The deductible for a couple is going from $4000 to $6,000, so that is big jump in one year. I will be sharing my analysis of how each plan fairs in a range of scenarios for a Faculty Senate online presentation (open to all faculty) on October 14 at 4:30 pm.

I’ll see if I can work that into a question. The talk is on how to boost fertility rates is the US by restoring marriage and traditional values, or something like that, so that episode is definitely relevant.

UVA is hosting him as a visiting speaker in early October and I’ve invited my students to attend. I hope he has some greater wisdom to impart.

He seems to want the left to find some distractions to take their minds off the way Trump has claimed all power for himself: “If everything feels like power relations, and power has slipped from your fingers, where can you find the good, the beautiful, the true?”

Japanese down 7 million. Foreign population up 1.78 million, so not exactly replacing 1 for 1. Chart not drawn to scale so can be misleading.

The folks wanting to build this should get the Japanese to guarantee it instead. They need to find $550 billion in US projects to invest in, under the deal they just made, and this one makes economic and climate sense.

Right now, Japan is importing Russian LNG and sometimes gets an oil delivery, so if it was applied as advertised would be another blow to the J economy.

Actually 100 percent secondary tariffs on China and India and anyone else who continues to buy oil and other goods from Russia, unless a peace deal in 50 days. If he were to follow through on that, it would actually squeeze Russia quite substantially.

According to Nikkei Asia they accepted a rate of 20 percent in exchange for giving the US tariff free access to the Vietnam market. Not exactly reciprocal, but better for Vietnam than 43%, and better than Chinas rate, likely to end up between 30 to 60%.

And he hasn’t seem to have heard that US rice is now being sold in Japan. As usual he’s stuck in the 1980s. www.reuters.com/world/japan/...

The administration has cut off funding to our existing vocational ed and imagines they can set up 1 million apprenticeships from scratch, without unions and trade associations. Was this in Project 2025 too? Who authored that chapter?

It seems that the Trump admin came up with this number merely to justify imposing tariffs on allies. The US itself doesn't spend anywhere close to 5% (3.4% in 2024) and we cannot afford to grow defense spending to that level, so how does the US think it can bully Japan into accepting such a target?

And they took away his walker. Very sad.

Is poasting like toasting, but on social media? An over-60 wants to know.

We know how to challenge tyrants here in Virginia.

When is the media going to press him on his statutory authority when he pitches ideas like this? If he wants to privatize, put it in a bill and see if Congress will pass it. Want to close AID, put it in legislation.