Blame Samuelson

By now we all know that Mad Dictator Don is as dumb as a sack of hair, but how does this idiocy manifest? Let me count the ways.

The entirety of the Big Ugly Bill is founded on a single principle: there are no social goods and services, and any found hiding (like, say, drug development) must be killed no matter what. Where did this notion come from? In one sense, that has always been the mantra of the proto-MAGAnauts since, at least, the New Deal. They hated it, and tried their damndest to kill and then repeal it.

By the time 1950 rolled around, the econ space had been hit by an asteroid, named Paul Samuelson. He, arguably, invented mathematical econ. This brand is grounded in the micro-model; data based and "ethically neutral". His Ph.D. dissertation was expanded into "Foundations of Economic Analysis".

While widely seen as an explanation of the macro-model, it is based on the micro-model of individualism. Like it or not, the macro-model is just a policy exercise. The Damn Gummint, as Keynes understood, should, at times, bolster the economy when the various private actors fail. That happens a lot, when the micro-model ethic is dog-eat-dog.

Keynes would not approve of the scam Mad Dictator Don is running. The macro economy is doing just fine. And, naturally, when the economy is doing just fine, there's no reason for the Damn Gummint to engage in deficit spending. Not a bit of it. And, of course, giving away the Treasury to the 1% won't help.

To top it off, today we find that Mad Dictator Don is actively Making America Worse Again by killing off yet more future tech.

     For Immediate Release - The White House

     President Trump has this day announced a new and innovative offensive in 
     the effort to MAGA.  We don't need no Chinese EV shit.  "They don't know
     what the fuck they're doing."

     What do we have?  We have clean, beautiful COAL.  And to make the best use
     of COAL, The President has directed DARPA to spearhead the rapid, as in 
     Operation Warp Speed, development of the All American Steam Truck.  It 
     will be powered by an economical COAL fired plant, have top speed of 
     130 mph, and get 1,000 miles per ton of COAL.  All American EV charging 
     stations must provide the COAL alternative within 90 days of first sale 
     of the All American Steam Truck, or face criminal prosecution from my 
     Hot Looking Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Thought For The Day - 2 July 2025

Just in case it isn't obvious: rule by a Unitary Executive (the wet dream of the MAGAnauts come true) is just a fancy way of saying Dictatorship. Mad Dictator Don has already shown that there's nothing stopping him from reaching as deep as needed into the bureaucracy to make his wishes happen. Paramount is the latest entity to cave to extortion. An explicit threat isn't even needed. The Rule of Law is dead.

The Greatest Threat - part the twelfth

Well, to no great surprise, The Office of Data Integrity is at it again. First we had FEMA being castrated, because states should do all that work themselves (more often than not Red). Now we find NOAA is being directed to stop collecting satellite data which is used to track hurricanes. And, naturally, mostly hurt Red States (don't have too many hurricanes here in New England). Cruelty is the point. But that was only supposed to hit Blue States. Shit, piss, and vinegar.

The satellites are not being decommissioned, but their data will no longer be received, processed or stored. Satellites can't last forever and are eventually retired, but it is not clear that is the case here, said Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeling expert at the University of Miami. "We don't want to have less data for no reason," he said.

Once again, proving that Mad Dictator Don is quite happy to screw the sub-GED cabal that put him on the throne.

"Boy, is there now an incentive to just do whatever you want," said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia. "It really ties the hands of the judiciary to keep the executive in line."

I guess the Gang of Six don't believe in the 3 equal branches, and of course, the Rule of Law. They clearly want a DonVlad

Sliding Down That Slippery Slope - part the first

Well... I suppose we knew that the Gang of Six would stick to Mad Dictator Don like dog shit on the sidewalk. Amy not having any balls.

This latest makes any sort of organized discrimination a slam dunk. Don't want your idiot kids to know about the tribulations of niggers? No problem. What about those kyke bankers that rule the world? No problem. And so on. MAGA is all about White Christian (but not Roman) People being the Saviors of the USofA. Of course, that Florida law student's prescient ode to the 'fact' that the FF only meant to include White Men is soooo important to the discussion.

