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I grew up in the land of the TVA in East Tennessee. While the TVA is famous for hydroelectric power, it also built several coal-fired generators and nuclear power plants.     A couple miles from our house was the Bull Run steam plant, a coal-fired plant. Its iconic smokestack was visible for miles. Recently the plant was closed and dismantled as part of TVA’s move away from coal. Some of my Oak Ridge peeps were sorry to see it go. I wasn’t. But that move has stalled. The TVA board voted unanimously to keep two coal plants operating for the foreseeable future, a move applauded by Trump. It’s a lifeline for the dying coal industry in the US, but accelerates the death march to global warming. During the same meeting, the board allowed the company xAI, owned by Elon Musk, to double the amount of power it draws from the grid. Sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk1QPo0am4M

“ The justices, divided 6-3 held that Trump's aggressive approach to tariffs on products entering the United States from across the world was not permitted under a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).” *snip* “ The decision does not affect all of Trump's tariffs, leaving in place ones he imposed on steel and aluminum using different laws, for example. But it upends his tariffs in two categories. One is country-by-country or “reciprocal” tariffs, which range from 34% for China to a 10% baseline for the rest of the world. The other is a 25% tariff Trump imposed on some goods from Canada, China and Mexico for what the administration said was their failure to curb the flow of fentanyl. “Trump could seek to reimpose the tariffs, using other laws.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-trumps-tariffs-major-blow-president-rcna244827

Josh Marshall has an interesting piece in TPM on George Washington. It’s the second of two commentaries on Presidents Day. Presidents Day was originally celebrated as George Washington’s Birthday. When the effort to declare Abraham Lincoln’s birthday a national holiday failed, due to opposition from white Southern politicians, Presidents Day replaced Washington’s birthday. In the earlier commentary, Marshall (who has a PhD in American History from Brown University) argues for a separate Lincoln’s Birthday because the consequences of his presidency far outweigh those of Washington. In the second essay, he elaborates further: “ Washington wasn’t terribly creative. He wrote nothing of note. He didn’t have terribly original ideas. He wasn’t even always that good of a general. But the people around him pretty universally held him in a sort of awe. Almost all the craftier and more notable members of the Revolutionary generation had great confidence in his presence, the fact that he was aroun...

This article is over 30 years old, but Cuba still has a socialist authoritarian government. After the collapse of the USSR, its primary benefactor. After the death of Fidel Castro and the retirement of Raul Castro. Decades of US boycotts and saber-rattling have failed to elicit regime change. That’s because the US never trusted American capitalism. What we should have done is love bomb Cuba with tourism and trade. Far from propping up Castro, it would have reminded Cubans daily of what they were missing. And by abandoning military threats, we would have dissolved the glue that holds many dictatorships together—the external threat. “Cuban leaders have long experience in administering repression and adjusting to hardship. What they do not know how to deal with is openness and peace . . . the United States should . . .  stop assisting Cuba’s censorship of information: allow A.T.&T.’s telephone link on a commercial basis; permit the sale of fax machines and other communication...

“ 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...

The Scalia SCOTUS determined that the founding fathers meant for each American to be their own personal militia. So, for me, this isn’t surprising: “ At around 12:13 a.m., officers responded to a call about a person with a gun at 309 Linden Street, the Bristol district attorney’s office said.     “Officers said they found Nigel Vaughn, 40, outside the address in a dark SUV. When three officers attempted to frisk him, he violently resisted and opened fire.   “One officer was hit in the elbow, and another was struck in the abdomen but protected by his bullet-resistant vest, officials said. Officers returned fire, fatally wounding Vaughn, who died at a hospital shortly after. Both officers were treated and released by morning.” *snip* “ The suspect was wielding a Glock that was modified with a switch, a small device that “made the weapon fully automatic, capable of firing multiple rounds with one trigger pull,” officials said.” Yep. Automatic weapons in the hands of civilian...

I had measles as a child, before the vaccine. I survived with no discernible sequelae. My daughter got the vaccine, along with all the other childhood vaccines, also with no discernible sequelae.     Now, thanks to the anti-vaxxer propaganda and the RFK Jr policy of sowing doubt about the benefits and safety of vaccines, the population of unvaccinated kids is growing. In red states like South Carolina, which is seeing a surge in measles cases, the government is part of the problem.  Here’s a South Carolina physician “ One of the most frustrating aspects of this outbreak to me has been the reluctance of state leaders, large hospital systems, and institutions to speak clearly and publicly about what is happening. Silence during a public health crisis has consequences.  Our governor  and  lieutenant governor's statements  have focused on avoiding mandates and stressed measles vaccination as a personal choice, rather than emphasizing the benefits of h...

