tags: politics

So the Americans want to come back for a rematch. There are fewer things more deadly than a guy running amok. Let’s hope the Philippines isn’t the first to taste W’s new policy about nuking countries he doesn’t like.

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2006

March

2006 Mar 3

affirmative action

Just been watching Chris Rock’s routine “Never Scared.” I like how he describes how affirmative action actually works:

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2006 Mar 6

immigration

One would be hard pressed to convince me that anti-immigrant sentiments are not synonymous with outright racism. The arguments that immigration foes posit are specious at best. The whole, “they’re taking our jobs” idea just doesn’t fly. I really don’t see too many white people lining up for a back-breaking season of crop harvesting or signing up to clean out rich people’s toilets. These aren’t jobs that white people want, although in a lot of cases, they are jobs that need to be done. A more informed argument is the idea that we have to discourage them from taking these jobs because it only encourages rich bastards to pay workers poorly. There is a lot of truth in this. The problem is that (1) it doesn’t directly address how we can get the rich bastards to pay decent wages and (2) it doesn’t address the economic pressures that drives people from developing countries to find jobs in the U.S. And, realistically, I just don’t see people voluntarily paying top dollar for their lettuce and tomatoes just so my black and brown brothers and sisters can have a living wage, undocumented or no.

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2006 Mar 16

economic discrepancy

This article is stupid. It discusses the evolutionary advantage of a patriarchal society, with definite disregard for the value of human life. While it is true that a rapidly growing society tends to overwhelm less rapidly growing societies, this article completely disregards the reasons—both biological and economic—why population growth slows. My feeling is that the natural tendency of populations is to grow rapidly. And while we have, for the most part, in industrialized nations, made the specter of starvation less prominent (although we all know people in the U.S. who are citizens who are starving), what we have not gotten a handle on is the cost of generating children.

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2006 Mar 20

out of the ashes

I have always been someone who backs the underdog and have very little use for the de facto Establishment. I am, perhaps, overly idealistic and at times unreasonably dogmatic, but this instinct has driven many of my trivial and not-so-trivial decisions. For example, OS choice: so it was that I decided to run with Linux in 1998 sucked into the Open Source hype, then Mac OS X in 2002, still attached to GTK and GNOME apps. I had long grown weary of Microsoft and their works. Browser choice: I continued to use Netscape, then Mozilla, then Galeon, then Camino, eschewing the bug-laden, unfixable mess that is IE (and while IE on the Mac is much nicer than its Windows counterpart, it is now ancient) I continue to be a resolute Dodger fan, and can’t help but find the Cubs endearing. And I chose Pediatrics as my specialty, because I want to help those who can’t help themselves—that is the nature of children, for one thing, and I feel that pediatricians tend to work more with underserved populations: minorities, immigrants, the undocumented.

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2006 Mar 21

how far can a people be pushed?

Issa reminds me about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom I actually randomly met in the U.S. when she was still a Senator, trying to push extraordinarily broad suffrage—where even Filipino Americans who have long been U.S. citizens would be allowed to vote. I remember parts of an interesting conversation with her daughter, which would be quite typical amongst people in their late teens, but which has interesting undertones in someone involved in politics, in fact, whose family has been a political dynasty. (Like George W Bush, GMA is the daughter of a former president.) We were discussing how it is that our parents have so much say in our destiny when it comes to choosing what we end up doing in our lives. In my own case, for example, it is no accident that I ended up in health care. Both my parents are in health care, and so are almost all of my aunts. I swear it wasn’t until I was almost in college that I realized that there were other careers available out there in the world. But I wonder about what that means for someone who is part of a political family. Do you feel inexorably driven to do the same, to seek the power and the responsibility of leading?

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2006 Mar 26

the sin of pride

I was walking through the Science Fiction and Fantasy section of the Borders in Glendale when a totally random thought occurred to me. I think what brought it to my mind is the question: what is the cause of evil? I was flipping through random fantasy novels where characters are neatly pigeon-holed into Good or Evil, and clearly in the real world nothing is that obvious.

