Credit: Getty Images

By Dan Rather and Team Steady

It’s time. The presumptive Republican nominee for president needs to be sent to jail. For the 10th time during his Manhattan election interference trial, Donald Trump has been found in contempt of court. But, as was the case last week, he was only fined … $1000 for his latest transgression. That is a grand total of $10,000 in fines — not even a rounding error in …

By Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

Image Credit: Hill Street Studios

It was a crisp and clear New Year’s in Texas, a good day for a walk — but every day I wake up is a good day and a blessing. I have seen my fair share of New Year’s Days, and I can report that this one may be the best yet. Why? Because I enjoyed the hell out of it. Friends, family and …

From Dan:

It’s hard to believe, but this is the last Steady post of 2023. I want to wish all of you a healthy and happy New Year. I will see you back here in 2024. It promises to be an eventful year, and we will forge our way forward together. With steadiness.

Today also marks the last Steady piece for my longtime collaborator and friend Elliot Kirschner. Working with him has been a remarkable …

A year ends. A new one begins.

What will 2024 be like? One of the only certainties about life is that it is filled with uncertainty.

As Benjamin Franklin famously quipped (in a phrase he popularized but didn’t coin), “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” It’s a quote you hear a lot, and for good reason. Its humor is rooted in its truth.

But there is more …

‘Tis the season for many things, and one of those is music. Christmas carols fill the air. Even those who do not celebrate the holiday often find resonance in the beauty the music can evoke. The songs speak of many things: the story of Christmas, its celebration, and the sights and sounds of winter. There are words of peace, contemplation, and goodwill.

The very act of caroling is itself an expression of art and a …

A fiery speech

By Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner, substack.com

Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin-Pool

As President Biden came to the Capitol tonight for the ritual State of the Union address, his presidency was beset by contradictions.

Even his greatest stalwarts would have to concede his poll numbers are not good (or very not good). On the other hand, the Democratic Party significantly overperformed in the recent midterm elections.

A majority of the public does not …

By Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner, substack.com

As many of you probably know, Donald Trump recently issued a threat of violence against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with a racist attack on his wife, Elaine Chao, who served in Trump’s Cabinet. Of McConnell, Trump said, “He has a DEATH WISH” (emphasis Trump’s), and he referred to Chao as “Coco Chow.” 

If you had expected Republican politicians to rally in disgust around some version …

By Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner, substack.com

Photo: Christopher Hopefitch

Dear Steady Community,

Perhaps it is presumptuous, but we like to imagine that when we send out our notes to all of you, they arrive in your inboxes like messages from a friend. 

Sure, the subject matters we discuss are often weighty — the state of world affairs, the dangers of our current political climate, and other news items that are dominating the headlines. …

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner, substack.com

The pictures out of Florida, and the accompanying stories, are horrific and heartbreaking. The terror. The loss. The fracturing of lives into a before and an unknowable after.

The full scale of the damage will take a long time to assess. There are the immediate wounds of a natural disaster — the loss of life, the destroyed property, the emotional trauma of prolonged power and infrastructure outages.

Hardship, however, …

We are celebrating! It is a great feeling to have a soul mate. We are so lucky. All the best to you and yours!
Love, N and D

President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump faced off on Thursday in the first presidential debate of the general election. We examined their policy claims, personal attacks and their records in office.

Ana Swanson
Trade Reporter

“Economists say that’s going to cost the average American $2,500 a year or more.”
— President Biden on Mr. Trump’s proposal to increase tariffs on most American imports by 10 percent

This is exaggerated.
Estimates of the impact …

By Jennifer Rubin

A skilled graduation speaker who poetically delivers life lessons and imparts insightful advice can leave me teary-eyed. Unfortunately, this graduation season — rife with protests, walkouts and cancellations — deprived many graduates of an inspiring rite of passage. There was one standout: Celebrated filmmaker and chronicler of American history Ken Burns delivered a powerful address at Brandeis University to a rapt audience.

Burns offered some elegantly phrased life advice — “Leadership is …

On May 14, President Biden announced a major escalation of the country’s emerging climate trade war with China, raising existing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100 percent — a unilateral quadrupling. A few days earlier, responding to reports of Biden’s plans, Donald Trump outdid him, promising tariffs of 200 percent should he win the 2024 election.

It’s not just E.V.s. Five years after blasting Trump for imposing tariffs on Chinese exports, Biden raised them …

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — A newly released ad promoting Apple's new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online.

The ad, which was released by the tech giant Tuesday, shows a hydraulic press crushing just about every creative instrument artists and consumers have used over the years — from a piano and record player, to piles of paint, books, cameras and relics of arcade games. Resulting from the destruction? A pristine new …

Al Gore in September. “The crisis is still getting worse faster than we’re deploying the solutions,” he said. “If we gain more momentum, we’ll begin to gain on the crisis itself.”Credit...Calla Kessler for The New York Times

By Cara Buckley

Former Vice President Al Gore was in New York City over the weekend for a leadership training convened by the Climate Reality Project, his nonprofit organization.

On Saturday, before thousands of attendees, Mr. Gore highlighted …

In a huge victory for music, TIDAL is Hi Res at one low price for all!!! That music now LIVES!

