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]

Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Two Takes on the Problem with Men

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.”
Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on As I’ve Been Saying…

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.
– – –

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

\

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

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Music, Politics | Comments Off on Darkest Days

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]

Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Human Nature, Politics, progress | Comments Off on David Brooks on Alasdair MacIntyre and How We Got to Where We Are

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 →

Posted in Book Notes, Heinlein, science fiction | Comments Off on Robert A. Heinlein: THE DOOR INTO SUMMER

What Is America Thinking?

Posted on Monday 7 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Will scientific advances by the US continue? Do most Americans care?
  • My take on the big picture of the cultural change in the US, and other societies;
  • Heather Cox Richardson, and Nitish Pahwa at Slate, summarize what’s to blame for the Texas floods: the denial of climate change, and the appeal of absurd conspiracy theories;
  • The problem of original intent, as demonstrated by that law school paper about white supremacy that won an award.
– – –

 

Washington Post, Bruce Partridge, 6 Jul 2025: These scientific advances were ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Will they continue?, subtitled “America has long led in research. Budget cuts could jeopardize that dominance.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Science | Comments Off on What Is America Thinking?

How Doing Your Own Research Actually Works, and the Texas Floods

Posted on Sunday 6 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Adam-Troy Castro on people who “do their own research”;
  • And how RFK Jr. is ignoring decades of research into autism that have already answered his questions;
  • Debates about whether Trump/MAGA’s cuts to weather agencies had a role to play in the Texas floods;
  • And standard Republican reactions: “All we know how to do is pray”; This isn’t the time to talk about weather agencies; and somehow or another, the Democrats must be to blame.
  • Yes, MAGA is reveling in the abuse of migrants;
  • And a history of US immigration, on CBS Sunday Morning today.
– – –

Just sayin’.

An insight from Adam-Troy Castro, on Facebook, about people who “do their own research”: Sunday, July 6, 2025 at 8:58
Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History | Comments Off on How Doing Your Own Research Actually Works, and the Texas Floods

True Colors

Posted on Saturday 5 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • More conservative racism: Everyone is *not* welcome; Laura Loomer would boycott brands that don’t use white actors in their TV commercials;
  • MTG thinks evildoers are using weather control to create the deadly floods in Texas;
  • Meanwhile, people who know real things have been warning about the effects of climate change for decades — of course;
  • Yet another Republican (the “Jesus. Guns. Babies.” lady) thinks the Texas floods have been faked;
  • And Timothy Snyder on concentration camps and the potential in the Constitution’s 13th Amendment to allow slavery for punishments of crimes.
– – –

From my favorite aggregate site. More evidence of conservative racism. And the idiocy of the extremes.

JMG, 5 Jul 2025: Idaho AG Bans “Everyone Is Welcome” Signs In Schools

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Culture, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on True Colors

So Many People to Hate!

Posted on Friday 4 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • ICE now has a budget bigger than all but 15 countries’ military budgets;
  • Why has funding for ICE has ballooned, compared to previous presidents?;
  • Trump says he wants to deport bad people born in the US, too;
  • Trump wants to host a UFC Fight on White House grounds;
  • Robert Charles Wilson on the current times, and how science fiction might respond to them; how “change is inevitable” and how decency is more likely to build a sustainable human civilization.
– – –

Conservatives in America.

The New Republic, 3 Jul 2025: Congress Gives ICE More Money Than It Could Have Ever Imagined, subtitled “It’s impossible to overstate how much power ICE just got from Trump’s budget.”

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Morality, Politics, science fiction | Comments Off on So Many People to Hate!

How It Works. How They Work.

Posted on Thursday 3 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How it works: Republican megadonors get megacontracts to run ICE concentration camps;
  • How they work:
    • Republicans are even less pluralistic than they’ve ever been;
    • Robert Reich on the familiar reasons authoritarians suppress education, and what “conservative ideas” might possibly be;
    • Short items about prison costs, Christians who want to execute gays, and the White House invoking Satan.
– – –

See how this works? (As usual, follow the money.)

JMG, 3 Jul 2025: Republican Megadonors To Get Tens Of Millions In Federal Contracts To Run Florida’s Concentration Camp

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Politics | Comments Off on How It Works. How They Work.