Richard Hanania argues that DeSantis’ abortion ban hurts his prospects for a general election: With Ron DeSantis about to sign a six-week abortion ban and sink his chances of winning a general election, it’s useful to think a bit about why this issue has been such a loser for Republicans. The degree to which this… Continue reading Abortion Does Not Hurt DeSantis, and Why DeSantis is the Perfect GOP Frontrunner

The statue of limitations is one of the most commonly confused or misunderstood legal concepts, especially online. The reasoning is as follows, “If someone is not convicted of a crime in x-number of years, which is the statute of limitations, they will have gotten away with it.” We’re assuming crimes which have limitations, unlike murder,… Continue reading The Statute of Limitations– a commonly misunderstood concept

From Freddie deBoer The Almond Butter Test: Consciousness is the product of 4 billion years of evolution, which is one of the most powerful forces in the known universe. Consciousness is literally embodied, found in organic beings, carbon forms that maintain homeostasis. We assume consciousness is the product of the brain, but we don’t really… Continue reading AI, Consciousness, and Audience Capture

Twitter blocks Substack links. There has been an ongoing spat between Elon Musk and Substack. Matt Taibbi, who along with others was given exclusive access to the ‘Twitter Files’, has quit Twitter over Substack links being censored. [Right now though, I am able to share Substack links on Twitter without any problems, nor am I… Continue reading Elon Musk in a Bind over Substack

Here are some possible scenarios for the ‘AI winter’: 1. GPUs are regulated. Or an AI mortarium. This is the solution Eliezer Yudkowsky advocates. The likelihood of this happening is really slim. Good luck getting Congress to ever agree to such a thing, given that four years later TikTok has still not been banned despite… Continue reading The AI Winter: some possible scenarios

Interesting Richard Hanania article, How to Be an Intellectual and Writing for the Public. Its not that surprising his blog is a major success despite some of his views being contradictory or at odds with some of his more partisan readers. Intentionally or not, his views optimize for traffic and virality by being shared by… Continue reading Socially Optimized Positions, Authenticity, and Weirdness

Everyone is talking about Chat GPT-4, which is the flagship product of Open AI, founded by Sam Altman and others. So what does the future hold for Open AI from an investing perspective? Buy or sell? Deal or no deal? This topic has been debated to death online, but I will throw my hat into… Continue reading Why Open AI Will Not Worth a Trillion Dollars (the bearish case)

Overall, the 1st quarter of 2023 has been among the strongest: Stocks rally to cap a winning month, quarter for Wall Street. This is why I rolled over my 2022 forecasts. I knew it would recover. It always does. You would have to go as far back to 2002-2001 to have two consecutive negative years… Continue reading 2023 1st quarter investing update: a hugely strong start

From Richard Hanania SCOTUS Must Go for the Heart of the Race State: If this is the end result of SFFA, it will be the latest in a long line of Supreme Court decisions that sought to push back race- and gender-based governance while only making it stronger. In order to get around this problem,… Continue reading Let Harvard (and other colleges) Discriminate Based on Race

From the WSJ, Home Prices Fell in February for First Time in 11 Years. It’s waaayyy too early to celebrate. Since 2010, homes prices are way up nationally. Such as the Bay Area: This WSJ story seems like data mining at its finest, and I don’t see how this is so newsworthy. Unless prices never… Continue reading The daily view 3/30/2023: Home prices fall, UK inflation, GOP, and the Metaverse/META