Matt Lewis: It's been years since I was involved in a good old-fashioned Twitter (X) spat. So imagine my surprise when I became embroiled in one on Holy Wednesday. This wasn't just some rando troll, either. My interlocutor was none other than Richard Grenell, former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of the United States National Intelligence -- a man that Donald Trump, Jr. calls a "top contender for secretary of state" in a second Trump administration. The impetus for his ire was a video of me interviewing The Atlantic's Tom Nichols, over which I tweeted the following words: "It's a GREAT time to be alive. So why are so many Americans depressed and convinced that things have never been worse ?!?" read more
The US/Mexico border is +/-2000 miles long. Much of it is practically unpassable by humans... There more than 16,000 agents working the US/Mexico border. That's at least 8 agents per mile of border. Although, I would assume most of them are concentrated at ports-of-entry and trouble spots. With such a concentration of agents, plus barriers, plus surveillance measures, I'm having difficulty understanding why this is such a difficult problem. Is this actually a security crisis, or is it mostly political BS? I'm sure this will change no minds. It's just some thoughts to ponder. And an interesting website.
The US economy will grow an additional $7 trillion over the next decade as a surge in immigration creates a larger labor force and increases demand for goods and services, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. read more
Interesting dive into statistics on Republican voters who say they will not vote for Trump. read more
On Thursday, the U.S. government sold the Federal Helium Reserve, a massive underground stockpile based in Amarillo, Texas, that supplies up to 30% of the country's helium. Once the deal is finalized, the buyer " which will likely be the highest bidder, the industrial gas company Messer " will claim some 425 miles of pipelines spanning Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, plus about 1 billion cubic feet of the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.I know many, especially conservatives, who think it's a great idea to privatize anything and everything. But this seems like a bad idea.
But wealth inequality has gone the same direction on the whole planet.
#11 | POSTED BY EBERLY
Actually, inequality does seem to be lower in many of the countries that have a higher level of democratic socialism.
Wealth Inequality by Country 2024