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hay rick
hay rick's Journal
hay rick's Journal
January 19, 2024
With New Hampshire’s Presidential Primary looming on the horizon, the media’s preferred story line is that Nikki Haley is the last “moderate” Republican alternative to Donald Trump. The narrative is buttressed by diner interviews and TikTok videos of self-described Democratic-leaning voters rushing to our rescue. The current media definition of moderate seems to begin and end with the better-late-than-never admission that Donald Trump was not the victim of a stolen election.
Haley’s two remaining male competitors, 2- or 3-inch lifts hidden in their shoes and boots, cower before her towering 5-inch heels. Haley’s a grown-ass woman who wants voters to know what she stands for. Always helpful, I offer three of her policy positions which have, curiously, received little media attention.
1. If elected she promises to pardon Donald Trump “only if he’s found guilty” because “the last thing we want to see is an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail.” Guilty of what? The concern is not what he did but who he is. She puts him above the law because he is a former president. Clearly, if elected she will also be above the law. She just told us that.
2. She wants to raise the Social Security retirement age for “people in their 20s.” She has also been known to support delayed retirement for people up to 40. For those keeping score at home, that’s all of Gen Z and some or most millennials.
The primary reason that the Social Security Trust Fund is going broke is directly traceable to rising inequality. OASDI is only collected on income up to a cap ($168,600 in 2024). When Social Security was revised in 1983, OASDI was collected on 90% of all wage income. As the rich have gradually increased their share of income, the reduced amount left for others that is exposed to OASDI taxes under the cap has fallen to 81%. Stabilizing the program by raising the retirement age for most workers is an alternative to raising the cap so that it includes more income from the wealthy.
Republican platforms and Republican silence invariably support wealthy interests. One of many examples is the corporate capital gains rate which was slashed from 35% to 21% starting in 2018. Biden wants to bump the rate back up to 28%. Nikki is all about the crickets. What’s in your portfolio?
3. Nikki oversaw Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Her environmentally “moderate” position within the Republican field is the admission that climate change is real and caused by humans. After that embarrassing concession, she wants to be the fossil fuel lobby’s best friend. She would eliminate the federal gas tax, slash green energy subsidies, and increase drilling. Her environmental wishful thinking agenda also calls for planting trees, praying for carbon capture breakthroughs, and blame-shifting to India and China. It’s kind of breathtaking.
Nikki Haley, moderate (sarcasm alert)
With New Hampshire’s Presidential Primary looming on the horizon, the media’s preferred story line is that Nikki Haley is the last “moderate” Republican alternative to Donald Trump. The narrative is buttressed by diner interviews and TikTok videos of self-described Democratic-leaning voters rushing to our rescue. The current media definition of moderate seems to begin and end with the better-late-than-never admission that Donald Trump was not the victim of a stolen election.
Haley’s two remaining male competitors, 2- or 3-inch lifts hidden in their shoes and boots, cower before her towering 5-inch heels. Haley’s a grown-ass woman who wants voters to know what she stands for. Always helpful, I offer three of her policy positions which have, curiously, received little media attention.
1. If elected she promises to pardon Donald Trump “only if he’s found guilty” because “the last thing we want to see is an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail.” Guilty of what? The concern is not what he did but who he is. She puts him above the law because he is a former president. Clearly, if elected she will also be above the law. She just told us that.
2. She wants to raise the Social Security retirement age for “people in their 20s.” She has also been known to support delayed retirement for people up to 40. For those keeping score at home, that’s all of Gen Z and some or most millennials.
The primary reason that the Social Security Trust Fund is going broke is directly traceable to rising inequality. OASDI is only collected on income up to a cap ($168,600 in 2024). When Social Security was revised in 1983, OASDI was collected on 90% of all wage income. As the rich have gradually increased their share of income, the reduced amount left for others that is exposed to OASDI taxes under the cap has fallen to 81%. Stabilizing the program by raising the retirement age for most workers is an alternative to raising the cap so that it includes more income from the wealthy.
Republican platforms and Republican silence invariably support wealthy interests. One of many examples is the corporate capital gains rate which was slashed from 35% to 21% starting in 2018. Biden wants to bump the rate back up to 28%. Nikki is all about the crickets. What’s in your portfolio?
