I haven’t written about Trump, tariffs, and trade wars because there is plenty of smart commentary out there, and because I really had (and have) no idea how the whole thing will play out.  It seemed plausible to me that Trump might be dissuaded from launching a destructive full scale trade war, that he might […]

Did Biden think he (or Harris) was certain to win the election?  A competent executive knows that high priority initiatives need their constant attention to overcome bureaucratic resistance and infighting.  This is true in the private sector and in government.  Yet this is what we got from Biden: In the final year of President Joe […]

Ninety-one year old Senator Chuck Grassley is prompting Kash Patel to restore his version of the public’s trust in the FBI. I kind of wonder what trust of which he speaks. I think we already know he is referring to Republicans. It is hard to know what the public believes as they do not know […]

rjs at r.j.’s space sent this pice as written by MD Jeremy Faust. Apparently’ the CDC is going to restrict the use of certain words in research manuscripts. Gender, transgender, etc. appears to be the forbidden words as well as non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, etc. This was also done […]

For the past century, Republicans have used the words “Marxist,” “Socialist” and “Communist” as epithets to refer to anything and everything they disapprove of. Now that a generation of Americans that was born after the collapse of the Soviet Union has come of age, those swear words have lost their potency. Looks like “DEI” is […]

Trump has said that “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Last Friday, he announced his intention to shine that beauty on the American people. “Outside analyses make clear that Trump’s tariffs would hurt the voters that he intended to help, meaning that he might ultimately need to find a resolution. “An analysis […]

The least trustworthy name in news, buried in the 13th graf: Democratic lawmakers have argued it would be illegal for Trump to unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without consulting Congress. This is not a question of whether something is blue-green, aqua, or cyan. This is a matter of fact. You might think a news organization […]

Personally, I’ve never had a weight problem. Always had a BMI under 24. But I’ve known plenty of people who were overweight or obese. For the ones who started taking semaglutides, the results have been transformative and the risks for most have been negligible. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s Dr. McGowan, a […]

There are other forms of taxation besides income taxes. Tariffs are really just taxes on consumer goods. And deportations will drive up the prices of produce that’s left to rot in the fields. Call it a “deportation tax.” This link is from 16 January. “The impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportation is […]

Don Boudreaux has reprinted a few paragraphs from a George Will column under the heading:  George Will explains that RFK, Jr., is what people get “when trust in government collapses.”  Here are the quoted paragraphs, my bold: Indifference to evidence, and an appetite for startling hypotheses, are well-known characteristics of cranks. Kennedy is a man-child […]