The War, the Economy, and Religion

Posted on Wednesday 18 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Yet more commentators on the stupidity of this war with Iran, from Adam Lee, Suzanne Maloney, and Susan B. Glasser;
  • How the economies under Biden and Trump aren’t that much different;
  • Brief items about why conservatives need guns, Christian Nationalists who admit they mean to impose their morality on everyone, how the transgender plague is driven by demons, hurricanes, tricks, and Christian theology;
  • And two examples of the first lesson of comparative religion, for conservatives.
– – –

Adam Lee on the war.

OnlySky, Adam Lee, 18 Mar 2026: The colossal stupidity of war with Iran, subtitled “An unwinnable war without a goal and with consequences for the world.”

If anyone still doubted that Donald Trump will be remembered as the worst president of all time, he’s doing his best to eliminate that doubt.

Last month, America and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, assassinating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian military officials. (We also accidentally bombed a school, killing over a hundred children.)

This is all the more hypocritical because isolationism used to be one of Trump’s defining policy stances. As a candidate, he railed against politicians whom he said would get us bogged down in wars:

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Is Trump Insane, Delusional, or Merely an Inveterate Liar?

Posted on Tuesday 17 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump claims a former president supports his actions in Iran; the four living former presidents all deny it;
  • Many on the extreme right sound insane to the rest of us, with examples;
  • Trump is pressuring the media to support his war, as authoritarians do;
  • Yet another example of how Trump is only transactional, without principles;
  • John Pavlovitz on how MAGA Americans will feign ignorance of the Trump administration, jut as Germans did about the NAZIs.
  • A report on the health of Democracies around the world is unsurprising concerning the US;
  • Anne Applebaum on how everyone but Trump understands what he’s done;
  • Philip Glass’s Monsters of Grace.
– – –

Today’s story about crazy Trump.

NY Times, 16 Mar 2026: Trump Claims an Ex-President Confided His Regrets on Iran. But Who?, subtitled “The New York Times reached out to people close to President Trump’s predecessors. They disputed Mr. Trump’s claims.”

President Trump claimed on Monday that a former president told him privately that “I wish I did what you did” in attacking Iran and killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr. Trump would not identify which of the four living predecessors he was referring to.

“He said, ‘I wish I did what you did,’” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t want to get into ‘who,’ I don’t want to get him into trouble.”

All of the four living ex-presidents have denied any such conversation. Is Trump delusional? Insane? Lying by rote as he always does?

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Clueless, Stupid, and Cruel

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The status of Trump’s war in Iran;
  • Paul Krugman explains that America is not respected around the world;
  • And how George Orwell foresaw this;
  • Robert Reich on Trump’s stupidest cabinet member: Pete Hegseth;
  • How Hegseth doesn’t understand “no quarter” any more than he understands “rules of engagement”;
  • Brief items about Peter Thiel’s antichrist fixation; grandparents who remember what vaccines were for; the pointless voter fraud bill; how conservative Christians aren’t helping their cause; how the Trump administration is now forced to hire migrant workers (to replace those who were deported); and about the DOGE dolts who mindlessly slashed DEI programs and didn’t actually save any money.
– – –

Recently in the Iran war: Trump has declared the mission complete, or nearly complete, or maybe complete in a few more weeks, but even if it’s complete now, he’s thinking of bombing them some more just for fun. Also, he’s asking all the American “allies” he has insulted with tariffs this past year for help clearing the Strait of Hormuz, and they have declined or not responded, while dolts like Newt Gingrich suggest using nuclear bombs to clear a new pathway that avoids the Strait. These people are clueless.

Thus.

Paul Krugman, 16 Mar 2026: No, America is Not Respected, subtitled “Thanks to Trump, we’re held in contempt even by our closest allies”

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Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan: SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Search for Who We Are
(Random House, Oct 1992, xvi + 505pp, including 85pp of notes, permissions acknowledgements, and index.)


This is perhaps Carl Sagan’s most substantial book, on the grounds that it’s through-written as a single composition; it’s not a compilation or fix-up of previously written magazine pieces, as THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD was, or an edited series of lectures, as THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE WAS, or aligned by chapter to episodes of a TV show, like COSMOS was, or a book aligned to an earlier book, like THE PALE BLUE DOT was.

And on the grounds that it takes a wide perspective, a sort of 10,000 foot view of a period of history not examined by most books about evolution, or the cosmos, or human history. It’s about the history of life up until humanity’s ancestors came on the stage, and so it outlines how and why life on Earth came to be, and how things like competition and violence necessarily came to characterize life on Earth.

