Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Triage, and Kittens

Posted on Monday 3 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Busy weekend, so I’m behind and have three days of political links to catch up on. I’ll triage. Reactions to the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump/Vance/et al; Conservatives react by projecting; And links without comments about corruption, witchcraft, getting … Continue reading →

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Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, THE MISINFORMATION AGE

Posted on Sunday 2 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “How False Beliefs Spread” (Yale University Press, 2019, 266pp, including 80pp of notes, bibliography, acknowledgements, and index) This is an interesting enough book that wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It seems right up my alley: why do so … Continue reading →

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Moving to the Dark Side

Posted on Friday 28 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The big news today was the contentious meeting at the White House between Trump, Vance, and Zelensky, which signals an abandonment of US foreign policy as a leader of the free world and a signal that Trump is aligning the … Continue reading →

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Conservatives Espouse Principles, But Behave Very Differently

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

With an example of a Florida Attorney General suing Target for selling products the MAGA folks find objectionable; what happened to free enterprise? Let the market figure it out! Our Orwellian fascist government wants to eliminate past social media posts … Continue reading →

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Two More Books of Futuristic Art

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

FUTURE PERFECT: Vintage Futuristic Graphics, ed. Jim Heimann (Taschen, 2002, unpaginated) DRIVING THROUGH FUTURES PAST: Mid-20th Century Automotive Design, by Hampton C. Wayt (Kythe Publishing, Feb. 206, 59pp) Here are two more books that I read the same couple days … Continue reading →

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What Kind of Nation Does America Want to Be?

Posted on Wednesday 26 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The dichotomy revisited, today via Heather Cox Richardson: how Democrats, and Republicans, differ in their approaches to raising money, and spending it. Her distinction echoes George Lakoff’s, and the conservative inability to take long-term consequences into account; Conservatives echo the … Continue reading →

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Isaac Asimov, FUTUREDAYS

Posted on Wednesday 26 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “A Nineteenth-Century Vision of the Year 2000” (Henry Holt, trade paperback, 1986, 96pp) This is a thin little book I’ve had for nearly 40 years, since it was published. It’s ostensibly about a set of “cigarette cards” (presumably included … Continue reading →

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Largely Unnoticed?

Posted on Tuesday 25 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Two big topics today: how Trump is aligning with dictators, breaking 75 years of America as leader of the free world; With items from NYT’s Fred Kaplan, Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, and Robert Reich. Some reflections from two books I’ve just … Continue reading →

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Yearning and Discontent

Posted on Monday 24 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

[draft] I’m thinking this piece aligns with Tom Nichols and James Marriot, whose comments I’ve noted recently. Is there something vaguely or not so vaguely discontent with the ease of the modern world? A yearning for conflict and autocracy that … Continue reading →

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Gaslighting Reality

Posted on Sunday 23 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s lying reaches new levels; and Musk’s DARVO strategy. (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) – – – NY Times, Peter Baker, 23 Feb 2025: In Trump’s Alternate Reality, Lies and Distortions Drive Change, subtitle “Condoms for Gaza? Ukraine started … Continue reading →

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