Clueless, Stupid, and Cruel

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The status of Trump’s war in Iran;
  • Paul Krugman explains that America is not respected around the world;
  • And how George Orwell foresaw this;
  • Robert Reich on Trump’s stupidest cabinet member: Pete Hegseth;
  • How Hegseth doesn’t understand “no quarter” any more than he understands “rules of engagement”;
  • Brief items about Peter Thiel’s antichrist fixation; grandparents who remember what vaccines were for; the pointless voter fraud bill; how conservative Christians aren’t helping their cause; how the Trump administration is now forced to hire migrant workers (to replace those who were deported); and about the DOGE dolts who mindlessly slashed DEI programs and didn’t actually save any money.
– – –

Recently in the Iran war: Trump has declared the mission complete, or nearly complete, or maybe complete in a few more weeks, but even if it’s complete now, he’s thinking of bombing them some more just for fun. Also, he’s asking all the American “allies” he has insulted with tariffs this past year for help clearing the Strait of Hormuz, and they have declined or not responded, while dolts like Newt Gingrich suggest using nuclear bombs to clear a new pathway that avoids the Strait. These people are clueless.

Thus.

Paul Krugman, 16 Mar 2026: No, America is Not Respected, subtitled “Thanks to Trump, we’re held in contempt even by our closest allies”

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Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan: SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Search for Who We Are
(Random House, Oct 1992, xvi + 505pp, including 85pp of notes, permissions acknowledgements, and index.)


This is perhaps Carl Sagan’s most substantial book, on the grounds that it’s through-written as a single composition; it’s not a compilation or fix-up of previously written magazine pieces, as THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD was, or an edited series of lectures, as THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE WAS, or aligned by chapter to episodes of a TV show, like COSMOS was, or a book aligned to an earlier book, like THE PALE BLUE DOT was.

And on the grounds that it takes a wide perspective, a sort of 10,000 foot view of a period of history not examined by most books about evolution, or the cosmos, or human history. It’s about the history of life up until humanity’s ancestors came on the stage, and so it outlines how and why life on Earth came to be, and how things like competition and violence necessarily came to characterize life on Earth.

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The Most Dangerous Vision

Posted on Sunday 15 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A brief post today, after a long afternoon/evening watching the Oscars. (On the West Coast, what with pre-shows, it ran from mid-afternoon to nearly 8pm.)

So instead of linking news or opinion items today, let me note a nascent thought of mine that’s emerged in recent weeks. I’ll begin with a reminder that every post like this, every post other than objective linking and quoting, is a first draft of sorts, a record of today’s thoughts that might undergo rethinking tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Just as what I opined yesterday, or last month, or five years ago isn’t necessarily what I’d say today. (Usually, when I look back at old posts, I’m bothered only by inexact wording, not ideas I’ve completely abandoned. For some of these ideas it’s important to state things precisely, lest people read into them things I didn’t mean. You know the examples.)

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What Western Civilization is Actually About

Posted on Saturday 14 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Francis Fukuyama, responding to Marco Rubio, on how Western Civilization is more about the Enlightenment than religious faith;
  • And Boston Globe via Steven Pinker on that Tennessee congressman’s anti-Muslim screed;
  • Briefly noted items about Trump’s shoe tests and their Soviet odor, Trump’s disconnect with reality, video games, non-Protestant events, forcing student-led prayer, destroying DC architecture, more about the Beha book, dismantling a renowned science lab, Trump’s sons cashing in on drones, weakening limits on a cancer-causing gas, and the eternal sea of misinformation about vaccines.
– – –

Persuasion, Francis Fukuyama, 3 Mar 2026: What “Western Civilization” Really Means, subtitled “It has less to do with faith — and more to do with the Enlightenment — than Marco Rubio thinks.”

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Movie relevance, conservative intuition, unbothered people, Paul and Heather

Posted on Friday 13 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How A House of Dynamite, not nominated for any Oscars, is more important and relevant than any of the pictures nominated, and a great movie;
  • Trump needs to “feel it in my bones” to make a decision, which is precisely the conservative limitation to learning;
  • John Pavlovitz has had it with unbothered people;
  • Paul Krugman chats with Heather Cox Richardson.
– – –

I appreciate this nod. This is a movie I watched twice in two nights, late last year, as discussed here. It’s important and relevant in a way none of the actual Best Picture nominees are. (Well, One Battle After Another might be just as close, in a different way. But not Sinners, as effective as that film is.) And it’s well-made and suspenseful.

