Blogger in Chief

Does he input the old-fashioned way? (Vice photo)

If you missed ex-President Trump's unique communicative style, you can now read his blog. The latest post:

Warmonger Liz Cheney, who has virtually no support left in the Great State of Wyoming, continues to unknowingly and foolishly say that there was no Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election when in fact, the evidence, including no Legislative approvals as demanded by the U.S. Constitution, shows the exact opposite.

Had Mike Pence referred the information on six states (only need two) back to State Legislatures, and had gutless and clueless MINORITY Leader Mitch McConnell (he blew two seats in Georgia that should have never been lost) fought to expose all of the corruption that was presented at the time, with more found since, we would have had a far different Presidential result, and our Country would not be turning into a socialist nightmare! Never give up!

Father and daughter in 2016 (AP News)

His blog doesn't allow comments, and the traffic is orders of magnitude less than his Twitter postings. Less traffic, however, doesn't mean he's been ignored. The WSJ editorial page responded to his attack on Liz Cheney:

The better part of political prudence would be for Ms. Cheney to ignore Mr. Trump. But Mr. Trump won’t ignore her. He issued four statements on Monday and three of the four were attacks on fellow Republicans, including one on Ms. Cheney. She may be ousted because she is daring to tell the truth to GOP voters—and at personal political risk...

Republicans will look foolish, or worse, to swing voters if they refight 2020 in 2022. They can truthfully say that Democrats used lawsuits to exploit the pandemic to change the election rules in some states. They can also say Democratic judges on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court let Democrats get away with it. Democrats did a better job of exploiting the pandemic election rules than did the GOP.

But there’s no evidence any of this was decisive, as Mr. Trump lost the popular vote in a rout and the Electoral College by a similar margin to what he won in 2016. Mr. Trump lost even as Republicans gained 12 seats in the House. The election was close, but not as close as others in American history.

We haven't even seen the text of the Biden Administration's tax and spending proposals, and we're already talking about the 2022 elections. Let's focus on this year; let's see the draft proposals, the responses from the public, and what happens in Congress.

Let's see whether President Biden's mental faculties continue to deteriorate---I hope he stays healthy--and whether that affects the political calculus of not only 2022 but 2021. Or maybe international events will become paramount, and President Biden's actions will affect whether his domestic legislation gets passed.

Meanwhile, the Democrats were right to complain about the weaknesses of election systems in 2016, and ex-President Trump is right to complain about them in 2020. But that election is over. Let's implement a Sarbanes-Oxley Act for elections to root out the potential for fraud.

We sometimes forget that one of the foundational principles of democracy is that the losers accept the result because they trust the process. That trust is near tatters, but it can be restored by demonstrating to everyone, clearly and transparently, that cheating can't turn an election.

Fixing these systems will restore trust in future elections, and maybe we'll begin trusting each other again.

глазные яблоки *

Google tracks who's reading.

The good news: this modest journal experienced an uptick in traffic during the month of December.

The bad: the increase in hits came from Russia.

What in the world can they be looking for? Well, they'll be disappointed....

*eyeballs

The Truth Hurts

Advice from Beth Feldman, blogging expert:

Update your blog at least once a week. If you do it every day and you really don't have anything to share it becomes like spam and may turn off readers.

I resemble that remark!

There's A Pony in Here

The digital age has triggered an explosion of expression [bold added]:

Every day, we collectively produce millions of books’ worth of writing. Globally we send 154.6 billion emails, more than 400 million tweets, and over 1 million blog posts and around 2 million blog comments on WordPress. On Facebook, we post about 16 billion words. Altogether, we compose some 3.6 trillion words every day on email and social media — the equivalent of 36 million books. (The entire US Library of Congress, by comparison, holds around 23 million books.)

The digital age has confirmed Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of everything is crud" or "Ninety percent of everything is crap."

a global eruption of unedited, everyday self-expression is even more likely to produce this 90-10 split — an ocean of dreck, dotted sporadically by islands of genius.

But there's hope. The digital age has exposed millions of writers to public view, thereby elevating the quality of their product:

When students were asked to write for a real audience in another country, their essays had better organization and content than when they were writing for their teacher. When asked to contribute to a wiki—a space that’s highly public and where the audience can respond by deleting or changing your words—college students snapped to attention, carefully checking sources and including more of them to back up their work.

