Will Democrats have to move if Republicans win in their states?

Democrats say that Americans will lose their democratic rights and be subjected to “fascism” if any Republicans are elected to positions of power today. Here’s an example from the Tyrant of Tallahassee’s opponent: 18 days left to protect abortion rights.18 days left to stop fas … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Should we use the language of alcoholics to describe our COVID-19 vaccine status?

Alcoholics, at least in movies, like to say “I’m 5 years sober” or “I’m 8 months sober” or whatever, referring to their last drink that mean people would prohibit altogether. We see some of the same behavior with the COVID-19 “shots”. Some people can’t stay away from CVS and get … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Wile E. Coyote looks down (U.S. economic downturn has begun in earnest?)

There’s a sports car dealer next to our favorite taco place here in Jupiter. Their lot was jammed with cars, seemingly twice as full as in the summer. From their perspective, the car market turned about 30 days ago. They’re now paying only MSRP for nearly-new (500-mile) C8 Corvet … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

My new favorite Covidian

Here’s the kind of policy advisor that we’re missing in Florida: Some perspective for those who still don't get it: If I were forced to be infected by either HIV or COVID, I would choose HIV without hesitation.— Michael Olesen 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@maolesen … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Voting advice from the Norwegians: Women vote for Women

From the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo: Kvinder vælg Kvinder. If your Norwegian is a bit rusty, the museum provides an English translation of this 1916 poster: Related: “Women Are So Fired Up to Vote, I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It” (NYT, 9/3): Especially since the ascension of … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Despite privilege, a tall white man leads a “life of struggle”

The New York Times, which previously informed us how easy white men had everything, regarding our most noble citizen… “After a Life of Struggle, Biden Faces One More Inflection Point”: Before heading into a community center for a campaign rally the other day, President Biden sto … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Stock market performance since Joe Biden took office

I wonder if the Democrats are going to lose even some of their elite support in this week’s election (or maybe we should say “last week’s election” because so many people voted early?). Elites own stock and the S&P 500 is down nearly 2% in nominal terms compared to January 20, 20 … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Would Republicans be better off losing this election?

Late-night political thought… If prices are guaranteed to keep spiraling upward due to everything the government spends being indexed (see Can our government generate its own inflation spiral?), might Republicans be better off losing all of the Senate and House races on Tuesday? … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Abortion Care Art?

Abortion care for pregnant people seems to be the principal topic among Democrats running for office in the upcoming election. Examples: Greg Abbott’s dangerous abortion law is the most extreme in the country. We are going to defeat him.— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Will Harvard apologize for discriminating based on skin color if this is found unconstitutional?

The Supreme Court is pondering the fate of Harvard’s race-based admissions system (see It was okay to discriminate against white people, but maybe it is not okay to discriminate against Asians and What is Harvard’s argument for race-based admissions in the #StopAsianHate age?). … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why did Disney want and get its own county?

Disney World opened 51 years ago, with tickets priced at $3.50 for adults, $2.50 for teens, and $1 for kids. The company has been in the news recently for wanting to undo Florida legislature’s work in preventing public school systems from teaching sexual orientation and gender i … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Did the Twitter search programmers deserve to be fired?

Elon Musk fired a lot of people from Twitter today (CNN). But the advertisers are leaving even faster, now that there is the potential for users to utter misinformation, e.g., that COVID-19 “vaccines” don’t prevent infection and transmission. Twitter has had a massive drop in r … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Florida comes up with a scheme for increasing taxes on private workers via a property tax exemption for government workers

On the ballot this year… “Florida Amendment 3, the Additional Homestead Property Tax Exemption for Certain Public Service Workers”: A “yes” supports authorizing the Florida State Legislature to provide an additional homestead property tax exemption on $50,000 of assessed value o … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

HondaJet at NBAA (third time is the charm?)

One of the long-held dreams of people in general aviation is that a car company would come in and fix all of our woes (high costs, low volumes, intensive maintenance requirements, dumb-as-bricks systems). If Honda, for example, could make an airplane that is as comfortable and re … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What kind of economic advice is Joe Biden getting?

Joe Biden’s economic policy seems to follow the same logic as that used by my 88-year-old mom’s circle of friends. These women are generally innumerate, despite having enjoyed elite educations, because they took their last math class in high school and, as stay-at-home wives, cou … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Dumb question: Why didn’t the Fed raise interest rates by 3 percent once it realized its incompetence?

