Politics
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Election Day
Significance of GOP victory deserves a thought or two. The bottom line is that our democracy has become so hollowed out and most people so alienated that what we're watching is simply a street fight between factions in the country's power elite. For some it has entertainment value, but it's not even an interesting matchup
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Concentration of Power
Presents a greater danger to the public good than concentrations of wealth, but where there is concentration of wealth, concentration of power follows. Libertarians get upset with the idea of power concentrated in governments–and that can be a very serious problem–but the real problem in America has always been the way power concentrates in the
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This is how it’s done
I've been a lifelong Democrat, but I'm getting close to quitting. I think the Clintons, Obamas, Emmanuels, and the whole New Democrat crowd have ruined the Democratic brand for years to come. It might be salvageable, and I've stayed in because it's possible to win fights within the local Democratic Party, but ultimately it comes
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Quote of the Day: Andrew O’Hehir
Beltway politics are dominated by passionate and often outrageous partisan rhetoric, which cannot quite conceal the fact that Congress has become a useless, paralytic institution that can’t get anything done. Power lies elsewhere, and remains inaccessible. In a similar fashion, angry wars of words between and among self-styled progressives on the Internet do not entirely
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Third Way vs. Elizabeth Warren
Alex Parene: [Third Way is] not afraid that Warren will run for president, they’re afraid that she’ll be so popular that other senators to start acting like her. They’re worried that she’ll have money to direct to candidates who share her views. They’re worried that Warren might embarrass Democrats into passing stricter bank regulations. They’re
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What’s the Difference between Mandela and Che?
Various notable individuals have lauded Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom",while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age". Others who have expressed their admiration include authors Graham Greene, who remarked that Guevara "represented the idea
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Seattle’s Two Most Interesting Elections
Washington State has 100% mail-in ballots, so it takes a while to find out who wins in close elections. Sue Peters and Kshama Sawant were in such close elections, and both won. Neither ran as Democrats in a Democrats-dominated town–they ran to the left of the Dem establishment and won despite all the money that
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Crashing the Frame
I've thought a lot over the years about persuasion and why it's so difficult, especially when it comes to political values and opinions, and the best conceptual tool that helps me to understand the difficulty is 'frames'. There are individual and group mindframes, and more often than not you can predict the individual's thinking if
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The Obamacare Mess
So why is it that the technology available to Mr. Obama as president doesn’t compare to the technology he used to win an election? Much of the problem has to do with the way the government buys things. The government has to follow a code called the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which is more than 1,800
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Whither the GOP?
The only weekend talking head show worth watching is Up with Steve Kornacki. Here's the embed of a segment from yesterday's show that I think is worth watching: The discussion frames the question well. Will the business elites be able to take back control of the Republican party? Soto thinks they will, but Wilentz and the unfortunately