners from both political parties.

Rather than leave you with heartfelt and often courageous stories from what had been the Soviet Bloc let me turn back to what President Trump is doing. He wants a cancel button. If he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen.

Trump has cowed the Congress, taken over the arts and now wants to rule the independent agencies. Whats left? The Courts for one, which are presiding over a number of challenges to Presidential power. And I like to think the Majority Leader of the US Senate, Senator John Thune, might eventually say “enough.”

Regarding the Congress. On paper the Founders delegated more power to it than either the executive or judicial branches. But rather than say in public what many Republican Senators say about Trump’s overreach in private, they specialize in a defensive posture that reveals an absence of integrity.

Understandably in the “honeymoon” period of a new President there is a reluctance to be critical. And it seems like a majority support his efforts to reduce the cost of government. But, the President having telegraphed his intent to flood the zone became abusive on the first day of the honeymoon.

If this assault on common sense government is not stopped by Congress, a pattern will kick in; each Party’s President will flood the zone and before long America will join the unstable governments and economies and become progressively less trustworthy and prosperous.

Ships have keels and rudders and many have sails; no less the Ship of State. It is time for what we think of as checks and balances to be used. Senator Thune and Chief Justice Roberts can become profiles in courage.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Today’s Democratic party is no longer shaped by realities. In a broad sense, today’s Party is still attuned to President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs.

The Great Society legislation was enacted in the mid-1960s during Johnson’s presidency. The promises: eliminate poverty and racial injustice. The cost in today’s dollars is estimated at $2T.

The results in many ways are now clear. Was there progress, yes. But over the decades we have learned that mostly the government can help those who will strive to better their lives.

We also learned, and it was not a great surprise, that massive government spending on social programs create dependencies that over time become prevailing political forces. At the risk of generalization, the dependencies are the foundation of today’s Democratic party.

The social programs and their associated funding while providing a “safety net” (Medicare, for example) also became a major source of today’s huge deficit. And the people that ran those programs—persons with utopian tendencies—kept pushing for more money, arguing that adding another program or layer would break through a wall of human resistance.

So, what do today’s Democrats do? Principally, its establishment leaders argue that Donald J Trump is evil and will, among other things, kill the programs that created the dependencies. This has not been a winning strategy. Afterall, Trump with all his flaws, won. Among other inconveniences, many who like Trump are former Democrats, and not from the high end of the demographic spectrum.

With apologies, I can get hung up on particular words. One of my favorites is “efficacy”. One definition: “the ability to produce a desired or intended result”. My emphasis: “result”. Or, in politics a result that satisfies a majority of voters.

A vivid example of a dramatic misalignment occurred in border security during the Biden administration. President Biden assigned the task to Vice-President Kamala Harris and there was a glaring lack of efficacy. Maybe the result was not desired. Maybe pressure groups which are a part of the Democratic ecosystem said “back down.”

An accumulation of results betraying intentions has kneecapped the Democratic party. The result: a large slice of the Party’s base has gone to the other side. As to the other side, Trump changed the Republican party regardless of resistance from the lingering and now disappearing Reagan wing of the Party. Trump doesn’t allow conservatism to get in the way of pragmatism.

President Trump is transparent in ways that earlier Presidents were not. He is out there. He holds frequent news conferences, often spontaneous ones. He says what is on his mind and the word “great” is a very active adjective.

In the Democratic party it is hard to know who can generate an interesting news conference. Certainly not its establishment figures whose comments betray anger and bewilderment.

Now for those who are looking ahead and wondering how many more words to the conclusion let me state it now.
America’s left-of-center party needs a founder. The Party’s bureaucrats are not equal to the job. The Founder will know the job and instinctively find the words and phrases necessary to begin to assemble a majority Party.

Formation will require both demolition and construction. Helpful pollsters will follow the votes. And especially that large slice of voters who self-identify as Independents. This is where the Party needs to go shopping to find targets of opportunity. Establishment Democrats will not be happy but where will they go? To Trump?

2025 promises Democrats a fertile opportunity. A Founder, to fill out a plan, will turn to policy entrepreneurs and insist that they use efficacy as a measure. Probe the world of the possible. The Founder will know how to use words and phrases to contrast the new way forward with the President’s direction.

Let me finish with a note of caution. America is closing in on a $40 trillion national debt. At almost 125% of America’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) this reality is a huge warning signal that voters are actually beginning to understand the cost to future generations.

