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

Qualifications?-According to Republicans, You Just Need to Be a Minority

Thanks to Digby at Hullabaloo for posting the qualifications of President Joe Biden’s pick (Ketanji Brown Jackson) to replace justice Stephen Breyer Justice at SCOTUS. I’ll (digby) just lay out the qualifications of the presumed front runner for the job: Ketanji Brown Jackson: Fifty-one year old Ketanji Jackson fulfills a lot of requirements for the establishment […]

The arrogance of the libertarians

A few days ago, libertarian economist Donald Boudreaux published a photo of a woman sitting in an airport with some kind of bubble over her head.  He claimed that it illustrated how insanely risk averse some people are about COVID.  When some of his readers objected to this absurd propaganda, he responded as follows (my […]

The backlash against using race to allocate Paxlovid is in full swing

This drives me crazy.  From Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly in Politico: Republicans are accusing the Biden administration of racism — against white people. The administration’s recommendation that race and ethnicity be considered when deciding who gets the limited supply of new Covid drugs is the latest political talking points with which Republicans are […]

Can Repubs Block Stephen Breyer’s Replacement?

Not sure why Democrats are so trusting with Republicans with Deal-Making. “The Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. So far, so good, given past Senators have changed the rules for judicial nominees to get across the finish line with just 51 votes. The so-called nuclear option is meant as […]

Are progressives responsible for the Democrats’ political troubles?

Predicting the future is hard, but right now things look bad for President Biden and congressional Democrats.  Their agenda is stalled in Congress, the pandemic continues to kill people and disrupt normal life, prices are rising, and perceptions of the economy are bad.  No one is surprised that the President’s approval rating keeps hitting new […]

A historical note on US Treasury interest rates and stock prices

New Deal democrat, “Historical Note on US Treasury Interest Rates and Stock Prices“ Over the weekend I was asked by two people what is going on in the markets. That’s usually a sign that there has been a sudden downside move, and people are getting emotional. Back 5 and 10 years ago, when I was […]

Stepping Back, in a Posture of Mindful Gratitude

TPM’s Josh Marshall takes on a tour of Krysten Cinema’s future as a Senator from Arizona, calling her a dead senator walking. I think she already knows this and does not give a damn. Six years and out, take your political donations from the drug companies, etc. It is hard for me to imagine she […]

How intelligence was distributed among the animals

How intelligence was distributed among the animals Illustration by Tom Seidmann-Freud In the beginning, none of the animals was endowed with intelligence. When they saw a hunter coming towards them who wanted to kill them, they stopped, looked at him, and were shot. So our Lord sent someone who put all the senses in a […]

Advocate of Book Burning Becomes Chairman of Virginia School Board

(Dan here…I am reading more examples of this trend of local censorship) From Diane Ravitche’s blog comes this posting: (Quote) Peter Greene tells the ignominious story of the Spottsylvania, Virginia, school board. One of the school board members, Kirk Twigg, is a conservative Christian who is very fearful of books that might have any sexual content. He […]