Category Archives: conservatives

So What Then, Next?

Posted on Thursday 5 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Serwer on how MAGA lost even when they won, i.e. because American society has changed; Robert Reich has ideas about what should be on the Democrats’ agenda; So does Dahlia Lithwick at Slate; Andrew Prokop at Vox looks at … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Politics, progress | Leave a comment

David Pakman: THE ECHO MACHINE

Posted on Wednesday 4 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America (Beacon Press, March 2025, 200pp, including 25pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index) Pakman is a podcaster and YouTuber with frequent posts on Facebook, which is where I started following him. See The … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Politics | Leave a comment

Life Is About Uncertainty

Posted on Tuesday 3 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Election Day! In recent years every election day is the most critical one in history, which is just one more piece of evidence about scale-blindness and short-term thinking. I could do more political posts today, but I think I did … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Music, Politics | Leave a comment

The Trashing of America, Intellectually and Civilly, under Trump and MAGA

Posted on Monday 2 November 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How Trump is dismantling the American scientific research machine; And how Republicans are trashing decorum and civility; How Trump is deteriorating; Voting recommendations from John Scalzi: don’t vote for Republicans; Max Boot on why Hegseth should go; Tuck Carlson, demon … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics, Science | Leave a comment

The Disclosure Cult

Posted on Monday 26 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

David Brin on the UFO cult, which he now calls the Disclosure cult; A forthcoming book about the nature of human intelligence; Brief items about the term DARVO, Tina Peters’ defense as a “person of faith”, Trump and Republican priorities, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on The Disclosure Cult

Failure to Learn

Posted on Sunday 25 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Steven Strogatz on the AI crisis in mathematics; is it OK to be given the answers, without figuring them out for ourselves? How religious zealots mock scientific understanding, since scientific conclusions can change; Briefly: another comment about Rubio’s defense of … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History, Mathematics, Science, Social Progress | Comments Off on Failure to Learn

Speculations on a New World Order

Posted on Monday 19 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Speculation on a new world order; Tom Nichols on how Trump has abandoned the Western order; Reconsidering what business schools promote; Fareed Zakaria’s essay; How Fox News peddles “fear porn”; How the Trump administration is discouraging even legal immigration. – … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History, progress, Social Progress | Comments Off on Speculations on a New World Order

Along the Spectra

Posted on Friday 16 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

In the context of the Tom Cruise film Digger, thoughts about the difficulties of thinking about climate change; Neil deGrasse Tyson wonders if humans are intelligent enough to understand everything; Fareed Zakaria on why Marco Rubio thinks the West is … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Human Progress | Comments Off on Along the Spectra

Something New and More Modern

Posted on Thursday 15 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Key points of a Democratic Project 2029; Brief items: Kimberly Guilfoyle is out because she embarrassed Trump; Trump claims he doesn’t call people names (followed by a long list of names he’s called people); Trump keeps claiming that schools kidnap … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Something New and More Modern

Lying About the Economy, and Everything Else

Posted on Wednesday 14 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The GOP has never been the better party on the economy, and Trump lies about everything else, too; Paul Krugman fears what Trump and MAGA will do if they lose in the upcoming elections; A church wants to instruct the … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Economics, Religion | Comments Off on Lying About the Economy, and Everything Else