Karl Popper came up with his criteria for what constitutes science specifically to discredit “soft” sciences, largely because, as an extreme conservative, he didn’t like their conclusions. Like psychology, early work in economics was not experimental in nature, and also like psychology, there are some tricky ethical issues with conducting many experiments. However, economic modeling has reasonably good (and proven) predictive power in many cases, so it’s not just handwavey bullshit. And I’m not an economist trying to defend my turf, I’m a computer guy with a mathematical modeling and physics background, both in my education and in work experience.

And just to put things in perspective: astrophysics also has many important but non-replicable results. So does paleontology. As does biology. It’s tricky to cause a new Big Bang, build a black hole, or restart evolution. So be dismissive if you like, but replicability is difficult in any social science, and that doesn’t mean that those sciences are a waste of time.

At least he’ll take it, somewhere.

Trump’s lies are Putin’s lies. They’re two cheeks of the same ass.

MAGA are nationalist socialists.

But many others do not, and those are the ones in charge now.

It’s not a question of understanding. It’s a question of what they choose to tell the rubes.

there’s not much we can do about that at the moment

There’s a lot we could be doing, but we’re not.

It’s MAGA-occupied America.

the core premise of capitalism

“Lie, cheat and grab what you can without getting caught”? He certainly seems to understand that.

It doesn’t take much intelligence to be a journalist ofr the military. That’s a fortunate-son posting for the most part.

Yale, sure. He’s booksmart, and as his subsequent career has shown, he knows what to kiss and when.

He might know, or he might not. He’s a con artist. Even if he does know, he’ll lie.

Compulsive liars gonna lie.

Any economist who doesn’t say that should be stripped of their economist regalia and drummed out for being a liar and a shill.

More Trump War on Science. This idiot should be on an indefinite psychiatric hold.

And let’s not pretend the KMT were in any way morally superior to the CCP. They were just reactionary bandits driven out by brainwashed Maoist personality cult members.

“We can’t do anything good unless we do everything good!”

What a miserably lazy line of reasoning.

Trump also changed the rules of engagement to eliminate consideration of how to minimize noncombatant casualties when ordering a drone strike.

But still the Obama/drone meme remains a persistent bit of brainless propaganda.

Why are drone strikes worse than any other military action ordered by any other president? Collateral damage is less with drones than with artillery or aerial bombardment. And if you’re looking for sympathy for the US citizens who joined Al-Qaida and similar organizations to murder innocent people, you can find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis, which those scumbags also richly deserve.

His envy of Obama knows no bounds.

Anyone can be nominated, all you have to do is persuade some minor legislative assclown to put your name in.

O come, blessed aneurysm!

He’ll start threatening Norway soon, to extort a prize out of them.

Not that such prizes should be given at all to world leaders. Only ordinary citizens working for peace should receive awards.