{"id":26607,"date":"2025-12-18T17:29:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26607"},"modified":"2025-12-21T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T22:08:38","slug":"documenting-my-reading-holiday-shopping-and-trmp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/18\/documenting-my-reading-holiday-shopping-and-trmp\/","title":{"rendered":"Documenting My Reading; Holiday Shopping; and Tr*mp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Infrastructure note: I’ve updated all the pages under the “Nonfiction Books” tab in the menu above. I set up those pages a year ago, in December 2024, and updated a few of them in May 2025, and now have updated all them this month. The link on the main tab in the menu takes you to those books recently blogged (not necessarily recently read). There are, of course, other books recently read that I haven’t yet blogged about and so are not captured in these pages.<\/p>\n

My plan is to finish updating these pages in the next few weeks, extending alas into the new year (I thought I might finish by this month), and then turning my attention to the SF Reviews tab, and building it up similarly. Because that’s where I’m going: to consider SF novels and stories in light of the modern understanding of the world. And documenting them all, as a start.<\/p>\n

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And I did my annual trip to the shopping centers and malls for Christmas. (Walnut Creek, Emeryville, 4th Street in Berkeley; not all today.) My conclusion: it’s easier to buy stuff online. Once in a while shopping in a physical store provides some inspiration, but that didn’t really happen today. And the things I was actively looking for, I could not find. I came home and ordered more stuff online.<\/p>\n

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Another Trump performance with his TV speech last night, then the shock and bewilderment: how has America comes to this?<\/p>\n

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Salon, Heather Digby Parton, 18 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Trump\u2019s primetime speech was a master class in gaslighting<\/a>, subtitled “The president’s false claims about economic conditions are the latest indication that he’s in serious trouble”<\/p>\n

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For an administration leading an all-out assault on vaccines, Wednesday night\u2019s primetime address<\/a> by Donald Trump<\/a> from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House was all about inoculation. After weeks of losing control<\/a> of the political narrative \u2014 of refusing to release<\/a> economic data, of alternately embracing and rejecting the term \u201caffordability<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the president attempted to project dominance going into the 2026 midterms<\/a> and tout what he deemed the successes of the Trump economy. …<\/p>\n

Trump rattled off a number of <\/span>demonstrably false claims<\/span><\/a>, including that \u201cinflation is stopped\u201d and prices are falling, while laying the blame for everything bad at the feet of Democrats and, you guessed it, former president Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, 17 Dec 2025<\/strong>: This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like<\/a> subtitled “Donald Trump delivered a fear-drenched rant live from the White House.”<\/p>\n

The president of the United States just barged into America\u2019s living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.<\/p>\n

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We could take apart Trump\u2019s fake facts, as checkers and pundits will do in the next few days. But perhaps more important than false statements\u2014which for Trump are par for the course\u2014was his demeanor. Americans saw a president drenched in panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he\u2019s doing a great job. For 20 minutes, he vented his hurt feelings without a molecule of empathy or awareness. Economic concerns? Shut up, you fools, the economy is doing fine.<\/em> (And if it isn\u2019t, it\u2019s not his fault\u2014it\u2019s Joe Biden\u2019s.) Foreign-policy jitters? Zip it, you wimps, America is strong and respected. <\/em><\/p>\n

In effect, Trump took to the airwaves, pointed his finger, and said: Quiet, piggy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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JMG, 18 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Lying Liar Screams Lies In National Address<\/a><\/p>\n

Compilation of comments at NBC News, CNN (fact checks), and Washington Post.<\/p>\n

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Worth noting:<\/p>\n

JMG, 18 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Lutnick Defends Trump\u2019s Batshit Math On Drug Prices<\/a><\/p>\n

HOWARD LUTNICK: \u201cNow, what he\u2019s saying is you bring it, if a drug was $100 and you bring the drug down to $13, right?. If you\u2019re looking at it from $13, it\u2019s down seven times.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you raise a price by 10%, then lower that price by 10%, you’re not back to the same place. Same idea. Simpletons think you should be. They’re wrong<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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Other headlines, from today. From the reality-based community.<\/p>\n

Here’s a telling photo from Robert Reich’s post.<\/p>\n

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