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.
Leaning to the Left
Monday, March 24, 2025
Saturday, March 15, 2025
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.
Monday, March 10, 2025
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.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Thank You Very Much
Is he supposed to say thank you for allowing Trump to mine Ukraine's valuable rare earths without guaranteeing any security?
Monday, February 24, 2025
Reverse Robin Hood
"Demeaning others doesn't help the human condition." If you truly believe this how can you support Trump? It's only class warfare when we fight back. Congress has proposed cutting SNAP and Medicaid for a tax rebate that will go mostly to the wealthy. Maybe you have enough money to provide food and healthcare for yourself or your kids but not everyone does. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, it may not take much to change their situation so they need this kind of help. Cutting Medicaid will lead to more homelessness. Congress is acting like reverse Robin Hood, taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Here is the post that started this:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/author-upcoming-elon-musk-biography-040538098.html
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Trump's Shadow Government
This will probably take me awhile to finish so I will update it later.
There are the public faces of the Trump administration as seen by his cabinet and his supporters in Congress and on the Supreme Court, but there are also shadowy figures influencing the Trump presidency who get mentioned once in a while. In this blog, I intend to document both the public and the shadow government.
Donald Trump President
Elon Musk (not) Head of DOGE
Stephen Miller Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. He has direct access to the President and wields great influence. He is the one who decided to make wearing masks political.
J D Vance Vice President Sharp-tongued but socially blunt his main contribution is his connection to Peter Thiel.
Peter Thiel Mastermind behind the scenes with close ties to J D Vance.
Curtis Yarvin Mastermind behind the scenes. Favors a country run as a corporation with a dictator as the leader. I think Trump likes his philosophy.
Vladimir Putin Trump ally and advisory. Probably helped Trump come up with the anti-trans message. Helped Trump get elected by encouraging war between Netanyahu and Hamas. A master manipulator he sees Trump as someone easily manipulated.
Steve Bannon devised the "Flood the Zone" strategy Trump is using to overwhelm the media. Currently out of the loop but deserves credit for his past contributions.
Kevin Roberts Head of the Heritage Foundation which developed Project 2025.
Paul Dans Previous Head of Heritage Foundation
Most of the other members of Trump's cabinet are merely sycophants placed primarily for their desire to blindly follow Trump's commands no matter how bizarre or extreme.