Our Ultraprocessed World

Posted on Sunday 8 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • An essay about how modern manufacturers trigger off evolutionary impulses, from Doritos to AI;
  • NYT’s ideas to fix America;
  • How Trump confused two different Dana Whites;
  • Shostakovich’s 10th.
– – –

Understanding modern society through evolution.

NY Times, guest essay by Angela Duckworth, posted 5 Nov 2026, in today’s print paper: These Inventions Were Built to Trick Us

Print title: “Our World Has Become Ultraprocessed.”

Much of this is well-known. The insight here is how AI is just another manifestation of this trend.

It begins with an anecdote about tricking oystercatcher birds into sitting on larger and larger eggs — even fake ones.

It turns out that any animal can be fooled by cues that trigger its evolutionary instincts. But only people use these cues to trick each other. We create artificially enhanced diversions that, like Tinbergen’s fake oystercatcher egg, exploit our reward systems, making us feel good in the moment but leaving us worse off in the future. Is there hope? Only if we understand how radically we have reshaped our habitat and how it manipulates us in turn.

It’s long been understood that the humans developed a craving for substances that were healthy but rare in the ancestral environment, especially anything sweet. Now that humans have learned to manufacture their own food, it can be sold to people to satisfy their innate cravings. Thus obesity. (More prevalent in the South and other rural areas, it seems.)

Consider Doritos. What starts out as raw corn is processed into an irresistible snack by industrial machinery that dries, pulverizes, rehydrates, extrudes and deep-fries it — then adds salt, sugar and artificial flavorings and colorings. Most of us know that food products engineered for immediate pleasure rather than long-term nourishment should be no more than an occasional indulgence. But because instinct tells us that fat, sugar and salt mean escaping starvation and death, ultraprocessed foods now account for the majority of calories in the American diet.

Then social media, cosmetic surgery, online gambling. Cut to the chase: now AI.

And now, A.I. has become the most powerful ultraprocessing technology of all. A.I. deepfakes not only are indistinguishable from real human faces but are also rated as more trustworthy in controlled laboratory studies. A.I.-generated writing can be perceived as “more human” than human writing. And A.I.-generated medical advice has been rated as significantly more empathetic than responses from human physicians.

It’s not just our food, then, that’s ultraprocessed. Altogether, these developments have warped our environment so significantly that we live in what could be called an ultraprocessed world.

Is humanity heading down a rabbit hole? The essay makes some suggestions. Make temptations less convenient, mostly. And recalling Robert Nozick: would we choose to live in a simulation machine that satisfied all our urges, if we could?

Were Nozick alive today, he might change his mind about what most people would choose. Because we don’t have to imagine the experience machine — we’re living in it already. The question, then, is not whether we choose to plug in but rather how intentional we are about unplugging. As a species, Homo sapiens — literally “wise man” — has made some foolish choices, but it’s not too late to reshape our world, individually and collectively, for the better.

I don’t pretend to have any conclusion about this matter, but it’s one that science fiction has been considering…

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Briefly.

NY Times, today: 8 Bold Ideas to Fix America

From different contributors. Build housing. Lower Prices, now. Stop Giving OpenAI and Anthropic a Free Pass. Pass Medicare for All, but for Kids. Expand the Supreme Court. Stop Elon Musk From Making Political Contributions. End the Iran War. Legalize Undocumented Immigrants.

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Widely covered. Trump confused two Dana Whites.

Yahoo News, today: Mistaken identity? Insiders say the wrong Dana White was offered U.S. press secretary job

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Music. No ads. Schostakowitsch: 10. Sinfonie. Lots of close-ups of the musicians.

Shostakovich was post-Mahler, and wrote a couple Mahler-esque symphonies, including this one. Though Shostakovich is much more aggressive in his music. But his symphonic output was all over the map. He endured Soviet condemnation for his 4th, and so wrote a deliberately crowd-pleasing 5th. And then kept going in different directions. To my mind his 8th and 10th are the most interesting.

Posted in Evolution, Music, Social Progress | Leave a comment

Richard Haass, THE BILL OF OBLIGATIONS

Posted on Sunday 8 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “The Ten Habits of Good Citizens”
(Penguin Press, January 2023, xix + 217pp, including 42pp of acknowledgements, “Where To Go For More,” notes, and index)

Not familiar with this author, who is president of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. I was fascinated by this book because first, it’s a counterpart to all those alternate ten commandments lists, and second, it flips the idea of civil ‘rights,’ wherein the government is obliged to protect certain beliefs and behaviors of individuals, to consider instead ‘obligations,’ wherein individuals are expected to display certain behaviors toward their fellow citizens. His list is a good one, though I wondered just what he meant by the tenth, “Put Country First.” Over what? We’ll find out.

