democracy
gregladen | June 3, 2017For some reason, Facebook is not posting reliably and I will not abide writing paragraphs that the Internet sucks into oblivion!
So, I have a few thoughts I'll put here and try to link to.
Rebecca Otto for Governor
Let's start with Rebecca Otto, who just gave a great talk at the DFL (that's what we Minnesotans call "Democrats") Environmental Caucus meeting. Rebecca is running for Governor, and we need her to win.
I've written a bit about that (see: Rebecca Otto: by far the strongest and most progressive candidate for Minnesota Governor in 2018), and some time over the next week or so I'…
milhayser | November 30, 2016The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the U.S. caught nearly everyone by surprise, and fingers were immediately pointed in all directions as the election's losers looked to lay blame. Chad Orzel offers one relevant narrative: "There are a lot of people who feel like they’re being screwed by a system run for the benefit of people in big cities on the coasts who sneer at them as ignorant, racist hicks." Ethan Siegel extends an olive branch on Starts With a Bang, saying "we all have our biases, even if we ourselves are scientists," and encourages EVERYONE to accept the responsibility…
aardvarchaeology | December 7, 2013I'm confused by this political science paper I'm editing. The guy wants to find a middle way for the EU between two kinds of authoritarianism: technocracy and populism.
I understand the first word to mean ”rule by academic experts who don't care what the voters say”, and the second to mean ”rule by uneducated clowns who will do whatever gets them votes”. This doesn't seem to apply to Sweden, where both our elected representatives and the voters typically have middling education, or in a worldwide perspective, an enormously high general level of education.
There are hardly any PhDs in Swedish…
kbonham | May 23, 2012Last week, I had the privilege of attending the launch of a new initiative from the Union of Concerned Scientists - The Center for Science and Democracy. The UCS itself was founded in the late 1960's in response to the Cold War nuclear arms race. Graduate students and faculty at MIT decided that someone needed to advocate for "greater emphasis on applying scientific research to pressing environmental and social problems rather than military programs." That goal seems even more important in today's political climate, though the issue today is not between environment/society vs military, but…
illconsidered | December 1, 2008"While we have been working on the economy, the Opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters," Harper said. "They want to take power, not earn it.
"
So says Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Of course, if the will of the voters had really been for him to govern they would have given the Conservatives a majority. Given they did not get that majority, a coalition government is hardly undemocratic! This quote is from this story here. According to this bit of good news, there is a real possibility of a…
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: politics, democracy, superdelegates, Roy Zimmerman, streaming video
For this morning's video, I thought I'd share this little song with you, mostly because I have been asked to interview a local superdelegate for a story that the Huffington Post (where I volunteer) is writing. This time, I will try to write a story for you on my blog about this interview. At least, I am hoping I can (is interview material proprietary?). Anyway, regardless of whether I am allowed to write my story for you, I can share this clever little song by political commentator, Roy Zimmerman, which is billed as "…