I own and use a watch that goes tiktok – a present from my dad when I graduated from college. But no one has my watch in mind when discussing whether to ban or regulate TikTok. There is confusion, however, about what the First Amendment does or doesn’t, should or shouldn’t, be taken to mean. That’s partly because the issue is being posed very narrowly. Narrowing discussion to a particular media outlet raises all kinds of questions and fears. Can government ban Fox News or the New York Times?

The Fed appears to have determined that no further rate hikes will be imposed, nor will any rate cuts be imposed until inflation gets at or close to the Fed’s designated target of 2%.

As the nation’s politics become increasingly polarized in a highly divided nation, new voters could easily become the “kingmakers” of November’s elections. Polls show the nation is evenly divided as they consider the Presidential candidates of the major political parties. Given the recent razor-thin votes in key Presidential battleground states, a swing one way or another can tip the balance into who gets a majority of the Electoral College ballots.

When my grandparents bought our place in the 1940’s it was said that traffic on our dirt road consisted of two cars. Or rather one car. It drove down the road in the morning and returned at night.

Imagine for a moment that instead of daily reports from a New York Courtroom where Donald Trump is on trial for falsifying business records to describe a payoff to a woman with whom he had a brief affair in 2006, we would be getting daily reports from a Washington, DC courtroom where the US government is presenting chapter and verse about how Donald Trump encouraged and enabled an attempt to overthrow the will of the voters and deny Joe Biden the Presidency on January 6, 2021.

It's time for our listeners to weigh in. Here are this week's highlights from the WAMC Listener Comment Line.

Commentator Keith Strudler offers deep thoughts on the wide world of sports.

Poverty. It’s a political issue. It’s a social justice issue. And it’s an education issue. In fact, it’s the elephant in the room whenever we talk about education in America. And a mighty elephant it is, because poverty plays into every aspect of a child’s health, well-being and academic success.

Our conversation stimulated some thoughts about the job Biden is doing.

Here’s a hypothesis and a modest proposal: I’d say that truthful information is the lifeblood of democracy. That’s got to be so, because it’s only with a grasp of what’s true that voters can make good choices when they cast ballots. Yet we are awash in lies and distortions by people in public life and disreputable media sources.