Stealthmode Blog

Medicare is Not What You Think

The next time a politician comes at you arguing either for or against “Medicare for all,” you should at least know what that means. It doesn’t mean free health care. And it doesn’t mean socialized medicine.

Who Cares About Climate Change?

Let’s take a break from politics and talk about something that really carries meaning for people I know on both sides — climate change. Some of us have been talking about this since the 80’s, but society at large has not cared. A problem in the future is usually not…

Party Talk

All this noise about the election isn’t worth talking about. Most of it is out of our control. But it is useful for one reason: it has revealed to us how broken our system is, and how much we need to focus on fixing it on the national level. George Washington warned us about the danger of political parties…

Americans Are ALL Liberals

I am no longer a Democrat, but I think I am still a liberal. You might be one, too. I believe in people and in their ability for self government, and I think that’s what constitutes a liberal, at least in the classic tradition.

The Donald, as he used to be called, is not a happy man. He’s the original guy for whom wealth could not buy happiness. You would think gold toilets and faucets would be enough, but no. You would think having the name Trump appear on office buildings and hotels all over the world would be enough, But that doesn’t do it either. So now he wants to Make…

Art and Neurosis (Again)

In the middle of the day, on an ordinary Friday in New York City, a man named Max Azzarello set fire to himself near the courthouse where the Trump trial is being held.

Both traditional media and social media took their uninformed “hot takes:” jumping to the…

AI and the 4-Day Work Week

A couple of weeks ago, Bernie Sanders, an outlier in the Senate but a man usually on top of things that concern workers, introduced a bill to cut the work week to 32 hours. The bill won’t go anywhere because the Republicans control the House of Representatives, but it acknowledges…

Easter in the Past

Easter in New York city in the 1940s and ‘1950s meant I would get a new dress and probably also a new spring coat.

What exactly was a “spring coat” anyway? As I remember it, it was a — often navy blue — lighter coat than my winter coat, which was often red or camel…