Eric Nelson

“I’m an ‘economic historian’ who has trouble understanding that Karl Marx has been broadly influential on the left and that different tendencies have interpreted/used his ideas in different ways.” These folks might accidentally learn something with a few more clicks.

Update from the reflecting pool! The pool has been drained, and there are no signs of the giant gash that Donald Trump has been lying about. No indications of major vandalism. Just a bad paint job. The only thing that’s been exposed is that Trump has been lying about this.

New details are emerging about why Gov. Tim Walz's board of pardons gave clemency to a 42-year-old illegal immigrant convicted of repeatedly raping a child. Documents reviewed by Fox News Digital show that while the two board members who voted against granting a pardon noted the serious nature of Tou Lue Vang's offenses, the four who recommended a pardon each listed concerns about him being deported. One commissioner, Zach Linstrom, who voted in favor of granting the pardon, wrote in his recommendation, "Very tough case but the kids not having a father is not in the best interest of society," referring to Vang’s six children. Artika Roller, another commissioner who voted in favor of the pardon, wrote, "The applicant stated the need for clemency related to immigration issues." Following the recommendation, Walz's Board of Pardons granted Vang a full pardon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio then revoked Vang's legal status, allowing him to be deported despite the pardon.

Pretty fucking amazing that the Dems are just admitting that requiring proof of citizenship will cost them elections for years to come and we are all just sitting around like it’s no big deal and letting them get away with it.

Don't let anyone tell us we can't have nice things - like good roads, schools, and health care - as if the world's richest nation couldn't possibly afford it.

There could well be fraud occurring here, but Shirley's evidentiary standards are appalling. His whole case here is that a dataset show about 8,000 patients when the facility is much smaller than that - but we have no idea if that number is actually de-duplicated! For example, if this annual dataset aggregates monthly totals without de-duplicating, and some patients get multiple kinds of services, the actual number of individual patients could be fraction of the size, just a few hundred over the course of a year. If only a fraction of that amount attend on any given day, then 150 seniors present doesn't necessarily contradict the annual patients figure at all. Shirley shows no evidence of actually understanding the figure, but accepts (and stakes ~his entire argument on, for this clip) the assumption that it represents a claim that thousands of patients attend the facility daily. He also considers "evidence" a confused response to a question by an older woman with clearly limited English. On this basis, he simply declares there to be fraud. More broadly, Shirley tends to conflate two concepts: 1) poorly designed programs that allow public funds to flow to low-value activities 2) actual fraud, i.e., lying to the government It may well be that these adult daycare programs produce little value for the public and should be terminated - but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaged in fraud itself. They could simply be complying with a poorly-thought-through program, or even one deliberately designed to be a giveaway. Yet it could even be the case, potentially, that adult daycares on average free up enough working-age labor in the same households that they *do* have a strong public return, even if the program is functionally a giveaway. None of this is contemplated. So while he does put a spotlight on a fraught area of spending, the lack of care about detail and accuracy, or any deep level of understanding, remain quite frustrating. For someone getting such a spotlight, one would hope for more.