Sunday, March 22, 2026
The Words Most Americans Think Describe Donald Trump
The chart above is from the YouGov Poll -- done between February 24th and March 1st of a nationwide sample of 1,111 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
The 20 Happiest Countries In The World (The U.S. Is Not Among Them)
The rankings in the 14th World Happiness Report draw on Gallup World Poll data collected in more than 140 countries. Life evaluations are measured by asking respondents to rate their lives on a ladder from zero, the worst possible life, to 10, the best possible life. The annual rankings reflect three-year averages, allowing meaningful comparisons across countries and generations, and over time. (From The Gallup Poll)
The Cost Of This Unnecessary War (And How That Money Could Be Better Used)
The following post is by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times:
Let’s ponder for a moment the vast sums that we’re pouring into the war with Iran.
The Pentagon has requested $200 billion (more than $1,400 per American household) to fund the war, but even that understates the total cost.
Linda Bilmes, a Harvard expert on financing war, told me that most of the costs will arrive later. For example, any soldier who develops a medical disorder or aggravates an existing one will receive lifelong benefits and medical care. If today’s troops claim such benefits at the same rate as those who participated in the 1990-91 gulf war, that alone would eventually cost at least $600 billion, Bilmes said. Not to mention, of course, the human toll of all of this.
All told, she expects this Iran war to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion.
Here are some ideas of what the war money could be used for instead. My calculations are conservative, based on Pentagon reporting that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion — and even that incomplete tally amounted to more than $1.3 million a minute.
* For a bit more than two weeks of this war, we could offer free college education to every American family earning less than $125,000 annually, at a cost of around $30 billion a year.
* For less than three weeks of war, or $35 billion, we could run a nationwide pre-K program for 3- and 4-year-olds.
* For $75 million, about an hour’s worth of war, we could provide three books free to every child in America who is living under the poverty line, according to Kyle Zimmer of First Book, a nonprofit that works on early literacy. Research suggests that books like these can help get children reading and improve their outcomes.
* A woman dies in the United States every two hours, on average, from cervical cancer. Screening all uninsured women who need it would cost perhaps $1 billion and could save hundreds of lives, according to Dr. Linda Eckert, a cervical cancer expert at the University of Washington. That’s less than 13 hours of the war bill.
* We could get glasses to all 2.3 million low-income schoolchildren in the United States who need them but don’t have them. The base cost would be about $300 million, according to Vision to Learn, a nonprofit that does this work. The bill would be what we spend on four hours of this war.
* For about $34 billion a year, less than three weeks of war, we could restore health insurance subsidies that the Trump administration let expire last year. One analysis predicted an additional 8,800 preventable American deaths as a result.
The war money would save even more lives if we allocated part of it abroad. Indeed, we spent more on the first three days of war than we spent ($4 billion) on all humanitarian aid in 2025. Consider what we could achieve internationally:
* For $400 million or less, a bit more than five hours of war, we could deworm all children in need worldwide, according to Evidence Action, a nonprofit that works on deworming. This would result in stronger, healthier children and adults.
* For $380 million, less than five hours of war, we could provide vitamin A supplementation for the 190 million children who need it. Helen Keller Intl, a nonprofit engaged in this work, says this would prevent up to 480,000 child deaths each year and virtually eliminate blindness from vitamin A deficiency.
* About one day’s worth of war spending could save more than 350,000 lives from malaria, through a rigorously studied screening and prevention program, according to Esther Duflo, an economist at M.I.T.’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.
* For $4.3 billion, less than three days of the war bill, we could largely end the most terrible form of malnutrition, called severe wasting. That would save about 1.5 million children’s livesannually. We would accomplish something historic: For the first time in the history of humanity, large numbers of children would no longer be starving to death.
We have to know that numbers like this are never totally reliable — but that’s true of military costs as well. George W. Bush’s administration in 2003 put the cost of the Iraq war at $40 billion; it ended up costing perhaps $3 trillion.
Moreover, my figures are based on only the initial costs of the Iran war. And even the estimate of $1 trillion for the full cost doesn’t include the bills for more expensive gasoline we’re now paying and for pricier fertilizer and food that are likely soon.
If we reallocated this war spending to needs at home and abroad, Americans would have access to school from pre-K to college and would have health insurance, and large numbers of children worldwide would not starve to death — and we would still have billions of dollars left over.
We can cough up the cash when there’s political will, such as to drop bombs halfway around the world. But where is the political will to get people health care or education, to build rather than to destroy?
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Polls Continue To Shows The Public Is Unhappy With Trump's War On Iran
The chart above is from the Reuters / Ipsos Poll -- done between March 17th and 19th of a nationwide sample of 1,545 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
The four charts above are from the Change Research Poll -- done between March 8th and 12th of a nationwide sample of 1,541 registered voters, with a 2.6 point margin of error.
Friday, March 20, 2026
A Majority Of Adults Think Trump Was Involved In Epstein's Crimes
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between March 13th and 16th of a nationwide sample of 1,595 adults (including 1,429 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.3 points for adults and 3.2 points for registered voters.
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