Key Points

  • He begins by examining the failures of our rights-based democracy: complex problems are not best decided by popular vote, and too many people lack expertise to vote intelligently. And the Constitution was a compromise on some key issues.
  • Comparing 1968 to Jan 6th, for example, things are getting worse. Our system was set up when the population was comparatively tiny; now we suffer a tyranny of the minority. Institutions are being weakened. Social media has no quality control.
  • Obligation #1: Be informed. Understand how things work. Understand what facts are.
  • #2: Get involved. Vote, and do more if you can.
  • #3: Stay open to compromise. Don’t hold out for perfection; beware criticism from extremists.
  • #4: Remain civil. Argue issues, don’t make things personal.
  • #5: Reject violence. Using crime for political purposes is terrorism.
  • #6: Value norms. These are the unwritten traditions, rules, customs, etc., that reduce friction in society. Like looking out for neighbors, and accepting election results.
  • #7: Promote the common good. We all have a stake in the well-being of our fellow citizens.
  • #8: Respect government service. People make mistakes, but there are mechanisms for detecting and correcting them. Public service might be incentivized, but not required.
  • #9: Support the teaching of civics. The basics of American society and economy. Immigrants often know these better than natives.
  • #10: Put country first. Over party and person. Unlike examples from Republicans and MAGA.
  • Conclusion: Obligations, along with rights, are at the core of the idea of citizenship. Think institutionally: leave one in better shape than how you found it. We can’t count on virtue winning out.

Comments

Several of his points especially resonate with themes on this site. I would extend his obligation #1, be informed, to taking responsibility not to be swindled or fooled by conspiracy theories or disinformation on social media into believing things that are not true. There are too many flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers in the world. A broader point is that virtually every one of these obligations challenge the behavior of MAGA and many Republicans — though the results of the recent election may show a reversal of this trend.

There some overlap between this book and Robert Reich’s THE COMMON GOOD (reviewed here.)

When I went to school, there was a course on civics. Three branches of government, how laws are passed, and so on. I don’t remember what grade; it might have been in elementary school. But I gather these courses have disappeared.

Full Notes

Preface

Author asks, what keeps him up at night? Political divisions in the US that are making it impossible to address its problems. Threats to democracy. Jan 6, 2021 was close. Author not particularly partisan. Began as Democrat, moved to Republican, then left that party. Democracy requires more than asserting of rights. Obligations are habits of citizenship that should happen that the law cannot require. … Our example to the world is also threatened. China would benefit if the US failed.

The book begins by examining how our rights-based democracy is failing. Then, ten obligations that could go a long way to fixing the problem.

Part One: The Crisis of Our Rights-Based Democracy

Rights and Their Limits, p3

The problem with direct democracy is that most citizens lack the time, interest, or expertise to run their societies. Complex issues are not best decided by popular vote. The solution is said to be republicanism. The Constitution was the second try at establishing a federal government, after the Articles of Confederation. Many issues were in play, including slavery. Checks and balances were important to many of the founders. Powers were shared, or overlap. Compromises were made, ending with the Bill of Rights, in 1791. But they did not address rights of slaves, women, et al. The struggle over rights continues, some about supporting rights, others about opposing them. Examples 12-13. Another debate is about what the government owes its citizens. Safety nets. This book is not about any of those. But about obligations. They are different from requirements. They are more than responsibilities. They are the best fuel for a democracy to function well. This goes beyond the ‘social contract.’ Quote from Max Arzt…

Democratic Deterioration, p17

We should never take the US for granted; we should worry about its future. The transition from 45 to 46 was not peaceful. In authoritarian countries the leader leads until he does not. The US is supposed to be different. But this time many insisted the election was fraudulent. Something is seriously amiss. Or were the events of 1968 worse? Yet that resolved peacefully. Now things are getting worse. Government jobs go unfilled; debt ceilings; legislation increasingly blocked. And trends in violence: Jan 6th. Voting rules. It may not lead to civil war, but it can easily lead to acts of violence. Along the lines of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Franklin said, you have a republic, if you can keep it. Then came the Civil War. Adams and Lincoln were not optimistic about the survival of democracy. Many have died in the past, including those overthrown by their militaries. Or decayed from within. Germany, Venezuela. Now the US. There’s a loss of common identity. A country and nation are not the same. We’re divided between red and blue. Things fall apart. The US is built from diversity from around the world. Unlike homogeneous countries in Asia and Europe etc. It’s happening in other nations as well. And authoritarian nations have become even more repressive. And it is difficult to reform the American system. The nation is 100x the population it was when the system was set up. The gap in senatorial representation is substantial. Now we have a tyranny of the minority. P28. Economic inequality erodes the feeling that we’re all part of one community. And of economic opportunity. For many there is no upward mobility. Economic insecurity. The financial crisis, and other problems. Wars of choice. The weakening of intermediary institutions, like travel agencies. And political parties. Via technology. Decades ago TV was a shared experience. Not now, not with social media. With no quality control. Misinformation. Algorithms. We’re no longer a melting pot. Now we’re lots of separate pots. There is no national curriculum to pass things on to the next generation. There are lots of ideas for how to fix things, 34ff. Few of these are likely to pass. By those afraid of losing their rights. That’s where obligations come in.

