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

Oil prices – 7 year high, the longest string of weekly gains on record

Oil prices at 7 year high after longest string of weekly gains on record, Focus on Fracking, Commenter and Blogger RJS Oil prices rose for a record 9th consecutive week to a fresh 7 year high following across the board withdrawals from US oil & product inventories . . . after rising 3.7% to a […]

Trucking, Railroads, and Industry

The plight of independent truckers Trucking companies are doing their very best to make their business successful. They use services such as the fleet graphics services to help them promote their company. There were quite a few TV shows out there which gave trucking a romantic style of life to live. It was a lot […]

Wealth is leisure. Leisure, wealth.

Wealth is leisure. Leisure, wealth. The three quotes above are from, respectively: 1. William Godwin 2. Charles Wentworth Dilke 3. Karl Marx. There was a very pronounced influence of Godwin on Dilke and of Dilke on Marx (hence indirectly of Godwin on Marx). My research suggests that viewing Marx’s work from the perspective of Dilke’s […]

Letters From an American

This commentary by Professor Heather caught my eye this morning. Interesting findings in the Letter today.. Letters From An American, October 23, 2021, Professor Heather Cox – Richardson There are three stories in the news today that seem to me to add up to a larger picture. First is the story of money laundering, which […]

COVID vaccines and antibodies

Joel Eissenberg, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology I got the Moderna vaccine as part of the phase III clinical trial back in August and September 2020. Although it was technically a blinded trial, I knew from my symptoms after the second shot I was in the vaccine arm and not the placebo arm […]

Ceci n’est pas une pipe

Death Valley is not experiencing a drought. Neither is the Mojave, the Sahara, nor the Gobi. A drought is an unusually extended period between the occurrence of a regularly occurring event; an anomaly. For example, when it usually rains on a regular basis, then but doesn’t rain for an unusually long period; that period during […]

Michigan Republicans Are Quietly Replacing Officials Who Certified 2020 Vote Totals

This action by the Michigan Republican part does not surprise me in the least. Republicans have had control of the Senate since 1983 and the House (from what I can see) since 1990. They have had a trifecta (including the governor’s office) 2 of 4 times for a number of years also. Much of this […]

Ross Douthat asks the wrong questions about Trump and American democracy

Suppose that you believe, as I do, that the threat to American democracy posed by Donald Trump and his Republican enablers and imitators is by far the most important issue confronting us today.  One implication of this view is that opinion leaders – politicians, pundits, academics, journalists – should make every effort to forestall disaster […]

What If Democrats Fail to Enhance the ACA?

Hey, this is a copy and paste article by Andrew Sprung at Xpostfactoid. He does a nice job of explaining the technical aspects of expanding the ACA and making it more liberal in providing greater Commercial Healthcare Insurance benefits to more US citizens. He also discusses what could happen if we make Biden’s healthcare extensions […]