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The Paradox of Entitlement
The United States as a nation is going through a kind of identity crisis, attempting to reconcile our sense of being a hard-working, family-oriented, religious (or at least spiritual), and tolerant...
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How To Avoid Fascism and Restore Growth in the United States
Historically, prolonged extreme concentrations of wealth and outrageous income inequality tend to play out in two ways: 1) Violent Leftist/popular revolutions, such as the French Revolution, the...
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The Main Effect of Occupy Wall Street Has Already Happened
I’ve been thinking about the Occupy Wall Street movement and where it might lead. Up until today I entertained the view Chris Hedges expresses in the interview below, that we may reach some sort of...
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What’s Holding Us Back, As a Species? (Part I – Fight for the Future)
Since the advent of the nation state in the 19th century, human beings have been collectively obsessed with comparing the relative merits of our sovereign entities. Who has the biggest navy and the...
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The Natural End of Capitalism
Capitalism, as we know it, is reaching the natural end of its global life cycle. Human beings will retain some of the better aspects of capitalism, including the right to private property, competition...
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End of the World(View), and a New Conservatism
As far as I can tell, the world isn’t ending today. The Mayan calendar rolls over to a new stone, or a longer ring cycle. So what is ending? Certain worldviews are on the decline, and I say good...
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A Fourth Branch of Government, Unelected and Unregulated
Americans are pissed off, and don’t trust their government. Congress is unpopular, Obama has been written-off by the left and demonized by the right, and the Supreme Court (with the exception of the...
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Is “Wealth Addiction” an Illness?
Crazy money. Sam Polk’s piece in Sunday’s New York Times chronicles his journey from greedy derivatives trader to nonprofit founder. It brings the concept of “wealth addiction” into the mainstream. Is...
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Congratulations to Oakland Teachers and OUSD! What’s next? Reform Prop 13.
Emerson Elementary school auction — a fun night, but I’d rather have $240,000 from Prop 13 reform. Four months ago I wrote about the ongoing contract negotiations between Oakland public schools...
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Rehabilitating "Progress" and Envisioning "Messy Utopias"
The original “classic” utopia. I took away three main points from Steven Pinker’s recent Long Now lecture discussing the ideas behind his book The Better Angels of Our Nature. His outrageous and...
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Why UFC Fans Should Reject Donald Trump (Dana White for Prez)
UFC (and future USA?) President Dana White As a left-leaning UFC fan I was disappointed to learn that Dana White would be speaking at the Republican National Convention. Dana White is a likable guy and...
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What the Oakland Police Department is Doing Right
OPD has had its share of problems. The painful, disturbing legacy of the Riders. $57 million paid out to alleged victims of police abuse between 2001 and 2011. Poor handling of Occupy Oakland in 2011....
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How I’m Voting
An AC Transit bus that helped deliver seniors to the polls in the 1990’s, This year I’ve decided to share how I’m voting, as an experiment. Sometimes I just ask my wife how she’s voting, and copy her...
View ArticleWTF Just Happened?
Usually I try to write posts that might help people solve problems, or otherwise be useful. But today I’m just going to try to sort out my own thoughts re: what just happened with the U.S. elections....
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Three Things Trump Can’t Do
I promise this blog won’t become a 100% Trump-rant, but there are big geopolitical events afoot. I’ll be chewing the Trump cud for a little longer. This essay from science fiction author Charles Stross...
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How To Be Less Racist
In the United States and Europe, racists are coming out of the woodwork, freely expressing views that were considered taboo only a year ago. Concerns about terrorism and economic security (some valid,...
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Eyes On The Prize: My Current Vision for a Messy Utopia
These days, reading the national news is like watching a whirlwind of shit in high definition. Emboldened white supremacists, the orange racist-in-chief, plans for an expensive useless wall, a...
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How Do We Reduce Young White Male Entitlement?
Recently I listened to an episode of This American Life entitled “White Haze” about various Alt-Right and Alt-Lite movements, and the Venn diagrams of belief systems that may or may not include men’s...
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Why UFC Fans Should Reject Donald Trump
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What the Oakland Police Department is Doing Right
OPD has had its share of problems. The painful, disturbing legacy of the Riders. $57 million paid out to alleged victims of police abuse between 2001 and 2011. Poor handling of Occupy Oakland in 2011....
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