Word Caesar Salad

So that happened. Personally, I think Faith Spotted Eagle would make a better president than any of the rest of those losers.

If you see a union leader on CNN taking issue with how you misleadingly represented a deal to save their jobs by lying about how many were saved, you should:

(a)attack that union leader on Twitter

(b)call his union lazy and blame them for their jobs being in jeopardy

(c)nominate for labor secretary someone who wants to completely automate his fast food restaurant chains

(d)all of the above

(e)none of the above

If Donald Trump is trying to distract us from something else with these most recent Twitter shenanigans, whatever that something is must be really bad. Or perhaps the asshole billionaire is just bleeding through. Donald, your true colors are not beautiful. You should be afraid to let them show.

With the Secret Service deciding to use taxpayer dollars to rent a floor of the Trump Tower to maintain the security of Pres. Trump, a fruitful opportunity for profit arises: Donald Trump can maintain a residence at every property owned by his real estate business and thereby-- for security reasons-- collect more taxpayer dollars. Normally, one would have to chase down a middle man for an arrangement of this sort: you bribe me for policy change or for the United States to buy something of yours, you get taxpayer dollars or other benefits derived from abuse of the public trust, you have more money some of which you might use to bribe me again. Getting rid of that middle man is vastly more efficient; usually the public official is the one getting the smaller slice of the (still very large) pie, and oftentimes much of the taxpayer money ends up in the pockets of other people besides the official and the briber: bombs don't make themselves, after all. The president's business being able to capture the whole outlay of taxpayer money means that taxpayers can now fund the private enrichment of a public official for dimes to pennies on the dollar compared to the less direct form which relies on very inefficient bribery. And then of course there are the opportunities to tie United States policy changes to treatment of Pres. Trump's other private businesses, at home as well as abroad: policy can change to make them more profitable in the first place, and they can be used as a venue to receive bribes as well. The opportunities here are virtually endless! It truly is a great time to be President Trump.

I've seen a small number but still too many accounts of people who say they can't even talk to their relatives or friends who voted differently from them in the last election. Even people with reprehensible views deserve a seat at the table. They are human, after all. And in some cases they may be family.

If people who are supposedly "good people" can't even converse with those who are bad, why should the bad people have any respect for the views of the good people either? Why, indeed, beyond terror and force, should the bad people not escalate beyond conversation? Because it would be immoral? No person believes that he or she is immoral. And most people believe that there is a point at which people can be justified in violence. There is a case to be made that that point is when no one is listening and the perceived problem is greater than the injustice and harm of violence. If we're of the mind that people are irredeemable and unworthy of being heard or understood at all, and then make a point of not listening to them, what moral right could we possibly have to condemn them for doing whatever they think is necessary in order to be heard?

Have compassion, yes, even for racists and other bigots-- indeed, for people who think everyone of a certain demographic, culture, or community is ignorant, racist, homophobic, and stupid. Respect the fact that a human brain went through a series of experiences which led it to the conclusions that it did. Make disagreement clear if you feel comfortable doing so, but welcome them to the table just the same. No one is so great that he should find others insufferable for their views alone, no matter how terrible. It is within us to promote understanding rather than hostility. To understand we have to hear. To be understood, we must engage; that involves hearing also. Progress comes from sharing experience rather than scorn.

The purpose of the universe was fulfilled in the five thousand forty fifth Planck era after the twelfth second of the fifty second minute of the third hour of the fifth of November in the 2016th year of the Common Era: moss on a particular rock near Duluth, Minnesota grew to an average thickness of approximately 4.300709153138039112 millimeters. All facts of the present and past are either a necessary ingredient in or byproduct of the inexorable progress of the universe at moving toward that single event. If the initial conditions and laws of the universe were even slightly different in the smallest detail, that event in all its particulars would not and even could not have occurred. Likewise for a large number (but small portion) of the random events which occurred before the universal purpose was fulfilled. The universe was fine-tuned to produce a particular thickness of a particular kind of growth on a particular object at a particular place and time and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it short of contravening the laws of nature.

On this matter I can honestly say I have no idea what to expect. As I regard the man as a serial liar, I do not know whether he'll follow through on his more horrific proposals, whether he might rise to the occasion and actually be a fine president, or if he'll loot the country and take the money and run like it's one of his many failed businesses. I don't know.

Hope springs eternal. Donald did (briefly) advocate at least one good idea, which is a 5 year ban on lobbying for White House and Congressional officials. Is that enough? No. But it's not a bad idea either. The other points of his "ethics reform" package are anemic or miss the point. I don't think Donald was voted in for his proposals so much as his attitude, so there is the small possibility he'll actually try to live up to the platitude that he's going to represent all Americans and unify America.

Whatever he does, hopefully the Democratic Party establishment learns from this humiliation and gets back to representing its voters rather than its wealthy donors. There is no reason that the white working class should be on the side of Republicans if the Democratic Party is living up to its history. It's time to let go of the 'centrist' alliance with Wall Street and multinational corporations and start giving more than just lip service to the people. And hopefully the example of Bernie Sanders sears into our memories the potential importance of getting involved in the primaries, not just the general election.

If I've learned anything about politics, it is that it is certainly not too early to begin speculation about the 2032 election. Who will Michelle Obama be running against? Who will defeat her in the Democratic Primary in 2024? How much money will Barack Obama make selling speeches? And how will Michelle Obama manage to turn herself from a beloved personality into one of the least popular candidates for President in American history? If history is any guide, we should have all those answers 16 years from now.

A trade deficit occurs when a country's cost of imports is greater than the income generated by its exports. Views vary on whether or why a trade deficit is a problem, but in any case it causes a degree of consternation in countries which have one. Luckily, there is an easy fix: destroy the capacity of consumers to buy things.

When finished goods are imported, they are sold to consumers. When inputs (oil, metals, that sort of thing) are imported, they are sold to companies which then use them to make products. Those products can either be exported or sold domestically. Whether they are exported or sold domestically is determined by the market: if there is no market for what is produced, then what is produced will be exported to somewhere there is such a market (or if it cannot be exported, it won't be made). Imports which are used to make exports are obviously not going to cause a trade deficit. It is only imports which ultimately end up in the hands or stomachs of consumers which can make the balance of trade negative (unless there is something very strange going on with imported inputs being unused or hoarded). If consumers aren't buying things, then it is difficult to see how a balance of trade could possibly be negative: we'd be weighing all the output which proceeds from the country's labor and other domestic resources against... what, exactly?

Thus, crush the poor and middle class, those people responsible for the vast majority of consumption: trade deficit solved!

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that a picture of Hillary Clinton would be displayed in Rifleman magazine without crosshairs over her face as well, though I suppose even the NRA doesn't want to be too incendiary. Sen. Burr's comment says far more about his appraisal of the NRA than it does about an intention to shoot anyone.

If I were in charge, I'd be tempted to issue a moratorium on apologizing for jokes, whether in poor taste or not.

Now I'm betting Bernie Sanders is really sick of hearing about her damned emails. It seems that either of these people getting elected president has to be a result of astoundingly profound luck in being matched against the other.