Part Two: The Bill of Obligations

Obligation I: Be Informed, p39

An old idea that goes back to Jefferson. What is an informed citizenry? [[ it should involve a basic understanding of the how the world works, as a vaccine against conspiracy theories and nonsense. ]] It means understanding how the government and economy work, challenges that exist, and options for dealing with those challenges. Ideally, also some history. To wisely cast their votes. To hold officials accountable. To be able to influence positions in their own work. Being uninformed opens you to falsehoods and conspiracy theories. How to be informed? Misinformation is everywhere. Reading the founding documents. De Tocqueville. See ‘where to go for more’ at the end of the book. On issues, which changes all the time. Read a major paper, like NYT, WSJ, or WaPo. Public radio and TV. Nightly news broadcasts on the networks. Be careful of radio, cable TV, and social media. When is a fact a fact? There are no alternative facts. Just facts and misstatements; opinions, predictions, recommendations. Examples about the budget, and climate change. And covid. Moynihan: everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. There is lots of evidence for these statements. And yet many facts are rejected by some. You have to assess who is claiming them. Experts can be wrong, but there’s a distinction between misstatements based on faulty evidence, and lies. We can’t always agree, but we can debate productively. All of this is especially important for those in positions of influence: teachers, those who give sermons, journalists, and the government.

Obligation II: Get Involved, p51

Citizens need to take an active part in their democracy. Many Americans don’t. The most basic way is to vote. The many who don’t have their excuses, mostly that their vote just wouldn’t matter. Recall how voting works, in presidential elections, with the electoral college. Example of close elections decided by just a few hundred votes. So voting matters. Beyond voting there are other ways to participate. Encourage others to vote. Working for a candidate, helping in elections. Examples. Parents should guide their kids. The clergy have opportunities to influence many. Being passive or opting out just means others are making decisions for you.

Obligation III: Stay Open to Compromise, p61

It’s not a four-letter word. It’s not selling out. As Republicans seem to think. JFK made a case for compromise. It was used writing the Constitution. Examples. But now compromise is a problem. Compromise is like the first act of a play; work on the rest later. Especially in foreign policy. Example of Obama, Iran, and Trump. Compromise involves risk. Some insist on purity, and never get everything they want. At times too much compromise can be bad, as with Britain before WWII. Appeasement. Best to focus on fundamental principles, about which there can be no compromise. Consider compromise as a choice. The most famous compromise of the modern era was likely the one that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. These days almost any compromise will be criticized by the extremists. Be prepared to explain yourself.

Obligation IV: Remain Civil, p73

This goes with manners, respect, courtesy. Like the Golden Rule. Disagreements are inevitable. Deal with arguments on their merits, not on the motives of your opponents. Don’t make things personal. Tone matters. Ask the other person to explain. Feed back your understanding of what they said. The purpose of conversations is not to demolish the other side. Better to understand their side. You might learn something. Which is not a sign of weakness. Keynes quote, 78b. Examples of Trump and Pelosi. Sen. Sinema in the rest room. How did we get here? Social media hasn’t helped. And in DC these days, officials used to spend time there; now they return home every chance they have, their families never getting to know one another. An exception the rule was the friendship of Ginsburg and Scalia. It’s like looking at media with which you disagree. Or with such people. But civility is not avoiding issues. Just as public forums like newspaper opinion pages must be open to a wide range of perspectives. There is nothing civil about denying someone a venue. [[ This goes to The Cancelling of the American Mind. ]] It’s not about censorship.

