The Mariners did something this afternoon they haven’t been doing much lately. They won a game. Even more surprisingly, they won the game by more than a single run. The final score was 4-1 in their favor. Less surprisingly, it…
The Electability Trap
Americans are obsessed with having voted for the person who happened to win. It’s bizarre, and I’ve discussed it before, and it’s a large part of what never gets fixed about politics in this country and why we re-elect 99.9%…
Privacy is Death
The thought occurred to me yesterday that had the events of Freedom Summer happened this summer, they would have ended with the police just gunning everybody down. I don’t think that’s quite actually true, because of the nature of numbers…
It’s 2015 and You are Alive
There’s a lot going on. There always is. Despite the efforts of various media outlets, phone applications, and the narrative brain to confine your existence to a narrow set of coherent and perfectly tailored activities/perceptions, reality is a cacophony of…
Finance Lessons
I don’t know when we decided that someone’s moral worth, both individually and collectively, depended entirely on their ability to manipulate financial arrangements. But I think we should probably go back and un-decide that, posthaste. Unfortunately, recent steps to increase…
Independence Day
“There was an exodus of birds in the trees because they didn’t know we were only pretending. And the people all looked up and looked pleased and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending. And I, I…
The Muddy Lens
The problem with writing is that it’s all done by writers. But seriously, it’s an innate flaw to the medium. Though not a unique one, this flaw carries its own particular proclivities and issues stemming from the viewpoints of writers.…
Unemployment Spikes in June, Reporting Gap Sets New Record
The reality-bending nature of the reported unemployment figure in the United States hit a new high watermark, with the BLS today reporting that unemployment was at 5.3% when it actually spiked to 11.52%. They reported a decline of 0.2 points…
Identity Politics
“My understanding is, is you’ve got some of the same organizers now going back into these communities to try to clean up in the aftermath of a handful of criminals and thugs who tore up the place.” -Barack Obama, on…
Baltimore and American Exceptionalism
It was trendy there for a few weeks of Internet time to write snide little stories on how American news events would be reported on by American news if they weren’t American news events at all. How would Ferguson look…