Boomerangs of Empire: Latin America as Colonial Laboratory
A Latin America case study on how the pursuit of empire has come to haunt the US.
Read more...Category Archives: Social policy
Coffee Break: Breaking American Science, COVID Undercount, Food Politics, St. Patrick, and a Brief Diversion
Part the First: The Slow Death of Biomedical Research Continues in the United States. We have covered this before, but the entire unfolding situation gets more surreal by the week. STAT News has been a go-to source, as in NIH will spend its full budget this year, agency director promises House appropriators. The first shot […]
Read more...The Epistemic Break of the Iran War
The Iran War is shattering the U.S. illusion of power, breaking truths that are being replaced by AI models and creating an epistemic collapse
Read more...Rifling Through the Evidence: Uncertainty in Firearms Analysis
Recently published studies raise basic methodology questions about the tests used to vet firearms ballistic analysts.
Read more...Why Insect Farming Startups Are Going Bankrupt
To the frustration of Davos Man, insect agriculture has found it difficult to compete with the traditional meat industry.
Read more...‘Serious Threat to the First Amendment’ as Trump Admin Wins First Antifa Terror Charge
“A case like this helps the government kind of see how far they can go in criminalizing constitutionally protected protest,” one legal advocate said.
Read more...Widening the ‘We’: Meeting the Crisis of Common Sense
Oligarch overreach on every front presents challenges—and opportunities.
Read more...Universities Survived Trump’s 2025 Funding Freeze, but the Money Still Isn’t Flowing to Researchers
Trump’s war on universities, like Iran, is doing great damage to the US, here via success in reducing research funding and causing chaos.
Read more...The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economics Went Down the Rabbit Hole of No Return
It is a curious thing that our politicians and economists in the Uniparty believe that economic growth, now and forevermore, will solve all our problems and cure all our ills. One looks around and it’s clear this is not so. Still, this economics truth was stated with utmost, if utterly spurious, clarity by a former […]
Read more...In Latest Blow to Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan, Judge Blocks Overhaul of Immigration Appeals
Trump is losing in Iran and on the immigration front as a Federal judge backs Constitutional due process rights over efficiency.
Read more...Coffee Break: Vaccines, Libraries, and Diet…Nothing About the War
Part the First: As Giants Still Walk the Earth. Stanley Plotkin began practicing medicine in the 1950s. When he was an intern, outcomes for patients such as this little boy were frightening and devastating: Stanley Plotkin recalls a night in 1957, during his pediatrics internship, when a father brought a gravely ill toddler into the […]
Read more...How Often Is ICE Acting as a Goon Squad for Landlords?
ICE helps clear apartment complexes and evict tenants while incarceration buildout throws a lifeline to commercial real estate.
Read more...Massive US War Spending Hike Raises Debt, Taxes, Doubts
As US President Donald Trump pushes the world to war, arms spending has been rising worldwide. Wars secure more budgetary allocations, mainly benefiting the US-dominated military-industrial complex.
Read more...Coffee Break: A Few Notes on the Incoming Surgeon General
Only one part this Friday. The president announced Casey Means, MD, would be his nominee for Surgeon General of the United States hearings in the middle of 2025. The US Senate began considering her nomination this week. The back and forth has been interesting. Where to begin? First we can start with the previous nine […]
Read more...Trump Policies and “Donald Dash” Expats Produce Net Emigration for US, Prospective Population Shrinkage
The US showed net emigration in 2025, with an increase in expats bumping up over a rising trend line.
Read more...