The Democratic party more than the Republican one has been pieced together by domestic spending programs. Many of its most reliable constituencies are at least in part built around one or more dependencies. The teacher unions are a prime example. They represent more than 3.2 million members. They must be resold on efficacy.

Finally, although leaving until another day foreign policy, the new Democratic party will need to re-think cultural issues. I would suggest paying some attention to Nashville. In music, for example, Nashville has expanded beyond country music into indie rock, pop and to some degree hip-hop. It has become a cultural touchstone. Listen to the lyrics.

President Trump was groomed by NBC’s show Apprentice. Its producers understood his visceral appeal and then he decided to turn from political flirtation to action. This is not a circumstance that can be invented. But it is a circumstance that needs to be understood. I would suggest beginning with one immutable principle. The next Democratic president will not be a Washington insider, they are owned.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

My time was a generation ago. I chaired the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the George HW Bush administration. Censorship was not on our priority list. Except: for protecting children from “indecent” content as was required by a law passed by Congress. The focal point was Howard Stern, whose morning show was broadcast by Infinity Broadcasting.

A Stern critic on the West Coast filed numerous complaints against the broadcaster because of Stern’s sometimes indecent repartee with sidekick Robin Quivers. In the end, Infinity was fined and several years after appealing, the fine was paid. And Stern, he ended up behind a subscription pay wall. His retort, he wished me dead in a 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley.

The FCC actions were taken only after all five Commissioners agreed that particular Stern routines were actionable. It took weeks for the five to concur. And while this action consumed hundreds of hours, its priority was relatively low as the Commission was concentrating on a range of radio frequency dependent technology issues that promised new services and a dramatic increase in telecommunication competition.

Now the new Commission chair, Brendan Carr, just appointed by President Trump, has decided to put the Commission in the business of news censorship. His actions are akin to becoming a campaign aide to the President. He has ordered the broadcast news networks to provide the Commission with transcripts and videos so that he can decide whether there was bias in reporting. Yes, the FCC’s Chair wants to be the ultimate editor.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, one of the FCC’s targets is the CBS show 60 Minutes and an interview it did with the Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The FCC is reviewing the 60 Minutes interview with Harris as part of its evaluation of Paramount Global’s proposed $8 million merger with Skydance Media. This scrutiny arises from a $10 billion lawsuit filed by President Trump against CBS alleging that the network deceptively edited the October 7, 2024 interview to favor Harris’s Presidential campaign.

I cannot think of a more egregious use of government power. The constitution guarantees free speech and in the United States we have dozens of news sources and outlets from local to international. In short, no speech is protected from competition. Carr knows this and that is what makes his actions thoughtless— no, cynical. When the Commission I chaired was confronted with Howard Stern’s transcripts, we were acting under a specific law intended to protect children. Carr is acting extra-legally.

Carr also knows that Shari Redstone who controls Paramount wants this action to go away for fear that it will interfere with her merger effort. CBS should have taken legal action to block the Commission’s actions; it hasn’t.

Again, going back to yesteryear, weighing  every word of a Howard Stern racy morning show to determine if his words, in context, were indecent was tedious, time consuming and in a larger cultural context fruitless. If the  FCC, led by Carr, is to become a news censor, its integrity will be compromised and in the final analysis a more principled broadcast news outlet will contest Carr’s actions. The courts will find them to be unconstitutional. In the meantime the “public interest” standard that defines FCC actions will have been carelessly undermined by subservience to a transient political power.

The right to free speech is not an Executive Order. It is not a vague law open to interpretations. It is constitutional and foundational. It is at its most elevated level of importance during periods of disruption. Maybe the DOGE element of President Trump’s administration should take a look at reducing costs by limiting or eliminating the FCC if they have enough time to perform unconstitutional acts.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

When I plant seed I am relegated to a crank seeder. They are difficult to calibrate and control. I envy the farmer who, using a precisely calibrated seeder, drills the seed in a lightly cultivated field. President Trump is using a crank seeder. Or, as one commentator noted, he is “flooding the zone”.

Trump’s domestic agenda includes remaking the bureaucracy and opening up all sources of energy, along with significant changes in tax, trade, and tariff policies. And we can add to that the Elon Musk led DOGE with its pledge to find some $2 Trillion in federal government cost reductions. I could go on.

The President, before taking the oath, voiced international ambitions that included a takeover of Greenland and the Panama Canal. He is now using the threat of tariffs to reshape foreign relations and his withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is clearly a reversal of a more globalist agenda which in decades past was largely bipartisan. Although the withdrawal probably has more to do with strong disagreements between Trump and Dr. Tedros who heads the WHO.

