Trump Can’t Be Stopped by Shaming His Voters

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 3:04 pm By Paul Fidalgo

The editorial board of the Washington Post wants to stop Trump from getting the Republican nomination, citing Trump’s lies, threats, lack of an actual agenda, lack of experience, admiration for Putin, and the fact that “he wants the United States to commit war crimes.” Where do they turn? Certainly there are Republican leaders who understand all this: people such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.); former president George W. Bush and former presidential nominees Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt... Read more

Trump Will Be the Nominee and the GOP (Unfortunately) Will Be Fine

Last updated on: February 24, 2016 at 12:34 pm By Paul Fidalgo

Donald Trump will be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. I thought this months ago, and today it’s blindingly obvious. What baffles me is that this is only now dawning on the political class. He was written off as a joke when he entered the race (and in the case of Huffington Post, officially written off as a joke), but even then I knew he’d have some solid base of support. How could I have been so prophetic, when... Read more

Jeb the Human

Last updated on: February 22, 2016 at 2:08 pm By Paul Fidalgo

Like almost everyone the past few months, I’ve not felt inclined to be kind to or about John Ellis Bush. This was justified in my mind largely by the fact that life has been so incredibly kind to Jeb in the 60-some years previous, and likely will for many years more. I deeply resented the idea that someone, who despite whatever virtues they might or might not possess by their own merits, could meander from one political ruling position to... Read more

Malleable

Last updated on: February 4, 2016 at 10:50 pm By Paul Fidalgo

Former President Jimmy Carter would take Trump over Cruz, and so would I. Jimmy says: The reason is, Trump has proven already he’s completely malleable. I don’t think he has any fixed (positions) he’d go the White House and fight for. On the other hand, Ted Cruz is not malleable. He has far right-wing policies he’d pursue if he became president. This is exactly the point I’ve been making about Trump vs. Cruz, but President Carter put it perfectly. Trump... Read more

Ironic Imaginary Conversations

Last updated on: February 4, 2016 at 10:58 am By Paul Fidalgo

Tom Jacobs at Pacific Standard reports on research that shows how animosity toward nonbelievers can be reduced by the religious having an imaginary, positive conversation with an atheist. And most of the subjects said they didn’t know any atheists personally: Those who engaged in the imagined conversation “expressed significantly less distrust toward atheists” than those who simply ruminated about the subject. The researchers conclude this more positive attitude was driven by “more comfort with atheists, and more willingness to engage with atheists.” Moreover, a... Read more

‘Twas the Night Before Iowa (Which Probably Won’t Matter)

Last updated on: January 31, 2016 at 9:36 pm By Paul Fidalgo

Here’s what I think of the state of the race on the night before the Iowa caucuses. The polls right now for Iowa are more or less meaningless. Yes, Clinton and Trump are both up a little in the final pre-Iowa poll, but it doesn’t really matter. Save for the poor bastards in single digits, the Iowa caucuses are one of the least predictable “elections” in modern politics. For candidates within a few points of each other in polling, everything can... Read more

Immortality the Ineffable Underdog

Last updated on: January 9, 2016 at 10:24 pm By Paul Fidalgo

Everyone you love and everyone you know and everything you touch will someday be gone. We will lose our lovers, our friends, our parents, our children, our animals, ourselves. The pain will be almost intolerable. The jobs we define ourselves by will end. Anything you make with your own two hands will eventually be dust. It will take only a few generations for you to be completely forgotten within your own family. This is by Elmo Keep (she who is... Read more

Oh No, Not OLED

Last updated on: January 2, 2016 at 10:24 pm By Paul Fidalgo

It is being reported that Apple will begin to use OLED displays in an upcoming iPhone generation, as opposed to the IPS LCDs it has always used. And I’m not at all happy about this. I’m not an iPhone user at the moment, so in the near-term I don’t really care what Apple does to its phones. But it can’t be denied that anything significant that Apple does with its most important product will likely be aped by most other... Read more

No, Really, They Are All Trumps

Last updated on: December 9, 2015 at 1:54 pm By Paul Fidalgo

John Scalzi has a good post of observations about the Trump-demagogue situation, echoing the drum I’ve been beating for a while about the existing GOP electorate: Trump has been leading the GOP polls almost without interruption for months. He’s not an outlier. He’s there for a reason. The reason is that the GOP has made space in their party for race-baiting xenophobic religious bigots, and has done so for years by conscious and intentional strategy. Trump did not bring his... Read more