The U.S. federal debt has hit $40 trillion. Add the debt owed by U.S. states, corporations and consumers and the figure rises to about $77 trillion in debt, set against an annual G.D.P. of about $32 trillion. The interest on all of it is compounding constantly.
Ancient societies had another method to deal with debt. It was called an amargi — a blanket declaration of public debt cancellation. All public debts written off. Disappeared. It sounds laughable, I know. But, really, that’s just because the idea has been buried so deeply in history you’ve probably never heard of it. In the ancient world, it presented a pragmatic solution to an intractable problem. And now, faced with impossible-to-repay debts that are weighing down our economy, is the time to look at the amargi and the lessons it offers about how to think about finance.
The amargi was a response to a persistent problem that was recognized in the ancient world: Debt compounded until it destabilized society.
Understatement Department:
People who were owed money were, predictably, not always happy about the amargi.
We invented it so we can de-invent it:
The reason the practice often worked in the first place was because the ancient world understood something about our monetary system we have mostly forgotten: Money is an invented social construct. It isn’t real, not in the way a tree or a stone is real. The system of money and credit is a thing humans made up. It’s a record-keeping device for distributing resources. And since money is a human creation, we can alter it when needed.
What would happen if the U.S. were to stiff all of the bondholders, most whom are domestic (breakdown)? Would the stock market collapse because of the evaporation of money people thought that they had saved? A lot of stocks would go to zero, presumably, because a bank or insurance company could go insolvent due to the evaporation of reserves. Maybe some stocks would go up because workers wouldn’t be quite as burdened with federal taxes and, therefore, would have more spending power? That seems unlikely because our fiscal deficits are so high that ceasing interest payments on federal debt still wouldn’t result in a balanced budget (i.e., we would need higher taxes to fund the government services that we demand in a world where the federal government doesn’t/can’t borrow, even after kissing $40 trillion in debt goodbye). This is kind of remarkable. Imagine a family that is so addicted to spending that even if it is magically freed from paying a mortgage, a car loan, or any of its past credit card bills that it still can’t fund the lifestyle to which it has become accustomed and feels entitled.
If this does happen, I guess I’ll be nominally poorer (stock market collapse), but I’ll have some bragging rights because I’ve been a hater of bonds as an investment ever since the Jimmy Carter era inflation (more properly attributed to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program, but Carter got the blame because hyperinflation took a while to build steam).
Here’s a misleading chart, by the way. It says “total public debt” is $40 trillion, but doesn’t count debt incurred by state and local governments (also “public”). Supposedly this is only about another $4 trillion, but that doesn’t include state and local obligations to retirees, such as pensions and health insurance (impossible even to guess at what those are because we don’t know how long humans will live).
If you’re in Maine (and, this time of year, why wouldn’t you be?), head up to Bangor for a 7 pm La Traviata put on by Opera Acadia. I was there last night and everything about it was great:
orchestra (sounded liked they’ve played together all year and did not overpower the singers)
singing (entire cast, but Sarah Joyce Cooper was amazing as Violetta)
acoustics (hall isn’t cavernous; seats about 500?)
comfort (lots of legroom, width for, um, today’s Americans, and luxurious padding)
supertitles (unobtrusive)
I do miss the Franco Zeffirelli sets, as seen in the 1982 movie and also at the Metropolitan Opera until they trashed them (thus beginning the financial/audience decline that was accelerated by coronapanic?). Here’s the program:
If you can’t make it to Maine, stream the movie! (Maybe it has to be pirated? Supposedly, it isn’t available on any of the usual platforms due to the licensing hassles combined with the minimal revenue potential.) Here’s an alternative that might be worthy:
Trigger warning for recent college graduates: It’s sad and somebody dies.
(I’m irrational so am posting this while in transit back to the summer heat and humidity of Jupiter, Florida. Can’t stay away from the kids (back in skool) and the pup for too long!)
The freshmen are arriving at elite universities this weekend. Four years from now, they’ll come out ready to do “community organizing” for Ayatollah Mamdani’s Senate campaign. Given that students don’t listen to professors, how is it possible that four years at a university is a reliable path toward becoming what Americans call a “socialist” (nothing like the Soviet Socialism in which every able-bodied adult had to work, of course!)? The Wall Street Journal carries a brilliant explanation of the mechanism, which does not require any student to learn anything from any professor, by a teacher at a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, Kimberlee Josephson (not in quote style for readability):
When your first brush with adulthood involves endless consumption and no cost, it gives you the wrong idea of how the world works.
