More Ben

Dolor sit amet

Dawn of the Bernie Bro

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Bernie’s supporters are young, rowdy, and, worst, they know how to meme. Is that reason enough to disavow him?

Our Democracy is Dumb

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Democracy is important. The ancient Greeks knew that. Everyone else forgot it for a couple thousand years, and then America remembered. Suffering beneath the widespread paw of the British tea-and-taxes machine, a spunky bunch of would-be American patriots found common ground in vanquishing the evil empire and building atop its ashes a democratic nation. Similar …

The Case for a Bigger House

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The United States House of Representatives is a cornerstone of the American Democratic system, a piece of living history, and a real shitshow.

The men are left in black and white, but mostly white.

A Tale of Two States

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On November 2nd, 1889, Benjamin Harrison, ranked #30 in C-SPAN’s ranking of US Presidents, probably sneered as he drove a knife into the heart of Dakota Territory, dividing it forever along an East-West meridian. When he signed the documents formally creating two new states, the President famously (and cutely) shuffled them, preventing onlookers from knowing …

Bde Maka Ska: My Stupid Opinion

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In 2017, the City of Minneapolis changed its map forever (maybe — facts disputed) by renaming its largest lake. Overnight, Lake Calhoun, as it’s long been known, became Bde Maka Ska, a name previously attributed to the body of water by the native Dakota people. This change resulted in fairly immediate controversy between advocates for …