Tag: economics

Trump cabinet details border and deportation improvements; provides examples of fraud discovered

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UPDATE: I am bumping this to the top of the page and highly recommend watching it. It’s from a couple of days ago but is not at all outdated. Trump is the only American president to open cabinet meetings to the public in this manner. Trump’s cabinet is the public face of his comitatus, which is an ancient political core formation dating back to 2,000 BCE if not earlier. The comitatus has been used throughout Eurasian history and is still a primary form of governance, central to almost all successful governing bodies today. As you watch this, imagine you are watching Marcus Aurelius, Genghis Kahn or Alexander the Great speaking with their top generals and administrators, their comitatus. In a comitatus all members must be loyal to their leader. In ancient times, a leader’s comitatus would commit suicide upon his death. This was a great honor. In later times, only his innermost people would kill themselves. As you watch the video above, notice how each member of Trump’s cabinet praises him and displays fealty to his leadership. Notice how Trump defers to them in many ways. This is the way it should be and always has been. Put on your anthropologist’s hat or your historian’s hat to fully appreciate what you are seeing. Insofar as Trump and his comitatus are able to act as a single team with a common focus, they will be hugely successful. At some point, they will fight among themselves over who will be the next leader, but for now it will be best for all of them, and for us, for them to cooperate and do their work quickly and efficiently for the good of their country and ours. ABN

Vice President JD Vance Delivers Remarks at the American Dynamism Summit

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I posted this video this morning (several posts below) along with an essay on the dangers of an advanced AI surveillance state. I commented on that essay before watching the video because a totalitarian surveillance state is a very real and dangerous possibility and many of us are talking about it. Now that I have watched Vance’s talk, I am posting it alone. In my view it’s a good talk and I agree with the policy directives Vance outlines. As a Buddhist, I am fundamentally an optimist and do not worry too much about things I have no control over. In many comments I have said our best defense against totalitarianism is free speech and platforms that host thriving free speech. Free speech can be thought of as a kind of biological technology that always sifts through the data and eventually finds the best stuff. This process must needs always be ongoing because everything is always changing. ABN

Postal Service Reform: USPS Working With DOGE to Trim Fat, Expected Cuts of 10K Employees

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Before the Depression and World War 2, the only interaction most Americans had with the federal government was when they went to the post office. It’s one of the oldest federal institutions, having been there since the founding, and it’s one federal agency that, unlike so many others, is specifically authorized in the Constitution; Article I, Section 8, Clause 7, gives Congress the power to “…establish Post Offices and post Roads.”

That doesn’t mean the Postal Service is immune from being expected to operate efficiently or that its operations couldn’t use some modernization and improvement. Now we can chalk up another win for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The United States Postal Service will be working with the DOGE to cut billions from their budget.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the U.S. Postal Service budget and he’ll do that working with Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to members of Congress on Thursday.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing “big problems” at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve “further efficiencies.”

USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as “restricting normal business practice.”

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Lutnick on tariffs and how to understand them

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Great interview, many good points made clearly and succinctly. Lutnick is another prominent Jew we can all like and admire, provided he is not a covert Jewish Supremist. There are a large number of Jewish Supremists, both covert and overt, within the Jewish community, so it is more than reasonable for interviewers to ask Lutnick if he is a Jewish Supremist, and if he disavows Jewish Supremacy if he claims not to be one. He has dubious connections with Jeffrey Epstein and should be asked about that as well. If he can answer honestly and evidence backs up his answers on Epstein and Jewish Supremacy, he would be a reasonable candidate for president of USA in 2028. I am not sure I would support him due to lingering suspicion, but if he really is clean and shows it, I would support him if he had the best chance to win. And I would definitely support him if he wins the presidency, with the same provisos in place. I look forward to the day when we we can openly draw a line between Jewish Supremists and Jews who despise Jewish Supremacy. When that day comes, Jews like Lutnick and Stephen Miller, who appear to be unreservedly pro-American, will be able to lead the Jewish community toward a non-Supremist future, allowing them to make a real contribution to USA and Western civilization and not just always take from it. ABN

A Systematic Review and New Analyses of the Gender-Equality Paradox

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Abstract

Some studies show that living conditions, such as economy, gender equality, and education, are associated with the magnitude of psychological sex differences. We systematically and quantitatively reviewed 54 articles and conducted new analyses on 27 meta-analyses and large-scale studies to investigate the association between living conditions and psychological sex differences. We found that sex differences in personality, verbal abilities, episodic memory, and negative emotions are more pronounced in countries with higher living conditions. In contrast, sex differences in sexual behavior, partner preferences, and math are smaller in countries with higher living conditions. We also observed that economic indicators of living conditions, such as gross domestic product, are most sensitive in predicting the magnitude of sex differences. Taken together, results indicate that more sex differences are larger, rather than smaller, in countries with higher living conditions. It should therefore be expected that the magnitude of most psychological sex differences will remain unchanged or become more pronounced with improvements in living conditions, such as economy, gender equality, and education.

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Trump drops new tariff bombshell after Canada threatens to ‘shut off electricity completely’ to three US states

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Donald Trump continued his budding trade war with Canada by pledging to ‘just get it all back’ with stiffer reciprocal tariffs next month – as Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to knock his lights out.

Ford has already followed through on a promise to put a 25% tariff on Canadian electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota on Monday.

The Ontario premier, who runs Canada‘s most populous province, now says he’s ready to ‘shut the electricity off completely’ if America continues to ‘escalate.’

Trump has shot back, mocking Ford’s plan and saying that his promise of reciprocal tariffs will render anything Ontario does useless. 

‘Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250% to 390% Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25% surcharge on ‘electricity,’ of all things, and you’re not even allowed to do that,’ he said in a Truth Social.

However, Trump said that the US will ‘just get it all back on April 2,’ when the administration’s reciprocal tariff plan goes into effect.

Trump continued to take shots at his neighbors to the north before declaring he was on the way to making America great again. 

‘Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out,’ he promised.

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CIA begins DOGE-inspired purge of employees as they are summoned to off-site location to ‘surrender’ badges

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The latest newly hired probationary federal workers hit with a wave of layoffs is the Central Intelligence Agency.

CIA officers hired within the last two years are being summoned to off-site locations, fired and forced to surrender their badges to security personnel, three people briefing on the layoffs told The New York Times.

President Donald Trump said that agencies would begin initiating their own cuts and firings inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actions over the first month of his second term.

CIA under Director John Ratcliffe wasted no time getting to work on trimming down their workforce under Trump’s orders.

The reduction in CIA workforce came after a judge cleared the way for Ratcliffe to fire employees at will.

Judge Anthony J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled on a lawsuit brought by CIA officers who were assigned to the diversity and recruiting efforts under the previous administration. 

They were removed under Trump’s order to get rid of any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs or department within the federal government.

But Judge Trenga’a ruling was sweeping and gave Director Ratcliffe the power to remove any CIA officer for any reason – without giving them a right of appeal.

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