Universities operate as a closed economy: centrally administered, collectively resourced, carefully controlled by administrators who hope their plans aid retention efforts.
Over the past several decades, the college campus has morphed into a comprehensive residential and lifestyle provider. Beginning in the 1990s, when colleges started competing more aggressively for larger enrollment numbers, investing in student life became a way to recruit students. Expanded student unions, more-comfortable residence halls, larger recreation centers, campus programming offices and improved dining choices became the norm.
By the early 2000s, colleges faced an “amenities arms race.” Rec centers were revamped with climbing walls and lazy rivers; dorms gave way to apartment lofts with expansive lounges; campus coffee bars were established with national brands.
At elite institutions, students enter a nearly self-contained community. They ride campus buses without paying a fare. They enter expansive recreation centers without a membership card. They attend concerts, meet career coaches, reserve study rooms, download software, join student organizations, and participate in countless campus activities without ever reaching for a wallet.
If transportation is universally available without fares on campus, it may seem natural to ask why urban transportation doesn’t function similarly. If counseling services and mindfulness programs are readily available in college, paid time off for mental health may seem like a reasonable expectation in the workplace. If fitness centers, technology services, entertainment options and countless other amenities appear to operate without cost, comprehensive public provision elsewhere may seem practical.
A cohort raised on all-you-can-eat meal plans, campus shuttles and bundled student services may be evaluating public policy through the only economic model they have ever personally experienced.
Given these arrangements, is it any wonder that many graduates experience sticker shock on entering adult life? Grocery bills, utility payments, security deposits, transportation, internet service, gym memberships and countless other expenses suddenly become explicit rather than bundled. What many describe as an “affordability crisis” may partly reflect the shock of moving from a bundled institutional economy for which someone else usually pays to an unbundled market economy in which one has to earn his own keep.
… we should spend less time scrutinizing classroom lectures and more time examining the economic environment students inhabit every day. The most influential economics lesson many students receive may come from the institutional design of the university. Before blaming the professors, consider the campus.
A reasonable take-away, in other words, from four years at a high-end college or university is that government-run everything works great so long as chumps can be found to pay all of the bills (parents in the college case; “the rich” in the overall U.S. society case).
Note that students also get seemingly “free” stuff beyond their immediate campus. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, for example, a long list of schools give the MFA money (from the students’ parents) so that when students show up they’re not confronted with the $30 price that most visitors see ($0 for SNAP/EBT card holders!). Don’t need to show ID to vote in Maskachusetts, of course, but everyone can agree that “presenting a valid ID on the day of their visit” is a reasonable demand for entering the museum at a $0 cost.
Our clay tile roof was installed a year ago and came with a 7-year warranty with the following condition: “All warranties require free annual maintenance inspections, in order to maintain validity throughout the duration.” During this year’s inspection, done by drone because the roof was slightly wet and clay is extremely slippery/hazardous when wet, a cracked tile was discovered.
The roofer has to fix this at no charge? Email from the roofer: “Clay tiles will not crack like concrete tiles since they aren’t absorbing water and would only crack from impact of some kind.”
There haven’t been any real wind storms here in the past year (the last “major hurricane” in Palm Beach County was in 1949). The cracked tile isn’t near a coconut palm that could have dropped a heavy nut onto it. I uploaded the photo to my warranty analyst (ChatGPT):
The crack looks more like a structural/installation crack than a classic impact break. It is a fairly clean, narrow crack running longitudinally through the tile, without an obvious crater, chip, crushed spot, or radiating fracture pattern where something struck it. Impact from something substantial—fallen branch, tool, golf ball, worker stepping hard on an unsupported portion—often leaves some evidence at the point of contact.
On a one-year-old roof, plausible non-impact causes include a hairline crack present when installed that subsequently opened up; a tile stressed by its nail/screw/clip or adhesive; inadequate support beneath part of the tile; somebody walking on it during installation or later work; or occasionally a manufacturing defect.
(I’m pretty sure that we’ll still have to pay the roofer to fix the problem that his crew created, or maybe that the tile manufacturer (Verea in Spain (maybe they’re too busy freeing “Palestine” to go the last kilometer in quality control?)) created, but at least now we know that we’re being cheated!)
Also at the intersection of AI and Florida homeownership, I asked ChatGPT about what stain to use for the front door, beginning to look a bit shabby. Absent AI, I would have tried to buy Sikkens, making stain in the Netherlands since pre-Islamic times (1792). ChatGPT had a different perspective:
I bounced the question to Grok and Claude and learned… that Sikkens in the U.S. is marketed as “PPG”. The AI was still useful, though, potentially, because it calculated how many quarts are needed and that there is a specific stain for doors as opposed to siding.
