Author Archives: dsfjr

Trump Finally Jumps the Shark

The Republican Convention was a tour de farce of plagiarism, F-list celebrities, lies, and stupidity, capped off by Trump’s “This country is a hellhole, and you’re all going to stay unemployed, lose your jobs and/or die if you don’t elect me” speech. The Democratic Convention was a well-run affair, featuring speeches by actual celebrities and accomplished electedContinue reading “Trump Finally Jumps the Shark”

How Not to Talk About Slavery

You are failing spectacularly at whatever it is you think you are doing if you find yourself qualifying America’s history with slavery by saying that some slaves were “well-fed and had decent lodgings.” In fact, if you’ve lived a life that has led you to not understand that a statement like that adds no value to our publicContinue reading “How Not to Talk About Slavery”

There’s a Candidate for President Who May Be Bought, and It’s Not Hillary Clinton

There’s no right way to get back into blogging after a month-long hiatus, so I’ll just dive right in again. There’s a lot coming out at the moment about Donald Trump and some of his advisers’ connections to Russia and Vladimir Putin’s cronies. A taste, from the first article I read about what should become a majorContinue reading “There’s a Candidate for President Who May Be Bought, and It’s Not Hillary Clinton”

Poor Arguments, Wishful Thinking Edition

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns & Money finds Freddie deBoer making a fascinating argument that if we punish the Democratic Party in 2016 we will all get ponies in 2020. Cool story, bro. Let’s just outsource the proper response to this to Lemieux, here, with the relevant excerpt (but read the whole thing): He [deBoer] continues, in vain,Continue reading “Poor Arguments, Wishful Thinking Edition”

Voting is About Empowering the Political Movement With Which You Agree Most, Not About Feeling All Warm and Fuzzy (Though It’s Great If Your Party’s Candidate Makes You Feel That Way!)

Since Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s nominee and the choices are clear before the American people, it’s important to sharpen our thinking around voting. I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth revisiting now that there are three candidates. The third candidate whom I’m referring to is Gary Johnson. There has already been some “JohnsonContinue reading “Voting is About Empowering the Political Movement With Which You Agree Most, Not About Feeling All Warm and Fuzzy (Though It’s Great If Your Party’s Candidate Makes You Feel That Way!)”

When Anecdotes Happen to You

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote here. While laziness explains some of my absence, a somewhat frightening, bizarre, and ultimately tragic episode that took place is mostly responsible. I’ll share it here since it sheds light on a problem that’s looming in China. For some background, I moved into a new place at the beginning ofContinue reading “When Anecdotes Happen to You”

Some Well-Meaning Advice* for Anti-Trump Republicans

Behold! There is a white knight for anti-Trump Republicans after all. His name is Gary Johnson, Republican Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, now turned Libertarian and likely to be that party’s nominee for president in 2016. He’s polling at 10% in matchups with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the moment, andContinue reading “Some Well-Meaning Advice* for Anti-Trump Republicans”

Independents are Special Snowflakes, California Edition

A few hundred thousand California voters are about to find out that they cannot vote for candidates in their preferred major political party in the primary contest being held on June 7th. This will inevitably lead to wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of Bernie Sanders supporters who don’t want to engage withContinue reading “Independents are Special Snowflakes, California Edition”

How I Got Trump Right; or, How Did I Make Such a Lucky Guess?

The last few weeks have featured some interesting pieces by prominent reporters and analysts about why they severely underestimated Donald Trump’s chances at the Republican nomination. For my money, the most worthwhile so far is this one by “data journalist” Nate Silver at his website FiveThirtyEight. He and his team put Trump’s chances at 2% last August and raisedContinue reading “How I Got Trump Right; or, How Did I Make Such a Lucky Guess?”