Lones Smith

Punster, math aficionado & economic theory spin maestro. Pro science, pro fact, pro common sense: Extreme centrist! I do game theory and information economics.

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@EricHovde Econ Prof here:

In "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off", students were clueless (“Anyone?”) about the 1930 Smoot Hawley Tariff Act. It was the last time the US imposed the tariffs like Trump now wants. It deepened the GREAT DEPRESSION!

Trade is far more important today than it was then

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@HeartlandPostWI University Wisconsin is the best bargain in the Big Ten. Here is the list of university tuition and their academic rank.

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

Scott Pelley just issued a statement on Bari's remarks this morning:

[NYTPitchbot @DougJBalloon]

I’m Kid Rock.”
“I’m Naomi Wolf.”
“I’m Kanye West.”
“I’m Matt Taibbi.”
“I’m Catturd. Those stories, plus Rob Schneider, tonight on 60 Minutes.”

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

60 Minutes made $206 million in advertising in 2024. It was not a struggling relic. It was the most profitable serious journalism operation in American broadcasting.

Then David Ellison bought Bari Weiss's website for $150 million and handed her CBS News. She spiked a story on El Salvador's CECOT prison. She let Benjamin Netanyahu pick his own interviewer instead of sitting across from Leslie Stahl. She fired the executive producer, two on-air correspondents, and the behind-the-camera producers who actually ran the place.

The replacement EP has never worked a day in broadcast news. Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire endorsed the hire.

This is not mismanagement. Ratings are down across CBS News. The journalism is getting worse. The audience is leaving. But Ellison's other corporate deals - the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition - got a presidential thumbs-up while Netflix got frozen out. Trump said out loud he would remember which companies played ball.

That's the transaction. CBS News bleeds so that Paramount profits. Sharyn Alfonsi doesn't have a job so that David Ellison gets his merger.

The people who watched 60 Minutes for fifty years to find out what was actually happening in the world... they just lost something that cannot be rebuilt under corporate ownership. Not in this environment. Not while the president is keeping score.

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

Some guy named Nick Bilton serving an audience of 1 (Bari) service an audience of 1 (Ellison) serving an audience of 1 (Trump). This is how oligarch-authoritarian takeover of media happens

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@MariannaKudlyak I could not see the LFPR of men and women each plotted as a %, but is it regression to the mean?

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@MikeRogersForMI Mike is as fake as his campaign photo on right ‼️‼️

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@MikeRogersForMI Mike is as fake as his campaign photo on right ‼️‼️

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@MikeRogersForMI Mike is as fake as his campaign photo on right ‼️‼️

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

L - GOP Rep and MI senate candidate Mike Rogers actual photo from the campaign trail.

R - Photo put out by staffer.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Enten: "So fewer Americans think it's acceptable to put President Trump's name on government buildings right now than believe that the earth is that or the moon landing is fake"

[Gabriele Corno @Gabriele_Corno]

The way he puts his little paws behind his back to mimic the keeper is pure genius.
He's got that "retired and taking a morning stroll" energy down perfectly!

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

When Reagan called the USSR "the evil empire," it wasn't just a joke. Pure good is elusive, but there is evil in this world and it should be treated as such. The geopolitical effects of a US president flattering dictators are bad, but the moral ones are equally pernicious.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff: He’s trying to put his face on the money. He's building a monument to himself . But see, Atlanta, he's doing these things now because no one will honor him when he’s gone… because he's a failed president and a national disgrace.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff: This war in Iran is the worst foreign policy blunder since Iraq. And just like the Iraq War, it's a war built on lies. Let’s update the record:

On day one, the president said it was running ahead of schedule. On day 10, he said it was very complete . Day 21, getting very close . Day 32, leaving very soon . On day 39, the President of the United States said a whole civilization will die…

And on the next day, day 40, he declared total and complete victory . Day 67, great progress. Day 79, the clock is ticking. Today is day 92 . And on day 92 Iran's ballistic missiles and drones have not been destroyed. The Strait of Hormuz, which was opened before the war is still closed. The regime is intact along with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium—a stockpile Iran only built after President Trump shredded President Obama's Iran deal

[Team Ossoff @TeamOssoff]

Ossoff: Donald spent Saturday complaining on the internet… Six hours, 52 posts.

The President attacked the Pope. He posted his own face on Mount Rushmore and a made-up Trump Peace Prize. He announced three times “America's back,” and he assured an increasingly concerned public he’s in excellent health.

And when not posting, he's been trying to rob us.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff: This is what small men like Donald Trump and JD Vance and Stephen Miller will never understand—that our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas.

Americans are not a race, we're a people united not by ethnicity, but by our shared convictions, and that is what makes us exceptional

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

Rick Barry hit 90% of his free throws during his NBA career shooting “granny style” and nobody else has committed to it in the almost 50 years since. I find that insane.

[Dave Hale - Concerned Republican @CountryFirstRep]

"There's more to a country than its economy. To be a great nation, it must also be a good nation. The world needs good men. It needs good women. Good leaders. Good parents raising good children. There is no national success that could compensate for failure to be a good and noble people."

-- Mitt Romney, the last real Republican nominee

[Lones Smith @LonesSmith]

@CountryFirstRep Platner had marriage trouble & said stupid stuff in DELETED POSTS.

Trump raped a woman (owes her $88M) & nightly shit posts America! HE ALSO:

▶️wants to execute protesting Americans!

▶️started an Iran war with no exit plan➡️gas costs $4 gallon

▶️wants to erase lost elections!