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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
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Recent Posts
- The Clash Within
- The Trump Administration Declines All Knowledge
- Regressing to Might Makes Right
- Renouncing Reality, Yet Again, to Make Money
- How Crises Disappear
- Wrecking Ball Politics. Wentithy.
- These Are the Days, My Friend
- How the War on Woke Reflects the Basics of Human Nature
- The Core Motivation of Trump, and MAGA
- A New Low
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
The Conservative Resistance to Changing One’s Mind
Why can conservatives not admit they might have been wrong? Trump never admits to being wrong; he never apologizes; And yet the administration is softening its accusations against the people killed by ICE in Minneapolis; Trump contradicts the 2nd amendment; … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics
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Pulling Bolts Out of the Ferris Wheel
Train Dreams Republicans on the need to carry guns; How the truth in Minneapolis is whatever Trump says it is; And how the administration altered images and made false posts; Heather Cox Richardson on KQED Forum this morning; Brief items … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Human Nature, Movies, Politics
Comments Off on Pulling Bolts Out of the Ferris Wheel
The Latest ICE Killing
Captured on cellphone video, a man on the ground shot in the back ten times, like an execution; his crime: helping a woman who’d been pushed down by ICE thugs; Takes by Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, John … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics
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Disintegration
Another killing by ICE in Minneapolis; Trump cedes leadership of the global economy to China; Now they want to make the polio vaccine optional; Trump’s EPA now places the value of a human life at zero dollars; Trump’s National Park … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics
Comments Off on Disintegration
Trump’s Lunacy and Conservative Regression
The Greenland obsession is a new level of madness for Trump; Time to impeach? Trump’s embarrassing Davos speech; MAGA Jesus is not the real Jesus, but evangelicals will never break with Trump; Tony Perkins says ICE protestors are God-haters; The … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Politics, Religion
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The Latest About Mad King Donald
Trump’s letter to Norway, about threatening a hostile takeover of Greenland because he didn’t win a Nobel Prize, written as if by a petulant 12-year-old child; With big picture comments by Tom Nichols; While Trump voters think he’s doing a … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics
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Trying to Understand How Modern Life Makes Sense in Larger Contexts
I like to think that this blog isn’t about politics, per se, but about following current events and trying to make sense of them in larger contexts, especially the broad contexts both of history and of what science fiction explores. … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics
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Daily Outrages. Tyrant.
It is too tiring to keep up on the daily outrages. I have things to do. But we can’t become complacent. So headlines today, with minimal comment. Items about gaslighting, Bari Weiss, Trump not as fascist but as tyrant, winking … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Lunacy, Politics, Psychology
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Further Evidence
Another busy day; no time for a big think piece. Short pieces then. Every day there’s more evidence of my running themes. * ICE are the terrorists. The Telegraph, 14 Jan 2026: Moment ICE agents drag ‘disabled woman’ from car … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Philosophy, Politics
Comments Off on Further Evidence
The Political Divide
Eric Levitz at Vox on the “fiction” of the Left/Right divide, and how core principles nevertheless do divide the parties; Brief items about ICE recruiting and the right presuming the worst about everyone; Noting the death of Erich von Däniken, … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Politics, Science
Comments Off on The Political Divide
