America’s Enabling Act

Officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich, the Enabling Act of 1933 was passed in Germany’s Reichstag and Reichsrat on 23 March 1933. The act enabled the Cabinet, and the Chancellor, to make new laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or the President, then Paul von Hindenburg. The passing of…

What Will We Do…?

So, here’s a terrifying thought… What will we do if the Supreme Court of the United States decides, in the coming weeks, that Donald Trump should be/remain on the ballot across the country in November? At what point in this arduous, tedious process will we—as a People and as a nation—decide that enough is enough and…

First Summer in Washington

Today draws to a close, with the beginning of October, the Summer of 2023, my first in Washington state. And oh, boy! What a summer it has been. Where to begin… I moved in May and we sorta hit the ground running. Hiking and camping every weekend—before we added kayaking into the mix—pretty much all…

A New Adventure!

If you’re a regular visitor to CleanUpAfterYourDog.com, you may notice a few changes today: the title and “about me” are different and the header image has changed. I’m starting a new adventure in Washington in April and I wanted to get things in place to reflect these changes. For a while now I’ve felt like…

Forgiveness

I don’t believe in forgiveness because it’s bullshit. I don’t. I don’t believe in forgiveness, primarily because humans are incapable of absolution, which is what forgiveness is. We are emotionally vulnerable animals capable of rational thought, and as such we can’t simply forget about something that has wounded us. There is no undo button, nor…

Fiscal Conservatism, an Urban Legend

Call me a policy wonk. Call me a politics junkie. Call me crazy. Call me a progressive, a socialist, a fool. Call me whatever you want, frankly I don’t really care. But what I’m about to tell you is the unabashed, unadulterated truth: American fiscal conservatism is an unapologetically implausible ruse; it’s a fairy tale;…

AI Generated Imagery

There’s a long, complicated debate online right now about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generated imagery. Is it art or not? Can you copyright it? Is it theft? Etc… And it’s pretty simple, actually. AI images are not art, you can’t copyright them, and they’re, essentially, theft. Let’s dive in. Art art [ ahrt ] noun the quality,…

The Pernicious Decline of Twitter

Elon Musk is not the tech-bro messiah. Full stop. Twitter is Imploding by the Whims of an Idiot First there was the mass layoff. Then the Blue Check Saga. Then the readmission of Donald Trump and the wave of racists and NAZIs. After which we saw the banning of Jack Sweeny and ElonsJet. And then…

On Treason

So, I want to talk about 6 January 2021 and the attack on the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. There are a few reasons for this: 1) It’s important that we, as a nation, bring clarity to what happened and maintain focus on the attack until justice is served; 2) There is a concerted…

Jury Nullification

Juries are the second, fundamental participatory element of the People in Government. Juries are important because the Rule of Law, while set by Representatives of the People and enforced by an indirect Representative of the People (the President), must be administered by the People from whom its authority is derived. Judges, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Peoples’ Representatives, are not accountable to the People. Juries are the People.