A significant essay, for my concerns.
Salon, Kirk Swearingen, 19 Jul 2025: Why MAGA hates science so much, subtitled “Billionaires hate the rest of us — and Trump’s loyalists would rather suffer, even die, than face the truth”
Continue reading
The big news today (aside from yesterday’s big news about Epstein) is about CBS announcing it will not renew the contract of Stephen Colbert when it expires next May.
The Atlantic, David A. Graham, 17 Jul 2025: Is Colbert’s Ouster Really Just a ‘Financial Decision’?, subtitled “CBS no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
I observe yet again that I don’t see much difference between the behavior of the current US administration and what the behavior of an outside agency would be, one bent on undermining, even sabotaging, critical government functions meant to secure Americans’ health and future and its status in the world.
The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert, 12 July 2025: Flash Floods and Climate Policy
NY Times, David Wallace-Wells, 16 Jul 2025: The Epstein Story Is Both Conspiracy Theory and Genuine Scandal [gift link]
First, I amended Harari item posted yesterday.
\
This seems to be the most popular story today, at least on social media.
The Daily Beast, 14 Jul 2025: Trump Kept Gold Club World Cup Trophy for Himself So FIFA Had to Give the Winners a Replica
Continue reading
Today’s thoughts from Yuval Noah Harari, on Facebook.
First this:
Mythology takes human relationships and inflates them as if the whole universe works like our families. Continue reading
This is like trimming the household budget by cancelling all your insurance policies. It’s irresponsible.
NY Times, 13 Jul 2025: Trump Is Gutting Weather Science and Reducing Disaster Response
Subtitled: “As a warming planet delivers more extreme weather, experts warn that the Trump administration is dismantling the government’s disaster capabilities.”
Continue reading
Quoted by The Week, Saturday Wrap, 12 July 2025.
Stephen Marche in The Guardian:
One of the great ironies of history is that the triumph of MAGA has led to the piecemeal destruction of everything that once made America great, and on every level. Its power derived from a reliable trade network, with logistical chains that were the wonders of the world, combined with a huge alliance network, and the greatest scientific and technological institutes in the world. It is systematically destroying all of those strengths far more thoroughly than any enemy could. The lesson the Americans once taught the British, they are teaching the rest of the world: There are no necessary nations. There are no permanent global orders.
How does this relate to the item I posted on 19 Jun about the demographic shift to a preference for baby girls over baby boys?
NY Times, opinion by David French, 10 Jul 2025: What’s the Matter With Men? [gift link]
Is there any point in noting these same issues again and again? Yes. Because they are evidence of the decline of the US, which most Americans are not noticing, and I think this is important, not so much as this is because where I’ve grown up and lived my life, as for the intellectual issue about how great nations can decline. Many Americans seems not to care. We’re living in history. To ignore it would be irresponsible.
Washington Post, opinion by Philip Bump, 10 Jul 2025: Want Medicaid coverage? Go pick some vegetables., subtitled “The unworkable plan to replace deported farmworkers with non-working Medicaid recipients.”
Continue reading