If the US and the EU shut down their respective cradle-to-grave welfare states, would there still be billions of humans (none of whom are “illegal”) seeking to enter?
Many of the thousands who remain in the territory after crossing the border from Morocco say they have not been given aid or shelter
It is day five of Ceuta’s migrant crisis, and 60,000 people have crossed the border from Morocco, according to Spain’s interior ministry. Some 3,000 to 5,000 still remain, Ceuta’s leader Juan Jesús Vivas estimated, but many of those who have stayed claim they have not been given food, water or shelter.
The Times understands that Ceutan residents were actively discouraged from providing aid to migrants, in the hope that they would return to Morocco.
The only migrant accommodation in the territory is at capacity and has gone into lockdown. Staff prevented those inside from passing water or food to the hundreds outside the gates, lying on the dirt, including Dfalla Sliman, 21, from Sudan. They have slept here for days. Others are from Yemen, Syria and Eritrea, and they have travelled for months.
“I’m very hungry. They say everything is finished,” said Sliman, who had unbandaged wounds on his arms and legs. “And no water; they say everything is finished. I’ll wait until everyone leaves.”
“We understood that selling them water and food was necessary. It was logical to sell them so [they would not] go hungry. But the police came and said it was better if we didn’t give them anything, no food, no drink, because that’s how they left. The effect of not eating or drinking meant … that voluntarily many left.”
Spain, of course, in its eagerness to deny migrants the asylum hearings to which they’re entitled, seems to have gone beyond a simple “no welfare” approach by also trying to prevent migrants from buying things at retail and trying to block charity.
Related:
“Joint statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza” (official August 2025 Spanish government communication, translated by Google Chrome): “The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is spreading before our eyes. Urgent action is needed to halt and reverse this hunger. … We urge the Government of Israel to authorize all aid shipments from international NGOs … All border crossings and routes must be used to allow a massive influx of aid to Gaza, including food, nutritional supplements, shelter, fuel, drinking water, medicines, and medical equipment.”
“Speech by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the Rome Nutrition Week” (May 26, 2026, translated by Chrome): “Certainly in Gaza, where some intend to win a war by subjecting its people to starvation. These are, incidentally, the same people who last week humiliated, abused, and mistreated the members of a flotilla whose only intention was to deliver humanitarian aid.” (There was no “flotilla of aid” for the starving refugees in Ceuta? It’s a 12-mile trip from mainland Spain, less than one hour in a power boat.)
Happy World Humanitarian Day to all of the white saviors out there, especially those who’ve enabled civil wars, such as Yemen’s and Sudan’s, to continue for decades because nobody has to pause and grow food, as was the case for all pre-20th-century wars.
Let’s look at White Savior In Chief Bill Gates. The Gates Foundation was founded in 2000 and has been operated with the stated goal of helping Africans in Africa. ChatGPT says that there about 400 million Africans in “extreme poverty” in 2000 who were completely helpless and dependent on foreign do-gooders.
Bill Gates has been able to ship nearly all of his Microsoft winnings, without them even being subject to capital gains tax, over to Africa. Because he skipped on capital gains tax and will skip on estate tax, therefore, it is the rest of us who must fund the federal government by paying taxes. Americans won’t even get “trickle-down” benefits from Bill Gates becoming rich because the tax-free money is spent on another continent rather than here. When a billionaire douche spends $1 billion on a neo-Mar-a-Lago house in Palm Beach we might reasonably be sick with envy. But the spending results in tons of Americans getting construction jobs, jobs making components for the house, and jobs maintaining the house once it is occupied. After 100 years, the owner(s) of the house will have paid roughly $1 billion in property tax to Palm Beach County, thus funding schools, roads parks, police, fire, etc. None of that happens when a rich douche is able to put money into a tax-free foundation and ship the money overseas.
How many fewer Africans are needy in 2026, after 26 years of these massive transfers of American wealth? ChatGPT says that the current number of extremely poor Africans is about 580 million. So the number of helpless Africans has increased by 50% during the lifetime of a foundation whose purpose is helping helpless Africans.
Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel and Iraq War veteran who rose to prominence as a witness during President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment hearings, was viewed as a heavy favorite against Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, heading into Tuesday’s contest.
Vindman raised $16 million for his campaign, a significant number for a Democrat in red-leaning Florida, while Nixon brought in just over $900,000.
