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

The shame of Columbia University

Not quite the same as in the sixties when colleges were defiant to government intervention. And there were presidents and other government officials who would intercede on campuses. Kent State was the site of deaths and shooting of students by an untrained military who were in too deep over their heads and acted out of […]

Minting next-gen industrial plastics with engineered bacteria

In the film “The Graduate,” Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) has just graduated college. His prosperous parents and elders are anxious to see him do well in life, so they pepper him with career suggestions. In a swimming pool, Mr. McGuire tells Ben: “One word: plastics.” These days, plastics are in bad odor, primarily […]

“Government is not prepared to disclose further national security or operational security details”

As Joyce Vance states, “that’s not how it works. If a judge is considering whether a party, especially the government, is in contempt of an order, the judge gets whatever information they need. Otherwise, it is contempt.” Deportations: It’s not where it starts, it’s where it ends, Civil Discourse Just ahead of the hearing scheduled […]

DOGE is coming after our food supply

Lots of the food on your grocery shelves is imported. It has to be inspected, both for safety and to prevent the importation of agricultural pests that could destroy domestically grown crops. Fire the inspectors and you put everyone’s food future at risk. ““It’s causing problems left and right,” says one current USDA worker, who […]

Shocking if true

From The Hill today: For Harris, there was more flexibility to define her brand of change. She could risk looking hypocritical by making clean breaks with Biden on policies she had supported as vice president, rejecting parts of their record to forge her own agenda. She could identify new issues to run on that avoided the pitfalls […]

JOLTS revisions from Yesterday’s Report

Angry Bears’ New Deal democrat discusses JOLTS frequently. I am not sure if everyone knows what it means. I believe it calls for a short explanation. The acronym JOLTS is an abbreviation for “Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces JOLTS reports monthly and also annual estimates of job […]

No Invading Allies Act

Proud to see this coming from Rhode Island: “A new bill introduced to the United States House of Representatives would withhold federal funding for any American “operations to invade or seize territory from” Canada, Panama or Greenland — unless Congress agrees to it first, that is. “Introduced Thursday by Rhode Island Rep. Seth Magaziner, the […]

January JOLTS report: monthly increases, but significant downward revisions to 2024

 – by New Deal democrat To review briefly, the monthly JOLTS reports give us a more granular look at the employment sector, but are delayed by one month vs. the jobs report. Like the jobs reports, most JOLTS series have shown deceleration for several years. The question over the last year has been whether they […]

RFK Jr. blames the victims

Oops! Poor RFK Jr. He’s had to tiptoe back his attacks on childhood vaccines in the face of a measles outbreak in Texas. What’s a poor anti-vaxxer to do. Well, since vaccine denialists can never be wrong, they can only be wronged, Kennedy blames the victims: “In later comments, Kennedy suggested that severe symptoms mainly […]