President Trump’s “explosive” beginning is on one level a brilliant move. He is, among other things, making it difficult for the opposition to focus. What to take on? Well, this week, the targets probably include three leadership nominations: RFK Jr, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard selected to lead Health and Human Services, the FBI, and the Department of National Intelligence. It is my guess that he has backup nominees for each of those positions. Recall how quickly he went from Matt Gaetz to head the Department of Justice to Pam Bondi.

Yet as I look back only a few days, even with subservient Republican majorities in Congress, the better leadership move would have been to select a Secretary of Defense who can be confirmed by at least 2/3rds of the US Senate. There will be moments where the Secretary’s integrity is crucial, and Pete Hegseth, who had to have the Vice-President break the tie in the US Senate to be confirmed, does not have that level of trust at the beginning. I hope he earns it, but am not optimistic.

Just ahead of Hegseth’s confirmation, President Trump pulled Secret Service protection from the often threatened former National Security Advisor John Bolton and his first-term Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Yes, the President, a target of an assassin’s bullet, decided to deny protection to two public figures that served in his first administration. Vengeance is not only not a good look, but if that becomes a consistent characteristic of his Administration, then count on a vengeful opposition. Human affairs guarantees moments when goodwill is essential.

The President likes to brag about his popularity. He loves the limelight. He is ultra-transparent. Contrasted with President Biden he is an action figure. But it doesn’t take long for self-love to turn into self-destruction.

Self-destruction comes in many forms. There is the bullet to the head and there is the popular anecdote about the frog failing to escape the boiling water as the temperature rises. Trump is certainly not the first to invite polarization, but in my lifetime ,he is the best at it. My question: why invite a higher intensity of unpopularity when you know the cycles of politics turn on approval and the next election is less than two years away? Regardless of boasting, the President won in a relatively close election and won against a self-destructive Democratic Party.

President Trump revels in his revival; it would be uncharacteristic if he didn’t. But, I am reminded of the prophetic comment: “when you are hot you are about to cool off.”

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

I want an Editor. Well okay, I don’t deserve one. The business model says no. Business model?  Now awake from this flirty dream, I move on.

The periodic spark, at times white hot, inflamed the news for several days. Meta announced that they would no longer be fact-checking Facebook and Instagram—editors be gone. Sorry, they call them fact-checkers. The idealists were angry; the realists sounded practical. I straddle the divide, but who cares?

News editors have a storied history; I suspect a survey would find a reasonably high approval level. If they are any good, they ask questions. Did you mean to say, whatever? Have you read the report on, whatever? Whatever is the subject and questions are the method. And the best editors do not want to overlay their opinions, they want to move the writer a little closer to the truth. Not the Left or Right truth—the truth.

The sad fact is that future generations will have to look up the word “editor”. Mostly the editors themselves will be gone; at least from the day-to-day press as we call it. Mainstream or Lamestream.

But back to Meta and its leader, Mark Zuckerberg. Mark has a new look; I digress. I don’t know how Facebook or Instagram can possibly keep up with the volume of speech (generally called posts). And those who use them or especially X (formerly Twitter) are bombarded with visuals and the ones who want to get attention know how to incite our emotional senses. Exciting our emotions is in Elon Musk’s business model. Explosions, playful animals, deep cleavage, outrageous whatever and on and on.

Digital manipulation, while helpful cosmetically, can be problematic if we, the public, cannot escape our innocence. Pictures do lie.

The hands-off argument: let all the stuff be displayed and then everybody will be a fact-checker. Wonder who is fact-checking the Russian propagandists or is wading deep into incendiary speech looking for the potential of terrorism? Or how many just accept the words and pictures that conform to their predispositions? Way too many.

Noting all the claims about the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI), I would deploy a bot trained to highlight foreign propaganda. And then I would move the propaganda into a searchable category to complete a more comprehensive analysis that would hold up, at least in the court of public opinion. Elon Musk’s Space X  can catch rockets; he can surely catch foreign propaganda if he puts his considerable mind to it. And, of course, Zuckerberg will feel that competitive push.

Having set in judgment on content complaints lodged with the Federal Communications Commission I have spent some time thinking about the free-for-all of today. And we all know that some percent of Americans will make whatever noise they believe to be necessary to get attention. Why not call the conservative a Nazi or the liberal a Communist?

And vulgarity, well you can’t have too much of it because it draws attention. It underscores while revealing that the writer has a very limited vocabulary. Next time you stream an edgy drama count the number of times the F-Word is used as a noun, verb, or adjective.

