Maslow's Political Blog

I skipped April because I got a new job.  But now we're back! So what are the MAIN things that matter going into May? What is, and isn't, worth our valuable attention? Major: Very important, will be impactful. The Trump administration ignoring court orders is a big deal.  Separation of powers only works if each branch of government respects the power of the other two. Impact of tarrifs will make things more expensive and scarcer, which makes things more expensive, which makes money scarcer, etc. Appreciable: Good context to keep in mind, but don't sweat the details. Trump securing a mineral deal from between US and Ukraine would seem to give him an incentive to help Ukraine more (since the deal only works if they maintain control of the territory).  That Trump posts things like "Vladimir, STOP!" on social media, to no effect, makes the US look pretty fucking pathetic. Incidental: Good to know, but of limited use beyond its own topic. Nothing this month Negligible:...

I had a busy weekend topping off a busy month, but I'm hoping to get this out before Trump's speech to Congress (Update: Success!). So what are the MAIN things that matter going into March? What is, and isn't, worth our valuable attention? Major:  Very important, will be impactful. The ongoing genocide in Sudan and China. Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and upcoming counter-tariffs. America's greatest strength is our positive relations with our nearest neighbors. A trade war will disrupt that, and hopefully won't be step one in a multi-step deterioration. That they are  higher than the tariffs on China  is real mud in the eye. Appreciable:  Good context to keep in mind, but don't sweat the details. Nothing, actually. Incidental:  Good to know, but of limited use beyond its own topic. DOGE, unless of course you are or know someone who works in the federal government.  Same with the ongoing ceasefire in Israel/Palestine and the hostages being returned.  Th...

January 2025 felt very busy once Trump took over the White House. Lots of executive orders, though most of them are going to need court clarification. So what are the MAIN things that matter going into February?  What is, and isn't, worth our valuable attention? Major: Very important, will be impactful. The ongoing genocide in Sudan and China. Whoever gets confirmed into the cabinet obviously matters. Call your Senators and share your opinion about those nominated. As a personal aside, that RFK says his kids are vaccinated is out of this world. (I can't find any reporting confirminghe actuallysaid this...) The TikTok ban pause. Tariffs used as an effective bargaining chip in the deportation case with Columbia. Sets a helluva precedent!  I also didn't know Presidents have the power to just make tariffs.  Hopefully the courts will weigh in and clarify before he decides to use the threat again. The executive orders regarding funding pauses. Those just affects so many thing...

Happy New Year!  For the past few months I've been thinking of getting back into political blogging.  What I'd like to write about is simple: What matters and what doesn't.  I see a lot of people worrying over issues that aren't really worth their time.  Thinking over the past year I think I've been correct about what's worth thinking about and what isn't.  And with Trump returning to office... I worry we're going to see a lot more wasted, aimless worry. So this year every month I'll make a post looking at the news topics of that month and evaluating whether I think they're worth our time.  This will also make it easy for me to check myself as the months roll on - will my analysis hold up? I'll be using a system of ranking importance I am calling the MAIN system - a name I chose with the help of ChatGPT (I'm not good at making clever acronyms).  I'm not going to use ChatGPT for anything else on this blog - unless I decide to change ac...

Obviously, this is chock full of spoilers. Also, it's a reaction, not a review. If you haven't seen the movie, it probably won't make a lot of sense. So go see it if you haven't.  Let's be real, any time a movie has a character announce "I'm the spy" has problems.  Any movie that has a character do that, and then kills them almost immediately has serious issues. I really liked The Rise of Skywalker.  It's a lot of fun to watch.  But also, "I am all the Sith" and "I am all the Jedi" is stupid banter.  And Rey kills The Emperor anyway, so why doesn't she... absorb all the souls(?) of the Sith, like he said.  Why can Ben bring back Rey but Rey not bring back Ben?  Wouldn't it be great to have them each revive each other for like 5 minutes, until finally Luke's voice is like OK FINE MAYBE SOMETIMES SOMEONE REALLY IS GONE! In a universe with spaceships, why even have watercraft at all? My main issue must be laid ...

Human sacrifice is one of the most misunderstood cultural activities.  It seems inherently evil, and socially awful.  How is anyone benefited because someone else is murdered, even with that person's consent?  How is murder ever OK, at all? Now, to be clear, I don't mean to discuss mass killings or revenge killings or purge killings.  Just human sacrifice.  And to discuss this properly, we need to change our point of view.  Because, in the modern world, human sacrifice is indeed a ludicrous thing.  Not just awful, but senseless.  It begs the question, "Wait, why was this ever  acceptable?"  But it was.  So here's what we need to do: Imagine... ...living in a much smaller community ...having a religion you and your whole community believe in ...not even understanding the word 'religion.'  What we call religion, you just call "very obvious."  It isn't even "obviously true," because that implies it could be false. ...