Whatever happened to…

For Star Trek fans, we’re living in a new age of glory. There are no less than four series in production: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and the recently announced Strange New Worlds which will feature Captain Christopher Pike’s Enterprise.

The new spate of series has no problems revisiting old situations and characters. Picard brought in Seven of Nine, William Riker, Deanna Troi, Data, and made minor character Hugh into a major character. Discovery tapped into Captain Pike, the original Number One, and Spock, and even minor characters like Harry Mudd.

Lower Decks stuffs cameos into every episode, from revisiting the Archons and Landru to a giant statue of Miles O’Brien to more appearances by William Riker. Strange New Worlds hasn’t aired yet, but since it’s fundamentally a spin-off, there’s no reason to think that it wouldn’t recycle previous characters too. …

At least probably, mostly legit.

Detroit is an easy city for conservatives (and everyone else) to hate. It brings together all the negative urban stereotypes and makes them real in one place. Out of control crime plagues the city. The school system has been a slow-motion trainwreck for decades. City corruption is legendary; just seven years ago former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went to jail for 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering.

In addition to the general environment of crime, corruption, and decay, the 2016 election was rife with problems in the city of Detroit. Initial reports showed more ballots than voters in 248 of 662 precincts. …

Has the race really changed?

As the US rolls into the final days of the election campaign, expect the polls to tighten further. This contraction may or may not reflect the state of the race; the polls were always absurd.

Election geeks on both sides of the aisle pore over RealClearPolitics.com polling data. This is the Superbowl of politics, and we check the scores constantly to see how our team is doing. Nine days ago, on October 12th, Biden led Trump by 10.2 points in the two-way national average. Today, on October 21st, Biden is still up by a difference of 7.5 percent.

RCP averages for state polls tightened over the same period. Biden led by 7.2 percent in Pennsylvania on October 12th, today the difference is 4.9 percent. Most battleground states are much the same over the same period: Wisconsin, 6.3 and 4.6 percent, Minnesota, 9.0 and 6.3 percent, Florida, 3.5 and 2.1 percent, and so on. …

There’s no such thing as a mandate. Ask a kindergartener.

Presidents crow about their mandates. They think they know the will of the people. They’re wrong. Instead of mandates, elections are referendums on the regime in power. If Trump wins in November, it will mean that a slim majority of voters are satisfied with how he’s run the executive branch. If Biden wins, it will mean that a majority of voters are dissatisfied with Trump’s performance. Neither result means that 330 million people demand a massive structural change of one sort or another.

Donald Trump claimed a mandate because he ‘won’ the 2016 election. Though small historically, he called his 304 to 227 lead in the electoral college a landslide. Hillary Clinton, with 48.2% of the vote to Trump’s 46.1% would surely have claimed a mandate had she won the electoral college. But is 2.1% …

The obvious ‘secret’: Do what you’re asked

I was scared. I had received my notification that I was transferring from my job at an engineering facility in Pontiac, Michigan back home to Texas. That was the good news. The bad news was that I was going to a truck plant.

New in my career, I sat surrounded by old heads that spent decades in the auto industry. Every one of them talked about the miserable assembly plant lifestyle. …

It’s easier to destroy things than to build them

When we think of the filibuster, we think of Jimmy Stewart’s heroic stand in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. One man against the system, literally talking until he collapses. It’s a feel-good fluff movie, but it made the filibuster iconic.

Real-life no longer works that way. Filibuster rules evolved in such a way that both Republicans and Democrats use it as a routine tool of obstruction. …

Three major metros we’ve left behind

How bad are the cities, really? President Trump points to Democrat-run cities across the country and paints them as cesspools of crime and violence. Through July, homicides are up 51% in Chicago, 21% in New York City, and 14% in Los Angeles. Luminaries like Paul Krugman respond that 2019 in New York City saw only 319 murders, compared to 1993’s bloodbath of 1,927 murders. Crime remains at historic lows.

Unless you or a loved one happen to be part of the increase in murders, then Krugman is generally right. Nationwide, and in most cities, violent crime remains far below historic highs associated with the late 1980s and early 1990s. …

Moving from rowing to steering

At a recent leadership conference, my organization’s leader reminded us to work on things that only we could do, rather than work on things that our teams could do. Listening to his words, I remembered a job a few years ago where I took over as a department manager.

The previous manager spent a lot of time working mundane and repetitive tasks. Load the part into the machine. Push the button. Watch the screen. Repeat. While I was training to take his job, I pitched in as well. …