And especially considering the current political situation.

Slate, Ian Prasad Philbrick, 13 Mar 2026: The Oscars Are This Weekend. The Movie We Should All Be Talking About Isn’t Even Nominated.

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Stupid vs. Evil

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich’s take on what the two US political parties think of each other, and my interpretation of conservative thinking;
  • About Pete Hegseth and how he sees moral purpose in war as a weakness;
  • Another item about parental rights, concerning social media; and my thoughts about this complex subject.
– – –

Another take on the spectrum of human nature.

Robert Reich, 10 Mar 2026: Why do Americans hate each other while Canadians love each other?, subtitled “Could it have something to do with our politics? With the sociopath in the Oval?”

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Whiteson & Warner, DO ALIENS SPEAK PHYSICS?

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “And other questions about science and the nature of reality”
(Norton, 2025, 254pp, including 12pp of bibliography and index)

Here’s a book that’s remarkable in an unusual way: I didn’t hear about it from anywhere, not in a review, not referenced from somebody else’s book. And I had never heard of the authors. I saw it in a bookstore, and bought it on impulse. (Well the blurbs from Sean Carroll, Carlo Rovelli, Phil Plait, and Daniel Dennett helped.)

It was a good decision, because the book speaks to a profound issue, even if it’s a little too wiseacre and jokey for my taste. As if they didn’t a serious reader to be interested?

The question the book asks could be rephrased, would aliens perceive the universe the same way humans do? Continue reading →

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Clown Shoes, and Republican Obsequiousness

Posted on Wednesday 11 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Marco Rubio in clown shoes;
  • Republicans think oppressing trans kids is more important than parental rights;
  • Trump’s delusional faith in himself;
  • That photo of the prayer group in the Oval Office is being mocked in China;
  • Motivated thinking sees that the Bible warns against socialism;
  • That medical ship never went to Greenland, but one MAGA guy complains it’s not getting enough press coverage.
– – –

As noted yesterday, this item wins the prize, for this week certainly, maybe for the month or the year, for demonstrating Trump’s idiocy and his cabinet’s obsequiousness. Covered widely today in the news and on Facebook.

The New Republic, 11 Mar 2026: Marco Rubio Roasted for Wearing Clown Shoes Trump Bought Him, subtitled “Donald Trump has bought everyone in his Cabinet the same pair of shoes—evidently without checking what size people wear.”
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Certainty is the Enemy

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • And Trump is certain about his own moral authority;
  • And how the long-anticipated End Times have yet to appear;
  • Paul Krugman on how Pete Hegseth is being deliberately dumb;
  • Short items about Erika Kirk, Hegseth’s Bible reading, money spent on the war so far, Trump gives his staff ill-fitting shoes they fill obliged to wear;
  • And the last two movements of Philip Glass’ Symphony #5.
– – –

I think I may have just said this, in so many words: Certainty is the enemy. Because others are just as certain about opposite things. And the world will not survive such conflicts of moral certainty; survival of the human race, in the long term, is about getting over tribal mentality. The morally literate, responsible, thing to do is to be certain of nothing, live your life by principles instead, and let others judge your moral maturity by your actions, and principles, not your commitments to this or that god or holy book.

Salon, Chauncey DeVega, 10 Mar 2026: Trump’s moral crusade is dangerous for America — and the world, subtitled “The president casts himself as the ultimate authority on good and evil — and believes it is his job to enforce it”

Donald Trump imagines himself as a moral crusader fighting the forces of evil at home and abroad. But his morality is not guided by ethics, humanism or respect for the common good. The president instead relies on himself, something he made explicit in a January 2026 interview with the New York Times. “My own morality,” he replied when asked if he observed any constraints on his power to use the military, including invading other countries. “My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

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Malcolm Gladwell, THE TIPPING POINT

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
(Little, Brown, March 2000, 279pp, including 20pp endnotes, acknowledgements, and index)

This was a popular and well-received book when published back in 2000, and launched Gladwell‘s book career. Most of his books follow a similar pattern: identifying counter-intuitive things about how the world works. In this book, the theme is in the subtitle. In BLINK, it was about the power of snap judgments (contradicting considered wisdom *not* to rely on intuition); OUTLIERS explores the role of environment (and by extension, chance) in success stories. I read those too. Next was WHAT THE DOG SAW, a collection of essays, which I haven’t read, then three others, which I didn’t even buy. Most recent is REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT, in 2024, which revisits some of the themes of the first book, from different perspectives.

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