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April

2006 Apr 9

dark elves and sithi

Just pondering Memory, Thorn, and Sorrow still. I think I thought this the first time I read it, and I’m not usually the gushy, romantic type, but I think the thing that sticks the most with me is the relationship between Simon and Miriamele and how painstaking Tad Williams actually fleshed out its nuances. I think my most favorite scenes are when Simon and Miriamele head out on there own to return to the Hayholt in their bid to try to stop the Storm King and to prevent the End of the World, and they have to seek shelter in people’s abandoned houses, and I was struck especially by the scene where she is doing common, domestic things that you wouldn’t expect a princess to know how to do (not that I’m suggesting that that’s women ought to do)—there is a sort-of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves quality to it. I guess the mundanity of it all really struck me, and how what moved that section of the plot along was the developing romance between the two characters. For some reason, these scenes actually seem to capture the sense of Home for me (which also happens to be a major theme in this book.) Whereas Tolkien touches upon the fact that “you can never really go home again,” particularly when he turns the Shire into a totalitarian state, Williams reiterates the (admittedly disgustingly trite) idea that “home is where the heart is,” which may or may not actually represent an physical place. In retrospect, I suppose maybe Tad Williams had the same idea that I did when I read Book IV and VI of LotR: how different the scenes would’ve been if Frodo and Sam weren’t both male (or, I suppose, alternately, how different it would’ve been if J.R.R. Tolkien wasn’t an old school Catholic and had tried to tap the homoerotic side of it all) and indeed I do find it very touching.

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May

2006 May 15

marxian crisis energy against orwellian global capitalism

Before I completely lose sight of this thought, I wanted to talk about this post on crisis theory and this post on the world of 1984. I think crisis theory does make useful analogic predictions about the future. (OK, I don’t for a moment purport to truly understand crisis theory, but I think I have some gist of it.)

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June

2006 Jun 4

deconstruction and democracy

Yes, I agree, it’s a little too facile to connect the stance of eminent intentionality with fascism, but I look at eminent intentionality as the antithesis of deconstruction, the bread and butter of post-modernist and post-colonial literary criticism.

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2006 Jun 5

forgiveness is not forgetting

I was inspired by this meditation on racism, which describes the well known evils of over-generalization.

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September

2006 Sep 1

confusing the sacred with the profane

So maybe all Republicans aren’t religious fundamentalists, but I kind of wonder if there isn’t some sort of congruence between the two mind sets—namely, the kind of ignorance and stupidity that makes you so sure that what you know is absolutely right and anyone that disagrees with you is absolutely wrong.

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October

2006 Oct 27

physics vis-a-vis racism and misogyny

Man, Lee Smolin, theoretical physicist to the nth degree, is my hero. The first I had heard of him was his book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, a discussion of the possible unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity, which covers string theory and loop quantum gravity. I also noted his name in João Magueijo’s book Faster than the Speed of Light.

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November

2006 Nov 4

no on proposition 85

As a health care provider, and especially as a pediatrician, it’s pretty clear that parental notification for abortion is a bad idea. It’s not entirely clear what this would accomplish, other than cutting off access of teen-aged girls to not only D&C’s, but prenatal counselling and care in general.

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2006 Nov 25

w’s karma

Today I heard an awful story about an Iraq War veteran. 25 years old, beautiful wife, beautiful kids. On his third tour in Iraq, he runs into an IED. Now he’s paralyzed from the neck down, raging angrily in the Spinal Cord Injury unit.

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2006 Nov 25

war and surgery (a metaphor revisited)

The problem with health care professional talking about the Iraq War is that we always seem to find ourselves with mixed metaphors.

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2007

February

2007 Feb 25

a hundred million things

Two days off in a row is a rare boon, almost a vacation, considering the breakneck schedule I’ve been running on as of late, averaging about 80 hours a week. The downside is that I have to work 12 days in a row, which basically just really sucks. Around day 10 I start getting extremely cranky, and by day 11 I’m ready to bite people. But I can’t do anything about it except call in sick, which is, at times, tempting.

