02 July 2025

Trump's Isolationist, Anti-Innovative Economic Policies Mean That His Budget Cuts Still Won't be Enough

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    This graph illustrates a crucial insight: government spending as a percentage of GDP depends not only on how fast spending grows but on ...
01 July 2025

Rather Than Ask Democrats and Republicans - Ask These Two Groups Poll Questions Instead

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We often see polls that show self-proclaimed Democrats or Republicans or Independents' mood about the economy. Positive? Negative? It se...

Trump Rules by Fear and Intimidation

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In April .... Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Republican Senator from Alaska) said a fear of retaliation under President Donald Trump’s administration ...

How Will AI Remember the Lost Culture of Humans

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I wonder, when AI evolves beyond us and humanity is gone, how will we be remembered? Will AIs look back on us as the Greeks did their gods -...
24 June 2025

Novel dating app!

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A dating app that lets you swipe up to see their shoes. I'll call it "SoleMate."

The Terrible Cost of Trump's Mastery Over Our Attention

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What's not on this list? The assassination of a state legislator and her husband by a MAGA goon.  It was just 10 days ago that Melissa A...
23 June 2025

Scientifically Speaking

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The scientific conference was defining — and, as befitted the times, exclusively male. The secretary cleared his throat and spoke. “So, when...
22 June 2025

The Steady Decline of the Mission Impossible Franchise

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Mission Impossible Mission Improbable Mission Not a Sure Thing Mission We've Got This. Maybe Mission Oops! Mission We Really Should Have...

Trump's Presidency as a Reality TV Show

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Last week Trump sent troops into California. This week he drops bombs in the Middle East. To be a Trump supporter is to essentially say that...
21 June 2025

A Century Later: Two Family Trees and Two Vastly Different Family Fortunes

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This contrast between college-educated and non-college educated women is stark and oddly fascinating.  Four forces at play here. 1. Women wi...

Proust on Love as an Illusion We Create

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(loosely adapted from various parts of Swann’s Way and Within a Budding Grove) We are not in love with the person themselves, but with the i...

Pure Civilizations Are Sterile - extinction as the ultimate cost of nationalism, xenophobia and racism

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Xenophobia is fear or hostility toward people from other cultures or nations. Racism is fear or hostility toward people based on visible gen...
16 June 2025

When They Outlaw Driving

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Those people angry about vaccines and masks? Imagine how furious they will be when driving is illegal.
14 June 2025

Birth of the US Army (the by one measure, birth of the US itself)

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The first protest march probably involved some poor soldier in ill-fitting boots. The American revolutionaries didn’t have enough money for...
13 June 2025

The Two Big Reasons Trump is Going After California With Such Intensity (and one is to distract from Epstein)

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Here are 2 of the big reasons that Trump is going so hard after California. His Secretary of Homeland Security announced, “We are staying he...
11 June 2025

Trump Seizes Your Attention and Then Power

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A reminder of what Trump is doing. He's sending troops into American cities to provoke unrest and protests so that he can cosplay a revo...