When trying to understand systems, one really eye-opening and fundamental insight is to realize that the machine is never broken. What I mean by this is, when observing the outcomes of a particular system or institution, it’s very useful to start from the assumption that the outputs or impacts of that system are precisely what it was designed to do — whether we find those results to be good, bad or mixed.
Anil Dash
The Purpose of a System is What it Does (Anil Dash)
Building only one staircase into a building means that builders can use more space for living area. It not only lowers construction costs (building more stairs adds costs), but it also increases the amount of available housing space, bringing down total cost-per-square-foot. Builders can also fit single-stair buildings into smaller or more oddly-shaped parcels of land. In urban areas where the housing crisis is often worst, that describes a significant portion of real estate available for housing construction.
The bottom line: single-stair means more places to live, and they’re more affordable.
Carolina Forward Research Staff
The Case for “Single Star” Reform (Carolina Forward)
It’s one in a long line of things that should be punished by the electorate, but are currently not. This kind of behavior, whether it is from President Biden or former President Trump should have made either of the candidates unelectable. But we aren’t rewarding people for doing the right thing, and we’re not punishing people for doing the wrong thing. And unfortunately, I don’t see that trend changing anytime soon.
And as I said at the beginning, there’s no dispute that the President actually possesses this power. But we’re in really bad shape as a country, if the rule is if you’re legally allowed to do it, then you can and should do it.
I guess this is a good reminder that so much of what we’ve come to respect in our society and in our government is not about the law as it’s explicitly written down, but is just a norm that we’ve grown accustomed to. A norm that is slowly eroding.
Devin Stone, LegalEagle
The Hunter Biden Pardon Is An Abuse of Power (LegalEagle)
Here’s the reality: the congressional map we used to have, with a 7-7 Republican-Democratic split, reflected the true political makeup of our state. It was fair. It gave voters on both sides confidence that their voices mattered. But that wasn’t good enough for legislative Republicans in Raleigh. They threw fairness out the window, forcing through a mid-decade map that handed Republicans an unfair 10-4 advantage in the next Congress. That’s 71% of North Carolina’s seats in the U.S. House going to Republicans and those 10 bright red districts were not even close.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see what’s wrong with that. And now, with Adam Gray’s apparent victory in California’s 13th District giving Republicans a bare three-seat majority in the U.S. House, it’s clear that gerrymandering in North Carolina tipped the scales in their favor and cost Democrats control of the US House of Representatives.
Representative Wiley Nickel
NC congressman: Republicans stole fairness from the nation in giving GOP a House majority (Raleigh News & Observer)
The events in South Korea, and this trip to Portugal, has me more convinced than ever that the United States is an innocent teenager when it comes to our development as a nation, and our tendency to let the market choose our politics and our economic policy for us is exactly what millions of citizens in Portugal, South Korea, Colombia, Turkey, Uganda, and dozens of other nations would warn us about. And for me the most shocking part was that as a journalist of 25 years, I know so little about their experiences.
Jacob Ward
Those Who Remember Dictatorship (The Rip Current)
Joe Biden has now provided every Republican—and especially those running for Congress in 2026—with a ready-made heat shield against any criticism about Trump’s pardons, past or present. Biden has effectively neutralized pardons as a political issue, and even worse, he has inadvertently given power to Trump’s narrative about the unreliability of American institutions. Biden at first promised to respect the jury’s verdict in Hunter’s gun trial, and vowed he would not pardon Hunter—and then said that because “raw politics” had “infected this process,” he had to act. And so now every Republican can say: When it comes to pardons, all I know is that I agree with Joe Biden that the Justice Department can’t be trusted to treat Americans fairly. I’m glad he finally saw the light.
Tom Nichols
The Hunter Biden Pardon Is a Strategic Mistake (The Atlantic)
Some have suggested that Biden’s pardoning his son will now give Trump license to pardon anyone he wants, apparently forgetting that in his first term, Trump pardoned his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion, campaign finance offenses, and witness tampering and whom Trump has now tapped to become the U.S. ambassador to France.
Trump also pardoned for various crimes men who were associated with the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian operatives working to elect Trump. Those included his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and former allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon. Those pardons, which suggested Trump was rewarding henchmen, received a fraction of the attention lavished on Biden’s pardon of his son.
Heather Cox Richardson
December 2, 2024 (Letters from an American)
Personally, I’m disappointed to see President Biden pardon his son, especially after saying that he wouldn’t do so. On the other hand, it is important to remember the context that Trump already has used a pardon for a family member and has also used them to shield his political allies.
Supporters of electoral innovation – from ranked-choice voting, to independent redistricting, to proportionally representative systems – face formidable obstacles. Perhaps the most significant is simple voter comprehension.
Carolina Forward Research Staff
An Uncertain Future for Election Reform (Carolina Forward)
In 1841 a book that reprinted the early diaries and letters from the Plymouth colony recovered the story of that three-day celebration in which ninety Indigenous Americans and the English settlers shared fowl and deer. This story of peace and goodwill among men who by the 1840s were more often enemies than not inspired Sarah Josepha Hale, who edited the popular women’s magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, to think that a national celebration could ease similar tensions building between the slave-holding South and the free North. She lobbied for legislation to establish a day of national thanksgiving.
And then, on April 12, 1861, southern soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, and the meaning of a holiday for giving thanks changed.
Heather Cox Richardson
November 27, 2024 (Letters from an American)
The cryptocurrency industry spent almost $200 million to influence the outcomes of the 2024 United States elections. This unprecedented degree of corporate spending from a relatively small industry had a major effect — but probably not in the way you think.
Let’s talk about where the money came from, where it went, what the cryptocurrency industry’s goals are in politics, and what to do now.
Molly White
Citizenship in a democracy is more than a ballot dropped in a box on Election Day. It’s a 365-days-a-year job requiring the active participation and best judgement of every citizen in the affairs of his community, his nation, and his country’s relations with the world.
Fascism thrives on indifference and ignorance. It makes headway when people are apathetic or cynical about their government – when they think of it as something far removed from them and beyond their personal concern. The erection of a traffic light on your block is important to your safety and the safety of your children. The erection of a world organization to safeguard peace and world security is just as important to our personal security. Both must be the concern of every citizen.
Freedom, like peace and security, cannot be maintained in isolation. It involves being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our own freedom but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.
Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64
October 26, 2024 (Letters from an American)
Army Talk: Fascism! (Internet Archive)
Scott Boehmer 