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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

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?

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?