To my readers

 Interesting. There are about 10 people who read my blog regularly. There used to be only four. I always thought the four were spiders. I guess the six new ones are probably the FBI and Homeland Security.

Free Speech

Why are the supporters of one of the biggest free speech advocates trying to get people fired for speaking freely?

Charlie Kirk

 Charlie Kirk was born the same year as my daughter, but they couldn't have been more different. My daughter was born male, but identified as female. Charlie Kirk didn't believe transgender people existed. My daughter always seemed to know just what to say to make someone feel better about themselves. Charlie Kirk always knew the right zinger to shut someone down. My daughter died sleeping peacefully on the couch after playing a computer game, laughing with friends. Charlie Kirk died in an act of violence.

I hear voices on the right and left using this incident to promote their causes. These are the words of my daughter:

"No matter how hard you're pushed, how hard things seem to be, never give in, always remember what is right and stand up for it, but never let yourself stoop into violence, or everything will be lost." -LC

Governor of Utah Spencer Cox had poignant words after the shooting.

"We can return violence, we can return hate with hate, And that's the problem with me with political violence is it metastasizes. Because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp or it's going to get much, much worse. But see, these are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country. But every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us. We get to make decisions. We have our agency."

Charlie Kirk has been quoted as saying he didn't believe in empathy. I don't believe that. He would at least listen to his opponents and let them make their point before responding.

I would have liked to debate Charlie Kirk. Now I won't get the chance.

Tariffs

Multinational corporations have been exploiting other countries for lower wages, unsafe working conditions, and toxic wastes. Now they will have the chance to bring those jobs to the USA. They won't be very good jobs unless they are protected by labor unions, OSHA, and the EPA. Mostly tariffs are just a transfer of wealth from the working class to large corporations and the government. It will then go for more tax breaks for the wealthy.

Trumpmerica

Imagine visiting a foreign country where you are forced to surrender your phone at the border and give them your password. You are detained as they go through your social media accounts looking for anything they don't like. Welcome to Trumpmerica.

WW3?

Trump had been hinting at WWIII. NATO is supposed to defend the nations of Europe with US support, however, the US now seems to be siding with Russia and implying that they will only support the EU if they are compensated for it. They are turning former allies like Denmark, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Greenland, etc. into enemies. I can only presume that countries with nuclear capability will be ramping up their nuclear arsenals ASAP. A dirty bomb doesn't take much technical expertise.

Universal Basic Income

The MAGA supporters believe Trump's tariffs will create a nostalgic fantasy of factories packed with workers earning salaries high enough to buy houses and provide healthcare for their families. Unfortunately, those jobs are never coming back.

Most manufacturing today is highly automated. Steel factories only need a few workers to monitor the processes. Companies like Amazon intend to replace middle management with AI systems so there will no longer be a path for workers to move up. AI can code better than most programmers, write better than most writers, and design better than most designers. Soon it will be able to manage better than most managers and drive better than most drivers.

The social contract must change. One possible path to a future society would include universal basic income as described by Andrew Yang in his book, The War on Normal People. Yang proposes a sales tax on products (VAT or value-added tax) that could be used to pay for a universal basic income. Every citizen would receive enough monthly income to get by on.