The Badger Pundit

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The Badger Pundit

The Badger Pundit

@JamesBohnWI

Former Fed economist, covering economics and politics in the Badger state, data geek, common sense is my super power.

Katılım Ağustos 2015
467 Takip Edilen1.1K Takipçiler
The Badger Pundit
The Badger Pundit@JamesBohnWI·
@DanRShafer @wisconsin_now You could be a big help by explaining how Hong`s policy agenda differs from Rodriguez, Roys and Barnes. I have reviewed the policy sections of each of them and I don't see much difference. I am referring to the substantive stuff, not pablum about their backgrounds.
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Dan Shafer
Dan Shafer@DanRShafer·
@wisconsin_now I asked about “no tax on tips” at a recent event. Hong called it a “gimmick” and advocates for eliminating the tipped minimum wage x.com/danrshafer/sta…
Dan Shafer@DanRShafer

.@TheOtherMandela, @keldahelenroys and @FrancescaHongWI each spoke at a May Day event in Milwaukee today, advocating to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. I also asked about their thoughts on the "no tax on tips" policy proposals. More here: therecombobulationarea.news/p/gubernatoria…

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Wall Street Apes
Wall Street Apes@WallStreetApes·
Washington DC resident says she’s never been able to come to Meridian Hill Park before because of the homeless She says because of Trump the water is now filled, “the homeless people, they're all gone and it seriously looks like Paris. I've never seen this many people out here” This proves we do not have to live like we’ve been living in America, we don’t have to let Democrats destroy our cities and turn them into crime encampments “I mean, look, everyone is enjoying it. Everybody. A year ago, Trump said he was going to clean out DC, and he did. It is clean, it's calm, it's quiet — The homeless are out, the birds are chirping, the water is in the ponds, the fountains are working. Thank you, Mr. Trump” The iconic 13-basin cascading fountain and reflecting pool had been dry for about 7 years. Donald Trump was able to rid it in early 2026 For years, the park had persistent issues with homeless encampments, drug use, trash, and safety concerns many longtime residents avoided it. Trump instantly turned it around Stop voting Democrat nationwide
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The Badger Pundit
The Badger Pundit@JamesBohnWI·
@lifeasjosh By what measure. If by weight, then Bangstad is at least 1.8 Evers. JB Pritzker at least three.
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Jocular Josh 🇺🇸
Jocular Josh 🇺🇸@lifeasjosh·
Here's a Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary voter guide. Kirk is looking like an outstanding candidate. 👀
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Colin McCarthy
Colin McCarthy@US_Stormwatch·
Insane stat of the day: California almonds use roughly 3–5.5 million acre-feet of water per year, depending on methodology. That's ~4-7x more water than all data centers in North America used combined in 2025.
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The Badger Pundit
The Badger Pundit@JamesBohnWI·
The fiscal policies of every Democrat running for governor would blow a far bigger hole in the state budget than the Evers/Vos package. How do I know this? Read their online manifestos. The websites of Hong, Rodriguez, Roys, Barnes et. al contain promises for new spending programs with huge price tags: universal childcare, state-run health care for all, more spending on K-12 and the UW, eliminating Act 10. In every case, a spending plan several times the size of the $1.8 billion Evers/Vos package. And on top of all this new spending, every Democrat is promising some form of tax cut. To her credit, at least Hong has put a price tag on her promises: about $5 billion which she plans to raise Wisconsin's top tax rate to 17.7 percent, the highest in the nation (a disastrous idea). The Evers/Vos plan had its shortcomings. But it is hypocritical to criticize the Evers/Vos package as fiscally irresponsible while allowing the wildly reckless spending plans of the leading Democratic candidates to escape scrutiny.
Isaac Rowlett@IsaacRowlett

Wisconsin really dodged a bullet thanks to the strange bedfellows that blocked the Evers/Vos backroom budget deal I know they’re lame ducks but still you’d think someone would’ve run the numbers before proposing that publicly

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The Badger Pundit
The Badger Pundit@JamesBohnWI·
Good lord. Sarah makes it sound like working at Pizza Hut is comparable to life as a Roman galley slave. She sounds like Dana Carvey doing the grumpy old man shtick on SNL's Weekend Update: "In my day, we entertained ourselves; we didn't need moving pictures! In my day, the only show in town was called 'Stare At the Sun'!"
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The Badger Pundit
The Badger Pundit@JamesBohnWI·
Education should be about teaching critical reasoning. Critical thinking is something humans do that AI can't according to researchers at Apple Computer.
How To AI@HowToAI_

Apple has published a paper with a devastating title: “The Illusion of Thinking” It argues that AI models, no matter how brilliant they may seem, do not understand what they are doing. They do not solve problems. They do not reason. They merely generate text word by word, trying to sound coherent. Apple tested the most advanced reasoning models in the world on controlled puzzle environments. They tore open the internal "thinking" traces. What they found shatters the narrative that we are getting closer to AGI. Current models don't scale with complexity. They have a hard mathematical cliff. And they do not degrade gracefully. They collapse. But here is the most unsettling part. When a problem gets too complex, the AI doesn't use its remaining compute to try harder. It just gives up. Its reasoning effort actually declines. It stops thinking and starts guessing. Then Apple ran the experiment that closes the casket on the reasoning debate. They gave the AI the exact, step-by-step algorithm to solve the puzzle. The cheat codes. All the AI had to do was follow the instructions. It couldn't do it. Performance didn't improve at all. When the complexity gets high enough, these models fail because they cannot actually execute a logical sequence. They are not reasoning. They are just pattern matching. When you give them a simple problem, they overthink. When you give them a hard problem, they collapse. Paper: The Illusion of Thinking, Apple, 2025

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Wall Street Apes
Wall Street Apes@WallStreetApes·
Kensington, Philadelphia, has been a Democratic stronghold for over 70+ years This is what 70+ years of Democrat leadership has done to the area Democrats hold 82% of the seats in the Philadelphia City Council - Council President (Democrat) - Majority Leader (Democrat) - Majority Whip also Democrat - Mayor is a Democrat - District Attorney Democrat - City Commissioners overwhelmingly Democrat Philadelphia has been a Democrat dominated city since the early 1950s It has literally destroyed this city. Stop voting Democrat
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Basil the Great
Basil the Great@BasilTheGreat·
"THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR WHAT?" This was the moment a British WW2 veteran went off script on national television He was supposed to say multicultural Britain is a beautiful place Instead he told the truth, that the sacrifice wasn't worth it and the UK is now a disaster
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Jason Calvi
Jason Calvi@JasonCalvi·
An outlier WI poll: (What the H-bomb is Public Sentiment Institute Poll? Conservative @LakePerspective commissioned it.) 🔵PRIMARY Barnes 23% Rodriguez 10% Crowley 8% Hong 7% Roys 3% Brennan 2% Roper 2% Hughes 0% Hulsey 0% 🔴V. 🔵 Tiffany 36% Hong 35% Tiffany 37% Barnes 39%
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