Last week the CEO of United Healthcare was assassinated in midtown Manhattan. A surprising number of reactions amounted to some variant of “he had it coming.” Why were people defending what appears to be a vigilante killing? Because the rule of law in the US has been undermined by a pervasive sense that the justice system is rigged to protect the rich and powerful and their interests. There appears to be no accountability for them while ordinary citizens find themselves subjected to abuse by ...

I have been away from writing here for an entire month. It was a combination of travel followed by a health crisis that is now thankfully nearly over (a “routine” surgery that turned out to be anything but). But there is also an underlying frustration that makes it at times difficult to know what to say at all. We are living in times of the omnicrisis and yet so many people seem to just want to get on with their lives. They want to do their thing, whatever that may be, as if there was nothing...

Anyone following Continuations knows that I have been writing for quite some time that Trump represents an attack on the institutions of democracy. Here is the opening paragraph of a post I wrote about why I was voting for Hillary Clinton (despite disliking her as a candidate):The 2016 Presidential race is not a typical election between two candidates based on the merits of their positions on key issues. Instead, it is a stark choice between Hillary Clinton, whose positions you may disagree w...

A peaceful transition of power between elected governments is one of the crucial aspects of representative democracies. Let’s hope that is what the coming weeks and months bring here in the US. As regular readers of Continuations know, I have been concerned about Trump’s various attempts to undermine this process for some time. Some claim that such concern was misguided as they see Trump as simply incompetent – but that strikes me as a problematic claim to make about someone who both had a su...

We have reached the stage in the devolution of our democracy where people have become afraid. Not in the overt, trembling with fear way, but in the semi-conscious, easily suppressed, but no less potent one. If I say something now, what happens if Trump stays in power? Will my company (or portfolio companies) face repercussions, such as losing government contracts? Will the IRS turn over my finances? Will I be called out publicly and have an angry mob show up at my door? The more you have to l...

I wrote a post last week that incensed some people who took issue both with my use of the term fascism and with the apparent focus on the deployment of DHS agents in Portland. Based on the comments here is a new post. I believe there is a clear and present danger of Trump attempting to become a dictator this fall. I am putting this at less than 10% probability but significantly above 0%. Enough so that I believe now is the time to push back hard against this possibility and not after it has h...

Watching what is happening in the United States, my adopted home country, is incredibly painful. I have seen the last few days coming for years based on the ever more untenable income and wealth distribution combined with militarization of the police and their ongoing unchecked brutality, especially against black people. You can browse back through Continuations and find many posts speaking to these topics, such as this one from 2014. I have a lot more thoughts about this moment in history an...

I have written and spoken a lot about how technological progress is incompatible with privacy. One example I have used is someone bioengineering a virus in their basement. It turns out a much simpler example is what we are seeing today: a new virus that’s spreading. We cannot both have fast, easy international travel and also have privacy of travelers. If you travel and later come down with the coronavirus, we need to know where you went and who else may have been exposed. At a minimum societ...

In yesterday’s election New York City voters passed Ranked Choice Voting as a ballot measure. This means that in future elections such as those for mayor of the city, independent candidates will have a much better shot at getting elected. In Ranked Choice Voting, also known as Instant Runoff Voting, a voter can indicate their preference across multiple candidates instead of selecting just one candidate. So let’s say there is an independent whom I really like but who is a long shot. Historical...

One question I am getting a fair bit these days from German friends and family is: how come Republican politicians keep supporting Trump? Why aren’t more individual representatives speaking out, say calling for an independent investigation of potential interference by Russia? By what mechanism are they being held in line with party leadership? In Germany there is a well understood mechanism of “party discipline” that arises from the party’s role in arranging the “list order,” which is the ord...