Free speech was a gift from the Founders of America when speech was lets say 15 generations different. James Madison was its author. It was intended to protect political speech. Now too much of it is intended to ultimately kill speech.

Networks are universal and connectivity is international. The Chinese and Russians cannot abide our freedoms so they target us to undermine us. The Iranians too.Their propagandists specialize in the incendiary. Is calling it speech terrorism too harsh? Wonder how much time Russia spends learning and deploying the Bahamian patios?

And, the perverse is the enemy of the rational. The Internet hosts a festival of perversion as words and images are shaped to draw us into being flaming idiots or to relax us into a stupor or worse. We are the tactical target but the US is the strategic one.

Before leaving the subject of speech, we should pay more attention to surveillance capitalism, as sellers prey on our weaknesses. The surveillance capitalists provoke us, we respond and then our response is captured in a database that is used to seduce us into buying more or drinking more or well what about drugs and gambling? And political invective? Yep, they troll our senses.

Capitalists need to pay attention to the predators less they become one. Too many already have.

Defending ourselves from deceit and worse is not easy. Maybe taking on the personal protection of skepticism is further than you want to go, but in truth, it is the only way to protect our way of life. The culture, well, that is too big a word; certainly don’t depend on it as a corrective.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The ambitions are vaulting, and the expectations are immense. A U.S. Senator. The United States! What could be better, the ultimate club of 100? Not just any peer group—the peer group.

Well, okay, maybe they don’t measure up to my standards. So I will run.

And then the time arrives. The news media follow my every move. My wife and children glow. My supporters are on their feet. A rush of adrenaline overcomes my sleepless nights. How can I sleep with so much at stake?? And I promise a better America, one that results from my wisdom and sacrifice.

Now in Washington—bedmate absent—sleepless nights are shadowed by disappointment with office and committee assignments. I can’t shake the image. I am now 97th or maybe 100th and when everybody lines up I am in the background.

But most painfully I have lost my courage somewhere. I am not going to make America better because I am now controlled, led by others and I am a first termer. I barely get in the game and then when I do its the last minutes. Legislation looks like an Amazon Prime catalog as our team leader says everything needs to be in one big bill and certainly no more than two.

Is redemption possible? Is there any chance of independence? Can I voice my take on things—or, if I do, will I lose the next election? Or my deep pocketed givers? Will I lose my membership? Will I become barely a footnote in the local paper much less the history books?

And then the guy who was at the top of the ballot says do what I say or you are history. What about my name? If I don’t yield, will he call me a derogatory name that will chase me through life? And if he doesn’t, will I look even worse? At best an afterthought?

But then I look around. I recall that my kids got shots and skipped diseases. What about RFK Jr’s attitude toward vaccines? Should he be our health care leader?

When I look at the Department of Defense I wonder how a guy whose success is framed by being glib on TV can lead the federal government’s largest department. And in many ways the most important one. This is not defense against the local scoundrels; this is facing our most determined enemies.

So what do I do? Do I measure up?  Do I measure up to the expectations of my family? What about the imperative to tell the truth? The one I pledge each Sunday? Am I going to make a difference in Washington or has it already changed me?

The campaigns are over. The rallies a long since forgotten image passed around on Facebook. Truth be told this is now the time for me to stand-up, but damn, the truth is tough. What will the Party faithful say? Will I get invited to the White House? Already there are rumblings of a challenger.

Can I say “who cares”? There is a faint memory; maybe from high school history: the less you care about yourself the more you will care about others.

My choice—a seat with the best or are they the best? Is this the best I can do? Well maybe I can change them. Just then an invitation arrives, I’ve been asked to be a guest on a late night cable show. I text; “let my driver know.”

As afterthoughts: Maryland has a first term US Senator. As the world moves and shakes and challenges will she stick to the same old playbook? Or, will the people who really matter know her name?

Recall: At the end of the 118th Congress the final tally of Gallup was that the Congress was approved by 17%. Think about that, the most important representative body in the world approved by only 17% of its constituents. Will the 119th be any better?

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

This is of course now old news (Tweets have a short life). Republicans and Democrats in the United States House of Representatives concluded negotiations on a massive appropriation bill to keep the government operational until March of next year.

But recall before going further: “to retain respect for sausages and laws avoid watching them in the making”. So please do not take this short take as respect for what is called a Congressional Resolution; shorthand: CR. But here we are. The law says to the Congress RESOLVE or shutdown. So the Committee to make Sausage resolved, Republican and Democrat alike.

