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 …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Proof of the power of Visas
Brexit is shrinking crowds at Britain’s biggest art galleries This paper from iNews in the UK has proved that visitor numbers to UK galleries have collapsed 20-50 percent compared to 2019 while art galleries in the European Union have seen no such decline. All of this is from Brexit. Brexit has been devastating to the …
Probability of a perfect match
What’s the probability that a candidate will have exactly your tech stack at their previous job for a web developer position? Assuming an even distribution: (I know, a horrible assumption) Let’s say you are looking at only three options: AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. There are more options than this. Your web server likely …
Why we switched away from tariffs
It’s quite simple… we switched away from tariffs because the tax burden fell mostly on the working-class while the robber barons got away with paying almost nothing. In a pre-industrial feudal system, this was to be expected for a few main reasons: Life expectancy was very low, around 40 years as of 1900. The average …
Simplify US airports
Reference: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs/tsa-precheck So there are several trusted traveler programs the US government offers, mainly TSA Precheck, Global Entry, Nexus, and SENTRI. TSA Precheck is for airport security Global Entry is for US customs, and usually includes Nexus usually includes Global Entry and TSA Precheck along with expedited travel to Canada, but only includes Precheck if …
Chaos as strategy
Yesterday Russia attacked a Panamanian flagged ship which was docked in Odessa. During normal times the sinking of a ship flagged with a member of the Rio Pact would be front page news and would make people question whether the United States was about to go to war to protect a country we have mutually …
What is wrong with South Korea
People often say anything increasing in price is a bubble, be it housing, education, anything really. I was just watching a video talking about how so many South Koreans go to university, creating a bubble. South Korea is not even the highest level in the world, even though it is one of the highest, with …
If Bobby had lived
If Palestinians had citizenship in a UN member state, Bobby would never have been assassinated. If Bobby had lived, he would have won the primary and the presidency. If Bobby had lived, South Vietnam might have lasted, which would have prevented the Invasion of Afghanistan. If the Invasion of Afghanistan had not occurred, the Taliban …
Visa reciprocity
Visa reciprocity is practiced by many countries, but is it a desirable policy? Let’s examine three scenarios: Travel between democracies Travel between a democracy and an authoritarian regime Free trade vs tariffs Travel between democracies Here are our rules to generate our table: Implementing a visa on another democracy will reduce your utility, but also …
How we ended up with unpopular politicians
Politics is about keys to power and interest groups. The more keys to power you hold, the more likely you will win. Your positions win or lose you constituencies, leading to whether you win or lose office. This is how politics works in every country. It is such a powerful concept that Keys to the …
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