Back in the 1960s, college antiwar protests included protests against ROTC and other military training programs. Now I see where “Whisky Pete” Hegseth also wants to shut down graduate military education on university campuses. “Beginning next fall, the Defense Department will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs at Harvard, according to the Pentagon News, a Defense Department-run information  service." *snip* “ In the same video, Hegseth said the department would next “evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at all Ivy League universities and other civilian universities . . .” This is a bit of a flip-flop by Hegseth. “When Hegseth was a Harvard University master’s degree candidate at the Kennedy School of Government, he backed “equality, diversity, and accessibility,” and emphasized the importance of working with Democrats.   ““Our country and state must strive for equal opportunity fo...

Jeff Bezos is richer than God. He owns The Washington Post, formerly an icon of objective journalism. “Jeff Bezos could float almost limitless news organization losses forever and barely notice. What we’re seeing is something that should be familiar to any close of observer of the news over the last generation. Let’s call it the formulaic billionaire white knight press baron doom cycle.   “Our guy comes in as a White Knight. He solves every problem because money is no issue. The readers and the staff are happy and, because of that, the billionaires happy. The press watchers at the universities are happy. Everybody’s happy. It’s a for-profit operation and the buyer doesn’t want to lose money but it’s not a money-making purchase. The operation is purchased as a kind of public trust. He’s signed up as the protector and custodian of a public asset.” The WaPo isn’t a slow-motion suicide. It’s murder. What newspaper kills its sports section? Bezos killed the WaPo sports page. I don’t eve...

I see where Mussolini wannabe Steve Bannon has been asserting that ICE should swarm election polling places, ostensibly to prevent non-citizens from voting. “During Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon outlined his vision, which, as I alluded to above, should not necessarily be taken as literal White House policy. But it mirrors concerns that Democratic officials have been sounding the alarm about for months. Bannon suggested that the administration should send in ICE agents to “surround the polls” in the upcoming midterms, supposedly as a means to prevent the election from being stolen. He also proposed invoking the Insurrection Act and sending in the Army to monitor election administration.   “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon  said . “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stol...

Secure at home and facing no rival spheres abroad, Washington is allowing its alliances to slide toward protection rackets, its trade relationships toward trade wars, and major sea-lanes toward militarized zones. The institutions the United States once underwrote are fraying, and the markets it upheld are fragmenting. Some U.S. partners, including Canada and the United Kingdom, now look for short-term security wherever they can find it, even at the cost of long-term dependence on China. The result is not stability but the slow hollowing out of the relationships that once converted American dominance into a durable order. ~Michael Beckley

Mark Twain famously observed: ”A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes ." Yesterday was the 16 th  anniversary of the retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent report claiming a link between vaccination and autism. Sadly, RFK Jr and his fellow anti-vaxxers got the lie but not the truth. Americans, particularly American children, are paying the price.

I grew up in Oak Ridge Tennessee in the ‘60s. At the time, it was a town with one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the nation. Both of my parents were college grads. So, I took it for granted that most Americans graduated from college. I didn’t know until I was in college that  in 1977 (the year I graduated), approximately  15%  of American adults aged 25 and older were graduates of four-year colleges or universities.   Today, that number is nearly 40%. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that a bachelor’s degree from a 4-year college or university isn’t the meal ticket it once was. “ The unemployment gap between workers with bachelor’s degrees and those with occupational associate’s degrees - such as plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters -   flipped in 2025, leaving trade workers with a slight edge for six months out of the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the first time trade workers have had a leg up since ...

Apart from their utility in criminal finances, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (other than stablecoin) are manifestations of The Greater Fool Theory of Investing. So how is the Bitcoin investment performing for ya? “ The world’s largest cryptocurrency slipped below $76,000 in thin weekend trading, dropping about 40% from its 2025 peak and revisiting levels last seen in the aftermath of the “Liberation Day” tariff fallout.” *snip* “ Bitcoin fell nearly 11% in January, marking its fourth straight monthly decline — the longest losing streak since 2018, during the crash that followed the 2017 boom in initial coin offerings. “I don’t think we’ll see a new all-time high for Bitcoin in 2026,” said Paul Howard, director at market maker Wincent.” So a buying opportunity, right? “ Even more striking than the drop itself is the relative lack of optimism around it on social media. In a space known for relentless bravado and “number go up” memes, Bitcoin’s slide has been met with little cheerlea...