Donald Trump thinks you’re very dim. When I was a graduate student in the mathematics department at MIT, I heard this saying: Gambling is a tax on the stupid. Unless you have an actual edge (like a card counter), the house always wins. There is no system that will beat the house. You might win,…
Facebook claims to have a consistent set of standards for what appears on its platform. But based on the reporting in a recent Wall Street Journal article, it fails. It attempts and fails to apply fair standards to ordinary people. It attempts and fails to treat prominent people who post offensive material more personally and…
Democracy is flawed, but self-correcting with an educated electorate. However, here in the United States, we have the stupidest possible form of democracy. A candidate wins the popular vote for president by 2.8 million votes, but loses the election, as happened in 2016? That’s just stupid. A Senate where senators elected by 43% of the…
Federal judge Linda V. Parker had the task of determining if Trump election lawyers including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood should receive sanctions for misuse of the judiciary system in Michigan. Her opinion isn’t just clear, it’s outspoken, bold, and unequivocal — a rarity in legal works. Judge Parker’s 110-page opinion states, in meticulous detail,…
I believe Donald Trump’s next book will come out in 2022, will move the needle on his election, and will generate tens of millions of dollars for him. A New York Times newsletter sent today explains how political books continue to sell on both sides of the political divide. Conservatives now have their own publishers,…
Donald Trump’s campaign people send me incendiary emails every day. Most of it is just baiting to get money, but I was intrigued by one of these emails that claimed he was right about ten things that “the media” got wrong. Was Trump actually telling the truth and we missed it? Let’s put it to…
In response to a subpoena from the Arizona Senate for additional election materials to support an audit, the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Jack Sellers, wrote a defiant letter. The letter was fun to read, but did it accomplish its goals? What’s going on in Maricopa Country, Arizona? Republicans in the Arizona…
On Friday, President Biden said social media platforms including Facebook are “killing people” with misinformation about COVID-19. Facebook’s response: “It’s not us, really.” Facebook’s statement is classic deflection; I’ll deconstruct it for you. On July 15, Vivek Murthy, the US Surgeon General, made a public statement about virus misinformation, which he called “an urgent threat…
Donald Trump wrote a statement about the coup on January 6 — saying if he staged a coup, he’d do it differently. His language reminds me of O.J. Simpson — and shows why “If I did it” makes you look guilty to those who hate you, and heroic to those who support you. Simpson’s subjunctive…