SDE
@defuncteconomist.bsky.social
Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars
Reposted by SDE
Herbert Simon on the internet and attention, 1996
October 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Herbert Simon on the internet and attention, 1996
WEB DuBois wrote this inscription, posted at Harper‘s Ferry
September 16, 2025 at 12:01 AM
WEB DuBois wrote this inscription, posted at Harper‘s Ferry
Reposted by SDE
wishing that activists hadn't fought on Skrmetti is either wrong on the facts - Tennessee pushed the case up the chain - or wrong on the premise: the law was challenged by someone in Tennessee who needed to win or flee the state. if activists are your punching bag, you wanted the kid to lose.
July 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
wishing that activists hadn't fought on Skrmetti is either wrong on the facts - Tennessee pushed the case up the chain - or wrong on the premise: the law was challenged by someone in Tennessee who needed to win or flee the state. if activists are your punching bag, you wanted the kid to lose.
People need to read Fritz Bartel, the Triumph of Broken Promises!
one of those things that i don't think people really realize is that authoritarian regimes are often *more* sensitive to popular opinion than democratic ones, because they do not have many means of sustaining or reinforcing their legitimacy
June 21, 2025 at 10:31 PM
People need to read Fritz Bartel, the Triumph of Broken Promises!
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W.E.B. Du Bois on Robert E. Lee:
“Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
“Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
June 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
W.E.B. Du Bois on Robert E. Lee:
“Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
“Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
IMO a lot of this factional infighting arises from the grievances of elite neoclassical economists having so squandered their influence such that no one listens to them anymore post-08
I find myself in an interesting spot as a *practitioner* of economics as opposed to an actual economist whenever people start getting factional about stuff. And it's interesting to see people reflexively defending MMT as a faction, because MMT is *much* more useful then established econ.
April 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
IMO a lot of this factional infighting arises from the grievances of elite neoclassical economists having so squandered their influence such that no one listens to them anymore post-08
Reposted by SDE
LLMs are a great tool for letting you kind of do something you don't know how to do. the problem is that knowledge of whether it is a good idea to half-ass something is highly correlated with knowledge of how to do the thing correctly.
vibe coding is a technique for being a mediocre or bad engineer in areas where you are not actually an engineer at all and don't really know anything. so uh. if that's what you're trying to do it's stellar probably
March 19, 2025 at 6:44 PM
LLMs are a great tool for letting you kind of do something you don't know how to do. the problem is that knowledge of whether it is a good idea to half-ass something is highly correlated with knowledge of how to do the thing correctly.
Reposted by SDE
We're throwing away that which cannot be regained for the ephemeral preferences of an illiterate madman.
The American economy has absolutely roared ahead of the rest for the world in its pandemic recovery. We even have an opportunity to put an aging and newly doubtful Chinese economy in the rear view mirror for a century. What a thing to squander.
March 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
We're throwing away that which cannot be regained for the ephemeral preferences of an illiterate madman.
Unitary executive theory means that the President can dictate the terms of individual prosecutions subject to his political whims
From a leading MAGA legal activist, over on the other site.
February 18, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Unitary executive theory means that the President can dictate the terms of individual prosecutions subject to his political whims
Reposted by SDE
another american catholic arguing with the pope about scripture and defending national interests ... if protesting the pope on issues of spiritual corruption and temporal authority is what you're into i have a 500-year tradition you should check out
February 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
another american catholic arguing with the pope about scripture and defending national interests ... if protesting the pope on issues of spiritual corruption and temporal authority is what you're into i have a 500-year tradition you should check out
If Trump is going all in on impoundment why does he care about the outcome of budget talks?
February 12, 2025 at 3:20 AM
If Trump is going all in on impoundment why does he care about the outcome of budget talks?
Reposted by SDE
the ethos of JD Vance is the nationalism of cucks. sacrificing every advantage this country had, every actual concrete thing we lead the world in, because it owns the people who make you feel insecure. an ideology of small men.
February 9, 2025 at 12:59 AM
the ethos of JD Vance is the nationalism of cucks. sacrificing every advantage this country had, every actual concrete thing we lead the world in, because it owns the people who make you feel insecure. an ideology of small men.
Reposted by SDE
The way an executive branch that respects the rule of law objects to a district court ruling it doesn’t like is to *appeal* it, not to imply that the ruling just shouldn’t be followed.
