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. 

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Two drops of rain

 Som to drĂ¥per vann.



Billions

This isn't money that wasn't being used. This is money designated to pay for services for the American public. They are taking money from the American public, and now they say they might return 20% of our money. The other 80% is going to more tax cuts for the wealthy. 

20% to keep the masses quiet. 80% to tax cuts for his friends.

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

DEI



It turns out the anti-DEI campaign is largely the work of one man: Internet personality Robbie Starbuck

Robbie Starbuck has a massive X following and takes on corporations one at a time by encouraging his followers to boycott them. His message seems to be particularly anti-queer.

DEI never involved hiring less qualified applicants. It just required that other applicants be considered so as not to skip over a more qualified applicant who is a minority, woman, gay, etc, in favor of a less qualified white cis straight neurotypical male candidate. Since all companies and public institutions were required to have DEI programs, They can now use DEI to attack any company or institution They view unfavorably.

Some people have argued that DEI means there are quotas in place. I have worked at several different public companies and private institutions, I was involved in hiring, and none of them had quotas. DEI implying quotas is either a misconception or a lie.




Tuesday, February 11, 2025

How Tariffs Work

 


Most of the cost of tariffs is passed on so the end result is higher costs and fewer choices for consumers while domestic corporations earn greater profits and the government gets what is effectively a tax.

"That's LITERALLY not how it works. What a tariff does is makes the price of building in America to be the same prices as made in foreign countries. In foreign countries they get taxed low, have EXTREMELY low wages, and then does not have to pay a tax (tariff) to send that product into America and then makes it WAY harder to build in America because they cannot compete with the prices of products made in other countries. Tariffs even out those prices which then encourages corporations to build factories in America. If its cheaper to build in and sell in America, then it gives them FAR more reason to build here.
The entire reason Toyota for instance, has some of their largest factories in America was due to Regan putting tariffs on japanese cars back in the 80's!" --Random Internet Person

I will respond to this comment here. Many people don't realize that American workers are competitive with workers in other countries because they are extremely efficient. This is because our workers are highly educated and US manufacturers employ a great deal of automation.

In 1980 President Reagan was elected and removed price controls on gasoline ending the energy crisis. Gas prices surged and Americans wanted to buy fuel efficient vehicles. American auto manufacturers were slow to respond so people bought Japanese cars because they were more fuel efficient, had higher quality standards, and were cheaper. Reagan convinced Japan to accept voluntary export restraints where Japan was limited to the number of cars it would export to the US. Japanese car manufacturers sent their more expensive cars to the US, raising the price of cars and limiting consumer access to the more affordable models.

In the 1980's my brother had a Honda Civic CVCC that got 50 mpg.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

DEI vs CPS

 Diversity Equity, and Inclusion is now Conformity, Privilege, and Segregation.






Thursday, February 6, 2025

Popular Vote

 

Popular vote based on % of eligible voters.


I decided to redo this based on eligible voters.



The following chart is based on population which includes children, women, and other ineligible voters.