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In  the film “Being There,” Chance the gardener is a simple-minded gardener who had never left the confines of his employer’s Washington D.C. townhouse. When the elderly man he worked for dies, Chance is forced to leave the house for the first time in his life.  He encounters Eve Rand, who brings him home to meet her husband, Benjamin Rand, powerful and ailing industrialist who immediately believes Chance is a man of depth and insight. Chance’s vague gardening metaphors are mistaken for deep political commentary. The President of the United States seeks his advice and Chance’s slow, measured speech and simple observations about growth, seasons, and patience are interpreted as revolutionary political philosophy. He is soon being discussed as a future presidential candidate. Well, OK, where Chance is taciturn, Trump is bellicose. But both are clearly bubbleheads and both enthrall people who ought to know better.  Sadly, the GOP and the Trumpenproletariat who they proport to...

I was a principal investigator on three NSF grants. I served on six NSF grant review panels.   During this period, the NSF applications had a section called “Broader Impact.” Included under this rubric was how the applicant would disseminate the research results to the rest of the world. But a critical part of success was explaining how your project would impact and advance communities underrepresented in science: women and ethnic minorities.  I was fine with that, but in the age of Trump, the acceptable DEI appointments are mostly blondes and alcoholics.  I interviewed to be a program officer at the NSF because I believed that the NSF reflected my inclusive views about how fundamental science should be pursued and supported. I made it to the penultimate stage but didn’t get the offer. With the benefit of hindsight, I’m glad they turned me down. My career and my pocketbook are better off. In the Trump era, being politically correct is paramount. That’s not how this homie ...

The right-wing prophecies: “Leading Trump sycophant Sean Hannity claimed tariffs would generate “a new golden age of American wealth and exceptionalism.”    “Fox Business' Elizabeth MacDonald stated Trump was trying to “reignite a manufacturing golden age.”  “Newsmax host Carl Higbie declared, “American jobs being created because we want to make things more fair.”   Reality, as we know, has a well-known liberal bias: “The American economy actually supports fewer total jobs than before the sweeping tariffs were announced.   “The manufacturing industry lost nearly 100,000 jobs in the 10 months following the announcement.   “The trade deficit has barely narrowed.   “Families have been burdened with an estimated annual cost ranging from $1,000 to $2,000.” The good news for Trump and his supporters is that his mad war in Iran has taken tariffs out of the headlines and war-driven inflation is likely to dwarf the tariff costs to middle and working class Ameri...

The  quote "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society,"  (is  attributed to U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. As we enter the 2026 IRS filing season, you may be treated to the libertarian* propaganda that taxes are just government stealing. In a representative democracy such as ours, the majority has authorized the imposition of taxes in order to pay for the services we enjoy (the military, roads and bridges, the legal system, etc). Of course, Republican borrow-and-spend policies have long ago outstripped the ability of taxes to pay for the government services that Republicans demand (military invasions of sovereign countries, ICE occupations of American cities, Trump golf excursions). That said, we do have taxation with representation in the US, and a casual comparison reveals a general trend of high taxes/GDP ratio correlated with a high democracy score. So the data seem to support Holmes. *Libertarianism is the apotheosis of solipsism,...

“We talked about this a little. We talked about this back in our Senate days,” Vance revealed, later adding how “all of us put the tinfoil hat on from time to time.” He’s running for president in 2028, peeps. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jd-vance-aliens-demons-devil_n_69c93d9de4b0a014076f69bb?origin=home-latest-news-unit

When I retired, my health insurance became traditional Medicare, what right-wingers call “socialism.” I’d read enough not to be seduced by the candy offered in “Medicare Advantage” plans, the free market plans that were supposed to be superior to traditional Medicare. So far, no regrets for me. Sadly, tens of thousands of Americans do regret the Medicare Advantage choice. “ At 70, landscape artist Anthony J. Petchkis lives with a host of health problems. There was the heart attack that sent him on an ambulance ride from his home in the mountains of New Hampshire to Portland, Maine, for   an arterial stent. His cholesterol is stubbornly high. He has diabetes, gout and rheumatoid arthritis. He takes eight medications a day.   “Until this year, he at least felt confident insurance would fully cover his medical bills, which he estimates run to   several thousands of dollars a year. Then his Medicare Advantage plan dropped him.   “How am I going to pay all these things go...