Cancelling Coke; cancelling votes
Major League Baseball has moved the league’s all-star game from Georgia to Colorado to protest a restrictive voting law passed by the Republican-dominated Georgia state legislature. Coca Cola and Delta airlines, both headquartered in Georgia, have also criticized the law. Some people – including President Biden – are happy companies are speaking up. Other people…
Are you being censored?
Right now there is a lot of talk about censorship. And as usual when people talk about censorship, a lot of it is wrong. Like socialism, “censorship” has a particular meaning in political science. It doesn’t mean that someone feels they can’t say something unpopular for fear of negative consequences (consider that in many contexts,…
No one should be surprised the royal family is racist
On March 7th, Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle, former British royals, sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. The interview raises a lot of questions. Why did Prince Charles stop taking Harry’s calls? Why is “working royal” a job that a person can have in 2021? Why did Oprah pick those glasses in…
Minimum wage and the policy prediction problem
One of the biggest news stories at the moment is an attempt by House Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. This is almost double the current minimum wage of $7.25/hour, which was last raised in 2009. So what will happen if the bill passes? Will the economy grow? Will people be fired?…
Mayor Boyd and what government is for
Let’s talk some more about the weather disaster in Texas. Or more specifically, about a post by a small-town Texas mayor, who resigned after he went on a rant and it went viral: There are some factual problems with his argument. First of all, we already told you that’s not what socialism is. Second, it’s…
When Texas freezes over
If you live in Texas, or know someone who does, you know that right now the state is experiencing a massive – and bizarre – cold front. Though the average low temperature in February in Texas is 36°F, some parts of the state now have temperatures below zero. The cold has overwhelmed the state’s infrastructure:…
Puzzled about the impeachment vote? Yeah, that’s politics. Sorry.
Donald Trump was tried by the Senate last week for impeachment on the charge of inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. He was acquitted: though a majority of Senators (57 to be precise) voted against Trump, this falls short of the two-thirds majority (67 votes) that would be required to convict.…
Collective action and the GameStop Gambit
Recent news has been abuzz with a store that had its heyday a decade ago: GameStop. Not because of the store itself, but for the fact that thousands of people on Reddit decided that GameStop would serve as their stand against Wall Street. GameStop’s stock value is declining and hedge funds were short-selling it. That…
Socialism: Not meaning what you think since 1867
Happy inauguration! Did you see the fireworks? Weren’t they pretty? More importantly, now that Joe Biden has been sworn in, and the Democrats control both houses, is the US about to become a socialist country? Though it is fairly common in American political discourse for people to use the word “socialism” to describe any policy…
Why was there violence?
No matter what you want to call the events at the capitol on Jan 6, they were undoubtedly violent – towards property and people — and the violence was intended to serve a political goal: registering discontent, frightening lawmakers into voting as the rioters wanted, or, more extremely, overturning the election and keeping President Trump…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Wait! We can explain! 