Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Today’s Notes on the Destruction of America

Posted on Friday 18 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How the quality of American life depends on the regulations that Trump and his vandals are discarding; Paul Krugman on Trump’s trade war and how they don’t know what they’re doing; Dana Milbank on how Trump’s first 100 days are … Continue reading →

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The Future is Coal Mining? Really?

Posted on Thursday 17 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Thomas L. Friedman has never been more afraid for our country’s future; How RFK Jr.’s claims about autism are nonsense; And a deep piece at NYT about migration patterns around the world. – – – As with the manufacturing … Continue reading →

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And Now We Have Linus

Posted on Wednesday 16 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Why manufacturing jobs are never coming back to America; Heather Cox Richardson records Steven Inskeep’s quip; And How JD Vance is fine with abandoning due process; About Linus, our fourth cat. – – – I keep thinking: we’re living in … Continue reading →

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Viewpoint Diversity and Consensus

Posted on Wednesday 16 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne on Harvard vs the US government and the idea of “viewpoint diversity,” with a response by Steven Pinker; Why do conservatives think themselves under-represented in academia? Because they promote ideas that are not true; Will there ever be … Continue reading →

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Musk, History, Science, Education

Posted on Monday 14 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Grant on the wrong lesson to take from Elon Musk; David Remnick on the conservative urge to rewrite the past in simplistic terms; RFK Jr.’s contempt of science; And the conservative war against education. – – – Adam Grant … Continue reading →

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Perhaps Humanity Has Hit a Conceptual Ceiling

Posted on Sunday 13 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Alternate title: America was supposed to be better than this. Perhaps MAGA is about making America *simpler* again; perhaps what we’re seeing is a rejection of the complexity of the modern world; Why is it Americans love watching crime shows? … Continue reading →

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“An arbitrary, corrupt, mendacious, and utterly incompetent king”

Posted on Saturday 12 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Andrew Sullivan on Trump; How Trump supporters rationalize whatever crazy things he does, from Charlie Warzel and Molly Olmstead; Trying to understand what Trump’s crackdown on science will accomplish; Another item about the Christian right’s war on empathy; have I … Continue reading →

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We’re Becoming an Authoritarian, Theocratic, Police State

Posted on Friday 11 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Anne Applebaum on why dictatorships fail; David Brooks on how Americans can’t think anymore; Amanda Marcotte on Elon Musk’s and MAGA’s misogyny, via their war on empathy; Morons: A GOP Rep about how climate change is a sham because God … Continue reading →

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In a Sense, It’s All About Tribal Conformity

Posted on Thursday 10 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s deep thought about religion and conformity; How US scientists have withdrawn their names from a scientific paper about evolution, for fear of reprisal — one of them coincidentally mentioned in a piece posted yesterday; Short items about Trump’s lapel … Continue reading →

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Daughter of Dispatches from Reality

Posted on Wednesday 9 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Two pieces today: about the complexity of the universe, and the current cosmological crisis. – – – Quanta is one of those magazine/websites that, like Big Think and Nautilus and perhaps Noema and no doubt others, cover general concepts in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Science | Comments Off on Daughter of Dispatches from Reality