Spotify, you can react to this and serve hi resolution quality music to your listeners - 85% of the marketplace. With the largest share of music listeners in the world of streaming, SPOTIFY is doing more harm to music than good by serving such a low end product to millions of listeners.

Music lovers deserve …

The Wrensilva Standard ($8,999) makes for an incredibly pleasurable high-fidelity listening experience

Why taking a slight technological break can feel amazing

By Cory Ohlendorf, photo by Trevor Tondro, valetmag.com

Vacations are vital to break out of your day to day life. I don't know about you, but as much as I try to fight it, I'm a creature of habit. I like trying new things, but the truth is that most days, the predictability of …

   
stars explode & spray
on burnt tipi poles
flying white flags
calling to those
who crave a home of the brave
a truce
Of
red & blue
Black & white
Us & them
Muslims & Jews
Christians & atheists
Man & animal
Progress & nature
Past & future
from our
taught history to what we know is true
love & harmony is the only way through
☮️

Visually, this video says it all:
Among American flags in tatters, Old Young plays our song like it still matters,

Played to an audience of lonesome ghosts.
The old troubadour hosts-
Not Woodstock-but a concert of one.

The parties-both, the red and the blue-are over and done-
Face it: neither side has won In this country that has come undone,

Unrivaled
Yet unraveled,
We mustn't live amongst our own worst rivals. But know there's no …

“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” former President Barack Obama said on Friday. “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.” Credit: Nicole Craine for The New York Times

The former president said everyone was “complicit to some degree” in the current bloodshed and acknowledged the points of view on both sides of the conflict.

By Lisa Lerer, The New York Times

…

Jewish peace activists staged a sit-in on Capitol Hill, where they called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war on October 18. Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

As Rabbi Alissa Wise scrolls through social media, her feed is littered with videos of dead Palestinian children, parents holding their lifeless bodies with screams caught in their throats and eyes sunken with grief.

Like millions around the world, she …

By Thomas L. Friedman, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times

This article has been updated to reflect new developments.

I have great admiration for how President Biden has used his empathy and physical presence in Israel to convince Israelis that they are not alone in their war against the barbaric Hamas, while trying to reach out to moderate Palestinians. Biden, I know, tried really hard to get Israeli leaders to pause in their rage and …

This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen - by Mr. Fish

Washington and European governments are cheerleading Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. The failure to intervene to halt the carnage threatens to ignite violence throughout the region.

By Chris Hedges, substack.com

I have been in urban warfare in El Salvador, Iraq, Gaza, Bosnia and Kosovo. Once you fight street by street, apartment block by apartment block, there is only one rule — kill anything …

Brazil’s Indigenous peoples minister, Sônia Guajajara, speaks from the top of a sound car at a march in Brasília. Photograph: Eraldo Peres/AP

During a recent trip to Brazil, I saw how Indigenous women activists there have completely changed the political landscape

By V (formerly Eve Ensler), The Guardian

I was invited to the third Indigenous Women’s March in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, earlier this month. The last occupation of Brazil’s legislature was in January …

by Neil Young

I am proud to be an American and I love this country. I also love Canada. I am a dual-citizen with Canadian Roots. Recently having received my U.S. citzenship papers, I am very happy because I have been part of this wonderful country for fifty plus years and now, finally I can vote.

Joe Biden is a great man and a great president. I shudder to think what a lesser man would …

Hi, I write a lot about my music here and introduce songs and albums you have never heard before. And I do it pretty regularly. That’s what makes NYA good for music lovers …… but I also write about the Earth a lot.

Earth news is back in the paper and currently not as many folks see it as the front page, and I know you come here mainly for my music news…but..…That said, The …

Be knowledgeable about what you read. The newspapers around the country seem out of touch with the reality of American Politics. Make sure you know who Newspaper CEOs are contributing to. When you see things the presidential candidates do and wonder why their actions are not covered, there is a good reason. In the coming times, get the correct information regarding the financial political contributions of the Press CEOs. New York Times, Washington Post, etc.
…

By Toluse Olorunnipa, Michael Scherer and Isaac Arnsdorf

ATLANTA — President Biden struggled through a raspy voice and uneven delivery Thursday to unleash a charged and deeply personal attack on his longtime rival, former president Donald Trump, who responded in kind with a blizzard of personal gibes and falsehoods at the first presidential debate of the cycle.

Biden noticeably stumbled at times as he delivered his retorts with a thin voice, mumbled words and occasional …

BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado paramedic was sentenced Friday to five years in prison in a rare prosecution of medical responders following the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man whose name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020.

McClain was walking down the street in a Denver suburb in 2019 when police responding to a suspicious person report forcibly restrained him and put him in …

The photo indeed shows Ella Fitzgerald in police custody in 1955 after she and other performers held a concert for a mixed-race audience at the Houston Music Hall. Afterwards, at least one documentarian described Fitzgerald's arrest as "racially motivated," and jazz legend Norman Granz — who was also arrested — said he believed police targeted them because of the integrated audience. On paper, however, Fitzgerald wasn't arrested on suspicion of violating segregation laws. Rather, law …