Mike Pence is more dangerous than Trump.

Mike Pence as president is much more dangerous than Donald Trump. 
- He is not a total moron. He knows how to play and manipulate Trump and the press to his advantage.
- He is waiting in the wings ready to be the calm, soothing voice after Trump is impeached. He then would likely be reelected. He would be such a relief after the daily stress and drama of Trump that people would vote for him again.
- He has a scary-ass conservative agenda that he likely would get passed if he has the Republican support in congress that Trump has now. He knows how to plan, strategize, and implement. (Unlike Trump, who cannot form coherent sentences.)
- He is waiting in the wings for the chance. Keep your eye on him, not Stormy Daniels.
- We need a Democratic wave this November to control Trump or even worse, an effective Mike Pence.

Vote. 
 Axios AM 04/18/18.

Equal pay: here's how it's done.

Unequal pay for men and women makes me want to rip my hair out.
I've worked my ass off for the last 20 years in science and medicine, and nothing makes me more irate than seeing that I'll be paid less because I have a vagina. I work hard, usually harder than most. I'm not the smartest person in the room, but I will likely outwork 99% of my peers. Not to mention that the bulk of my male peers (and friends) doing my same job have wives that cook, clean, and generally make their lives ridiculously easy. Few to no women get a similar improvement in their home life when they marry a man.

Here is a CEO that gets it and fixed it. Well done sir. I hope other CEOs learn from you. This is how we do it (courtesy of Montell Jordan - feel free to sing that last sentence ;).

Below taken from Axios AM:
'On "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tells Lesley Stahl how he bridged pay inequities between men and women:

• “I've had CEOs call me and say, ‘This is not true. This is not real.’ And I'll say to them, ‘This is true. Look at the numbers.’” 
• In 2015, Benioff was skeptical that a pay audit would show a disparity at Salesforce, but it did. He had to spend $3 million on raises for women to erase that gap. 
• After Salesforce acquired other firms, another pay audit revealed the gap had returned. He paid another $3 million in raises to fix it.
• “We're going to have to do this continuously … constantly monitor and keep track."
• “CEOs with one button on one computer can pay every man and every woman equally. We have the data."
• “You can't be a great CEO and say that I'm not committed to gender equality today.” '

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am

Screw the consumer

Fact (not Fake news):

Under the Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken no actions against companies harming Americans.

Courtesy of Axios:
https://apnews.com/c80a20db4a5942e7af9632b0cbf75700/Enforcement-actions-at-watchdog-agency-halt-under-Trump?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories

The economy...stupid

I find the economy, taxes, and the federal reserve hard to understand on my best days. Below is a summary of a nice opinion piece from the Washington Post written by a group of individuals that served on the US governments economic committee.

Main points:
1.) We have rising debt because of tax cuts, unfunded wars, and an aging population. We do not have rising debt because of increased spending on entitlements (despite Republicans constant whining). Entitlement allocations have not significantly increased. However, the number of old people has increased substantially over the last 10-20 years because of the aging boomer population. In addition, companies and government have decimated pension programs = more people need social security benefits. Also, rising health care costs have increased the cost of medicare and medicaid. We are not spending more on poor and sick people. We are barely treading water.

2.) Tax cuts should be reserved for times when the country is in recessions.  These tough economic times are best healed and limited by influxes of cash. Tax cuts should not be undertaken when the economy is doing well because then there is no room for further tax cuts in the next recession. FYI: we just passed tax cuts when we have a superbly strong economy.

3.) Corporate tax reform is not a bad idea when done intelligently. We should have decreased the corporate tax rate and closed loop holes. We only decreased the corporate tax rate. Therefore, we as a country have given up a huge amount of revenue when we most need it for our own citizens.

4.) The current economic policy is irresponsible and going to cause catastrophic problems. The rising debt and decreased revenue for the the next 5-10 years is going to decimate our ability to care for our citizens, fix our roads and bridges, and be competitive on the global stage. Where are the grown ups?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-debt-crisis-is-coming-but-dont-blame-entitlements/2018/04/08/968df5c2-38fb-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html?utm_term=.fe8daef1a506

Jeff Bezos...a Republican?

Where does Jeff Bezos lie on on the political spectrum? From the little information available, he appears to support Republicans and policies that make rich people richer. I'm not going to lie, it makes me a little sad. I need to see some decent people out there with power.

Two admirable actions I can point out: 
1.) He supported a law to legalize same sex marriage in Washington.
2.) He appears to make decisions that are very data driven.

Washington Post Article main data points:
1.) He largely funds the Amazon PAC that has given substantially more money to Republican candidates such as Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan (this makes me want to hurl) than to any Democratic or liberal candidates.

2.) He put tons of money into defeating a Washington state initiative to create an income tax on the highest earners in the state (Washington state does not currently tax income). Why should we provide money to pay our teachers, help our poorest neighbors, or fund health care adequately for children? I wish he were just a bit better of a human being. Sadly, I feel this way about pretty much all wildly successful white men. There appears to be very little to recommend them as human beings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-trump-went-after-bezos-two-billionaires-across-a-cultural-divide/2018/04/05/22bb94c2-3763-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html?utm_term=.2704613f83a2

So tired of narcissistic reactions...

See picture below. Please don't waste the precious time of our military men and women nor military budget on a made up problem. Maybe Mr. Trump could work on solving our actual problems rather than creating false ones? I guess he would have to get help for his personality disorder first. And, stop watching Fox news. Ugh. Countdown continues: 2.75 years to go.