Author Archives: Freeman Ng

All the USPS petitions (and more)

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This is a list of all the biggest petitions I can find related to saving the Post Office from GOP attacks that Donald Trump recently admitted (in another of those classic blurts that must make his team cringe) are intended specifically to suppress the November 2020 vote.

Please sign them all, and let me know if I missed any.

Another good idea I've seen passed around is to directly support the USPS by buying stamps.… [more]

What We Can Do, 2020

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So what can you do in a case like that?
What can you do except sit on your hat
Or your toothbrush, or your grandmother
Or anything else that's helpless?

— from "The Whale" by Burl Ives

[Update, Sept. 7: See my new post for an updated list of the most critical groups to support in these final two months.]

This is my guide to candidates and organizations worth supporting for the 2020 elections, perhaps the most important election year of our lifetimes.… [more]

That The Power Might Take Knee

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In the course of the protests sweeping our nation, police in many cities transformed potentially incendiary standoffs into powerful visions of unity and hope by kneeling, marching, and mourning with the protesters they swear to serve and protect. Not all of them maintained that stance, but many did. I've written this anthem to celebrate the moments they created. It can be sung to the tune of our national anthem.… [more]

A Trump-Coronavirus Primer

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If anyone's confused by Trump's behavior in the face of the Coronavirus threat, here are the three keys for understanding anything he does:

  1. He only ever acts in his own interest.
  2. He's too dumb to think in terms of his long-term interest.
  3. Even when his handlers manage to convey something of long-term importance to him, he lacks the impulse control to consistently act on it.
[more]

The "Roberts Gambit" and what it revealed

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I'm writing this on the second day of the impeachment trial in the Senate. I haven't even checked on today's impeachment news yet, and I have no idea how the trial will end. (Actually, it's pretty clear what the verdict of the GOP-controlled jury will be, but what we don't know is how it will play out and how it will affect public opinion.)… [more]

What We Can Do

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So what can you do in a case like that?
What can you do except sit on your hat
Or your toothbrush, or your grandmother
Or anything else that's helpless?

— from "The Whale" by Burl Ives

In 2018 I posted a guide to candidates and organizations worth supporting for the midterm elections. I'll be doing the same for the 2020 elections once the primaries are over and we know who the Democratic Presidential and Senatorial candidates will be, but for now, I want to recommend the following organizations worth supporting outside of any specific election cycle.… [more]

Beware the Progressive-Wishful Complex!

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It's Election Day 2018, and I'm seeing it again: social media posts by ultra progressive friends celebrating Democratic victories as evidence of the imminent Revolution and decrying Republican victories as the result of voter suppression or voting machine shenanigans. Underlying these responses is the idea that the vast majority of Americans are really progressive at heart, and the only thing that's stopping their Voice from being heard is a corrupt Establishment whose overthrow would result in all the people celebrating their newfound freedom.… [more]