Losing Faith ~ Shifts in Religous Zeal Appeal

The Economist spotlights Arab Barometer religious trendscape...

"NO TO RELIGION or sect,” cry the protesters in Iraq. “No to Islam, no to Christianity, revolt for the nation,” echo those in Lebanon. Across the Arab world people are turning against religious political parties and the clerics who helped bring them to power. Many appear to be giving up on Islam, too. These trends are reflected in new data from Arab Barometer, a pollster that surveys Arab countries. Across the region the share of people expressing much trust in political parties, most of which have a religious tint, has fallen by well over a third since 2011, to 15%. (The share of Iraqis who say they do not trust parties at all rose from 51% to 78%.) The decline in trust for Islamist parties is similarly dramatic, falling from 35% in 2013, when the question was first widely asked, to 20% in 2018."

Occupations & Ideologies ~ Spectrum Mapping...

Political scientist Adam Bonica estimates the ideologies of individuals, politicians, and organizations...

"DNV" Wins ~ US Presidency's True Results...

Did Not Vote was the actual "winner" of the US Presidential election...

History of Coups ~ Visualizations of Attempts...

WaPo's Adam Taylor shares dataset about political coups since the 1950s compiled by political scientists Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne. By "coup" they mean illegal and overt attempts by the military or other elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting executive...

"Why did they have the first one? Coups also generally occur in disproportionately poor countries that suffer from other forms of political instability (such as protests and/or civil war). In recent years, there seems to be an increasing proportion of coups in new democracies, especially those that seem to already be backsliding toward authoritarianism. Ultimately, the legitimacy of the government is a crucial indicator."

Why July 4th? ~ US Declaration of Independence!

Read the US Declaration of Independence!

See also Tara Helfman's The Spirit of ‘76 a review of Barry Alan Shain's The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context.

Magna Carta ~ 800 Yrs of Increasing Freedoms

BBC on the anniversary fest for the Magna Carta at...

"Runnymede in Surrey, close to the River Thames, where King John of England sealed the original document in 1215. The Queen also attended the ceremony. The charter first protected the rights and freedoms of society and established that the king was subject to the law."

Clive Coleman, BBC legal correspondent answers Why is Magna Carta so important?

"At its heart is the idea that the law is not simply the whim of the king, or the government. It is the great egalitarian legacy of Magna Carta, that all are equal under the law, and all can be held to account. It is that idea that gave birth to so many of our rights and freedoms, to parliamentary democracy, fair trial, and a series of controls on the abuse of arbitrary power."

Systems of Government ~ Worldmap of Schemes

Some global map porn spotlighting Systems of Government...

Religio-Political Plot ~ Moralism vs Statism...

Jack Jenkins at ThinkProgress shares The Politics Of Every Major U.S. Religion, In One Chart...

"A new chart, compiled by Tobin Grant of the Religion New Service and using data from Pew Research’s 2008 Religious Landscape Survey, takes a stab at answering this question by visually illustrating the general political beliefs of religious people on two policy questions."

Gerrymandering Explained ~ Political Mapping...

WashPo's Christopher Ingraham explains Gerrymandering w/ clever infographic...

She's Beautiful ~ Founding Modern US Feminism!

My ML colleague Pip points out She's Beautiful When She's Angry...

"A new documentary resurrecting the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971."

Audience reactions... Interviews with inspiring filmaker Mary Dore...

R.I.P. Edward Brooke ~ Black GOP Mass Senator

Very sad to hear that the groundbreaking Edward Brooke has passed away at age 95. He was not only the first African American popularly elected to the US Senate but did so as a Republican and a self-described "creative moderate" in Massachusetts. Read his Open Christmas Letter to the Racially Divided City of Boston from 1974.

Transparency ~ Eigen on Corruption @ TEDx...

Transparency International founder Peter Eigen shares how to expose corruption with positive civil society action at TEDxBerlin...

The Great Dictator ~ Chaplin One-Ups Idiots...

Given how Mao's minions are oppressing HK and a billion Chinese, and Stalin's intellectual heir Putin is screwing Russians and Ukranians (and Georgians and others), and Hitler's religulous clones continue contesting the land of Canaan, here's The Great Dictator's final speech -- Charlie Chaplin's oratory alternative!

Who Is John Galt? ~ Atlas Shrugged, Part 3!

Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, Who is John Galt? showing now! Trailer... See more videos, etc, in their gallery. It's an epic story -- i.e. productive people finally going on strike, stopping the motor of the world -- but one which infuriates nearly everyone on the spectrum of stupidity, from tax'n'spend left-wingnuts to faith freak right-wingnuts, basically parasites and statists of all stripes. Plus, it's an ambitious project to put to film, even in three parts, especially on a lean budget with the antagonism of Hollywood, DC, and related establishments. So, here's a salute to John Aglialoro and his fellow producers and colleagues who got this trilogy done!

Six Californias ~ Draper on Rebooting Politics

VC Tim Draper proposes Six Californias in VB interview, saying it's...

"The right way to hold politicians more accountable and to make the state more governable. The deadline to gather 807,615 signatures and put it on the November ballot if July 18. He said that the state is a lot like a monopoly, with high costs, low satisfaction, and little choice for those who deal with it. He came up with the proposal after trying to fix California’s educational system for years. “I marveled at the number of choices we have in the private sector because of entrepreneurs,” he said. “Then I realized we only have one choice of government if we want to live in this kind of weather.”

Tearing Europe Apart ~ Atlas of Prejudice...

Yanko Tsvetkov's Atlas of Prejudice has 20 ways to slice Europe...

Tragic Memorial ~ Dahlberg's Bold Norsk Cut...

Norway honors youth killed by religious extremist via memorial...

"Dahlberg proposes creating a massive gap of water and air. By slicing a huge section of the island's landmass away, he would create a steep fjord through the site where the shooting occurred -- a void that he describes as "a wound or a cut within nature itself." [...] Rather than building a monument or structure, he would focus on nature itself. A 70-foot-wide gap carved out of the island, separating the headland from the main island, would serve as the ideal spot to reflect and memorialize. On the jagged edges of the cut, the names of those who died in the attacks would be inscribed into smooth stone."

The 16th Man ~ Mandela and the Springboks

ESPN's 16th Man documentary... Plus, here's the actual 1995 match...

Non-Intervention ~ Ron Paul on Libertarianism...

NBF spots Ron Paul on Charlie Rose defining Libertarianism as Non-Intervention...

Subversive Currents ~ China Fears Seven Perils...

Chris Buckley in the NYTimes reveals that China's unelected and dictatorial Communist Party leadership fear that...

"...power could escape their grip [...] unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society."

These seven perils include...

• “Western constitutional democracy,” 
• Promoting “universal values” of human rights,
• Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation,
• Ardently pro-market “neo-liberalism,” 
•  “Nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past. 

Surely, however, any truly strong and legitimate authority fears no criticism, embraces shared values, and benefits from active citizen participation? Or do the so-called "leaders" of China fear the light of freedom and the true voice of the people?