3. Nikki oversaw Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Her environmentally “moderate” position within the Republican field is the admission that climate change is real and caused by humans. After that embarrassing concession, she wants to be the fossil fuel lobby’s best friend. She would eliminate the federal gas tax, slash green energy subsidies, and increase drilling. Her environmental wishful thinking agenda also calls for planting trees, praying for carbon capture breakthroughs, and blame-shifting to India and China. It’s kind of breathtaking.
January 17, 2024
So it turns out that Trump's real turnout number as a percentage of eligible voters was 2.7%. Sounds like a juggernaut to me...
The media coronation of scantily-clad Trump in Iowa.
Does 14% stick in your mind when you think of Trump's victory in Iowa? You may have heard talking heads remarking dismissively that it was "only 14%" of voters in the caucus- sounding intentionally or unintentionally like sour grapes.
14% was the percentage of registered Republicans voting in the caucus. With late counted votes, that rose to 15%. Trump got half of that total- around 7.8%. But wait, there's more.
According to the Iowa Secretary of State's website (https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/01/15/what-you-need-to-know-to-participate-in-the-2024-iowa-caucuses/), all registered Iowa voters are eligible to vote in either caucus by providing proof of residency and valid ID at their precinct location on caucus day:
Only Iowa voters registered with the party can cast their presidential preference in the Iowa caucuses. Iowans who are not registered to vote, or not registered as a party member for the caucus they want to participate in have the ability to register on caucus night.
To register to vote, Iowans must bring a valid form of ID and proof of residence. Voters are also required to be 18 years old by Nov. 5, election day, in order to register. People already registered to vote must still bring an accepted form of identification in order to caucus. Valid IDs include driver’s licenses, Iowa Voter Identification Cards, military IDs and U.S. passports.
To register to vote, Iowans must bring a valid form of ID and proof of residence. Voters are also required to be 18 years old by Nov. 5, election day, in order to register. People already registered to vote must still bring an accepted form of identification in order to caucus. Valid IDs include driver’s licenses, Iowa Voter Identification Cards, military IDs and U.S. passports.
So it turns out that Trump's real turnout number as a percentage of eligible voters was 2.7%. Sounds like a juggernaut to me...
December 29, 2023
Did Nikki Haley whiff on a softball? Was her Civil War answer a blunder or a scripted, cynical ploy? I'm waiting for the polls to respond. Does Nikki pick up support from the base or lose more "reasonable Republicans" in the bargain. We know that Trump surges every time the media gives him a public flogging. At the same time, his utterances are becoming increasingly incontinent. Republicans seem to be cheering him on because he's "their guy" but that doesn't mean that they don't have a wandering eye.
On the subject of slavery, I guess Nikki didn't think to consult Ron DeSantis.
Nikki knows which way the wind blows.
Did Nikki Haley whiff on a softball? Was her Civil War answer a blunder or a scripted, cynical ploy? I'm waiting for the polls to respond. Does Nikki pick up support from the base or lose more "reasonable Republicans" in the bargain. We know that Trump surges every time the media gives him a public flogging. At the same time, his utterances are becoming increasingly incontinent. Republicans seem to be cheering him on because he's "their guy" but that doesn't mean that they don't have a wandering eye.
On the subject of slavery, I guess Nikki didn't think to consult Ron DeSantis.
December 26, 2023
One of the startling phenomena of the Trump era was Trump's adoption of birtherism, encapsulated in the accusation that Barack Obama did not have an American birth certificate and was therefore unable to serve as a legally elected president.
The idea was prima facie ridiculous and dismissed by many as an inconsequential inside joke. Of course, some of the rubes that Trump was courting would swallow the lie, but that was to be expected. It was even respected as a clever kind of ploy in some circles. In retrospect, the important effect of the lie was not those who believed it, it was the vastly greater number of Americans who decided they could tolerate it as a part of normal political discourse. The lies would get bigger...
Trump and birth certificates.
One of the startling phenomena of the Trump era was Trump's adoption of birtherism, encapsulated in the accusation that Barack Obama did not have an American birth certificate and was therefore unable to serve as a legally elected president.
The idea was prima facie ridiculous and dismissed by many as an inconsequential inside joke. Of course, some of the rubes that Trump was courting would swallow the lie, but that was to be expected. It was even respected as a clever kind of ploy in some circles. In retrospect, the important effect of the lie was not those who believed it, it was the vastly greater number of Americans who decided they could tolerate it as a part of normal political discourse. The lies would get bigger...
December 21, 2023
My exciting life.
