Being the revenge president goes two ways. First, you have to screw your enemies. Second, you have to make sure your friends have impunity to break the law. After two weeks, here is Donald Trump's scorecard: Dropped prosecution of former Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for lying to the FBI. Dropped charges against his pals in ...continue reading "A scorecard so far of the Trump revenge presidency"
I know I have to let this stuff go. Life is too short. But but but.... Is this a joke? That's a picture of a creek somewhere, not a part of the Central Valley Project that supplies about 5 million acre-feet of water to California farms annually. Here's what that looks like: That's Shasta Dam, ...continue reading "Trump thinks he turned on the Central Valley Project yesterday"
I'm running out of archival cat pictures and I'm not at home where I can take more. Luckily I have one left of Hilbert, so catblogging continues this week even in the face of Influenza A. Now fess up. Could you resist burying your hands in that vast, furry tummy?
Our final PCE inflation reading of 2024 is a mixed bag: Headline PCE is higher than we'd like, but core PCE is below 2%, right where we want it. The old fashioned year-over-year measurement, which you shouldn't care about except that everyone else does, was 2.6% for headline PCE and 2.8% for core PCE. Not ...continue reading "PCE inflation was a mixed bag in December"
Do budget deficits cause inflation? It's been years since I've done one of these, so take a gander: Cases where the deficit increased and so did inflation: Once, around 1974-76. Cases where it didn't: Six times. In 1951 the budget deficit went below zero but inflation spiked. 1957: Ditto. 1968-74: the budget deficit puttered along ...continue reading "Do budget deficits cause inflation?"
I know this is Trump, so the answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But over the past two weeks his wrath has been aimed at Denmark, Colombia, and now Canada and Mexico—all of them among our staunchest allies. You could hardly pick a group of better friends to the US than these. On a concrete basis, Denmark has ...continue reading "Being America’s friend is dangerous these days"
This is the Maria Therese chapel at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. I wasn't supposed to be where I was to take this picture, but there was no one around to tsktsk me and what's the harm? But it does show that you have to keep an eye on photographers every second or they'll just ramble ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"
Yesterday brought news that NAEP test scores had dropped yet again. If you disaggregate by race here's what they look like: First look at the green bars. They're for 2024 and they show only a minuscule one-point drop—except for Hispanics, who dropped a full six points. They account for almost the entire overall drop. Why? ...continue reading "2024 NAEP test scores weren’t too bad. But . . ."
For the last few weeks the Atlanta Fed has been forecasting nice, healthy GDP growth of 3% or more for the final quarter of 2024. Then their algorithm suddenly got the heebie-jeebies and they're now forecasting growth of only 2.3%: Tune in tomorrow for the actual answer!
Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to settle a vacuous lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against Meta years ago. Why now? Here's all you need to know: Toward the end of the November dinner, Trump raised the matter of the lawsuit, the people said. The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could ...continue reading "Trump extorts $25 million from Mark Zuckerberg"
Here's the latest from our illustrious leader: Trump: We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs. pic.twitter.com/UyjaUEdvfy — Acyn (@Acyn) January 29, 2025 Trump is half right. Hamas has long had a ...continue reading "What is Trump’s $50 million Gaza cut really about?"
I've been feeling terrible for the past week, which explains my erratic posting. Today I felt even terribler, so I spent the morning in the ER and learned that I have the flu. Blah. But at least I know what it is. I'll probably spend a night or two in the hospital under observation.
This is Highway 241, a relatively new toll road that passes through northern Irvine and connects north to Riverside and south to Coto de Caza. It's a handy shortcut for me when I go out to the desert for astronomy nights.
Just a quick note to bring some perspective to the tsunami of takes on DeepSeek. Keep in mind that it's open source and has been extensively and painstakingly documented. If it's as good as experts are saying, every one of its innovations will be adopted by other AI companies within a few months. And then ...continue reading "Soon everyone will be DeepSeek"
What in God's name is Trump talking about here? This is beyond weird. It's hallucinatory. And even if it were somehow true that the Army TURNED ON THE WATER, California doesn't get any water from the Pacific Northwest or beyond. We get it from our very own Sierra Nevadas. Is Trump really and truly losing ...continue reading "Donald Trump: I ordered military to turn on the water in California"
All right, I get that Trump hates the World Health Organization, though I'm not sure why. It's Trump. But apparently withdrawing isn't enough. Effective immediately, nobody at the CDC is allowed to communicate with anyone at WHO in any way. Huh? Then, this evening he paused all disbursements of federal grants and assistance—whatever that means—except ...continue reading "What’s going on?"
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