That is the number of votes that Trump received in the 2020 and 2024 Presidential elections. 73,407,735 in the most recent election and 74,223,975 in the 2020 election. Even assuming that there is a very large overlap between these two sets, the number of people voting for Trump has been —>> read more –>>
Last spring, I moved with my wife Karen Davis from Hudson, NY to West Palm Beach, FL. In part, this was to be closer in our aging years to one of our children. We bought a condominium in a vintage 1969 10-story building right on the Intracoastal Waterway, across the —>> read more –>>
Maine had a ballot question to limit political action committees (PACs) ability to influence elections for state offices. QUESTION 1: An Act to Limit Contributions to Political Action Committees That Make Independent Expenditures, Do you want to set a $5,000 limit for giving to political action committees that spend money —>> read more –>>
That is the title of my daily diary entry for Wednesday 11.6.2024. Nothing further must be said, at least by me.
Much is made here and elsewhere of the extreme concentration of wealth in the top 1% of the world’s population (63 million people) and perhaps most excessively in the top 0.1%. Now, we must also recognize that these very same people, the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires, contribute in similar excessive —>> read more –>>
October 2024 The US Congressional Budget Office has updated it findings on wealth inequality. Since 1989 the top 10%’s share of wealth has increased from 56.5% to 60.1% in 2022. As usual the top 1% did even better with its wealth share gaining 4.4% over the same time period. —>> read more –>>
The rich and corporations are on a path to set a new record for the amount of money spent in Washington on lobbying. The total spending for 2024 is poredicted to reach $4.2 billion. No surprise, the number of lobbyists will also set a new record. OpenSecrets.org reports, “Record-breaking federal —>> read more –>>
Milton Friedman asserted in his 9.13.1970 NYTimes opinion piece that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open —>> read more –>>
With yet another school shooting yesterday 9.3.2024 in Georgia I found myself barely moved. The frequency of these events and the now ritualized sequelae have extinguished any other reaction. Here is a chart I came on today in The Conversation. It is shocking, even to me, that we have taken —>> read more –>>
The 8.27.2024 NYTimes featured this interactive article: “When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself – As A.I.-generated data becomes harder to detect, it’s increasingly likely to be ingested by future A.I., leading to worse results.” by Aatish Bhatia. Simply put, AI (artificial intelligence) systems have already eaten virtually —>> read more –>>
In the mid-1980s, my wife Karen took me on a camping trip in the American Southwest. We stopped at Chaco Culture National Park. It was immediately evident that a very sophisticated civilization had created these structures and figured out how to live in a semi-arid environment with trade ties to —>> read more –>>
In a recent case, SNYDER v. UNITED STATES, the US Supreme Court declared that money, gifts, and other emoluments given after a decision or action by a public official are gratuities (gifts), not bribes. This looks like the laughable logic of a six-year-old trying to explain away some crime to —>> read more –>>
©Mark Orton 2024 NO AI SCRAPING !! without explicit permission from author.