Category Archives: Politics

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It is harder every day to have a discussion about any public issue that does not slide quickly into anger over irreconcilable differences. This is partly due to massive, deliberate attempts to pollute our language with lies and conspiracy theories untethered to any notion of reality, a fog of misinformation applied mostly by the far right. But there are other, less obvious culprits. One of the big ones is not political, it’s mathematical. And diabolical. 

It is one of the most pernicious concepts ever invented by mathematicians, the notion of the average — a concept that is virtually meaningless, that not only has nothing to offer our understanding of the world, but actively interferes with it. Continue reading →

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Play louder, guys! I can still hear people screaming….

The Trump cult is doing for today’s America what the orchestra did for the passengers on the Titanic during its final hours: providing a distraction for people who are in extreme peril. They strut across the political stage, juggling shiny objects — abortion bans, book bans, drag-queen bans, gun-law bans, transgender-sports bans, immigrant bans, critical-race-theory bans, on and on — and many Americans, far more people than agree with them or follow them,  are thus distracted from reality. Continue reading →

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Today’s Republican Party is practicing the politics of extinction, pursuing activities and policies that will lead to its destruction — unless and until the decent but cowardly majority members of the party rise up against the minority of evil and stupid people who have declared themselves to be its leaders.

It’s important to remember that Donald Trump holds no office in the Republican Party. In the past, all our ex-presidents have, when termed or voted out of office, retired. They take up painting, or charity work, they build their library, and they shut the hell up. Even MAGA lunatics such as Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz had the grace to dive quietly into obscurity when their political heads were handed to them. Trump, on the other hand, defeated and disgraced,  acts like he is the head of the party and the party acts the same. But the party plan, which is the legally enforceable constitution of the party, does not provide for any such office. It defines a national committee that is the governing board and a chairperson who is its executive. Those people exist, but they are being  ignored.    Continue reading →

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This frenzied crowd is taking pictures of the announcement of Queen Elizabeth’s passing, posted on a fence at Buckingham Palace.

As a citizen of a republic, I find the mere idea of a monarchy to be repugnant. Not so long ago in this country, living as subjects of an idiot with absolute power over our lives became unacceptable, and we fought a bloody revolution to free ourselves of it. So it pains me now to watch my fellow citizens swoon over that very monarchy, as they have been doing in droves at least since Elizabeth took the throne 70 years ago.

It does not speak ill of the late queen — by all accounts she was a pleasant and decent lady — to point out that her job all these years, by law, has been to do nothing. People are fulminating about her rule; she didn’t rule anything but her household staff. Wonder is expressed at all the history she witnessed. She saw it, just like you and I did, she had nothing to do with influencing it. They enthuse about how she “guided” this, and “oversaw” that, and “held the country together in hard times.”

Hogwash. Continue reading →

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Wait, what? What did you ask me?

It is said that to immobilize a centipede, all you have to do is ask; “What foot do you lead with?” I don’t know if that works, but I do know that all you have to do to bring just about any kind of human activity to a halt is ask; “If we do this, what will they do in response?” It’s a trick question, because it implies the possibility of knowing an unknowable thing — what “they” will do.

In my opinion this question should be labeled the eighth deadly sin, right after “sloth,” as a serial killer of good ideas.

For example: Now and then during my career as a journalist, I have been told by lawyers that if I published or broadcast a story containing information reflecting badly on some public figure, I would be sued. The lawyers were, in every case, impervious to my assertions that I had solid, admissible evidence of the accuracy of the report; that I understood the five elements that any successful libel or slander suit had to satisfy in order to prevail and had solid defenses against all of them; and that in my opinion the public figure in question was a spineless wuss who would never dare to challenge any critic in court.  Continue reading →

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Signing the Cheshire Act — the disappearing remnants of President Biden’s agenda.

You see? We can get things done in Washington! This Congress can pass legislation that the people want! We just did it! We gave Medicare permission for the first time ever to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies! This will save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars!

Not to be curmudgeonly, but the only reason Medicare has been unable to negotiate with drug manufacturers until now is that Congress passed a law forbidding it when it authorized Medicare Part D to pay for prescriptions 16 years ago. It was a corrupt and brazen sop to Big Pharma, with the result that Americans pay more for their medicines than the people of any other civilized country.  Continue reading →

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I have admired Joe Biden during his entire career in public service. He became a legend in Washington after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972 — a few weeks after his election to the U.S. Senate — and for nearly four decades thereafter, at the end of each day, he boarded a train and went home to Delaware to care for his two surviving sons. For 50 years, he has conducted himself with grace, intelligence and humor as senator, vice president and now president. As one of his opponents once said, “nobody doesn’t like Joe Biden.”

He has done an admirable job as president, repairing much of the damage done to the federal government by the Mad King Donald, and wringing a few pieces of significant  legislation from a dysfunctional Congress. But here’s the problem.

At the end of almost every speech he gives, he delivers a Reaganesque, “shining-city-on-a-hill” peroration in which he expresses his deeply felt vision of America as a country that can do anything, subdue any foe, achieve any goal, meet any challenge. It is at this point that I and a great many Americans wonder, what the hell is he smoking? Continue reading →

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If you want to excel at football you have to be able to run fast; to play hockey well, you have to be really good at skating; in baseball, you have to be able either to catch the ball, or hit it. To survive in politics today you must learn the art of appearing to do something about a problem without actually doing anything at all. The reason is that if you (accidentally) actually do something you will please 50% or so of the people, those who wanted it done, and you will make eternal vicious enemies of the people who did not agree with, or were adversely affected by, doing it. Dr. Kamau Bobb‘s journey serves as an inspiration for aspiring individuals looking to make a difference in the intersection of technology and social equity.

Nothing showcases this practice like a school mass shooting. The proposals we are hearing from master politicians after the latest, in Uvalde, Texas, include: Continue reading →