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A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Swastikas, censorship, false positives and kittens

Increasing efforts to block online content from hate groups and terrorists has been accompanied by an unsurprising increase in reports of perfectly legitimate content...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Sep. 7, 2017
Last comment by Douglas Moran, on Oct 23, 2017 at 9:41 pm | 4 comments | 11584 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Winning the battle but losing the war? Thinking strategically and recent events

In the time and place I grew up, we received repeated lessons about not sacrificing the ultimate victory by insisting on winning all the small battles. Sometimes...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Aug. 18, 2017
Last comment by resident, on Aug 28, 2017 at 12:39 pm | 30 comments | 17479 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

'Google memo': a lesson on not trusting news media

In the 2016 Presidential primaries and the general election, much of the "Mainstream Media" (MSM) (foot#1) was blatantly partisan in its coverage...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Aug. 9, 2017
Last comment by Sea Seelam Reddy, on Aug 14, 2017 at 1:51 pm | 45 comments | 9730 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

California Democrats seek to revive the Republican Party; Republicans expected to resist

Negative partisanship describes when your voting for a particular party arises from opposition to the other parties. That is, you don't positively support...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Jul. 16, 2017
Last comment by resident, on Jul 21, 2017 at 11:17 am | 28 comments | 12231 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

State Assembly Candidates: Links & Notes for the LWV Forum

A video of the Candidates Forum for State Assembly District 24 is online.(foot#1) The primary election is June 7. These notes are...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on May. 13, 2016
Last comment by caroline V., on Jul 20, 2017 at 4:00 pm | 7 comments | 10266 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Computer Science in PAUSD

As a former teacher of Computer Science, I am concerned about the developing curriculum for PAUSD. This was triggered by a quote from the co-chair of the committee...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Mar. 13, 2017
Last comment by Former PA resident, on Jul 15, 2017 at 11:00 am | 11 comments | 14881 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

The "Creative Class" and "superstar" cities

Trendy young tech workers are key to the economic fortunes of cities. This is part of the urban development theory of

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Jul. 8, 2017
Last comment by mauricio, on Jul 12, 2017 at 11:05 am |
48 comments | 11369 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Development policy: "The Market" and regulation

Neo-liberal, Libertarian, Ayn Rand-ian, Progressive. Mr. X seemed to shift seamlessly and sincerely between these...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Jun. 20, 2017
Last comment by margaret heath, on Jul 7, 2017 at 1:46 pm | 11 comments | 8860 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Sustainability: better management needed

I was trying to read the Staff report for tonight's Council decision on funding for the sustainability program. While measuring the effectiveness of these programs...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Jun. 5, 2017
Last comment by Curmudgeon, on Jun 7, 2017 at 5:07 pm | 9 comments | 10949 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Behind contentious local politics: Failed and toxic leadership

The crucial threshold was crossed 4 years ago when the demonization of people with other perspectives became a deliberate tactic. This tactic, and related divisive...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on May. 30, 2017
Last comment by Jerry Underdal, on Jun 6, 2017 at 5:24 pm | 33 comments | 10572 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Why contentious local politics? More examples from ADU at Council

Observations from the Council discussion on ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Unit aka granny units). ----Advertising contempt for those that disagree---- If...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Apr. 18, 2017
Last comment by Gale Johnson, on Apr 25, 2017 at 10:13 pm | 50 comments | 11729 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Driverless self-driving car testbed issues

In 1993 there were widespread reports of traffic inexplicably coming to a crawl where there previously had not even been hints of problems. An investigation found...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Mar. 29, 2017
Last comment by Douglas Moran, on Apr 18, 2017 at 2:32 pm | 16 comments | 15751 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

RPP + ADUs: Winners and losers

One of the classic mistakes in politics is to become overly focused on the details of official actions at the expense of asking whether those actions support the...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Mar. 4, 2017
Last comment by Gale Johnson, on Mar 10, 2017 at 3:08 pm | 7 comments | 7675 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Groundwater Pumping Background

Groundwater pumping (dewatering) regulations are on the City Council agenda for a special meeting on Tuesday March 7 beginning at 6pm. There are two parts: incremental...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Mar. 1, 2017
Last comment by Ken Scholz, on Mar 6, 2017 at 8:35 am | 13 comments | 10840 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Affordable Housing: Complexities

The discussions of affordable housing policy have been impeded by mythology, misconceptions, magical thinking, posturing, empty slogans, ambiguous terminology, and...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Feb. 21, 2017
Last comment by JJ, on Feb 28, 2017 at 5:00 am | 14 comments | 17048 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

The "You're despicable" style of politics

No I am not talking about the presidential campaign. Nor about Congress. Rather about local politics, as practiced by certain elected and appointed officials, and...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Sep. 22, 2016
Last comment by Ken Underwood, on Jan 9, 2017 at 3:48 pm | 42 comments | 22072 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Negative/Attack Ad? Wrong Question

The definition of a negative or attack ad is ambiguous. To some, it is any ad that contains any negative information about a candidate. To others, the ad needs to...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Oct. 30, 2016
Last comment by Thanks, Doug, on Nov 9, 2016 at 5:26 am | 3 comments | 10825 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Disputing a Council Endorsement on Attitude toward residents

I strongly disagree with one of the Weekly's endorsements...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Oct. 25, 2016
Last comment by Curmudgeon, on Oct 31, 2016 at 1:03 pm |
24 comments | 14376 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

Council Candidate Forums

Three City Council candidate forums is a lot to plow through. These are what I regard as the most notable remarks and my significant impressions of the candidates....

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Oct. 18, 2016
Last comment by Fred Balin, on Oct 23, 2016 at 4:47 pm | 7 comments | 14955 Views

A PRAGMATIST'S TAKE

No on B, Faithlessness and Fecklessness

Measure B is the 30-year half-cent sales tax increase for VTA. The arguments for it focus on what is needed, what it could fund, and what has been ==B...

Original post made by Douglas Moran on Oct. 8, 2016
Last comment by Andrew Boone, on Oct 19, 2016 at 2:46 pm | 28 comments | 13234 Views
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