Wake Up Call

Me: I guess nobody needs a wake-up call anymore, now that everyone has a phone.

Hotel desk clerk: Oh, people still need a wake-up call. They just don't think to ask for one anymore - which suggests they're now at least two calls away from self-awareness.

The Strange Debate About God and Presidents That Persists

It is so bizarre that in 2026 we are still debating whether religion is a private or public matter.

Our founding fathers would likely marvel at our technology and be aghast at our medieval take on politics and religion. "What strange intersection of intellect and superstition gives you a culture that can use AI to generate a picture of your president as Jesus?"

The Unexpected Consequence of Great Advances in Self-Driving Technology

Within a few years, self-driving cars will likely reach a point where "drivers" enjoy the same experience as train passengers — simply watching the landscape roll by while the car handles direction and speed.
I wonder if there's a catch.
We have family we love 200 miles north of us through thick traffic in LA and Orange counties. The stress of driving through those often congested areas is as big an obstacle to simply jumping in the car to visit them as is the time. But what about a world in which the stress isn't any greater than sitting at home in your living room? How many more trips will people suddenly be willing to make?
Yes, the cars will drive more efficiently — but there could be vastly more of them.
A prediction: the great advances in self-driving technology could create record congestion until we get to the next level of autonomous cars when they communicate and coordinate with each other in ways that enable them to drive faster and closer together than they ever could in situations in which traffic depends on human skill.

JD Vance Told Hungarians What God Wants for Their Future

"Will you stand for Western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, for truth, and for the God of our fathers?" JD Vance asked the crowd who attended his rally for Orban in Hungary.

"Then, my friends, go to the polls in the weekend. Stand with Viktor Orbán, because he stands for you, and he stands for all these things".

The level of hubris with this former Hill Billy. Trump, Vance and the corrupt Orban's politics focuses on personal enrichment while claiming that this is God's will. To be fair, it is a centuries old scam, variants of which sound something like "God wants you to give me power and wealth. Please don't disappoint God"

We Have Reasonable Expectations

Most of us just want to be above average. That doesn't seem like too much to ask but as it turns out, only about 60-some percent of us can be, statistically speaking. Which feels rigged.

$600 Billion Gain In Net Worth From a Year Ago for 10 Richest Americans

The ten richest Americans are now worth nearly $2.7 trillion, up about $600 billion from a year ago.

An Economic Stat Perhaps Deserving of a Short Story

Carter County, Montana had the highest GDP growth of any American county in 2024: 76%.Its total population? 65.

Possibly related: small Baca County, Colorado had the lowest GDP growth of any American county — its GDP shrinking 46%.

Perhaps someone with a thriving online business simply moved from Baca to Carter County.

Information on GDP growth by county here:

https://apps.bea.gov/itable/index.html?appid=70&stepnum=40&Major_Area=4&State=XX&Area=XX&TableId=533&Statistic=1&Year=2024&YearBegin=-1&Year_End=-1&Unit_Of_Measure=PercentChange&Rank=1&Drill=1&nRange=5

Daryl Morey and 76ers Play-In Game Against Orlando Magic

First with the Houston Rockets and now with the Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Morey has systematically applied more rigorous analysis to managing an NBA franchise. He and his staff model the use of stats.

Cut to scene.
Mr. Miyagi: are you ready for your test?
Daryl: Yes. What is the first test of our statistical models?
Mr. Miyagi: Magic.
Daryl: WHAT!?!
Mr. Miyagi: What are the odds, right?
Daryl: ...I can calculate that, actually.

Cheering for Daryl and the 76ers in their play-in game today against the Orlando Magic.

JD Vance - Catholic Since 2019 - Is Already Offering Advice to the Pope on How to Be a Better Catholic

Fascinating how confident the MAGA boys are. Their poster boy for this level of confidence this week? JD Vance.

JD Vance converted to Catholicism in August 2019 at age 35. His conversion marked a return to Christianity after previously identifying as an atheist.

This week, JD Vance - whose Catholicism is younger than an altar boy - offered advice to the Pope on how to be a better Catholic.

