Demagogue for President: Book Review
Dangerous demagogues like Donald Trump have no power in a properly functioning democracy (L 4608). Demagogue for President: The...
Time to Write That Dystopian Novel
There is no time to waste. Start with the ridiculous plot that a none-too-bright reality show host runs for president as a right-wing...
You're Not Listening: Book Review
You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters (2019), Kate Murphy; listening is important. This book goes into more...
Republicans in Power: The Evidence is In
Start with the opening of EJ Dione’s column: “This Republican Implosion Has Been a Long Time Coming” in the Washington Post (July 30,...
Intellectual Cul de Sac
It’s astonishing to me that their reputations mean so little to them. Garry Trudeau [about William Barr and Lindsey Graham] Cartoonist...
A Couple of Cheers for Republicans
I think I have pretty good moderate credentials. Early on, I tended to vote Republican, beginning with Nixon (granted, I'm not proud of...
The Hardest Job in the World: Book Review
The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency (2020), John Dickerson, a long book with 31 chapters of varying interest....
21 Lessons for the 21st Century: Book Review
21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018), Yuval Harari; basically 21 essays of various topics, some interesting and useful, some not so...
It's Official: We're in Recession!
It seems obvious that we've been in recession when the pandemic shutdown happened. However, the unofficial definition of a recession is...
Logical Fallacies 2: The Middle Ground Fallacy in the Age of Trump (Plus Propaganda)
The “middle ground fallacy” claims each extreme side is equally right or wrong and the truth must lie in the middle. First, as median...
Logical Fallacies in the Time of Pandemics
Logical fallacies are types of faulty reasoning. They can be categorized by structure (formal) or content (informal). Formal fallacies...
Motivated Reasoning and Affinity Fraud
Every once in a while, I come across new terms that seem important and worth further investigation. Ezra Klein (see book review) used the...
Justice and Fairness: Survival of the Fittest?
Writing about scandals and corruption, I’ve included justice and how it is applicable. Based on a fair bit of recent reading, should...
What Happened in Unemployment?
No question, unemployment is skyrocketing, probably to levels never seen before. Two sets of numbers are reported on the news: 1) new...
Let’s Do Real Estate Probabilities (Part 2, Forecasting in a Pandemic World)
How can probabilities be used to improve economic projections, especially for considering multiple alternatives? Probability is the...