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: history
How to Get Young People to Take Good Advice
Young people have a very hard time taking good advice for two reasons: Most good advice is based on delayed gratification, which requires a long time horizon. Most young people do not have long time horizons. Remember back to when you were a young whippersnapper. The days seemed to drag on. A week was an…
Just When You Thought “Russiagate” Couldn’t Get Any Sillier
April 20 is cannabis culture’s high holiday, and the Democratic National Committee celebrated it with fervor this year: Blaze up, get silly, file a bizarre lawsuit accusing the Russian government, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and transparency activist group WikiLeaks of conspiring to steal an election.
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.
#KnifeFree? #Spineless!
Knives are what make us human, technology-wise. To try to stop people from carrying knives is to forbid them from living as humans. A knife ban is even less legitimate than a gun ban, and a gun ban isn’t legitimate at all.
System-Bound II
Not only do we have unforeseen consequences, we have failures to learn from the lessons of history. The course of humankind has shown a continual advancement in both the ability to kill one another and the capability of deriving wealth from the process.
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.
System-Bound
Decisions that are based on the greater good for the greater number are often made by jiggering the frame, not by examining what is the good for whom, and not by properly accounting for the effects.
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.