Obligation V: Reject Violence, p87

The government holds a monopoly on use of violence, except for individual self-defense. When groups or individuals turn to violence, it’s a crime. Use of crime for political purposes is called terrorism. People are tempted, but there are problems. Casualties, collateral damage. Can lead to civil war, or anarchy. It encourages others. It will subvert democracy. Better to work within the system. Or perhaps civil disobedience. Thoreau was willing to accept the penalties for what he did. Modern protests can be similar. Gandhi, King. They drew public attention to injustices. These tactics may not always work. And it’s not what happened on Jan 6th. That was an insurrection. Free speech does not absolve responsibility.

Obligation VI: Value Norms, p95

More than just obeying the law. Norms are the unwritten traditions, rules, customs, etc that reduce friction in society. Following the letter of the law isn’t enough. It’s impossible to capture into law every behavior that makes society possible. Like looking out for neighbors and fellow citizens. Help the less fortunate. And so on. Among the political norms: accepting election results. And transitions of power. Accepting the winner as the rightful leader. As happened in 2000. Even Nixon in 1960. But not Trump in 2020. The independence of the media. Treating the media with respects, not as ‘the enemy of the people.’ Being able to see tax returns from candidates for high office. Not appointing close relatives to office. Telling the truth. Not leaking information. And others. Buying and selling stock. Sometimes these norms do have to get written into law.

Obligation VII: Promote the Common Good, p107

[[ This is something conservatives usually flout! Or simply don’t understand. ]]

We live in a society, and have a stake in the well-being of our fellow citizens. A teaching found in many religions. Examples. Yet such an obligation may conflict with individual rights. Recall John Stuart Mill. Individuals are free to do what they want, except for harming others. Consider sex practices on the one hand, smoking on the other. With the latter, when a smoker becomes ill, he becomes a burden to others. And smoking threatens the health of others. Safe driving. Speed limits, stop lights. Seat belts. Despite objections to the ‘nanny state.’ Then came Covid, and masks, and vaccines. As with smallpox a century before. Why the opposition to covid masks and vaccines? Misinformation, hostility to the government, rejection of facts. Rugged individualism. Selfishness. Culture wars.

Other themes here: fairness. Equality of opportunity. Which isn’t the same as equal outcomes, which are impossible. Public health and education. Policies to prevent discrimination. Limiting school preferences for alumni. Limits on inheritances. Smry.

Obligation VIII: Respect Government Service, p121

Americans have a tradition of suspicion toward government. Thus e.g. the Bill of Rights. But by now it’s just dislike of government. Reagan’s remarks on how the government in the problem. Now we have the ‘deep state’, a conspiracy theory. Yes people make mistakes. But there are mechanisms to reveal such mistakes. Resulting in better government. 125-6. [[ The complainers don’t realize how much the government does that they take for granted. ]] The people who do that work deserve respect. Requiring participation, in the military or elsewhere, would be counterproductive. But it could be incentivized. Common experiences would break down barricades. In the past there’s been the CCC, Peace Corps, VISTA, and others. Sixty other countries do military conscription. Examples.

Obligation IX: Support the Teaching of Civics, p131

This is inspired by the Jewish Passover, and seder. It’s about understanding what it means to be a Jew. History and heritage cannot be assumed. The same is true for Americans, which is part of the inspiration for this book. Immigrants usually understand this history better than natives. Reagan saw this problem. Especially since we are founded on ideals, not religion or race. Ideally this should be taught in school. But requirements in states vary widely. What to do? Time and resources are always limited. The schools are all different, and in many students choose their own curricula. And so many get no exposure to civics at all. Schools and professors resist the idea. It can only come from government standards. And what should be taught exactly? Structure of government (the three branches, etc) and how it operates. The basics of American society and economy. The obligations. How much of history? Recall the 1619 v the 1776 narratives, and CRT. Explore different perspectives, do simulations, etc. it would be nice if a consensus were to emerge.

Obligation X: Put Country First, p145

This tenth is like the tenth amendment—a catchall. This means put America and democracy first over party and person. [[ Not, as I worried, put America first over all other nations. ]] It’s the only way to keep improving. This requires character, or virtue. As Lincoln and Bush said. Consider Merrick Garland, the Republican response, and their behavior with Amy Coney Barrett. Politics above principles. And the overturning of Roe. From a politicized Court. About thinking long-term v short-term, 151.3. Basis of conservatism, 151.5. [[ Which maga now gleefully ignores ]] Profiles in courage. A modern example would be Liz Cheney. [[ Whom maga gleefully voted out of office. ]] A counter-example would be Trump trying to deal with Zelensky with a Biden investigation. Consider also the ‘loyal opposition.’ Both words are key. Politicians are unlikely to respond to such forces without external pressure.

