This would be source of unease even in a better economy than we have now. But it might be a subconscious factor when evaluating the current state of affairs. Maybe if voters were told more about the good things in offing (cancer cures) or had faith in pols ability to control AI. https://t.co/ZAc7x9LW8V

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 28, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 28, 2023 at 12:09AM
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Crazy idea: The unhappiness with the economy is a symptom of underlying unhappiness with where we’re headed as a country (and species). Specifically, people hear how we’re going to be thrown out of jobs by robots & AI, put on the dole (UBI) & then maybe exterminated! Unappealing. https://t.co/xjG7RQqUsK

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 28, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 28, 2023 at 12:04AM
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There’s also this possible explanation https://t.co/eRKjepGB8G

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 28, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 27, 2023 at 11:57PM
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If Biden is reelected, will his White House have *any* incentive to get this problem under control? I guess they could worry about a shellacking in the 2026 midterms. https://t.co/jYkHsNKf8O

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 28, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 27, 2023 at 10:10PM
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“One begins to suspect that Trump and his advisers are not ‘seriously looking’ at health-care policy.”

OK, so why’d he bring this political loser up? To please donors? To stop a big donor from backing a rival? …. What *are* Paul Singer’s views on Obamacare, anyway? https://t.co/UGDnXRaV6l

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 28, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 27, 2023 at 09:33PM
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Also 4) Don’t screw up Star Wars

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 27, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 11:04PM
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The classic response to this type of editors’ query–which I’d heard actually happened at US News–is “What fuck think mean?”

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 27, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 11:01PM
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Suggestions: 1) If it’s a thing you can virtue-signal with, woke might work (eg Nike). 2) If you can make money off only the woke subset of the market, go ahead (NYT) 3) But don’t try to make an abrupt change in your tribal valence (Bud Light, Disney). …

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 27, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 10:53PM
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It’s obviously not as simple as “go woke, go broke.” Nike and the @NYTimes have profited by throwing neutrality into the trash. And arguably left consumers have more $ than right consumers (https://t.co/wKLCo9QRtG) So what are the rules? https://t.co/RBnopU64AZ

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 27, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 10:49PM
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Disney has an “alignment” problem too … https://t.co/RBnopU64AZ

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 27, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 10:45PM
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Goes a level deeper than MSM accounts, which is about all I can take at the moment. …. https://t.co/g7QQl1ZcjM

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 06:34PM
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[What mean “close ties”?-ed] https://t.co/w6j4eaAIZT

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 06:07PM
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Translation: A giant Fool-the-Bubbas fraud, featuring drones, wasted border patrol spending, fake-tough provisions undermined in the fine print, but no effective policy changes–in short, something like Schumer’s Gang-of-Eight bill https://t.co/8BBO4SscIu –would be acceptable. https://t.co/K5zrN4TDxF

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 06:04PM
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“If voters aren’t sold on the notion that what stands between them and the end of democracy is Joe Biden, they might be more open to a variation on that theme …” https://t.co/mCWPDjnDCs

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 05:43PM
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When you don’t want to change your unpopular policy, one obvious tactic is to cut off information about it … Someone in the Biden administration seems to think that is the right road to go down. https://t.co/P4GtAoTFf2

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 26, 2023 at 04:52PM
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I’d never thought of it, but read a certain way, the utopian Marxist rule of “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” is a broad, severe work requirement. No work according to your abilities, no reward according to your needs! And no slacking.

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 25, 2023 at 02:49PM
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“She has close ties to Corey Lewandowski ….” NYT is now blatant about its politics, but on some issues they still speak in code. https://t.co/mWFXpQTYYo

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 25, 2023 at 02:11PM
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The key, non-intuitive point behind Peters’ plan: There is no one perfect Archimedean point at which bureaucrats become easy enough to fire to enforce competence, but hard enough to fire to protect against politics. If easy enough to fire, can’t prevent political firings.

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 25, 2023 at 02:44AM
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Charlie Peters’ 50-50 plan for bureaucrats-1/2 protected civil service, 1/2 patronage-made sense. The civil servants preserved institutional knowledge, the political appointees would implement their party’s agenda. Haley’s plan seems more a mess: no institutional memory, to start https://t.co/N0R7LNgoaG

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 25, 2023 at 02:38AM
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Will these johns get named while Epstein’s bigger-shot customers get protected? https://t.co/BNegH0dsKB

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 25, 2023 at 12:48AM
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via John Ellis’ “Political Week in Review” https://t.co/WS6o9asWoh

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 24, 2023 at 11:14PM
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What would Charlie Peters say? (This is a Peters-style story–the politicians boast as if it’s all as good as done, but the bureaucracy ensures much of it doesn’t get done. Washington Make Believe, he called it.) https://t.co/qfPd4TA0SC

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 24, 2023 at 07:47PM
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One problem: “requirements to promote racial equity, environmental sustainability and fair wages.” Laudable as these goals are, they have slowed things down.” Meanwhile inflation has already eaten the entire highway funding increase. https://t.co/wEAhA3kP3I

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 24, 2023 at 07:44PM
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Biden signed his Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal more than 2 years ago. Since then “total infrastructure spending has fallen by more than 10% in real terms.” https://t.co/D3VaelvMX5

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 25, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 24, 2023 at 07:41PM
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Remembering Charlie Peters https://t.co/bIgzg1XWo7 Follow @newrepublic

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Nov 24, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey

November 24, 2023 at 04:59PM
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