https://www.wonkette.com/p/musks-doggie-hackerboys-update

Good article; Wonkette rocks.

Please join me in a sidebar in which I do math with zeros.

100 is a 1 followed by two zeros. It’s also 10 × 10, so we can write 10² or 1E2 in computerese because computers can’t do exponents.

Likewise, 1000 is a 1 followed by three zeros or 10 × 10 × 10 or 10³ or 1E3.

When you divide, you subtract exponents, so 1000 ÷ 100 is done by subtracting the 2 in 10² from the 3 in 10³, so the answer is 10¹ or just 10.

Duh. Sounds stupid so far, right? Let’s take it to the next level.

One meeeelion is 1,000,000; 1 followed by six zeros, 10⁶, 1E6.

One billion is 10⁹; nine zeros.

One trillion is 10¹²; twelve zeros.

Those numbers (6, 9, 12) are worth memorizing.

Paul Ryan’s big tax cut bill, which he enacted for his good friend Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies back in 2016, is expiring this year (2025, for any time travellers from the future who are still unsure as to what year it is). Elon Musk and his billionaire bros would prefer that not happen. Continuing that tax cut will cost an eye-watering amount of money that must be accounted for in the budgetary process. AOC says that’s  $4 trillion. Elon says he wants to cut $2 trillion. 12 zeroes.

Elon says he saved $110 million. That’s 8 zeroes (100 × 1 million;  10² × 10⁶ = 10⁸ because we add exponents when multiplying).

$4 trillion. 4 × 10¹². Divided by 10⁸… 12 minus 8… is 10⁴. That’s a 1 followed by 4 zeroes. That’s $10,000. (Don’t forget to multiply by 4.)

If you had a gift card with a balance of $40,001 and you swiped it at a vending machine that charged you $1 for a Coke, now you have $40,000 on that card. How much did that hurt? How much are you complaining?

That’s what $110 mil is in the face of $4 *trillion*. It’s couch-cushion change. It’s four quarters and a dime.

We’re starving babies around the world (including this country) for chump change because Elon wants to save those tax cuts for himself and his billionaire friends. And it’s not even going to help.

Don’t just follow the money. Follow the *zeros*.

https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/americans-jittery-over-inflation-university-of-michigan-survey-suggests-1476cf39?st=Rqsamf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink (gift)

«Americans dialing their members of Congress for basic services are going straight to voice mail. Interns and young aides can’t answer the phones quickly enough. And a system that usually handles a few dozen calls per minute is straining to keep up with more than 1,500.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/congressional-phone-lines-trump-musk.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vU4.-Py9.LPFCq0jq_O2l&smid=url-share (gift)

Speak your heart; don’t follow the script. Use the script as inspiration, in case you’re terrified (and that’s ok, too, I think it means something that you call in spite of fear). Be polite and concise; they have a lot of calls to go through. I strongly suspect they’re just ticking check boxes in order to give their bosses a reading on the temperature, so nuance is lost. But that’s ok. (Happy to be corrected by any actual aides/interns.)

https://5calls.org

https://wapo.st/3EotKDy

Ahhhhh, to err is human, to forgive divine. Of course!

Always the exception. Always the victory we think we have is not, in fact, a victory. Always the rrrrrest… of the story.

«“Caitlin Perigal, as matriarch of this habitat, you are hereby charged with a category-five infringement of the democratic process. It is alleged that you tampered with the polling apparatus, to the intended benefit of your house.”»

– Aurora Rising (Alastair Reynolds)

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/523eb4f2-69ff-4b36-8a76-9d39ff36a177

Ah, now we get to the “fiction” part of this science fiction: the strong enforcement of the norms of democracy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/hitler-oligarchs-hugenberg-nazi/681584/?gift=ly-h2TZGdDJyaoFv6n-KaZ8SpORXsALgra8L7xleeIY&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (gift)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93?st=9Fmifo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink (gift)

Huh. Who would’ve guessed?

Has he really resigned tho?

Ya know… it occurs to me: if one my Republican Senators were to suddenly get a backbone and say “enough” to the Trump administration in a serious way (e.g., not talk one way and vote another like that guy from Nebraska did a few years ago), I might actually switch party registration just so I can support him in the primary.

Just thinking out loud.

So, I used https://5calls.org to call my House and Senate representatives today, to advocate for USAID, the Dept of Education, and to oppose Vought for OMB. Literally 5 minutes, total. Spoke to actual humans in two offices, was polite, made my points succinctly (did not read the script), and was treated courteously (even by the Republican aide). At the end of my short spiel to Sen. Budd’s aide (R-NC), he said “Perrrfect,” as if he had simply filled out some checkboxes and I had delivered my message in such a way that it made it easy for him. Good enough, imo; my voice was heard.

Left voicemail for Sen. Tillis. Got a little more emphatic, but was still polite and relatively concise.

It’s easy. You can, too. I honestly believe people hearing other people’s actual human voices counts for something.

«To encourage states that had not expanded Medicaid to get on board, the federal government allotted a $1.6 billion or so “signing bonus” to new states. After North Carolina passed Medicaid expansion with bi-partisan support, the General Assembly used part of that signing bonus to fund about $835 million for behavioral health. DHHS used some of those funds to increase the rates paid to Medicaid providers for behavioral health services, among other things.»

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article299325609.html

Is 50% for behavioral health good, bad, or average?