The following page at my website/blog is where I now keep links to my publications; see also the thread below: (Sometimes linkrot sets in, but I try to update regularly.) The old site (mshugart .net) is still up, but I do not maintain it.

The Gulf of Mexico is now called the Gulf of America on Google maps in the US. The rest of the world still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. That's how far gone the US is.

BREAKING 🔴🔴 Trump issues warning: “If Egypt and Jordan refuse to accept Palestinians into their territory, I will consider canceling their aid.” WOW WOW!!

My hottest take on this subject is I don't think social media is creating a "loneliness crisis." I think America's social crisis is, in some ways, the opposite of loneliness. The evidence that loneliness is rising for all ages that use social media is surprisingly weak. If we understand loneliness narrowly as something like "an experienced gap between our felt and desired social connection," then loneliness is kind of good, in small doses. Loneliness is social motivation. And we'd expect that a shock of social isolation—like, say, COVID—would lead to strong efforts among people to socialize more. But the data shows something closer to the opposite. Face-to-face socializing continued to decline between 2021 and 2024 and alone time increased, for almost all groups. I think a bunch of factors—incl., comfortable homes, ample entertainment, an on-demand delivery economy, and the dopamine-exhausting effect of non-stop phone use—are overriding, or fundamentally altering, people's desire to be physically around other people. The crisis is aloneness. And it's being partly caused by, in a weird way, our *inability* to connect with the healthy feeling loneliness

It's not so sudden. Parts of the (far) right were very focused on supporting Rhodesia and South Africa in the late Cold War. See

The near term remains bleak in Gaza with Hamas's control; something has got to change to alter the Strip's trajectory and future. Speaking with @dwnews