Mike Wolf

Pew research “Republicans think colleges are bad for America”

Newsweek story based on Pew:  “Majority of Republicans say colleges are bad for America (Yes, really)”

700 employees have left the EPA under Trump.

How many people have left the EPA

Retirements From Government

US Government Employment-graph -not changed that much under Trump

Details of EPA buyouts

https://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/01/09/professors-moved-left-but-country-did-not/

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/27/research-confirms-professors-lean-left-questions-assumptions-about-what-means

Republicans and Global Warming

Terrorism in the United States

Jonathan Haight interview “Can a divided America Heal?”

Scott thinks this is the better of the two: “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives“

The United States is the largest provider of financial contributions to the United Nations, providing 22 percent of the entire UN budget in 2017 (in comparison the next biggest contributor is Japan with almost 10 percent, while EU countries pay a total of above 30 percent). Wikipedia

The United States, the world’s largest economy, accounts for approximately 25 percent of Nominal world GDP, and the seven largest economies (amalgamating the European Union economies as one) account for 75 percent of the total.  Wikipedia

Scott Adams Blog “The Demolition President”

“How President Trump Changed Your Imagination”

Trump predictions and whether they came true

Trump has deported fewer immigrants that Obama

But not for lack of trying

ICE arrests of immigrants have gone up from an average of 9,134 per month (October to December 2016) to 13,085 a month during February to June 2017.

Fewer Foreign Students Coming to US

No, it hasn’t badly hurt enrollment

There is no secret master plan. Tump is the WYSIWYG president.

For those unfamiliar with the computer term: WYSISYG  means “What You See Is What You Get.”

“40 Maps That Explain the Middle East”

From Jonathan Haidt’s Wriston Lecture for the Manhattan Institute, delivered on November 15.

The more radical Republican Party: When the Democrats ran the House of Representatives for almost all of six decades, before 1995, they did not treat the Republican minority particularly well. So I can understand Newt Gingrich’s desire for revenge when he took over as Speaker of the House in 1995. But many of the changes he made polarized the Congress, made bipartisan cooperation more difficult, and took us into a new era of outrage and conflict in Washington. One change stands out to me, speaking as a social psychologist: he changed the legislative calendar so that all business was done Tuesday through Thursday, and he encouraged his incoming freshmen not to move to the District. He did not want them to develop personal friendships with Democrats. He did not wanttheir spouses to serve on the same charitable boards. But personal relationships among legislators and their families in Washington had long been a massive centripetal force. Gingrich deliberately weakened it.

Jonathan Haidt TED Talk

Heterodox Academy

China’s taking advantage of Trump

In a speech to Communist Party officials last January 20th, Major General Jin Yinan, a strategist at China’s National Defense University, celebrated America’s pullout from the trade deal. “We are quiet about it,” he said. “We repeatedly state that Trump ‘harms China.’ We want to keep it that way. In fact, he has given China a huge gift. That is the American withdrawal from T.P.P.” Jin, whose remarks later circulated, told his audience, “As the U.S. retreats globally, China shows up.”

Trump in Beijing

Exactly as expected, the Chinese leadership slathered on the gold-leafed pomp with trowels when President Trump arrived in Beijing this week. As Jane Perlez put it in Tuesday’s New York Times, “They know just how to handle an outspoken tycoon with a big ego.”

Scott’s propeller is at the bottom of the ocean. Scott is not. He was recently seen at our meeting.

I’m putting this at the top: Umeshism. Scott Aaronson is a quantum physicist who defined it in his blog.

The original one:

If you’ve never missed a flight, you’re spending too much time in airports.

Some variants:

If there aren’t loopholes in the tax code, you’re spending too much time closing loopholes.

If there aren’t unintended consequences to a law, you’re spending too much time anticipating consequences.

Article from Cato in 2013

The program’s expenditures have doubled over the last decade, reaching an estimated $144 billion this year.

From SSI–to 2003

Compared to most other countries:

Statistics: from here

A different view from Urban.org

Maxine Taylor, Georgia’s first Licensed Astrologer 

American Federation of Astrologers Certification (Only certified astrologer in Maine)

Salmonella outbreak in 2012

Salmonella in general

2015 E coli outbreak

Chipotle outbreak

CBO forecasting results