It’s the Tribe, Stupid
Job Growth: Trump Counties v Clinton Counties
Economists often labor under the mistaken idea that humans are economically rational. Nope. If so, this stunning chart would be much more predictive of how the Country votes.
Bill Gates Owes Me Money
Bill Gates & Steve Jobs’ estate owe me money. A lot of money. And probably you too…Because of imperfect operating systems, poorly designed software, and bugs, many many computer users frequently struggle doing basic things; like setting up email.
There are a class of us who are tech-literate. I have spent thousands of hours helping friends and family, for free, fixing buggy and poorly designed software for non-tech users. Just today, I’ve spent three hours working on a buggy cloud system that does not work as advertised.
This is free tech support that Microsoft and Apple (and other tech companies) don’t pay for, but which enable their products to be useful. Without the free support that I and others give, many people simply could not use their computers.
Bill Gates did not earn the amount of money he’s worth; his worth is a fluke in a poorly designed non-capitalist* system. He’s rewarded for work he didn’t do; for example, the work I and others have done for him, without compensation.
The same holds for everyone in the tech industry who makes obscene money (not just the billionaires or millionaires, but those in the top 20% of income brackets). You didn’t get there on your own; you’ve been propped up by a system that is poorly designed to your benefit.
*Note: I am a capitalist. Without going into my whole economic theory (we are not a real capitalist market; not because of too many regulations, but too few), the US economy has been hijacked by the wealthy to their benefit. Ask yourself…does Microsoft want a “free” market with perfect competition? No. Business wants to do anything and everything it can to create a competitive advantage, and they’ve done so by tweaking laws and regulations to their advantage. This is not the “free” market at work; this is a corruption of a market. And our economic system has no checks and balances for this.
The Function of Economies
Economies have two primary functions:
1) The efficient delivery of goods.
2) The economic well being of the citizens.
Focusing exclusively on one can decimate the other.
The Fake Theory of Neoliberalism
I don’t believe that “Neoliberalism” is an actual economic theory in Democratic politics.
Leftists and Socialists LOVE to cast a conspiratorial taint over Democratic politicians with this bogeyman.
Rather, the simple act of pulling back on a Country firmly entrenched in supply-side, trickle-down economics will simply, naturally, LOOK like a concerted effort at third or middle-way policies. The problem is that critics confuse Democratic compromise with a cohesive theory.
Democracy will ALWAYS look like middle-way politics. By its very definition. And criticizing Democrats who attempt to move the Country toward the Left because they aren’t trying to move the Country all the way Left is so counterproductive as to defy much actual reasoning; it ignores outcomes in favor of academic theory.
But it sounds good! Neoliberalism! Neocolonialism!
And thereby you make enemies of friends, and we all lose.
If She’d JUST Been a Better Candidate!
Topic: Clinton was a Wall Street SHILL! Shilary!
Let’s look at facts (remember those?)Campaign money raised from Wall Street:
2016: Clinton $9,125,670
2012: Romney $23,783,132 ($24,972,288 adjusted for inflation) Romney set a new record.
2008: Obama: $17,387,972 ($19,300,648 adjusted for inflation) At the time, Obama set the record.
Why did Clinton receive so much scrutiny over something that men have done routinely, and done to much greater levels?
Hmmm…if she’d JUST been a better candidate!
(There’s just *something* about her!)
Sources:
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F07&recipdetail=P&sortorder=U&mem=N&cycle=2016
Inflation adjustments: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10%2C000%2C000.00&year1=2012&year2=2016
Hey Democrats. Stop apologizing.
Hillary shouldn’t have apologized for the server; what did the apology bring her? Did her Left or Right opponents let it go? No. Did the FBI play by the rules? No. And frankly, she did nothing wrong. It was ALL political, and we played right into it.We need to stop apologizing for the so-called corrupt DNC. The DNC is not corrupt, and we should stop playing into the shaming. Did Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepping down cause the Bernie nuts to NOT disrupt the Convention? No.
Donna Brazille got a tiny tidbit about a Debate. She shared it with her Candidate. So F’ing what! Do you think Trump or Stein or Sanders would have done differently? Brazille should have said “I’m fighting for my candidate.”
HRC treated Bernie with kid gloves the entire campaign. Did that pay off? No. He still ran a dishonest campaign (he lied) about “rigging” and “corruption.” The silver haired guy who was purported to be Mr. Pure lied his way through the primary, and we apologized for winning.
The Dems bent over backwards to appease the primary LOSER. He lost, and we gave him seats on the Democratic Platform, wherein we let nuts like Cornel West compromise the trajectory of the campaign. Did passing the most progressive platform in the history of the Country bring the Stein nuts on board? No.
It’s as though Obama apologized for nominating a Supreme Court Justice, and sat down and said nothing.
Had Comey done what he did on the watch of a Republican President, he’d be on his ass right now. But no, we’re taking the so-called higher road. Nonsense. Fire him.
I’m done playing this mea culpa game. And the Dems should be too. We are at war. We are taking shots from both the Left and the Right, and neither play fair. We need to wake up and fight.