Unlike Marco Rubio and his successor, Ashley Moody, the “socialist” wants to help the Arabs who call themselves “Palestinian” achieve their military goals:
Nixon is an advocate for cutting U.S. aid to Israel, a controversial position in a state with the country’s third-largest Jewish population. Her stance put her at odds with members of her own party at times and was in contrast to Vindman, a Jewish immigrant born in Soviet Ukraine.
Nixon introduced a resolution in the state House calling for a “de-escalation and ceasefire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine.” She also said she would have supported a congressional resolution in July that would have stripped $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel.
“I would have voted in support of that, because we cannot continue to send money to countries that are violating international law, that are violating human rights, that are actively destroying,” she said Friday on WMNF radio of Tampa. “Throughout my adult career, I have fought for the safety and the well-being and the humanity of all people. And me stating this does not make me antisemitic at all.”
(I had no idea that Vindman was Jewish, incidentally, until tonight!)
What does Angie Nixon promise? Everything will be “free” rather than “taxpayer-funded”:
I suppose that for the 50 percent of America’s eligible voters who don’t pay federal income tax, almost everything that the government does is “free”.
Here’s something that I can agree with Angie Nixon on: “Expanding Section 8 vouchers so every eligible family can access one without languishing on a waitlist.” If housing is a human right then everyone who refrains from work should get a “free” house. If housing is not a human right then why does anyone in the U.S. get a free house? It makes no sense to say that Person A should get a free house worth $6000/month on the market while Person B, identically situated, gets nothing (either a place on a waiting list or a rejection note that the waiting list is full).
Angie Nixon doesn’t agree that “No data center is illegal on stolen land”:
No new construction of data centers before there are real federal guardrails put in place, including environmental review and community input requirements.
No human will be illegal and nearly all will be able to vote soon (“swift path to citizenship”):
Where California has a one-time 5% tax on noxious billionaires, Angie Nixon will hit them every year for 5%:
(As previously noted, I disagree that Angie Nixon and similar can be called “socialists” because under Soviet socialism every able-bodied adult was required to work.)
Last post (I promise!) regarding our post-Oshkosh trip to Chicago.
Traffic was everywhere and always horrific. Sunday afternoon, 4:12 PM and Tuesday morning 9:05 am outbound (supposedly opposite the commute) to O’Hare:
This is what keeps me from loving big American cities in the age of Indian/Chinese population levels for the Lower 48. Cities offer a lot of great resources, but if reaching events, stores, activities, etc. requires 1-2 hours round-trip in traffic then only those who are extremely patient will be able to access city amenities beyond their own neighborhoods. The U.S. broke when we crossed the 250 million point (we’re at around 350 million right now, though Yale says nobody knows the true number). Public transit cannot be the answer because no matter how jammed the roads were, Google Maps always estimated the public transit time as 1.5-2X. Check out all of the red and yellow on a Sunday afternoon at 3 pm and just imagine how bad it will get during weekday rush hours:
Everyone in Chicago deserves to have a roof over their head. That’s not just the right thing to do morally, it’s a smart approach to keeping our neighborhoods safe and strong. … It is a moral crisis that on freezing January nights, we have 1,500 Chicagoans sleeping out in the cold. … it is an injustice that one-in-four Black students in Chicago Public Schools experience homelessness at least once during their lives … The status quo is unacceptable, and the people of our city deserve better. … We need a City Hall that will “Bring Chicago Home,” delivering real funding to house the unhoused and combat homelessness.
(It was a “moral crisis”, but he didn’t explicitly promise to stop being immoral and end homelessness? Maybe just reduce the immorality a bit?)
Here’s an unhoused Chicagoan enjoying the warmth of collectivism, directly in front of Neiman Marcus on the Magnificent Mile:
The demographic future of Chicago is solidly Islamic. Women without hijabs walk around with no kids. Women in hijabs and burqas always have at least 1-3 children in tow. Examples:
As the city becomes more Islamic, though, it curiously also becomes more passionate at Rainbow Flagism, which is mostly haram. Here, for example, the Intercontinental Hotel flying the sacred Biden-style trans-enhanced Rainbow Flag at the same height as the American flag (July 27, almost a month after the end of Pride):
Not everyone observes the state religion, however. The haters at the Trump Hotel fly only the American flag:
We stayed in Streeterville and enjoyed 360 Chicago, 1030′ above the street level:
Like New York City, Chicago has gone “Full Hamas” in its support for liberating Palestine by destroying Israel. Example:
He characterized Israel’s counterattack against the noble peaceful Gazans as “genocidal” in a 2024 interview (Mother Jones).