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March

2007 Mar 10

the battle of thermopylae

Stacy Taylor, the host of the KLSD morning radio show, broke down the movie ”300” for me. I was all psyched to watch it, having thoroughly enjoyed ”Sin City” but (1) my dad and my brother watched it without me and (2) Taylor’s deconstruction of it kind of took the wind out of my sails.

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2007 Mar 26

treacherous conniving always beats a frank show of force (a discussion of duty and honor)

By various convolutions, I am led to the old, laughable screed by Kim du Toit entitled ”The pussification of the western male” written way back in 2003. I find what he says so ridiculous that I have a hard time believing that this guy is serious.

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2007 Mar 31

you don’t need no stinkin’ rights

Wow. Just, wow.

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April

2007 Apr 3

great is the fall of gondolin

I’m still slowly working my way through

The Lost Tales

by J.R.R. Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher. I found the story of the destruction of the great, hidden city of the Elves wonderfully moving—the story in

The Lost Tales

presents much more detail than the version in

The Silmarillion

and there are some interesting concepts that Tolkien later removed.

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2007 Apr 7

we don't need no stinkin' crash cart

Uh, can you really be a hospital if you can’t perform a resuscitation? Or at least attempt one?

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2007 Apr 21

even snoop dogg knows…

…that there is such a thing as context.

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2007 Apr 22

the color of your skin

I am dismayed by this post about a brown-skinned professor who gets detained by the authorities simply because he leaves a bag full of discarded manuscripts to be recycled.

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May

2007 May 27

sand pebbles

I just finished watching ”Sand Pebbles” which stars Steve McQueen, and it’s a brilliant, intricately subtle anti-war movie that has excruciatingly painful relevance to the present day absurdity of the continued occupation of Iraq by the U.S. “Sand Pebbles” chronicles the tribulations of Jake Holman, an engineer in the U.S. Navy assigned to a gunboat patrolling the Yangtze. The setting is China during the tumultous revolutionary era, as Chiang Kai-shek attempts to oust the warlords whom the western powers support. The specter of Soviet involvement looms large, and so the U.S. characteristically sticks its nose into something that they probably shouldn’t have. Getting involved in other nations’ civil wars seems to be a pretty bad idea if you ask me.

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June

2007 Jun 21

more myspace bulletins/quizzes from j™

Which forgotten animated heroine are you?

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2007 Jun 24

the empire

Bush and Cheney’s disdain for the rule of law—to the point of disobeying their own laws—has been flitting around in my consciousness for the past couple of days. On one hand, it’s not surprising at all. Ever since the election of 2000, W and his cronies have been breaking laws and have tried to consolidate the supreme power of the executive branch. From W’s usurpation of the presidency, to the illegal war in Iraq, the abolition of habeas corpus, the institution of torture, and W’s unlawful signing statements, these bastards have far exceeded Nixon’s violations. But Devilstower on The Daily Kos puts it into chilling perspective.

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October

2007 Oct 9

michelle malkin: a disgrace to all filipinos everywhere

I have to ask you, Michelle:

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2007 Oct 9

corruption and the developing world

There is this punk on the Alibata Yahoo Group that I find myself arguing with whenever I participate in a discussion. Calling himself Malachi, he uses tactics that are reminiscent of the average troll. But for some reason, people never call him out for it.

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2007 Oct 28

changing tides

It still remains to be seen if the U.S. can be salvaged from the claws of totalitarianism, but I remember the dark days of the botched 2000 election, when the Supreme Court stripped the people of their sovereignty and selected the guy who didn’t win the election, and I remember the cynical use of the destruction of the WTC as an excuse to foment war in Iraq.

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2007 Oct 30

some reasons why san diego sucks goat dick

The more I think about it, the more unlikely it seems that I’m going to end up staying here in S.D. While the weather is nice and I have some connections that would make it easier to find a job out here, I think I’m just sick and tired of most of the people here.

