Politics

Martin Luther King Day

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Michael Hanscom

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

— Martin Luther King, Jr., in Letter From Birmingham Jail

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Michael Hanscom

How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy: “We’re in an age of manufactured nihilism. The issue for many people isn’t exactly a denial of truth as such. It’s more a growing weariness over the process of finding the truth at all. And that weariness leads more and more people to abandon the idea that the truth is knowable.”

2020 Pre-Primary Candidate Rankings

January 15, 2020 by Michael Hanscom

While I haven’t been paying a lot of attention, this looks about right, at least from a policy standpoint. (The numbers are how many questions out of 20 I agree with the candidate on.)

Candidates with Warren at the top and Biden at the bottom

You can take the quiz at the Washington Post.

Ranking on a “would I feel good about voting for them?” scale have the same top and bottom results, the rest would be shuffled to varying degrees.

Ranked on a “would I vote for them if they were the nominee?” scale, they’d all be in the number one spot. Because while some are more in line with my personal beliefs than others, the priority is getting Trump out, and the top of the ticket vote needs to be a strategic vote to get Trump out of office, not an idealistic vote to “send a message”.

Hopepunk

December 12, 2019December 3, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

I first ran across the term “hopepunk” just about a year ago, and more and more these days, it’s the attitude that is helping me cope with the state of the world today.

As I posted on Facebook earlier today, along with the Tank Girl image in this post:

I post occasionally about the #hopepunk idea, and this is the essence of it (what I’ve also seen termed as “weaponized optimism”, which I love).

Yes, many things are horrible. Yes, far too much of the world is shit. And yes, not only can it be better, but we can make it better. And we’ll drag the rest of you with us into a better world, whether you like it or not.

Here’s more on the hopepunk idea, from a few sources. In each of these links, there’s a lot more than what I’ve excerpted here, and I highly recommend spending some time going through them all.

November 26, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

Bruce Wayne warns wealth tax on billionaires could result in fewer crimes foiled via jet-powered cars: “When asked whether a wealth tax could help curb costumed murders by investing in public schools, job retraining, and community mental health initiatives, Wayne responded, ‘Sure, but do any of those programs involve a 7000 pound car that can drive up walls? I think not.'”

November 25, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It: “Professional trolls…are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously.”

Oh crap, can you see…

December 24, 2019June 14, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

From Jason Kottke:

…I’ve developed a similar unsafe feeling about the flag. It’s not a voluntary thing — it’s something that has built up over two+ years of seeing American flags in photos of MAGA rallies & white nationalist marches but not so much at Black Lives Matter marches or pro-choice rallies. I’m sure you’ve also noticed the correlation between seeing an American flag emoji in someone’s Twitter bio next to the MAGA hashtag and the tendency of that person to act like a misogynist asshole. While it’s hardly a new thing, the aggressive, intolerant, nationalistic right has been particularly effective in visibly wrapping themselves in the flag lately. It’s great branding for them, but it’s not doing the flag any favors.

This is something I’ve noticed and discussed with my wife over the past few years as well. We’re at a point where if someone’s displaying an American flag, we assume they’re probably not someone we want to associate with — that it’s a display of nationalism, not patriotism. The bigger and more ostentatious the display, the more averse we are to interacting with them.

VOTE

December 24, 2019March 28, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

Everyone: When it’s time to vote, GET OUT AND VOTE.

The list below (originally found on Facebook) focuses on Alaskan elections (Alaskans can be particularly prone to the “my vote doesn’t count so why bother” mentality, particularly in Presidential elections where Alaska has few electoral votes and the races are often called before polls have even closed in Alaska), but I’d be willing to bet good money that similar close results can be found in whatever region you live in (I’ll admit that I haven’t taken the time to personally research and verify each of these specific instances, but I have no immediate reason to doubt them).

Also, you’ll notice that most of this list has results not from high-profile Presidential elections, but from local elections, from as broad as gubernatorial to as local as school district races. Sure, that’s because those races often deal with smaller voting populations, but those are also the races that are often far more directly impactful to the people who are (and who should be) voting. They may not be as “sexy” and exciting as big-ticket races, but they’re just as important — and not infrequently, arguably more so.

YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

DON’T EVER THINK YOUR VOTE DOESN’T COUNT, BECAUSE IN…

1845: ONE vote brought Texas into the Union.

1868: ONE vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.

1876: ONE vote gave Rutherford Hayes the presidency of the United States

1939: ONE vote passed the Selective Service act.

1960: ONE vote per precinct elected John F. Kennedy President.

…AND IN ALASKA…

1978: Jay Hammond won the nomination for Governor over Walter Hickel in the primary election by just 98 votes statewide. That’s less than 1/4 vote per precinct!

