On April 23, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla approved language for a 2020 ballot proposal submitted by the Yes California Independence Campaign. The proposal will — assuming the campaign can collect and submit signatures from 365,880 registered voters by October — kick off a process already widely known as “Calexit” (after the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” from the European Union).
Tag: america
Americans Don’t Need Another War
Military aggression isn’t a good thing; it’s never healthy for the people of either country — not for the aggressors nor for the defenders trying to defeat the invaders. Yet people fall for the propaganda. They always have.
Why The Revolutionaries Are (Also) the Villains of Les Miserables
I recently rewatched the great 2011 film adaption of this movie, and I frequently dip back into the film’s excellent song soundtrack. But after some observation, I have a controversial opinion on the revolutionaries: while they are revolting against an unjust system, they’re not much worth our sympathy. There are a few reasons why the revolutionaries are also villains (of a sort) of this story. These also happen to be some of the reasons why in most wars, the revolutionaries are just as guilty as the state they’re revolting against.
Shadow Protectionism: The US Government vs. Chinese Phone Makers
Are cheap Chinese phones and Internet routers really a significant threat to national security? Probably not. The more likely motive behind these moves is the inclination of US president Donald Trump, and his administration, toward “economic nationalism” in the form of protectionist trade policies directed with particular venom toward China.
Freedom is Winning in the Encryption Arms Race
If you thought the perpetual whining from law enforcement about encryption was about fighting terrorism, think again. It’s mostly about the money. Like other mobsters, politicians and their accomplices hate the idea of their rackets coming to an end.
Hard-Won Homeschooling Freedoms Are Under Threat and Must Be Defended
I sometimes wonder about the courage it took those earlier homeschooling parents to remove their children from school before it was fully legal, to chart an alternative education path for their children when they were often the only ones on that road. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same courage.
Trump Isn’t the First War Criminal President; He Should be the Last
The strikes on Syria constitute a war of aggression. The Syrian regime has never attacked, nor threatened to attack, any of the three countries which just attacked it, nor are its alleged domestic crimes, however horrible, the bailiwick of those three governments. And as the Nuremberg Tribunal noted, “To initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” Donald Trump, Theresa May, and Emmanuel Macron are war criminals.
Ice Cream Shops, Saturday Night, and Peace
It’s a radical experience in human history for people to have the financial means and the freedom to go out to see a movie, to take the children out for an ice cream, to walk through a welcoming, light-strewn outdoor mall. But that’s what a Saturday night in Atlantic Station is for all of these people. It’s more impressive when I consider that some of these people from minority cultures are likely immigrants. This Saturday night may have been someone’s first night around all of this extravagance.
They Will Be Slaves Forever
For over two hundred years, Americans have voted, and petitioned, and protested, and campaigned, and filed lawsuits against state agents and departments, and filed complaints against abusive government enforcers and bureaucrats, and voted some more.
U.S. War Making: What’s in It for You?
You pay for all of this endless death and destruction, average American, but you get less than nothing out of it. In short, you are a sap for evil and designing intriguers. If you are reflexively “supporting the troops,” you might want to reconsider playing the fool and having your intelligence insulted daily in the process.