Nacirema The Island

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6473365048088756225 The Economist recently released a video about competition in the Digital age..comparing Google's command of internet searches to Standard Oil's control of the oil industry 100 years ago at 86 percent. The more important part of the video is that it gives a good strategy for regulating these monopolies. You can't break up a technology platform Monopoly because it's in the cloud....it has to be the same accross all platforms anytime, anywhere. They suggest you prevent mergers of smaller companies that could provide a competitive advantage. That might work! It's the solution I have been looking for a long time.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pa5gxn/the-internet-doesnt-need-civility-it-needs-ethics

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6471018600491728897

An interesting study on the real political "divisions" in America. "Hardcore" Liberals are only 1/5th of the population and "Hardcore" conservatives including traditional and alt-right only comprise 25% of the population. Really interesting idea. Most of us fall in the middle. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a22740f/t/5bbcea6b7817f7bf7342b718/1539107467397/hidden_tribes_report-2.pdf

People might ask why all the emails? Why all the liberal propaganda? I say as a lifelong moderate conservative it is important to understand and hear out the other side, regardless of where you end up on that issue. If one wants to keep track of the Second Progressive Era, one must pay attention to where people are generating most of the ideas that will become enshrined in law and in culture. Generally the change in American society has come from liberals, whether they be the abolitionists who were racist, the members of the Grange (a farmer's association), or the New York editors who finally decided to support the civil rights movement. A lot of modern "new" ideas have come in the past from them, such as gay marriage, transgender rights, healthcare for all, etc. It is worth it to watch small factions where the ideas come from. One also has to realize that cultural relativity is at play. Democrats meant conservatism for a good 100 years, and the Republicans were the liber

So with everybody mad, angry, happy, ridiculously overjoyed, or making plans to go canvassing again, the Era continues. I was pretty happy with what happened in Alaska, but in other parts of the country it went a little differently. The House was taken by Democrats, the Senate by Republicans, and well, Trump is still president. Utah has right now an interesting race between Mia Love and Ben McAdams--one a Republican daughter of Haitian parents, fiscal and social conservative. Ben McAdams, as far as I can tell is a an interesting mix of social and fiscal conservative, and a social/fiscal liberal. Both are members of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Both buck stereotypes of Republicans, Democrats, and Mormons that can only happen in a place like Utah that has a large conservative population with a religious organization that makes political hacks second guess themselves with its quirks. Conservatives that are more moderate with immigration, science, and caring for the poor and needy-