Category Archives: Current events

Keep Up The Good Work

Well, another “No Kings” rally has come and gone… which means people will put away their signs until the next one comes along.

But there’s no reason at all to stop resisting, and showing that resistance.

If only there were some way to demonstrate or show your support between rallies….

I note that there’s a Unicode symbol for each of the chess pieces – both black and white. The white king, for example, is U+2654…..and that every word processing program I’ve seen so far has, in their standard graphics add-ons, the circle-with-a-slash symbol for “NO” / “Prohibited”.

How hard can it be to combine the two, and put that on a button or sticker?

If people ask, it means you don’t play chess….

Sound Familiar?

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us…

 

– Excerpts from the charges against King George III in the Declaration of Independence.

Hydrangeas

Not as vivid as some, but you can at least get a hint of the variation possible.

They’re in full bloom as I write this. Bushes three feet high or so, with huge clusters of bright pink or vivid blue flowers – with every shade in between (even a sort of pale yellow green at times). Sometimes even on the same bush. I don’t know why – probably something to do with a genetic quirk in the plant coupled with some soil chemistry. I could look it up, but seeing them has sent my thoughts in another direction.

Traditionally (at least in the US), light blue / sky blue / powder blue has been used to designate a boy at a birth celebration. Pink has been used to denote a girl. If you follow the news as much as I do, you cannot help but notice that there’s a lot of stuff about people who don’t exactly fit into the normal “boy/male” or “girl/female” boxes. Instead of Blue or Pink, they’re purple.

When we see the varied colors of hydrangea blossoms, we don’t consider them to be different plants, do we. So why shouldn’t we do the same with all the variations in people? Why waste the effort to force them into just one or two “colors”, when the variety is much nicer – and more natural?

Opening Day 2025

Another season is about to (formally) begin – with all the hope and optimism that entails.

While everyone is looking at the teams in order of Most Likely to Win the World Series, there are still other things worth discussing.

Which team will be the worst? The Chicago White Sox can’t possibly lose as many games as they did last year (can they?). Giving them a run for their money as bottom dwellers are the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins. In the former case, team management can’t seem to assemble a team that can take advantage of Coors Field. In the latter, team management just doesn’t seem to care. At least the A’s have an owner that seems to be putting in some effort to get a fair team on the field.

And speaking of the A’s, what effect will playing in Sacramento have on the team? The same question can be asked of the “Tampa Bay” Rays, who will be calling another team’s spring training facility “home”. At least the Rays have an excuse – hurricane damage rendered The Trop unusable. John Fisher is just screwing around with the A’s.

On a nicer note, Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw needs a mere 32 strikeouts to reach the magic 3,000 level for his career. It’s not a matter of if he’ll get them, but when. And which opposing player will be the victim. It’s highly unlikely he’ll reach the other major milestone of 300 wins – he’s 88 away, and 37 years old….. The closest pitcher to that Magic Number is Justin Verlander, at 262. And he’s 42 years old…. We can probably say goodbye to seeing any more 300 game winners. Verlander’s the only active player with more than 250…..

If I can stay with the Dodgers for one last thought, it’s pretty clear they are the best team in baseball this year. But that means very little when it comes to the playoffs. Is there a team that can stop them from repeating as World Champions? I’d bet that there is. But which one?

We’ll have to wait for all of that. But in the meantime, PLAY BALL!

On the Ides of March

(Don’t you hate when you rush to get a post written because the topic is time-sensitive, and then in your rush you actually forget to hit “Publish”?)

After finally defeating its only serious geopolitical rival, the Republic slowly turned into an oligarchy. The wealthy acquired the positions of power, and used their power to get even wealthier. The government became lazy and corrupt; occasional attempts at reform all failed due largely to institutional inertia. The “wealth gap” widened, but as long as the lower classes had their most basic needs met, rebellions and protests were minimal and easily dealt with.

Then a crisis happened (due in no small part to the Republic’s own policies) that struck at the very heart of the Republic. The oligarchs took over, and gave some of their own extraordinary powers to deal with the emergency.

After the emergency passed, one of those oligarchs schemed to take control of the government. The leaders of the Republic were too weak and ineffectual to resist – until that oligarch threatened their prerogatives and started talking about making himself king.

“As with all matters of ancient history, who are we to say who was wrong and who was right in all of that? All we can say for sure is that a man who was really, really full of himself, who believed that the law did not apply to him, and who thought of himself as a king got his ass murdered. Thankfully, history never repeats itself so none of this has any relevance to the present and none of us should give the ideas contained herein any additional thought.” – Craig Calcaterra

Epilogue: The power vacuum created by the assassination sparked a civil war; when that was over and the dust settled, the Republic had turned into an Empire anyway…

 

 

Sorry Everybody

Way back in ancient history (20 years ago), George W. Bush was able to win re-election as president. College student James Zetlen was a bit stunned and surprised by this; like many others he could see that Bush was a political naif who was being controlled by Darth Cheney and Emperor Rove. He decided he needed to apologize to the rest of the world. He created a website – SorryEverybody.com – where he posted a photo of himself w/ apology sign, and encouraged people to send in their own photos and apologies. He was overwhelmed with responses and submissions, and got some international press coverage.

Just a few of the hundreds….

It was a cathartic way for people to share their feelings and anxieties about the next four years.

Now that we have an exponentially worse president moving back into the “People’s House”, I’m not seeing anything similar. Not even any talk of performative protests like the “pink pussycat hat” demonstrations of eight years ago.

I suspect I know why.

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Don’t Waste Any Time Mourning – Organize!

Those words were in one of the last writings of labor organizer Joe Hill before his execution in 1915, and have been adapted for use by many activist movements ever since. I know people are still coming to grips with what happened in the most recent election, but when they finally process things, it’s time to do what Hill said. Don’t mourn the end of American democracy, but get organized to fight for it.

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Those Election Maps Again

As the presidential campaign heads into its final weeks, you might start seeing maps of the US with the states colored in according to how they are expected to vote in the Electoral College. The more relevant ones are those that come out after the election, showing the actual results. We all know that the EC is a clunky way to choose a president, but we’re stuck with it until someone gets the political will and energy to amend the Constitution to change it.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about those maps – which surely drive data scientists bonkers with their awfulness.

NOTE: Examples use 2020 election results. All but the last map were ‘borrowed’ from World Mapper; the last map came from XKCD.

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Another Fix for the Electoral College

For some reason, every four years around this time, you’ll find people whining about how the Electoral College is archaic, outdated, biased towards smaller states, and generally Not Good for their side of the political aisle (curiously, it’s always the liberal one that complains).

The usual proposal is to do away with the Electoral College entirely and elect our presidents through direct national popular vote. Or, failing that, come up with some sort of dodge with how states choose their electors that would give the same effective result (the “National Popular Vote Compact”).

But there’s one other approach to the problem that they keep missing – and it’s one that would solve a handful of other problems at the same time: expand the House of Representatives. Continue reading →

So Biden is Too Old?

I will give a little attention to your arguments that President Biden should step out of the race at this late date if you can first tell me this:

Why aren’t you FIRST calling for the CONVICTED FELON and rapist, who is showing obvious signs of senility, who lies seemingly every time he opens his mouth, AND has made it clear that he intends to turn the country into a fascist dictatorship, to step out of the race?

In case you’re wondering, here’s the Official Republican Party Platform (as described in their “Project 2025” plan:

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