This viral thread on Twitter is a classic case of confirmation bias - one starts with a narrative,  finds confirmation evidence, and then presents it as the whole picture. I can provide more evidence to support this dysfunctional US narrative, but the country overall is not remotely as shitty as pictured in this thread. I have no doubt Japan is a very nice country even though I have been there only via flight layovers, but I have had so many Japanese friends and used so many Japanese products (including 3 Japanese cars) that I know their culture of detail-oriented perfectionism. The US is diverse in every sense. There are 3rd-world areas in the US, but the country is in the 1st world overall. I say this with unshakable confidence based on my visits to numerous places. These are the places I have visited since Google Maps started to track me in 2020: The only escalator turned off I can recall in the past few years was one at South Station at midnight when I was the only person besid...

  Trump Cabinet Nominees ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Marco Rubio , Secretary of State. Long track record of clear understanding of the new Axis of Evil. Robert Lighthizer , TBD. Brilliant trade representative with a solid track record. Mike Waltz , NSA.  Good track record of clear understanding of the new Axis of Evil. Strong pragmatic supporter of slaughtered Ukraine. Scott Bessent , Treasury Secretary. Widely praised for his tough stance on global cheaters. Doug Burgum , Interior Secretary. Principled and pragmatic governor. John Ratcliffe , CIA Director. Widely praised from different segments of the political spectrum. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tom Homan , Border Czar.  Exceptionally tough on illegals. Probably the right person to reverse the massive southern border invasion. Mike Huckabee , Ambassador to Israel. Articulate with conviction. Elise Stefanik , UN ambassador. Probably the right person to deal with the corrupt, largely useless UN. Peter Navarro , trade counselor. A bit crazy, but with an i...

I hope Bluesky will finally be on par with and rivaling Twitter. It should have 18M users by now (2011-11-17). We have had Gettr, Truth Social, Threads, Mastodon all of which have limited relevance. Threads reached 100M users quickly but Zuckerburg failed to ride the momentum.  Bluesky needs superb TRANSPARENT algorithms to succeed. If Bluesky can create a community mirroring the physical free world, it will likely succeed. In the physical world, there are no massive trolls harassing people and spewing out trash, and no constant promotion of grifters, haters, or jerks.  The imminent risk for Bluesky is becoming another echo chamber like Truth Social and Gettr, but for the left. Twitter has a lot of good things. Ideally, Bluesky should have all the good stuff of Twitter and avoid its bad stuff.  The best thing of Twitter is its community notes. It also has many other good technical features. The bad things brought to Twitter by Musk: 1. Removing the gov label for accounts ...

Within 48 hours, probably 30M to 50M Americans will experience post-election stress disorder, many will attempt suicide and some will start to plan emigration. I will not. I actually look forward to it regardless of the winner.  Here is my glass-half-full thought:  To me, either T or H will be an upgrade to B. Here is why: If T wins, the southern border invasion concerning 96% of Americans will finally be stopped to allow us to focus on other important issues.  Deportation will accelerate to deter illegals but mass deportation costing over $100B/yr will not happen.  The main downside of T is primarily long-term. The US is such a mature democracy that T would need to rule for two or three decades to turn the US into Sinophile Orban's Hungary to control the media, and education institutions and merge the state with family business.  T's admiration of the dictators of the new axis of evil is nothing new. It has been the case since 2016 and he is very candid about i...