Author: J. Oliver Schak
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Dissecting Democratic Defeat Part IV: Where Do We Go from Here?
“Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” — 2024 Trump Campaign The good news there’s a few glimmers of hope for a Democratic comeback. Just one hundred days into President Trump’s second term, voters are finding out that he’s not for them after all. His team is filled with crooked elites who have…
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Dissecting Democratic Defeat Part III: Where Did We Go Wrong?
“With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests.“ – President Obama in the 2010 State of the Union Address The rise of Trump, and the debacle of 2024, were the culmination of a slowly creeping…
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Dissecting Democratic Defeat Part II: A Full-Blown Trouncing
“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” – Minority Leader Schumer The last eight years proved this infamous quote wrong. Democrats pinned their hopes on bad math, faulty logic, and…
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Dissecting Democratic Defeat: 25 Years Mired in Stalemate
Americans tell Democrats and liberals it’s time to look themselves in the mirror. After a century of unprecedented progress toward shared prosperity, egalitarian rule, and universalized rights and freedoms, America has slipped backwards and Americans have grown bitterly despondent. Daily life has gotten harder for most, liberty has proved more fleeting and fragile, and the…
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New Year’s 2024-25
Last year I joined a book club to discover new authors and genres. Looking back on 2023, I read some remarkably good non-fiction: Cuba, Boomtown, Justice for Some, Disability Visibility, The Art of Living, Crying in H Mart, Outlive, Wilmington’s Lie, and Scenes from My Life. Yet, I’ve since joined a book club and committed…
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New Year’s 2023-24
The books I read this year, and which ones are must-reads for you. I’ve yammered enough in my last few blogs. So, without further ado, here’s the books I read in 2023. Which ones most strike your fancy?
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In Retrospect
How my experiences in 2022 changed who I am today. Above: Moments from travels in Vietnam in 2022 and highlights in 2023. A few of you have asked me to write a post on how I felt during the Pandemic, why I took the gap year, and what this year of free play meant to…
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New Year’s 2022-23
The 50 books I read in 2022, and which ones I loved the most. As we cross into 2023, we may feel the urge to make goals and resolutions that we hope will improve who we are and how we live. We feel responsibility, and even guilt, for breaking past resolutions. Over-ambition, apathy, and adversity…
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December 2022
I had no shortage of memorable moments while traveling through Southeast Asia. (Warning: some pictures may contain depictions of nudity and violence.) Centuries of war, peace, migration, and proselytization have spawned a wonderful mess of different peoples and customs in Southeast Asia. I’d sum up this abundant diversity of cultures with the Thai expression “same,…
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December 2022: Food
Pictures of food and drink from travels in Southeast Asia. Cambodia Siem Reap Phnom Penh Sihanoukville Thailand Bangkok Chiang Mai Hua Hin Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Malacca Penang Vietnam Ha Noi Ha Long Bay Hoi An Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) & Cu Chi
My Millennium Commentary 