Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler: FAIL-SAFE

Posted on Wednesday 20 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1962. Edition show here: HarperCollins/Ecco, trade paperback, 1999, 286pp.)

Here’s another book that begs categorization; is it really science fiction? I’ve grouped this book with two previously discussed, Pat Frank’s ALAS, BABYLON and Nevil Shute’s ON THE BEACH, because each involves nuclear war in some fashion. And since nuclear war is about the most drastic kind of change that the human race might ever experience, it fits into our broad take of science fiction being about the effects of change on the human race.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, science fiction | Comments Off on Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler: FAIL-SAFE

Further Reports on the Current Crisis

Posted on Tuesday 19 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich on groveling and inept and unprincipled people;
  • Heather Cox Richardson on our idiot-child president;
  • By wanting to banish mail-in ballots nationwide, Trump attacks states’ rights, a conservative principle for centuries;
  • On the same theme, Thomas B. Edsall looks at the mind-boggling intrusiveness of the Trump administration;
  • Similarly, a demand in Texas that all citizens stand for Christian prayers; a charge that naturalized citizens “are not Americans”; a complaint that teaching that slavery existed (and was bad) is “woke”; and two know-nothings agree that science says nothing about climate change;
  • The Week wonders if medical science will survive RFK Jr., with comments by Andrew Egger.
    – – –

     

    This can’t go on indefinitely; it hasn’t before.

    Robert Reich, 18 Aug 2025: Why Trump will fail, subtitled “The iron law of grovelers and those to whom they grovel”
    Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Further Reports on the Current Crisis

The Ultimate Cognitive Bias, and Political News

Posted on Monday 18 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Steve Stewart-Williams about an attempt to identify the one cognitive bias to rule them all: the confirmation bias;
  • Political notes: How Trump claims victory yet again; how even Fox News noticed that not much was accomplished at that summit;
  • And Salon’s Amanda Marcotte on why MAGA calls Trump “Daddy”.
– – –

Via Jerry Coyne:

Steve Stewart-Williams, The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter, 9 Aug 2025: One Bias to Rule Them All, subtitled “All cognitive biases = one of a handful of fundamental beliefs + confirmation bias”

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on The Ultimate Cognitive Bias, and Political News

Distracted by Politics, Again

Posted on Sunday 17 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Eventually I’ll get to more serious subjects. Though arguably politics is the most serious subject, because politics is about psychology and that involves how humans perceive and believe everything else. But there is a reality beneath politics (or should it be ‘beyond’), and even psychology, which is what I’m trying to get at.

  • Summaries and takes on the Trump/Putin meeting in Alaska. No one thinks it went well, except for Trump and MAGA and Fox News;
  • A piece about Trump’s speaking style: “many such cases”; “many people are saying this” and so on;
  • Gavin Newsom mocks Trump’s full-caps posts;
  • And a late Arvo Pärt piece: Symphony #4.
– – –

 

For the record. Trump went to Alaska this past weekend to meet Putin, to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Trump had two goals. He got neither. He came home and declared victory, the meeting a 10 on a scale of 10. As he does.

NY Times, news analysis by Peter Baker, 16 Aug 2025 (on today’s front page): Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine: No Cease-Fire, Deadlines or Sanctions

Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Distracted by Politics, Again

AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?

Posted on Saturday 16 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Tom Tomorrow on “defunding the police”;
  • The unreliability of AI, with an example of John Scalzi;
  • An essay about how the future will be mundane;
  • Several links on Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska;
  • Slate’s handy summary of people in the news this week (Antoni, Putin, Big Balls, et al.).
– – –

 

Curiously, given my mention two days ago of what “defunding the police” actually means, this 11-year-old cartoon by Tom Tomorrow popped up in my Facebook feed today. I’ll “quote” just the first two panels; the rest is at the link. Again, this is from 2014.

The Nib, Tom Tomorrow, 14 Aug 2014: Officer Friendly, subtitled “He’s just a good guy with a gun”

Continue reading →

Posted in authoritarianism, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?

