Tag Archives: politics

[embedded content] Quote in title by Senate Candidate Charles Booker. I pulled this partial of a commentary defining what Michael Kinsley was doing at Slate and what he created at Slate’s “The Fray.” I came to The Fray and the Best of the Fray at its peak. It was lively place with many intelligent writers across both aisles commenting. Tom Sullivan brought back memories of The Fray. It was modernized several times and much of the content...

It’s Called Stealing – What Big Retailers and Meat Packers are Doing to Cattlemen Kind of surprised by the shock and awe of the media over monopolistic power exerted on and by Supply Chains. They can be monopolistic and abusive because they are efficient. Just a rambling conversation “Protests have always been a part of America and this one at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge appears to be no different. Although the exhibited...

Fox News and white grievance In his recent book “Kill Switch,” Adam Jentleson, a former aide to the late Senator Harry Reid, persuasively argues that the Senate filibuster arose by accident when a rule revision in 1805 failed to include the “previous question” resolution, which would require a vote on the issue pending because it was thought superfluous. He also shows by overwhelming evidence that for the past 200 years, by far the single most...

SCOTUS Denies Trump’s Demand To Withhold Docs From Jan 6th Committee DONALD J. TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES v. BENNIE G. THOMPSON, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH  ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL, ET ALThe application for stay of mandate and injunction pending review presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him re-ferred to the Court is denied.“To be...

RJS, Focus on Fracking, Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a new 19 year low; commercial crude inventories fall to 45 month low, total US oil supplies lowest since January 20th 2012; implied gasoline demand at 11 month low; largest jump in drilling rigs since April 1st as the Haynesville and the Marcellus are targeted for oil This Week’s Rig Count The number of drilling rigs running in the US increased for the 58th time over the past 69 weeks...

This doesn’t justify the NYDH guidance. In a recent post, I criticized the New York Department of Health for using race/ethnicity as risk factors when determining eligibility for Paxlovid without providing evidence that Black/Hispanic people are more likely to die if they get Covid-19 than similar White people. My criticism is not based on a Panglossian view of racial/ethnic equality.  I think it is quite unlikely that Blacks/Hispanics will...

This is my second comment on Noah Smith’s substack. Today he wrote about something I should know about — macroeconomics. As always, I am amazed by Noah’s knowledge (it is his former former field of academic research). I don’t know for sure if his article is available only for subscribers, so I will try to summarize a little. His thoughts:”the U.S. is confronting another unexpected macroeconomic shock. Although the economy is doing great in terms...

“I shall Defend The Rights Of Parents” This is what new Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said when he made an executive order on the first day of his term to ban school systems from having mask mandates. Some systems will not go along, including that in Arlington and mine in the city of Harrisonburg. He claims to be defending the rights of parents, somehow not noting that he is violating the rights of parents who do not want their children be...

Donald Trump had a rally this weekend in Arizona: Former President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that white people are being discriminated against and sent to the “back of the line” when it comes to receiving COVID-19 vaccines and treatment.Speaking during a rally in Florence, Arizona, Trump alleged that coronavirus vaccines and treatments are being unfairly “rationed” and withheld from white Americans in some states.“The left is now rationing...

Yet another one of those Matadors  Adorno’s metaphor of the “matadors of the culture industry” didn’t fall out of the sky. Nearly four decades earlier — sometime between 1931 and 1933 — he had written several short pieces, one of which was titled “Applause.”  I came across mention of it when I was looking to see if Susan Buck-Morss had anything to say about pseudo-activity in her The Origin of Negative Dialectics. I didn’t find anything on...