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

2 Posts on 2 Articles II : this time it’s less pedantic

Just below, I express my shock caused by the disappearance of basic copy editing, blocking, and tackling at The New York TImes, but, in this article, I want to discuss substance. The article on what President Nixon did in 1979 is, aside from that little slip, very interesting. It notes that people in Taiwan are […]

“On-the-fence voters” are OK with Trump’s contempt

According to yesterday’s navel-gazing piece in the Boston Globe*, “on-the-fence” voters are edging to supporting Trump because they feel looked down upon by Democrats. WTF? Do they seriously believe that Trump *doesn’t* look down on his supporters? It is blindingly obvious that the only person on the planet that Trump cares about is Donald Trump. […]

The Sackler Family Can Act Today to Compensate Opioid Overdose Victims

More on what is going on with Purdue and the Sacklers. This is probably one of the sorriest events one could ever read about. The sales success of OxyContin was promulgated on it being nonaddictive. By taking a 1980 brief/letter reporting the results on the use of opioids in a HOSPITAL SETTING and deleting such […]

The medium is the message

The alleged “appeal” of Ron DiSantis is that he’s “Trump without the baggage.” So why is DiSantis (and Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, the other Trump imitators) doing so poorly? The answer is that the Trumpenproletariat *want* the Trump baggage. To them, that’s his appeal. The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan nailed this decades ago: the […]

Open Thread January 18 2024 Biden, the Oldest President Yet

Who saved the US from a pandemic and delivered a good economy. The 2024 political cycle, a triumph of recycling. President Biden and former President Trump are preparing to star in a sequel most Americans do not care to see. That means that eyes will be on the vice-president, Kamala Harris, as well. Because Mr […]

Is America a racist country?

Decades ago, I read a column by Andrew Young, the former Atlanta Mayor and UN representative, in which he wrote that you should never trust anyone who says they aren’t racist. You should say I’m working on my racism. Recently, the former South Carolina governor and current GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley omitted to mention […]

As vehicles and outdoor appliances become increasingly electric, long term gas usage – and “real” prices – decline

As vehicles and outdoor appliances become increasingly electric, long term gas usage – and “real” prices – decline  – by New Deal democrat What is the “real” cost of gasoline? When measuring this, some people compare with the CPI. But that actually just tells you the *relative* inflation in gas vs. other items. That’s why, […]

Capitalism prevails

I’m reading Homelands: A personal history of Europe by Timothy Garton Ash. The book is organized by decades, and the decade of 1980-89 was a historically significant one for Central Europe. By the end of the decade, the “communist” dictatorships in Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia had collapsed. Real history resists simplification, but to […]