Is the universe friendly, or hostile?

Posted on Wednesday 16 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • David Wallace-Wells on the Epstein scandal, with items by Zack Beauchamp and Shawn McCreesh;
  • How simple-minded Trump characterizes his adversaries as “evil”;
  • How Trump’s economic agenda is driven by simple-minded lies and misunderstandings;
  • How the question “Is the world a friendly place” underlies the range of human nature that determines our politics;
  • And Robert Reich conducts a poll asking when Trump and his followers think American was “great”.
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NY Times, David Wallace-Wells, 16 Jul 2025: The Epstein Story Is Both Conspiracy Theory and Genuine Scandal [gift link]

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History and Change

Posted on Tuesday 15 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump keeps a trophy for himself;
  • Paul Krugman on why the Trump administration is killing science;
  • How MAGA needs stories in which they are the heroes;
  • Why Trump fans aren’t forgiving Trump about Epstein;
  • Heather Cox Richardson about Trump’s “mandate” vs. actual polls of Americans about immigration.
– – –

First, I amended Harari item posted yesterday.

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This seems to be the most popular story today, at least on social media.

The Daily Beast, 14 Jul 2025: Trump Kept Gold Club World Cup Trophy for Himself So FIFA Had to Give the Winners a Replica
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The problem with the world is not evil. It’s ignorance, and delusion.

Posted on Monday 14 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Two thoughts from Yuval Noah Harari today;
  • Ramez Naam on how AI models converge on “moderately left-libertarian political viewpoints”;
  • Another piece about how people should be held accountable for tragedies;
  • Heather Cox Richardson summaries the Epstein fiasco;
  • WaPo’s Philip Bump has another take;
  • Linda Greenhouse at NYT wonders how we are not standing up to “this venomous cruelty”;
  • Why Kristi Noem hates FEMA (it boils down to white supremacy, and conservatives’ extremely tight circles of moral concern, i.e. the poor and disadvantaged should be on their own);
  • To some GOP members, cruelty is required to show allegiance to the tribe.
– – –

Today’s thoughts from Yuval Noah Harari, on Facebook.

First this:

Mythology takes human relationships and inflates them as if the whole universe works like our families. Continue reading →

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Responsibility, Certainty, and Doubt

Posted on Sunday 13 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Defunding weather science and disaster response to save money is like cancelling all your insurance policies to manage your household budget;
  • LAT: Robin Abcarian on the implausibilities of expecting Medicaid recipients to replace deported farmworkers;
  • NYT: Peter Baker on how Trump wants to reverse history by a century, and how this reflects conservative values;
  • And Salon: a psych prof on how certainty is toxic, and ambiguity should be embraced.
– – –

This is like trimming the household budget by cancelling all your insurance policies. It’s irresponsible.

NY Times, 13 Jul 2025: Trump Is Gutting Weather Science and Reducing Disaster Response

Subtitled: “As a warming planet delivers more extreme weather, experts warn that the Trump administration is dismantling the government’s disaster capabilities.”
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No Necessary Nations

Posted on Saturday 12 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Stephan Marche on how there are no necessary nations, and no permanent global order;
  • Judges, appointed both by Republicans and Democrats, speak out against the Trump administration;
  • Heather Cox Richardson identifies one key failure in the Texas floods, the result of a Trump policy;
  • And NYT shows how FEMA answered fewer and fewer emergency calls, because of firings by the Trump administration, even *after* the floods happened;
  • How the new Superman movie is — like so much else — too “woke” for conservatives;
  • Similarly, how Charlie Kirk thinks *all* immigrants threaten his values.
– – –

Quoted by The Week, Saturday Wrap, 12 July 2025.

