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Trump’s Iran bamboozle

For all his boasting about winning and a deal with Iran, all Trump has is a memorandum of understanding. It apparently includes a 60-day period when Iran won’t collect tolls in the strait, a cessation of attacks by the US and some inchoate future discussion on buried uranium. And the CIA director has cast public doubt on Iran’s willingness to make concessions on nuclear programs. Josh Marshall thinks Administration hawks are undermining Trump’s exit plan. “If you go to war to achieve a specific end you don’t end the war before negotiating over that specific end. (The US has many declared ends in its war with Iran – proxies, missiles, etc. – but the nuclear program was always the most central.) You come to an agreement when [your] hand is strongest. The whole point of pushing the negotiation over nuclear weapons to after the conflict but making it seem like an agreement is somehow contained within the ceasefire isn’t a matter of really poor negotiating skills. It’s a ruse that both side...
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Where’s the beef?

I rarely eat beef. Maybe once or twice a year. The closest thing I eat to beef is bison, and even that only a pound or two a year. I long ago switched to chicken, turkey and fish for animal protein. Beef prices are skyrocketing.  “Retail beef prices are hovering near a record high. Last month, consumers paid on average a little over  $7 per pound  for ground beef, up 13% from a year earlier and 50% from five years earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — far outpacing the general inflation rate. A decent ribeye steak from the grocery store now looks like a luxury, with prime cuts typically pushing beyond $20 per pound. Even some beloved Texas barbecue joints are  shutting down  due to the skyrocketing cost of brisket.   “These are good times if you’re a rancher like Brown, who endured years of tight margins before the pandemic. But the steep prices are making shoppers wince — and creating a serious political problem for President Donald Trump ...
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Mike Johnson touches the third rail

You may have seen that Speaker Mike Johnson wants Social Security to be “fixed” after the midterms. The fact that he wants to wait until after the midterms tells you everything you need to know. He’s using “fixed” in the sense of what you do to your dog if you don’t want puppies. Republicans know this is radioactive and don’t want to run for re-election on it. And Johnson wants a stick to beat Democrats with when he’s loses the speaker’s gavel in January. Johnson argues that SS must be cut because it’s such a large share of the federal budget and topping it off to prevent benefits cuts in the early 2030s is too expensive. Setting aside the fact that SS is separately funded and so has zero effect on the deficit, how large is SS relative to the defense spending? Paul Krugman brings the receipts: “. . .    while the cost of maintaining Social Security benefits at their promised level isn’t trivial, it is in fact affordable. According to the Trustees’ report, the   actuarial ...
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Checking up on Trump’s chosen people

“So far, 206 Afrikaners have resettled in Ohio, a state that has struggled with population decline for decades. The Trump administration recently announced it plans to increase by 10,000 the number of refugee resettlement places for South Africans this year.   “But since arriving in the US, Afrikaners – largely the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers and French Huguenots – have faced major challenges, in large part due to policies aimed at immigrants and enacted by the White House and Ohio’s Republican-run legislature.   “Last June, Ohio introduced new driving license rules for lawful residents who are not citizens or green card holders.   “They include the requirement for all applicants to complete eight hours of lessons through a designated driving school, 24 hours of classroom work and 50 hours of driving with a licensed adult before being able to take a driving exam. The cost of fulfilling these requirements is estimated at about $500 and could take up to...
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Whatever we’re paying him, it’s too much

The NYT published an article reporting that RFK Jr has abandoned most of his responsibilities: “Mr. Kennedy has shown little interest in managing the details of work in his department, according to multiple colleagues,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote in the article. “Instead, they say, he is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations and pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his long-held beliefs that vaccines are harmful.“ Not exactly news. Kennedy’s rebuttal? “All one needs to refute your argument is to glance at my publicly available calendar and to review my unprecedented list of accomplishments on a wide range of issues, all of which I drove,” Kennedy wrote.” LOL! His “accomplishments” are (a) the firings and resignations of health research experts at the CDC, FDA and NIH and (b) sowing distrust in scientific expertise while replacing sound science with magical thinking. Whatever they’re paying him, it’s way too much. Unless the job...
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Cancer teleology

It astonishes me what passes for reasoning among “conservatives.” “Steve Gruber, host of the conservative network's morning program   Day Break , made the announcement Wednesday alongside his guest and wife, Ivey Ramos Gruber, who agreed sunglasses might also be unnecessary. The segment fits neatly into the MAHA movement's growing anti-sunscreen wing — and straight into a public health nightmare.   “Steve Gruber played a clip of   Valerie Anne Smith , an Ohio-based social media influencer who bills herself as a medical and health authority on X, where she has more than 246,000 followers. Smith has no listed medical credentials. “ "The sun that is giving life to all of us on this earth, this plane of existence, is not here to cause cancer," Smith said in the clip.” Tanning beds are not here to cause cancer, but they do. HPV is not here to cause cancer, but it does. Tobacco isn’t here to cause cancer, but it does. Asbestos isn’t here to cause cancer, but it does.  Chro...
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Stupidity vs Evil

  “Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless.   “Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.   “For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one.”   ~  Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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