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Sunday 28th of July 2024

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2024 Presidential election He [Biden] is caught in a generational paradox. He does not, in electoral terms, actually repre- sent the boomers: a majority of “old white people” voted for Trump in 2020 and will, if given the chance, surely do so again in 2024. But he can be seen nonetheless as a represen- tative boomer figure, the most prominent and powerful embodiment of the demographic  group that has dominated American wealth, poli- tics, and culture since the 1970s. He suffers on both sides of this contradiction — most of his own generation does not identify with him, but many younger Americans identify him with  the  age-related injustices that have shaped their lives. It is this incongruity that makes Biden so vulnerable. Being the old white man brings him no rewards, only resentments. And resentment is the medium in which Trump thrives. Fintan O'Toole, NY Rev. of Books, Jan. 18, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Aging In 2014 the US elected the oldest Congress in its history. The record did not last long: It was broken in 2016. And then again in 2018. And yet again in 2020, when — remarkably — the majority of the incumbents who lost their seats were replaced by someone even older. In the 2022 midterms, the House did become  slightly younger (the mean age of representa- tives dropped by a year, from fifty-nine to fifty-eight), but the mean age of senators continued to rise and is now over sixty-five. … The presidency is following the same trend. Fintan O'Toole, NY Rev. of Books, Jan. 18, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Aging It’s also true, of course, that younger politicians can suffer debilitating illnesses. … True, too, that older people with access to good health care can now lead productive public lives well past the ages at which their political forebears would have died or become incapable. But in other democracies where healthy  life spans are just as long as those in the US, the governing class is nonetheless much younger. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, January 18, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say Bottom line is, conservatives are tolerant. We are, you know, kind of  get out of your business, you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone. Lindsey Graham © 2023 Kwiple.com
Change The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Steve Jobs © 2024 Kwiple.com
Civil wars I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how the government was gonna run, the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was? Nikki Haley, responding to a New Hampshire voter who asked her what she thought the proximate cause of the Civil War was © 2023 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say There's nobody that has the cash flow that I have. I want to be king of cash.  Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Democracy The cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. Jane Addams © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom of the press No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
Marriage I would never buy Ivana any decent jewels or pictures. Why give her negotiable assets? Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Marriage When a man leaves a woman, especially when it was perceived that he has left for a piece of ass — a good one! — there are 50 percent of the population who will love the woman who was left. Donald Trump, after leaving wife Ivana for Marla Maples © 2024 Kwiple.com
Post-2022 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,737,128 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,357,904 people — 1 state (California) 2022 population: 39,995,077 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,997,539 people 19,997,539 / 1,357,904 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2022 population = 579,495, therefore: 1 Senator per 289,748 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 69 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.4% of a Wyomian's  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie I am like a ripe shit, and the world is a gigantic asshole. We will both probably let go of each other soon. Martin Luther, nearing death © 2024 Kwiple.com
Selfie My biggest concern is our trajectory. Are we on a trajectory to get to Mars before civilization crumbles? Elon Musk, to a SpaceX executive © 2024 Kwiple.com
Selfie I don't kid. Donald Trump © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie I guess I have a perverse personality. Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Selfie I want five children, like in my own family, because with five, then I will know that one will be guaranteed to turn out like me. Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech on conservation. Richard Nixon portrayed by Adlai Stevenson © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The world's richest man is dismembering one of the world's most importnt websites in large part because he believes letting people choose their pronouns will prevent the human race from colonizing Mars. Elon Musk portrayed by Ben Tarnoff, New York Review of Books, January 18, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Snapshot In finance, his [UK prime minister Rishi Sunak's] former line of work, everyone is, almost by definition, open to a deal. And once it is negotiated, it is enforceable through the commercial courts. There couldn't be a worse grounding for politics, where neither condition obtains. Here is a world of entrenched positions (whether tribal or philosophical) and no  third party enforcement mechanism for those pragmatic compromises that do get made. No wonder he treats the right as just another market participant seeking terms. He has spent his political career offering half a loaf to people who want the whole boulangerie. Rishi Sunak portrayed by Janan Ganesh © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot I’m genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven’t talked about the odor. It’s truly something to behold. Wear a mask if you can. Donald Trump portrayed by Adam Kinzinger, 9:15 AM – Dec 16, 2023 [This is some old news. Back in 1988, Spy Magazine described Trump as “Donald ‘Stinky’ Trump”] © 2024 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He might be strutting around like a peacock today,  but he's gonna be a feather duster tomorrow. Donald Trump portrayed by Samuel J. Lefrak © 2024 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Trump lost his moral compass when he made an alliance with Roy Cohn. Donald Trump portrayed by Liz Smith © 2024 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It’s not good. The best way to describe it… take armpits, ketchup, a butt and makeup and put that all in a blender and bottle that as a cologne. Donald Trump's body odor portrayed by Adam Kinzinger © 2024 Kwiple.com
Socio-economic mobility [M]ost of the decline in absolute mobility is driven by the more unequal distribution of economic growth in recent decades, rather than by the slowdown in GDP growth rates. In this sense, the rise in inequality and the  decline in absolute mobility are closely linked.  Growth is an important driver of absolute mobility,  but high levels of absolute mobility require broad- based growth across the income distribution. With the current distribution of income, higher  GDP growth rates alone are insufficient to restore absolute mobility to the levels experienced by children in the 1940s and 1950s. If one wants to revive the “American dream” of high rates of absolute mobility, then one must have an interest in growth that is spread more broadly across the income distribution. Raj Chetty et. al., Science, April 24, 2017 © 2024 Kwiple.com
 
Socio-economic mobility There has been a relentless decline in absolute mobility from one generation to the next: from over 90 percent when Biden was born [in 1942] to around 50 percent for those who were born in the 1980s. In other words, if you were born in 1985, you are as likely to be less well off than your parents as you are to be richer. Just as the rise in mobility for Biden’s generation was virtually unique, this subsequent fall is also greater than in almost any other country. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, January 18, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com