Category: News

What has become of us?

I never thought in my life that I would hear a candidate, not to mention the President of the United States, so blatantly question the legitimacy of an election. I had seen and read about it in plenty of places around the world, but it didn’t ever appear to have been possible here. What has happened to us? Not only that the claim was made, but to have people stand up and cheer for it was truly unsettling.

Trump’s Speech

Finally, my wait is over

I’ve been waiting with my trusty 2015 13” retina MacBook at my side for a while now. But this week, the new 2020 13” MacBook was released and it has the new Magic keyboard. With all of the complaints surrounding the older butterfly keyboard mechanism on the previous models, there was just no way that I was willing to upgrade. Of course, other than that, there is not else that’s new. There hasn’t been any new innovations for a while coming out of Apple with the macs. It’s a little sad when the most exciting thing is to fix something that everyone hates.

The withering of the NBA

There is abundant criticism over the NBA. The tweet by Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, has highlighted the geopolitical struggle in general. Adam Silver’s predecessor David Stern had created an enormous market for the league in China. The problem is that in many ways the league had also created an trap for itself.

The backlash from China to the tweet was to be expected. The Communist regime was never going to allow such criticism of policy, even though the Great Firewall would keep most of the country from seeing it. And to Adam Silver’s credit he did give a lukewarm defense of Daryl Morey. It really could have been stronger. The concern about the loss of revenue is real and valid. The league to its credit has been tolerant of activism by its teams and players. It has nurtured good will through their support of players being outspoken and given them the agency for change

This is the main problem, both for the NBA and American business in general. You can see it as an NBA problem, but it’s much more than that. This is highlights the two sides and the two completely different ways to see the current global struggle. The Chinese see it as one front of a coherent strategy, but there’s not coherency on the part of American administration and American business. The caving to pressure and backing off is basically giving up ground that is already held. In general, the search for profits have led to long term strategic mistakes. Giving up technology, corporate transfers, joint ventures have led to competitive demand sadvantage over the last 20 years. The NBA has a huge asset, it needs to believe in its product. No way that they will give up on basketball, it’s too big. They are too invested in it. Eventually, the party will need to answer to why the access is blocked. Has the fall of the Soviet Union been so long that we’ve forgotten what we’ve learned? They entire thing was brought down by the desire for McDonalds and Levi’s jeans.

If you want something, eventually, someone needs to answer for why you can’t have it. We have what people want. If part of it is the liberty to speak you mind, then make the Communist Party answer for why they can’t have it. We should all stand together. Otherwise there is not enough clout to to keep standing. The Communist Party has a unified view, it’s time we treat it with the same seriousness.

I didn’t vote today…

I already voted by mail. Three of us sat in my kitchen on Saturday with our voter information booklets, our ballots, and the internet. We had all afternoon to listen to the KPCC voter cram session and the chronicle endorsements. It was super easy. I didn’t have to worry about transferring anything from a sample ballot. When we we’re done, we just put them in the envelope and all we had to do was throw it in the mail at our leisure. No waiting in lines at polling places, no worries about how bored the kids are or if they’re bothering anyone. Super easy. I love it.

Race and terrorism

Confederate flag on grounds of the South Carolina Capitol

The massacre of 9 people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina has incited debate and frustration, but already it feels as if the entire episode will not resolve anything really at all. There have been calls for increase gun control laws, but I think that to see it through the lens of merely gun violence is to not even begin to approach what the tragedy is a manifestation of. Don’t get me wrong, I am in support of increased gun control laws. But you don’t need a mass murder to call for instituting increased gun control laws. There are 297 reasons every day to call for gun control laws, at least according to the Brady Campaign study between 2009 and 2013. But yet, it’s not discussed in the news or by politicians everyday. Why not? Probably because it’s become too common an occurrence. Probably because the majority, 54%, of the victims of gun violence are black, a rate that far outpaces the actual percentage of the population. While it’s not broken out by class, the majority are probably in poorer neighborhoods – ones that have been forgotten by the establishment.

What happened in Charleston was more than an episode of gun violence, it was an act of racism, and beyond even that, it was an act of terrorism. It has been pointed out already by Jelani Cobb in his piece for The New Yorker, or John Stewart on The Daily Show, but so few people in the political establishment have said anything of the sort. And why would they? It’s easy to look at what happened as just an episode of random violence. But, it wasn’t. There was political motive behind it. Other acts of terrorism have been condemned, and anyone associated with the group that commits it is accused of being complicit if they do not immediately speak out and condemn it. Moderate muslims are constantly associated with acts of radical islam groups. How many times have we heard that they need to speak out against it or they are just as responsible. That they need to take the responsibility upon themselves to stand up and fight against their most radical elements. Well, here is an act of terrorism and I have yet to hear any politician really speak out against white people, white extremists, denouncing themselves. On the PBS News Hour on June 19th, Republican presidential nominee and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham simply called him a crazy person, and that that “there is no way to explain what would explain a person to do this”.

(also on PBS NewsHour site) Already, those in power are starting to immediate distance themselves from what had happened. No one would talk like this if this was an Islamist radical. And that is is what you call privilege. Being the race in power affords you the ability and the power to control the narrative of any story. History is written by those in power, and this is yet another example of it. There are no calls for moderate whites to take responsibility, for any fundamental reexamination of why the social fabric is the way it is. I’m still waiting for calls to drone strike white extremists in South Carolina starting at the State Capital. That’s been the standard procedure against muslims.

The fact that anyone would even say that there is no way to explain this boggles the mind. The racism is to established that the Confederate flag still flies on the state capital grounds. In fact, while the state and national flags fly at half mast to mourn those killed, the Confederate flag flies at full mast. The symbolism of that speaks volumes. I understand that people are calling for the Confederate flag to be removed. But what is that, it’s some visible token to give the impression that something is being done. The flag will be removed, politicians will call it a victory against hate, everyone will pat each other on the back and call it a day. Why would we need to address any sort of institutionalized racism – we’re removed the flag from the grounds of the state capital, what else is there to do. Fix one superficial thing and deflect anything that needs to be done on a more fundamental level beyond that. Again privilege, narrative, and everything else that comes with power.