Recent developments in South America have upended the United States’ historical — and often misguided — tendency to lump the region into a one-size-fits-all policy. A politically and economically muscular […]

In a desperate attempt to escape the gravity of the Trump-news broadcasting conglomerate, mariner has traveled to distant lands – a part of the planet where Donald is a sideshow. As a straightforward example, n […]

Mariner would like to contribute to the effort to defeat Covid-19. There are three valuable, fact driven sources for information on the virus:

https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus for fiscal procedures, enforcement […]

Being a viable shut-in is a skill. Mariner has counted his toes, his nose, his hose and his clothes. He would count the blades of grass but they have six inches of snow on them. Mariner even has cleaned his study, […]

. . . I knew him, Horacio — a fellow of infinite jest… Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs?

– – – –

Mariner has become frayed and disillusioned wandering the foxholes and ditches of dail […]

Mariner has highlighted a broad concern about the virus spinoff of big data corporations to use their endless clouds of tracking, identifying and profiling individuals to diminish privacy and security. Willingly, […]

Speaking quite generally but based on intrinsic differences, a direction of cash flow can be determined for each economic philosophy. In times of duress, for example Covid-19, the Great Depression and the collapse […]

Mariner is depressed. He is on the verge of tears. He is angry. He is distraught. He casts out those who hold in trust the governments of this and many other nations.

He no longer can listen to political […]

֎ Who needs China? The US has Google:

Google used the location data it collects from Android phones to build global indices of how much people have stopped moving around, for every country and major city. […]

A bill has been introduced in Congress to make Chicago the 51st state. Illinois is one of many states where one or more very large cities, like Chicago, dominate state politics. Mariner lives near the Illinois […]

Oh-oh – mariner feels a sermon coming on. He’ll keep it short.

All the western religions except for a few voodoo and cult variations have a common core of belief. It is to love whatever is real, however it is […]

Remember the old days, the really old days when the Sunday paper was a heavy, three-inch edition with pages and pages of funnies, all the news to be had and life sections that were novella length? Mariner’s f […]

Everyone struggles to imagine what the nation will look like by 2050. The nation’s culture, economy, governing, geography and community life all are up for grabs, a giant bingo hopper out of control.

At the c […]

Why are gig workers striking? “The sharing economy is built on a risk shift from the companies onto the workers. As a result, the workers don’t have access to basic protections, and they don’t have the kind of […]

֎ No sooner than mariner mentions the joy of being a united society against Covid-19 than the gun industry rises up saying it is exempt from the virus-associated instructions to stay in, avoid public gatherings […]

֎ The reason Donald wants to get rid of the shelter in place and the six-foot rule in rural counties is because in the November election delegates to the Electoral College are assigned from election districts […]

Has the reader ever tried to walk on a railroad rail? It seems easy enough but it isn’t long before most walkers fall off. Now imagine that the rail isn’t still; it is slithering like a snake slithers through gra […]

It’s been a few days. Herding humans may be a lot like herding cats. Even in mariner’s household of two, the days are drawn out and have empty spots. It used to be before sheltering that in mariner’s retire […]

When Mariner arose this morning, stumbling and half-conscious as usual, He heard his wife singing a hymn. He went to her office to see what was happening. She was live streaming a worship service and singing along […]