Political science, economics, data science, and environmentalism
The United States started as a fairly loose country with a lot of power in the hands of states, but over the evolution of the country, power has become more and more concentrated in the hands of the federal government. In a healthy democracy, ideas can be experimented with and the consequences will be felt. …
Continue reading “Interstate transfers and the rise of Donald Trump”
The way for a country to move from a weak passport to a strong passport is actually quite simple. Crack down on corruption Improve your country’s human rights record Have a strong economy Visa reciprocity Low visa overstay rate That’s really it. There are no other steps. With these five changes your country will almost …
I know… depressing. Ironic ultranationalistic memes aside… Let’s continue and be serious for the rest of this post. Sorry for being a Millennial there. Ukrainian officials are in Paris today discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I think the following is the most reasonable path to peace. France and the rest of the European Union …
King Charles has extended a potential offer of Commonwealth of Nations membership to the United States. I oppose it for many reasons. Limited benefits What exactly is the Commonwealth of Nations? It’s a loose forum of former British colonies and the United Kingdom. There are no travel benefits to being a member of the Commonwealth …
Continue reading “Regarding the US joining the Commonwealth”
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5365421/hungary-lgbtq-rights-ban-orban Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ public events. The ECJ is going to have a thing or two to say about this. It is a real test of how much authority they have. But most importantly, it risks causing a brain drain, which the Schengen Area will enable, and Hungary doesn’t tax its …
While I know this is unlikely to happen as long as Donald Trump is in office, here are some fairly obvious AMTRAK expansions which should happen based solely off airport traffic data. I might do a more thorough analysis later, but just pulling data off of Wikipedia which is from the FAA (because I’m lazy) …
Some people still think the Department of Justice is independent of the president. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the American system of government works. The Department of Justice works for the President as part of the cabinet. It is not an independent agency. It is no more independent than the Department of State …
Geographical determinism is a theory which gets thrown around sometimes in amateur political science circles, but ultimately it doesn’t make a lot of sense, neither does it have significant predictive power. cc ge pv rl rq va GDP per capita Homicide Rate Population Latitude Landlocked CPI score 2021 Overall Score Homicide Rate -0.208828 -0.222991 -0.074121 …
I just wrote How Democrats and Republicans Win, read that first. So we have 7 keys to win control of the House of Representatives, along with my projection: Strong short-term economy: False Strong long-term economy: False Major policy change: False No foreign or military failure: False, alienating NATO and tariff policy Major foreign or military …
Before reading this, read 2024 Was Lost On Turnout if you haven’t already. The secret to winning elections is turning out your base. Republicans won in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, and 2014 because of a collapse in turnout for the Democrats. Republicans consistently see more consistent voting in House elections in Presidential election years vs …