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November

2007 Nov 4

terrorism, drugs, and the prison system

Just finished watching “The American Gangster” with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, which documents the rise and fall of the drug lord Frank Lucas in the late ‘60’s to the mid ‘70’s, concomitant with the Vietnam War era. (The New York Magazine has an article about him.)

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2007 Nov 9

yet another reason why San Diego sucks

Today is the last day of the Stacy Taylor Show, the only local progressive AM talk show on the air here. They are being evicted by their corporate task masters, the evil empire known as Clear Channel. They give me yet another reason to continue pirating music, to bring these motherfuckers down.

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December

2007 Dec 29

hope

I read Barack Obama's speech and felt like I had to post it (originally on Politico.com):

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2008

January

2008 Jan 3

woot!

Barack Obama takes Iowa.

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2008 Jan 4

i've got obama fever

The blogosphere is a-twitter with Barack's unlooked-for win in Iowa last night. Obama may not be as progressive as Edwards, and on certain positions he is definitely to the right of where I stand, but symbolically speaking, he is ideal.

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2008 Jan 10

john kerry endorses barack obama

I wasn't expecting this.

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2008 Jan 10

social progressive/fiscal conservative

I like to think I take a progressive stance on several issues: for example, universal health care, women's rights for choice, same sex marriage. I want us out of Iraq now. I want us to work on alternative fuels, and to add stricter regulations to the consumption of hydrocarbons. On the other hand, I'm all for a small government. Maybe Reagan successfully brainwashed me as a child. If I lived during the time of the foundation of the Republic (and I wasn't a person-of-color), I might have been a Whig. I'm all for weak executives, paralyzed/gridlocked legislators, and strict constructionists. Let the people in power play their futile tug-of-wars. It will let the rest of us get down to business. To me, states' rights are paramount, and local politics are key.

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2008 Jan 26

an end to empire

No, I've learned everything, and I've had to learn it on my own. Growing up we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow the war was somehow our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness, they hate us. And we deserve it. We have created an era of fear in the world. If we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

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2008 Jan 30

9iu11ani is out

I remember watching (and eventually becoming nauseated by) the news coverage of the WTC attacks back in 2001 and thinking how Rudy G was totally posing for a presidential run. I'm actually surprised he managed to fuck it up so badly. He managed to piss away his position as front-runner, and he even turned 9/11 into a sad, pathetic joke.

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February

2008 Feb 9

40 year symmetry

My sister reminds me of the 1968 Democratic National Convention which ended up erupting into riots. 1968 was a crazy year. Both MLK and RFK had been assassinated. The Vietnam War was still raging and sending body bags back at an obscene rate, and the American public was in an uproar. LBJ had announced that he would not seek re-election. The front-runners of the Democratic presidential nomination were Hubert Humphrey (who would end up losing ignobly to Nixon), the more status quo candidate, and Eugene McCarthy, whose platform rested heavily on an anti-war stance, with the goal of rapid withdrawal from Vietnam. The undemocratic manner in which Humphrey won the nomination without having participated in a single primary ended up being a liability in the general election, and resulted in permanent changes in the nomination process.

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2008 Feb 20

worst president ever

Jeff Albertson AKA The Comic Book Guy George W Bush AKA The Worst President of the United States

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2008 Feb 21

trying to avoid misogyny

Now I've been an Obama supporter since he ran for Illinois State Senate. I definitely want him to win the Democratic nomination so that he can kick McCain's ass and win the presidency.

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I understand John McCain likes games of chance, and I guess selecting Sarah Palin is his way of saying "jacta alea est." Statistically speaking, McCain's chance of mortality—even though ostensibly, he is at the peak of health for his age—is significant. So what this might suggest is that the Republicans are actually willing to elect a woman to the presidency. While I disagree with just about everything she stands for, that's kind of impressive. I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime, that the party that has been trying its damndest to preserve patriarchy and has at times even openly professed misogyny would actually allow even the slightest possibility that a woman would lead our nation.

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October

2012

June

2012 Jun 6

the long defeat

We can still win this if keep striving. And if we can’t win, then at least we can go out fighting.

