Preparing for Fall OLLI classes at SSU, I read these two books to try to understand why the polls failed so catastrophically to predict the election of The Orange One in 2016, and how the effects of that were felt in the government agencies in Washington, D.C.
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz worked for one-and-a-half years as a data scientist at Google and his book explains the bias in polling why political polling is likely to become even more difficult to do well. He received his BA in philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford, and his PhD in economics from Harvard. Comparing what people search for, with what they tell another human they want, reveals that people try to hide their unacceptable desires which is why many told pollsters they were undecided in 2016 when in fact they gave in to their desire for entitlement and privilege. His examples range from sexual searches to baseball history and illustrate how “bias” creeps into sampling. Engrossing.
Michael Lewis writes so brilliantly about statistics. He recounts the effect of the failure of new Trump administration, in 2017, to fill the job openings at the top of many government agencies, most notably the Commerce Department. Lewis comments that the Commerce department isn’t really about business, it’s more the department of science and measurement, including NOAA, and managing nuclear waste. It reminded me of my trip to Morocco a year ago.
In Morocco, once a French colony, most of the road signs in Casablanca (the largest city) and in Rabat (where the French located the capital) were in both Arabic and French. As we got closer to the desert tribes in the East, French disappeared from the signs and they were in Arabic and Amazeigh, the recently-invented written Berber language which looks like a mashup of Greek and Korean letters. Until recently, these languages were unwritten. In public school, mandatory until 8th grade, only Arabic and Amazeigh are taught. French is not taught. The Roman alphabet is not taught. Only the wealthy, who go to private French schools, can read European books. The king of Morocco runs the public schools, and it is better for the monarchy if his subjects do not read European books.
This seems to be the underlying driver for dismantling the “deep state” bureaucracy which enforces the rules and standards across all administrations. The president can change every four years, but the Commerce Department rules are supposed to remain consistent for all citizens over time. These rules and those of the EPA grated against oil companies who wanted to roll back “the Chevron Rule” created by the Supreme Court which is the legal doctrine that the EPA knows more about environmental safety than congressional representatives do, so that when Congress empowers the EPA to regulate oil drilling, there is no need for Congress to pass a law over every single thing — the EPA can set standards. The “Chevron Rule” was rolled back this year by the Trump-packed Supreme Court.
Pete Buttigieg said that JD Vance, if elected, plans to march through government institutions looking for people with “woke” agendas and “de-bathify” the civil service. Fears are that this would enable corporations to maximize their profits as they ignore the safety of citizens. On the Jon Stewart Show, guest Mark Cuban pointed out that Trump’s father ran a family-owned real estate business which he bequeathed to his son. The son inherited the properties and Cuban asked Stewart, “how is running a family owned business different from running a kingdom?” Stewart’s eyes widened. “It’s not very different, is it?”
I doubt if I would have been able to find the hotel entrance by myself — it is a side door to a theater in a skyscraper office building! The hotel lobby is on the ninth floor and my room was on the 12th floor, sandwiched between offices above and below. I selected the Hampton Inn because it was close to the Art Institute (“3” on the map above) and I had shakily made the reservation by phone from the Amtrak lobby in Milwaukee, cringing at having to give my credit card number over the phone in a public place. The first night was $163 and the second (Wednesday) night was $195. I asked about the discrepancy and the front desk told me that if I stayed in the same room Thursday night the rate would be $358 because the national Oncology Conference was just starting in Chicago. What a difference from Milwaukee where the room rate was a flat $125/night. 
The New York Times called it “A 
Venture capitalist John Doerr’s book with an action plan for solving our climate crisis. Opened my eyes about how hard it is going to continue to be. Mentioned Elizabeth Kolbert’s hastily-written “Under a White Sky” which described a strategy to cool the earth by dispersing tiny light-reflecting particles like diamonds. 
Within weeks, she discovered that faulty ignition switches were implicated in several deaths, and she publicly announced a recall, to the dismay of many. This move took a lot of courage because it would cost the company a tremendous amount of money and be a serious public relations blow.
Ten years ago, when I started my business, I knew more than anyone else in Santa Rosa about how to increase revenue for a brick-and-mortar business by using Google advertising. To help these businesses, I used my extensive background in marketing and advertising, and my expertise in media buying, along with my web development skill. The oldest “digital natives” were about 15 and still in high school.
How could she find time to write a book with all she does? She’s a mother! And a wife, not to mention that other thing (Facebook) which she said was “very hard for the first six months. And I know I’m supposed to say ‘challenging’ but it was hard.”