Let’s talk about state supreme courts for a bit. Elected judges are bad for basically every reason, but news in Ohio about the 2020 races has led me to recognize yet another problem with them. Ohio’s state supreme court, like many other state supreme courts, has a bar admission requirement for the office. Specifically, someone…

Presidential fundraising is none of our concern. That’s a slight overstatement, but once we reach the general election, it’s largely true: the amount of money that we’re generally able to donate or direct is peanuts compared to the outlandish sums being raised by candidates these days. Hillary Clinton, even before accounting for outside spending, raised…

This reflection is adapted from a Twitter thread on this issue, which has more inline pictures to accompany it, and in response to the news that the Cleveland Indians are going to consider changing their name.  Getting behind the Cleveland Spiders (or Guardians, or even Rockers) does not erase history, but rather is consistent with…

It’s easy to reach for quick solutions. The scale of the protests and the horror of the police response makes the need feel immediate. And it is immediate. But only systemic overhauls will actually unwind the injustice in the system. In this frame, let’s talk about decarceration. One of the reasons the police wield so…

So I’ve been thinking about algorithms a lot recently. Let’s talk about what they can tell us about our own biases and what we need to do with that information. With cameos from Garfield, AC/DC, and Harry Potter. You may be aware, but predictive text had a bit of a moment in late 2017/early 2018….

For those of you hailing the fact-checking of Trump’s tweets, don’t forget that fact checks are only as good as the fact checkers. Here’s an AP fact check from the July 2019 Democratic debates that misunderstands the premise so thoroughly that I don’t even know where to begin. For folks who don’t practice civil rights…

Hi friends. Inspired by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein’s incredible video series about the Seattle Mariners, I want to discuss a way that the Mariners altered the course of a World Series title, one that Jon and Alex are unlikely to include in their series. As a preliminary matter: If you are interested in the…

Yes, the Republicans are worse. Yes, they’re actively trying to cut us out of society, whether it be by disenfranchisement, cutting healthcare, or just plowing ahead with dismantling the social/economic safety net.   Yes, 45 is bad, and it’s easy to sell short just how many ways this administration’s policies are evil. It feels like…

Hi friends. Let’s talk about Georgia. New allegations have just surfaced about Kelly Loeffler’s financial activity during the time that she had access to nonpublic information about COVID-19. They include sales of $18.7 million in shares of her husband’s company as well as purchases of $200,000 of stock in a COVID-19 equipment supplier while she…