FPT: Here's a moderately technical estimate of US median household income: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2023/demo/p60-279/figureC1.pdf Itwould be a bit higher, now… (View Post)

On robots and war. There is a short science fiction story on the subject that I rather like. In the future, robots have become so much better at war that, when Armageddon comes along, earth's governm… (View Post)

On presidents and deficits, since you were discussing it, earlier: Article 1 of the US Constitution puts the House of Representatives in charge of taxation. So, by constitutional design, presidents a… (View Post)

One reason I have opposed all-mail elections is that ballots need not be secret. It's been a while since I regularly searched for stories of vote fraud -- but when I did, I found that it usually was … (View Post)

On the US Civil War, two thoughts: First, the US Army at the beginning of the war had about 16,000 soldiers -- half of them on duty keeping the peace (mostly) with the Indian tribes. Second, the Unio… (View Post)