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Trillionaires

How much money should any one person have? When Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire, people got mad. "He will own everything!" claims a popular YouTuber. "He will own your house ... your country ... your government." Comedian Bill Maher, lately a voice of reason, asked, "Would it be crazy to have a law that said, 'You can't go above 1% of gross domestic product?!'" Actually, yes. My new video explains why it would be crazy. People who hate the very rich tend to assume that there's a finite amount of wealth. So if Musk has a trillion dollars, everyone else must ...

Latin America’s many trumps

Latin America is turning right, and it's a vindication for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In some ways, the Cold War never really ended in the Western hemisphere: Socialism has haunted the nations of Central and South America long after the fall of the Berlin ...

For Gen Z, the American dream comes with new challenges

I shared the September PBS NewsHour report "Is the American Dream still achievable for younger generations?" with my English composition students this week as we begin our Gen Z and the Workplace theme for their second research essay. I found this report, which is part of PBS senior ...

Trump’s ‘truth’ betrayed by White House chatbot

Since President Donald Trump displays a ferocious disdain for any suggestion that he could be wrong about anything, I hope he will not try to consult the AI fact-checker he has unleashed against himself. Last week, the White House unveiled America.gov, a search tool it declared to be no less ...

Celebrating Ruth’s visit to Sleepy Eye

You might have heard. Babe Ruth played in Sleepy Eye. For thirty years, I’ve tugged and pulled at that game in every possible way. My fascination with that day in my hometown’s history began when I was doing research for the Brown County Historical Society thirty years ago for an exhibit: ...

A look at gifted students

Parents will say how bright, smart, and gifted their amazing children are…and they may be. A child may be quite impressive in one or more areas. Maybe he or she is gifted and maybe not. Psychologists will call a child gifted when his or her performance at something is superior to how well ...