NBC

In these divisive political times, the American public actually has a pretty unambiguous message for Donald Trump: "Cool it with the tweets." Nearly seven-in-ten Americans say that Trump's use of Twitter is a bad idea, and only nine percent say they strongly support his use of the 140-character medium to announce policy positions and express his personal point of view. Sixty-nine percent of respondents in the survey said that Trump's tweeting is bad, agreeing with the statement that "in an instant, messages can have unintended major implications without careful review." Just 26 percent said that his use of Twitter is good, agreeing with the statement that "it allows a president to directly communicate to people immediately." Democrats overwhelmingly give Trump's tweets a thumbs down; 89 percent say his use of the medium is bad, while just 8 percent say it's good. But Republicans are divided, with 46 percent cheering on his 140-character messages while 47 percent call them a bad idea.

Multiple podcasts, including Twins podcast “Gleeman and the Geek” (hosted by HardballTalk’s own Aaron Gleeman), another Twins podcast “Talk to Contact,” Pirates podcast “Pirates Prospects,” Mets podcast “Mets Musings,” Cubs podcast “Bleacher Nation,” Yankees podcast “It’s About the Yankees, Stupid,” Rangers Podcast “Rangers Podcast in Arlington” and several others were removed from iTunes.

A couple of things:

1. Apple is not dumb, so I don’t know that I buy such “an oversight.” Earlier, Apple was referring inquiries to MLB/MLBAM, so this all sounds like buck-passing and butt-covering in the wake of what has turned into an uproar among baseball fans online;
2. If it was an oversight, wonderful. When is it going to be rectified? As of now the podcasts have not been restored, and that’s the big issue if you happen to be in the business of getting people to listen to your podcast.

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden accused Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) of hypocrisy for complaining about alleged CIA spying on US senators while tolerating government spying on private citizens.

"It's clear the CIA was trying to play 'keep away' with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that's a serious constitutional concern,” said Snowden . “But it's equally if not more concerning that we're seeing another 'Merkel Effect,' where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them."

Snowden was apparently referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s indignation at reports that the US had listened in on her personal conversations, but her failure to condemn the NSA for mass surveillance of communications of German citizens. Both were revealed by the release of documents that Snowden took from NSA computers and distributed to journalists.

[March 11]