“In many cases we were requiring 72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children“ — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“[Autism] is many, many times what it used to be years ago, and it gets progressively worse. And we had progressively more and more vaccines” — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“A vaccination looks like the size of the bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body“ — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today. In those times, people were much [healthier], and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist” — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“When you and I were kids, everybody got measles, and measles gave you … lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes” — Robert F Kennedy, March 2026
“Those agencies are going to do everything in their power to make the Amish vaccinate. Because they cannot stand the fact that you are healthy.” — Robert F Kennedy, 10 Aug. 2021
“The communities that are suffering from measles are almost all religious communities that just don’t vaccinate” — Robert F Kennedy, 2 Aug. 2026
Archive for baby Trump
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags Agent Orange, Amish communities, antivaxers, autism, baby Trump, BBC, cliffs, Derailed Trump, Donald Trump, measles, populism, quotes, religious communities, US politics, vaccines, WHO on August 19, 2026 by xi'an
Trump goes to war against… randomization!
Posted in Kids, Statistics, University life with tags baby Trump, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census, Census Bureau, coarsening, Democrats, disclosure risk, official statistics, Republicans, Trump 2.0, undercount on July 11, 2026 by xi'an
The US Department of Commerce, through its Office of Privacy and Open Government, has posted an order for federal statistical agencies to stop using randomization as a (worthwhile!) mean of protecting confidential data. Another instance of going against scientific arguments and validated procedures, and of dismantling decade long expertises, and of stopping a long series of observations, and of destasbilising federal agencies, from the Trump administration. To wit:
b. Statistical Policy Directive No. 1, codified at 44 U.S.C. § 3563, requires each statistical agency, as enabled by the head of the parent agency, to adopt policies, best practices, and appropriate procedures to ensure the confidentiality, accuracy, and objectivity of its statistical activities and to disseminate timely and relevant statistical products.
SECTION 5. POLICY.
.01 Ensuring the Accuracy, Confidentiality, Objectivity, and Relevance of Statistical Products
a. The Department shall, as a primary objective, aim to fulfill its statistical obligations by providing the public with accurate and objective information.
b. The Department is firmly committed to striking a balance of accuracy, confidentiality, objectivity, and relevance for each statistical product that is consistent with its statistical obligations and the applicable legal requirements.
c. Any use of noise infusion is inconsistent with the Department’s policies.
.02 The Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis shall adhere to the following order of priority when considering and applying Disclosure Avoidance:
a. Coarsening shall be the preferred category of Disclosure Avoidance methods for all statistical products.
b. Suppression shall be permitted as a last resort, only to be used when coarsening is prohibited by law or would substantially defeat the accuracy or usability of a statistical product.
c. Noise infusion shall not be used for any statistical product.
.03 This policy shall not be interpreted to conflict with any constitutional, statutory, regulatory, or other legal provision.
So here go (to the drain) differential privacy, enforced by the Census Bureau under the direction of John Abowd, as well as synthetic data, subsampling, et cetera! This will directly impact the coming 2030 census. With the asinine arguments by Commerce Department Kristen Eichamer that this is done to “maintain public confidence in our data while upholding our duty to safeguard the privacy of those who provide information” and that “indiscriminate use of noise infusion—even when not mandated by law—ultimately undermined confidence in the department’s products and cast doubt on their integrity.” NPR relates this order to the introduction of differentially private measures around the 2020 census and irrational Republican attacks on the procedure. Which reminds me of an earlier opposition to random sampling instead of “exhaustive enumeration” to correct for undercounts, which brought statisticians from both sides almost to blows! (With a defence of the correction procedure by my later friend Steve Fienberg.)
Thucydides 2.0
Posted in Statistics with tags antiquity, Athens, baby Trump, France Inter, History of the Peloponnesian War, Mark Carney, Melian Dialogue, Melos, political realism, political science, quotes, Sparta, Thucydides, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping on May 24, 2026 by xi'an
Last weekend, I was listening to one of my favourite (France Inter) radio shows, Quand les dieux rôdaient sur la Terre (when gods roamed the Earth), and the story was about the siege of the tiny island of Melos by the Athenians and the subsequent massacre, based on the report given in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and in particular the Melian Dialogue. I was unaware of this episode, but the modern tone of the dialogue excerpts was striking and made me think they equally applied to modern leaders… To wit,
“The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” — Melian Dialogue, Book V
“Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.” — Book I, §20
“Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.” — Book III, Cleon’s speech
“It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end — to act first, and wait for disaster to find out what to do.” — Book I, §78
“Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice.” — Book III, §8
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, autoritarian, baby Trump, Bahrain, BBC, cliffs, Derailed Trump, designators, Donald Trump, European Union, humanism, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, nationalism, populism, Qatar, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, UAE, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes on April 3, 2026 by xi'an
“It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.“ — DT, 28 Feb. 2026
“I might have forced [Israel’s] hand. If we didn’t do it, [Iran] were going to attack first.“ — DT, 03 March 2026
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough“ — DT, 08 March 2026
“There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.“ — DT, 06 March 2026
“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up in a deal. And so we’re giving it five days and then we’re going to see where that takes it.” — DT, 23 March 2026
“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side” — DT, 20 March 2026
“[The Iranian Government] want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too.”— DT, 20 March 2026
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.” — Pete Hegseth, 02 March 2026
“So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.“ — DT, 16 March 2026
“[NATO countries] don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” — DT, 20 March 2026
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, BBC, cliffs, Denmark, Derailed Trump, Donald Trump, European Union, global warming, Greenland, humanism, Kyiv, nationalism, NATO, Nobel Peace Prize, Norway, populism, quotes, snowstorm, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, truth social, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes, xenophobia on February 1, 2026 by xi'an
“Yeah, there is one [limit to my ability to use American military might]. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.” — DT, 08 Jan. 2026
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration. Now, after Centuries [sic], it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!” — DT, 17 Jan. 2026
“Considering your Country decided [sic] not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS [sic bis], I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the US. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland” — DT, 19 Jan. 2026
“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain – whatever happened to global warming?” – DT, 23 Jan 2026
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. It was very nice. A lot of people almost didn’t believe it, but they were very happy about it because they are struggling badly.” – DT, 29 Jan 2026