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November

2012 Nov 1

rudeness and privilege

The problem I have with the concept of rudeness is that it is frequently used by the privileged to stifle the speech of the marginalized. For example, we can't talk about racism, much less call someone out as saying/doing something racist, because it's rude. Never mind whether the accusation of racism may be true….

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2012 Nov 29

willful blindness?

How is it that libertarians can talk at obnoxious length about how certain behaviors by private entities are totally justified and not immoral while the exact same behaviors performed or sanctioned by the state are violations of human rights, but when you try to explain how racism is bigotry plus state power and/or sanction and/or influence, and without the state reinforcement it's not the same thing and definitely not the same level of oppression, they're all "Huh?!?"

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2015

August

2015 Aug 10

Triangulation

Chasing "undecided" voters is a lot like chasing unicorns. But even if they do truly exist, they are such a statiscally vanishingly tiny percentage of the electorate that it's berserk to pursue them.

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October

2015 Oct 23

The Benghazi Committee is a Fucking Joke

Things might have turned out differently if Fox News hadn't spent the last three years screaming "Benghazi" at the top of their lungs and turning it into a punchline, but this ridiculous committee hearing is just the sad, pathetic denouement that I expected.

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November

2015 Nov 5

Ben Carson and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

…all humans suffer from similar cognitive flaws and biases. We can all be brilliant and stupid at the same time, and apparently have no difficulty compartmentalizing our beliefs in order to minimize cognitive dissonance.

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2015 Nov 6

Ben Carson is Old News

Given the recent headline about Ben Carson fabricating his acceptance to West Point, it seems silly to dwell on his other gaffes, but they amuse me and I have all these browser tabs open, so why not.

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December

2015 Dec 9

Japanese American Internment and Muslim Immigrant Bans

If not for the gravity of his xenophobic policies and the fact that so many people in the U.S. take him seriously, it's absurd and hilarious that Donald Trump is citing the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII as justification for banning Muslim immigrants.

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2016

January

2016 Jan 6

Election Season

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

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2016 Jan 6

Panem et Circenses

"…bread and circuses…. I mean, tax cuts and unlimited streaming video…."

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2016 Jan 22

Star Wars vs. Star Trek

In Star Wars, the State is the enemy and the Rebellion is a libertarian/anarchocapitalist-religious fundamentalist utopia that glorifies asymmetric warfare/terrorism while in Star Trek, the State is a (mostly) benevolent democratic socialist utopia that emphasizes diplomacy and peacemaking.

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February

2016 Feb 5

Pragmatism

Surrender to the status quo is a shitty campaign platform that isn't going to get people to vote¹

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2016 Feb 22

American Populism and White Privilege

Full disclosure: I intend to vote for Bernie Sanders in the California Democratic primary, although it's likely the nomination will be locked down by then and it won't really matter.

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2016 Feb 25

Into the Frying Pan and Out of It Again

In the face of the Republican Party's outright blockade of even considering a nominee for Scalia's vacant seat, there was some talk about Obama possibly nominating Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV)

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2016 Feb 25

The Problem with Classical Liberalism and Classical Marxism

I already know Sanderistas will argue about whether or not Clinton is sincere about talking about white privilege and institutionalized racism, but I am certain that Sanders trying to fix the problems caused by racism indirectly by only trying to fix the problems caused by income inequality is going to fail hard and may even backfire horribly.¹

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2016 Feb 26

Neoliberalism FTW

AFAICT, people on the radical left of U.S. politics (which is not that far left as far as international politics in industrialized countries is concerned) probably don't feel either candidate is very leftist. Essentially, the choice is still between two neoliberals so the main determiner is going to be name brand recognition and the resignation to the fact that a neoliberal is still better than a fascist or a theocrat.

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2016 Feb 26

Hillary Clinton has no chance among young PoC

Clinton reacted badly to being interrupted by #BlackLivesMatter protester Ashley Williams. I think this is going to cost her among young PoCs. But she's not doing great in this demographic anyway.

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2016 Feb 26

Effects of Raising the Minimum Wage

Raising the minimum wage has none of the dire consequences that conventional wisdom warns about and has all sorts of benefits.