Conclusion, p155

Central argument, 155.7: “American democracy will endure only if obligations join rights at the core of a widely shared understanding of citizenship.” Not rugged individualism. Still, we must deal with human nature. It may depend on voters to persuade the politicians. Most of these obligations do not translate to requirements that could be legislated. Some might: national service, civics education. Against violence. Sometimes politicians have been held accountable. The obligations should take priority over immediate policy concerns, like taxes or abortion or guns. Examples. Spotify in 2022. A final obligation: think institutionally. Leave one in better shape than how your found it. Same for government, the country. We can’t count on virtue winning out, as the aftermath of Jan 6th has demonstrated.

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An appendix on “Where to go for more” p167 includes these:

The essential documents. De Tocqueville. History. Hofstadter, Zinn, Lepore. Speeches by the presidents. Memoirs. Court opinions. Ezra Klein. Civics online.

Newspapers: NYT, WP, WSJ. LAT, Boston Globe, others. The Hill, USA Today. Heather Cox Richardson. Politico, Axios. Thomas Edsall. The Economist, The New Yorker, The Atlantic. PBS, NPR, Morning Joe. Podcasts.

Political fiction: Drury, Warre, Lee, Orwell, Vidal, Lewis. West Wing. Hamilton. Websites. Museums, board meetings. Serving on a jury.

I’ve read or do read many of these, but not all; there’s only so much time in the day.

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Social Progress | Leave a comment

Framing the Right Questions

Posted on Saturday 7 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Salon is shutting down, after 31 years;
  • Elon Musk has deleted his posts supporting Republicans;
  • Paul Davies on three great origin mysteries, and how maybe people just don’t “frame the questions” correctly;
  • Scientific American about the Earth’s “Great Unconformity”;
  • A book by David Treuer about the history of violence;
  • And political items, briefly noted: Trump, Stephen Miller, the Christian left, Christian nationalism, and calls from the right for violence;
  • Another map of political alliances in the US, scaling states proportionally.
– – –

One more round. But I need to begin wrapping this thread up.

Before the politics round:

Salon is shutting down!

Salon, 5 Nov 2026: Goodbye from Salon, subtitled “It has been an extraordinary privilege.”

Today, after 31 years, we are saddened to announce that Salon is ceasing publication.

It’s difficult to find the right words for the end of something that has meant so much to so many people. Salon was never just a website. It was an idea about what journalism could be, born at a moment when the internet was still a largely unexplored frontier.

When Salon launched in November 1995, the web was a very different place. A small group of journalists set out to create something original: a publication with a strong voice, a curiosity about the world and a belief that the internet could bring journalism and readers together in new ways. They helped pioneer a form of journalism that would come to define an entirely new era of publishing.

And so on. NYT notes it here:

NY Times, 5 Nov 2026: Salon, a Pioneer of Digital Journalism, Shuts Down, subtitled “The progressive website, founded in 1995, said its business was ‘no longer sustainable.'”

Salon was started in 1995 by the journalist David Talbot as a digital magazine covering books, culture and ideas at a time before blogging and online news had taken off. It was financially backed by Apple, Adobe and the now-defunct bookstore chain Borders.

Over the years, it became known for its politically progressive views and expanded to cover politics and tech. It employed a number of well-known journalists, including Glenn Greenwald, Joan Walsh and Michelle Goldberg. Steve Kornacki, the beloved data nerd at NBC News, was at one point Salon’s politics editor, while CNN’s Jake Tapper also worked for the site as a Washington correspondent early in his career.

This is all very sad, but then media is changing and magazines are being affected too. A concern I had right away was, what would happen to the accumulated site archives at Salon? (Since I’ve posted links to many articles on site for decades.) Would they all vanish, as has happened with some website that go out of business? NYT ends:

A spokesperson for Salon said in an email that the company was still exploring options, “but there are no plans to take the archive down at this time.”

(I’ve already noticed that some image links to Salon articles expire, or rather change, which is why my links to them now don’t display the images. But that’s probably a different issue.)

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Meanwhile, there’s some weird irony here.

JMG, 5 Nov 2026: Elon Musk Is Mass-Deleting His Tweets About Election

This is a perfect example of Orwellian authoritarian behavior: change the record to deny you ever supported the losers.

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On a fundamental theme: on many basic issues, maybe humans are just asking the wrong questions. (Recall Weinberg’s book.) We think the universe works in the same way mundane, parochial human life works, even though we already know it doesn’t, at different scales.

Big Think, (6 Nov 2026): The laws of the universe are unable to explain these origin mysteries, subtitled “Physicist Paul Davies explores how chemistry first learned to write its own code, and what that reveals about the origin of life.”

