February 2, 2026

4 WAYS CBO TOOL IS BIASED TO GROW SPENDING: It may be an obscure, deep-in-the-woods reality but the federal budget baseline tool routinely used by the Congressional Budget Office to project federal budget trends, tax revenue and economic growth has four flaws that prompt more outlays.

Posted at 4:21 pm by Mark Tapscott

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Can AI Movie Stars Replace the Genuine Article?

Much of Hollywood, to say nothing of moviegoing audiences at large, have resigned themselves to the idea that most of what we do will soon be replaced by AI. Judging by the general tenor of the comments I receive, many of my regular readers are actively rooting for this outcome. And if the various creative guilds (WGA/DGA/SAG) decide to go on strike later this summer, you can bet that this fear of AI will be one of the primary reasons why they do so. But given that Hollywood rushed headlong into streaming without understanding how the economics would work (spoiler alert: they don’t), before we enthusiastically embrace our new AI overlords we should, at least for one brief moment, resist the tech bro impulse to “move fast and break things” and ask a few important questions… questions like “what is a movie star?”

Most of the time, if you press someone in Hollywood for an answer, the one you’ll get will not be particularly useful or practical. Often the answer will sound a bit like the famous quote from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who, while discussing the definition of pornography, said “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”

My own personal definition of what makes a movie star has always been some version of this… “a movie star is someone who takes your breath away the first time you see them on film, even when they’re doing nothing at all.”

A machine can’t replace the million dollar charisma a legendary actor brings to his or her role. I suppose we will see AI-versions of the early Pixar movies coming out of Hollywood, where the visuals are created from a series of AI prompts, but a mixture of superstars and veteran character actors create the personas of the onscreen characters, based on the goodwill they’ve accumulated over the decades. But where AI is going to really shine is for everyday people to type in the prompts and generate the otherwise missing scenes from movies and TV series they’ve enjoyed, such as this fan-made AI Star Wars homage:

But we’ll eventually see how AI recreations of legendary actors compare when they’re intercut together: Deepfaking Orson Welles’s Mangled Masterpiece. Will an A.I. restoration of “The Magnificent Ambersons” right a historic wrong or desecrate a classic?

I hate to be a cynical, but alas, my money is on the latter. At least for the next few years.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

AN LLM CAN’T INSTALL A FURNACE: Plumber or programmer? Trades workers close the job gap.

While AI has taken some entry-level white-collar jobs, hurting new college graduates, demand is strong for blue-collar workers.

“Mean hourly wages for plumbers, pipe fitters, electricians and boilermakers — all of which typically require apprenticeships — eclipsed the overall hourly mean wage for U.S. workers in 2023, which was about $31.50,” Telford writes. Elevator and escalator repair technicians averaged more than $48 an hour.

Education and skills still matter, says Jeff Strohl, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The center’s “Future of Good Jobs” report predicts that 66 percent of workers with a four-year degree will be able to compete for “good” jobs — with median pay of $82,000 — in the next five years, compared to only 19 percent of workers with a vocational certificate or two-year degree.

However, schools went too far in pushing “college for all,” Strohl told Telford. “What we didn’t do was set up viable alternative pathways for students to succeed, to the detriment of the economy and the detriment of those students.”

Yes.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

THE WSJ HAS LOST WHATEVER NEWS MOJO IT ONCE HAD:

UPDATE (From Ed):

Posted at 2:35 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OLD AND BUSTED: “Nobody is illegal on stolen land.”

The New Hotness? Let’s celebrate America stealing some land!

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

LOL, LINKEDIN: Conservative group blasts LinkedIn for removing pro-ICE post, labeling it ‘hateful.’

“.@DHSgov is carrying out the essential task of keeping our country safe,” State Freedom Caucus Network posted on Jan. 27 on multiple platforms, including X and LinkedIn.

“Biden let over 10M illegal aliens enter our states, many being violent criminals and pedophiles. Every state must ensure collaboration with ICE and CBP to remove them. Our caucuses are on the frontlines leading their states to support @POTUS’s mission to keep Americans safe!”

On Thursday, SFCN revealed a screenshot showing that while the post had been allowed by X, it was flagged as “hateful speech” by LinkedIn and removed.

“Apparently protecting children is ‘hate,’ but letting actual predators roam free is fine,” SFCN wrote. “@elonmusk doesn’t censor us, but @LinkedIn does! We’ll be deleting our account as a result.”

I can’t remember the last time I read something about LinkedIn that wasn’t basically a joke.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

“THE AESTHETICS OF REBELLION ARE WORN BY THE ACOLYTES OF THE REGIME:”

This is why the British government coding Amelia with the aesthetics of rebellion was such a strange choice: Amelia Victorious: How to Lose the Culture War With a Video Game.

There’s something genuinely funny going on in the United Kingdom right now.

The British government’s Prevent office, housed under the Home Office (think Department of the Interior, but allergic to dissent), partnered with a media nonprofit called Shout Out UK (like a PBS focused on preventing “radicalism”) to come up with a clever new way to re-educate British youth.

The concern, as always, was “radicalization.” They thought the solution was inspired: a choice-based video game. Kids like games. Games involve decisions. Decisions shape values. What could possibly go wrong?

Thus Pathways was born, a government-funded interactive morality play designed to gently shepherd British children toward being properly antiracist, properly accepting, and properly enthusiastic about the ever-increasing number of migrants reshaping their country. Civics class, but fun. And digital. And corrective.

As part of this effort, the designers introduced a character named Amelia, a cute, purple-haired, vaguely goth girl who carries a Union Jack and talks about Britain being for the British. She was meant to function as a warning, a living illustration of how nationalism can look attractive, even charming, and yet be dangerous to the impressionable youths of Britain who may not have fully internalized the idea that Brexit is bad and they are to obey their elitist overlords.

What they did not anticipate was that the public would take one look at adorable, charming Amelia and decide she was the good guy.

QED:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

THAT WOULD BE NICE: Former Trump economic official Gary Cohn says Kevin Warsh will ‘take the Fed back to its traditional’ norms.

“He was instrumental in that crisis,” Cohn said. “Kevin was the point person at the Fed — he was involved in every one of those discussions. And I truly believe, without Kevin’s expertise, and without Kevin being there, we would not have come out of the 2008 crisis as well as we have.”

The president’s selection of Warsh as his nominee was expected to be viewed as a safe choice on Wall Street given his monetary policy experience and well-established views on inflation.

Cohn said he expects Warsh to “stay out of a lot of the non-financial issues,” while he is “going to be involved, obviously, in setting interest rate policy.”

Looks like a real improvement over Powell — still, maybe the best selection for Fed Chair would be a dedicated “End the Fed!” type.

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green