Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

July 5, 2022, Letters from an American

I subscribe to this Substack and found Professor Heather Cox Richardson take on America to be interesting. From time to time, I contribute. What I found most interesting is people knew of the coming attack on January 6. They knew the dates it would happen. And they said nothing. How is this ok? I spent […]

Coronavirus dashboard for July 5: no sign of a BA.4&5 wave in cases yet

Coronavirus dashboard for July 5: no sign of a BA.4&5 wave in cases yet, as the next variant has appeared in India  – by New Deal democrat I haven’t done a Coronavirus dashboard in a couple of weeks, and there have been a few developments, so let’s take a look. First of all, the BA.4&5 […]

Polluting the Air We Breathe

“‘Polluting the air we breathe’: Mechanic sentenced for selling thousands of devices that allowed trucks to bypass emissions controls” – MarketWatch, Lukas Albert Another story about pollution. According to prosecutors, Matthew Geouge raked in $10 million for selling the devices which made trucks produce hundreds of times more pollution. But, they go faster and leave […]

There is no ‘compromise’ to end the issue of abortion

There is no ‘compromise’ to end the issue of abortion – but there may be a ‘least worst’ modus vivendi  – by New Deal democrat I have written before that the typical divide between “economic” and “social” issues isn’t quite correct. Most “social” issues, it turns out, are really “moral” issues, where some people are […]

Independence Day 2022

Independence Day, 2022  – by New Deal democrat The opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “ When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to […]

Cooking the Planet by Limiting EPA’s Power to write Regulations and Rules

SCOTUS is moving to limit the power of congressionally legislated Agencies to write Regulations and Rules as delegated by Acts of Congress. The decision forces actions normally taken by empowered legislative Agencies back into Congress where they can be challenged. SCOTUS is picking on the EPA, restricting various regulations and rules it dislikes using the […]

For July 4th: Bach to Paul Simon

I’m not a big consumer of liturgical music. I still listen to Handel’s Messiah on Christmas. So it surprised me when I found myself enjoying a boxed set of LPs of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion recorded about 50 years ago. It’s in German, of course, so I’m not following the libretto, just the voices and […]