The Fed has raised its primary credit rate by 3 percent compared to the spring of 2022 (this chart doesn’t show today’s bump): If the Fed recognized back in the spring of 2022 that low interest rates plus wild deficit spending was a toxic combination, thus leading to the 0.75 … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton museum

A heroic reader suggested that we visit the Fondation Louis Vuitton in the Bois de Boulogne and was kind enough to pick us up and drive us there. Frank Gehry designed the building in 2006 when he was 77 years old. In other words, he did a few sketches and let a platoon of nameles … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Should Palm Beach be renamed Elba?

One powerful obsession has been that a former leader will break out from his island exile and become an absolute ruler once again. I’m talking, of course, about Napoleon on Elba, which was indeed followed by a brief return to power (he was 46 years old at the time). We face a so … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Twitter won’t suspend a politician who lies to get money?

Twitter banned Marjorie Taylor Greene for saying, without seeking cash, that the COVID-19 “vaccine” did not prevent infection and transmission (CNN). Here’s a politician who asks for money and supports his request by saying that he’s 1% behind in the polls: Floridians are casti … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Is the rainbow flag the mezuzah for Democrats?

I hope that everyone has plans in place for Trans Awareness Month, which starts today. We recently went through JFK Terminal 5, which appears on casual inspection to be free of 2SLGBTQQIA+ messaging, but our 7-year-old noticed a much-too-small-for-the-building rainbow flag up hig … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Joe Biden headlines a COVID Superspreader event in Florida

Joe Biden should be speaking soon at an indoor COVID Superspreader event that the Followers of Science have organized here in South Florida. From Florida Memorial University: Note, especially, “this event is expected to reach attendance capacity.” In other words, by design the … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Halloween in Abacoa

Happy Halloween everyone! If you open your wallet at Home Depot, is it possible to create a spooky environment when it is 80 degrees and sunny? You can be the judge! Here are some photos from our MacArthur Foundation-created neighborhood in Jupiter, Florida: I decla … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

It was okay to discriminate against white people, but maybe it is not okay to discriminate against Asians

“In cases challenging affirmative action, court will confront wide-ranging arguments on history, diversity, and the role of race in America” (scotusblog.com): In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities may consider race in their admissions process … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why did the police let David DePape hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer?

We are informed that the San Francisco police, presumably armed with guns and clad in bulletproof vests, were spectators as a violent attack on a taxpayer occurred. From the New York Times: In the early hours of Friday morning, the intruder entered through a back door of the sta … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why isn’t Ron DeSantis dead?

It’s been a month since Team DeSantis began the Hurricane Ian rebuilding effort (“build back quickly” will not be the motto?). The hated tyrant, from a Democrat’s point of view, spent the week prior to the hurricane organizing an army of about 100,000 utility workers, soldiers, s … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Science in the US, Denmark, and the UK

The US has a history of enthusiasm regarding whatever is new and shiny from the pharmaceutical industry (see Book review: Bad Pharma, about a book by a British doc). So it isn’t surprising that the CDC recommends emergency use authorized COVID-19 booster shots for anyone 5 or old … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Lost Bank lesson: Make sure you have a lot of friends in Washington, D.C.

I hope that each of you did his/her/zir/their reading assignment from a month ago, i.e., The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual – The Biggest Bank Failure in American History. Now that I have finished the book myself and have given folks a chance to avoid spoilers, a brie … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Car wash owner on immigration

A text message exchange with a friend who owns a car wash in a Democrat-run sanctuary city. I asked whether Governors Abbott and DeSantis were sending him a good supply of migrants. Him: Not yet! Me: Would be good for your labor costs. What are you paying now? Him: Average wag … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Invite to an election night party

Here’s part of an invitation that I received to an election night party: The party is here in South Florida, but the host is a lockdown refugee from San Francisco. Some political signs have gone up in our town. There is a lot of enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis and a bit for C … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

New York Times: replacement theory is false; it is just that white Americans are becoming a minority

“Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated.” (New York Times, October 23, 2022) is on the evergreen topic of the remarkable stupidity of people who don’t live in New York. The main subject of election fraud is not what struck me, though. The newspaper … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

NBAA Report

The NBAA BACE convention, a.k.a., “NBAA”, was a fun experience even though I’m not in the market for the $20-75 million airplanes that are the core of the show. Hurricane Ian hit Orlando on September 28, 2022. We are informed by the media that Orlando was destroyed by the result … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why are advertisers allowed to claim that the latest COVID-19 shots are more effective?

CVS says “The bivalent vaccine provides added protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant”: .@CDCDirector Rochelle Walensky visited a CVS Pharmacy today to get her bivalent COVID-19 booster. The bivalent vaccine provides added protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Stop Jewish Hate

Any time that a friend in Massachusetts drives by a #StopAsianHate sign, he says “I wish those Asians would stop hating so much.” Let’s check in with #StopJewishHate starting with a tweet from the Tyrant of Tallahassee: As the sun sets and Yom Kippur begins, @CaseyDeSantis and … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How much more successful would Rishi Sunak have been if he had been born white?