(Despite the locked content warning, the full transcript is available.)

I have several of his books. Let me quote just the core of his theme here.

There are really three origin mysteries. I like to say there’s the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the origin of consciousness. Now most of my career I’ve been working cosmology. And I would say that we actually understand the origin of the universe pretty well. The origin of consciousness is a really tough one because we don’t even know how to frame the questions. We don’t know the right conceptual structure to apply when it comes to the nature of consciousness. I think it’s still deeply mysterious. The origin of life is a tough one, but we’re sort of on the case and I can imagine that within a few decades we might have a pretty good understanding.

How to “frame the questions.” We’re probably just thinking about them in the wrong way. It’s not that there aren’t some kind of ‘explanations,’ because these things exist, and must be consistent with each other.

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Two other science items.

Scientific American, today: Scientists finally solve the mystery of Earth’s ‘Great Unconformity’, subtitled “The ‘Great Unconformity’ has puzzled scientists since its discovery in the 1870s”

It seems the geological record has gaps of hundreds of millions of years, and new research suggests an answer: “deep processes inside Earth lifted some continents high above the sea, where their surfaces were scoured down by the grinding movement of enormous sheets of ice.”

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Review of a new book: THE SAVAGE MIND: An American Legacy, by David Treuer.

NY Times, Michael Thomas, today: How Frontier Violence Defined the American Mind, subtitled “David Treuer’s new book is a letter to his children about the savage history of our national character.”

Though it reads by turns like a polemic, a manifesto, a history and a meditation, “The Savage Mind” is a letter that Treuer, a member of the Ojibwe tribe, wrote to his children after George Floyd’s murder and the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, in an attempt to hold his family together as the nation seemed to be falling apart.

The book is a study of the American frontier and the violence that has always been its defining feature. The frontier no longer exists as a physical space, Treuer asserts, but endures nonetheless as “the idea, the impulse, the culture” of what once lay outside civilized life. The frontier has migrated inside us, and it has become our cultural practice to see violence as the only response to fear.

Mind you, this is not about ancient history, but about relatively contemporary American history. And it goes to the bifurcation of human nature often discussed here. And it’s about a truth of human nature that modern conservatives, as with so much else, would prefer to ignore or deny.

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And now some political items from the past two days, as briefly as possible.

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Another useful map. The standard political maps of America that show states colored red or blue is deeply misleading — precisely because of the way our electoral college works.

This is from the UK paper The Guardian, via several Facebook posts today. Comment on Fb: “Instead of showing the massive but empty red geography, it shows the state’s size based on the number of House seats. I like that. (Update: The districts inside each state are shown as equal in size, so they fit as best as possible.)”

There’s another map, which I may already have posted, that shows the US with red and blue population circles, with big blue circles around the major cities, and relatively tiny red bubbles throughout most of the middle of the country. The point of both of these of maps is that more people live in big cities, and presumably vote Democratic, than live in small towns in mid-America, who vote Republican.

But then how do Republicans win so often? Because– back to the electoral college (and the senate), that gives every small-population state the same weight as all the huge-population states. Someone calls this “the tyranny of the minority.” This is the state of modern American politics. It is dragging us down.

Posted in Human Nature, Philosophy, Politics, Science | Leave a comment

So What Then, Next?

Posted on Thursday 5 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Adam Serwer on how MAGA lost even when they won, i.e. because American society has changed;
  • Robert Reich has ideas about what should be on the Democrats’ agenda;
  • So does Dahlia Lithwick at Slate;
  • Andrew Prokop at Vox looks at the three reasons the GOP think they lost;
  • And Paul Krugman suggests that Democrats force Trump to use his veto power, echoing a comment a made yesterday.
– – –

Following up on a comment from Ken Paxton, noted yesterday, of an “America our founders gave us versus something they would never recognize.”

The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, today: Even Where MAGA Won, MAGA Lost, subtitled “A vision of a multicultural America emerges from this election.” [gift link]

Leading with this:

One of the biggest Republican wins in an otherwise-terrible midterm night for the GOP was the victory of the Trump-supporting Byron Donalds in Florida’s race for governor. Donalds will become the first Black governor of that state. If you could resurrect Jefferson Davis and tell him that the governor of Florida will be a Black Republican married to a white woman, he would crawl straight back into his coffin.

Conservatives presumably want to retain the values common in the founders’ era. They probably don’t actually mean it, because they don’t realize what those values were, but that’s what they say.

