Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Recent Posts
- Distracted by Politics, Again
- AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?
- The Fringe Is Becoming Mainstream
- Why Totalitarians Prefer Crackpots and Fools, as We Are Seeing Under Trump
- Nostalgia Bias, and Christian Intolerance and Hypocrisy
- Music as Language
- Short-Term Thinking As the Problem, As I’ve Been Saying
- Nevil Shute: ON THE BEACH
- MAGA and Cultural Stagnation
- Trump the Bully Seems to Be What Many People Want
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Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
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
Posted in authoritarianism, conservatives, Lunacy, Politics
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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
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics, Science
Comments Off on The Real Government Plots Against Reality
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
Posted in Human Nature, Music
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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
Posted in authoritarianism, Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Culture, Decline, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics, Religion
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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
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
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Politics
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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
Posted in authoritarianism, Morality, Politics
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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
All Things Pass, America Too, It Seems
The Atlantic’s Ross Andersen on how every scientific empire comes to end, with historical precedents; E.J. Dionne Jr. about the drop in murder rate, speculating why; Quick bits about religion as a mental disorder, how praying for the intervention of … Continue reading
The Outright Denial of the Scientific Consensus About Climate Change
Trump’s EPA now denies the worldwide scientific consensus about climate change; The history of Trump’s fake history; How Trump wins by suing institutions for absurd amounts and settling for relatively trivial amounts; How Europe took Trump for a ride; Robert … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Politics, Science
Comments Off on The Outright Denial of the Scientific Consensus About Climate Change