Stephen Marche in The Guardian:

One of the great ironies of history is that the triumph of MAGA has led to the piecemeal destruction of everything that once made America great, and on every level. Its power derived from a reliable trade network, with logistical chains that were the wonders of the world, combined with a huge alliance network, and the greatest scientific and technological institutes in the world. It is systematically destroying all of those strengths far more thoroughly than any enemy could. The lesson the Americans once taught the British, they are teaching the rest of the world: There are no necessary nations. There are no permanent global orders.

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Two Takes on the Problem with Men

Posted on Friday 11 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • David French and Jordan Peterson and competing theories about the problem with men;
  • About cuts to science research; do Republicans not understand investments in the future?;
  • A report about Lara Trump’s show on Fox News;
  • An essay by Tom Nichols about how Hollywood (and also books) have treated the idea of nuclear catastrophe;
  • And how the EPA has decided to respond to conspiracy theories about chemtrails.
– – –

How does this relate to the item I posted on 19 Jun about the demographic shift to a preference for baby girls over baby boys?

NY Times, opinion by David French, 10 Jul 2025: What’s the Matter With Men? [gift link]

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As I’ve Been Saying…

Posted on Thursday 10 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Is there any point in noting these same issues again and again? Yes. Because they are evidence of the decline of the US, which most Americans are not noticing, and I think this is important, not so much as this is because where I’ve grown up and lived my life, as for the intellectual issue about how great nations can decline. Many Americans seems not to care. We’re living in history. To ignore it would be irresponsible.

  • More on the absurd plan to use Medicaid recipients to pick vegetables;
  • Paul Krugman on how disasters like the Texas floods *should* be politicized — that’s what politics is for (not zero-sum game bickering);
  • Again, immigrants are not parasites, as conservatives think;
  • How private prisons are reaping billions;
  • The Atlantic on how America has never seen corruption like this.
– – –

Washington Post, opinion by Philip Bump, 10 Jul 2025: Want Medicaid coverage? Go pick some vegetables., subtitled “The unworkable plan to replace deported farmworkers with non-working Medicaid recipients.”
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Darkest Days

Posted on Wednesday 9 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Shorter items today.

  • The Supreme Court and “emergencies”;
  • How Trump reflexively blames Biden;
  • And how Trump takes credit for what Biden actually did;
  • The confusion over Epstein conspiracy theories;
  • Trump wants more factories, but is expelling the workers who might work in them;
  • They want Medicaid recipients to replace immigrants in the farms???
  • Our $178 billion police state;
  • How guys want to burn things, and so resent renewable energy;
  • The familiar racism in the NYC mayoral race;
  • Robert Reich on how the budget for ICE will just encourage them;
  • Where does opting-out undermine public education?
  • Another example of conservative who don’t believe in climate change (which is real) but do believe in weather control (which is not);
  • The latest example of spreading false Christian Nationalist history.
  • And a brief musical thought.
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Slate, Mark Joseph Stern, 8 Jul 2025: The Bleak Unifying Principle of This Supreme Court Term subtitled “It’s an emergency whenever Trump says so.”

Trump gets his way by declaring everything an emergency, and the Supreme Court is obliged to let Trump do what he wants, because, well, it’s an emergency

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CNN, analysis by Aaron Blake, 8 Jul 2025: After disasters like the Texas flood, Trump reflexively blames Biden

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David Brooks on Alasdair MacIntyre and How We Got to Where We Are

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

One item today. A long piece from David Brooks, trying to understand how we got here, given history.

The Atlantic, David Books, 8 Jul 2025: Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good?, subtitled “The work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre helps illuminate some central questions of our time.” [gift link]

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Robert A. Heinlein: THE DOOR INTO SUMMER

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1957. Edition here: Orion/Gollancz/SF Masterworks 2003, 178pp, with an introduction by Stephen Baxter)

I’m no expert on Robert A. Heinlein — I still haven’t read Farah Mendlesohn’s book about him — but I have read *almost* all his books at least once (excepting one or two at the very end), and over the past decade have been working my way back through the bulk of them for a second (or third) time. Continue reading →

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