Trevor Noah said it best… Republicans just wanted to pass a bill to repeal Obamacare not considering the effects of the bill on the general population. Feeling sick yet? You might not be covered soon…
House Repeal of Affordable Care Act
Reply
Author Archives: Felix
feeling forgotten?
Don’t worry… approximately 75% of American’s feel the same way too when it comes to the US government according to a Marketplace research poll. What fascinates me about this research poll is not only is it non-partisan (members from both party feel the same) but it comes on the heels of a “change election” where Donald Trump is now the President of the United States. Although Trump only garnered 62.985 million popular votes to Clinton’s 65.854 million popular votes, the Electoral College was what mattered the most on election night. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Clinton supporters believed the Electoral College is a form of voter suppression by the government where democracy and “the voice of the people” are not heard.
But I think the real cause of such deep rooted distrust comes from the lobbyists that directly contribute money to political campaigns.
Let’s do a thought experiment….
If a large sum of money from a particular interest group (say coffee lovers) donated to my campaign and that money helped me win an election into Congress, this interest group could very use the threat of future campaign contributions for the next election cycle to “encourage me” to vote favorably for this coffee interest group….
Is this not too hard to imagine? I hope not. Even at a small scale of high school elections, how many times did you vote for a class president on the basis of “what treats did the candidate give out instead of the issues they wanted to set?” I certainly did. The issues facing a class is secondary to what the future class president can offer me.
Going back to the lobbyist topic and the feeling of being forgotten, could it be possible to think that the government in it’s ever increasing need to get money to win elections that the government has focused their attention to satisfy the needs of the lobbyists instead of that of the people they represent?
I think so. I leave you with this Ted Talk.
Familia Peixoto
Angel’s Cup delivered a new bag about two weeks ago. This one is from Familia Peixoto. From the website, they’re a multi-generational family owned coffee farmer in Brazil.
The first thing that I smelled a strong nutty aroma followed by dark chocolate and then an earthy aroma. The bag says it tastes like berries and at times I get this wisp of blueberries/cherries as well.
Making my morning latte this morning, the aroma of nuts in the ground coffee is overpowering. It hits me first followed by the subtle coffee aroma then the cherries. After adding milk and taking a sip, the nutty flavor is still there but the cherry undertones has melded with the creaminess of the milk. The chocolate flavor lingers in the aftertaste.
Netflix’s Chef’s Table
Chef’s Table on Netflix is very much like those in depth shows that’d you’d see on History Channel or National Geographic where they do a deep dive into a particular subject. In this case, the focus of the show is the chef behind the restaurants and what drives them. I’m on episode four which is about the LA chef Niki Nakayama of N/Naka. This behind the scenes look makes me want to try her restaurant now. I’ve always known about it but rarely had the motivation to try.
This show definitely is on my watch list. Knowing what drives these chef’s to cook and what inspires these chef’s is well… inspirational.
Bill Nye on Netflix
I never grew up watching Bill Nye. But I have heard of him and his “Bill Nye the Science Guy” show. He has a new show on Netflix called “Bill Nye Saves the World.” The purpose of the show is very well intentioned.
I just finished the first episode about climate change. His beginning explanation of climate change and water level rising is very simple to understand. But it leaves out another factor of the water level rising (melting ice from warmer temperatures). He’s purposely not mentioning anything controversial but showing a simple scientific experiment that demonstrates a particular scientific principles that drives his message across as simple as possible. This sounds like an interesting approach to simplify the message he wants to convey.
There were two notable moments from the show that occurred during the panel discussion to a simple yet engaging question of “What can we as non-scientist do?” The first answer was to VOTE. The second was to “become aware” of their surroundings. Such positive messages are very important to understanding and changing the future.
I look forward to seeing what else Bill Nye can do with his show.
(not so) Free Speech?
UC Berkeley students have recently involved themselves in a number of controversies that don’t quite make sense to me. The latest incident to happen was Ann Coulter canceling a planned speaking event at Berkeley. Previously before that was the Milo Yiannopoulos incident.
But after these two incidents, two thought immediately came to mind.
- The proportion of the student body that actually are political should be pretty small. From what I remember, at least 40% of the student body is Asian(/Chinese) and let’s be realistic here… Asians almost never willingly participate in politics THIS divided or controversial. Oh they might say something but I highly doubt they’d participate in any fracas… because the punishment when their parents find out that they weren’t studying is FAR WORSE. Even still, have you seen the pictures of these Pro-Trump/Anti-Trump rallies that turn into fistfights? Just about every person pictures is non-Asian/non-Chinese.
- How did the epicenter of the Free Speech Movement come to support an anti-viewpoint/anti-ideology movement? And furthermore, at what point does the safety of the general non-political population become more important than upholding free speech?
Now what would Bernie say?
Ya I thought so.
Are you paying federal income taxes?
With the 2016 tax season behind us and listening to the NPR Politics Podcast that I listen to, did you know apparently 45% of the US population did not pay federal income tax for the 2015 tax year? According to this MarketWatch article, the bottom 40% of the income brackets actually get money back from the federal government.
Additionally, an NPR/Ipsos Poll (link 1, link 2) result shows markedly different conception about people paying taxes. The one result that surprised me was that 70% of the people polled believed less American’s pay federal income taxes than the actual amount (45%). How crazy is that?
Fascinating Interview
This is a fascinating interview from the Make Me Smart podcast.
Read our full conversation with George Lakoff on "your brain on Trump"
Hamilton AMEX presale
I was trying to get the Hamilton Touring AMEX presale via Ticketmaster today. Their algorithm is horrible. A customer HAS to choose a particular day first and their price point(s), why is there no option to just get best available for a price point(s) regardless of day? I’m almost positive given the mad rush to get tickets, people would be happy enough to get tickets for ANY DAY at ANY TIME. I swear the Ticketmaster system is a horrid piece of shit system.
In the end I couldn’t even get tickets as they kicked me off the system. I was even just settling to purchase single seat tickets.
Where to Invade Next?
Have you seen this documentary “Where to Invade Next?”
I find it an amusing social commentary by the famed director Michael Moore. He tackles a number of topics ranging from school food luncheons, prison system, worker rights, women’s rights, free higher education and even general education policy.
So what do you think?
A Guy and His Thoughts... 