George Washington famously required his army to be innoculated against smallpox. Not because he was woke, but because he understood how devastating this viral infection could be and how protective immunity was. Whisky Pete, knowing more than our founding father and first president, made the flu vaccine optional. How’d that work out? “Last week, news […]

Republicans are once again blaming social programs for the ballooning deficits and national debt. Setting aside the fact that the US debt/GDP ratio was higher at the end of WWII and that Japan has a far higher debt/GDP ratio, what would a serious discussion about federal spending look like? Obviously, it would decry the squandering […]

Trump will not be president forever. And when he goes, Democrats will face a defining choice: exploit the executive machinery he has exposed, or dismantle it. The temptation to exploit it will be enormous—and yielding to that temptation would be a historic mistake. If post-Trump America is to be a post-authoritarian one, it will have […]

I chose original Medicare because I’d read about all the problems, delays and overcharges in Medicare “Advantage.” So far, I’m happy with that choice, and things don’t seem to be improving with Medicare “Advantage.” Now, it appears the Trump Administration has decided to throw sand in the gears of a government program that works. “Traditional […]

One of the many outrages of this political moment in America is the refusal by the Republican majorities in the House and Senate to assert the powers accorded the legislature. With the right-wing majority on the Roberts court asserting the “unitary executive theory” and presidential immunity, the only remaining threat to Trump’s seizing dictatorial powers […]

As a molecular biologist, I’m a huge fan of mRNA vaccines. I enrolled in the phase III Moderna clinical trial for the COVID mRNA vaccines. Since August 2020, I’ve had eight jabs. Yes, I did get a COVID infection along the way, but I didn’t end up in the ED or the morgue. It’s easy […]

Struggling with complicated truths about what has made our ease possible is not a Trumpist thing. To some degree, it has often not been an American thing. As Kevin Levin, who writes the newsletter Civil War Memory, put it this week, “For generations, the history of slavery and emancipation has been minimized, distorted, or simply […]

Inheritances should be taxed as income from the first dollar. For those who bleat that it’s double taxation, the answer is that all taxation is double taxation. I pay taxes on my income, then use some of the taxed remainder to pay for gas and the associated fuel tax. Every time money changes hands, it’s […]

As any pharmacologist or toxicologist will tell you, the dose makes the poison. Most rice contains arsenic. Baked goods contain acrylamide. Seafood contains methylmercury. Natural groundwater contains fluoride. But in moderation, none of those things are toxic. Thanks to RFK Jr, there’s been a lot of silly nattering about the alleged dangers of ultraprocessed foods. […]