I’ve written a set of alternate lyrics to “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” that the people of this country need to be hearing and singing. I’m copyrighting them with the Creative Commons BY-ND license, which means that anyone is free to distribute them and perform them, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit me as the author and don’t modify them.… [more]
I often see infographics and memes about how, in contrast to public perception, Democratic administrations tend to be better for the U.S. economy than Republican administrations, but they always seem a little cherry picked to me, and they never explain their data or their methodology. So I decided to try doing my own calculations. I selected six major, commonly used economic indicators, collected data from official, public sources for each, and processed the data in uniform ways.… [more]
Or: “A Snowball’s Chance”
Several years ago, Republican U.S. Senator James Inhofe brought a snowball into the Senate as “proof” that climate change was a hoax. This exemplified a common misunderstanding about global warming: that the entire biosphere would heat up uniformly like a cup of tea, when in reality, the global weather system is much more complex. (And even that cup of tea probably contains subtle layers and currents.)… [more]
Democrats are beginning to understand the power and extent of the right wing media bubble. For the past three election cycles, many of us have asked, “How could so many people have voted for someone like Trump?” More and more, we’re realizing that the answer is not any particular issue or line of reasoning, not anything “deplorable” about the people themselves, but: “Because right wing media was their sole source of the news.” … [more]
I regularly post recommendations for the most effective giving we can do each election season, and more and more, my top choices have featured organizations that do their work all year round — for which, in fact, the most effective work occurs well in advance of any election.
I’m repeating those recommendations here and adding other groups that don’t just turn out existing voters to the usual contests, but also grow the electorate and expand the range of challenges we need to make to MAGA extremism at every level of government, in every locality.… [more]
On this Father’s Day, 2023, I’d like to share two excerpts from my forthcoming novel about the Chinese immigration experience through Angel Island in the early 1900’s (Bridge Across The Sky, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Fall 2024) that were inspired by memories of my father.
The opening stanza of the novel is based on the only story I ever heard my father tell about his younger days.… [more]
Starting in 2023, I’ll be expanding my social media presence to include two promising would-be Twitter/Facebook replacements: Post and Mastodon.
Update 5/23/2024: Post is shutting down! So I’m replacing it with Bluesky. I’ve also ended my Haiku Diem and Trumpbert posts to Twitter/X due to its…well, Elon Muskiness.
I’m especially interested in the potential of Mastodon. You can read my thoughts about it here.… [more]
My Mastodon call
A lot of people are looking for a Twitter replacement these days. Some have considered Mastodon, the decentralized platform that describes itself as “Social Networking that’s not for sale.” … [more]
I regularly post 