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2016 Feb 27

Taking America Way Back

There are articles asserting that 1 out of 5 Trump supporters oppose the Emancipation Proclamation.

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March

2016 Mar 2

In Case of Recession, Break Glass

Maybe I'm being totally paranoid, but I'm worried about an October surprise, specifically, the stock market crashing and the economy collapsing again.

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2016 Mar 2

Escaping Donald Trump

Dark thought after last night's results: How ironic would it be that when President Trump gets inaugurated and starts rounding people up, the rest of the world would refuse to accept refugees from the U.S.?

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2016 Mar 2

Chris Christie as Reek

Chris Christie as Theon Greyjoy. Donald Trump as Ramsay Bolton. Perfect.

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2016 Mar 2

Blaming the Victims

It's kind of victim-blaming bullshit that people are more angry with people who want to vote their conscience and choose the most progressive candidate than with the assholes who are hell-bent on installing a fascist dictator in the White House.

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2016 Mar 7

Back to China Again

Remember back in the day before the Twin Towers fell when George W Bush was sending spy planes into China's airspace and then one crashed into a Chinese fighter jet? I was certain this was going to be the beginning of the next global conflagaration.

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2016 Mar 7

Trumpism

To be certain, the problem isn't Donald Trump. The problem is that a significant proportion of the population of the U.S. believes fascism and/or theocracy are perfectly cromulent solutions for the woes of our country.

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2016 Mar 8

Malaysia and 1MDB

Today, NASDAQ has iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund (EWM) listed as the stock with the highest dividend yield at 65.95% and selling for $8.33/share.

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2016 Mar 9

Beware the Ides of March

I feel like the March 15th primaries deserve a "Super" name. No one appears to be calling it Super Tuesday II or Mini Tuesday.

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2016 Mar 17

Merrick Garland

Given the present focus on police brutality, defendant rights, and mass incarceration, the Garland pick is definitely controversial among progressives, but (1) he's still going to swing the court to the left especially since he's replacing Scalia and (2) it's unlikely that Senate will confirm him anyway.

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April

2016 Apr 5

Word Salad

Inexplicably, Sarah Palin is still being paid attention to.

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2016 Apr 5

Berniebots

I thought "Berniebot" was just a pejorative term for Sanders supporters (akin to "Obamabot" in the 2008 election without the definite racial component.)

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2016 Apr 20

Legitimacy

Assuming that existing polls hold (there is a paucity of polls in the remaining primaries—there's only really data for CT, MD, PA, CA, and NJ, and absolutely nothing from all of May) and using the national polling data as a guide for how the states without data will go (538 has Clinton at 49.4% and Sanders at 41.7% nationally which will be wildly inaccurate in a lot of states—a lot of those smaller states will probably go heavily towards Sanders—but it's all we've got) there's no realistic way for Clinton to get 2,383 pledged delegates before the convention (she'll probably have just under 2,000 pledged delegates by the end of the DC primary.)

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May

2016 May 20

The Realignment of the U.S.

Matt Taibbi already deconstructed how absurd Andrew Sullivan's argument is—the problem with the U.S. isn't that it's too democratic—but I do think there's a chance that Trump will win and I do think the backlash might make our system even less democratic than it already is.

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2016 May 20

Oklahoma

I am flabbergasted.

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2016 May 25

Hate Voting

Historically, has there ever been a general election in the U.S. like this where both (presumptive) nominees were so intensely disliked by significant percentages of their own parties?

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2016 May 27

The Partition of California

Thinking about the fact that candidates are actually campaigning in California despite having a very late primary, I'm wondering how the state could have more of an impact on the rest of the country.

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2016 May 31

Comeback vs Come from Behind

Bernie Sanders inspired some pedantry when he said that Golden State had a "comeback" victory.

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June

2016 Jun 1

Political Reality

Unless something catastrophic happens between now and June 7th (like a stock market crash or a banking scandal or a federal indictment or whatever), this is probably how it's going to play out. The more moderate Sanders supporters will resign themselves to voting for Clinton in November and the more radical Sanders supporters will stay home or vote for Jill Stein or Trump or do something else that's totally crazy and counterproductive, and Sanders' personal political future will depend entirely on whether or not he reconciles with the Democratic establishment.

