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→ Donald Trump returns to X
Donald Trump has broken his Twitter/X silence to post a two-minute campaign video.
Shot in the style of a blockbuster film with dramatic orchestral music and special effects, the video runs through Trump’s recent history from president to alleged victim of the “deep state”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024
His first post since August 2023 shows the police searching his Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago and his numerous court trials. At the beginning of the video, Trump says: “I will fight for you with every breath in my body and I will never ever let you down”.
A stream of faux-profound mottos follow one after the other. “The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it”; “They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom”; and “When I am elected, I will totally obliterate the deep state.” Tune in tonight for his conversation with X owner Elon Musk.
→ Russian economy booming
Despite the war and the ongoing global sanctions, the Russian economy is in great shape, according to the Economist. That the ultra-establishment, pro-Western outlet is acknowledging Russia’s strong economy is news in and of itself.
Independent analysis from Western financial institutions closely matches Putin’s claims about high consumer confidence. Russians are buying more cars, cognac and sparkling wine, and the country’s GDP is growing faster than 95% of wealthy countries.
Putinomics involves massive government expenditures into the domestic economy, mostly related to the war in Ukraine. But with a deficit equal to 2% of the GDP, the good times won’t last long, the Economist notes. Enjoy it while it lasts.
→ Astrology is fake
The best studies are those that critically assess things everyone already knows. A new study has joined the genre, this time proving once and for all that astrology is fake.
We can compare how frequently astrologers got different numbers of questions correct to how often we’d expect them to get different numbers correct if they were all guessing totally at random with no skill.
The two distributions match very closely. pic.twitter.com/Xd7Q9VIArl
— Spencer Greenberg (@SpencrGreenberg) August 11, 2024
Past studies on the subject have been overly simplistic in the eyes of the astrology community — for example, using mere zodiac signs, a form of “tabloid astrology”. The new study, designed with the help of real astrologers, had astrologers predict people’s full natal charts based on a suite of personal information. Their predictions, to no one’s surprise, were as accurate as random guesses. Will any horoscope fans change their minds?
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SubscribeReading the report on the Russian economy and that on Astrology brought to mind the quote of John Kenneth Galbraith who said, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
Forecasting the result of the US election seems to fall into the same bucket.