I usually do a write up of the events I’ve organized or hosted and my most-read articles at the end of the year. This was an unusual year (obviously, there is no need to go into it here) so I didn’t bother doing my yearly round-up. I want to highlight one project of mine that I am particularly proud of though — it’s my new podcast show, Unverified Accounts, that I cohost along with Chris Jesu Lee and Filip Guo. the past I’ve been involved in two podcast shows -- Escape from Plan A (EFPA) and The Aesthetic Distance Podcast. This year, one of my frequent collaborators, Chris Jesu Lee, approache ..read more

One of my recent library hauls. The public libraries in my county re-opened in late July and I’ve been reading tons of non-fiction. This year I read mostly non-fiction. Mostly politics too. I learned more about the dangers of American-style democracy and liberalism, and about the benefits and strengths of socialism and communism. I also learned a lot about the CIA and just how much it has harmed the rest of the world. The books that uncovered the truth about the CIA were my favorites of the year because they allowed me to zoom out and truly see the American experiment for what it really is. B ..read more

Joe Biden and his stupid hair plugs. RIDE THAT BLUE WAVE….TO THE GROUND It’s that time again. The parade of theatrics we call an election. Only this time, the “stakes were higher” than they were four years ago. Once again, we were told that this was “the most important election in our lifetime” and we were all shamed into voting for Senator Joe Biden, a literal segregationist sympathizer, because “people’s lives depend on it.” For four years, spineless and ideologically weak, self-proclaimed Resistance Liberals (as if it’s so radical to resist someone like Donald Trump — give me a break) have ..read more

Kamala Harris is a corrupt cop who wants to be President and there is nothing that would convince me to vote for any party that puts her on their ticket. Photo from Reason.com. The Democrat party is not on your side. It has never been on your side. I was just as angry when Donald Trump was voted into office back in 2016 but I’ve learned a lot since then. My politics were much more binary back then and I was naive enough to believe that though both political parties were bad, the Democrats were at least a lesser evil than the Republicans. I WAS WRONG. Ever since I was in college, I always beli ..read more

Photo taken by my cousin after Auntie Milagros passed away on July 11, 2020. My 89 year old Auntie Milagros Romero Alonzo died of covid last Friday. She was alone in the ICU because nobody was allowed to visit her. Her nurse held up a phone so that we could all say goodbye to her via Facetime. Now we are planning a Zoom funeral. She will be cremated this week and we will be allowed to bring her ashes back to the Philippines and placed in the cemetery where all the Romeros are buried next year (hopefully) — as long as there is a vaccine and travel restrictions are lifted. She tested positive f ..read more

I am SHOCKED by the amount of people (mostly white people) who have decided that states’ decisions to “reopen” mean that the pandemic is over. Actually, I should take that back. Of course it’s white people who go out for nonessential reasons, attend house parties, and go out drinking in crowded bars. Who else would be that selfish and destructive to the rest of society??? Whenever there is an opportunity to kill off a large portion of the population and spread disease, white people are first in line! This is the only thing they’re good at! If you’re mad at me for the above statements, then go ..read more

How bad is the state of American journalism? It’s pretty dire. How did we get to a point where the news is no longer trustworthy? How did we get to a point where the mainstream media is just a mouthpiece for the interests of the elite? What happened to the very necessary fourth estate of government? You have Fox News for conservatives on one side and you have MSNBC on the other, which is basically the Fox News for Democrats. There is so much deliberate bias (not to mention censorship) everywhere you look. Media companies have become intrinsically linked with the powerful corporations that the ..read more

Coronavirus. COVID-19. It may not seem that bad right now but it is expected to get worse in the next few weeks. To prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect the most vulnerable among us — the immuno-compromised and the elderly — the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have advised strict social distancing and self-quarantines. My family and I haven’t left the house in the past week and will continue to stay isolated until it’s declared safe to do so. I had already pulled my kids out of school before Governor Larry Hogan made the decision to shut down all Maryland ..read more

Social distancing. Lockdown. If you’re like thousands — no, millions — of people around the world, you are most likely at home, avoiding physical contact with the outside world, in the hopes of escaping the coronavirus. Everything is shutting down: colleges and universities, music festivals like Coachella, film festivals like SXSW, academic and trade conferences, movie premieres, March Madness, NBA, political rallies (in the middle of an election season, no less), you name it. As of March 6, 2020, the worldwide coronavirus death toll currently stands at over 3,200 with no vaccine or diagnosti ..read more

Photo by Marius Bugge for The Nation. I’ll admit it. I’m a “Bernie or Bust” person. I don’t want to vote for Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg or Elizabeth Warren. I won’t vote for Donald Trump either. I’ll probably just sit this election out if it comes to that. I voted for Hilary Clinton over Trump in 2016 and believe me, my conscience wouldn’t be appeased if she was actually the winner. Negative partisanship is what’s motivated me at the polls in the past. I voted for Hilary in 2016 because it was better than voting for Trump. And I voted f ..read more