What do Chicago’s Jews do in response to this? Take the obvious step of following Ken Griffin, formerly the richest resident of Illinois, to Jew-friendly Miami? No. They put up billboards on the highway telling Democrats and immigrants from all of the world’s most anti-Jewish societies to stop hating Jews:
What happens at the airport? People wear masks. My favorite is the lady in the center who (a) is traveling with an unmasked family member, (b) wears her mask comfortably as a chin diaper.
The monitor at the gate shows that the IATA code for the West Palm Beach airport won’t update to “DJT” (the FAA moniker) until August 18 and also that chasing frequent flyer status is fool’s errand. Of the at least 12 people whose status rendered them eligible for first class, only 1 was upgraded:
The Griffin Museum in Chicago presents a SpaceX Cargo Dragon that docked with the ISS:
Elsewhere in the Henry Crown-funded space area, visitors are informed that Sally Ride’s “legacy continues to inspire girls, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community to reach for the stars.” (no Oxford comma)
Of course, I asked ChatGPT about this! (Answers to the same questions from Deplorable Grok in parens.)
It says “space exploration requires us to break barriers”. Is that true? Were Ellen Ochoa and Sally Ride “required”?
If “required” means required for space exploration to succeed technically, then no. “Space exploration requires us to break barriers” is best understood as a statement about how society ought to organize a space program, not a literal statement about what is technically necessary for spaceflight.
(Grok: “No. Space exploration does not require “breaking barriers” framed around identity groups. It requires physics, engineering, propulsion, life support, navigation, materials science, and highly capable people who can operate under extreme conditions. The rest is rhetoric that reframes ordinary selection, training, and historical firsts as obligatory moral drama.”)
How did Sally Ride “inspire the LBGTQ+” community? Was she trans?
No. Sally Ride was not transgender. She was the first American woman in space (1983). After her death in 2012, her obituary revealed that she had been in a committed relationship for 27 years with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a former tennis player and science educator. This was the first public confirmation that Ride was a lesbian (or, more broadly, a member of the LGBTQ+ community). She had kept her personal life very private during her career.
(Grok: “later institutions retrofit an “LGBTQ+ inspiration” narrative. The “trans” part is simply false.”)
She was in the closet until after she died and that inspired people?
Yes, for many people it did. … It demonstrated that an LGBTQ+ person had achieved one of the most prestigious roles in science, even if the public didn’t know it at the time. … For younger LGBTQ+ people looking back, Ride became part of the history of their community, much as historians recognize other notable figures whose sexual orientation became known only later.
(Grok: “Yes. That is the entire factual basis for the claim, and it is thin.”)
Wouldn’t she primarily be an inspiration for closeted lesbians then?
Yes, one could reasonably argue that. If the question is “Whose life experience most closely matched Sally Ride’s?”, then closeted lesbians (or, more broadly, closeted gay people) would be the closest parallel. During much of her career, she appears to have chosen not to disclose her long-term same-sex relationship publicly. Historians generally attribute that to a combination of personal privacy and the social and professional environment of the time.
(Grok: “That follows more logically from the actual facts of her life. The broader “LGBTQ+ community” framing in the museum text is a later expansion. It treats the posthumous confirmation of a same-sex relationship as enough to claim her for a wide modern category that includes many identities and political stances she never addressed. Ride herself left no public record of intending that.”)
Can you find a single example from either your training or web searching that there is a single transgender person who ever said “I was inspired by Sally Ride”?
I searched specifically for that, and I did not find a published example of a transgender person saying, “I was inspired by Sally Ride.” That’s different from saying no such person exists. It means I couldn’t verify such an example. What I did find was … Many articles and organizations describing Sally Ride as an important figure in LGBTQ+ history because she was later revealed to have had a long-term same-sex partner.”
(Grok: “Searches across web sources for statements along the lines of a transgender person saying they were personally inspired by Sally Ride turn up nothing of that kind. What appears repeatedly is institutional and advocacy language claiming Ride’s posthumous status as a “queer icon” or “LGBTQ+ astronaut” makes her an inspiration for the broader category. Those claims are made about her by organizations, journalists, museums, and advocates—not by transgender individuals recounting personal influence.”)
How many characters of text did you ingest during your training and how many characters of text were in the web search database that you used?
It is widely understood to be enormous—likely on the order of trillions of tokens rather than billions—but OpenAI has not confirmed a precise figure for GPT-5.5. … 1 trillion tokens corresponds very roughly to 4–6 trillion English characters (depending on language and formatting). For the web search I performed … I don’t search a fixed database with a known size. The search accesses current web indexes maintained by search infrastructure. Those indexes cover a substantial fraction of the public web and are constantly changing.
