Trying to Understand How Modern Life Makes Sense in Larger Contexts

Posted on Sunday 18 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

I like to think that this blog isn’t about politics, per se, but about following current events and trying to make sense of them in larger contexts, especially the broad contexts both of history and of what science fiction explores. Though again today, I am cramped for time, so let’s note these items relatively quickly. And obviously I don’t have any final answers.

Update 20jan26:

  • How Trump is fighting half of America;
  • How for Trump justice means vengeance;
  • How Trump is trashing America.
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AlterNet, Alex Henderson, 18 Jan 2026: Inside Trump’s ‘retribution’ against ‘half of America’

AlterNet is essentially a consolidation site (as JMG is), and this item is based on an MS Now (formerly MSNBC) piece by Paul Waldman (formerly of Washington Post).

MS Now, Paul Waldman, 18 Jan 2026: The president of the United States is at war with his own country, subtitled “The Trump administration is engaged in a comprehensive war, and its enemy is half of America.”

Is this not obvious or do I need to quote? OK I’ll quote.

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Trek and Woke, Perception and Reality, Art and Truth

Posted on Saturday 17 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Stephen Miller accuses the new Trek series of being woke, with my comments on how the original Trek series was extremely woke, especially for its era;
  • An interview with Anil Seth about deep reality and whether it’s built by human perception, coincidentally reflecting the themes of books I’m currently reading;
  • Jerry Coyne about whether art is truth;
  • Brahms’ 4th.
– – –

More evidence of the cluelessness of the folks in the Trump administration. This concerns the debut of a new Trek series called “Starfleet Academy,” which I haven’t seen.

(Image from Facebook.)

HuffPost, 16 Jan 2026: Stephen Miller Mocked For Begging William Shatner To Save ‘Star Trek’ From Wokeness, subtitled Many people interpreted Miller’s X post as a variation of “show me you don’t understand the point of ‘Star Trek’ without saying you don’t understand the point of ‘Star Trek.'”

The Independent, 16 Jan 2026: Stephen Miller ridiculed over his next target – saving ‘woke’ Star Trek, subtitled “White House adviser says the popular science fiction franchise should boldly go back to 94 year-old William Shatner”

Because ‘woke,’ to the modern conservative, means acknowledging the existence of anyone who is not (human), white, straight, Christian, and male.

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Friday the 16th

Posted on Friday 16 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Candace Owens thinks Charlie Kirk was a time traveler, or Charlie Kirk thought that, or both;
  • Christian nationalist pastor Jack Hibbs doesn’t want any contact with Democrats;
  • How the world is adjusting to an unreliable United States;
  • A reporter who applied for ICE calls out the Trump administration’s lies about her
  • And a reflection about “ordinary Germans” during the Nazi era and “ordinary Americans” now.
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The Jerusalem Post, 16 Jan 2026 (via JMG): Candace Owens pushes theory Charlie Kirk was ‘time traveller’ who went to ‘X-Men school’, subtitled “In a recent episode of her podcast, Candace Owens said Charlie Kirk told her he was a ‘time traveler’ who was sent to ‘X-Men school,’ and alleged he was monitored since childhood.”

Controversial US political commentator Candace Owens claimed in a recent episode of her podcast that the late activist Charlie Kirk told her that he was a “time traveler,” and knew that he would die young.

“It is an absolute fact that Charlie Kirk thought that he was a time traveler. He told me he was a time traveler. Repeatedly,” she claimed.

So this is saying that Charlie Kirk thought he was a time-traveler? Is it also saying that Candace Owens believed him? Either way this is lunacy of course, another example of conservative disconnect from reality, presumably because they live in some kind of fantasy world derived from religion and pop culture.

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Daily Outrages. Tyrant.

Posted on Thursday 15 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

It is too tiring to keep up on the daily outrages. I have things to do. But we can’t become complacent. So headlines today, with minimal comment.

  • Items about gaslighting, Bari Weiss, Trump not as fascist but as tyrant, winking at white nationalists, giving a pass to a red state’s welfare fraud, Trump’s Greenland delusion, the reversal in cutting funds to mental health and addiction services, more gaslighting, RFK Jr.’s plan to bankrupt vaccine manufacturers;
  • Re: Heated Rivalry: how Russia treats gays the way MAGA treats the left; and how the world keeps warming while conservatives are apparently unable to understand this.
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Further Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 14 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Another busy day; no time for a big think piece. Short pieces then. Every day there’s more evidence of my running themes.

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ICE are the terrorists.

The Telegraph, 14 Jan 2026: Moment ICE agents drag ‘disabled woman’ from car in Minneapolis, subtitled “Officers filmed smashing window and cutting driver’s seat belt to remove her from vehicle”

Another woman turning onto a street filled with ICE agents. And therefore doomed.

