Subj : Re: Trump/Ukraine
To   : AARON THOMAS
From : Mike Powell
Date : Sat Feb 08 2025 10:22:00

>  MP> Something I have noticed here... while gas prices started going down
>  MP> around the election, and have not fluctuated much, grocery prices are
>  MP> still going up.  I don't (usually) buy eggs but other things are also
>  MP> going up.  Used to be that at least junk food was affordable, for folks
>  MP> who couldn't afford better, but even that is going up.

> I don't see grocery prices rising here, but certain things inflated quite a bi
> while Biden was president. Certain products that I buy suddenly became at abou
> $1 more than before.

They are still going up here, some things 10-20% so.

>  MP> I would like to see issues like these... ones that affect our pocket
>  MP> books, and undoubtedly the issues that got Trump elected... addressed.
>  MP> Instead we are getting the distractions of "let's make Gaza a resort"
>  MP> and "let's fire a bunch of people (which won't be good for the economy)"
>  MP> and "let's turn Elon and his minions loose in the government systems."

> The Elon Musk thing appeals to me. I was disappointed when I heard that USAID'
> workforce was slashed to "less than 300 employees." I don't know why it takes
> 300 people to shovel our money into a flaming dumpster. But at least that
> number is down from thousands that it had before.

There are probably some things that USAID does they are actually supposed to
be doing that still need doing.  I had never heard of them before now.  Had
you?

> I'm confident that we will see a return on all this money saving, unless they
> plan to pass those savings on to Ukraine and Israel.

Maybe.  Back in the early 2000s, we had a gubenitorial candidate (R) who ran
against "waste, fraud, and abuse."  He won.  His minions were "business
people" and not "politicians" and claimed that they would be cutting things
that met that criteria.  Sort of like Elon, they got in & poked around in
computer systems and state programs that they knew little about.  They did
cut some of the waste and abuse out.  However, they also cut neccesities,
made up a bunch of really weird rules, and, even worse, added their own waste,
fraud, and abuse.

When confronted, the response was basically "it is ok because it is 'our
side' that is wasting/frauding/abusing now instead of theirs."  The very loyal
bought that, but most others like me did not.  He lost re-election.  It was
not close.

It took us at least 12 years to finally dig out of the mess they made, and
I am not convinced we are completely out of it still.  Kentucky is not a big
state, so you figure 12 years for a small state... 3 years for every one
year they were in office... will be many, many more years for all 50 of us.


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