https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/posts/Recent content in Posts on Reluctant CitizenHugoen-USSat, 31 Oct 2026 11:40:00 -0400https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/ghosts-on-the-ballot-spoilers-look-alikes-and-the-two-dan-sullivans/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 11:40:00 -0400https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/ghosts-on-the-ballot-spoilers-look-alikes-and-the-two-dan-sullivans/In 2020 a Florida state Senate seat flipped by 32 votes after a paid ‘ghost’ candidate who shared the incumbent’s surname took more than 6,000. This Tuesday, Alaskans will see two Dan Sullivans on their Senate ballot. What history says about spoiler and look-alike candidates, who gets caught, what the law can and can’t do, and what is really going on in Alaska.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/selling-the-cross-trump-christian-nationalism-and-the-company-he-keeps/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 11:27:00 -0400https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/selling-the-cross-trump-christian-nationalism-and-the-company-he-keeps/On September 21, 2025, at a memorial for Charlie Kirk, his widow forgave the man accused of killing him. Minutes later, Donald Trump said: “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.” That moment captures the gap between the faith Trump sells and the way he lives, and why it matters for everyone, believer or not.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/history-has-seen-this-before-trump-and-the-authoritarian-playbook/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 10:16:00 -0400https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/history-has-seen-this-before-trump-and-the-authoritarian-playbook/On August 25, 2025, in the Oval Office, the president of the United States responded to critics who called him a dictator. “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator,” Donald Trump said. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator.” The next day, at a Cabinet meeting, he said it again: “So the line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘If that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’ But I’m not a dictator.” Some of his Cabinet members laughed.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/rejected-by-a-robot-how-ai-hiring-filters-shut-out-the-people-we-need/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 10:15:00 -0400https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/rejected-by-a-robot-how-ai-hiring-filters-shut-out-the-people-we-need/You spent an evening tailoring your résumé. You matched the job description line by line. You hit submit. Forty minutes later, at 11:52 p.m., a polite email arrives: “After careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with other candidates.”https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/the-crazy-things-trump-says-part-2-when-trump-talks-like-the-law-doesnt-apply/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:16:54 +0000https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/the-crazy-things-trump-says-part-2-when-trump-talks-like-the-law-doesnt-apply/In Part 1, “The Crazy Things Trump Says, Part 1: Strongmen, Loyalty and the Press,” I looked at Donald Trump’s praise for dictators, his “day one” dictator line, his third-term talk and his war on the press. This part is about something more serious: the times he has urged, praised or floated actions that are illegal or unconstitutional.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/the-crazy-things-trump-says-part-1-strongmen-loyalty-and-the-press/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:16:11 +0000https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/the-crazy-things-trump-says-part-1-strongmen-loyalty-and-the-press/There is a habit in American politics of laughing off what Donald Trump says. It was a joke. It was sarcasm. He was trolling. Take him seriously, not literally. Some of the time, that defense is fair, and I will tell you when his side said it. But after ten years of campaigns and two terms in office, the words have piled up into a pattern, and the pattern is not funny.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/dont-lock-the-future-out-of-the-classroom-a-parents-case-for-teaching-kids-ai/Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:27:23 +0000https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/dont-lock-the-future-out-of-the-classroom-a-parents-case-for-teaching-kids-ai/My kids will spend their whole adult lives working, learning and living alongside artificial intelligence. That isn’t a prediction I’m especially excited or scared about. It’s just the direction the world is moving. So when I hear about schools that block AI tools outright, my first reaction as a parent is worry. Not that my kids will be harmed by AI, but that they’ll be left to figure it out alone, or not at all, while kids elsewhere learn to use it well.https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/ten-ways-donald-trump-has-harmed-the-united-states/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 14:22:12 +0000https://reluctant-citizen.unsigned.blog/ten-ways-donald-trump-has-harmed-the-united-states/A president is supposed to leave the country stronger than he found it: more trusted abroad, more secure in its institutions, more confident in itself. After Donald Trump’s first term and nearly two years of his second, the record points the other way.