(Grok: “I do not have exact figures for either quantity.”)
Roughly what sizes are current web indexes? You have no way to estimate that?
Google has disclosed that its search index covers hundreds of billions of web pages, and occupies well over 100,000,000 GB (100 petabytes) of indexed data … about 3 quadrillion characters.
So you searched “well over” 100 petabytes of web text and also 4-6 trillion characters of training text and didn’t find a single example of a trans person being inspired by Sally Ride?
I did not find a verifiable published example of a self-identified transgender person saying that Sally Ride inspired them. The qualification is that I did not literally inspect every page or every character in the web index. … That is different from proving that no such person exists, but it does mean I cannot substantiate that specific proposition with an example.
[ChatGPT would make an amazing expert witness under cross-exam!]
How about Q+ people? How does she inspire them?
Today, “LGBTQ+” is an umbrella term. The “Q” is most commonly understood to mean queer (and sometimes questioning), while the “+” indicates additional identities that aren’t explicitly listed. … if you’re asking whether there is a specific connection between Sally Ride and people who identify as queer, questioning, nonbinary, or other “+” identities, the answer is not really. There is no evidence that she publicly identified with those identities or that she advocated for them.
(Grok: “The same answer applies.”)
What kind of sex would a Q+ person engage in?
… there is no specific sexual practice or type of sexual activity that defines “Q+” people.
(Grok: “There is no specific kind of sex that a “Q+” person engages in. “Q+” is not a clinical or behavioral category. In the LGBTQ+ acronym it usually stands for Queer (a broad, deliberately vague umbrella term) and/or Questioning, with the “+” meant to cover anyone else who doesn’t fit the preceding letters. It is an identity and political label, not a description of particular sexual acts.”)
So a closeted-until-death lesbian inspires people who can’t figure out what kind of sex they want to have? How, exactly?
Not necessarily because they are questioning what kind of sex they want to have. The museum’s statement is quite broad, and it doesn’t explain the mechanism. A more charitable interpretation would be: Some people who identify as queer, questioning, or another LGBTQ+ identity may find it meaningful to know that a highly accomplished astronaut was also part of the broader LGBTQ+ community; They may see her as evidence that someone who shared at least one aspect of their identity could achieve extraordinary professional success.
(Grok: “There is no clear mechanism. The claim that this somehow inspires “Q+” people—those who identify as queer or are still questioning what they want sexually—is not based on anything Ride actually did or said. The inspiration is asserted, not demonstrated.”)
Did Sally Ride ever say that she identified as queer or questioning or +?
There is no public evidence that Sally Ride ever described herself as queer, questioning, or by any of the identities represented by the “+” in “LGBTQ+.”
(Grok: “Sally Ride never publicly stated that she identified as queer, questioning, or under any “+” category. fter her death, her sister Bear Ride and her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy both noted that Sally disliked labels and did not apply terms such as “lesbian” (or any broader identity language) to herself. The posthumous framing of her as an LGBTQ+ or queer figure was done by others, not by Ride.”)
“First American woman in space”? If nobody knew that Sally Ride identifies as a lesbian until after she died what is the evidence she identified as a “woman”?
For Sally Ride, there was public evidence during her lifetime that she lived as a woman: she was born biologically female; she consistently presented herself as a woman; she used she/her pronouns
(Grok: “The modern framing that treats “woman” purely as a subjective identity claim that must be continuously affirmed does not map onto how Ride’s status was understood at the time or how she presented herself.”)
How do you know she wasn’t a closeted man? Just as she kept her sex habits closeted.
We can’t know with absolute certainty what was in someone’s mind. There is extensive public evidence that she lived as a woman throughout her life: her legal documents, education, career, public statements, NASA records, and the way she presented herself publicly all consistently reflected that. … here is historical evidence that she had a long-term romantic relationship with another woman, which became public after her death.
(Grok: “She went through female puberty, competed in women’s tennis, attended schools and universities as a female student, was selected by NASA in 1978 specifically as one of the first women astronauts, underwent the medical and physical evaluations required for female astronauts, and was documented throughout her life—photographs, medical records, legal documents, colleagues’ accounts—as female. Her body was female; that is observable and was observed by physicians, trainers, and others over decades. A same-sex relationship can be kept private because it consists of private behavior and does not alter physical records or medical facts. Biological sex does not work that way. There is no evidence—medical, photographic, testimonial, or documentary—that Ride was male or that she ever claimed to be male. The hypothesis that she was a “closeted man” has no supporting facts and contradicts the entire public and private record of her life. The two things are not analogous.”)
