IMRAN™: In My Humble Opinion

Monday, November 11, 2024

Thanks, Poor Red State Voters, If Fewer Blue State Tax Dollars Go To Your Welfare Cheques & Checks - IMRAN™

Thanks, Poor Red State Voters, If Fewer Blue State Tax Dollars Go To Your Welfare Cheques & Checks - IMRAN™

I’m so thankful. Sure, the American electorate has voted in a known traitor, Putin puppet, serial adulterer, multiple bankruptcies causer, vile rapist, convicted felon, charity thief, and worse… but, hey… Look at the bright side. The price of eggs should go down. We hope, right?

But, seriously… Let’s examine just one aspect of this election AND Darwin Awards winning crowd. MAGA white nationalists probably think that the reduction in taxes and cuts in welfare services will hurt people they hate… blacks, minorities, Hispanics, blue states, etc.

But here’s a fun fact. Major segments of white welfare recipients are in the reddest states and will feel the cuts. The “bad” people in more diverse blue states and educated well-paid professionals will need to subsidize their diversity-hating MAGA non-brethren less than before.

So, thanks, MAGA voters in the states below. Here’s why. It's important to note that many red states receive more in federal funding than they contribute in taxes. This means that blue states, which typically contribute more in federal taxes, often subsidize red states.

Majority of white MAGA voters may think cutting welfare hurts blacks, Hispanics, or minorities only. Obviously identifying red states with significant white populations living in poverty and dependent on welfare can be complex, but some states consistently show higher rates of federal assistance. Here are a few notable examples.

Mississippi

Poverty Rate: One of the highest in the U.S., with a significant portion of its population relying on federal assistance.

Demographics: A considerable number of white residents live below the poverty line, making the state heavily dependent on federal welfare programs.

West Virginia

Poverty Rate: High poverty levels, particularly in rural areas.

Welfare Dependency: Many residents, including a significant number of white individuals, rely on programs like Medicaid and food assistance.

Kentucky

Poverty Rate: Notable percentage living in poverty, with many depending on federal aid.

Demographics: A substantial number of white residents are among those receiving assistance.

Alabama

Poverty Rate: Ranks high in poverty rates, with many residents relying on welfare.

Welfare Programs: Programs such as SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid are crucial for many low-income families, including white households.

Arkansas

Poverty Rate: Significant poverty rate, with many residents dependent on federal assistance.

Demographics: A considerable portion of the population receiving welfare benefits is white.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you, all MAGA voters for letting blue states people reduce subsidizing your food stamps and welfare cheques. Sorry if we don’t do welfare checks on y’all either.

Sources to check the data:

https://apnews.com/article/north-america-business-local-taxes-ap-top-news-politics-2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/07/states-federal-benefits/

(1) AP FACT CHECK: Blue high-tax states fund red low-tax states. https://apnews.com/article/north-america-business-local-taxes-ap-top-news-politics-2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c

(2) Do blue-state taxes really subsidize red-state benefits?. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/07/states-federal-benefits/.

Friday, November 08, 2024

Don’t Give Up Hope! Fall Is A Time To Rise, When Samaras Take On Winter - IMRAN™

https://youtube.com/shorts/HEYxTuLt-CI?si=IY9Tix_wlSngSeVD

Strange Times

What strange times we live in, where too many zealots believe that down is up, wrong is right, facts are fake, crime is law, bankruptcy is business brilliance, and treason is somehow heroic. Heaven help us all and God save our nation from a Satangelical cult of American Taliban.

As I look outside my blessed home on Long Island, on this autumn day during the week of a truly disappointing, if not shockingly surreal, election day in the United States, I see several similarities and some inspiring lessons.

Reflections on Biology

Forgive my digression. Biology was never my favorite subject. In fact, it was the subject I despised the most during my Cambridge University O-level education. I was forced to take it because my late father, an engineer himself, had dreams of my becoming a doctor (rather than an electronics engineer or an MBA, which I eventually chose to pursue).

Within biology, zoology at least had the fascination of living, breathing creatures that we can see on TV or in a zoo. Botany, however, was even more boring than biology overall.

Of course, there’s always something interesting in nature that one can appreciate in life as an adult. But it can easily be despised when one is expected to learn or memorize a lot of seemingly useless information - and then also have to take really difficult exams on it.

Nature's Lessons

Phragmites are part of the common grounds of the property that my neighbors and I share at Heron Pointe, on the Great South Bay, in New York. Today they reminded me of some biology lessons. I did have to look up some words to make sure I was spelling them correctly.