The Fringe Is Becoming Mainstream

Posted on Friday 15 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump threatens to attack Mexico, ho hum;
  • South Koreans think electric fans are deadly;
  • A GOP rep claims evidence of “interdimensional beings”;
  • Hegseth’s pastor claims “gay marriage doesn’t exist” because he doesn’t like it;
  • Lance Wallnau thinks his god wants him to impose his religion on all of society;
  • With brief thoughts about what the world would be like if an intercessory god actually existed;
  • Pentagon uses AI pics to claim recruitment success — of women;
  • How Donald Trump makes America worse than tacky.
– – –

Sure, if you look, you can find a new alarming thing every day.

The New Republic, 15 Aug 2025: Trump Is Ready to Invade U.S. Ally if It Doesn’t Cave to His Demands, subtitled “Donald Trump has drawn up attack plans for Mexico.”
Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on The Fringe Is Becoming Mainstream

Why Totalitarians Prefer Crackpots and Fools, as We Are Seeing Under Trump

Posted on Thursday 14 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Lesson for today, from Paul Krugman, from Hannah Arendt: “Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
  • With examples of E.J. Antoni, and Stephen Miller;
  • Facts: crime is down. NYT Editorial Board explains why, with my comments about “defunding the police” actually means.
– – –

Beginning with two from Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman, 13 Aug 2025: Hackification, subtitled “Arendt’s Law comes for economic data”

Hannah Arendt was a writer and political theorist famous for works on totalitarianism. She’s noted for the phrase “the banality of evil.”

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Economics, Human Nature, Politics | Comments Off on Why Totalitarians Prefer Crackpots and Fools, as We Are Seeing Under Trump

Nostalgia Bias, and Christian Intolerance and Hypocrisy

Posted on Wednesday 13 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump’s worldview is stuck in 1989;
  • Thinking the 1990s were better than today is nostalgia bias;
  • D.C. is not the hellscape Trump claims it is (of course);
  • More about that annoying busybody who opposes gay marriage and has nothing better to do than to try to impose her religious scruples on the entire nation;
  • More about the Christian nationalist who thinks women shouldn’t have a right to vote, with perspective from Heather Cox Richardson;
  • How the leader of the Family Research Council thinks we will be fine, fine, under a [Christian] dictatorship;
  • And an essay at The Atlantic suggests Trump fans might eventually rebel against his incompetence.
– – –

Trump seems stuck in 1989. (Is that when America was last Great?)

Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley, 12 Aug 2025: Man Whose Mind Is Trapped in 1989 Orders Military to Crush the Concept of Homelessness, subtitled “What is the National Guard supposed to do here? Shoot the zoning laws?”
Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Nostalgia Bias, and Christian Intolerance and Hypocrisy

Music as Language

Posted on Tuesday 12 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • John McWhorter on Bruce Springsteen, and my own takes;
  • About modern music.

I mentioned that I had a couple thoughts about music recently. The first is inspired by this piece:

NY Times, John McWhorter, 7 Aug 2025: Springsteen Isn’t Who I Thought He Was [gift link]

McWhorter is a Columbia University linguist, who often writes about trends in English language usage. Here he admits that he only recently got around to listening to Bruce Springsteen, really listening. He begins:

From a distance I have always found Bruce Springsteen interesting, especially in his current incarnation as a committed populist straddling the line between his own politics and those of his many MAGA fans. But his set-to last spring with President Trump, who called him “overrated” and “not a talented guy,” made me realize how very little of Springsteen’s music I have ever really engaged. I must come clean and say that I just never got it.

Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Personal history | Comments Off on Music as Language

Short-Term Thinking As the Problem, As I’ve Been Saying

Posted on Monday 11 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Ben Rhodes at NYT on the perils of short-term thinking;
  • A Facebook comment about intellectual loneliness;
  • And how Trump is lying about crime in DC in order to, what? distract from the Epstein crisis? Or show random totalitarian power?
– – –

Another big substantial piece, like yesterday’s about stagnation, that speaks to one of my recurring themes.

NY Times, guest essay by Ben Rhodes, 11 August 2025: How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America [gift link]

(Title at homepage link: “We’re Trapped in Trump’s Reality. This Is How We Escape it.”)

The writer begins by discussing the new film “Eddington,” and how it “captures the American tendency to live obsessively in the present.” I haven’t seen the film, so I’ll skip his discussion of it, and cut to the chase.
Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Short-Term Thinking As the Problem, As I’ve Been Saying