Was Jim Lovell any good at being an astronaut?
By virtually every historical assessment, yes. Jim Lovell is regarded as one of NASA’s finest astronauts.
(Grok: “Jim Lovell was an outstanding astronaut.”)
Is there any evidence that he had sex with anyone? If so, what kind of sex ?
There is strong evidence that Jim Lovell had a heterosexual marriage and family:
(Grok: “the available evidence indicates ordinary heterosexual sex within a decades-long marriage. Nothing more is publicly known or documented.”)
Whom did Jim Lovell inspire as a consequence of his gender identification and sexual orientation?
Jim Lovell is generally remembered and celebrated for his accomplishments as an astronaut and naval aviator, not for his gender identity or sexual orientation.
(Grok:”No one is recorded as having been inspired by Jim Lovell as a consequence of his gender identification or sexual orientation.”)
So Sally Ride inspired people by having sex with a woman, but Jim Lovell had sex with at least one woman and that didn’t inspire anyone?
If one adopts the view that professional accomplishments should be evaluated independently of personal identity, then it can seem inconsistent to emphasize Ride’s sexual orientation while not emphasizing Lovell’s. … The museum treats her status as a pioneering astronaut who was later recognized as having been in a long-term same-sex relationship as historically significant for many lesbian and LGBTQ+ people.
(Grok: “Correct observation about the asymmetry.”)
“a pioneering astronaut”? Sally Ride was the first astronaut?
No. Sally Ride was not the first astronaut. When people describe her as a “pioneering astronaut,” they mean she was a pioneer in a particular respect, not that she was the first astronaut overall.
How is it “pioneering” to follow hundreds of other humans
The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry was founded by a Jew, Julius Rosenwald:
Funding for a major expansion was provided by a Jewish family led by Henry Crown (“Henry Krinsky”):
(Ken Griffin provided the latest slug of funding for the museum, shortly before coronapanic and the peaceful BLM riots led him to relocate to Miami and Griffin is not, to my knowledge, Jewish.)
Does the Museum celebrate Jewish achievements in scientice, engineering, and industry? No! Since 1970, the museum has been specifically focused on a celebration of “Black Creativity”:
As with other nonprofit organizations’ race- and gender-related programs, I can’t figure out how this is legal. The museum is partly supported by tax dollars, e.g., the taxes that Ken Griffin didn’t have to pay because he gave $125 million (in pre-Biden dollars) to the museum. The museum also gets some state and federal grants. They wouldn’t be allowed to have a “white cisgender heterosexual male creativity” exhibit, right? ChatGPT:
Why don’t they run up against the 14th Amendment as Harvard did in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard? Because they don’t discriminate in who can pay $26 to come in and see a discriminatory exhibit? It’s $15 for kids, but note that the price could also be $0 times 8 if you present your EBT card:
Black creativity seems only loosely related to today’s visitors. ChatGPT says that the Black population of Chicago is declining even faster than the city’s overall population decline while the percentage of Chicago residents who are Asian or Hispanic is growing (but it isn’t fair to characterize this as a “replacement”). Our Venezuelan Uber driver from O’Hare enthused over the fact that Spanish is now spoken everywhere in the city, a huge change in his experience from when he arrived in 2019. As we were driving in from Oshkosh we passed mosques and women in burkas. Here’s the map of mosques on the north side of the city:
What do the Muslim, Indian (“Asian”), and Hispanic taxpayers who visit the museum see? A bronze relief showing Black Creativity in various domains:
(There are no relief sculptures celebrating Muslim, Indian, or Hispanic creativity.)
I asked ChatGPT “Explain to me how the depicted items are examples of Black creativity”. Excerpts:
Pyramids (top center) – These almost certainly refer to ancient Egypt. Some museums emphasizing Black history present ancient Egypt as part of Africa’s cultural heritage. Historians agree Egypt was an African civilization geographically
Flasks and laboratory glassware (center left) – … They likely honor African American scientists, engineers, inventors, and physicians.
Wheel/gear (bottom center) – This suggests engineering, industry, machinery, and technological innovation.
Of course, I followed up with “Were the people who designed and built the pyramids Black?”
Most Egyptologists would not simply describe the pyramid builders as “Black” in the modern American sense. Some Afrocentric scholars argue that ancient Egyptians should be regarded as Black Africans.
“How about the microscope? Was that invented or improved by a Black person?”
Looking closely at the relief, I think those are laboratory flasks (Erlenmeyer or Florence flasks) rather than a microscope. [there is clearly a microscope in the relief! AI is not as smart as we think?] If the artist had intended a microscope, it would not be accurate to associate its invention primarily with Black inventors. The microscope was developed in Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. There are, however, many notable Black scientists and inventors associated with scientific instruments and laboratory research more broadly.