“In some plants, the pericarp of an achene extends into a papery, wing-like tissue longer than the seed. This fruit is called a **samara**. The wings enable the wind to carry the seeds farther from the mother plant than seeds without appendages that aid in seed dispersal.” That’s where the summer/samara vs winter wordplay in the title comes from.

Even though fall is all around us and leaves are falling from trees, large and small, in the annual rite of death —which is what our democracy seems to be facing—this is also the time when Phragmites and other plants are shedding their seeds for the future to rise up into the air, even though it is fall and gravity is at work.

Hope Amidst Carnage

This reminds me that despite the gravity of the situation, we must never give up hope. We must always be planting or shooting up and out the seeds for a brighter future.

These Phragmites may be individually flimsy and insignificant, but when bundled together, they are impossible to snap and break. This reflects the parable we all learned about strength in unity when individual sticks bundled together become unbreakable.

Not only that, but these seemingly easily breakable Phragmites have actually withstood the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. I experienced this while standing right out there on the boardwalk with water coming up to my feet.

Our dock and marina were completely destroyed by that hurricane, but the Phragmites stood strong against the onslaught of nature's fury. Together, they protected our precious homes by curbing the angry waves of a massive, ugly red wave of dirty water that would otherwise have drowned us.

Rising Together

Together we shall rise despite the dark forces that seem to be bringing down all the institutions and values that made our country great. Let us hope that this destructive storm passes without destroying our nation and democracy as Hurricane Sandy did to the places it landed.

That means resisting current storms, supporting other good people, and rebuilding stronger for a better future. Like samaras taking on winter - despite being buffeted by the vicious winds of war being waged on democracy globally and in America - let us take flight but stay rooted.

What do you think?

#IMRAN #NewYork, #LongIsland, #Suffolk, #nature, #biology, #botany, #plants, #inspiration, #democracy, #elections #America, #hope, #leadership, #wordplay, #philosophy, #seasons

Monday, October 14, 2024

On Quantum Realities, Parallel Universes, Alternate Facts, And MTG's Hurricane-Controlling "They"s - IMRAN™

Oh great. After the chaotic 2016-2020 period of alternate-facts (actual lies), crowd sizes, real fake-news presented as truths, and misinformation becoming the norm, here's something crazy-exciting for scientists which I am sure will give real-crazy conspiracy-theorists (who never touched a book on real theory of science) so much more to be fed by the enemy-funded QAnons of the world. Phew, that was one long sentence.

**Physicists reveal nonlinear transport induced by quantum geometry in planar alter-magnets** according to an article in Phys.org .

It is quite easy to understand... "Recently, two experiments have confirmed the predicted role of quantum geometry in the second-order response of the conventional PT-symmetric anti-ferromagnets. In these materials, due to the combination of parity (P) and time-reversal (T) symmetries, the Berry curvature (the imaginary component of quantum geometric tensor) vanishes, and it is shown that the second-order response is governed by the quantum metric (the real component of quantum geometric tensor)."

Just kidding about it being easy to understand. But honestly it is fascinating stuff to geek out on from both logic, science, physics and engineering implications, and so many other angles.

Basically, if two entangled photons in an indeterminate state are measured by someone in a room -- but only 'observed' by someone outside the room -- the photon measured in the room will change to take on one particular state, ... but to the outside observer it will still appear to be in the indeterminate state as it was previously.

As an analogy I am using just to get a better layperson handle on it myself.... Let's say I am in the room with two twins walking around one chair. If I "measure" one he will sit down in the chair.... But if YOU are just "watching" from outside the room through a window, you will still see HIM, that same twin I saw SIT down, still appear to be walking around the chair with the other twin. That means the one twin would be existing in two "realities".

Obviously, this is MY initial analogy at first reading of the article at 1 AM on Monday after dealing with two hurricanes in two weeks. So, I am sure it can be explained much better. Love to have someone smarter about quantum mechanics add more analogies in reply comments.

But next time, when there are two hurricanes, can we please make sure I can be in the reality where neither of them "sits" or lands anywhere near me or my family and our homes?

