Category Archives: Culture

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 many … 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 (or refusal) to take long-term consequences into account; Why … Continue reading →

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Yearning and Discontent

Posted on Monday 24 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Why is half of American cheering for chaos? Jonathan Rauch on “patrimonialism”; DOJ deletes data on cop misconduct; Project 2025 and conspiracy theories; Kari Lake spreads the social security lie; a Trump lie about office workers; Why firing IRS workers … Continue reading →

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The Roots of All This is an Unchanging Human Nature in a Changing World

Posted on Monday 10 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richardson explains why the right to vote, not the Second Amendment, is the key to maintaining our rights; Robert Reich wonders where the lawlessness of the Trump regime will end; Paul Krugman sees the end of Pax Americana; … Continue reading →

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Heather Cox Richardson, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING, post 1

Posted on Sunday 26 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Notes on the State of America” (Viking, Sep 2023, xvii + 286pp, including 30p of notes and index) Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who has become well-known, in addition to several earlier books, for her newsletter called Letters … Continue reading →

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A New Cycle of Doom: Trump’s Second Inauguration

Posted on Monday 20 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

What I said about the inaugurations 4 and 8 years ago; About Trump’s inauguration this morning, a fact-check of his speech, and how he did not place his hand on the Bible; Paul Krugman on lies, David A. Graham on … Continue reading →

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For Certain Values of Great

Posted on Sunday 19 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

From Facebook, a few days ago. The science fiction writer Robert Charles Wilson attempts to summarize the current condition in a single sentence. Facebook, Robert Charles Wilson, 11 Jan 2025: via David Gerrold. The concentration of wealth is driving novel … Continue reading →

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Cynics, Conspiracies, and the Oligarchy

Posted on Friday 17 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

RFK Jr. is a cynic, not a skeptic; Conservatives would rather punish California than deal with the climate crisis; Paul Krugman on how Trump has no plans, only yes-men; Why the decline of DEI is a worry; Peter Thiel now … Continue reading →

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MAGA Delusions About Health

Posted on Tuesday 14 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Just finished a book write-up, so a relatively short post today about current events. MAGA delusions about health; How Republican policies will make things worse, and how they don’t realize this. If it’s Tuesday, there’s a Science Section of the … Continue reading →

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The California Fires and What They Reveal

Posted on Sunday 12 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The despicable Donald Trump ignorantly criticizes California politicians, rather than offering any sympathy for the victims of the recent fires; How well-intentioned policies from decades ago are partly responsible for the fires; How humans might be doomed by their own … Continue reading →

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