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2016 Jun 3

Unfavorability Ratings and Mob Rule

It does seem like one of the major reason why people don't like Clinton is simply because of the media perception of her character and personality and hardly anything to do at all with policy. Hopefully Trump will remain far more despised than Clinton until November. Democracy and mob rule FTW!

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2016 Jun 6

There's No Reason for Sanders to Quit Now

It really makes no sense to expect Sanders to quit before the tallies from tomorrow's elections are in.

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2016 Jun 7

Abandon Ship

Looks like Donald Trump is too disgusting for even some Republicans.

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2016 Jun 8

How Quickly People Forget

It seems like no one remembers how contentious and vitriolic the Democratic Primaries in 2008 were.

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2016 Jun 10

Ochlocracy and Autocracy

Mob rule is just as terrible as autocracy (they don't call it the tyranny of the majority for nothing), but when the system is failing, the people really have no choice but to form mobs.

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2016 Jun 10

Vitriol in 2008

While it's probably only a matter of time until the Democratic party manages to unite at least a majority of itself into a force dedicated to ensuring Trump doesn't get elected, Obama's endorsement of Clinton reminds me once again of how much more rancorous the 2008 Democratic primaries were.

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2016 Jun 10

Democratic Party on the Precipice

Honestly, if you think Clinton's presumptive victory is a sign that neoliberalism is totally fine and the majority of Democrats are all aboard and we should just keep on keeping on while the real wages fall and the rich get even richer and can get judges to merely slap them on the wrist for committing violent crimes, the aftermath of the next recession/stock market crash is probably going to be horribly shocking to you.

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2016 Jun 13

Food Riots in Venezuela

Reading about the history of Venezuela, there was a similar period of instability when the neoliberal-aligned government imposed strict austerity measures to comply with conditions set by the IMF in return for a bailout. This instability was what allowed socialists to gain control in the first place

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2016 Jun 14

Islamism and Scientism

The way I look at it, Islamism has as much to do with Islam as scientism has to do with science. (And before you argue that scientism never killed anybody, the victims of Social Darwinism and eugenics would probably beg to differ.)

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2016 Jun 14

Was He Really an Islamist?

While Donald Trump harangues President Obama for refusing to label the Orlando gunman a "radical Islamic terrorist" and Hillary Clinton undermines the president by repeatedly using the term herself, it seems more and more like it's not particularly warranted.

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2016 Jun 15

The Brokenness of American Culture

The way I look at it, the Orlando gunman was solely responsible for his actions. He had his own inner demons and his own murderous intentions.

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2016 Jun 24

SCOTUS Upholds Affirmative Action

SCOTUS rules 4-3 to uphold, with Kagan recused. Kennedy writes the majority opinion.

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2016 Jun 29

Brexit, Neoliberalism, and Global Capitalism

Between Donald Trump and the Brexit (not to mention all the other ultranationalist populist movements in Europe) sometimes I feel like Western Civilization is in terminal decline.

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July

2016 Jul 5

ISIS is an Enemy of Islam

The U.S. has never needed religious reasons for murdering indigenous people and killing people in other countries. So I kind of suspect it's not necessarily religion that promotes mass murder and I don't think anyone in the U.S. has the moral high ground here.¹

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2016 Jul 5

Islamophobia is Merely Racism

It's obvious that there's a racist component to Islamophobia. It's mostly just another excuse to hate brown and black people, especially when you consider that so many victims of Islamophobia in the U.S. aren't even Muslim.

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2016 Jul 8

The Howling Hobbesian Wilderness

I think one of the ways our culture contributes to ongoing violence is the way it consecrates and sanctifies Darwinian competition. So ultimately all our relationships are adversarial. You're either for us or against us. You have to pick a side. It's a zero-sum game. There's no room for more complex paradigms involving sincere cooperation and altruism. The idea that we're not just all selfish assholes looking out for #1 is looked upon with utter disdain and contempt.