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The Most Dangerous Vision

Posted on Sunday 15 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A brief post today, after a long afternoon/evening watching the Oscars. (On the West Coast, what with pre-shows, it ran from mid-afternoon to nearly 8pm.)

So instead of linking news or opinion items today, let me note a nascent thought of mine that’s emerged in recent weeks. I’ll begin with a reminder that every post like this, every post other than objective linking and quoting, is a first draft of sorts, a record of today’s thoughts that might undergo rethinking tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Just as what I opined yesterday, or last month, or five years ago isn’t necessarily what I’d say today. (Usually, when I look back at old posts, I’m bothered only by inexact wording, not ideas I’ve completely abandoned. For some of these ideas it’s important to state things precisely, lest people read into them things I didn’t mean. You know the examples.)

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What Western Civilization is Actually About

Posted on Saturday 14 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Francis Fukuyama, responding to Marco Rubio, on how Western Civilization is more about the Enlightenment than religious faith;
  • And Boston Globe via Steven Pinker on that Tennessee congressman’s anti-Muslim screed;
  • Briefly noted items about Trump’s shoe tests and their Soviet odor, Trump’s disconnect with reality, video games, non-Protestant events, forcing student-led prayer, destroying DC architecture, more about the Beha book, dismantling a renowned science lab, Trump’s sons cashing in on drones, weakening limits on a cancer-causing gas, and the eternal sea of misinformation about vaccines.
– – –

Persuasion, Francis Fukuyama, 3 Mar 2026: What “Western Civilization” Really Means, subtitled “It has less to do with faith — and more to do with the Enlightenment — than Marco Rubio thinks.”

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Movie relevance, conservative intuition, unbothered people, Paul and Heather

Posted on Friday 13 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How A House of Dynamite, not nominated for any Oscars, is more important and relevant than any of the pictures nominated, and a great movie;
  • Trump needs to “feel it in my bones” to make a decision, which is precisely the conservative limitation to learning;
  • John Pavlovitz has had it with unbothered people;
  • Paul Krugman chats with Heather Cox Richardson.
– – –

I appreciate this nod. This is a movie I watched twice in two nights, late last year, as discussed here. It’s important and relevant in a way none of the actual Best Picture nominees are. (Well, One Battle After Another might be just as close, in a different way. But not Sinners, as effective as that film is.) And it’s well-made and suspenseful.

And especially considering the current political situation.

Slate, Ian Prasad Philbrick, 13 Mar 2026: The Oscars Are This Weekend. The Movie We Should All Be Talking About Isn’t Even Nominated.

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Stupid vs. Evil

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich’s take on what the two US political parties think of each other, and my interpretation of conservative thinking;
  • About Pete Hegseth and how he sees moral purpose in war as a weakness;
  • Another item about parental rights, concerning social media; and my thoughts about this complex subject.
– – –

Another take on the spectrum of human nature.

Robert Reich, 10 Mar 2026: Why do Americans hate each other while Canadians love each other?, subtitled “Could it have something to do with our politics? With the sociopath in the Oval?”

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Whiteson & Warner, DO ALIENS SPEAK PHYSICS?

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “And other questions about science and the nature of reality”
(Norton, 2025, 254pp, including 12pp of bibliography and index)

Here’s a book that’s remarkable in an unusual way: I didn’t hear about it from anywhere, not in a review, not referenced from somebody else’s book. And I had never heard of the authors. I saw it in a bookstore, and bought it on impulse. (Well the blurbs from Sean Carroll, Carlo Rovelli, Phil Plait, and Daniel Dennett helped.)

It was a good decision, because the book speaks to a profound issue, even if it’s a little too wiseacre and jokey for my taste. As if they didn’t a serious reader to be interested?

The question the book asks could be rephrased, would aliens perceive the universe the same way humans do? Continue reading →

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Clown Shoes, and Republican Obsequiousness

Posted on Wednesday 11 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Marco Rubio in clown shoes;
  • Republicans think oppressing trans kids is more important than parental rights;
  • Trump’s delusional faith in himself;
  • That photo of the prayer group in the Oval Office is being mocked in China;
  • Motivated thinking sees that the Bible warns against socialism;
  • That medical ship never went to Greenland, but one MAGA guy complains it’s not getting enough press coverage.
– – –

As noted yesterday, this item wins the prize, for this week certainly, maybe for the month or the year, for demonstrating Trump’s idiocy and his cabinet’s obsequiousness. Covered widely today in the news and on Facebook.

The New Republic, 11 Mar 2026: Marco Rubio Roasted for Wearing Clown Shoes Trump Bought Him, subtitled “Donald Trump has bought everyone in his Cabinet the same pair of shoes—evidently without checking what size people wear.”
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