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The Political Divide

Posted on Tuesday 13 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Eric Levitz at Vox on the “fiction” of the Left/Right divide, and how core principles nevertheless do divide the parties;
  • Brief items about ICE recruiting and the right presuming the worst about everyone;
  • Noting the death of Erich von Däniken, and what Carl Sagan said about him.
– – –

Long piece I saw yesterday.

Vox, Eric Levitz, 12 Jan 2026: The fiction at the heart of America’s political divide, subtitled “The uncomfortable truth about ‘the left’ and ‘the right.'”

I’ll quote some of this piece’s thesis…

America’s most impassioned Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much. Ask the inhabitants of Bluesky and Truth Social whether a fetus is a person, or undocumented immigrants are a scourge, or trans women are women, or climate change is a crisis, or Covid vaccines are toxic, or taxes are too high, or welfare spending is too low, or AR-15s should be banned, or the federal bureaucracy should be gutted, or the police discriminate against Black people, or universities discriminate against white men, or Donald Trump is a fascist, or Joe Biden is the reanimated corpse of a man who died in 2020, and each group is liable to provide warring answers.

If staunch Democrats and Republicans agree on anything, however, it’s that their myriad policy disputes all follow from a deeper philosophical conflict — the centuries-long clash between progressive and conservative conceptions of political justice, truth, and human nature.

But some political scientists, social psychologists, and philosophers say this is, to use a technical term, “bullshit.”
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Their Core Priority: Make Money

Posted on Monday 12 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Busy day so a quick post for now and no time to dress up yesterday’s post. Today I have a couple long items that will have to wait until tomorrow.

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There may be a tie in all this to the so-called masculinity crisis. As a couple commentators have mentioned, nothing upsets a macho MAGA guy more than thinking a woman is laughing at him, or not taking him seriously. And if that guy has a gun…

Salon, Andi Zeisler, 12 Jan 2026: In Renee Good’s killing, ICE’s misogyny isn’t a side note — it’s the point, subtitled “The words of the man who shot Renee Good speak to the Trump administration’s fixation on masculinity”
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Our Era of 21st Century Villains

Posted on Sunday 11 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Just the headline will do here.

Washington Post, Letters to the Editor, 11 Jan 2026: MAGA justice: Shoot first, don’t even ask questions later

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NY Times, 10 Jan 2026: F.B.I.’s Inquiry Into ICE Shooting Faces Doubts After White House’s Remarks

First para:

The Trump administration blocked Minnesota officials from investigating the death of the woman shot on Wednesday by a federal agent, then quietly offered this explanation: Local investigators simply could not be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry.

This is, of course, exactly upside down. It is the Trump administration that cannot be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry, because it’s already passed judgment about the victim as some kind of left-wing agitator who deserved what she got, within a mere couple hours after the incident, and before exculpatory videos came in.
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Does Human Morality Progress, or Not?

Posted on Saturday 10 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Apropos of nothing else in this post, but anyone following social media will understand.

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The big story of the week, which I’m not quite letting go. This could be a growing story that actually has consequences. Unlike so many scandalous incidents by Trump and his MAGA acolytes, that they just get away with.

This Christian lies.

JMG, 10 Jan 2026: Christian Site Mocks “Toxic Empathy” For ICE Victim

Quoting Ryan Helfenbein in the Christian Post: “This tragedy was entirely avoidable, but because a mother decided her duty to obstruct law enforcement, try to flee, and accelerate straight at them superseded her duty to comply, she is now dead.” Then he quotes scripture, where you can find justification for absolutely anything you want to believe.

She did *not* “accelerate straight at them.” It’s there over and over, in the videos. Why does he lie? Because religious ideology trumps evidence and reason; and everyone not on Trump and MAGA’s side is assumed to be evil and culpable?

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The Paradox of MAGA

Posted on Friday 9 January 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

My fascination with this ICE killing in Minnesota is, again, that it’s a perfect example of the paradox of MAGA, if not of conservatives in general. They claim to be Christians, and to revere the Constitution and the US Founders, yet behave in ways that utterly contradict those philosophies. Rather, they act like xenophobic tribalists to whom everyone else on the planet is evil or subhuman. I conclude that the Bible and the Constitution are to them merely totems that mark tribal solidarity; they don’t actually understand, or follow, them.

Sampling today’s posts.

Slate, Molly Olmstead, 9 Jan 2026: They Didn’t Even Need a Deepfake, subtitled “A.I. was going to be what broke our shared reality. It turns out, it wasn’t needed.”

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