Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Gov’t / Law / Politics

  • U.S. foreign aid & immigration

    The United States uses foreign policy to save money. Wars are expensive. A single Hellfire missile costs more than my annual salary. That’s one shot. It doesn’t include the operational costs to get the missile in place to fire it. The superior firepower makes winning likely, but we don’t have a great track record of…

  • A modest incentive

    I believe current Federal policy covers medical costs for COVID-19 testing and treatment. If we slightly adjust such policy such that only vaccinated or those allergic to ingredients or medically ineligible are covered, then I think perhaps it might be another incentive to get vaccinated. Of course, this should go into effect after the FDA…

  • End the political ads

    Got a canvasser who thanked me for having already voted. The visit was to ask if other members of the household have voted and if not, then do they have a plan? What was interesting to me was the campaign knew I had already voted. I did last week on my day off. And I…

  • Modern Red Record

    I read The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States in 2015. It was a couple years after the start of #BlackLivesMatter. I read it after the mayor of Charleston claimed not to know about the treatment of blacks, so people created reading lists, and this was on them.…

  • Election season: My re-reading list voting

    Anatomy of an election ‘meltdown’ in Georgia (this was June and November will have double the voters) How to hack an election Mandatory Voting vs Quasi-Mandatory Voting

  • Election season: My re-reading list TRUMP v BIDEN

    While I may have issues with his abilities to govern, Trump is a a fantastic storyteller. Biden got better at it during the primary, but he has fall off of it since March. Trump’s best shot at reelection is false-consensus effect

  • Election season: My re-reading list good to read

    Review: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Quasi-Mandatory Voting In the time of Hamilton

  • Election season: My re-reading list mandatory

    Illusory Truth Effect : how the frequency of statements influences how accurate we think they are. Puppet Candidates : how candidates claim they create things reserved for Congress. (Bush v Gore) The Enemy’s POV and Ideological Identity : ideology > facts. Even worse, we have arrived where ideology is our identity. Bullshit Curation : “the…

  • Trump’s best shot at reelection is false-consensus effect

    Thinking back to Obama’s campaign for reelection, I recall much talk about how incompetent, evil, and terrible a president he was from his opposition. Not Romney directly but the his likely voters on social media. To the point of Romney feeling moral obligation to defend Obama as not that bad of a person to his…