Take a chill pill. It’s just another decade. You’ll be hotter, but things are just fine

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Articles by Dr. Wes Browning

Stop before we get the ’Trump Movie Awards of America’

by Dr. Wes Browning | February 28th, 2020

The South Korean movie “Parasite” won big at the Academy Awards earlier this month, including best picture. The first non-English movie ever to win best picture, and President Trump restrained himself for one whole week before letting loose a cry over it...

New immigration paperwork calls for ’Placeholder Family Member, Age Unknown’

by Dr. Wes Browning | February 19th, 2020

One year after becoming U.S. Attorney General, William Barr has finally acted as one by telling President Trump to stop making his job impossible. I’m going to guess that Barr already knows he’s to be fired, since his usefulness to Trump — to help impede...

If only potatoes were cream cheese with a gasoline garnish

by Dr. Wes Browning | February 13th, 2020

One of my favorite U.S. Supreme Court decisions of all time is the 1893 Nix v. Hedden unanimous ruling that, for the purposes of applying the Tariff Act of 1883, tomatoes are vegetables. John Nix was importing tomatoes for sale in New York and was charged a...

May the springer spaniel of hope not get lodged in your throat

by Dr. Wes Browning | February 10th, 2020

According to my horoscope, today is the day Brexit happens, and President Donald Trump will be acquitted in his Senate trial. At least it doesn’t say I’ll personally be hit by a garbage truck. It’s five days before this gets printed, so, as usual, it could...

Just because you share a bedroom with tarantulas, that doesn’t mean you’re poor

by Dr. Wes Browning | January 29th, 2020

Growing up in the 1950s, I knew we weren’t poor. For one thing, my parents always said, “We aren’t poor.” What other reason did I need? My parents had to be experts on the subject. They had lived through the Great Depression. Neither of them even had a TV...

You can send your tardigrades to space and back, but don’t eat one. Got that, boomer?

by Dr. Wes Browning | January 22nd, 2020

With Trump’s trial in the Senate going on, it feels like a good time to talk about random news items. I want to distract mystelf from President Trump’s pending acquittal. I spelled “mystelf” correctly. Mystelf is a legitimate word I made up yesterday to...

If there were five homeless people in Methow, Washington, FEMA would surely intervene

by Dr. Wes Browning | January 17th, 2020

According to a new poll (Crosscut/Elway), homelessness, together with the need for social services, is the main concern these days of people all across the state, not just in Seattle. I don’t know what that means. Are there really a lot of homeless people...

It’s ’OK, boomer’ time for some of our personal politics

by Dr. Wes Browning | January 8th, 2020

“Most people don’t even know pulleys have wheels in them.” — made-up Trump quote Trump has become a blustery variant of Don Quixote, literally attacking windmills. “They kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go. Take a look. A bird...

If T.S. Eliot had the internet, would he create biometric tracking memes?

by Dr. Wes Browning | December 31st, 2019

I almost never do requests here. I think I’ve done three or four before now. This week, though, I have been talked into doing not one but two requests. Both requests come from Real Change reporter Ashley Archibald. One of them was to review the currently...

Take a chill pill. It’s just another decade. You’ll be hotter, but things are just fine

by Dr. Wes Browning | December 24th, 2019

Here we are, flinging ourselves headlong into the Visionary Twenty Twenties! I’m very excited about all the potential new changes for our city, county, state, nation and world looming in the coming decade. Potentialities are the best things you can have in...