Within a very short time Elon Musk, America’s richest man and buddy of the President-Elect, put his thumb down. It is said he posted his disapproval on his web site 70 times. Ten hours later so did Donald Trump. Not a good look.

But then when you assemble a bunch of titanic egos do not expect them to ask permission. Presidents since George Washington have used allies to quietly seed the news media with rumors of this or that. It is an honorable way to gain some sense of both insider and public reaction before emerging from the carefully protected trenches and announcing a decision.

Musk’s trench is his business, X, which used to be Twitter. He uses it as a bullhorn. He has impulses and he posts them. In the case of the CR he put his thumb down on the work of the Congressional committee at 4:15 am Wednesday.

Here is a take from the Wall Street Journal: “Over the course of Wednesday, Musk pressed for Congress to kill the bill. He encouraged his more than 200 million followers on X, the social-media platform that he owns, to call their representatives to vote against it, and he warned that Republicans who voted for it should lose their congressional seats in two years. He also said Congress shouldn’t pass any more legislation until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, which would ensure a partial government shutdown until Jan. 20.”

The obvious question is who is leading who? It is said that Musk gave the various Trump campaign subsidiaries over $200 million. And in the aftermath of the election, Musk became a constant presence with the President. Perhaps he should formally join the Trump family. Changing one’s name is not an expensive affair. Dutifully, I apologize for the snark.

What I don’t apologize for is my concern about the world’s richest man placing himself in a position of at least appearing to be not the President’s whisperer but the President’s voice. It is not only on the atmospherics a bad thing, it portends a clash of egos that cannot do other than undermine the Presidency. Regain control Mr. President-Elect.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Advent began on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent is, in the Christian faith, a period of preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Biblical narratives are filled with heroic acts and transcendent moments. They informed and spurred the evolving church to create organizing principles and protocols in recognition. None are more important than Advent. But I expect that for most of the faithful awe is more important than obligation. The structure of denominational obligation is not unimportant but will not protect the faithful during inevitable moments of doubt as humanity pushes its own mastery.

I can recall the awe as a youth in the story of the Star of Bethlehem. The gospel writer Matthew wrote of a bright star that led the three wise men to the place where Mary gave birth. The celestial guide, The Star of Bethlehem. A miracle.

In more recent centuries the ingenuity of humankind and in particular astronomers and their equipment, have pushed and enabled us to become ever more familiar with the Celeste. Yet as hard as some try it is impossible to isolate the celestial as exclusively physical. Topically, as a symbol of otherworldliness, the Celeste is often on the finger of a superb athlete who strives to share his/her recognition with God as they point to the heavens.

Well last week it happened in a different profession—architecture. Notre Dame, the French Cathedral, was rededicated after a literal rebirth guided by the Cathedral’s architect Phillippe Villeneuve who in a video interview gave recognition to a heavenly assist. Villeneuve said, “You know I spent five years saying nothing about this because I am a civil servant in a secular republic and therefore I couldn’t say something like this, but now I have to reveal that yes I have a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary and at the risk of sounding totally crazy like Joan of Ark, I never stopped feeling support from Up There. I don’t think this project would have been possible otherwise and I think that is what gave me the strength and determination to move because I knew I was being supported from Up There.” Villeneuve was pointing skyward.

We, of course, know that over time the essence of Christianity “neighborly love” has been re-shaped beyond earlier acts of piety and biblical recognition. Humans are busy creatures. Giving today reflects an enormous commercial enterprise. It’s hard for the Star of Bethlehem to compete with advertising. Indeed as fewer and fewer attend worship services the Advent season retreats from our minds and culture. And as it retreats awe as a dimension of faith recedes.

Recognition of the rebirth of Notre Dame was the recognition of enormous accomplishment—awe-inspiring for sure. But what about the widow’s mite? The small coin that was said to represent about six minutes of work in Caesar’s time.  What about the thousands, no millions of small gifts of time and treasure each year? Many sacrificial. Where does that come from?

Or the contemporary version of a “babe in swaddling cloth”. I am reading Alexi Navalny’s book Patriot. You recall. Navalny, now deceased from Vladimir Putin’s obsession, had with his wife Yulia two children. Raised without belief in God he recounted his conversion after experiencing the awe of becoming a father for the first time.

Awe, again and again.

There are moments of transcendent glory that move many to point to the sky, to recognize that there is more to it than simply human striving.