1978: ONE vote elected Tim Kelly to his Senate seat in District F.

1982: TWO votes gave the nomination for State Senate in District J to David McCracken in the primary election.

1984: ONE vote gave Mary Ratcliff the nomination for State Representative, House District 12, in the primary election.

1986: 17 votes (less than one vote per precinct) elected Rick Uehling Senator from District H, Seat B, out of 14,389 votes cast.

1988: SIX votes elected David Finkelstein to State Representative, House District 12 in the primary election.

1990: TEN votes elect Terry Martin to State Representative, District 13, Seat B. Just ONE vote per precinct.

1990: Four contests in the general election were decided by a margin of less than ONE PERCENT of the votes cast in each contest.

1992: FIVE votes gave Al Vezey the nomination for State Representative, House District 32 in the primary election (less than ONE vote per precinct).

1994: 1.1 votes per precinct elected Tony Knowles as Governor and Fran Ulmer as Lieutenant Governor out of 216,668 votes cast.

1996: ONE vote gave Ann Spohnholz the nomination for State Representative, House District 21, in the primary election.

1998: A TIE was broken by a flip of the coin to elect Wayne Morgan after a runoff Election for a school board seat in the Kuspuk School District.

2003: 14 votes gave Mark Begich the 45% plurality threshold needed to elect him Mayor of Anchorage.

2006: A TIE was broken by a flip of the coin to give Bryce Edgmon the nomination for State Representative, House District 37, in the primary election.

2016: In the Anchorage municipal election, Proposition 9, Girdwood Police Protection, passed by THREE votes.

Siddown, Bernie

January 15, 2020February 20, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

I’ve been debating saying anything about Bernie Sanders’s announcement, as I know I have a few friends who are Bernie fans, and while I don’t remember any specific issues with any of them, generally, criticism of Bernie doesn’t go over well with his supporters.

But I have the advantage of being a straight cis white male, and thanks to those genetic/social happenstances, it’s easier and safer for me to say this than it is for many other people who don’t fall into one or more of those categories: take a seat, Bernie.

I thought he had interesting ideas in 2016. At first, I supported him, and cast a WA caucus vote for him. I appreciated that he helped bring a number of progressive ideas to the foreground of the political conversations (ideas which, in many cases, had been advanced by other, less privileged people over the years, but which weren’t worth seriously considering until they were brought up by a white guy, but hey, that’s just a weird coincidence, right?).

But the longer things went on, the more it became obvious to me that however interesting some of the ideas he espoused were, he and far too many of his followers were far too problematic for me to support, and I’ve seen absolutely nothing in the intervening years to convince me otherwise.

If he really wanted to help and make a difference in 2016, he should have given his support to Clinton and encouraged his supporters to do the same. He should have listened to those who were pointing out the many problematic aspects of his policies and campaign and learned from his missteps. He should have worked to listen, to learn, to do better, and to encourage his fans to do the same. But nothing I’ve seen from him tells me that he’s made any progress an any of these fronts.

I do not in the least believe that he is the best choice for 2020. I do believe that his entry into the race is going to cause more problems and encourage more racist and sexist attacks on the other people seeking the nomination. And I really wish that he would just sit down and shut up — or, if he must be involved in some way, offer his support to the new candidates seeking the nomination. But re-entering the race is not helpful.

Linkdump for January 11th through January 23rd

January 23, 2020January 23, 2019 by Michael Hanscom

Sometime between January 11th and January 23rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

A meteor hit the moon during the lunar eclipse. Here’s what we know.: “In what may be a first-of-its-kind event, a flash of light seen during totality has astronomers on the hunt for a new crater on the moon.”
DuckDuckGo Taps Apple Maps to Power Private Search Results: "We're excited to announce that map and address-related searches on DuckDuckGo for mobile and desktop are now powered by Apple's MapKit JS framework, giving you a valuable combination of mapping and privacy."
To save the sound of a Stradivarius, a whole city must keep quiet: “Cremona is home to the workshops of some of the world’s finest instrument makers, including Antonio Stradivari, who in the 17th and 18th centuries produced some of the finest violins and cellos ever made. The city is getting behind an ambitious project to digitally record the sounds of the Stradivarius instruments for posterity, as well as others by Amati and Guarneri del Gesù, two other famous Cremona craftsmen. And that means being quiet.”
An Idea for Electoral College Reform That Both Parties Might Actually Like: “As long as we continue to have the Electoral College, we should make it work as intended. This means bringing it back into compliance with the majority-rule principle.”
The oral history of the Hampsterdance: The twisted true story of one of the world’s first memes: “What started 20 years ago in Nanaimo, B.C. spawned hit songs, worldwide LOLs and a giant hairball of drama.”