Beth

@Strega – Yes, I was thinking of that when I read it.

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

Reg

With reference to Russia now blaming Europe…

The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
George Orwell, 1984

A farmer would have to be stupid to have only one revenue stream and one customer.

I am in agreement that one revenue stream is not wise. Unless they keep hens where I guess having all their eggs in one basket would be very profitable at the moment. However it should have been scaled down and not just stopped. It is not the farmers that are being…[Read more]

In an interview on Russian state television on Sunday, Mr. Lavrov listed the ills that Europe — not America — had brought upon the world. The United States, in his telling, had gone from evil mastermind to innocent bystander.

“Colonization, wars, crusaders, the Crimean War, Napoleon, World War I, Hitler,” Mr. Lavrov said. “If we look at history i…[Read more]

@Jakelafort – Once upon a midnight dreary, when your mind is bright and cheery, I shall wait to hear your musings—ponder well and share them more.

However, I wouldn’t sweat over loss of USAID to American farmers and agricultural research.

Well if I was a “real” farmer I might sweat a little. It is the immediate cut-off of all USAID that is the problem.  There was no sliding scale to zero over a few years to allow contingency plans to be put in place. Given that USAID constituted about 0.…[Read more]

Is Trump a functional illiterate?

@jakelafort – Feel free to add to this post, if you want.

I have recently read both of these books and I would recommend them:

The Knowledge Machine – Michael Strevens. Link.

and

Free Thinking – Simon McCarthy Jones. Link.

Recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have significantly affected American farmers. In January 2025, the Trump administration ordered a near-total freeze on foreign aid, leading to a halt in USAID’s procurement of U.S.-grown crops for international food assistance programs. This abrupt cessation has disrupted a vital…[Read more]

I shall continue to watch Tesla in silence.

Focusing on the economy (“It’s the economy, stupid”) wouldn’t have worked because The Orange One’s attack on the Democrats’ economy was only one of several potent tools he had: immigrants raping and murdering, immigrants bringing in fentanyl, immigrants stealing jobs in the country while Dems were allowing jobs to migrate outside the country, Dem…[Read more]

It’s a mistake to think that FDR and JFK fit into the category of Classical Liberalism.

Yes, after 2 seconds thinking about it, I fully agree. Neither were classical liberals in the tradition of Locke or Adam Smith. Both expanded federal power.  FDR and the NEW Deal was to tie down the economy in red tape and JFK  expanded a “Big Brother ” sur…[Read more]

Here is another review of the Sunday book recommendation.

@ Reg

Yes, the truth is always more complicated than can be summed up in one sentence. All the things you detailed were true, but it was her good looks more than anything else that saved her. Her pretty face kept her in the news cycle.

@Unseen – Yes, a lot more than just the economy.

Project 2025 ‘is the agenda’ for Trump’s second term and they admitted it the day after the election.  The thing with the lies is that there were so many of them and fired from various sources simultaneously. There was too much to unpick. By the time people got over the “Eating the dogs and eating…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The Democrats should have reused the brilliantly simple political messaging strategy that helped Bill Clinton defeat George H.W. Bush in 1992.  James Carville’s famous phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” was a reminder to the Clinton campaign to stay focused on what truly mattered to voters: economic issues. Yes, Har…

[Read more]

On the Nobel prize:

From the NYT:

On Sunday, Mr. Rubio leaned heavily on emotive language to push back against the critics who have since berated the Trump administration for the public display of hostility toward Mr. Zelensky, a wartime president who frames his battle against Russia’s invasion as a bulwark of Europe’s security and freedom. Mr.…[Read more]