And to think that some of you questioned whether he is ready to follow Trump as president.

Refugees Admitted to the US Since Trump Took Office

Since Trump took office in 2025 4,499 total refugees were admitted to the U.S.
4,496 of these refugees were from South Africa (specifically white Afrikaners, based on the administration's policy).

Hmm.

How Busy am I?

I’m a busy man. I’m important. I love sports, though. I really do. But the only sport I have time to watch is the 100-meter dash.

An End to Orban's Illiberal Democracy in Hungary

Liberal democracy.

The democracy part means a majority determines which candidates and proposals win.
The liberal—as in free—means that regardless of who wins, minorities (and even majorities, you know, like women) retain their rights.

Viktor Orbán once described his government in Hungary as an “illiberal democracy.” And that is the model JD Vance has publicly praised and traveled last week to Hungary to support.

Trump Derangement Syndrome

Bold prediction ...

The term Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) that the MAGA crowd coined to dismiss outrage about Trump ... will in the future describe the odd blend of narcissism, delusion and impulsivity that defines Trump's personality. It will morph from a slur aimed at his foes to a psychological condition that describes people like him.

Did You Say Communist?

I didn’t mean to pile on with the accusations, but when they called him a communist, I heard “comment-ist” and simply agreed.

The Strongman Trap

An excerpt from the new book, New Politics for the Next Economy.

The notion of self is a fictional device we use to maintain a sense of continuity across space and time, a way to pretend that we don't greatly change at different ages and in different circumstances. It would be overwhelming to just show up new to the world and our possibilities even once a year much less each morning. So — like a plot device that strings together otherwise disparate events and feelings — we sustain a sense of me that might actually be a crowd of related but hardly identical people all crowded into the parade of years and moments that constitute a life.
Institutions do something similar for societies. They are the plot device a people use to maintain coherence across generations — smoothing over the discontinuities, giving strangers a shared script, making it possible to wake up each morning into a world that feels, if not familiar, at least navigable. The Constitution, the local school, the company you work for, the church you attend or don't — these are the narrative scaffolding that lets a society of 335 million people function as though it were one story rather than millions of unrelated ones.
When institutions decay, people are showing up to a world that feels unfamiliar — and it is overwhelming. The anger in the country right now is partly the anger of people whose plot device broke. The story they were using to make sense of their lives — the job, the church, the party, the neighborhood — stopped working, and they're left with the raw, unnarrated experience of change. That's what strongmen exploit. They offer a simpler story.
The promise is seductive. The record is dismal. Consider the Korean peninsula: divided since 1948, sharing race, culture, and language. One side crushed its institutions under dictatorship; the other nurtured them under democracy. Today, the average South Korean produces in a couple of weeks what a North Korean produces in a year. Twenty percent of Russians still lack indoor plumbing; the country has defaulted on every 30-year bond it has ever issued. Strongmen capture attention but destroy prosperity. Strong institutions may be boring, but they are the only way complex societies thrive. Trump is a symptom of this institutional recession — and a warning of what happens when people lose faith in the institutions that have done so much to define this country and enable its progress.
The strongman's simpler story always has the same ending. Given a choice between a strongman atop weak institutions, or modest leaders within reliable, democratic institutions, bet on institutions every time.

JD Vance's Support for Hungarian Leader Orban Backfires

JD Vance went out to Hungary to rally support for Hungary's Orban (who, like Trump, is a friend of Putin's and regularly seeks to undermine the EU).
Orban fell in the polls after Vance's rally for him.

Eventually, affiliation with Trump will be toxic even for American politicians. Or so one might hope.

If You Build It, They ....

"When you build something new like CUDA, if you build it, they might not come. And that's always the cynic's perspective. However the optimist's perspective would say, but if you don't build it, they can't come."

- Jensen Huang, Nvidia co-founder and CEO

Today's Horoscope ... Sort of

If you are an Aries, your Chinese horoscope today ... does not compute. The cultural intersection of these two is null and void. You'll have to find your own way in this world in which cultural norms have given way to some strange and liberating mix of individuality and global possibilities. It's no longer paint by numbers ... it's paint AND numbers.