Readers, take heart. Despite all that you must wade through---yes, that statement applies to this humble journal, too---there's a pony in here somewhere. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

Battle of the Ecosystems

This humble blog has used Blogger, Google's free blogging and hosting service, for the past ten years. We are also regular users of other free Google applications, gmail, Maps, Calendar, and the Chrome browser, to name but a few. However, we're not monogamous: our hardware is mostly Apple, plus a few legacy PC's for business, and we admit that we're dependent on Apple's App store, iOS, iCal, iCloud, iTunes, and other "i"-services to make it through the day.

We haven't been posting to this blog all week because there's been a glitch in Blogger that won't let us log in. Obviously, a workaround surfaced. Other users pointed to the solution: stop using Chrome, the default browser on our Macs and PCs, and switch to Firefox or Apple's Safari.

Becoming too dependent on one company's ecosystem is a recipe for disaster. (Going all-Apple is not the answer either: if you switched from Google to Apple Maps last year, you could have died.)

The ecosystems do talk to one another. For example, entries on the Google Calendar automatically show up on iCal, so all our devices are linked and sync'ed to a certain extent. It's becoming less necessary to choose sides, and for safety's sake we're not going to. In diversity there is strength. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

The New Predeterminism

There's now scientific proof of why we enjoy posting about ourselves on Facebook, Twitter, or (ahem) blogs. In scans of brain activity

acts of self disclosure were accompanied by spurts of heightened activity in brain regions belonging to the meso-limbic dopamine system, which is associated with the sense of reward and satisfaction from food, money or sex.

It's doubtful, though, that the pleasure centers light up if we're talking about something negative or embarrassing (unless we can jiu-jitsu the negative into a positive, e.g, how I gave up drinking and became rich, successful, and universally admired).

It will be interesting to see what sections of the brain are activated when the speaker is not enjoying the conversation, such as in news interviews or courtroom settings. Or maybe someday scientists will be able to link the memory and bragging areas to gauge the degree to which our stories are embellished.  From speed-dating to autobiographies to job applications, the possibilities are mind-boggling.

WSJ photo Pleasure centers for bragging, food, money, and sex are the same..

A Trend I Can Live Without

At gatherings of family and friends most people refrain from talking about religion and politics. People have deeply held and often opposing opinions, and introducing difficult topics is like bringing a skunk to the garden party.

I like social-media sites because they are a way of staying connected to family, friends, and business colleagues. But now these connections are being exploited by politicians:

Dave Boyce is CEO of Fundly, a ready-made platform for nonprofits, including political campaigns, to launch social media fundraising campaigns. He says that at the end of the 2010 election cycle, 120 political customers were using Fundly to raise money. Now the number is 10 times that. The campaigns range from local races to the presidential efforts of Republicans Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and a Newt Gingrich PAC.

"The big idea is that giving is social. It always has been," says Boyce, sitting in a glass conference room looking out at a team of programmers in an office decorated in startup chic. "Friends ask friends to join them in supporting a cause."

This is a trend I can live without. If I want to read about politics, my e-mail and regular mail inboxes are filled with junk mail from across the political spectrum. There's also an invention known as the Internet that makes it really easy to look up a topic without assistance from a political partisan.

I don't want to see my Facebook wall or news feed plastered with politics. Maybe, once in a blue moon, I'll post an entreaty for a (non-political) charity that I care about.

But no politics or religion, please. If you want to say something about those subjects, get a blog.

Red Light Mean Lots of Green

San Mateo County has made “millions” from the operation of red-light cameras. Recent average monthly citations according to the Examiner are:


Daly City:         660
Menlo Park:     630
Millbrae:           343
Redwood City: 507
San Carlos:        53
San Mateo:      587

The fine is $381 for running a red light in the City of San Mateo. Simple multiplication reveals the importance of the program's revenue to the cash-strapped City, especially when measured against its payment of $6,000 per month to the equipment vendor.

As a cautious driver I don’t mind and even applaud strict, even-handed enforcement of traffic laws. But when the government has strong financial incentive to impose fines, it makes me deeply suspicious about whether the citations are imposed impartially.

Elsewhere on the City and County websites one finds that there are several convenient ways (Internet, phone, mail) to pay the ticket. Contesting a fine, by contrast, is an involved procedure. It can be costly in both time and money, and the (un)likelihood of prevailing swings many decisions in favor of shutting up and paying up.