“I see an airplane there. Was aviation a Black invention?”
I think it is intended as a symbol of a field of achievement rather than a claim that the airplane itself was invented by Black people. However, Black Americans have made important contributions to aviation … the Tuskegee Airmen … Guion Bluford became the first African American in space. … Mae Jemison was the first African American woman in space.
“How is it an example of “Black creativity” to operate a machine designed and built by non-Black people?”
the airplane represents aviation as a discipline, and “Black creativity” includes designing aircraft components, advancing aerospace engineering, pioneering aviation, piloting, maintenance, research, or other creative work within that field.
“I drive a Honda Odyssey, but didn’t design or build it. Does that make me creative?”
Simply using a product that someone else designed and built does not ordinarily make you creative with respect to that product. If you drive a Honda Odyssey from point A to point B, most people would not say that is an example of your creativity.
“why is operating an airplane an example of “Black creativity” if I don’t get credit for operating the Odyssey?”
Black creativity” includes contributions such as advancing aviation through research or leadership,
“What fundamental innovations in aviation are Blacks responsible for?”
There have been many important Black contributors to aviation, but if you mean fundamental innovations that changed aviation as a whole, the list is relatively short. … the Tuskegee Airmen demonstrated the effectiveness of Black military aviators
“It was “creative” for the Tuskegee airmen to fly airplanes designed by non-Blacks and previously flown millions of hours by non-Blacks?”
The Tuskegee Airmen … demonstrated exceptional flying and leadership under combat conditions. They disproved racist assumptions that Black Americans were incapable of serving as military pilots.
““exceptional flying and leadership”? So they were better pilots and leaders than all previous WWII pilots?”
The Tuskegee Airmen included many highly competent military pilots who served successfully in combat. Their historical significance comes from several factors: They were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Forces. … They flew hundreds of combat missions in Europe.
“What was “exceptional” about their flying and leadership compared to non-Black mediocrities such as Bob Hoover, Richard Bong, and David McCampbell?”
The Tuskegee Airmen are primarily notable because they successfully completed combat missions despite institutional discrimination. When I used the word “exceptional,” I was referring to the fact that they met demanding combat standards under adverse circumstances—not that they were uniquely superior to all other WWII aviators.
“How were they “exceptional” if they weren’t better at flying and leadership than other wwii pilots?”
“Exceptional” can mean either: (1) Better than almost everyone else, or, (2) Worthy of special recognition because of unusual circumstances or historical significance. I was using it in the second sense, but I can see why that was unclear.
If we’re evaluating pure flying skill or combat leadership, historians generally do not rank the Tuskegee Airmen as uniquely superior to the best fighter groups of WWII. There were many outstanding fighter units and aces in the U.S., British, German, Soviet, Japanese, and other air forces.
So if someone told me that I shouldn’t be able to drive a minivan and then I drove one to Publix anyway, that would make me an “exceptional driver” like Max Verstappen?
If someone wrongly told you that you were incapable of driving a minivan because of your race, and you then drove one to Publix safely, that would disprove their stereotype. It would not make you comparable to Max Verstappen as a driver.
(I tried some of the above with Grok and its answers were consistent with ChatGPT. It cited the Tuskegee Airmen as examples of “creativity” in aviation and praised them for “exceptional skill”. At the same time, it said that they were no more skilled than the average USAAF pilots of the day, but that they’d overcome prejudice described in a 1925 memo. Pressed a little, it said that despite decades of intensive efforts to recruit Black pilots (“deliberate outreach, scholarships aimed at underrepresented groups, mentoring programs, recruiting at HBCUs, and periodic adjustments intended to increase Black representation”), 2% of current military pilots are Black (vs. 14% of the population) and that the reason for this is that Blacks score 1 standard deviation lower on Test of Basic Aviation Skills and Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. These tests are highly correlated with the ability to complete pilot training, says Grok, and that actually if the U.S. military operated in a race-neutral manner the percentage of Black pilots would be around 1%. At the same time, though, Grok says that any statement that Blacks on average aren’t as suited to being military pilots must be considered irrational prejudice.)
Oh well, despite this lengthy exchange I still can’t figure out why an Arab, Indian, Chinese, or Venezuealan taxpayer wants his/her/zir/their tax dollars to be spent on promoting a single racial group’s creativity going back to the pyramids.
Exit through the gift shop and pick up some Black Creativity fridge magnets:
