That has more to do with the massive computing needs of machine learning (AI). All the big tech companies are splurging on advanced NVidia chips and data centers for this.
Interesting to see the small but consistent increases in almost all of the confidence scores in 2025 compared to 2024. The big picture, of course, is the abysmal drop in virtually all the confidence scores compared to 20, 30 or 40 years ago. But this recent positive blip calls for additional analysis. However small, it does not seem like random statistical noise, if only because of its positive tilt across so many disparate institutions. It will be interesting to see the figures for 2026 given the results of the Nov. 2024 elections.
A statistic from your "confidence in" list made my day...TV news is at 12%. I dream of the day when commercial TV news will be replaced by other programming that will make no bones about being entertainment.
Are the 4 percent of people who have confidence in Congress members of Congress or related to members of Congress? That’s the only way this number makes sense. Ditto for television news.
I find it interesting that the U.S. institution for confidence that went down the most, from 9% in 2024 to 4% in 2025, was Congress. Kind of says something. As for lethal doxxing, I am reminded of the old saying: "Fool me once, shame on YOU. Fool me twice (or more), shame on ME!". Maduro was a one-shot, and I do believe that there was assistance from on-high within Venezuela itself. The chances of something like Maduro happening again elsewhere are far less likely, as other regimes have learned from this, and thus have taken appropriate countermeasures. Trump likes to cock-a-doddle-do (or doo) like a fat orange-haired rooster (graphic imagery again). We probably have played, no pun intended, our "Trump" card.
i am tired of people complaining about this admin who cannot do basic things like get rid of amazon and ring and chat. I feel like our country is just a bunch of whiners with limited education and zero accountability.
"In the case of al Qaeda, this was always the fear, that the War on Terror was a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ (though to be fair, its most famous leader was never replaced by anyone near as effective)."
Not so sure about this, at least outside of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. OBL denied involvement in 9/11 from the very beginning and the Taliban offered to turn him over to a neutral country if the US produced evidence of his guilt. Or something to that effect. Personally I believe him.
One, the very existence of "al Qaeda" itself insofar as it has been presented to the public by (mostly) western (and western-oriented) governments and intel/security services (and their captured media) is up for serious debate. The term "al Qaeda" translated in the correct context means "the base" which was shortened in casual usage from "the database."
"... Al-Qaida, literally “the database”, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians....
[snip]
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US.”
Abstract: Al-Qaida, according to many intelligence specialists, is not an organised terrorist group formed to fight the US, as the Bush administration has repeatedly alleged. An investigation into its past yields clues about its real nature.
In any case, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and all of those "Islamic extremist" groups are largely conjurings of western and Israeli intelligence/security services and positioned around the globe like a 'movable feast' when NATO or Israel want to foment instability in regions where there is a believable contingent of existing Muslims; this goes back at least as far as the breakup of, and subsequent civil wars in former Yugoslavia.
Thanks, Ken. I guess this would explain the explosion of data centers across the country.
That has more to do with the massive computing needs of machine learning (AI). All the big tech companies are splurging on advanced NVidia chips and data centers for this.
Interesting to see the small but consistent increases in almost all of the confidence scores in 2025 compared to 2024. The big picture, of course, is the abysmal drop in virtually all the confidence scores compared to 20, 30 or 40 years ago. But this recent positive blip calls for additional analysis. However small, it does not seem like random statistical noise, if only because of its positive tilt across so many disparate institutions. It will be interesting to see the figures for 2026 given the results of the Nov. 2024 elections.
A statistic from your "confidence in" list made my day...TV news is at 12%. I dream of the day when commercial TV news will be replaced by other programming that will make no bones about being entertainment.
Are the 4 percent of people who have confidence in Congress members of Congress or related to members of Congress? That’s the only way this number makes sense. Ditto for television news.
I find it interesting that the U.S. institution for confidence that went down the most, from 9% in 2024 to 4% in 2025, was Congress. Kind of says something. As for lethal doxxing, I am reminded of the old saying: "Fool me once, shame on YOU. Fool me twice (or more), shame on ME!". Maduro was a one-shot, and I do believe that there was assistance from on-high within Venezuela itself. The chances of something like Maduro happening again elsewhere are far less likely, as other regimes have learned from this, and thus have taken appropriate countermeasures. Trump likes to cock-a-doddle-do (or doo) like a fat orange-haired rooster (graphic imagery again). We probably have played, no pun intended, our "Trump" card.
i am tired of people complaining about this admin who cannot do basic things like get rid of amazon and ring and chat. I feel like our country is just a bunch of whiners with limited education and zero accountability.
Sure…
"In the case of al Qaeda, this was always the fear, that the War on Terror was a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ (though to be fair, its most famous leader was never replaced by anyone near as effective)."
Not so sure about this, at least outside of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. OBL denied involvement in 9/11 from the very beginning and the Taliban offered to turn him over to a neutral country if the US produced evidence of his guilt. Or something to that effect. Personally I believe him.
One, the very existence of "al Qaeda" itself insofar as it has been presented to the public by (mostly) western (and western-oriented) governments and intel/security services (and their captured media) is up for serious debate. The term "al Qaeda" translated in the correct context means "the base" which was shortened in casual usage from "the database."
"... Al-Qaida, literally “the database”, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians....
[snip]
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US.”
– Robin Cook, Former British Foreign Secretary
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48504792
Abstract: Al-Qaida, according to many intelligence specialists, is not an organised terrorist group formed to fight the US, as the Bush administration has repeatedly alleged. An investigation into its past yields clues about its real nature.
In any case, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and all of those "Islamic extremist" groups are largely conjurings of western and Israeli intelligence/security services and positioned around the globe like a 'movable feast' when NATO or Israel want to foment instability in regions where there is a believable contingent of existing Muslims; this goes back at least as far as the breakup of, and subsequent civil wars in former Yugoslavia.