Biden, LGBTQ+ rights, and the duty to defend
News broke in the late afternoon Wednesday that the Biden administration plans to continue to defend the federal government in Hunter v. Goldberg, what could potentially be a major case for LGBTQ+ civil rights. The case stems from the Trump administration and deals with the right of religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and it’s the kind of thing you would not expect the … Continue reading Biden, LGBTQ+ rights, and the duty to defend
We already have a multiparty system. We should act like it.
Two-hundred and nineteen of the current members of the U.S. House of Representatives are members of the Democratic Party. Two-hundred and eleven are members of the Republican Party. In many countries, this would imply that roughly half of MCs are aligned with one party and roughly half are aligned with the other party. Like so: This is the way we almost always think about, discuss, … Continue reading We already have a multiparty system. We should act like it.
Washington and Lee can’t find a new name, so it’s sticking with this one
Virginia’s Washington and Lee University announced Friday that its Board of Trustees had voted in favor of keeping its name, which honors the first U.S. president, George Washington, and a famed traitor, Robert E. Lee. The preservation of the name came as something of a surprise to some, as many institutions are dropping Confederate names (including Washington and Lee, which is renaming the Lee Chapel, … Continue reading Washington and Lee can’t find a new name, so it’s sticking with this one
Americans hate HOAs. Why do so many people live in them?
It’s February. I am sipping a mint julep and pretending that summer has arrived and quarantine is over when my friend, who we’ll call Mary, sends me a question over Discord. “Why,” Mary asked, “is every house I could afford to buy located in an HOA?” It’s a good question. Mary, 30, is a millennial, and above all the other things it means to be … Continue reading Americans hate HOAs. Why do so many people live in them?
You Asked: Where Are The American Communists?
On Patreon (I cannot stress enough how important your support on Patreon is), we ask supporters to occasionally toss questions over to us that they want answered that are a little bit harder to get an answer to than something you might ask on Quora. For this, the fifth piece in our series You Asked, we’re tackling a red herring. I’ve heard of the Democratic Socialists of America, … Continue reading You Asked: Where Are The American Communists?
Or we could just add more House seats
There are now 331 million Americans, the U.S. Census Bureau says. That means big changes are coming for the fifty states, which each receive a slightly different allotment of government funds based on their respective populations. But each state also gets a certain number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives based on an approximate formula that starts with each state getting one member … Continue reading Or we could just add more House seats
More Americans died in 2020 than in any other year ever
As 2020 came to an end, many of us were celebrating what we hoped would be the better year ahead. These were the days before a last-ditch effort to overthrow the U.S. government and install a permanent Trump dictatorship, remember, and COVID vaccines in the world and a new president inbound, the last thing we wanted to do was confront the daunting morbidity of 2020. … Continue reading More Americans died in 2020 than in any other year ever
House Republicans propose solution to DC statehood: strip it of its electoral votes
D.C. residents have been vocal for decades about how the city has a larger population than several states but limited self-government of its own. In recent years, they’ve gained the attention of Democrats nationwide who have slowly taken up the cause for D.C. statehood. Democrats might be into D.C. statehood because they’ve been coming around to Puerto Rico statehood (arguably more so than Puerto Ricans … Continue reading House Republicans propose solution to DC statehood: strip it of its electoral votes
The right wants you to think cancel culture is a bigger problem than it is
Every year, we add a couple new terms to the zeitgeist. In January 2020, we brought both “awesomesauce” and “weak sauce” into the Oxford English Dictionary, which was probably a great sign that the year was going to be swell. But no word has splashed down and stuck around quite like “problematic,” which broke into the mainstream around 2014, lodged itself in the cultural consciousness, … Continue reading The right wants you to think cancel culture is a bigger problem than it is
The world’s greatest negotiator can’t get his own party to take him seriously
Republicans have made it very clear that they are going to be the party of Donald Trump. They are going to put Donald Trump’s name and face on everything. They are going to sing his praises. They are going to rope his supporters into their other campaigns because a vote for Republican congressional hopeful John Doe is a vote for Donald Trump, and you can … Continue reading The world’s greatest negotiator can’t get his own party to take him seriously