As government acquires more power over our daily lives (is that really open for debate?) the temptation of people who work in government--not everyone, but surely many—becomes more overwhelming to use that power to enhance their own positions. People are not saintlier if they work in private industry; it’s just that businesspeople have more incentive to be nice because they can lose their customers tomorrow.

Self-interested capitalists treat their customers well in order to make more profits. Self-interested bureaucrats make more money by expanding their own responsibilities, which means raising revenue through taxes, fines, and fees. This idea, called the theory of public choice, is not new:

Public choice theory attempts to look at governments from the perspective of the bureaucrats and politicians who compose them, and makes the assumption that they act based on Budget-maximizing model in a self-interested way for the purpose of maximizing their own economic benefits (e.g. their personal wealth).

Unlike the consumer who can switch cell-phone carriers and gas stations on short notice, the “customer” taxpayer and fine-payer has little choice but to play by the rules of the bureaucracy. He must accept its decisions or dispute them at great cost. He may even be grateful if the decision doesn’t go against him completely. As a perspicacious writer said two years ago,

In a thousand ways great and small our freedoms are increasingly circumscribed. I keep an eye on the traffic cameras and slam on the brakes when the light turns yellow. I paint black water pipes white because my neighbor's sensibilities might be offended. I have to check with the city before taking down a fence or putting a new one up. Whether I drive my car every day or once a month, it must pass the same smog inspection every two years. I refrain from making (overly) snarky remarks on this blog and even in friendly e-mails because a comment made in haste could someday come back to haunt me. We have to file all sorts of forms and payments with various agencies, and they must be complete and on time.

We're light years away from living in a 20th century totalitarian state, but more of our actions than we realize are dictated by compulsory rules, whether putting on a seat belt, reaching or not reaching for a smoke or a drink, or paying a nanny. We'll cede more and more of our freedoms during the next four years, and the pity is that we won't even realize that it's happening.

&copy 2010 Stephen Yuen

Daylight Savings, Digital Thinking, and the Census

Early Sunday morning I padded through the house engaged in the semi-annual turning of the clocks. While I do appreciate the time-saving attributes of cellphones and computers that adjust the time automatically, I don’t mind spending the few minutes moving the minute hands on our old-fashioned clocks and watches.

Being analog in a digital world means that, although we are more comfortable with information in the form of pictures, we are too often forced to view information in numerical form. It takes me a split-second longer to recognize a digital “9:27” than the image on an old-fashioned clockface.

Worse, we must throw items into arbitrary buckets so that computers can sort them easily. The digital age can't have infinite shades of gray; about a dozen are all that the color wheel can handle.

Speaking of arbitrary categories, I just filled out the census form for the household. It took me only five minutes to complete, and the seven questions per individual (nine for the first responder, c'est moi) were simple enough for a third grader to answer.

The Census Bureau wanted to know our names, dates of birth (plus age this April 1st--are they surreptitiously checking whether I can do elementary math?), sex (hooray for not using "gender," an attribute of words, not human beings, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed), and race. As in the 2000 census we are allowed to check off more than one racial classification, a good thing for my extended family members, none of whom are "pure" anything.

One more perfunctory question about whether individuals live in the household the entire year or called away for educational, military, or criminal reasons, and we were done. I was happy that the questions weren't more intrusive; on the other hand, if census data were going to be used to make decisions about government programs, why this preoccupation with race? The ingredients in the American pot continue to melt, and IMHO race is much less important than education, income/wealth, politics, religion, and, of course, the blogs that one reads. The U.S. Census: another example of a digital program that finds it difficult to adapt to an analog world. © 2010 Stephen Yuen

We Won't Even Realize

(Continuation of above post) Cost-benefit analysis is one perspective from which one may view the accretion of power in our government. But I prefer to look at this subject at the ground level. The personal is the political, goes the saying.

In a thousand ways great and small our freedoms are increasingly circumscribed. I keep an eye on the traffic cameras and slam on the brakes when the light turns yellow. I paint black water pipes white because my neighbor's sensibilities might be offended. I have to check with the city before taking down a fence or putting a new one up. Whether I drive my car every day or once a month, it must pass the same smog inspection every two years. I refrain from making (overly) snarky remarks on this blog and even in friendly e-mails because a comment made in haste could some day come back to haunt me. We have to file all sorts of forms and payments with various agencies, and they must be complete and on time.

