'The attack doesn't need to be so blunt'

'The US is dooming the UN — whether it leaves or not'

Andreas Kluth at Bloomberg

President Donald Trump "began his second term by announcing that he'll pull the country out of parts of the U.N.," but the U.S. "could also nominally remain a member of an institution while ignoring, undermining or sabotaging it," says Andreas Kluth. America is the "backbone of NATO, although Trump has undermined its credibility," and "something similar is happening at the U.N." This "trend away from multilateralism, which Trump didn't start but is turbo-boosting, is already changing the world, and for the worse."

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'To bridge generational divides, corporate America needs to invest in soft skills'

Ginneh Baugh at Newsweek

We are "living through the Fourth Industrial Revolution," says Ginneh Baugh. The "soft, or 'durable' skills employees need to succeed are no longer optional — they're essential." This "moment will require upskilling in more than tech." In an "effort to build tech-savvy teams, much of today's new talent has been hired for very specific expertise, not for their people skills." In an "era where AI is expected to automate countless tasks, human skills" are "becoming even more essential."

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'Sly Stone was a whole new thing'

Jack Hamilton at Slate

Sly Stone "commandeered the direction of popular music in a way that few artists had before him and maybe even fewer have since," says Jack Hamilton. The Beatles are "often credited with shifting modern pop" from a "music conceptually rooted in live performance to a music conceptually rooted in the recording studio." But Stone's music "sounds to me like the moment this future irreversibly begins to take shape," and "helped redefine our understanding of musical organicism."

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'The Buchananite moment in LA'

W. James Antle III at The American Conservative

The Los Angeles "riots are even less defensible than those of more than three decades ago," says W. James Antle III. At a "purely naked political level, each party is heeding its base." But there is "still more reason to believe that for now the Trump-era Republican stance on immigration has more crossover appeal than a Democratic alliance." For "now, it looks like it will take massive overreach — or another recession — to turn the tide."

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