I admit it, I’m having a weird moment right now regarding classified documents. Including the ones that former president Trump stored in an insecure location in his Mar-a-Lago resort. I work on documents for a living. I write them, edit them, post them, promote them. Some of what I work on ends up in printed…
A recent election for a House seat for the state of Alaska was a good test case for ranked-choice voting. Republicans got more first-place votes, but a Democrat won. Was that fair, or was it a travesty? What happened in the Alaska special election for US House Alaska has only a single U.S. House seat….
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a response to a recent Donald Trump request regarding the raid of Mar-a-Lago. Its filing is full of passive voice, a means of expression I’ve continually railed against. Why is it passive, and should the DOJ be writing in the active voice instead? Here’s a passage from the DOJ’s…
The average American politician is far more extreme than the average American voter. Our current voting methods encourage these extreme viewpoints. To investigate how new voting systems like ranked choice voting and “jungle primaries” could change this, I created a simulation of different voting systems and tested it on various types of voting districts. How…
In Michigan, a group gathered enough signatures to put an abortion rights amendment on the ballot this November. Now an opposing group says the all-caps typography is so ugly that it’s unreadable, so the signatures should be tossed out. Here’s a portion of the petition in dispute: That is, unquestionably, extremely difficult to read. The…
It’s painful to have people tell you you’re wrong. If you’re powerful, you can make sure everyone around you would never do that. That’s a good way to end up looking like a complete fool. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz both just showed us what a foolish decision looks like,…
In the wake of last month’s inflation report, I’ve seen headlines that say that inflation is at record highs. Others say inflation is now zero. The problem is that when it comes to rates, it’s easy to get confused — or to confuse people on purpose. So here’s an explainer. Understanding rates Let’s look at…
Reports say that the Secret Service deleted text messages relating to the events of January 6, the date of the insurrection on Capitol Hill. According to news reports, in response to a subpoena from the January 6 Committee in the House, the Secret Service was only able to retrieve and turn over a single text…
Nobody talks about it, but racism is efficient. That’s why it’s so common. I’m not talking about burning crosses or shooting up supermarkets. I’m talking common everyday racism. Should I hire her? I don’t know if customers would relate to somebody who looks like that. I’ll hire him instead, he looks like a better choice….