Life can only be lived forwards and understood backwards. Kierkegaard
Memory is a dog that wants to please its master. William Boyd
85% of Americans believe they are above average drivers.
54% of American adults read below the 6th grade level. (~130 million)
Women account for 80% of all fiction sales in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
62% of all statistics are made up.
MAGA Christianity. Pete Hegseth's pastor prayed for a Democratic Senator's death on a podcast.
American Taliban.
In South Korea, Seoul Central District Court sentenced former president of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison after he was found guilty of leading an insurrection against the government.
The only way "talking head" pundits can maintain the attention of their audiences is to ramp up their outrageous behaviors.
High School history & civics courses are often taught by teachers whose main interest is coaching. More than ever, democracy demands knowledgeable citizens.
It seems America faces a choice: Either it can have unrestrained partisan gerrymandering, or it can have a democratic republic. It can’t have both. Henry Olsen
It is unbelievable how many announcers deem sports plays unbelievable.
Why are so many boys often named after the father but girls rarely after the mother?
Know this about your laissez faire attitude towards discrimination. It will eventually get around to you.
The designated hitter rule is an example of Marxist alienation from holistic labor. George Will probably
It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you. Will Rogers
If your pocket buzzes you with a text notification, do you immediately look at it? Ivan Pavlov QED.
The following poem accompanied the Minnesota state seal and 1983 flag. If you love the old flag, this is what you stand for:
The Seal of Minnesota. By Mrs. Eastman.
Give way, give way young warrior,
Thou and thy steed give way—
Rest not, though lingers on the hills,
The red sun's parting ray.
The rocky bluff and prairie land
The white man claims them now,
...
+ 8 more stanzas in the same vein
Dwight D Eisenhower credited his mother with helping him handle his temper. “She did a lousy job,” recalled one aide.
Congressional pay of 175k is not enough so insider trading is necessary to take care of their family. Mike Johnson
Well over half of Congress are millionaires. The Senate has been dubbed the “Millionaires Club” with 73 of 100 with net worth > 1M
More and more people are investing in Hamburger Helper.
The stock market is not the economy. The top 10% wealthiest American households own approximately 87% of all stocks.
If you are under the illusion that you understand Wall Street, there is this. "Daily DOW options arrive as zero-day trades reach half Cboe index volume"
How's your crypto account doing these days?
Those who teach poetry make more money than those who write it.
Minnesota is the hardest place in the country to get people to move to - or from. Lee Lynch
I find this disheartening. University of Minnesota golf course's 18 holes will be replaced with 1800 housing units.
The Saturday Strib barely covers the birdcage.
The story of greedflation, that companies raise prices when there’s a crisis, not because their actual costs have gone up, but because with everybody raising prices, who will notice if I get greedy? Paul Krugman
I’m old enough to remember when we were a serious country. Paul Krugman
Government service used to value competence. Now the only thing that matters is fealty.
Not so long ago, it would have been called un-American.
Why can't political parties field serious candidates? Why has the bar for our politicians fallen so low?
These days it takes at least 3 pitchers to throw a no-hitter.
$109,700. San Francisco Housing authority low income threshold for "low income" status for a single person.
Not knowing the Second Law of Thermodynamics is like never having read a work of Shakespeare. C.P. Snow
An example: A clean room naturally tends to get messy over time unless energy is put into it
The Trump administration has essentially ended refugee admissions to the United States, with only one exception: White South Africans. Undisguised racism.
USAID cuts killed people. That’s the truth. NY Times
Cruelty is the point.
We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world. Ronald Reagan
Any policy designed to help people gets labeled socialism. Look it up. Social democracy is not socialism.
Very, very few Americans are socialists but very, very many say "hands off my Social Security and my Medicare".
In most states, if no one else is at an intersection, it is legal for a bicycle to treat a stop sign as a yield.
The fake AI generated image that broke my camel’s back: an image of Sandy Koufax pitching right handed.
AI = Outsourcing your brain.
There's a high probability that you are suffering from Nomophobia.
Whereof you do not know, thereof you must remain silent. Ludwig Wittgenstein If our politicians followed Wittgenstein’s advice, we would hear little from them.
The U.S. is becoming irrelevant to the rest of the world. e.g. "Europe is done with American Big Tech".
The American Military-Industrial-Complex, aided and abetted by this administration, is endangering our security by resisting the obvious transition to drone warfare because $4 million Patriot missiles and billion dollar battleships are more profitable than a $35K drone. It is a betrayal of America in the service of money and ego.
I believe that Don Caesar would love to give thumbs up/thumbs down after each UFC bout.
22 specialists.
Humans consistently show a preference toward moving counterclockwise.
Right now, a faraway region of the universe is pulling the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies toward it. We’re technically moving at blistering speeds of around 1.3 million miles per hour in its direction.
Almost always, ascending to the presidency represents service and sacrifice, not profit.
$2.2B
Sadly, we have learned to excuse what we should condemn. Where is the outrage?
Writing stabilizes thoughts; it allows you to see connections that thoughts alone cannot.
Copyright © 2026 Dave Hoplin
Yes fealty explains so much these days. The good news is the liege is 80 and not 40, although that does introduce an element of senility.
ReplyDeleteToo many thoughts to try to respond to. Here's one or two:
ReplyDelete- "Memory is a dog that wants to please its master." So is ChatGPT.
- Paul Krugman's a smart man but he falls into a common trap. If I could change one thing about right-wing economic thought, it would be to convince them that "the market" does not equal "good outcome." But if I could change one thing about left-wing economic thought, it's that you can't wish market forces away, and if you are trying to achieve a "good outcome" then you need to have an actual plan for dealing with the natural shift of the economic equilibrium, otherwise you end up with perverse outcomes like in cities with rent control. So here, Krugman gives us the "surprised Pikachu" look when he discovers that prices are disconnected from costs. C'mon, man.
- eh, I could go on, but it's a nice Saturday and I'll get along with my day.
Common occurrence. Too long, didn't read. TL;DR
Delete