Sheila Kennedy | A jaundiced look at the world we live in.

July 14, 2026Trump was never very bright, and his dementia is accelerating, so the media’s focus on the global and economic consequences of his “leadership” is understandable. It would be irresponsible not to report on his illegal war, his undermining of NATO, his deployment of ICE thugs on dark-skinned people, the connection between his tariffs,

July 13, 2026Well, it appears that Indiana is enthusiastically contributing to MAGA’s war on poor folks. According to the Indianapolis Star, Indiana folks who are enrolled in the Healthy Indiana Plan — Indiana’s Medicaid program— will now have to prove to state government that they are working at least 80 hours a month in order to

July 12, 2026For as long as I can remember, political figures have expressed a belief in American “exceptionalism”–the conviction that the United States is inherently unique, exemplary, or morally superior to other nations. The concept originated with the early Puritan settlers who saw America as a “shining city upon a hill.” The Trump administration’s embarrassing

July 11, 2026“Bread and circuses” is a phrase attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet who Wikipedia tells us was active in the late first and early second century AD. It referred to government efforts to distract the masses from political corruption and/or economic hardship, by providing basic necessities (the “bread”) and mindless entertainment (the “circuses”).

July 10, 2026Last Sunday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a column about Norway and the other Scandinavian countries, whose citizens have once again landed on the top of annual happiness surveys. The timing was coincidental, because our daughter and son-in-law were in the middle of a trip to Norway, and our daughter can’t go anywhere