politics – Zoë Michelle's little corner of the internet

Monica review

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/monica_2022 . I seriously had to write this after seeing this thing get 80%+ from critics and 90%+ from audiences. So, I had a few hours to myself, and having a few hours to myself, I decided to take the time to consume media that I would otherwise have no chance at all to watchContinue reading “Monica review”

Let’s talk about Trump and political violence

So, last weekend happened. Let’s talk about last weekend, then. Before we start (and I’ll remind you, reader, again, before we end) I will state that I am a pretty extreme pacifist. I think that violence and intimidation against people is virtually never justified, and the cases where it is involve clear cases of selfContinue reading “Let’s talk about Trump and political violence”

Written for TDOV 2024

Each day, that I put the rainbow onAnd walk out in the streetyou see me, that unabashed trannythat freak, that weirdo, that thingAnd you dare to speak know that, each day that I’m out there, wearing the rainbow, wearing those heelsstanding with my head held highI am remindedThat my transition is paid for by myContinue reading “Written for TDOV 2024”

The Trans Rubicon

Hi, it’s been a long time, blog. I do believe this is a better home for my stuff than most venues, and as I start doing real writing more, I expect this place to be more active again. The below was written for an Austin spoken word sexuality confessional performance event. It appears I willContinue reading “The Trans Rubicon”

Death Penalty

I remember the exact moment I became opposed to the death penalty. It was June 12, 2001, the day after Timothy McVeigh’s execution. They innovated a sort of “closed-captioning execution viewing” thing because of the sheer number of victims and the difficulty of getting them all in the execution chamber. And I rememmber sitting andContinue reading “Death Penalty”

On the Alaska Special election

OK, I promised to revisit this, so here I am revisiting this. Alaska’s current system is as follows: The “primary” is an at-large race with all candidates on one ballot, irrespective of party. Voters get a single vote. All but the top four candidates are eliminated. Then, in the “general”, voters rank choice the topContinue reading “On the Alaska Special election”

Proportional Representation, a mini-essay

You want to abolish “the two party system”? What you shouldn’t care that much about is IRV for President, instead, what you should want is proportional representation for the house. What is proportional representation, you say? It’s a system where you work to make sure that the representation of parties in the legislature is proportionalContinue reading “Proportional Representation, a mini-essay”

On rules

So, this is a thing I’ve been thinking about a lot. We all talk a lot of big games about corruption, “bought” public figures, sell-outs, lobbyists, money in politics, and the like. But what I see precious little of is any suggestion of what the new rules should be to root out those things. ThereContinue reading “On rules”

Just a quick hit

But this is bananas. If this isn’t shut down pretty hard, I don’t see how this ends without Guliani and Trump throwing each other under the bus.

Quiet

So, it’s been a little less than a week before I quit posting on social media. It’s been a bit of an experience, really. I’ve had to learn (relearn?) some emotional regulation for myself. I had a few moments this week where I ran into some coding problems and I didn’t have the immediate ventContinue reading “Quiet”