Monthly Archives: August 2025

Trump the Bully Seems to Be What Many People Want

David Remnick of The New Yorker on Trump the Bully; Heather Cox Richardson on Trump promises not kept; Trump’s escalating racist attacks on Black Americans; How Fox News feeds anti-immigrant propaganda to its audience; Trump’s gold kitsch White House; More … Continue reading

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No Policies, No Principles, Just “Deals”

And Threats. And Extortion. And Lies. A quote from Bertrand Russell; Trump wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, while making wars worse and threatening countries around the world; Heather Cox Richardson on the motives behind the idea of changing … Continue reading

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The Real Government Plots Against Reality

Government plots to suppress vaccines, and the effects of climate change; With my speculation about conservative motivations; Heather Cox Richardson on how, despite concerns for the budget, conservatives are willing to spend millions and millions to deport people they don’t … Continue reading

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Mendacity, Stupidity, or Both; and Arvo Pärt

Speculations about yesterday’s observations; Stupidity and mendacity: removing parts of the Constitution from government websites; American science withdraws; RFK Jr doesn’t believe in mRNA vaccines; Hegseth and academic mediocrity; America has defunded one of the smartest beings on the planet; … Continue reading

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Their Make-Believe World

Trump’s tantrum; His own version of reality; Assaulting reporting, statistics, and the historical record; Ordering an independent office to become as big a liar as he is; Every accusation is a confession; The “Russia Hoax” is whatever he says it … Continue reading

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Economics and Flipping the Board

How Trump is economically illiterate; Personal aside about buying my first car in 1982; Wondering again if humanity has hit a conceptual limit; For example: Trump claims prices have been cut by 1500%; An essay by George A. Akerlof asks, … Continue reading

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We’re Living in a World of Mad Hatters

David Brin on the red state/blue state divide; The authors of a report about the 2016 election set the record straight, to correct Tulsi Gabbard, and all the Fox News coverage of her; Tom Nichols on the latest Trump distraction … Continue reading

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Undermining and Discrediting

More about Trump’s firing of the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, with responses at Slate, from David Brin, The Atlantic, PolitiFact, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Reich; How Trump is now extorting UCLA; How Trump had references to his … Continue reading

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Creeping Totalitarianism

Trump fires the messenger of bad news about his economy, while Paul Krugman anticipates cooked books; The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down; And Amanda Marcotte on the idea of religious proselytizing in the workplace. – – –   … Continue reading

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