The UK has a new prime minister. Because they could not find anyone 78-86, which Science proves is the age range in which a human exhibits optimum decision-making skills, they’ve chosen 42-year-old Rishi Sunak. “Rishi Sunak to become first British PM of colour and also first Hin … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Climate change leader tosses a $110 million 6-year-old house into a landfill

Let’s start off in the Department of Sick with Envy… “Lavish Palm Beach mansion built just six years ago, then bought for $110m last year ‘by Estée Lauder boss’ will be TORN DOWN and replaced with new property” (Daily Mail): A never-lived-in oceanfront mansion that quietly sold … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why isn’t there an “I got my monkeypox vaccine” Facebook frame?

Here are frames that Facebook offers me. #1, of course, perhaps based on my search history, is a “Pride 2022” frame. If we expand the selection to include frames created by Facebook affiliates, such as the U.S. Government, there is a rich selection of COVID-19 vaccination frames: … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Florida Gubernatorial Debate Notes

Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis debated tonight, moderated by Liz Quirantes, a TV anchor and “Hispanic Woman of Distinction for South Florida”. Here are my notes… The local NBC station had a pre-debate show in which they attributed Charlie Crist being behind in the polls solely t … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Massachusetts Migrant Welcome

“Battenfeld: Charlie Baker quietly sends migrants to Methuen hotel with no warning” (Boston Herald): the Baker administration quietly bused scores of immigrant families to a questionable Methuen hotel last Friday without even telling local authorities.The lack of transparency is … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Fortress Florida

“Florida Coastal Living Reshaped by Hurricane Housing Codes” (Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2022) opens with what I think is the usual misleading footage of a destroyed section of Fort Myers Beach, i.e., of a trailer park that was predictably no match for a hurricane. The arti … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The religion of Diversity and the failure of the recent UK government

“Liz Truss has appointed the most diverse cabinet ever.” (Guardian, 9/7/2022): None of the four most senior jobs in the British government will be held by a white man. We are informed that Diversity leads to superior results and that this has been proven as a Scientific fact. “ … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Movie recommendation: Official Competition

It is rare for me to recommend a movie without helicopter scenes, but on the Paris-JFK leg of our recent trip, I enjoyed Official Competition, a movie about a rich old guy (comically characterized as a “millionaire” and therefore rich enough to buy a tract house in South Florida? … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Taxes and productivity lessons from Pablo Picasso

The Picasso museum in Paris is built on inheritance tax, according to a sign there. Pablo Picasso died in 1973 and his children had to give paintings to the French government or pay estate taxes that would certainly have exceeded their ability to pay (since the paintings that the … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Too elite to fail at NYU

Some years ago I spoke with a mathematician who earned a Ph.D. at Florida State University and went on to become a professor at Vanderbilt. “At FSU,” she said, “I taught calculus and about a third of the students didn’t do the homework, didn’t learn any calculus, expected to fail … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Math for Democrats: 30 is less than 19

“Young Aviation Record-Setters Share Secrets to Success at 2022 NBAA-BACE” (NBAA.org, today): Barrington Irving, founder and CEO of Flying Classroom, moved with his family from Jamaica to the U.S. and grew up in a rough neighborhood in Miami. In 2010, at age 23, he became the yo … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Trust the Science: CNN and Hurricane Ian

“Ian’s 5-day forecast predicted landfall only 5 miles from actual location” (CNN): The National Hurricane Center worked around the clock to get the best forecasts out and they did it with incredible accuracy.Looking back at the forecast, the landfall location, Cayo Costa, was in … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

NYT highlights the bright side of being poorer

This is kind of beautiful… “Inflation Adjustments Mean Lower Tax Rates for Some in 2023” (NYT): The rapidly rising cost of food, energy and other daily staples could allow many Americans to reduce their tax bills next year, the I.R.S. confirmed on Tuesday.Tax rates are adjusted … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why don’t Facebook profile picture frames offer “I got my 5th COVID-19 vaccine shot”?

Here’s a Facebook profile photo of a person in the San Francisco Bay Area software industry (UC Berkeley grad and former academic!) whom Facebook thinks would want to be friends with me: Of course, it is good that he/she/ze/they got his/her/zir/their first COVID-19 vaccine sho … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

California’s new law against “lewd” pictures and Islamic tradition

“Bill to Ban Sending Unsolicited Lewd Pictures and Videos Signed Into Law”: After receiving strong bipartisan support in the Legislature, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation earlier today authored by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) to establish legal protections for techn … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago