Monthly Archives: April 2025

What Conservatives Mean by the Deep State

Posted on Tuesday 22 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Namely, anything that interferes with their agenda, in effect the entirety of Jonathan Rauch’s “constitution of knowledge,” since MAGA conservatives don’t truly believe in the Constitution or our system of government; Robert Reich on the billionaire class, that doesn’t care … Continue reading →

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The War Against Intelligence

Posted on Tuesday 22 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s rage against smart people; Defunding Harvard will hobble medical research that would benefit people like us; Historian Lauren Thompson compares the Gilded Age to the Trump Age; Trump and Vance praised b conservatives for lying about abortion; Hegseth purges … Continue reading →

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Civic Uprising?

Posted on Sunday 20 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Conservative David Brooks calls for a civic uprising against the Trump administration; How Salon executive editor Andrew O’Hehir reacts to this; How psychopaths and financial services seem to go together; The extent to which JD Vance lies; Aid to foreign … Continue reading →

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The Most Sublime Moment in Classical Music

Posted on Saturday 19 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Asimov on Heinlein, about libertarianism; More about “viewpoint diversity” in science, and how scientists react; About another stupidly doctored photo by Trump, to prove something to his dimwitted followers; How the history Trump wants to erase hold the answer to … Continue reading →

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Today’s Notes on the Destruction of America

Posted on Friday 18 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How the quality of American life depends on the regulations that Trump and his vandals are discarding; Paul Krugman on Trump’s trade war and how they don’t know what they’re doing; Dana Milbank on how Trump’s first 100 days are … Continue reading →

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The Future is Coal Mining? Really?

Posted on Thursday 17 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Thomas L. Friedman has never been more afraid for our country’s future; How RFK Jr.’s claims about autism are nonsense; And a deep piece at NYT about migration patterns around the world. – – – As with the manufacturing … Continue reading →

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And Now We Have Linus

Posted on Wednesday 16 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Why manufacturing jobs are never coming back to America; Heather Cox Richardson records Steven Inskeep’s quip; And How JD Vance is fine with abandoning due process; About Linus, our fourth cat. – – – I keep thinking: we’re living in … Continue reading →

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Viewpoint Diversity and Consensus

Posted on Wednesday 16 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne on Harvard vs the US government and the idea of “viewpoint diversity,” with a response by Steven Pinker; Why do conservatives think themselves under-represented in academia? Because they promote ideas that are not true; Will there ever be … Continue reading →

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Musk, History, Science, Education

Posted on Monday 14 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Grant on the wrong lesson to take from Elon Musk; David Remnick on the conservative urge to rewrite the past in simplistic terms; RFK Jr.’s contempt of science; And the conservative war against education. – – – Adam Grant … Continue reading →

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Perhaps Humanity Has Hit a Conceptual Ceiling

Posted on Sunday 13 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Alternate title: America was supposed to be better than this. Perhaps MAGA is about making America *simpler* again; perhaps what we’re seeing is a rejection of the complexity of the modern world; Why is it Americans love watching crime shows? … Continue reading →

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