We're light years away from living in a 20th century totalitarian state, but more of our actions than we realize are dictated by compulsory rules, whether putting on a seat belt, reaching or not reaching for a smoke or a drink, or paying a nanny. We'll cede more and more of our freedoms during the next four years, and the pity is that we won't even realize that it's happening. © 2008 Stephen Yuen

Too Many Words

One of the reasons bloggers can’t enter politics---besides our their obvious personal deficiencies---is that there’s too much of a paper electronic trail to explain away. Just last month I wrote:

If I had to choose among Democrats Hillary, Biden, Richardson, Gore, and Obama to be our President, BHO would be dead last.

But how does that statement square with my effusive claim after last week’s Saddleback forum that America had picked the two best men for the Presidential finals? I can’t.

Those soulful eyes, that mellifluous voice, that handsome visage, seduced me as it has millions of others. But enough about John McCain. I’ve snapped out of it.

Not the Best Tool

As a blogging tool the iPhone leaves a great deal to be desired. Touch-typing skills slow to 10% of normal. The iPhone doesn't permit cutting, copying, and pasting, which makes quoting and linking extremely cumbersome.

Yet, I wouldn't trade it for anything, though it's taken me half an hour to peck this with my index fingers. Now that it's standing room only on Caltrain, having an iPhone makes the commute fly by.

With 3G reception I can browse the Web for most of the trip and not have to fumble with newspapers and magazines.

Mature Perspective

23-year-old Honolulu Advertiser reporter Kim Fassler blogs about moving out of her parents’ house:

even if monthly rent makes a significant dent in your paycheck, you ought to weigh that cost with the cost of your sanity, and the benefits of freedom, independence and real world experience [snip]

Think also of the benefits to your relationship with your parents. Mom and Dad will want to take care of you as long as they are able. But when you still have the needs of a child, there is a tendency for parents to treat you as such, and that's not healthy for either you or them.

A mature perspective from one so young (we also were on our own at 23, but that was a different era.)

My late uncle told me he envisioned a bright future for his granddaughter, and she’s on her way with a degree from Williams and a paying gig at one of Honolulu’s two daily newspapers. We're proud of you, Kim!

Self-Deprecating Humor and Biting Commentary

The Chron profiles a colorful 64-year-old grandmother-blogger headed for Iraq. The article waxes at length about her quirky personality, the simple philosophy which guides her life, and her family and friends. Only at the very bottom of the 1,500-word article does it explicitly state her perspective,

On July 4, 2002, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to serve an eviction notice -- "Three-day Notice to Perform or Quit" -- on President Bush "based on multiple violations of their lease, The United States Constitution."

In her last blog post (www.jpstillwater.blogspot.com) before she left for Kuwait, Stillwater confronted what could happen next with her usual mix of self-deprecating humor and biting commentary.

She told readers that she was headed to "Baghdad to write fabulous stories for YOU all about how our brave troops are doing a bang-up job over there despite the fact that their bosses in the White House are sadistic bastards, terribly inefficient crooks and totally nuts -- or I will spend three weeks wandering the streets of Kuwait City waiting for my flight home, searching for internet cafes and trying to sell bootleg Girl Scout cookies."

I admire Ms. Stillwater for following her star. What rankles me is the Chron’s puff-piece approach to a cranky Bush-hater who is a little out of the mainstream, even by Bay Area standards. Media bias? nothing to see here, move right along. © 2007 Stephen Yuen

Sorry It's So, Joe

Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal doesn’t like blogs.

Most of them are pretty awful. Many, even some with large followings, are downright appalling….Its closest analogue might be the (poorly kept) diary or commonplace book, or the note scrawled to oneself on the back of an envelope--though these things are not meant for public consumption. The reason for a blog's being is: Here's my opinion, right now.

We rarely encounter sustained or systematic blog thought--instead, panics and manias; endless rehearsings of arguments put forward elsewhere; and a tendency to substitute ideology for cognition. The participatory Internet, in combination with the hyperlink, which allows sites to interrelate, appears to encourage mobs and mob behavior.

Ouch. Hey, Joe, if you don’t like what you’re reading, close the lid on your laptop and go watch some TV.

© 2006 Stephen Yuen