The political battlefield today reminds mariner of the Fields of Flanders in WWI: smoke, poison gas, sluggish trench warfare, cannon shells screaming overhead. Is it no wonder that news programs are losing market […]

Mariner was drifting through the endless world of the Internet last evening when he came across the author Frederic Jameson, a prolific writer in the 1980s and 1990s who contributed ideas about postmodernism. […]

Kamala Harris won the ‘remember me’ contest with her impassioned description of being bussed to school. It also pointed out something about Joe. Joe is an old school politician. His career was in a time when leg […]

Mariner watched the democratic debates tonight, the first of two to cover all the candidates. Mariner is eager to see the viewer ratings. Likely, most citizens did not want to suffer pontification for two hours […]

Readers raised the question whether the US owed the Native American reparation. Setting aside the fact that Europeans arrived on the Atlantic shores and proceeded with a policy of genocide, some may contend that […]

Climate change isn’t just an issue in the western hemisphere or in big cities.

The Indian Sundarbans—a 4,000-square-mile archipelago that has been designated a World Heritage site[1], sits on the Bay of Ben […]

֎ “Flesh-eating” bacteria that live in the ocean may be spreading to previously unaffected beach waters thanks to climate change, according to a new report.

In the report authors described five cases of severe […]

If it weren’t so depraved, it would be funny. Donald has fired his pollsters when the polls show Donald is behind Joe and other Democratic contenders. He calls the polls ‘fake polls.’

Joe Biden presents an in […]

A good friend of mariner’s suggested a way to express dissatisfaction with Donald. She said that from this point forward, she would place her American Flag postage stamps upside down until Donald was gone. How i […]

֎ [Newsy] New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that would eliminate religious exemptions for children’s vaccinations amid an ongoing measles outbreak. Under the new law, children who attend school or […]

֎ A number of polls suggest that Democratic voters now consider climate change to be a top-tier issue, as important as health care. Perhaps even more remarkably, the party’s presidential candidates seem to be ta […]

Mariner and an old friend visited yesterday. The conversation rambled across many experiences, opinions and bad jokes. Part of the discussion centered on the failure of expectations in family life and on the […]

In recent days, mariner and his wife have had family guests from both sides of the family. It is refreshing to experience the familiarity of family and at the same time feel grateful that, in the United States at […]

Mariner is of an age that the past, the vital, three dimensional experience of his past life, has faded into brittle memories. Sure, there is the memory of interesting, emotional and benchmark moments of the past […]

There’s an oft-told story about Albert, a seasoned old timer, who one day decided to go to the large shopping mall nearby. He walked to the large water feature in the atrium at the center of the mall, stripped n […]

It’s difficult to write insightful responses to the world scene when the world scene is completely uprooted from what one would call ‘status quo.’ Mariner is reminded of a trip through Dallas on its inter […]

AT&T maintains a formidable presence in Washington. The company spent more than $15.8 million on Washington lobbying last year, and its lobbying spending in the first quarter of 2019 put it among the top two dozen […]

֎ Beginning next year, FedEx will deliver seven rather than six days a week, to accommodate our insatiable online shopping habits. “Online shopping is seven days a week,” the company’s COO told the Wall Street […]

From time to time mariner is chastised for his skepticism toward what he refers to as ‘pew’ Christians. Similar to his favorite prophet Amos, mariner criticizes the behavior of those who come to church on Sun […]