Most afternoons I stop by a place to get a cup of coffee. Because of the troubling nature of the incident I am about to recount I will not name the national chain involved. It must remain mcnonymous.
As an older male with bph I usually "use the facilities" before I return to my car and head home- especially after drinking coffee. On the recent day in question I discovered that some miscreant had tagged the urinal! You know how graffiti works- it's a bunch of stylized letters that may or may not mean something. The message on the urinal was "NUF" augmented with a couple random-appearing squiggles.
Story update: I returned to the scene of the crime yesterday and the tag was gone! They must have used a water-based marker.
December 1, 2023
Talking heads in the media were quick to point out that Trump used the inclusive "Happy Holidays" in his message instead of the divisive "Merry Christmas." No wonder he's "ahead in the polls."
A fossil fuel holiday message from TFG.
Talking heads in the media were quick to point out that Trump used the inclusive "Happy Holidays" in his message instead of the divisive "Merry Christmas." No wonder he's "ahead in the polls."
November 18, 2023
The emphasis in the excerpt is mine. I view the Hamas infestation as an analogue to the House Freedom Caucus. Their aims do not include governance on behalf of the people. They are here to break things and leave it to others to build from scratch. Both are clients of and proxies for other actors- Iran in the case of Hamas and the economic interests of oligarchs in the USA. "Religion" provides cover in both cases.
Heather Cox Richardson on Gaza
In her substack, Letters from an American wrote about Hamas and Gaza on November 17. Link: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-17-2023
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s leadership team currently in Qatar, told Ben Hubbard and Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times that Hamas’s goal in their attack of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel and tortured and killed about 1,200 people, taking another 240 hostage, was to make sure the region did not settle into a status quo that excluded the Palestinians.
...
“Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” al-Hayya said. “This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers,” he added. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
Hamas media adviser Taher El-Nounou told the reporters: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”
Hamas could be pretty certain that Israel would retaliate with a heavy hand. The governing coalition that took power at the end of 2022 is a far-right coalition, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to hold that coalition together to stay in power, not least because he faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
...
“Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” al-Hayya said. “This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers,” he added. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
Hamas media adviser Taher El-Nounou told the reporters: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”
Hamas could be pretty certain that Israel would retaliate with a heavy hand. The governing coalition that took power at the end of 2022 is a far-right coalition, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to hold that coalition together to stay in power, not least because he faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
The emphasis in the excerpt is mine. I view the Hamas infestation as an analogue to the House Freedom Caucus. Their aims do not include governance on behalf of the people. They are here to break things and leave it to others to build from scratch. Both are clients of and proxies for other actors- Iran in the case of Hamas and the economic interests of oligarchs in the USA. "Religion" provides cover in both cases.
November 12, 2023
The DeSantis presidential campaign is not officially over but it sure looks like dead man walking. Now is as good a time as any to plan for the inevitable. I despise DeSantis and the campaign that he ran and will be happy to see him exit the national stage. He's an unlikeable, fearmongering authoritarian- which, sad to say, is a more or less generic Republican candidate these days.
DeSantis' problem seems to be that he is the number one imitation Trump when the real thing is still out there. Maybe the media, with its last remaining shred of decency, has decided that creating and sustaining one Frankenstein's monster is sufficient professional and ethical malpractice for the time being.
The campaign's hope has been that "the base" would trade Trump in for him because DeSantis could offer all the comfortable hate-infused policies without all the embarrassing corruption and buffoonery. DeSantis has undermined the "like Trump, but competent" narrative with a succession of closely documented pratfalls and now "pudding fingers" is circling the drain.
DeSantis campaign update
The DeSantis presidential campaign is not officially over but it sure looks like dead man walking. Now is as good a time as any to plan for the inevitable. I despise DeSantis and the campaign that he ran and will be happy to see him exit the national stage. He's an unlikeable, fearmongering authoritarian- which, sad to say, is a more or less generic Republican candidate these days.
DeSantis' problem seems to be that he is the number one imitation Trump when the real thing is still out there. Maybe the media, with its last remaining shred of decency, has decided that creating and sustaining one Frankenstein's monster is sufficient professional and ethical malpractice for the time being.
The campaign's hope has been that "the base" would trade Trump in for him because DeSantis could offer all the comfortable hate-infused policies without all the embarrassing corruption and buffoonery. DeSantis has undermined the "like Trump, but competent" narrative with a succession of closely documented pratfalls and now "pudding fingers" is circling the drain.
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