Then this:

That this was MAGA’s big win in a night of defeats is remarkable, given the movement’s hostility toward diversity, and its nostalgia for an America where rigid race and gender hierarchies were enforced by the state. Even where Republicans won, in other words, President Trump’s racially exclusive conception of American citizenship lost. Trump could browbeat corporate America into eliminating DEI programs; he could threaten colleges to let in fewer students of color; he could direct the full power of the federal government toward deporting immigrants. But he could not will away the America that actually exists.

Going on with many examples. And concluding:

In September, Trump said, “America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.” But the way MAGA talks about the America that actually exists—as opposed to the one it imagines once existed—doesn’t sound like love at all. Whether or not Americans believe in multiculturalism, we are multicultural. One is an ideology; the other is a fact.

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Now we get to the stage where commentators anticipate what will, or should, happen next.

Robert Reich, today: Office Hours: What Should Be #1 on the Democrats’ Agenda?, subtitled “Their priority when they take over Congress?”

Even with full control of Congress, it won’t be easy. Trump will remain in the White House. He’s likely to veto whatever the Democrats try to do and ignore whatever they say. He and his Cabinet officers won’t willingly testify before congressional committees investigating the regime’s actions, pleading executive privilege.

He has four items:

  1. Impeach and convict Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors;
  2. Reform our broken system of campaign finance;
  3. Enact a wealth tax on billionaires;
  4. Enact Medicare for All.

He acknowledges the challenges with each of these.

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A similar piece from Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick.

Slate, Dahlia Lithwick, today: What Democrats Must Do Now

Affordability. Accountability. Supreme Court reform. Investigations into all sorts of abuses. Probably not impeachment, even if many Americans are anxious for it.

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Looking back.

Vox, Andrew Prokop, yesterday: Whose fault is the GOP’s cataclysmic defeat? 3 theories are gaining steam on the right., subtitled “Was it Iran? The tariffs? Trumpism more broadly? The narrative warfare has begun.”

This seems to boil down to: the war; a rejection of Trumpism; and the economy.

\

This piece echoes my thought from yesterday.

Paul Krugman, today: What Democrats Can Do, subtitled “Yes, Trump has veto power. Force him to use it.”

With this passing thought:

If we had a parliamentary system, the moving trucks would already be at the White House.

It’s odd that candidates who win their elections in early November don’t take office until January. I think this is another vestige of how laws were written two centuries ago, when it could have taken weeks for a new senator from a western state to make his way to Washington DC. Like the electoral college, this is a vestige of the constraints of a past that no longer exists.

But let’s get to the point.

Democrats won’t have the margin to override Trump’s vetoes. Still, they will control the agendas.

Everyone paying attention knows that Trump and his cronies have been stealing billions, but many Americans probably don’t grasp the full extent of the corruption. Gaining the ability to bring this corruption into the sunlight is critical to rebuild Americans’ faith in the integrity of government, as well as to hold Trump and his vandals accountable. Moreover, knowing that his days are numbered, the Trump gang have every incentive to engage in a wholesale smash-and-grab spree.

Then this. Exactly.

Pass highly popular legislation that would clearly benefit ordinary Americans and not the oligarchs, knowing full well that Trump will veto the legislation. Emphatically, the Democrats should not try to make deals with Trump, a man who never agreed to a deal that he didn’t subsequently try to break.

… When Trump vetoes a bill, they should attempt to override that veto, forcing each and every Republican to either to uphold Trump’s obstruction — making it clear that they are as culpable as he is — or to develop a spine and supply the additional votes required for such overrides.

And then suggestions of laws to pass. Some form of Medicare. Restore subsidies for ACA. Dealing with Russia and Ukraine.

Other obvious examples are:

· Refusal to spend more billions of dollars on a failed war with Iran
· Ending the Trump tariffs
· Policies to safeguard Americans against the dangers of AI and data center hegemony
· Reforming tax policy so that it no longer benefits the wealthy and enables corporate tax evasion
· Ending ICE abuses
· Ending self-harming immigration policies
· Reconstituting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and giving it enforcement powers
· Levying a windfall profits tax on oil companies
· Policies that benefit cost-effective green energy, like solar and wind farms
· Legislation that eliminates the ability of politicians and their family members to benefit financially from their offices

On all these issues and more, the Democrats should force Trump to use his veto power, making it clear to the country that he is the reason Americans are suffering under destructive policies that benefit the oligarchs, Trump and his cronies.

\\\

Music:

More Mahler middle movements. 4 and 5 today.