February 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The way an executive branch that respects the rule of law objects to a district court ruling it doesn’t like is to *appeal* it, not to imply that the ruling just shouldn’t be followed.
Reposted by SDE
demanding uninterrupted executive authority to do whatever you want when you also control both chambers of the legislature and the supreme court is weak, lazy politics
February 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
demanding uninterrupted executive authority to do whatever you want when you also control both chambers of the legislature and the supreme court is weak, lazy politics
Reposted by SDE
The member of Elon's incel clown posse in charge of the US Treasury's galaxy brain idea: "Let's take data formatted specifically for computers to read, filter it through an English language model that will completely ignore the structure of the data, and convert it to a different file format."
February 6, 2025 at 8:22 PM
The member of Elon's incel clown posse in charge of the US Treasury's galaxy brain idea: "Let's take data formatted specifically for computers to read, filter it through an English language model that will completely ignore the structure of the data, and convert it to a different file format."
Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer probably. Need some admin law experts
I guess it's time for strange questions: if you, hypothetically, were tasked with putting together a commission to draft a new constitution, who would you want to put on it?
February 6, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer probably. Need some admin law experts
Reposted by SDE
trump and musk's attempt to destroy USAID is much more significant than the violation of the tenure of office act AND ALSO it is a harbinger of an anti-constitutional seizure of power. *that's* why it matters.
February 5, 2025 at 1:05 AM
trump and musk's attempt to destroy USAID is much more significant than the violation of the tenure of office act AND ALSO it is a harbinger of an anti-constitutional seizure of power. *that's* why it matters.
Self-described Roman Catholic thinks killing children is good
February 4, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Self-described Roman Catholic thinks killing children is good
Reposted by SDE
going all-in on the theory that the doncic trade is part of a much larger culture-wide attempt of management shifting power to itself even when it doesn't make business sense
No but seriously, why did the Mavericks trade Luka Doncic? defector.com/no-but-serio...
No But Seriously, Why Did The Mavericks Trade Luka? | Defector
Pretty much right away, late on Saturday night when the Luka Doncic trade was first announced, I was convinced there had to be something wrong. Not just that I thought Shams was hacked—which I did—but...
defector.com
February 3, 2025 at 8:35 PM
going all-in on the theory that the doncic trade is part of a much larger culture-wide attempt of management shifting power to itself even when it doesn't make business sense
The destruction of the American Republic is unfolding in such an annoyingly stupid way. A ketamine fiend radicalized by right-wing memes and his crew of high school-educated groypers just setting fire to the administrative state without a care
also I can’t believe it’s called DOGE, we’ve normalized so much but it would be like if a gigantic historic thing bringing about constitutional crises were called like “You Done Goofed Institute of Cash Me Outside.”
February 3, 2025 at 3:35 AM
The destruction of the American Republic is unfolding in such an annoyingly stupid way. A ketamine fiend radicalized by right-wing memes and his crew of high school-educated groypers just setting fire to the administrative state without a care
Harder to build a 737 than crash it into a building
my outsider perspective on US politics is that it seems like i spend 4 years getting told the democrats can't do the thing because they need just one more vote, and then the republicans get in and can do whatever they want because half of the democrats vote with them
February 1, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Harder to build a 737 than crash it into a building
I was reading NFIB v. Sebelius for conlaw yesterday and the conservative dissenters hyperbolic example for abuse of the spending power was using federal funds to control school curricula. Like that was the Scalia fever dream of federal overreach
This comes via @jeannekc.bsky.social and all I can say is more of this please.
January 31, 2025 at 12:15 AM
I was reading NFIB v. Sebelius for conlaw yesterday and the conservative dissenters hyperbolic example for abuse of the spending power was using federal funds to control school curricula. Like that was the Scalia fever dream of federal overreach
Reposted by SDE
Deepseek is hilarious because the entire story of AI research since the 50s has been "I need a bigger mainframe to invert this huge matrix which is mostly zeros" versus "hahaha git good at math"
January 27, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Deepseek is hilarious because the entire story of AI research since the 50s has been "I need a bigger mainframe to invert this huge matrix which is mostly zeros" versus "hahaha git good at math"
Reposted by SDE
One of the thing the left is good at is deconstructing hero myths, but one of the things the left is terrible at is understanding why hero myths are created in the first place.
January 22, 2025 at 9:01 PM
One of the thing the left is good at is deconstructing hero myths, but one of the things the left is terrible at is understanding why hero myths are created in the first place.