Category Archives: Politics

These are very U.S. focused since I live here, we are the craziest nation on earth of developed countries, and have a hell of a lot of nuclear weapons

Republicans way ahead of Democrats on voter data

Preface.  This is a book review and Kindle notes of Nelson’s “Shadow Network:  Media, money and the secret hub of the Radical Right”. It tells the sad history of how Republicans got Trump elected and took over the House, and … Continue reading

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Kurt Andersen on Trump & Covid-19 in “Evil Geniuses”

Preface. If you want to know all the economic and political history that got us to the right-wing extremist Trump and Republican party, there’s no more entertaining way to do so than Kurt Anderson’s latest book “Evil Geniuses”.  Better yet, … Continue reading

Posted in Disease, Politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Russia has been bombarding Ukraine with fake news since 2014. Sound familiar?

Preface.  Long before Russia bombarded the U.S. with fake news in the 2016 election campaign, Ukraine was the target, where Russia honed its propaganda skills. The parallels with their fake news assault on the U.S. are striking, perhaps if more … Continue reading

Posted in Critical Thinking, Oil shock collapse, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Book review of “White Trash. The 400-year untold history of class in America”

Preface.  This book makes the case that the poor arrived 500 years ago when America was first settled, and most of them never rose to the middle or upper classes because “land was the principal source of wealth, and those … Continue reading

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Book review of Hillbilly Elegy and why hillbillies voted for Trump

Source: David Horsey / Los Angeles Times Preface. I bought “Hillbilly Elegy: A memoir of a family and culture in crisis” because I’d like to understand why anyone would vote for Donald Trump. Before the election, it was well-known that … Continue reading

Posted in (Auto)biography, Human Nature, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The dangers of relativism, of not being able to criticize anyone or anything because all of our beliefs are equal

[ I’ve been criticized for attacking right-wing Republicans, fundamentalist Christians, astrology, medicinal quackery, and so on.  This is dangerous nonsense. It means I can’t criticize Hitler, because after all, he was a product of his times.  I can’t tell my … Continue reading

Posted in Critical Thinking, Human Nature, Politics, Religion | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Republican party platform: the most extreme ever

Preface. There are two articles below: the New York Times editorial on the 2016 Republican platform (they call Republicans Extremists too), followed by the 50 platform policies. Basically, the GOP 2016 platform would make Christianity the official American religion, replace … Continue reading

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Book review: the politics of California’s central valley levees

Preface. This is a book review of Robert Kelly’s “Battling the Inland Sea”.  But it is much more than that, better than any book I know if explaining the human nature of “conservatism vs liberalism”.  It drives me nuts that … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture Infrastructure, Dams, Earthquakes, Floods, Politics, Sea Level Rise | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Book review: the politics of California’s central valley levees