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“ Henry VIII dissolved monasteries and executed wives because the machinery of monarchy allowed it, and challenging him risked the entire structure. The Romanovs died because saving them threatened coalitions that mattered more than five lives in a basement. Kennedy’s death formalized distance because proximity had become a procedural risk. And Sarajevo exploded not because of two bullets, but because every system that might have absorbed the crisis had already chosen self-preservation over adaptability.   “The assassination in Sarajevo is often described as the moment Europe’s old world collapsed. In truth, it was the moment that world revealed it had already hollowed itself out. The institutions were still standing. The palaces were still full. The procedures were still followed. But the capacity for human judgment, for weighing a life against a system, for choosing courage over continuity, had quietly bled out over decades.   “The shots were loud. The failure that gave them...

How many euphemisms are there for TACO? “Carve-out.” “Step-backs.” “Exclusions.” “Price relief.” How about “advancing to the rear?” Trump’s tariffs are turning out to be fairy tales told to children. Trump wrote that his tariffs are unleashing “an American economic miracle, and we are quickly building the greatest economy in the history of the world.”   Meanwhile,  manufacturing jobs have fallen by 86,000 over the past year, while broader blue-collar jobs are down 166,000.   To paraphrase Hans Christian Andersen, the clothes have no emperor. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-potential-steel-aluminum-rollback-would-be-latest-tariff-reversal-amid-broader-affordability-push-185956950.html  

King Cnut (Canute) famously ordered the incoming tide to stop. It was an exercise in futility (to be fair, Cnut knew this and staged the event to prove that his royal power was worthless compared to the power of God). Donald Trump is the modern King Cnut, pretending to order away climate change. Trump, however, lacks Cnut’s self-awareness; he seems to think that climate change denialism is his superpower to stand down the laws of physics. “ In 2009 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally declared that greenhouse gas emissions, including from vehicles and industry, endanger public health and welfare. The decision, known as the   endangerment finding , was based on years of evidence, and it has underpinned EPA actions on climate change ever since.   “The Trump administration is now tearing up that finding as it tries to roll back climate regulations on everything from vehicles to industries.   “This is a big deal,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in announcing w...

Over the past year, Trump has been undermining the US tourism business. “Inbound travel from all countries to the United States was down 5.4 percent from January through November of 2025,   according to the   US Commerce Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office. But it’s Canadians who have been staying away in the largest numbers. In November 2025 alone, the number of Canadians taking trips to the United States was down nearly 24 percent over the previous year.” But that’s just a temporary setback, right? “But in what has become a recurring problem for US tourism, a few days after Heywood traveled to advocate for US tourism, President Trump quickly extinguished any embers of goodwill. “Trump has demanded that Canada “share authority” and ownership of a new bridge connecting the two countries. The Gordie Howe International Bridge, connecting Ontario to  Michigan , will not open until the Canadian government “treats the United States with the fairness and respect tha...

I started drinking coffee when I was in high school. Back then, it was either instant coffee or percolator coffee. One Christmas when I was in college, my parents gifted me a coffee grinder and Melitta drip coffee pot and ceramic filter holder. That’s what I’ve used ever since. Turns out, it was a health addiction. “ Moderate daily consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea was tied to reduced dementia risk and better cognitive function over time, a prospective study of health professionals showed.   “Over a median follow-up of 36.8 years, health professionals in the highest quartile of coffee drinking had an 18% lower risk of dementia compared with those in the lowest quartile (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.76-0.89,  P <0.001), reported Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.   “Top coffee drinkers also showed a reduced prevalence of subjective cognitive decline (prevalence ratio 0.85, 95% CI 0.78-0.93,  P <0.001) and modestly better c...

Just like the ICE paramilitary wilding has nothing to do with public safety, the RFK Jr attacks on mRNA vaccines have nothing to do with public health. “The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, already has imposed some limits on access to Covid vaccines and has rescinded recommendations for some routine childhood shots. “Several of the panelists have said — contrary to scientific consensus — that they believe the Covid shots are dangerous and should be taken  off the market .   “In an interview with The New York Times, Dr. Robert Malone, one of the panelists, claimed that the Food and Drug Administration was “hiding” data on the risks of Covid vaccination and had refused to share it despite multiple requests.”   This is transparently bullshit on stilts.  “But the F.D.A. addressed these misconceptions  in a letter  to Dr. Ladapo in 2023, calling the notion of DNA contamination “quite implausible” and “misleading.”   “With over...