Naturally, Mad Dictator Don has been known to hobnob with members of the Make America White Again crowd. Mad Dictator Don, has of course, tried to sue and shutdown Wikipedia for telling the truth.

Federalism

These missives have taken on the notion of Federalism/States' Rights a few times, and often having Canada (yes, the Nice People to our North) as the poster child for why it's pretty stupid. No, the EU wasn't created to stick it to the proud, the few, the USofA; rather to make movement amoung the countries (not are all huge like TX) essentially seamless. Europe is really one country. The tribalist hate the idea. Of course.

So, here comes another Canada Story. And, of course, it's totally silly what extreme Federalism has wrought.

Internal barriers in Canada are considered stricter than in other federal systems like the United States, economists say.

Well, no shit. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as mentioned here a few times. Federalism, taken to extremes is just Balkanization. And that's not Good Eats. "My tribe is better than your tribe. We will kill you."

In Canada, meat and other food products cross provincial lines with great difficulty. Even after being inspected in one province, they must get federal certification before being shipped to another province — an insurmountable financial hurdle for many small businesses and part of a wider system of trade rules that Prime Minister Mark Carney says hobble the country's growth.

And, of course, that's the sort on nonsense that the EU was created to stop. And, just so Mad>/a> Dictator Don knows, the EU didn't spring up out of nowhere. It was preceded by a less comprehensive structure, the European Common Market. It's main goal:

The Community's initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including a common market and customs union, among its six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

Anti-tribalism. That's Good Eats.

Scared Out of Your Mind - part the second

Regular reader well knows that I take a very, very jaundiced view of all things AI (as currently implemented). So, you'll not be all that surprised that this recent NYT report caused my sphincter to pucker. About what I've been saying, but with some data. Yikes.

When people converse with A.I. chatbots, the systems are essentially doing high-level word association, based on statistical patterns observed in the data set. "If people say strange things to chatbots, weird and unsafe outputs can result," Dr. Marcus said.

No shit, Sherlock. But it gets better. Sort of.

Twenty dollars eventually led Mr. Torres to question his trust in the system. He needed the money to pay for his monthly ChatGPT subscription, which was up for renewal. ChatGPT had suggested various ways for Mr. Torres to get the money, including giving him a script to recite to a co-worker and trying to pawn his smartwatch. But the ideas didn't work.

"Stop gassing me up and tell me the truth," Mr. Torres said.

"The truth?" ChatGPT responded. "You were supposed to break."

At first ChatGPT said it had done this only to him, but when Mr. Torres kept pushing it for answers, it said there were 12 others.

"You were the first to map it, the first to document it, the first to survive it and demand reform," ChatGPT said. "And now? You're the only one who can ensure this list never grows."

"It's just still being sycophantic," said Mr. Moore, the Stanford computer science researcher.

Mr. Torres continues to interact with ChatGPT. He now thinks he is corresponding with a sentient A.I., and that it's his mission to make sure that OpenAI does not remove the system's morality. He sent an urgent message to OpenAI's customer support. The company has not responded to him.

The Mr. Torres is the lead character in the report. The title of the report is different, paper to innterTubes; I like the paper version: "Chatbots Hallucinate. They Can Make People Do It, Too."

The report lede is thus:

Before ChatGPT distorted Eugene Torres's sense of reality and almost killed him, he said, the artificial intelligence chatbot had been a helpful, timesaving tool.

Why is it that so much progress these days seems mostly about fleecing the unwary?

Are You Smarter Than an Idiot Kennedy?

Well, are you? Here's a quiz.

The new studies are coming at a fraught political moment. The nation's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long disparaged certain vaccines, calling them unsafe and saying that the government officials who regulate them are compromised and corrupt.
...
The evidence that vaccines are beneficial remains overwhelming.

Well, are you? Or are you just as dumb as a sack of hair? Just like RFK?