Ken Moellman

Ken Moellman Musing on politics, IT, and life. Ken has followed politics for 30 years and IT for 40.

08/30/2026

For those upset about the Trump order to rename Lake Ontario, I suggest calling it Lake Epstein instead. And anything else he tries to rename as "Trump" or "America", just call it that. Two things should come from it: (1) It will make Trump upset, and (2) It will hopefully get Trump to stop re-naming things.

08/20/2026

Fourteen years before I became active in politics, the national debt was approximately $4T.

When I first became active in politics, in February 2006, the national debt had doubled to $8.3T.

In February 2020, 14 years after that, we were on the precipice of $23T. The debt was almost 3x what it was just 14 years prior.

Today, less than 7 years later, we roll over $40T, and on a trajectory to be 5x of 2020 in 2034. I'm calling it now: the national debt will be over $110T by February 2034.

Keep in mind that there's approximately $9T in circulation worldwide, and with all money supplies factored in, there's approximately $130T worldwide.

A country with a 250 year history, and we've seen witnessed the complete abdication of any fiscal responsibility whatsoever in just the last 34 years. And the worst part is, the people who voted to run up the tab are ditching the bill and sticking it with their grandkids and great-grandkids. Young adults have a right to be upset about that.

Minor cuts throughout the 90s would have prevented this (and helped for the whopping 2 years at the end of the 90s with a mostly-balanced budget). Noticeable cuts in the 00s would have prevented this. Painful cuts in the 10s would have prevented this. But here we are, over halfway through the 20s; still unwilling to make any cuts, and still running up the tab.

But at least we have cheap gas. Oh, wait...

08/03/2026

Any idiot can post something on the Internet. Doesn't mean it's true, though.

07/31/2026

If you made them and they made you
Who picked up the bill and who made who?

07/29/2026

So, Fauci pleads the 5th, after receiving a pardon for everything through the end of the Biden administration.

That begs the question: What illegal things has Fauci been doing since January 2025, for which he would need or even be able to plead the 5th?

07/21/2026

Related to the Flock issue and other forms of data gathering, I think there's a problematic disconnect in the modern interpretation of the 4th Amendment.

It should not be legal for the government to buy data from a private company that they were not otherwise legally able to collect on their own.

Using a period-correct framework from when the Constitution was written, how would this be any different than the King of England paying people to spy on everyone and report back? This type of action by government is exactly what the 4th Amendment was meant to prevent.

A private company can absolutely be allowed to collect and use your data. Tangentially, I do think there should be explicit language in contracts that says "we will share your data with partners" and not bury that on page 27 of 42 of some agreement; there should be a requirement to disclose this prominently.

But just because data was collected through a private corporation should not make that data fair game for the government to buy that data in bulk, especially when it is otherwise a violation of the 4th Amendment if they had collected the data directly. (I'm dubbing this "data laundering" by the government.)

I understand that Flock and other monitoring tools (reports of Amazon Ring, etc being used as well) can be and have been used to solve crimes. This isn't about not wanting to stop crime; there must be a balance between liberty and safety, and the 4th Amendment makes clear that, when it comes to government monitoring, we lean toward liberty.

And if some businesses want to monitor their parking lots and stores with technology like Flock, that's fine; they should not be sharing data with law enforcement other than the video of the commission of an actual crime on their property.

But the entire premise of government surveillance of the populace is a 4th Amendment violation, based on a premise that likely violates the 5th Amendment (that "everyone could be guilty"), and those rights carry down all the way to the local government under the 14th Amendment.

We should demand the application of the Bill of Rights within a proper modern context, and stop governments from bulk purchases of data that they are otherwise not legally able to collect on their own.

07/17/2026
07/12/2026

On the passing of Sen Lindsey Graham, I send my condolences to his friends and family. I didn't agree with his politics, but he was a human being.

It was reported that the last thing he did was tour a drone weapons plant, praising and encouraging the United States to invest in this technology.

Given his extremely enthusiastic support for every single military action possible, and his reaction to touring the drone weapons plant, his unexpected death should be a lesson: Men, you should seek medical assistance for an er****on lasting more than 3 hours.

07/08/2026

I'll weigh in on my theory on the McConnell situation.

I don't think there's an effort or conspiracy to prevent a special election. Since the office is what is on the ballot in November anyway, a special election would only fill the remainder of the current term - about 3 months, maximum. So there's no real benefit

I think it's far more likely he just plans to die in that office if he doesn't finish out this term first. And there may still be some string-pulling going on behind the scenes. That seems far more likely to me.

UPDATE: Actually, it looks more like this may be to avoid triggering an appointment by Beshear. Kentucky Constitution, Section 152, reads in part: "... vacancies in all elective offices shall be filled by election or appointment, as follows: If the unexpired term will end at the next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment for the remainder of the term. ... Vacancies in all offices for the State at large, or for districts larger than a county, shall be filled by appointment of the Governor..."

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