The Sapiocracy

By Kael the Sapiocrat I dare say that every US citizen, at least once in their lives, recited the all-American Pledge of Allegiance. It was the morning ritual when I was growing up. At the start of the day, we would all stand next to our desks in the classroom while the school principal would lead us in the patriotic recital over the intercom. We would stand straight up with a proud stance and right hands covering our hearts. We did this not because it was the patriotic  thing to do, but because it was simply the daily habit. Many of us didn't even know what we were pledging for or to. All we knew was that if we didn't do it, we'd get written up and sent to the vice-principal's office. Incentive enough, right? All these years later, I'm still stuck on the real meaning of one word in particular: "...under God, indivisible..." Interesting. After consulting the dictionary (Webster, of course), I've discovered that indivisib...

By Kael the Sapiocrat I watched brief highlights of the Golden Globe Awards this year (as I do every year), and there was nothing too  out of the ordinary. Star studded celebrities, shiny trophies, red carpets and a host of paparazzi trying to "catch the moment" in an effort to make an honest buck. I even saw a few of my favorite celebrities gracing the audience.  Oh what a time to be in Hollywood! But something caught America's attention that night. Someone said something that created a ripple across the country -- in both entertainment, politics and everywhere else. Media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey gave a strong and powerful speech defending recently outspoken and sexual assault victims. With the grace that she always possesses, she struck a tone with her most circulated quote of the evening -- "a new day is on the horizon." Some media outlets and critics have even called her speech (dare I say it) "presidential" hinting at a possible 2...

By Brandon the Sapiocrat With the rise of white nationalism on a larger national platform after the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, many leaders and activists alike have been looking into ways to limit the rise of hate speech (or tolerance thereof), leading to the debate on whether hate speech ought to be protected as free speech under the Constitution . For civil libertarians like myself who are adamant to doing anything that would limit peoples’ civil rights and liberties while reluctant to take the side of ignorant racists, this has been much to our dismay. With decades of Supreme Court precedent and with the principles of democracy in mind, and despite the consensus that racist hate speech  is wrong, hate speech must be a protected under the right to free speech of the First Amendment as long as such speech does not incite violence. It must first be understood that to have a functioning democratic republic, there are certain concepts tha...

By Michelle the Sapiocrat Dear America, we have a lot of work to do--and quickly. Source: New American Media While lofty talks of comprehensive healthcare reform leave members of our current administration fighting at the dinner table, some of our nation’s most vulnerable populations are suffering at the hands of a healthcare system that is, quite literally, killing them. If I decided to tackle every aspect of the United States’ complex healthcare system, this submission could easily become a novel, so I’ll focus on the issue of maternal mortality rates today. According to the World Health Organization , maternal mortality is defined as “...the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy…”. Note: This should not be confused with maternal morbidity, which, according to the The World Health Organization is the measure of “health conditions attributed to and/or aggravated by pregnancy ...

By Kael the Sapiocrat Source: DailyDot.com Twitter is that social media site that I made back in high school and didn't really use it until again until a couple of years ago. Between my girlfriend and I, she's the constant tweeter -- while I just open the app every so often to make a short political statement, tweet live responses to my favorite shows and political debates with their unique Twitter handle, or retweet hilarious Thanksgiving clapbacks when turkey season comes around. But 2016 was the year that turned me into a tweeter on the edge. I found myself hitting more keys faster than Chopin on a caffeine high. Trump was on Twitter...and there was MUCH to tweet about. Let's fast forward to 2018. On countless occasions, we've seen Mr. Trump lash out at women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, the handicapped and even other countries using Twitter as his platform to unleash his unmitigated anger and frustration. We've seen nations reshape or worsen th...

By Kael the Sapiocrat I'll start off with this: Small government is none other than corporate dominance.  Power is like energy, you can't get rid of it, you can only transfer it somewhere else. So earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the Obama-era "net neutrality" rules, preemptive regulations which required internet service providers, such as AT&T, to treat all websites the same and prevent them from prioritizing some websites or streaming services over others. The measure was put in place so that it would create an open and fair Internet that can be shared by all. Most of America is for net neutrality rules. On the other side of the argument is the FCC and its notorious chairman, Ajit Pai, a former Verizon attorney. His most quoted statement in regards to net neutrality? "...it hampers investments and innovation" (or something like that). He (and others) want to roll back net neutrality rules so that governme...