Engaging Life with Courage and Intelligence
It is impossible to imagine a US administration that makes so many blunders. It would be polite to say that they are rookie mistakes. However, after a decade of ruling over the Republican Party, they can no longer use that excuse. To summarize one of the biggest economic blunders in American history, please listen to…
We might be able to live without the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, but we still need the First Amendment. What do you think?
Make America Like Yesterday (MALY) This article focuses on the MAGA-led march into a potential economic disaster. Ignore Trump’s tariffs, immigration, and deficit spending. A longer-term danger lies in how America acquires and distributes energy. Over the last year or so, I’ve read several articles about the energy policies in various countries. As much as…
American culture has a blind spot or a fatal flaw in its response to unproductive, sensational, or cancerous behavior. Today, many Americans celebrate and implicitly support people who act stupidly, immorally, and even criminally. They gravitate towards celebrities who promote chaos and away from those who are boringly competent. Our social media algorithms are aware…
This is another confirmation that the Trump regime is marching the USA toward a Chinese-style form of state capitalism. Trump’s economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, confirmed the possibility that the federal government was beginning to act like a sovereign wealth fund that interjects political leaders into corporate financing and decision-making. Hassett deflected the slippery slope fear…
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt was a Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of 2024. His book describes what he calls the transition from the “play-based” childhood to the “phone-based” childhood. He discusses the reengineering of the brains of America’s children by Silicon Valley’s social media. He asserts that the dopamine-reward systems of social…
Sociologists and anthropologists call it cultural lag. As a rule of thumb, it takes 20 years for a new technology or transformative policy to be embraced by a society. Some early adopters embrace the change almost immediately. For some strange reason, the early adopters are younger than the older laggards. Americans are facing so many…
Mike Johnson, the smooth-talking Congressman from Louisiana, is our nation’s 56th Speaker of the House. He entered Congress on January 3, 2017. Before then, he served in the Louisiana legislature and worked for a conservative Christian group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. The four most vulnerable states due to the Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act,…
I have visited the Rust Belt many times. I drove through Youngstown, Ohio, in 1970 and 2005. I have seen whole neighborhoods bulldozed. The same thing happened in Michigan and other Rust Belt states. I understand the pain and the loss. So, what happened? America still produces lots of mechanical and industrial engineers. We still…
This is another iteration in the use of short videos to address or comment on the craziness of our times. Please let me know if you enjoy these videos and if you prefer videos over longer posts with more detailed analysis and discussion.