Human striving can be reshaped and certainly has been as we pursue glory in day-to-day stuff. But then comes along those moments we can’t account for. Science doesn’t help. Earthly rewards materialize and then, poof, they are gone. So what about awe? Athletes find it in breaking records. Mothers and fathers in birth. Architects in the rebirth of a Cathedral. What about us?

The stories are there. But if you need to put your mind on today pay attention to your neighbor, his courage, her sacrifice. The reality, not just the stories are awe-inspiring and there is something behind them. What is that something? I can think of no greater inquiry.

Merry Christmas.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Predictably much of the reporting on President-Elect Trump’s formation of a new administration is relatively negative. On a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the most negative I’d call the analysis part of news coverage an 8. And it appears that Trump is okay with that. His statements and actions beginning with what I will call the Matt Gaetz affair have been antagonistic toward mainstream news and analysis. And that is too bad.

Most people who gain these top jobs are not known and much of the advise and consent process, the constitutional prerogative of the United States Senate, is political. Few Senators are prepared to step outside the Party line. I supported Larry Hogan because he had time after time demonstrated his independence.

Since I often write about public affairs and the politics of it, I try to double check my own drafts for fairness. Fairness is in part subjective so to some degree my general antipathy toward the President-Elect can’t be precluded but I’ll continue to try. So here is my take.

There is a worrying element in all of this. Some years ago I ended up at lunch with a fellow who said he didn’t get his news from newspapers but only from what at the time was called Twitter. He was much younger than me and I concluded it was generational and that to some degree it reflected a disdain for left of center bias.

Left of center bias is endemic. Journalism and related journalistic tracks tend to draw from those who want to “change the world” or at least record it as they see it. Many believe that if more digging or editorial emphasis is directed to how the government can achieve their preferences, outcomes can be improved. I long ago, to one degree or another, used a discount filter. This was especially true on business reporting.

Polls of course affirm this bias. Few reporters, for example, are Republicans or identify with right of center points of view. And Donald Trump plays that bias with improvisational glee. When he saw Twitter as biased he started Truth Social.

And then his buddy Elon Musk bought Twitter. Musk declared that truth in news coverage would only be available on the newly named X because it would assure free speech. In short if you want to find out the truth in the news, X is the place to go.

Well to begin with Musk knows as much about the best practices of journalism as I know about catching rockets returning from space. Some who post on X actually have some depth of knowledge. They are almost all posters with a day job at one or another news gathering organization. I, for example, follow the Institute for the Study of War. I get informed on timely news about the Middle Eastern and Ukraine wars. I also see a steady stream of diverse opinions although fewer from left of center orientation because many have chosen to boycott X.

X is indeed a positive development in the news and information segment. But it is mainly a headline service, not a news one. If Musk wants X to become a more valuable news source, he is going to have to spend millions annually to actually provide news. Real news is the fruit of digging pushed along by principled editors whose first principle is truth. Providing accurate news is not an inexpensive pursuit and the financial incentive to do so has largely disappeared.

Opinion is rarely truth. Opinion tends to be an information layer and truth is many layered. It is, regarding many subjects, even hard to define how you find out the truth. Inquiries in search of truth recalls the blind man concluding that an elephant’s trunk was a snake. We all have our blind sides.

Back to Musk and Truth and Trump’s version of X called “Truth Social.” The latter is  propaganda—the world as Trump wants others to see it. And X is just a pass it along machine. X is not a many layered effort to find truth but a pipe, if you will, that delivers information and opinion and leaves it up to you to decide.

President-Elect Trump has heralded a momentous time in the governance of the United States of America. Indeed. And in a democracy we should all assess next steps forward while looking out for the snakes. If I had one piece of practical advice, it would be to make sure at least one of your sources of news makes you uncomfortable.

Enduring Reform

The notion that November’s election was a landslide is bunk. The most representative political institution is the House of Representatives and it is split almost down the middle—Republican’s control 220 seats and Democrats 215.

Generally in human affairs humility attaches to evenly divided opinions, in this case demonstrated through actual elections. Hubris should be avoided.

President-Elect Trump has promised to take on the “deep state” and has already begun to set up an efficiency apparatus (Department of Government Efficiency-DOGE) led by Elon Musk as part of that effort. I imagine some good ideas will result from that work. Some of the ideas might be actionable through Presidential orders while others, and especially those involving expenditures, will have to move through Congress.

While political differences today are often fought with severe language, I would suggest turning the heat down on the work of DOGE so that enduring reforms might outlast political tides. In the case of the President-Elect, he will then get credit for victory not just making political points.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.