My wife always complains that my commentaries are depressing because I only discuss the bad news out there. But there is good news out there as well, if you look hard enough. In this commentary we look at some of the good news out there and discuss why many people are still anxious and depressed.

Greedy capitalists are not the only people exploiting workers and other so-called victims in the US. Political party platforms try to seduce people who feel that they are being victimized by powerful forces beyond their control and the Democratic Socialists of America are no exception. But the people need to realize that the solutions proffered by these political parties, whether industrial policy, welfare benefits or socialist ownership of the means of production are not really intended to help people, but rather to increase the power of the political party.

Republicans and Democrats have been buying votes for decades with generous benefits and even more generous tax cuts – and now even the Democratic Socialists want to get in on the action. But there has been little improvement in the condition of the American people despite all these so-called benefits. The only discernible benefit appears to have been the continuous reelection of incumbents will into their dotage. But now the bill is about to come due – and guess who is going to have to pay for it?

There are a lot of policies being promoted under the name of socialism by Democrats in the runup to this fall's mid-term elections (and especially by the progressive wing of the Democrats as well as the Democratic Socialists of America) that have nothing to do with socialism. But many of these policies have more to do with the frigidity of individualism than with the warmth of collectivism.

Within two months of his election as president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez held a referendum for a constitutional assembly to change the basic institutions of Venezuelan democracy. With only 52% of the vote he was able to control 95% of delegates to that assembly. That was almost 30 years ago and the Venezuelans have not had a free and fair election since. The Democratic Socialist of America have outlined a similar strategy for the United States on the leftist platform published on their website.

A few days ago President Trump announced a temporary pause in kinetic warfare against Iran in order to give diplomatic negotiations another chance. Another chance? Hah! How many rounds of diplomatic talks do we need to realize that the Iranians will never be willing to negotiate away their key national and ideological priorities.

For 250 years John Adams has been wrong about the imminent demise of American democracy. And while President Trump's vision of American greatness is distorted by his own psychoses, his goal is not to destroy American democracy (although it might be an unintended consequence of his actions) . The Democratic Socialists of America do want to destroy the democracy Adams and other Founders created. In this commentary we look at why socialism is the greater danger to America than even Donald Trump.

The campaign promises of politicians are similar to the theatrical plot device known as deus ex machina, something (in ancient Greek dramas an actor portraying a god hoisted onto the stage by a mechanical device) that somehow resolves an otherwise unsolvable problem the actors on the stage could not solve on their own. Politicians promise to resolve the otherwise unsolvable problems confronted by poor and oppressed people with some government program or entitlement. In this commentary we show that those campaign promises are just plot devices and not real solutions.

About a million years ago, our prehistoric ancestors were reduced to barely thirteen hundred individuals, a so-called genetic bottleneck. If our ancestors had not survived that precarious moment in time, we wouldn't exist. Right now we may be experiencing another genetic bottleneck as birth rates around the world are plummeting below the replacement rate. In this commentary, we look at declining populations and investigate the implications for our future.

The candidates for the upcoming 2026 elections that are being chosen by the Republicans and Democrats (aka MAGA and DSA) are repellent to say the least. Voters entering the voting booth must hold their nose and suppress their gag reflex before pulling the lever. In this commentary we look at how be optimistic about America even when confronted by this dismal reality.