Maybe modern day non-Einstein and anti-magnetic personality Marjorie Taylor Greene can ensure it -- when her imaginary "they" control the weather to create future hurricanes. LOL

https://lnkd.in/eGivRbxj

#IMRAN #science #Physics #technology #reality #quantum #QuantumPhysics #QuantumMechanics #ParallelUniverse #entanglement #humor #politics #facts #hurricanes #weather #scientists

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Dock, Dog, Drone & My Bald Spot Now Visible From Outer Space - IMRAN™

My bald spot is now the size of a continent, and visible from space. Well, at least from a drone circling overhead.

Who sent it? CIA? NSA? NASA? I don't see any remote control anywhere near me. Do you? :-)

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Stunning Pure Shocking Pink Sky Perfect Seaside Place - IMRAN™

Believe me, you will see more shades of stunning shocking pink seaside skies in this 30-second time-lapse video than you could catch in a lipstick manufacturer's catalog.

Even the sunset was stunning, but the dusk skies are mind-blowing. Also watch the cruise ship zip by and Tampa International Airport (TPA) traffic zooming by.

Recorded on July 31, 2024 at my blessed home on Tampa Bay, Florida with a Nikon D850, shared from Apple Final Cut Pro. Play with music and be blown away! Like, love, comment, share! Thank you.

Monday, July 29, 2024

Ten Turns (Around The Sun) Today, Stunning Sunset Tampa Bay Florida End July 2014 - IMRAN™

Nikon D300 handheld photo end July 2014, a decade ago. Stunning sunset ten loops around the sun today.

© 2014-2024 IMRAN™

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Kennedy Watched For Dolphins Nearby As K2 Went For A Swim In Tampa Bay Waters Mid-October 2020 - IMRAN™

I brought both my dogs to my neighborhood beach on the very first day I got them. Kennedy, a 4-5-year-old rescued German Shepherd in February 2019, was intrigued but did not fall in love with the water until later. K2, a 2-month-old German Shepherd puppy, came to this beach spot in April 2020, and I recorded the cutest video of his first time going in the water that day.

This was recorded exactly six months later, on October 15, 2020, during the pandemic era. K2 was growing fast and went for a swim. Kennedy was excitedly watching for the dolphins that had passed us a minute earlier.

In the second video, he too goes for a swim but is more interested in the dolphins than in swimming. Later on, multiple daily wades in Tampa Bay became Kennedy’s routine, while K2 only did regular swims in the swimming pool at home or in the bay if I tossed something for him to fetch.

Wit, Wisdom, Wordplay - Moscow Mitch Being A Li’l B!tch! - IMRAN™

If an evil, traitorous, misogynist, enemy of democracy, like Moscow Mitch McConnell does not want a woman moderator for a debate, maybe he could be given one from the Paris Olympics 'feast' performers - or just a great transgender American moderator.

That should teach this crooked, repulsive, enemy of America a lesson. (Meme & commentary from a few years ago but relevant to the attack on women's rights in USA caused by his stacking the courts with right wing extremists).

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Patriotic Republicans & Democrats MUST Unite To SAVE The Real UNITED States Of America - IMRAN™

Patriotic Republicans & Democrats MUST Unite To SAVE The Real UNITED States Of America - IMRAN™

Only the Democrats could have managed to turn a corrupt, incompetent, megalomaniac, felon, rapist, and buffoon like Trump into a strong contender to get back into the White House. Joe Biden carries the majority of the blame for that colossal failure, and becoming the "Genocide Joe" and "senile uncle" image that turned even his past voters against him.

Now that he has done the right thing by dropping out, I would not have rushed into giving Kamala Harris the candidacy. However, if that is what it has to be, I still hold a sliver of hope for this to be a truly historic opportunity for patriotic Americans to recreate and save truly UNITED States of America. 

I do not belong to any political party. I vote based on issues. I never understood people putting parties, or even worse, personalities and false messiahs above country. 
But if true patriots (not the flag waving bible thumping hypocrites who support a rap!st/tr@itor) want to really save democracy, then real Republicans AND ALL Democrats have to create a unified ticket. 

If Kamala Harris is the Democrat Presidential candidate, then we need a Republican as a VP candidate with her. I think Adam Kinzinger as VP would make for a truly unifying ticket. 

The chance of that happening may be 0.0001%. But, In My Humble Opinion, that is how we must unite to save USA from becoming an English speaking Afghanistan in a few years.  What do you think?

© 2024 IMRAN™  

#IMRAN #politics #USA #America #Americans #MAGA #democracy #elections #Biden #Harris #unity Democratic National Convention Democratic Alliance The Daily Show CNN The New York Times The Washington Post Magazine