Josh Marshall has an interesting piece in TPM on George Washington. It’s the second of two commentaries on Presidents Day. Presidents Day was originally celebrated as George Washington’s Birthday. When the effort to declare Abraham Lincoln’s birthday a national holiday failed, due to opposition from white Southern politicians, Presidents Day replaced Washington’s birthday. In the […]

This linked article is over 30 years old, but Cuba still has a socialist authoritarian government. After the collapse of the USSR, its primary benefactor. After the death of Fidel Castro and the retirement of Raul Castro. Decades of US boycotts and saber-rattling have failed to elicit regime change. That’s because the US never trusted […]

“Henry VIII dissolved monasteries and executed wives because the machinery of monarchy allowed it, and challenging him risked the entire structure. The Romanovs died because saving them threatened coalitions that mattered more than five lives in a basement. Kennedy’s death formalized distance because proximity had become a procedural risk. And Sarajevo exploded not because of […]

How many euphemisms are there for TACO? “Carve-out.” “Step-backs.” “Exclusions.” “Price relief.” “Rollback.” How about “advancing to the rear?” Trump’s tariffs are turning out to be fairy tales told to children. Trump wrote that his tariffs are unleashing “an American economic miracle, and we are quickly building the greatest economy in the history of the […]

King Cnut (Canute) famously ordered the incoming tide to stop. It was an exercise in futility (to be fair, Cnut knew this and staged the event to prove that his royal power was worthless compared to the power of God). Donald Trump is the modern King Cnut, pretending to order away climate change. Trump, however, […]

Over the past year, Trump has been undermining the US tourism business. “Inbound travel from all countries to the United States was down 5.4 percent from January through November of 2025, according to the US Commerce Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office. But it’s Canadians who have been staying away in the largest numbers. In […]

I started drinking coffee when I was in high school. Back then, it was either instant coffee or percolator coffee. One Christmas when I was in college, my parents gifted me a coffee grinder and Melitta drip coffee pot and ceramic filter holder. That’s what I’ve used ever since. Turns out, it was a health […]

Just like the ICE paramilitary wilding has nothing to do with public safety, the RFK Jr attacks on mRNA vaccines have nothing to do with public health. “The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, already has imposed some limits on access to Covid vaccines and has rescinded recommendations for some routine childhood shots.“Several […]

The Scalia SCOTUS determined that the founding fathers meant for each American to be their own personal militia. So, for me, this isn’t surprising: “At around 12:13 a.m., officers responded to a call about a person with a gun at 309 Linden Street, the Bristol district attorney’s office said. “Officers said they found Nigel Vaughn, […]

I had measles as a child, before the vaccine. I survived with no discernible sequelae. My daughter got the vaccine, along with all the other childhood vaccines, also with no discernible sequelae. Now, thanks to the anti-vaxxer propaganda and the RFK Jr policy of sowing doubt about the benefits and safety of vaccines, the population […]