Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

@killfile.bsky.social

Father, ally, nerd, political writer, software engineer, cook, photographer, gamer, river-rat, and cancer survivor. Sometimes I even have time for sleep.

239 followers360 following407 posts

Chris Thomas reposted

Pat Fuller
@bannerite.bsky.social

You may be sick of politics but politics determines everything around you. Get serious and invested! The billionaires are! Vote Blue. #BlueWaveIn30Days

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

The announcement of a new Battleship and Frigate class for the Navy looks about as haphazard and ill-conceived as it's possible to be w/ every indication that the Navy is fast declining against the rising power of China.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Unemployment is up, wages are down, the stock-market is flat since October, and inflation is rising but we're gonna rename the Kennedy Center (which is also the national memorial to President Kennedy) to the "Kennedy-Trump" center and ban transgender kids from getting the care they need. 🇺🇸🙄

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

If you know the steps to The Macarena your outrage about Bad Bunny is bullshit. And if you don't know the steps to The Macarena your opinions about pop culture are irrelevant.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Once there was a kingdom beset by a dragon. Every year the dragon demanded 20,000 victims to feast upon and every year the kingdom gave them over. The kingdom could have driven the dragon away but the Dragon Priests said the 20,000 deaths were worth it because the dragon worried the king.

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Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

And then all the other Dragon Priests shouted about how tragic it was that this particular priest was eaten and how terrible and wrong the "maybe we shouldn't be feeding people to dragons" folks were for not being suitably aggrieved.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

And pretty much everyone ignored the Dragon Priests because, after all, this was exactly what they had always said they always wanted, at least when it happened to other people. Anyway, this was a flash-fantasy short story. I hope you enjoyed it.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Once there was a kingdom beset by a dragon. Every year the dragon demanded 20,000 victims to feast upon and every year the kingdom gave them over. The kingdom could have driven the dragon away but the Dragon Priests said the 20,000 deaths were worth it because the dragon worried the king.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

One day a Dragon Priest was explaining how great it was that a whole bunch of other-people's kids got eaten by the dragon (because the dragon kept the king in line) when, all of a sudden, the dragon swooped down out of the sky and ate the Dragon Priest.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

I get that there are serious political and religious considerations here, but has anyone stopped to ask what the papacy of Pope Leo XIV means to the Deep Dish vs Thin Crust debate? Because there's guy from the South Side who can speak Ex Cathedra on this issue now.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

In 2024 there were 525 billion reasons for the US and China to avoid war with each other. Trump's tariffs make it likely that, by summer, there will be none. This isn't just a trade-war. It's a prelude to a shooting war. Trump's tariffs make a Chinese move on Taiwan more likely.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Let's talk about how profoundly stupid these tariff rates are. Not how profoundly stupid tariffs are -- there are literally whole undergraduate majors in that -- just the rates.

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Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

That tax cut proposition raises the disturbing possibility that the President doesn't understand that the trade deficit and the budget deficit are different things. The whole scheme stinks of Trump's handlers once-again realizing that he's a blind bull in a china shop that they can't control.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

The fallout from this level of brute stupidity is going to be ruinous and the blow will fall hardest upon the very people who put Trump into office. Stephen King's post from 2016 seems especially prescient today.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Let's talk about how profoundly stupid these tariff rates are. Not how profoundly stupid tariffs are -- there are literally whole undergraduate majors in that -- just the rates.

View full thread
Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Even if tariffs did counter balance the trade deficit (they don't) it's absurd to imagine that exports will continue at their pre-tariff rates. Tariffs are SUPPOSED to reduce imports and advantage domestic production. It would be weird if imports didn't fall.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

As imports to the US fall, if the tariffs should fall as well (hence "reciprocal"). But if that happens the revenue from the tariffs will shrink too. Meanwhile the Trump admin continues to imagine that it can give everyone a tariff financed tax cut.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Let's talk about how profoundly stupid these tariff rates are. Not how profoundly stupid tariffs are -- there are literally whole undergraduate majors in that -- just the rates.

View full thread
Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

The trade deficit isn't money owed BY THE GOVERNMENT to a trade partner. It just means the US buys more from that country than we sell to it. Your household runs a HUGE trade deficit with your local grocery store; it doesn't mean the grocery store owes you money.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

You can't zero out a trade deficit with tariffs. At least not directly. Tariffs don't cross the border b/c government authority stops at the border (that is the definition of a border). So the importer -- a US company -- pays the US government the tariff. It doesn't touch the trade deficit.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Let's talk about how profoundly stupid these tariff rates are. Not how profoundly stupid tariffs are -- there are literally whole undergraduate majors in that -- just the rates.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Trump is calculating the "reciprocal tariffs" by dividing the US trade deficit with a country by its total exports to the US. So, if the US has a trade deficit with Narnia of $100 and gets $1000 in exports from Narnia that's a 100/1000 = 10% "reciprocal tariff."

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

And you can almost see the toddler-level logic here. If Narnia's $1000 in exports are tariffed at 10% that will yield $100 in revenue to the US government, "balancing the books." But... Jesus Christ on a Jet Powered Pogo Stick, it does NOT work that way.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

I know that the Florida special elections are important but is the best the Democratic Party could find to run in FL-1 really a lady named "Gay Valimont" and was it REALLY good idea to have her social handle be "@gayforcongress?" Really? Really?

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Number of intelligence officers fired over having a pride channel in the secure government messaging app: 100 Number fired for talking about an active military operation in an insecure app which is known to have been penetrated by the Russian government WHILE THEY WERE IN RUSSIA: 0

News Eye@newseye.bsky.social

Happy One Month Anniversary to this story.

Chris Thomas
@killfile.bsky.social

Only one American stealth jet has ever been shot down. It was an F-177A over Yugoslavia and the reason it was shot down was an OpSec failure. The enemy knew when and where the jet would be and used that to defeat its stealth. This leak put American airmen at risk. It's a miracle they weren't killed