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2016 Jul 8

The Continual Whitewashing of Science Fiction

Whitewash all the things.

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2016 Jul 19

Master of Deflection

In Trump's America™, it's Hillary Clinton's fault that Melania Trump's speechwriters plagiarized Michelle Obama's speech.

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2016 Jul 20

Contemptible

Do people even have access to thesauruses (thesauri?) anymore?¹

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2016 Jul 23

Put Out the Fires First

It troubles met that on the same day that Hillary Clinton picked a centrist Democrat as her running mate, Wikileaks released documentation of the DNC actively trying to suppress Bernie Sanders' campaign.

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2016 Jul 25

Yes, People Die in the U.S. Because of Our Politics

It's ridiculous to argue that people in this country don't get killed for political reasons.

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2016 Jul 26

BoBs and PUMAs

There is definitely a contingent of Sanderistas who were never Democrats and who will never vote for Clinton, very similar to the PUMAs who refused to vote for Obama. Clinton will never win them over.

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2016 Jul 26

First Woman Presidential Candidate

Hooray, we're finally catching up with the rest of the Western world as well as a lot of developing countries!

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2016 Jul 26

Are You Really as Pragmatic as You Say You Are?

Any approach to convincing people to vote for your candidate of choice that does not include listening and empathy is doomed to failure and likely to strengthen their opposition (see also: argumentative theory of reasoning and the backfire effect.) Proceed with caution.¹

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2016 Jul 28

America First vs. Russia and N. Korea First

Now that Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee, the Democratic Party is the only major political party in this country that actually puts America first.

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2016 Jul 29

Bernie or Busters and Moderate Republicans

It is interesting that there seems to be more venom reserved for Bernie-or-busters compared to moderate Republicans who think Trump is a disaster but can't stand the idea of voting for Clinton. Both these demographics' interests can at least be partially served by voting for Clinton, but for some reason, holding out because you're a Republican is more virtuous than holding out because you're a progressive.

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2016 Jul 29

Crazification Factor

In light of all the people voting for Trump and all the people refusing to vote for Clinton, this seems apt.

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August

2016 Aug 2

Compromise

Bernie-or-busters have been posting this quote from HST lately:

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2016 Aug 2

Maybe Trump Isn't Hitler

If you don't like comparing Trump to Hitler, maybe you can just compare Trump to Ferdinand Marcos?

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2016 Aug 4

Anarchocapitalism and Medicine

Prior to Medicare and Medicaid and before employee-provided health insurance, health care was a luxury only the wealthy could afford, and most diseases and all cases of severe trauma were completely untreatable. I'm not sure why people think the era before the advent of antibiotics, modern emergency rooms, and positive-pressure ventilation was all that great.

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2016 Aug 4

One of the Greatest Presidents

Assuming we avert the Trumpocalypse and manage to remain a democratic republic (at least for the rest of my life), I imagine Democrats of the future will talk about Obama the same way we talk about FDR and the same way that Republicans talk about Reagan.

2016 Aug 8

Philippines is a Terrorist Nation

I wonder how this is going to play out with the many reliably GOP faction of Filipino Americans?

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2016 Aug 9

Trump vs. Duterte

After Trump declared the Philippines a terrorist nation, Philippine Congressman Joey Salceda has proposed banning Trump from the Philippines.

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2016 Aug 15

The Demise of the Tea Party

I have always been skeptical that the Tea Party was ever really primarily a grassroots movement. Much like Trump, it always looked like an astroturfing corporate-funded money-making scheme meant to capitalize on populist anger (which manifests mainly as virulent anti-government sentiment, xenophobia, and misogyny).

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2016 Aug 15

Obama Has a Time Machine

Twice now, Donald Trump and his campaign staff have accused Obama of using a time machine. Once to kill Capt. Humayun Khan in Iraq in 2004, and once to found ISIS in 1999. (To be fair, it was called Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad then, morphing into Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004, then finally becoming the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2013.)

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