Russiagate: What Academe Should Be Doing

       What do we know?

• Trump wants to rein in China militarily and economically.
• Russia wants to rein in China militarily and economically.
• The Russian government favored Trump over Clinton.
• Trump has nominated Tillerson, who has been honored by the Kremlin as a friend of Russia, to be his Secretary of State
• The Russian government hacked Clinton and the Democratic party... which in yesterday's press conference Trump finally acknowledged

This is what we know.

We don't know if the three dozen pages of revelations of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians is true.   We don't know if the sexual shenanigans alleged in that document are true.

Do you believe Trump and his campaign staff were capable of these things? (This is really a rhetorical question.)

So what should academe be doing?

For a decade and a half I have been arguing that in this Infotainment Age, we can't count on the news media to ascertain and report the truth.  This is a great opportunity for qualified faculty across the country to put their considerable talents, computing power, and international contacts to work, either verifying or debunking this volatile document.

So get on it!