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Jared Huffman: NO PROPHETS

Posted on Thursday 5 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism
(Norton, August 2026, 221pp, including 26pp acknowledgements, notes, and further reading)

This book came to my attention because its author, a congressman from California, was on KQED’s Forum show a few weeks ago (audio and transcript here) and Huffman is the only member of Congress to ‘come out’ as an atheist or agnostic, or as he puts it, “he does not believe in gods.” This isn’t just a coming-out story, though; it’s mostly about what he’s observed from Congress about the organizations pushing Christian nationalism, and specific members of the current administration who endorse them or actively promote them. Finding out who they are and what they “believe” is pretty scary. As I’ve said before, they strike me as un-American, putting their religion above the Constitution they swore to uphold, a Constitution they would replace if they could.
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The 2026 Blue Wave

Posted on Wednesday 4 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Results of the election;
  • Reactions at Slate, The Atlantic, from John Scalzi, at The New Republic, from David Pakman;
  • JMG reports Midterms Sadz from various conservative voices;
  • What a change in news coverage might look like;
  • NYT contrasts blue vs red, or “Radicalism vs. Corruption,” so I looked closely to see what conservatives think is so radical about the left.
– – –

So there was a big election yesterday, with a larger-than-expected ‘blue wave’ of Democratic wins in many states. Most significant midterm election of 50 years, or something like that. I don’t need to summarize the details here, except to note that Trump blames everyone but himself, Vance blames the war, and the usual suspects think voter fraud was involved (or maybe demons).

Some just headlines.

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David Pakman: THE ECHO MACHINE

Posted on Wednesday 4 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America
(Beacon Press, March 2025, 200pp, including 25pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index)

Pakman is a podcaster and YouTuber with frequent posts on Facebook, which is where I started following him. See The David Pakman Show. This is his first book, from early last year. He has another book, just out, called PAY ATTENTION.

Much in this book is familiar, especially the history of the right as a reaction against the era of civil rights and the resistance to science and expertise as the increasing regulatory environment against big business. Passing through critical thinking, and leading to the modern era of social media and media bubbles. It’s a good summary, familiar from Richardson and others, and more current, since Pakman is on the air every day reacting to current events, and this book is less than two years old. What’s new here include his basic defense of the left, given the progress in recent centuries, and discusses how countries that are social democracies (not socialist) are among the most prosperous in the world.
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Life Is About Uncertainty

Posted on Tuesday 3 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Election Day! In recent years every election day is the most critical one in history, which is just one more piece of evidence about scale-blindness and short-term thinking. I could do more political posts today, but I think I did enough yesterday, and I’m sure there will be lots more tomorrow.

Step out to the big picture. All our politics are petty tribal disputes. There is a real world out there, that exists despite human politics, even if some tribes deny it.

Washington Post, opinion by Stuart Firestein, today: The best part of science might be what rattles you, subtitled “It’s uncertain why blood pressure medicine works. That’s no reason to reject it — or other discoveries.”

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The Trashing of America, Intellectually and Civilly, under Trump and MAGA

Posted on Monday 2 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How Trump is dismantling the American scientific research machine;
  • And how Republicans are trashing decorum and civility;
  • How Trump is deteriorating;
  • Voting recommendations from John Scalzi: don’t vote for Republicans;
  • Max Boot on why Hegseth should go;
  • Tuck Carlson, demon hunter;
  • California’s Prop 40, and Robert Reich’s take on it;
  • From last week, a perspective on Trump’s utter failure.
– – –

Long article on today’s NYT front page.

NY Times, posted 31 Oct 2026: How Trump Is Dismantling America’s Scientific Research Machine, subtitled “The system that has driven life-altering discoveries and helped make the United States a superpower is now under intense strain.”

MAGA presumably doesn’t care. They have their Bibles. The one-time greatest nation in the world is being taken down.

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A Day’s Drive

Posted on Sunday 1 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

We took a ‘day off’ yesterday to get out of the house and away from our computers. (That’s the official story.) I had a plan to drive down through Scotts Valley, a part of the Bay Area, seen on TV weather maps, that we’ve never visited, or even driven through. It’s north and just a bit west of Santa Cruz, and includes neighborhoods like Ben Lomond and Bonny Doon that people we know, or have read, once lived in.

Along the way, I wanted to visit Kepler Books, one of the major bookstores in the Bay Area and one which I had never, in the 11 years we’ve lived in Oakland, visited. (It’s an hour’s drive south from us.) So we drove across the 84 bridge — which I’d never been across, another first — and into the rather lush neighborhoods of Atherton and Menlo Park, just north of Stanford.

(In the middle of this drive, my sister in Simi Valley called to tell me that she are her husband are moving to Philadelphia early next year. She has a son who settled there. And so many things she doesn’t like about California. I didn’t ask.)

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