Biden’s student loan memo

This image has been floating around the internet for the last few months, and it is a redacted memo which contains legal advice for the President on what the president’s powers are regarding student loans. Here’s what we know The President has chosen to not pardon student loans. Harvard law says the President has this …

Updated Presidential Rankings

Ranking of American Presidents I am only ranking Presidents who have served for at least 365 days. With Biden’s latest announcement that he won’t pardon student loans, and since Joe Manchin is almost certainly going to vote against it with every (other) Republican, it’s close enough for me to add Biden to my rankings. I …

Starting with Python (or really any object oriented languge)

So let’s say you are starting to program in Python, and you want to know how to start. What do you need to do? Virtual Environment Well, the first thing you need to do is install a virtual environment. There are two ways to do this: Install Anaconda. This provides you with a virtual environment …

How to win the midterms

There are several ways to win elections in American politics, and successful strategies are opposite depending if you are in power or out of power. Other impacts outside the control of politicians (such as media bias) can impact election outcomes, but ultimately politicians will collectively determine their fate. When you are in power, you want …

How I protect my accounts

I have several layers of protection on my most important accounts. In short, I use the following secure features: Each account has a unique random password which is generated and stored in my Lastpass Vault Lastpass requires Email authentication to login to a new device The email I use for Lastpass has two factor authentication …

Apple vs Google, smartphone edition

I recently changed from Android to iOS, and I have a number of thoughts on what the different carriers do differently. Neither is inherently better than the other, and come with some massive tradeoffs. If one of these companies chose to learn from the other, there would be millions of people migrating from one platform …

Control inflation while reducing inequality

America’s GDP per capita is at a record high. Inflation is climbing. Immediately we know that the issue is a soaring demand curve, with a supply curve which is struggling to keep up. So the answer to controlling inflation is pretty easy, either reduce demand (which would also harm GDP) or increase supply. Unemployment is …

Why we should cancel student loan debt

The year is 1992, you just had a baby, and you live in Washington State. The cost of college at University of Washington is around $3000, and you talk to your financial advisor about how to plan to make it so your child has the best opportunity possible. You don’t live in poverty, so there …